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Well I didn’t get that sleep of Kings I was after, but stumbled out, stretched out the creaks and stiff/sore spots and started my day. A little bit overcast – but so blissfully warm…… Had some coffee and caught up on the news for the day – before loading up some hooch and mix and headed for the North Shore. Site of the island’s version of Mardi Gras – Mardi Croix. I have heard multiple stories of the event and figured I needed to check it our for myself. I always enjoyed Mardi Gras all the years we went down to Louisiana to spend it with family and friends and while I didn’t think it would be as fun – anytime there is food, booze and people partying – it is usually worth a look see. We didn’t get to go last year here, because we had family in. We arrived early enough to get a decent parking without having to hike for a mile. We walked the street where vendors were already setting up and the smell of cooking meat permeated the air. Everything island you could hope for: Conch, Lobster, Burgers, BBQ, Salmon balls, Roti, Johnny Cakes, Pate and on and on……. and booze – lots and lots of booze. It is set right on the road at Cane Bay, so you were never more than 100′ or so from that gorgeous blue water~~ Wow~! We walked and I ate and drank…. almost like the Fall Festival in Evansville (except no Corn Dogs, dammit) I sampled a little bit of everything. Never did get to try the Roti – but had some of dang near everything else. My Bride opted out of eating much even though I insisted.  The parade was scheduled to start at noon and in typically island fashion finally got going about 12:45. Fun little parade, but I have to admit – I was very under whelmed with it – in as far as what it offered…. and it’s size….. much, much smaller than what I was led to believe….. maybe just an off year. We did get to spend a lot of time with many friends and still had a really good time. As we started back down the road, looking at the expression on my Queen’s face told me – it was time to go. I know that look all to well….. so I grabbed her by the hand and started cutting a path through the throng of people now packing the road. There wasn’t a lot of time for chit chat with folks, as I know if I don’t get her sitting down quickly – I would have to pack her back to the truck…… not something I wanted to do. Got her quickly into the truck and headed back. We had to take the long way around to get home because of traffic, but we made it. I got her, quietly into bed where she has now been for the past 3 hours snoozing away  😉 I used the time to catch up on my ‘evening stuff’ and now sitting here chatting with you. As the booze started thinning out in me – I have popped a couple of aspirin and am doing fine – I have a dive in the morning with the Dive Club before our Board of Directors meeting – so hopefully I can snag you some decent underwater pictures~!

Good Night Evening Ya’ll * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

Nothing like getting comfy on the beach~

A little bit of liquid sunshine helped cool things off

Wound up buying 6 bottles of this stuff~!  : )

One of our resting places … Nice view huh?

“Half” of a cop car : ))

Bob and his Tutu…. parade theme was Dr. Suess

Bob & George~

When you can’t set your drink down, you have to improvise~~

COOP – leading the start of the parade~!

What a dick head…….  😉

How to get beads  : )

I never get tired of saying that.. (One~th) not sure why but I like it. February is gone – another month down the drain and damn did it go by quick. Kinda spooky how fast time is starting to go. I’ve always listened to ‘old’ folks say how fast time goes as you get older. Lesson to be learned there. Nearing 62, I still don’t consider myself ‘old’ – even though it has become painfully obvious that I am no longer the young buck I used to was……. Dammit Emmit~! One thing I have come to accept though, is #1, there ain’t a damn thing I can do about getting older……. I am fighting what I consider a good fight about becoming OLD though. Big difference in that definition. # 2, I could take better care of myself…. but I am about at the stage in my life now, where I find myself asking why ? I worked most of my life, and damn hard at that…. and even if I lived the perfect life from here on out – what is it gonna get me? Another “X” number of years ? I look at it as – do you want to live the next 10 years happy as a clam….. or the next 15 years miserable ? Yes, I want to be around to see Grandkids getting married and my kids seeing how their life turns out…… but not if I am not happy with the life I’m living….. eat that pizza, have that beer for breakfast…… whatever turns your crank. The way I see it – my “job” for the most part is done….. kids have been raised, gave all of them every opportunity in life you can ask for (within reason) I have provided a decent life for my Queen…… what’s left…. Grand kids weddings….. drinking, diving and enjoying life…… challenge accepted~!! With that being said [amazing where my brain goes sometimes] – today was an easy one. After a fitful night sleep…. ( I was a lot sorer- is that a word?) than I ever expected – spent a short morning getting ready to get laundry done and take my Bride to a Doctors appointment. (Female stuff and will be a week or so before results are in) After that, we spent a couple of hours of watching In Plain Site, before getting up and heading up to Blues for dinner. We both had a couple of drinks and a bite to eat when the entertainment started……. before we knew it, it was getting close to closing time. We bid adieu to the new folks we had met ( several Indiana people) and we loaded up to come back here. I’m looking forward to a nice cool shower and sliding in between those nice fresh sheets – for hopefully a sleep of Kings.

Going to try and go out and check out ‘MARDI CROIX’ tomorrow… supposedly a fun, hot, drunken, parade that mildly rivals the festivities in New Orleans….. I’m sure there won’t be any Crawdads [dammit] – but I can GAR-ON-TEE it – the weather will be a LOT nicer  ;-)….. and there will be pictures~!

Good Night Ya’ll…………………..Thankx for stopping in~!

Timothy – bartender extraordinaire~~

TRUTH~~

Bob – my new idol…..

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After a less than stellar nights sleep… I don’t know what the hell was wrong, too hot, too cold, joints hurt…P-U….. I rolled out feeling a lot better than I probably should have. Got my morning stuff out of the way and swallowed down my coff of cuppee before heading out the door to head to Blues to lend some muscle. Jim needed some more barrels for his smoker. We gathered up in trucks and headed out to the local Rum factory (Cruzan Rum) where we loaded up a flat bed and one of the pick ups. Thankfully, the barrels were palletized and the factory was more than happy to lend one of their fork trucks and drivers to load us up. We headed back across island and commenced to unload 24 fifty-five gallon wooden barrels, plus the extremely large pallets they were on. That done, we were required to hang out and drink beer and talk about the good job we had just accomplished. ( dirty thankless job, but somebody has to do it)  😉  After my third beer – I headed back to the condo for a shower and a couple of episodes of In Plain Site – yes we are both getting into it now ~ Only got to watch one episode before it was time to load up and head back up to Blues to Bar Back for the night. The [apparently very popular] band Mama’s Black Sheep was playing for their 3rd appearance at Blues and as like the last two times – packed the place. My Queen spent the better part of the night hustling Jell-O shots while I Bar Backed and kept the trash cans emptied. The place was hopping from 5:00 TO 9:00 with dang little down time. The band finally shut down, we got the place cleaned up and now finally back here in our wonderfully cool condo. A very good night indeed, but I’m damn glad it’s over. I never sat down once and factoring in a dozen or so sprints to the supply shed for needed items at the bar – my knees are telling me that I need to quit doing that.

I’m gonna put up the pictures that I took during the day – catch another shower and drop my happy ass in to bed. My Bride has a doctors appointment fairly early tomorrow morning – so this is it for tonight~~

Good Night Ya’ll * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

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Bob

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After a very leisurely morning and another [too big] scrumpdillicious breakfast – we spent the day watching a news series my number 1 fan [Vera] recommended. It is called In Plain Site. Kind of cheesy acting, but the headliner of the show is a nice looking blonde that is put together real nice – as are a lot of the other extra’s on the show – so I recommended we watch at least 4 or 12 episodes to see if we really like it  😉  It has gotten ‘racy’ in at least one episode – so I like it more and more and I think my Bride is actually starting to warm up to it a smidge – so hopefully we’ll see where it goes.

Jim pinged me and was asking about tomorrow morning…… with slow response times (I figured he was busy) we went up for drinks and possibly something to eat. Blues was hopping but we eventually got a seat at the bar. I finally got to talk to Jim – in between filling dinner orders on the grill….. he asked me to be up there at 09:00 tomorrow morning to help pick up and deliver a load of rum barrels. That is part of Blue’s unique BBQ taste to their food – is they get old barrels that used to contain local rum — and they cut them up and use them to smoke all of their meat with. MmMmMmMmmmm good~!! We sat up there and watched the full bar carry on…. a lot of new faces, mostly temporary workers on the island working on the oil refinery start up. We sat off to the side and just watched and listened. We wound up splitting a Brisket BBQ sammich……. smother my ears in jelly and tie me to an ant hill is that some good eatin’~!! Our night of drinks and food was compliments of Daughter Jeni that got us a gift certificate at Christmas – and we finally got around to using it. Drinks and food is always better when you don’t have to pay for it  😉  Thankx Honeybear~!   The entertainment finally quit and the crowd slowly filed out until it was just the staff and us. (we’re a little bit special and get to hang out after hours) We helped [a little bit] close down the bar and finally headed back here. I have cranked down the A/C an extra degree and I am looking forward to falling into bed for some rest before we start out long day tomorrow. We are Bar-backing for the Mama’s Black Sheep group scheduled for tomorrow. The last 2 times they played up there, the joint was packed and we all got our lips worked off. Plus I’m hustling 55 gallon rum barrels first thing in the morning – so should be a long day….. but I am looking forward to it.

I have had several offers to dive the next several days – but not sure I’m gonna be able to make any of them. We have Mardi Croix coming up that we have to check out this weekend as well……. promises to be quite the weekend…. naturally, there will be pictures~~

Happy Birthday Big Sis – Ela~  Luv Ya~!!

Good Night Ya’ll * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

For VERA

(How to back space on Amazon search)

Free food and drink~! Thankx Honey Bear~!!  <3

Bride says I can’t get a haircut until I come back to the states…. getting ‘wooly’ – whadda ya think ??

Up bright and early to a mostly cloudy very windy day – but warm~! Oh so wonderfully warm~!! As usual, it didn’t take long until the bulk of the clouds was replaced with brilliant sunshine and the blues and greens of the Sea lit up in all their splendor. We didn’t get to lounge very long because I had a meeting with the Fish With A Vet USVI organization. We jumped into DD and headed out to Green Cay Marina to the Deep End restaurant. My Bride came with me and sipped a tomato juice while I had a Red Eye (Beer and tomato juice) as we started the meeting. The President was just back from an African vacation and shared some pictures and stories before we got started. She had pictures of them petting a Cheetah…… yes – I want to do that~!  (One of these days) Meeting went long, but there were a lot of things to discuss and I have several follow up items to do tomorrow. We got away from there and went back to the condo for a bit to wait for my Queens doctor appointment. Due to the 2-bit server we had at the restaurant, neither of us got the breakfast we ordered, which is not really untypical of the island – so Angie made us our usual bacon, eggs, sausage and hash browns when we got back. Tasty as always. We watched a little bit of TV before it was time for Angie’s doctors appointment. I dropped her off at the office and then sat in the truck waiting for her. I didn’t expect her to be in there real long, so I sat and waited – with a magnificent view. I don’t like to sit in the waiting room (it’s usually full of sick people, and I don’t like hanging out around those folks) If there is important news to share – she pings me and I come in and sit with her and the Doc. I sat out there for a little over an hour and soaked up that magnificent view while I listened to the radio……. My Bride finally came out with a relatively ‘clean’ bill of health. A few small issues (Cholesterol is a smidge high, as is blood pressure) but nothing life threatening. As a matter of fact – for an old broad, who smokes like a chimney, Doc thinks she’s in pretty good shape~! Some pills have been prescribed for the issues and all prescriptions have been filled. Guess I’ll have to keep her after all  😉

We [oddly] by-passed Blues and headed back to the condo to soak up some A/C and celebrate a [reasonably] clean bill of health for my Queen. We watched a movie – The Ultimate Gift…… outstanding movie~! Highly recommend seeing that one~! (Vera – I think you would really like it)  During the movie I got a ping to tell me the dive I was supposed to horn in on tomorrow morning has been cancelled. Dammit Emmit~! Oh well – plenty of time to find another one….. until then… rest of pictures from Sunday’s dive…. and some oldies but goodies if needed.

Good Night Ya’ll < < < < < < Thankx for stopping in~!

My view from my waiting area  : )

Tail of a 7′ nurse shark~!.

Sea plane coming in for a landing

Another nothing on the calendar for today (one of the few days like that left for this month – so we took it easy, sleeping in, a late (delicious) breakfast and finishing up the last season of 24. There is apparently another season of it – but Amazon Prime does not have it yet.  🙁  We watched a movie called Still Mine that we liked and have now started a series called Dangerous Journey’s….. interesting, but not sure we’ll watch the entire series. I mean after all, when you’ve gotten used to watching Jack Bauer save the world enough times – gonna be hard for anything to compare to that~~  😉  Caught up on some paperwork and odds and ends and just had a nice enjoyable day — So I’m gonna sign off here and put up some pictures from the dives yesterday~ Meetings, doctors appointments, possibly another dive and bar backing up at Blues again to round the rest of this week out…….

Good Night Ya’ll – – – – – – Thankx for stopping in~!

Awoke about 20 minutes before the alarm I had set — in anticipation of getting salty today. It’s been a couple of 3 weeks since my last dive and I was getting the itch. I got up and enjoyed about 30 minutes of quiet before my Queen came stumbling out of the bedroom. Skies were dark and the wind was gusting and I was almost afraid that my dives were going to be cancelled. I have learned though, however, those type of skies do not mean a whole lot here, because they can go from that to gorgeous in a matter of minutes. Time came for me to take off for the west end of the island and the looming black clouds and wind followed me all the way there…… but – by the time I paid for my dives and got my gear loaded, the wind had laid down considerably and the clouds thinned out. While we were loading the boat, another boat coming in to dock yelled and said they had spotted a couple of whales out past all the moored boats. Woo-Hoo~! The group I was in jumped into our boat (there were 2 boats) and headed out. It took less than 10 minutes to spot a large Humpback whale and she had a calf with her. We idled around trying to keep up with her, (you are not allowed to get closer than 100 yards from them [legally]) What a site to see…. I have seen hundreds of videos of them, but this was my first time seeing them in real life……. If I wrote 100,000 words – I could not adequately describe the feelings I felt watching that Mama and her calf. I had goose bumps you could fall over. There were gasps, and oohs and awes, people pointing, laughing, applauding….. it was truly a special moment for everybody on the boat. I did manage some videos and some pictures. The pictures I will put on here – videos will have to go on FB (one of them I put up early because I HAD to share that~!) The other boat caught up to us and we spent the next 45 minutes idling around watching Mama and her calf. Several people bailed into the water to “swim” with them….. I never got what I considered close enough to warrant that swim – so I stayed on board with some of the others. Apparently, the “pro” photographer on the other boat got some ‘nose to nose’ pictures of them — once she gets them loaded – I’ll share them on FB and see if I can steal a couple for here…… We wound up having to cut our 2 dives short because of the time we spent whale watching – but it was worth every.single.second~!!  Mama and her calf finally headed on out to the deep Sea and we watched them swim away……it was an awesome kind of quiet as every one sat and thought about what we had just experienced. It was wonderful. Well, I am already at my 500 words and haven’t even got started on the rest of the day…. so I’m gonna sign off and catch back up to you tomorrow……. (The pictures just do not do justice to the beauty of the occasion)

Good Night Ya’ll  / / / / / / / / / Thankx for stopping in~!

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After a big day [for us] yesterday…. painting, hauling big screens around, drinking and a fun filled evening with two wonderful friends…. we saw them off and then crawled into bed, dropping almost instantly off to sleep and sleeping until almost 08:00 this morning. I guess those days takes it toll on older folks. Today was a lot of do nothing but enjoy our new purchase. My Bride made a wonderful breakfast and we spend pretty much the rest of the day watching Jack Bauer “larger than life” do his thing saving the world. I mentioned it to friends a couple of times yesterday – I may even have to go back to watching football….. Are those Prima Donna’s still kneeling during the Anthem ?  I haven’t seen a game in over 2 years and haven’t heard much about it any more…..  That’s really about all I have for you today – so a short one tonight. I have a 2 tank boat dive scheduled for tomorrow morning. I’m charging my camera up as I type this – so I should have lots of new pictures for you tomorrow~!

Good Night Ya’ll > > > > > > > Thankx for stopping in~!

After a short nights sleep…..wait- yes, I did go to bed early again in anticipation of having to get up early again – but for what ever reason — I could not turn my brain off and it took me well over 2 hours to fall asleep. I hate it when I do that~! I wish I knew a way around it, because I do it more times than I care for. Not sure what the problem is, but I’ll lay there with a few dozen things running through my brain and just cannot doze off. Sad part is, they are usually things of minimal importance and don’t make a nickels difference if they are resolved or not. Just  plain old aggravating~! Once I finally drifted off – I did great sleeping…. just not as long as I was hoping for. Rolled out to the alarm and got up for another morning of painting. Didn’t have the gorgeous sunrise we had the day before, so I couldn’t “re-take” the picture I buggered up yesterday …… Lots more opportunities coming though – no worries. We got up to Blues and set straight into painting…. and by 10:30ish…. we had finished the inside of the fence~! That is a LOT of slats to paint~! Sure glad I didn’t ‘quote’ that job — I would have lost my a$$ on that one. We cleaned up our gear and sat down at the bar for a couple of drinks before heading off to pick up our new TV~!

We headed to center Island to the store where our TV awaited us. Finally got the dude to bring our TV out and ashamedly admit he didn’t have the sound bar to go with it because he sold it to somebody else~! Now ain’t that a kick in the nads. I expressed extreme displeasure with this piece of intel and he quickly offered a $ 50 discount if we wanted to wait until the new one comes in. We loaded up the TV and the pedestal into the truck and away we went, trying to duck spotty rain showers around the island. I’m here to tell you (actually – kinda bragging) – that TV filled the bed of my little truck~! That is a whole bunch of TV~! Managed to get back to the condo without getting rained on — and fighting through a very sore rotator cuff – managed to get that big joker down into the condo.  An hour or so later plus a couple more drinks – we got everything assembled and operating….. OH MY~~! What a wonderful sight……now just have to get the damn sound bar…..

Got a call from friends Cynthia and Shawn to meet them up at Blues for drinks. We jumped into DD and in short order was sitting at the table eating BBQ and having drinks with them. We chatted with lots of other friends as well. Shawn wanted to see our new TV, so we loaded up and headed back to the condo. I must admit, I swelled with pride as the Oohing and Awwing went on. While Cynthia and Angie chatted, me and Shawn smelled each others butts and grunted approval over the TV~~ We wound up out on the patio so Cynthia and Shawn’s new little dog (Emmy Lou) could scope out the beach. We had another drink and just enjoyed each others company. Soon time to go….. they loaded up in their truck to head back West in preparation for work tomorrow [HaHaHa]….. in true Jar head fashion – Shawn missed the first turn (he said it was to scope out something down the road) BAAHaaaa….. just like a Marine~~~  😉

Good Night Ya’ll * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

Before

After

Before

After

Words to live by

A very full little truck

Our beach

Our ‘old’ TV in front of the new one  : ))

Jack Bauer (“24”) Larger than life~!

Rolled out to my alarm this morning…. In anticipation of having to get up early – I went to bed a little bit early (smart little feller that I am)….. laid down in a nice cool bedroom and didn’t take long before I faded off to sleep. For whatever reason…. I woke up at 04:36 just wide eyed and bushy tailed…… I resisted the urge to go ahead and get up and laid there and drifted in and out of sleep for the next hour and a half. Naturally, I went back into a nice deep sleep about 5 minutes before my alarm went off. I think that is God’s way of messing with people. Anyhow – rolled out, had a coff of cuppee and was soon headed out the door toward Blues. With both of us painting on the fence now, we are really starting to knock it out. 4 more sections left (on the inside) and it will be finished. Barring rain or some other island nonsense, we should finish it up tomorrow (inside). We knock off and clean up just before official opening, so we sat and had a couple of drinks. We badly needed to go to the grocery store, but since we were in our “work attire” and smelled like we had been in bright hot sunlight working – we agreed we would just stop by the small store near by and pick up “just the basics”. Good grief~~~ $322.00 later – we left with “just the basics” AAHhhh Island Life……..

We headed on back to the condo and cranked down the A/C (I turn it way up if we’re gonna be gone for more than an hour or so to help save money) and in short order we had a nice cool place to cool off in. We put groceries up, made ourselves a sammich and then went and took our showers in anticipation of the guy showing up with our new TV~!!!!! His allotted time came and went. No phone call, nothin’~! I was just getting ready to call him when he finally called. Some other lame ass excuse this time that he couldn’t make it, but said he could definitely get it tomorrow. I told him don’t bother, when I get done working – I’ll go get it and do it myself. (I phrased it a little bit different than that, but you get the message) I should have known better than to trust these worthless, lazy PoS on this island. It’s been pretty much a life long mantra of mine – don’t trust or rely on anybody other than yourself – you’ll seldom be disappointed. So we will have our new TV tomorrow – because I’m gonna do it. Should have known better in the first place and just took it with me that day. Lesson learned. Well crap, didn’t intend to go off on that little tirade…. sorry~~ Anyway – another day of painting tomorrow and then figuring out how to get that monster TV here and into the condo…. but I’ll figure something out — we will have the big-un to watch tomorrow~!

Good night Ya’ll – – – – – Thankx for stopping in~!