Living the life most people just dream about~

Up bright and early to watch a beautiful sunrise and get ready for a day of SCUBA diving. Arrived in Frederiksted a couple of minutes before 09:00 and loaded my gear into the waiting boat. First dive site was called the Deep Wrecks. Notably one large tug was the star of the site, sitting in about 100-110′ of water. Lots of fish life and interesting things to look at. A couple of doable swim throughs. Sure was intriguing peering inside the ship. I could see where a person would want to get wreck certified to go exploring inside of those dudes~! Spent 40 minutes on that dive with a max depth of 108′. Water temperature was a wonderfully warm 80°. Finally onboard and moved to the second dive site called the Shallow wrecks. I have been to this site before, but this trip turned out to be more of an exploratory dive and it seemed like about all we did was swim. I can tell that in light of the fact I only went to 70′ and only got 34 minutes underwater. (a 70′ dive would normally be more like 50-55 minutes for me) The old fat boy uses up a LOT more air when I have to do a lot of kicking. Oh well – it was time in the water and it was nice to be breathing underwater again……

Came back to my Queen – got a quick shower then headed out for a fund raiser going on out at Castaways. Nice event to help the family of a Recovery Worker here on the island that was killed during a robbery. The funds from the event going to his family to help pay expenses. Nice turn out and I hope they raised a lot of money for them.

I’m gonna cut it short — My nose is running and I think I have picked up a bug in my laptop. Nothing is working the way it should – so gonna have to reach out to the Geek Squad tomorrow and see if they can un-bug me….. de-bug me… fix whatever the issue is. Hopefully I can get pictures to load. (More tomorrow of the dives)

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

Well the day after Thanksgiving….. ‘Black Friday’…… a day hated by many and loved by probably an equal amount. I personally never cared for it.  One time…ONE time…. I accidentally wound up at Eastland Mall on Black Friday…. good lord what a cluster****~! Never again – especially since the development of Amazon Prime…. Don’t guess I’ll ever understand that madness and happily proud to admit I don’t even want to try to.

Very slow day for us today….. My book learning complete, caught up on club activities for now, I spent a very relaxing day with my Bride doing a hellva lot of nothing, so not a lot to carry on about today. I have a 2 tank boat dive scheduled for tomorrow, but don’t have any idea which sites we’ll be going to. Crossing my fingers one of them is Armageddon or a site equally good~! You know I will have pictures for you from them~! Leaving it at that….. I sign off and leave you this:

  😉

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

 

 

Actually did sleep in a little bit on this beautiful blue sky 80° morning….. I know some of you hate me for that – but hey, whatcha ya gonna do ?   😉 My Bride must have been a little extra tired and slept in until around 08:30. We lounged around and took it easy, enjoying our smoke breaks out on the patio and fully enjoying the weather. The sun was bright and making the different blues in the water really stand out. We had reservations for an early Thanksgiving dinner at 2:00pm, so we skipped breakfast in anticipation of filling our bellies with turkey. We fielded multiple phone calls and facetime chats with family and friends while we waited. Always nice to hear from them.

Time came for us to head out – and nicely, the restaurant is only about a mile up the road from us. We could have walked it, ha-ha-ha….. what am I saying… well, we could have, but that just ain’t gonna happen. Arrived promptly at 2:00 and was seated. What a view, sun, sand, sky and palm trees.  It is an outdoor venue (like most places on the island) so we had that view and the occasional wonderfully cool breeze to keep us comfortable. We watched iguana’s roaming around looking for hand outs, which terrified our server….. and the occasional bird looking for handouts as well. We had a small soup starter, even though I don’t think it was the Tomato Bisque that we ordered, but it wasn’t terrible. That was followed up promptly by a small salad and then the main course. I ordered half & half (turkey & ham) while my bride opted for just turkey. Turns out – sticking with the turkey was the smart move…..uuggh… the ham tasted like [bad] canned ham. The turkey wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good. What they called mac-n-cheese was inedible. They had a cornbread stuffing that might have been good Tuesday morning when it was probably made and has been keeping under a heat lamp since. There was a small medley of what they were calling vegetables – but again neither of us dared to try them, rice and last but not least smashed taters….. well, they were supposed to be smashed….. this still had large lumps of very under cooked potatoes in it.  We ate more of it than we probably should have, but we were starving and figured we’d just hope for the best. I had a piece of apple pie for dessert – which was commendable. Angie had a piece of pumpkin pie and said it tasted more like sweet potatoes than pumpkin and left most of it on the plate. Best Thanksgiving we ever had ? Not by a long shot – but were sitting on a beautiful tropical island, 83°s or so weather, we are both in reasonably good health, our kids and grand kids are reasonably happy and healthy and leading a good life  and we are happily retired — I’d say that is a lot to be thankful for — and we most certainly are.

Happy Thanksgiving~!

 

Always know what is behind you when taking pictures  😉

Several attempts at our beautiful [almost] full moon…..

 

First time in almost a week…. we got to ‘sleep in’… we were both up by 06:15 – BAaaaHAhahaha…..that’s what happens when we go to bed at a decent hour…. watched a sunrise masked by some fairly serious heavy clouds, but had the most awesome cool breeze coming in at around 78°…….  🙂  Not a heckva lot went on today – caught up on world news and all that crap that is Facebook…. I ran up to Blues to welcome Jim and Deb back home and clean up the last of my mess up there that I didn’t get to yesterday. Came back to the condo and spent the vast majority of the day academically….. finishing up the books and last video that I had on my Rescue Diver course. Last book and video was on the First Aid part of the course — Don’t remember if I mentioned it or not – but I was a Red Cross First Aid instructor a 100 years when I was stationed in Las Vegas……. actually pretty spooky how much of that information came back to me as I went through that course. I have just notified my instructor I am ready for testing and field applications. Long Thanksgiving weekend will force me to wait – but hopefully, will be certified by the end of next week. YAY~!!!

No new pictures and really not a lot else to carry on about – so gonna leave it right here….. my little Sister is pinging me and chatting — which tickles me to pieces — a great way to keep up on the goings on. I am trying not to get homesick as she tells me about the big Thanksgiving they have planned up there in the land of icicles and snow….. I’m a little bit jealous and a lot of envious. As I told her- one of the downsides of living here on this gorgeous rock – is being away from our kids and other loved ones during the holidays. A fact made a little (okay – a LOT) easier when we listen to woes already of ice and snow and it is a balmy 80+° here with what is referred to now as the Christmas winds blowing in.  With what little humidity we have is gone, and once the sun goes down and the temperature dips [occasionally] into the upper 70’s° ((aweee)  and you almost get goosebumps because it is getting chilly…….ya gotta take the good with the bad I suppose~~~ 😉

Just came in from a smoke with my Queen, watching a massive cruise ship moving slowly away from the island, just having spent the day in port on our beautiful island. We have another one due in Sunday. I just wish I had a good enough camera (Like a Nikon D4 or something) and appropriate lens to get ‘that’ shot. We also have an almost full moon which is making what would be some gorgeous shots….. but alas, a cell phone camera – just ain’t gonna get it…..

So with that….. friends, family and sports fans…. I’ll sign out – wishing you and your families a very Happy and wonderful Thanksgiving.  I truly hope you get to spend some time with the people you love and be thankful of all of the little wonderful things life has to offer.

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

 

Got up earlier than we wanted this morning to get our morning routine out of the way before we took off for an impromptu meeting with Fish With A Vet. Got there early enough to get us a tasty breakfast before the rest of the crowd come straggling in. The meeting – and I use that term loosely – was all over the place and it took what seemed like forever to get the tiny pieces of intel I needed for my new role as Treasurer. Guess I need to start working on keeping the leader focused on the meeting and not the 20 other things that come up. I did manage to get a lot more informed of the goings on – it was just almost painful though as long as it took. We were there long enough, that I missed out getting up to Blues to do any work. Dammit Emmit~! Oh well – as it turns out – it rained on us later in the day, so not a lot of harm done I guess.

Got back to the condo and I worked on spreadsheets for the club for an hour or so. My Queen and were both getting hungry and she said let’s go up to the Mill for pizza. I thought I was hearing things – but was not about to argue. I have been wanting to try that pizza for a while now. I had one piece of their pizza months ago, and it was cold -but- it wasn’t bad, so I wanted to try it hot out of the oven. We headed for town….. now understand. I would rather have my tongue branded that go uptown…… for multiple reasons – but away we went. I was not disappointed. As it turned out – it is not my favorite pizza on the island — but right now it is coming in a close second. Besides I had a view to die for and wonderful company. Our server for the life of me reminds me of Cliff Clavin off of Cheers. I also think he a little sweet on my Bride because he spent an inordinate amount of time at our table. Other than annoying the pi$$ out of me – my Bride seemed to enjoy the attention, so I just focused on my pizza. Just as we were ordering our dessert, we had a nice little rain shower clabber up on us and give the Boardwalk a nice cleaning off for about 10 minutes. As it started easing up, we paid our bill, thanked ‘Cliffy’ and left – making that long nasty walk (the main reason I don’t like going downtown) back to the truck. It is especially nasty when you had about 2, too many pieces of pizza to eat  😉

Now back in the condo and in our comfies and cooled off, we are both enjoying the conditioned air and full bellies. Nothing special planned for tomorrow, so I’m going to try and sleep in a little bit and then spend the day finishing up the academic part of my Rescue Diver program – so I can get the water portion of it scheduled. It’s been almost a month since I’ve made a dive and I’m due – so plenty of motivation now~!

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

Green Cay on the left – Buck Island on the right

Guess which one I got   😉

I didn’t notice chicken as an option~~~  😉 

Not Love – but not bad……

Yay – pizza~!!   My Queen actually ordered herself a pizza….and liked it~!

My Queen and I rolled out earlier than either of us would have liked Sunday morning (the day after the tournament) I think we both would have liked to have slept until noon – but it just wasn’t in the cards. We got up, both moving slow, recovering from a day that was almost much too long for either of us. We watched some boob tube – went out for the occasional smoke – had a bite to eat and just pretty much took it easy for the day. By late afternoon, my shoulders were tensing up – so while my Bride whooped up a nice big mess of spaghetti – I went out and worked on the beach some more. I have got it nicely cleaned up now and hopefully it will stay that way for a bit. Raking and pitch forking I have found is a really good way to exercise sore shoulder muscles. Course – it wreaks havoc with my lower back now…… just another fun little diddy, I guess, that comes with advancing in years. I’ve heard, that getting older is not for the weak or puny – boy – that ain’t no kiddin’…… it sucks…. I advise against if you can figure out a way around it. we didn’t do much else other than watch NYPD Blue and look for turtles the rest of the evening. Got our showers and crawled back into bed like it was our job.

I rolled out much earlier this morning than I would have cared for – but I needed to be up at Blues Backyard BBQ to get a jump on my day up there. The fence that I put all the work on was in serious need of a stain and sealer to help protect from the weather. I was up there promptly at 07:00 to start that process. My bride stayed home to domesticate (laundry, etc.) By noon, I had the inside of the big section of fence done. The plan was to move to the outside and start in on it – but the sun beating down on my head, the sweating running down the crack of my touchas and the pain in my lower back – all convinced me to call it a day and come back to this wonderfully conditioned air and some aspirin. I came home, gulped down a handful of aspirin and settled in on the couch for some NYPD Blues and let my back quit hurting. Angie made a meatloaf….. I’ll leave that right there…… and now here I am. I’m gonna put up the rest of the pictures I have from the tournament (my phone died much earlier than usual, so I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked) — and a couple from today.

We have a meeting in the morning with Fish with A Vet to reconcile numbers from the tournament – so we are once again getting up earlier than we’d probably like – but it’s breakfast ‘out’ and keeps us moving… we’ll sleep in tomorrow~!

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

Some of the fish weighed in — Barracuda, Kings and Mahi-Mahi~!

The Moko Jumbies made an appearance~!

Shawn – “Pork Chop” cooling off with a cold one after a morning of fishing~!

Eddy (famous Blues Backyard BBQ bartender) and Deanna~~

Local ‘lawn mowers’ cooling off…..

Another beautiful sunrise~~

My fence…. before….

After……

 

 

I couldn’t have been any more right about yesterday being a long day if I tried…. WOW~!!  My Queen and I rolled out of bed at 05:30 so we had our wake up and bathroom time before starting our day. I had the coolers loaded and we were in the truck by shortly after 07:00, stopping to fill the coolers with beer and ice, then headed out to Green Cay marina where the tournament was being hosted. Everybody started in with assignments, hanging banners, filling out raffles prizes, etc. There was a small pause for a bite of breakfast and then back at it. That took us up to about noon, then it slowed down for a bit while we waited for the anglers to come back. First boat showed up about 14:00 and the weigh in began. Lots and lots of fish coming in and smiling faces abound. I was promoted from my [apparently] temporary position of “Fish Bitch” (I was supposed to be weighing the fish) as a more experienced volunteer showed up – so I upgraded to ‘Beer dude’ – handing out free ice cold beer to anyone that wanted it. I went through roughly 8 cases of beer~! We even got a visit from the Moko Jumbies handing out American Flag pins. Always fun they show up. Weigh in finally completed, everyone moved to the Deep End bar where trophies and prizes were awarded for the tournament. That is also where the raffles and silent auditions were going on. We had the band R & B Experience providing music in the background. Plenty of laughs and smiles with only the tiniest amount of drama as one sore head wanted to contest a fish weight. That was quickly resolved and the party went on. Naturally there was plenty of alcohol and the entire day was deemed a huge success. Numbers are still being tabulated- but I believe the whole thing will come out as a wonderful success for the organization.

Finally tore everything down, cleaned everything up and all loaded into our vehicles. I can’t speak for everyone else – but my bride and I were shot. From the way the rest of the volunteers were moving – so were they. When I say shot – I mean broken down tired…… we all had some drinks – but we were just plain ole worn out. By now it’s just after 21:00 and it dawned on us we hadn’t eaten anything since that early breakfast, so we decided to hit Mickey D’s again on the way home. After a very taxing 43 minute wait in the drive through, we had our sammiches and were finally heading back to the condo. We pulled in right at 22:00, plopped down on the couch and had our “dinner”. After a 15 hour day – we both agreed we were both to pooped to pop, and agreed would skip much needed showers and crash….. which we promptly did.

I’m at my limit already, so will stop here and share some of the many pictures I took during the day. I’m headed up for a full day at Blues tomorrow – but will try to get back on here for at least the rest of the pictures.

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

First off — I see I didn’t title last night’s blog…. Dammit Emmit~!  I couldn’t think of anything funny or catchy when I started writing, so I figured I’d write a little bit and maybe something would come to me, and then published it without noticing it didn’t have a title….. DUH… what a wanker…… anyhow… here I am again…. Slept in a little bit this morning….. almost 06:30~!!  Rolled out to clouds [but no rain~!] and a wonderfully cool breeze….. guesstimating in the very low 80°s  😉 Took it pretty easy this morning, updating spreadsheets for Fish With A Vet and getting things in order for the big tournament tomorrow. Had a tasty breakfast and relaxed with a couple of episodes of NYPD Blue (just started season # 9).  Shortly after lunch time – had to load up and go get beer we are donating to the cause tomorrow – so we journeyed across island to the local version of a SAM’s Club called Cost U Less — and loaded up 10 cases of beer. Free beer for everyone tomorrow at the tournament~! We arrived there just in time to get rained on….. So much for the forecast that says we are [finally] done with rain….. Got beer and a couple of other essentials (booze and hamburgers), loaded up the back seat of DD with beer and headed back across the island to the condo.

Left the beer locked up in DD and came in to soak up some of our [thankfully still working] conditioned air. Watching more NYPD Blues and getting stiff and a headache from sitting on the couch….. I got up and headed out to the beach to try and rid our area of some of the Sargassum that is still laying all over the place —- I spent an hour or so out there raking and pitch forking Sargassum back into the Sea before another heavy enough rain coaxed me into quitting, although being brutally honest — it didn’t take a hellva lot of coaxing  😉 Not sure how long our clean beach section will last – but it looks good for now and makes a nice clean entry section into the water for the babies we are expecting for the next couple of days. My Queen is sitting out there looking for them now as I write this. I am waiting for one more phone call to clean up my paperwork for the tournament tomorrow – then I’m gonna hit the sack. Tomorrow has the makings of a very, very, very long day….. I’d almost bet – it will be late enough when we get back tomorrow and I will be tired enough… there probably won’t be a post tomorrow night. Hopefully I will have a bunch of pictures to share with you the next day though………

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

 

 

After a nice cool shower and a short nights sleep… I rolled out early enough to be up at Blues Backyard by 07:00.  It started raining just about the time I got there, but I still managed to get the small handful of things done that I wanted to get done. Soggy but feeling content – I borrowed a couple of big coolers that I’m gonna need for the tournament Saturday and lugged them out to the truck. Got back a little bit after 08:00 – hauled the coolers out back to the patio and dropped my tools. While I was still mostly damp – I grabbed a scrub brush and some soap and did a little cleaning on the coolers to spiffy them up some. Besides, whenever I borrow something, I always return it in a little better shape than what it was when I borrowed it. A little lesson I learned from Sheriff Andy Taylor…..  😉   Came back in, toweled off and got into some try dud’s and settled into a nice breakfast my Queen had rustled up.

Spent the rest of the day watch a training video, which covered basically everything in the book – only had videos demonstrating procedures and techniques mentioned in the book. I am now starting on the Red Cross book and still have to get that DVD as well. The instructor mentioned he may do some hands on training with me during that part of the course…… slowly moving forward. As I’m typing this, the whole unit just went black….. oh boy….. I will have to copy or snip this going forward, as I’m not sure it will save it since this is an internet based site and I no longer have internet (while the power is out) DAMMIT EMMIT~!!  That means no A/C and no television either……. Guess I need to stop here. I won’t be able to load pictures because I need the internet for that too. Will have to wait to see how long we are without power this round. You all enjoy your ice and snow I hear we’re getting back in Posey County Indiana….. I’m gonna sit out on the patio and look for babies~!  Possible 3 hatchings tonight~!

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

 

 

Started the day out early getting up and heading out almost right away to attend the Fish With A Vet meeting. We have a big fishing tournament coming up this weekend that promises to be a full and exciting (albeit long and tiring) day. We were making last minute plans to make sure that event happens with as few glitches as possible. A really great organization that promotes activities for veterans on the island. I’m sure there will be lots of pictures for it. We got there at 08:00 and didn’t get back here until almost noon. I then set out to get our A/C fixed, especially after spending a very warm night trying to sleep~~ 🙁  Multiple phone calls and going round and round with the owner of the unit – but finally not only found a guy to work on it – he came out almost immediately~! I followed him up to the roof a couple of times (and got some great pictures from up there) and within an hour he had cold air pouring out of the vents again~!!! Yay~!! One dilemma down. During the whole course of that – our internet died, so we were going round and round with the building manager about our router and modem….. turns out we have the same models that Noah used. That over with, we finally got internet back around 18:00, just in time to head out to a meeting with my dive club. We headed downtown, 8 minutes to get there and 22 minutes to find a parking spot….. but we finally gathered up at Brew STX for a fun social meeting and drinking, electing new officers for the club — I now have a position with the club, although I’m not entirely sure at this point what it is  😉  We got treated to a monsoon type down pour during the meeting. The venue was an open air bar (as most places on the island are) and we were soon all huddled up in one corner trying to avoid being completely soaked….. Ahhh….. Island life~! We finally wrapped it up around 21:00 and headed back to what hopefully was going to be a nice cool abode. We decided we were hungry, so whipped into Mickey-D’s and a mere 28 minutes later was headed back to that [hopefully] nice cool condo. Thankfully it was….. we enjoyed our Quarter pounders with fries in cool bliss while catching up on an episode of NYPD Blues. Full and tired, we crawled into our nice cool bed and faded off for some much needed rest. Goes without saying… I didn’t get on here.

Today we did some running and shopping for some stuff we’re gonna need for some sprucing up we’re gonna be doing at Blues Backyard BBQ…… if it will EVER quit raining~! I spent the rest of the day with book learning for my new SCUBA certification and just finished the first book a little bit ago. I am currently downloading a program to be able to play a training DVD on here and barely remembered I hadn’t written you all yet — so here I be. Lots of pictures for you. I may save some for tomorrow – but I think you’ll enjoy what you see.

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

More rain on the way~~~

Up on the roof……

Empty lot next door

There’s DD….top left 

…..and more rain……