Living the life most people just dream about~

Night before last, after I had written my blog — we had 6 turtles come up on the beach to nest. SIX — I saw the first 4, the second 2 came must have came up after I went to bed. Our beach is almost unrecognizable now. One of the turtles came up and dug in underneath the steps that come off of the patio. So much so, I am amazed the steps didn’t actually fall….. which would have been catastrophic~!

I went out for a smoke with my Queen just now and was walking the beach looking for a hatching… as we have one due tonight and guess what ?!?!?!?!?   WE HAVE BABIES~!!!!!! It was amazing….. I was just heading back to the patio and caught them out of the corner of my eye….. it was crazy~!! Them little dudes come boiling up out of the ground…… and they all made a bee-line toward the water. It was fascinating to watch… they were scrambling. Our next door neighbors came out in time to see some of them…. It all happened SOOO fast — wow~!  I’m guesstimating there was an easy 30-40 of them little hummers….and they were gettin’ it. It looked like a little black river running down the beach to the water. The whole thing only lasted 6-8 minutes~! We walked [carefully] around looking for stragglers. I found a couple headed the wrong way and got them turned around and one little dude hung up in some Sargassum (it’s coming in quicker than I can get it out of the way) so I picked him up and walked him into the water. So very, very cool~!!! I did manage a couple of pictures and 1 video….. the video is way to big to put on here, so you’ll have to go FB to see — you’ll get an idea just how crazy it was….. so cut me a little bit of slack on the quality of the video. We have plenty more nests for me to practice on~!  WOW… I have an adrenaline rush like I just finished a jump~!! So cool~!!!!!

Anyhow — back to where I was at……4 turtles that I got to watch and then 2 more later that night. Laid around first half of the day yesterday then got up and headed out to a local spot for the Island Oktoberfest. I tried out all of their genuine German fare….. yeah, right — The brats tasted like Johnsonville brats, the knackwurst I’m pretty sure was Kielbasa sausage and the Spätzle …I had no friggin’ idea what that was….. tasted kinda like hash browns…. the food was alright, just not authentic….. heartbroken…. but not disappointed as I was expecting it. The local beer brewery made 3 different beers that they tried to pull off  “as good as” German beer… No, nope, ain’t no way, not even kinda close – but it was beer and it was cold….. and I drank a lot of it. We stayed and the crowd grew to probably 400-500+ people – all having a really good time. No arguments, or fights or drama – just everybody having a good time. I finally gathered up my bride and we headed back for the condo.

Got up this morning to another digging (# 46). We spent the day laying around recuperating and watching BABIES on the beach~!! A great way to wrap up a day~!

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

BABIES~!!

 

If I wasn’t retired, this would be TGIF for me and my Queen….. but we are both retired….. which means the longest weekend on the planet~! Had a fairly decent night’s sleep up until a couple of minutes before 05:00, when my bladder decided I no longer needed to enjoy that deep sound slumber I was in….. so I begrudgingly rolled out of the sack to relieve the pressure. I looked out onto a still dark beach, lit by a half of a moon on a cloudless night. I could have (and as it turns out – should have) stayed there until the sun made it’s usual beautiful appearance. Instead….. I eased back into my bed hoping since the pressure on my bladder had been relieved.. to sink back into another sound peaceful slumber and truly and peacefully ‘sleep in’…. BAAA-HAAAaaaaaaa…… talk about a pipe dream……. by 06:15ish…. I was tired of flopping and rolling around and afraid I was going to wake Angie up…… so I rolled out of bed and headed out to greet my new day….. My ‘Saturday’ as it were…….. I know dreams of retirement roll through everybody’s head, regardless of age, but especially after you pass the 50 year old mark…….. I gotta tell you, at least from my perspective….. it ain’t as cracked up as I imagined. I guess after logging well over 47 years of a pretty serious ‘work’ life….. it is a whole new ball game NOT working…… even living on a lush gorgeous tropical island. Dammit Emmit~! But ya know, if I have to be bored out of my mind….. being here on this island [I think] makes it a damn site easier~!! The money thing don’t really bother me, even though I am not making a fraction of what I used to….. I dunno – it’s hard to put into words….. even harder into print…. do I want to go back to the world I was in a year and half ago ??? OH HELL no~!! Would the money be nice ? Oh hell yes…… so what am I gonna do ? $64000.00 dollar question… I guess for the time being…… going to suck up all of this 84° weather, gorgeous blue skies and water and enjoy my permanent weekend~! Not really sure what got me started out on this rant — but those of you that have a permanent weekend coming up – something to think about~~~

A place on the island is having a Caribbean Octoberfest tomorrow…. advertising ‘authentic’ German food…… OOh-Rah….. I can’t wait…… I’d pay $50 USD for a real German Bratwurst and a Bischoff bier in a heart beat. Do I really expect to get either at the Caribbean Octoberfest tomorrow — awww hell no — but it ought to be a really good time. You know I’ll snag up some pictures for you….. and let you know about the menu items I try out….. until then…. enjoy some more pictures from my dive yesterday — super proud of a couple of them (i.e. octopus, rockfish) and I’ll catch you the next round….. disclaimer: if the Octoberfest turns out as good as I hope…… pretty good chance, there won’t be a blog tomorrow night~~ 😉

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

 

After a pitiful nights sleep – I finally bailed out of bed around 06:15 this morning in anticipation of getting to make a dive~! My Queen rolled out right behind me and we were soon both smoking a cigarette and watching another beautiful sunrise. Tracks on the beach told us we had another 3 visitors last night~! Sadly, it appears as only another one of them laid her eggs….. it is actually getting very hard to ‘read’ the tracks and holes now because the beach is so torn up from nests. Normally a nice probablem to have, but the one we think actually nested, actually tore up another nest as there were turtle egg shells strewn all over the new nest area…… a good and bad issue all at the same time.

It didn’t take long before it was time to load up and head out for my dive. Angie was coming with me as she decided to hang out on the beach while I was out getting salty….. We loaded up gear and coolers and headed for Cane Bay. Closest beach to us and arguably one of the most popular dive spots on the island. We showed up on time and was greeted by the dive master and some pretty impressive wave action out in the bay. We decided diving wouldn’t be worth the effort there – so we agreed to load up and head to the pier on the West end of the island where the water is almost always calm. We met up at the Frederiksted Pier, donned our gear and bailed into that cool beautiful blue water. It only took a couple of seconds to realize we had a current. A strong current. I have dove the pier probably a dozen times already and have NEVER had any kind of current. We opted to stick with it and continue the dive, navigating the current. Going with the current wasn’t bad….. when we did our turn to head back – WHOLE different conversation…. wow — talk about suck up some air….. the old fat boy blew through my remaining 1500 lbs of air in nothing flat~! Still a fun dive with some fun people and I redeemed myself taking pictures. I saw a couple of porcupine fish, a couple of spotted moray eels, an octopus, a rock fish and a ton of other usual’s…..AND managed to get fairly decent pictures of all of them~! I took almost a 100 pictures and wound up with just over 60 of them by the time I weeded out the junk shots. WAY to many to put on here for one night – so will put them up over the next couple of days.

Came back home to finish up season # 8 of Blue Bloods with my bride. We ‘ordered in’ for dinner…. my bride having a Philly  Cheese steak sammich and me a pizza~! Tried a new place for my pizza and was duly impressed. When I factor in “sitting” time for delivery – it was every bit [if not a skosh better] than the pizza I had at You are Here. So I’m gonna have to go to this place now (Napoleons’) and have it hot and fresh for a true apples to apples comparison….. but at least now I have TWO good places for pizza~!

We have now ordered season # 9 of Blue Bloods (for another nominal fee) and as soon as I get this posted – will set down to start in on it~!  I hope you enjoy the pictures~!!

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

 

Hey all, sorry about missing last night….. got home late from a seminar on Lionfish and was apparently more wiped out than I thought. More on that in a bit……  Got up early yesterday morning to make it to a club meeting with Fish with a Vet. We drove out East to the Deep End Bar for the meeting. We discussed the up coming fishing tournament they are hosting plus some Veterans days activities they are trying to plan. Meeting ended and we hung out to chat with some friends there and have a bite to eat. Nice little place, with good food and killer views. We left there and stopped by Blues for another drink or four – before heading back to the condo for some A/C. We finished up Season # 7 of Blue Bloods and are now starting in on season # 8 (for another nominal fee of course) There was a seminar being offered on Lionfish out at the University. Because of popularity, they also held another session later in the evening at Brew STX bar in downtown Christiansted. Since that was much closer and had alcohol – I opted to go to the latter. I showed up a few minutes before it was supposed to start – saw some friends and sat down with them and waited for the seminar. Very interesting to learn about this species that is rapidly taking over the entire Caribbean and wreaking havoc on the local fish life. I have volunteered to work with a group at the University to capture and tag this species and I figured anything I can learn about them would be helpful. The seminar lasted a little over an hour with a nice Q & A afterwards. I hung out and chatted a little bit with friends before heading back to the condo. (Angie was not interested in the seminar and sat this one out) I did manage to hook up with a buddy making a dive on Thursday – so yea me – I get to get salty tomorrow morning and hopefully redeem myself on pictures~! Any how — when I got home, I sat down on the couch with my Queen telling her about the seminar. We turned on the boob tube and started watching some more Blue Bloods……. next thing I knew it was almost 10:00 and Angie was waking me up telling me to go to bed. Tired….? a little bit, drank too much…? eh, maybe…… still not feeling up to snuff….? maybe a skosh….. but whatever it was…. was definitely not up for trying to type~~~

We woke up this morning to 3 new sets of tracks on our beach. Two of the turtles apparently didn’t complete their task for whatever reason. (We have lots of newbies in the building right now and I don’t know if they spooked the turtles or what) — Looks like we did have one that completed her nesting though~! Intel and coordinates recorded so we will know when and where to look for babies. We may have babies any time between now and the end of the weekend, so our lookout vigil has started~! Will definitely let you know if/when we get babies~!!

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

Not a big day today, but we did get out for a little bit….. stopped in at Blues for a drink or four, then went out for some exploring and a quick swing through the supermarket….. back for A/C, Blues and a bite to eat.

Not feeling it tonight…… I’m tired, have a headache and a little bit sick to my stomach…. so leavin it here with a  couple of pictures for you. Should be back to my regular self tomorrow.

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

Woke up to a non-raining day for the first time in several days….. kinda nice to see ole Sol up there blazin’ away in the early morning sky. Granted, still lots of clouds, but he did make an appearance. A pretty typical lazy Sunday….. some smokes, a little bit of breakfast and some Blue Bloods. Just to take a break from sitting on the couch – I finally got up and started mapping hatching dates for our baby turtles….. Actually turned out to be a lot tougher than I thought it was gonna be, but now we have a really good idea of when and where to start looking for the next possible hatching site. We have several more possible hatchings starting next weekend~! Back to watching more Blue Bloods ( they really need to rename that show to the ‘The Reagans’….. I swear – they would have to shut New York City down if something happened to that family…..geeeesh~!  While watching the Reagans resolve yet another dilemma for the city, it occurred to me with multiple hatchings coming up, the baby turtles would have quite the fight on their hands if and when they hatch to get back to the Sea, what with all the Sargassum seaweed we have on the our beach – Not on my watch~! Besides…. some exercise of some type would probably be a good thing for the old fat boy…… so I got up, grabbed shovel and rakes and away I went. Good Lord am I old and out of shape~! It didn’t long at all to realize just how bad I am out of shape….. wow…. a half dozen shovels full of sand and seaweed and I needed to stop and catch my breath. I finally got into a nice little rhythm to where I could breathe while I was doing it, but then my back “spoke” up to let me know that it wasn’t real shot in the a$$ with what I was doing~! So I started taking frequent ‘breaks’ to catch my breath or let my back quit hollering. Not a bad gig though, standing there watching and listening to the sea crashing in at my feet. I watched many, many beautiful cloud formations build and dissipate. Throw in an occasional rainbow for good measure…… not bad duty at all if you don’t factor in not being able to breather or stand up right. I stayed at it for almost 2 hours….. enough to get the nesting area of the beach cleared.

I finally came in to cool off and have a couple of drinks with my bride. She was in the process of making spaghetti…. one of my favorites. She made enough for about 6 people….. I don’t know why she does that, because she knows I have ZERO self control when it comes to portion size and spaghetti….. I secretly think she is trying to slowly kill me……. so here I sit – full as a tick and miserable….. miserable but happy. I have already had my shower, so I can put up a couple of pictures for you all and fall into bed like the old fat outta shape fat boy I am feeling like…. and sleep like it was my job~!   🙂

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

 

Well it looks like the local forecast was mostly correct. I woke up this morning to the sound of thunder rolling across our beautiful sea just outside our windows. Judging from the amount of light in the room, I was awake either very early or it was really cloudy…… which in hindsight should have occurred to me when I heard the thunder rolling. My Queen was already up and gone and I did my level best to lay there and slumber a little longer while I listened to the thunder that I so enjoy listening to…… but my bladder had other plans…. like get the hell up and go to the bathroom. Dammit Emmit~! I dutifully reacted to said bladder demands and stumbled out to greet the new day…….. A quick glance as I stumbled to my bathroom revealed my Queen sitting on the couch having a coff of cuppee and rain pouring down outside on the patio. I washed my face, brushed my teeth and even copped a shave, before coming out to face the new day.

We lounged all day long….. doing damn little else other than watch TV and eat and going out on the patio for the occasional smoke break. There were the occasional ‘surfer dudes’ strolling past our patio on their way to try and catch a couple of the big waves we had breaking on our shoreline. Breakfast came and went —- many, many episodes of Blue Bloods came and went as well as a nice meal of pork chops, veggies and stuffing my bride made for us for dinner. Bellies full, surfer dudes left for the day, and more episodes of Blue Bloods. We finished up Season # 6 and wouldn’t you know it – season # 7 was available for a nominal fee ??? Ain’t that some crap~! Thankx Amazon Prime~! We went ahead and paid the outrageous nominal fee and are now happily into season # 7.  I get overly aggravated with Reagan family – but still find myself waiting to see what happens next…..

Now here I sit with nothing better to carry on about, so I’m signing off and putting up the last of the new pictures I have…. guess that means I need to get out and do something for some more pictures……   😉

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

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Rolled out to another morning of some gnarly looking clouds and intermittent rain showers. If I am to believe the local forecast we are to have that for the rest of the week. Gots to have the rain, to have all the beautiful foliage we have on this island…… it also is the primary water source for many people on the island.

I cut out rather abruptly last night because I had hit my limit….. so a few more thoughts and lots more pictures for tonight. I found out (the hard way) taking pictures by using a dive light is a lot more complicated than I  ever imagined….. pointing the camera with one hand and aiming the light with the other hand while floating through pitch blackness is a challenge all in of it’s own. I found out (the hard way) when you sink to the bottom to get ‘that shot’ and you lay your bare arm on some fire coral that you did not see, that it burns like hell….. and lasts through out the dive and about 6 hours afterwards. I found out (the hard way) that just because you hold your light out in front of you like the dive master instructed while swimming, it does not necessarily stop you from swimming head first into giant steel pilon’s that hold up the pier. Luckily, there was not a lot of coral growth on it, so the only thing that got hurt was my head. Banging your head on said pilon (when you hit hard enough) also dislodges your mask and shoves it down over your nose and regulator. Nothing I couldn’t correct, but doing it in pitch black with cameras and flash lights dangling off of your arms – adds a whole new dimension to it. I also found out (the hard way), walking out of the water, avoiding large rocks that will trip you is a bit more of a challenge when doing it by flashlight. I found out (the hard way) – that just taking your gear apart back at the truck and putting everything up in your gear bag by flash light is no walk in the park either~! So – lots of things to learn on your first night dive, some the hard way, and I can only imagine the myriad of things that ‘could have’ happened to complicate things, but didn’t, thankfully. So – a whole new dimension to my new pastime….. did it scare me ? A little bit…… was it much more difficult ? A little bit….. was it weird and creepy ? A little bit….. will I ever make another night dive ? You bet~~!  Mom, Dad, Shift Leaders, managers and a multitude of other people have all said there was something wrong with me…… maybe they were on to something…….

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

IMG_7901      <—–Video

DCIM100GOPROGOPR6448.

Spotted moray eel

Rock fish~!

 

Well I have now made an official night dive~! It was every bit as creepy and exciting as I thought it would be. I have made several night dives while I was skydiving and thought that experience would help me taking a plunge into dark water. Nope, nope, nope…. The way the Dive master handled this one though helped a lot. We actually entered the water with about 20 minutes of ‘daylight’ left, so the darkness kind of creeped up on me, but I think it made the experience better. I wasn’t quite as creeped out. By the time I realized it was pitch black around me, I had got mostly comfortable with the fact that my vision was limited to just what I could see in the beam of my flashlight. There were several other divers on the dive so I had a little bit of their light beams as well – but I grew tired of them all around me and slid out to places a little farther away from them so the water wasn’t as stirred up. I’m getting a tad ahead of myself here though….. I started out by making an earlier dive there at the Frederiksted pier…… water clarity left a lot to be desired, but that is the luck of the draw on any dive. The dive started out right off the bat by me spotting a small fish that had a hook in his mouth with some line attached to a small weight on the end. He could swim, but not very far before the weight pulled him down. I could not in good conscious, continue my dive without trying to help him, so I took off after him. As it turns out, my camera was on video and was running when I took off after him, and you can see him in the very beginning of the video. I finally caught him. The hook was lodged too deep in his mouth to safely take it out, so I cut the line and weight off of it and let him go. He swam away and all I could do was hope he makes it.  Lots of fish on the first dive, but water clarity and visibility made getting decent pictures a challenge.  We wrapped the dive up at 53 minutes and got out to wait for the nitrogen in our blood to dissipate before we geared up for the night dive.

The night dive offered up tons and tons of sea life…. a couple of spotted moray eels, a turtle, a bunch of massive lobsters, star fish~! an octopus and a go-zillion banded sea shrimp. I took a total of 234 pictures and 9 videos during that day yesterday…… unfortunately….. I learned the very hard humbling way – that I knew nothing about shooting pictures underwater, at night with nasty water clarity….. weirdly, the videos came out fairly decent, but don’t know if any of them are small enough to get on here – so if they’re not – you’ll have to go to FB to see them. I wound up saving a total of 67 pictures after I weeded out the junk shots….. but I learned a bunch on that night dive…….. since I’m already over my word limit….. I’ll quit here and put up some pictures and maybe chat about it some more tomorrow…….

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

Yesterday was a Hodge-podge of different things….. typical start to the day with smokes and breakfast….. a couple episodes of Blue Bloods and some random crap. We finally got a little bit motivated and got up and gathered up all the dirty laundry including the beach towels we used while Rachael was here and I headed out. I dropped off the 2 big bags at the small laundry we use. From there I headed on into town to the barber shop. I was getting a bit ‘woolier’ than I care for. I swear – if I could get the hair on my neck to grow out the top of my head, I’d look like Bill Golden of the Oak Ridge Boys~! Got to the barber shop and it amazingly was empty. The elderly gentleman that cut my hair the last time was there and immediately motioned me into the chair. He started right in with minimal chatter after asking me what I wanted done. He hums while he does his work and it is actually pretty relaxing to listen to him. He stopped occasionally to walk to the door and hand out a dollar or two, to the people who knocked on the window and then went to the door to wait for him. I presume that is a daily ritual and admire the fact he helps as he can. He finished me up in fairly short order and asked if I wanted a shave. I let him shave me the last time there and I left with small droplets of blood oozing from several places, so I opted out of the shave this round. I paid him and padded my normal tip to him in hopes it helps him help others. People asking for hand outs are a pet peeve of mine, but I won’t go into this round…..

Went back and spent the afternoon with my queen and knocked out almost a full season of Blue Bloods. It got to be 5:00pm and I had a dive club meeting that afternoon, so we agreed, we’d go early and get a bite to eat first. We stopped and picked up our nice clean freshly folded laundry and headed on into town to the meeting place. My Queen had her a steak and I had a BLT with a Bacon/Cheddar crusted pretzel for an appetizer…. while each were tasty, none of it was noteworthy although the drinks were cold and tasty and the view was to die for. We listened to a group of folks regale us of a dive trip they took to the BVI (British Virgin Islands)  They shared intel about local dive shops, dive sites, etc.  It was interesting and [I think] would be a lot of fun if you had a group of friends you were comfortable enough to live aboard a boat for 6 days to go with. We hung out and chatted with some friends for a while after the meeting. They will be making a night dive at the same place I am tonight.

We finally came home and sat down on the couch to relax a bit……. next thing I  knew – it was way past 10:00 and I was ready for bed….. so I missed writing you all…. sorry about that…… I have a 2 tank dive this afternoon, with the second dive being a night dive. My first night dive. I’m a little bit scared and a lot excited~! Hopefully lots of fun new kind of pictures for you. It’s probably going to be late by the time I get home, and even later before I get pictures loaded…… so not entirely sure I will get anything posted tonight either…… so bear with me — I’ll get back into a rhythm again as soon as I can…..

Have a good afternoon Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

Our view from dinner and meeting place last night – and the only picture I took yesterday~~