Living the life most people just dream about~

Told you yesterday we had another turtle….. A big girl…. I’m guessing 225 – 250 lbs. Beautiful~! The best part of it is that Rachael got to see her~! I don’t think she laid any eggs, as shortly after she started digging, she abruptly left.  We did walk out for pictures as she headed for the water. That big girl was movin’~! Don’t guess I realized they could move that fast on land – but she was getting it.  I tried to get some pictures of her, but they came out really blurry.   My Queen went to bed shortly afterward and Rachael and I sat up until around Midnight talking. We finally wrapped it up and each headed for bed. I was up again promptly at 06:15…… everybody else was sleeping so I got to enjoy a quiet morning to myself. I wandered out onto the patio to see yet another set of tracks~!! (# 25) Good news is that it looks like this nest was completed. Bad/Sad news, is she apparently nested on top of another nest and uprooted a bunch of eggs. At this point – it’s almost impossible for a turtle to dig out there now without getting into another nest because we have had so many turtles in this one small area. Sad, but not really a lot that can be done about it.

Angie and Rachael finally rolled out and started waking up. It was eventually  decided that we would go into town today to the boardwalk, get a bite to eat and do the touristy thing. We stopped at one of our favorite eateries there on the boardwalk (Toast Diner) for an absolutely delicious breakfast.  Rachael was shopping for some shirts and stuff. We hit most of the shops and then headed to the jewelry store for a bracelet. Rae picked out one she liked and my Queen picked out one she liked……. then I told her to pick out another (which she did) and then I told her that was her Birthday present…….(birthday is Monday and since I don’t get to get out by myself much [at least with family in town]…. it was going to be hard to ‘sneak it in) We finished up our shopping and came back to the condo for a little bit of conditioned air. We discussed heading out to a beach for a little bit….. but with what looked to be approaching weather, we opted to stay put. As it turns out… that was a pretty good call as clouds clabbered up and rain came in. The wind is howling now, it is raining like a cow pi$$ing on a flat rock, and we have some lightening and a little bit of thunder. I think Tropical Storm Kirk is passing by and they are calling for some more weather the next day or so as he goes by. I don’t think we’re supposed getting anything harsh from this one. If we do — I’ll be sure and get pictures~~!  😉

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

You can see shell fragments scattered here…..

Here was one egg intact, but after sitting out all  night – it was not savable…

What restaurant uses to chase away local chickens   😉

Hungry Tarpon looking for a hand out

 

Got in bed early last night ( you know us folks getting OLD)……. Shortly after 22:00 hours ((that’s 10:00 PM for all you civilians out there) and brought back to life at almost exactly 06:15… damn bladder…….. Got early news that Daughter # 3 is coming in to see us~!  Yeah, Yeah, Yeah~!!! Got up….. coffee’d… and woke up and started in on getting  the place spruced up to see our Daughter Rachael~!  My Queen started in on our laundry that needed done, while I got my ‘my’/’her’ bathroom cleaned up. I made the bed, ‘Swiffered’ the room and made sure everything was ship shape for her arrival. While my bride ‘did laundry’ – I also put up dishes, swept the entire place, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the big wall of glass from our living room to the back porch for that fabulous view and in general got the place ready. Angie finally came back with laundry… I put up my stuff and helped make the bed…… It got to be 13:00 and time to head for the air port~! Loaded up into DD and away we went…… We got there just time to hear the plane touch down and it wasn’t 15 minutes before we saw Rachael coming through our one and only arrival gate~! It is always great to see familiar faces come through that door….. so, SO much better when it is family~!  Lots of hugs and kisses later…. we headed over for Rum shots and to pick up luggage.  A fairly short ride back toward the condo as we pointed out some of the eccentrics of the island. Everybody agreed empty belly’s needed tended to, so we stopped at a place close to the condo that had reputedly ‘the best fries’ on the island…… a  choice that bade well to the moment……. pulled in and was greeted with a wonderful delicious display of food…… we picked out what we wanted. REALLY interested in some fries… the best fries on the island” we were promptly informed we don’t “do” fries……. DAMMIT Emmit~!  If I can ever remember WHO told us this place had the best fries on the island — I fully intend to kick their ASS~!! Anyhow…. we all ordered something different…. fish, turkey wings, chicken gizzards, corn bread, rice and some other stuff….. ordered it to go, as some conditioned air  sounded really good at that point….. we wound up quickly back at the condo and noshed while we ‘caught up’. Bellies full, we went out and looked at turtle nests and talked about the fun things that go on at our beach every day….. crabs, birds, waves, etc.

(ANOTHER new nest ((# 24)) this morning… but suspect she never ‘finished’)

We are now scanning the beach for turtle babies and enjoying that cool night breeze —- can’t wait to see what the next week brings and sharing it with you~!

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

DCIM100GOPROGOPR3409.

 

My Queen went to bed last night and left me sitting out here….. I was waiting for the two big turtles we had out on the beach, to finish what they were doing and head back to the water so I could get a couple of pictures……… guess it wasn’t meant to be, as I went out after about 25-30 minutes later and they were both already gone…… Dammit Emmit~! Oh well, you win some you lose some. I did have another treat in the works though — There was a bit of a lightening storm going on in some distant clouds. Now I have always been a big fan of storms…. especially lightening and thunderstorms….. I love  ’em~! So I grabbed my camera and crawled around on our patio trying to get that ultimate ‘shot’. It was kind funny as I crawled my big a$$ around up into places I probably shouldn’t have been, especially since it would have been morning before any body found me if I made an ungraceful or unfortunate exit from some of the spots I had climbed up into. The upside…. I safely got out of every place I got into and I also managed to score a couple of decent pictures for you. The pictures don’t really do justice to what my eyes got to see, but you should get the idea. It is so much different watching the lightening in the clouds over the water versus what I used to watch back in Indiana. The storm finally passed us by (without incident) and I came in and watched the boob tube until I calmed down and my eyeballs started getting heavy….. course – it was 01:00 in the morning again… but hey – gotta do what ya gotta do right.

My brain didn’t care I didn’t get to sleep until after 01:00 in the morning….. at almost precisely 06:15 my brain and my bladder both agreed it was time for me to get up again…….. My bride was up shortly before me, so I rolled out, did the bathroom thing and strolled out to a beach absolutely obliterated by monster turtles……4 different diggings as I stated last night….. pretty sure three of them have an active nest~! Woo-Hoo~!! We both lounged the better part of the morning with both of us [weirdly] skipping breakfast. Angie suggested going to Blues for lunch, so by 11:30, we were sitting at our favorite place having a pulled pork with coleslaw sammich. Very, very wonderfully tasty~! Not having my breakfast….. I also ordered a hot dog (washed down by an ice cold Budweiser) to top off my lunch. We stayed and chatted and hung out for another hour or so and got caught up on the goings on before heading back for some conditioned air (we are still in the heat of Summer here). After relaxing with a couple of episodes of Blue Bloods and our two episodes of Judge Judy — I headed out for some beach leveling. DAMN that is a whole like work. I put in a respectful 45 minutes of shoveling and raking before my back said it was time to quit for the day…… yeah, yeah, yeah….. I’m old, fat and out of shape – leave me alone….. 😉

Found out a little bit ago – Rachael is coming in tomorrow~!!  Can’t wait~!

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

 

Woke up excited to get to see another Daughter today, only to get an early morning text saying due to some kind of scheduling conflict, she was unable to make her flight and must wait another couple of days. 🙁  With nothing on our schedule now, we spent the first half of the day on-line. Angie doing her thing and me learning how to use my new dive computer. It’s amazing what you can find on U-Tube~! I found several tutorials that had my exact make of computer and did a really fine job of walking through each step. It made it really nice that I could follow along step by step with my own computer. I’m not near as anxious about using it now – plus I can always reference the videos as often as I want later if I need to.

Finally content with my learning I stopped and whooped me up some eggs and sausage. My bride said she wasn’t real hungry and just wanted a bowl of cereal. We finished out breakfast and went out to watch an array of beautiful clouds building and dissipating as small rain showers went by.  I think we are supposed to get a little bit of weather from Tropical Storm Kirk in the next day or so, but nothing severe. Hopefully will be some fun pictures out of it~!

We came in and settled into Season 2 of Blue Bloods as our local cable kind of comes and goes with the weather. We are enjoying the show, but me personally, I wish they would make the family a little bit more realistic. I will  be the first to admit, I didn’t grow up in your typical family environment, but C’mon….. I really struggle to believe there are any/many families out there that is as wholesome and goody-goody as that family is made out to be. Again – just my opinion…… I think it would make the whole show a lot more believable and entertaining as it would be easier to relate to for most folks. We stopped long enough to get in our 2 episodes of Judge Judy and then back to Blue Bloods. Angie made up a small batch of Spaghetti for us to meal on while we watched.

Just came in from ‘burning one’ before I got started on this and we have what looks to be a 300 pounder up on the beach. Wish I had the night vision glasses I ordered (just for this reason) Again – I’ll wait until she heads back out to the water before I try and get a picture of her. Weirdly, I did not take any pictures at all today…. so will have to put up some older ones for you and hope you haven’t seen them yet~~

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

 

 

Woke up around the same time as usual after a fitful night of sleep….. once again, I think maybe I was too tired….. that and battling another stomach something or other…… can’t wait until that gets lined out…. better now, it just gets old….. Didn’t do a heckva lot today – other than work on getting the place ready for Daughter # 3’s (Rachael) visit tomorrow~!! Still have a little bit to do – but will easily knock it out before we go pick her up.

Spent a little bit of time trying to understand my new dive computer. I opted for a basic ‘entry level’  dive computer…… this thing has a 50 page manual that comes with it…. 50~! I may have bit off more than I can chew…. but we’ll see. I also looked up information on my new spear gun — retails new for $ 213.00~! Nice – honestly though, probably gonna sell it and use the money for diving  😉

Really not a lot to rattle on about tonight…. no new turtles or diggings or anything. Didn’t go to Blues…. I did take a couple of pictures of some awesome cloud formations, so I’ll share them and some other older random pictures. Not sure what the next week or so will bring with having Rachael here, but still should be able to write.

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

 

Woke up to the chiming of my phone telling me it was 05:30. We were getting up early this morning to light out for the West end of the island. I was participating in a pier clean up dive and my bride was helping with the on land piece of it. We arrived on time and immediately set in to each of our own activities….. me getting my gear ready for the dive and Angie getting paperwork for everybody in line and handing out diddy bags (mesh bags to put trash in). We all gathered at the pier with our assignments and away we went. I had been assigned the shallower end of the pier and I dutifully set out scouring the ocean floor for items discarded by careless human beings. A big part of the clean up effort is picking up fishing line strewn all over the place. Lines that were broken and irretrievable by the fishermen. I personally brought in what I can only guesstimate was several hundred yards of fishing line. It also included so many hooks I lost count, and what I estimated was probably 2 lbs or better of sinker weights. Also found several small lures. On one particularly long stretch of line I was pulling in, I actually kneeled down on the sea floor and was pulling the line in hand over hand. As it got closer, I could see there were 2 small spinner bait type lures on the end of it and actually had a hand full of small fish chasing after them. It was probably the first time in my life I hoped a fish didn’t ‘hit’ my lures~! I feel like I did my part in the clean up. The other ‘fun’ thing I found was a dive computer. They look like a wrist watch, but also have functions for SCUBA diving that can be invaluable. I have wanted one almost since I started diving. This one was functioning perfectly. Knowing someone probably dropped it, I tucked it into a pocket on my BCD (Buoyancy Compensating Device). After everyone got out of the water – we all gathered at a nearby bar/restaurant for a brunch prepared for us. There were many raffles going to raise money for a local charity with a lot of prizes…. including a new dive computer. I bought my fair share of tickets, got a cold beer and a bite to eat and waited for the raffle to “win” my computer. While we were waiting for the raffle- the owner of the computer I found showed up ( I had spread the word I found one) — gratefully relieved to have his computer back – he bought our table a round of drinks. Brunch finished, the raffles started.  20 minutes into the raffle – there were only 2 items left — a really nice spear gun and “my” computer…… numbers called for the spear gun…… and I had those numbers…… Yes — I won a spear gun~!! Next was the dive computer….. numbers called….. and none of them were mine  🙁   Dammit Emmit~! But hey!! I have a spear gun now…… The event wrapped up and I headed down to the local dive shop that was having a 23% off sale…… so I picked up a couple of things I needed…. a new pair of dive boots, a weight bag, a new rash guard……. oh…. and a new dive computer…… 😉  I’m so spoiled…….. Now I just have to learn how to use it.

We came home and spent the rest of the afternoon with drinks and talking about the day….. a really, really nice day….. OOOH… we also had new tracks and a dig this morning when we got up — # 21 ….. not completely convinced she laid eggs – but we’ll know for sure in about 60 days~!

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

 

Last night after I had published my blog, I sat down with my Queen to enjoy an episode or two of Blue Bloods. We have recently started in on it and just completed season one. About ready for bed, I drank a small bottle of stuff Stephanie sent me to try and help with my sleeping issue. Supposed to take it a half hour before bed. Supposed to help you fall asleep quicker and sleep a little more soundly. We finished the last episode of season # 1 and my bride said she was headed for bed. I told her I would be in a bit as I was still waiting to get sleepy. We went out for a cigarette and low and behold – one of the shadows were moving. We have an almost full moon and seeing everything on the beach is a bit easier. The edge of a flash light beam confirmed we had another turtle doing her thing. Being recently much more educated on nesting habits of these beauties – I did not take a single picture of her [with a flash] hoping I had enough light from the almost full moon. I decided I would wait until she was heading back out to the water before I got a picture of her. I stood and watched her for a while (behind her, out of her line of sight). Angie announced she was going to go on to bed. I stood out there, for what turned into just over 2 hours, watching her. Standing there on that moon lit beach, that nice cool wind blowing……. almost like being on another planet. Thankx to the moonlight, I could watch almost every move she was making…. It was awesome~! What they do with their flippers is mind bending. After she got the hole big enough for her (they dig it deep enough, they are almost below ground level – she started in on the hole for her eggs. The way she used her back flippers was amazing. She would actually “stand up” getting her body at roughly a 50°+angle and lean on her back flippers to get down deep into the sand. The only thing I didn’t get to ‘see’ – was the actually laying of the eggs – I was afraid I would interrupt or bother her, so I kept my distance and watched. I could see her straining and working as she finally starting pushing out her eggs. Amazing~!! Finally finished, she spent the next 20 minutes or so making sure her eggs were buried and covered up. She crawled forward a bit and started digging again – I thought maybe she was going for a second dig – but abruptly turned and headed for the water. I think roots from the palm tree may have got in her way. As soon as she headed for the water, I walked around for a picture. I guess she didn’t want anything to do with me and took off. That is the fastest I have ever seen one of those turtles move. I am guesstimating she was 225 – 250 lbs. She went her way into the water and I came back in…. still not sleepy…. I finally crawled into bed about 01:00 and tossed and turned for 45 minutes before finally fading off into some much needed sleep.

Well dammit….. I’m already past my 500 words and just getting started. Rest of the day was movies, Blues and another gorgeous sunset…… maybe more on today, tomorrow – but I have a dive scheduled….. going to the West end to dive the pier with a bunch of other folks to pick up the trash the nasty people throw in the water along the big pier. Not sure if I’ll get pictures or not as it is a ‘working’ dive. A nice brunch scheduled for afterwards…….

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

The back of our condo…..

 

Woke up to a gorgeous morning and new turtle tracks~! I don’t think she ever made it to the nest stage though, as the hole looked very unfinished. A bunch of dog tracks in and around the hole makes me think she may have gotten run off before she had a chance to finish what she was doing. It apparently happened after we went to bed last night, so we didn’t see any of it.   Plans to get out and about today were quickly laid to the wayside as we started in watching movies while we had our breakfast. Not sure what prompted it, it but we started watching the Jurassic Park series. We had only seen the first and second ones and for whatever reason decided we needed to see the rest of them. So we watched them….. a total of 4 more movies…. all about dinosaurs….. a couple of them weren’t bad – a couple of them were. Makes me really glad I didn’t pay movie theatre prices to see them. Not only stiff and sore from sitting on the couch all day….. I now have a miserable headache…. almost bad enough to make me sick to my stomach — so I’m stopping here….. I’ll put up a couple of older pictures for you though……

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

DCIM100GOPROGOPR5662.

DCIM100GOPROGOPR4909.

Sorry folks….. today was as bland and blah as any one day could be and I just cannot conjure up anything I feel is worth sharing with you……Maybe tomorrow?

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

 

Well today turned into a day where I didn’t do a damn thing…… well, I guess I shouldn’t say that – but I didn’t sleep in [again]….. I didn’t wake up to any new turtle digs,  I didn’t gorge myself at breakfast (so that kinda counts for something don’t it ?)…… I didn’t go up to Blues for anything……. I didn’t clean anything around the house (but I did offer to do the breakfast dishes)……. I did watch a whole lot of the idiot box….. a couple of decent movies – came in a tad late, but caught most of Black Sea — very good~! Then we watched another DeNiro movie called The Score – several other big names — I think you’d like it as well. I didn’t do any leveling on the beach today – but in all fairness, there was a storm brewing and lightening….. hey, I gotta have some kind of excuse. I didn’t make a complete hog out of myself with the sloppy joes my bride made us for supper (there really wasn’t enough to) 😉 Watched one more movie while we ate called Hart’s War….. wasn’t that impressed with it…… I didn’t hate it – but I didn’t like it either~~

I did take some fairly decent pictures of the storm as it passed by and some of the sun set, so I have some new pictures to share with you…. and will leave it here so you can not listen to me ramble any more and enjoy the pictures.

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