Living the life most people just dream about~

I went to bed last night reasonably early after a very full fun birthday day. In bed by 22:00 I did not wake up until 08:00 – I was ermazed~! I stumbled out to a mostly cloudy day and started my wake up process. By the time I was good and awake, the skies were once again that beautiful blue and another gorgeous day was awaiting me. I made me a small breakfast and then started about getting some odds and ends done. I noticed on the calendar, today is marked Easter Monday. Now why is it, I have never heard of that ? Is that something new ? Have I not been paying adequate attention these last several years ? Is that something people celebrate now ? Maybe a way to get an extra day off of work~!?! Easter Monday – I guess I am now officially too old for this world.

I finally managed to get a hold of the ‘door dude’ and he actually came out to look at our patio doors. He took some measurements and said he would get back to me with a quote. I certainly hope he’s faster with the quote than he was getting here. I followed that little episode of confusion up, by running up to a place to check on getting the registration for DD renewed. Ouch – it’s going to cost almost as much as registering it did, but – gotta be done. I have to go back up tomorrow to see if she got in the “new” forms for this year. Good grief~~ Wonder what they have been doing since the beginning of the year ?  Guess they were waiting for Easter Monday   😉  Followed that up by stopping up at Blues for a couple of drinks…. actually had 4 of them but the best part was it didn’t cost me anything as several good folks bought me a drink for my birthday~!

Back at the condo – I spread out on the couch for a movie (Snow Walkers) – wasn’t bad, but really wasn’t good. Didn’t take any pictures today – but still have LOTS left over from the dives the other day. Speaking of which – I now have a 2-tank dive trip scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday~! So I’ll have lots of pictures to share with you. I’m gonna go up to Blues early tomorrow to finish up a couple of small projects – and then see what the day brings. I ran way over last night – so I’ll cut it a tad short tonight~

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

Happy Easter to all of you that celebrate this holiday. Being the heathen I am…not a day I necessarily celebrate, but always respect for those that do. We always tried to make it a special day for our girls as they were growing up. Today had an added twist to it, as it is the first time in 62 years, Easter fell on my birthday. Yes – today is my birthday. I was born on Easter Sunday 1957 and this is the ONLY time in my lifetime Easter has landed on “my” day. As most of you probably know by now, my Queen is back in the land of plenty spending time with our Baby and our other Daughters. The plan was for her to get back in time for a surprise arrival for our Baby’s  ‘Baby Shower’. The weather Gods nixed that plan, but she finally made it there this morning. Leaving me here to my own devices, I scheduled a two tank boat dive this morning – and I was treated to two wonderful dives to start my Birthday off with. Turtles, sharks and a giant green Moray Eel~! I didn’t get pictures of the shark – but am excited to see all the other pictures – including VIDEO of the Moray Eel~!!! The video is probably too big to put on here – so check it out on FB. I had been invited by two dear friends (Liz and Dave) out to an Easter buffet out at Cane Bay beach. I came home from my dive to find out we didn’t have enough water pressure for me to take a shower, so I used what I could from the little dribble of water to “freshen’ up and get some of the salt off and was soon on my way to Cane Bay. I took along my ‘bar’ and not wanting to show up empty handed, took two packages of ‘stateside’ cookies I received as a birthday present (Carrot cake and dark chocolate Oreo cookies) Goodness gracious was I popular~! ( I did make damn sure there was “enough” left over for me to take home and gorge myself on)  😉  I sat for a couple of hours and enjoyed the company of probably 15 – 20 people as I looked out over that gorgeous blue water. There was a bottle of Fireball making the rounds that I partook of – and a pipe made the rounds once that I know of, but I opted out of that one — It was soon time to bid adieu and as an added treat, I stopped at Off the Wall, my new favorite spot for pizza, and ordered myself a large ‘All meat with onion and mushrooms’ to take home for my birthday dinner. Dear friends Liz and Dave stopped by to keep me company while I waited for my pie. Folks at the bar found out it was my birthday and bought me alcohol while I waited (I could get real used to that~!) My pie finally arrived, I bid my thankx and farewells and jumped into DD to head home to enjoy my Birthday treat. Problem —- DAMN that pie smelled good~!! I soon had the box open, and while holding a drink in one hand, a piping hot slice in the other and navigating with my knee – I made my way around the winding mountain road back to the highway. I now, not only have multiple pizza stains down the front of my shirt – I also have 2 quarter sized burn whelps on the roof of my mouth – but OH SO worth it~! I made it safely back to the condo and needed one more slice (with a cold Bud Light) followed up by too many Oreo cookies to count – I’m tired and ready for a [8 hour] nap. Wanting to see and get up, some of my pictures from today – I popped open a can of Monster (which so far is doing the trick) to help me through this, pictures and a FB post. Considering my Bride is not here – it is one of the nicest birthday’s I’ve had in a while. Gonna quit while I’m ahead – hope you enjoy the pictures — many, many more to follow, as WAY too many to put up all tonight. Enjoy – Happy Easter~!

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

Birthday present~!

Birthday present~!

My Boat~~~

 

 

Internet has been a real challenge here the past day or so — not sure if it is island wide or just our little piece of the island and not sure how long it’s gonna last now, so this may be cut short. I did a “full moon” dive last night. My 4th night dive and it left a lot to be desired. The boat had 4 new divers on it and they were everywhere, including on top of me several times. Visibility was really bad because of big waves and not a lot of life where we were at. We did get to see one thing that was kinda cool. It is kind of like the bioluminescent – they have a technical name that I never understood – but locally are referred to as a string of pearls. They are micro-organism’s that look for the world like a string of pearls (hence the name) – you can’t see them during the day – you can seem them at night because they glow. Either a green or blue color – really pretty neat to watch them floating around and watching them light up. I took some pictures – but haven’t had a chance to look at them yet – so I don’t know of any of them turned out. I’ll put some on here if they did (I almost always look at my pictures after I write this)

I was invited to play some golf this morning…… now understand, that this is only the 3rd time I have ever ‘golfed’ in my lifetime…….  I happily accepted and tagged along with 4 other guys. Was supposed to be 5 other guys – but one of them wimped out. The other 4 guys are golfers….. I was along for the comedic effect. I fulfilled my role well. I shot a solid 180~! It was probably more than that – but the guys refused to score anything over 10 on a round. Beautiful scenery, gorgeous weather, cold beer and friends…… I had a good time and I don’t think I loused their day up too much  🙂  We stopped by Blues after golf and sat there and succeeded in getting mostly torn down…… I know, big shock huh? I did manage to win $120 in dice games, which help cover the cost of my round of golf this morning. I had to buy a shirt “with a collar on it”. Cheapest shirt I could find was $75.00~!! AND – it did even have a damn pocket on it~! Oh well – totally worth it for the fun I had~!

I’m gonna quit here and try to get some pictures loaded before the internet takes another dump. I have a 2 tank boat dive scheduled for first thing tomorrow morning – should have LOTS of pictures from it.

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

Stocked up on junk~!!  🙂

FINALLY got a hair cut……  : )

 

Got to sleep in a bit this morning… no alarm set, just able to enjoy the feeling of no commitment to get up at any certain time. A hand full of Aspirin about an hour before bed and a handful of Ibuprofen about 02:00 made for a fairly decent nights sleep with minimal aches and pains. I still woke up slightly before 06:00 (old habits die hard) but felt amazingly refreshed. My right hand hurt more than I cared for and was swollen a little more than I expected, but I suspicion that came from shooting almost 2000 staples the previous day.  (As I type this right now, the swelling is almost gone.) Course rubbing it and popping aspirin most of the day might have helped. Our day was mostly casual as we took our time waking up and catching up with news from the past day or so. We had to do a laundry run (that or start turning our underwear inside out) – we got that done fairly early and returned to the condo. My Bride made us a wonderfully delicious breakfast and we spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch watching the idiot box. As it turns out, we finished The Unit without realizing it – and, according to us – a really stupid way to end a season…. so the afternoon was filled with silly movies and just checking stuff out. We watched one older movie and didn’t realize another neighbor of ours was a “star” in the show (that would be you Vera – see pix for explanation).  😉

Soon came time to go collect our laundry, which we did and of course, had to stop by Blues and welcome Deb and Jim back home to the island. A pretty good crowd at the bar to welcome the place being opened back up and ‘one or two’ drinks rapidly turned into too many to count. So many good folks up there to welcome Jim and Deb back and to catch up with~! It soon got close to last call, so we opted to load up and head back to our nice cool condo. Apparently during the course of the evening, I apparently volunteered – or was volunteered – to help a friend move a newly purchased recliner, [that night] – we barely got back to the condo and I started in on this, when I got a ping to say we are ready to move said recliner….. If I am nothing else – I am a man of my word, so I dutifully jumped into the truck and took off to help friend move the recliner. Turned out it wasn’t that big (but still required a truck) and they didn’t live far, so really wasn’t a big deal for me, unless you factor in being about 3/4 plowed. Anyhow – recliner moved and I’m back safe and sound chatting with you. My Queen having hit her limit “early” is now in bed while I try and finish this….. I think I have pictures…..

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

I had a ‘supervisor’ on my part of the fence~~!

“Famous” neighbor~~ <3

Almost full moon over Blues Backyard BBQ

 

Nope, not talking a poor Mexican guy toiling away in a field of cabbage – or what ever they toil away in fields of down there….. I’m talking about that curse that many folks in the world contend with to get by everyday to earn the things in life they are after. Something that I learned early in my life. Dad had me working at a steady clip from the time I was 13. I’m not talking about shoveling snow or mowing they yard (I did those on my ‘off’ time) I mean real labor. If you’ve ever torn off a roof, packed bundles of the old 80lb asphalt shingles 20′, 30′ 40′ or higher up a ladder all day long, drug 3′ x 10′ sheets of galvanized corrugated metal 60′ or so up onto the top of a massive old barn, dropped 100lb drums of solid asphalt in an asphalt kettle (without scalding yourself) or swung a 50lb asphalt mop over a 5000 sq. ft. roof in 90° heat in Southern Indiana – then you’ve got an idea the kind of manual labor I grew up doing. That don’t count bucking hay and de-tasseling corn for ‘side’ money….. I did all of those things on Summer vacations, Spring vacations, Christmas vacations and weekends from the time I left Jr. High until well after I graduation high school and joined the USAF. I know what manual labor is. I Have never been afraid of it and learned to embrace a good work ethic. I did it for 47 years before finally retiring. While the last 17 years of employment wasn’t so much physical – the stress and the need to push yourself long ridiculous hours was off the charts. This past week, I revisited some of that experience. I wrote about some of it already – the past 2 days, was an effort by my Queen and I to complete a project we have been ‘working on’ for the past several months. Getting the fence up at Blues painted and re-meshed. I wanted to get it finally done before Jim and Deb got back from vacation this evening. For the past 2 days we have been working diligently to finish the fence. I am happy and proud to say we did it. May have pushed ourselves a tad to hard for our advancing age, but we got ‘er boy~! I am super proud of my Queen – she hung in there like a trooper and gave it her best these last 2 days. We were so happy so be done today – I ran off without taking any pictures……. now ain’t that some horse cookies…?

This past week has brought me to a sad realization though….. In my mind I am still the ‘charge into thunderstorms’ kind of guy I always remember being. This past week, “LIFE” has reached out/down and smacked me upside the head and said ‘cool your jets old-timer’ – you’re not 25 any more. Kinda scary to hurt in as many places as I do and realize that is probably my future now – however long that manages to be. Not 100% sure I’m gonna tolerate that – but also not 100% sure what I aim to do about it………………..

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

Woke up about 30 minutes before my alarm this morning and didn’t really mind. I went to bed fairly early last night worn out from a couple of days of using old muscles that haven’t had that kind of work out in a while. A half bottle of vodka probably pushed that issue just a tad  😉  I actually felt pretty good waking up that early and thoroughly enjoyed the extra 30 minutes to wake up and get my morning routine out of the way. I was especially hungry and made me an extra egg – so it was 3 eggs and a couple of sausage links, a small orange juice and a small glass of milk to help get ready for the day. Anticipating getting my a$$ kicked [per Bob] – I arrived at the job site 10 minutes early (on time). My bride wanted was up before I left and wanted to use the truck to get some running done – so she dropped me off. I set right into work with some general cleaning and straightening until the boss got there. After a couple of phone calls, Bob found out the concrete he ordered (and paid for) 2 weeks ago was no where to be found and that his name was not even on the delivery list, let alone for the first delivery of the morning. Bob was not happy. He had 4 guys on the payroll, sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for a truck full of concrete that was no where to be found. Bob was not happy. To shorten this up a little bit, after roughly a dozen phone calls – Bob finally got his concrete – at 12:30, it was supposed to have been there by 08:00. Bob was not happy. Most of us voluntarily dropped off the payroll while waited for the concrete truck.  Bob ordered pizza to feed us lunch – which showed up a couple of minutes before the concrete truck showed up. Bob was not happy. With a couple of slices of pizza in us, we launched into concrete work. When Bob said we were going to get our a$$e$ kicked – he was not joshing – not even a little bit. For the next hour and a half, we hustled concrete. 5.1/2 yards of it. I have worked concrete before and recalled I did not like to do it – today reminded me why. Slap my a$$ and call me Judy that is hard work. Especially for a very soon to be 62 year old man that hasn’t done it in a quite a while. By shortly after 14:00, concrete was poured, screed, and floated and we started cleaning up….. Bob was happy~!

The one ‘good’ thing that came out of today (for me) was that during my ‘off payroll’ time – I managed to finish prepping one entire section of fence. The plan, is for my Bride and I to go up tomorrow and get it painted and new mesh put up. We’ll be going up at 08:00 instead of 07:00 like I have been doing the past 3 days – and I’m really looking forward to that little extra sleep…. and I hope Bob is still happy~~~

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

IMG_0820

 

Rolled out after a fitful nights sleep from multiple body parts that were screaming ‘what the hell did you do to your self?’ Amazingly, I woke up feeling much better than I thought I would and busied my self around the condo while my Queen slept. I did manage to make me a small satisfying breakfast to provide fuel for my up coming day. I arrived about 06:45 (If you’re 10 minutes early – you’re on time — If you’re on time you’re late~!) and waited until Eddy showed up to unlock the place. I had enough of an idea what needed to be done that I launched right on into the job. The boss showed up right at 07:00 and filled me in on the finer details of what needed done and me and Thomas stayed at it. By shortly after 08:00 we had the area for a new pad, leveled and formed up, wire laid and ready for concrete. Bob was happy with the job we done and stoked it was done in the time frame we did it in. We finished up a couple of other small tasks that needed done and help gather and load tools up by shortly after 09:00. Bob proclaimed he was satisfied with where we were at and that we were done for the day. Short day indeed~! We hung out and had a couple of ice cold beers, before heading off our separate ways.

I had talked to my Bride about going up and working on the fence if I finished up early enough, so I came home to ask her what she wanted to do. Thankfully she opted to spend the rest of the day on the couch watching the idiot box with me and I was absolutely good with that~! I wanted to get in a small blurb for today – and then off for a hot shower that will loosen some very sore muscles that are trying to tighten up on me……. Bob informs me that I’m going to get my a$$ worked off again tomorrow…… scary thing is, I believe him – but will be up and ready for whatever gets thrown at me. Hopefully I won’t be too sore or tired to write. A couple of pictures from the short day. We’ll see what tomorrow brings~~

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

I’m so tired right now, there just aren’t words for it…… I have places on me that hurt that I forgot I had in my body. Working for a friend (Bob) helping with a project up at Blues while Jim and Deb are living the good life in the big easy. He told me he was going to work my a$$ off. He was not lying for this, the first day. I have 3 fingers/knuckles doctored and bandaged right now, which is making typing a real challenge~~ Wow~! He was not kidding, not even one little tiny iota~! To be fair, he is paying me a fair and decent wage….[and from my perspective] I earned every damned penny of it today. ( I would like to think he would agree with me) I “demo’ed” one big section of Blues bar seating area— and then helped with the setting up of the concrete forms. It doesn’t sound like much from this paragraph….. but butter my butt and call me a biscuit….. I’m whooped… I have already taken my first handful of Ibuprofin and sure another handful before I lay down for the night……… I’m gonna put up the pix I snapped during the course of the day today and call it quits for the night. Tomorrow is supposed to be a much shorter easier day….. guess we’ll see about that – I will try and get up at least a small blurb tomorrow.

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

 

“Before”

Eddy even got in on some of the action

It looks MUCH worse than it actually was  🙂

 

Started the day off waking up to lots of heavy clouds…. a different start to the day, but a welcome one as we really need the rain here. It is now very dry all over the island and burn bans are now in effect. Not to mention, a great deal of the population rely on rainwater for their house hold use. Without it, they have to by truckloads of water to refill their hold tanks and it is very expensive to have to do that. Sadly, by noon all the clouds where gone without even one drop of rain and back to our beautiful blue skies.

I spent the first half of the day updating my spreadsheets from the paperwork from last night’s meeting. We had a really good turn out and I’m sure everyone had a good time. Meeting was at a new place called the Nauti Bar, and everything considered, I think the meeting went off pretty good. It was interesting listening to a ‘Professional’ underwater photographer and she offered up a lot of good tips. I got to spend some time talking with her about cameras, which is what I was wanting to do – as I would like to get a better camera in order to be able to take better quality pictures. I got lots of good tips on what to look for. More on that as it develops. We had over 50 entries in our photo contest and once I saw some of the pictures, I was almost embarrassed about submitting mine, although a couple of mine received several votes, so I don’t feel quite as bad now (and no – it was not me that voted for my pictures)  😉  We spent the rest of the afternoon watching The Unit and taking it easy, as we have a full couple of days coming up. We will be up at Blues for the duration of each day, to help out as needed around the bar and kitchen while Jim and Deb are living it up in New Orleans. Not sure how late or tired we’ll be getting home the next couple of days ‘after work’ – but I’ll do my best to get a couple of lines and a couple of pictures up each day of our adventures. For now, signing off with a couple more pictures from the meeting last night~~~

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

The Nauti Bar

Well, I have dug backwards enough, that even I’m starting to get lost – so we’re going to fast forward up to today…… (that was actually much harder to type than what you would have thought)………. My Queen and I slept in just a skosh this morning as we went to bed “late” last night (around 23:00) after watching several episodes of The Unit…….. we thoroughly enjoyed the fact that we could go to bed late knowing we could sleep in if the stars aligned and would let us. A nice casual morning followed up by a small breakfast before we changed into our ‘traveling’ clothes and headed up to our favorite haunt. Yeppers – that be Blues Backyard BBQ…… Jim and Deb are fixin’ to light out to the land of plenty tomorrow…. to what I have to consider my favorite state of Louisiana~! They will be taking a weeks+  vacation in ‘Narlens’….. New Orleans to you Yankees. Do you know the difference between a Yankee and a damn Yankee ?? A Yankee is a Northerner that comes down to visit……. a damn Yankee is a Northerner who moves down there  😉 I feel secure [and privileged] to say, that by at least the fine folks in the Shreveport area – that I am considered ‘one of them’……. having paid my dues in fishing, living, drinking, eating and other ‘Southern’ things – that I am no longer considered a Yankee….. damned or otherwise. Wow – spun off of that curve didn’t I ???  😉 Anyhow – Jim and Deb are headed toward the Big Easy tomorrow, leaving us islanders to fend for ourselves while they are gone. Wanting to be of help while they were out – my Bride and I stopped by to chat with them this morning and wish them ‘happy trails’ (you ‘youngins’ ask your Mamma what that means) – We got our assignments from Deb and Jim for while they are out plus we want to try and finish up the fence and the grill for them while they’re gone….. so the next 6 days ought to be filled up and actioned packed for us. I am helping ‘demo’ part of the bar to pour new concrete the first 3 days, then work on the fence an grill with my Queen the last 3 days….. there will also be helping Matt do some of the smoking while they are out. Needless to say – a busy, busy week for us. I do intend to try and get a blog or FB post up during MOST of that time – but if I don’t at least you’ll know why……

We have a Dive Club meeting tonight that promises to be a really good time. We are having a photo competition and have at least one ‘pro’ speaking to us about underwater  photography. I am really looking forward to the meeting tonight as that is my area of interest in my new sport. Grand prize is an hour class with a professional on the island, being taught some of the finer points of underwater photography.  Yes – even as an officer of the board of the club – I am eligible to win – and YES – I have entered a couple of pictures~! Meeting is held at a new location tonight and it promises to be a mad house – but I am so looking forward to it. It’s gonna be late by the time we get back, which is why I am writing this now…….. Don’t want to disappoint my ‘fans’. I’m sure there will be more pictures from tonight – just will have to wait until tomorrow to see them.

Have a good evening Ya’ll * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

Somebody hit the shake  ;-( 

Our view….EASY to take~~