Living the life most people just dream about~

A fairly late night for me last night as I just wasn’t ready for bed….. I went out around 23:20 for my last cigarette….. and scanned the beach looking for new turtles or nests….. nadda….. just the roar of waves coming in on the beach. Woke up at my usual time (06:15)…. got all the usual morning stuff out of the way and strolled out to more clouds than sun….. and THREE new diggings~!  That is a total of 4 in one night. I guess I need to do some more home work on the nesting habits of these particular turtles… as I thought we were long past nesting…… guess that’s what I get for thinking……… Our beach looks like something off of a D-Day movie….. it is amazing the amount of sand these big beauties are moving. That makes 18 diggings we have on our beach now — we have nests on top of nests, on top of nests…… it is getting real hard to track where they are all at now. One thing is for sure though — even if only half of the diggings are actual nests — we should have close to 400 – 500 little turtles popping out in the next month or so….. That will be absolutely amazing to watch and I can’t wait to get some pictures for you all.

I took off a hair before 09:00 and headed up to Blues to finish the last of the lumber on the fence. Knocked it out in short order, stayed and had a beer and chatted with Jim for a little bit before coming back to a magnificent breakfast of biscuits and gravy my Queen had whooped up. She out done herself this time…. best gravy she has made in quite some time….. and I took serious advantage of it. I should be ashamed of the amount of it I shoveled in….. but I don’t care — DAMN it was good……!!  With my belly way past full — I stretched out on the couch for some serious TV time and let my belly wallow in the self satisfying gluttony of that breakfast. We watched a couple of movies….. we have seen them both before, but bore watching again…… We watched until Judge Judy came on – finished those two episodes and my Queen got up to make supper….. I headed out to the beach for more leveling……. (I had to work off some of that biscuits and gravy)…. I spent an hour out there getting the 2 biggest holes filled and leveled. Also managed to scrape some more skin off of my hand using the shovel and rake…. delicate little feller that I have become…….I felt the need to level off those big ones…. because it is where we are expecting our first hatchlings to pop up – and rather than dig up through 2′-3′ of sand to get out, they were gonna have 6′ of sand…. so I now have it leveled back out and they should be able to make it out now.  Can’t hardly wait to see if we have even more diggings in the morning~! I’ll happily keep the place leveled out for them~!!

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

Heading back out to the Sea

 

Actually slept in a little bit this morning…. a whopping 07:15 – but hey~! I’ll take it~!! Got up to a partly sunny, partly cloudy sky, no new turtles other than the one I talked about while I was writing last night. I only took a couple of pictures of the new tracks because they’re mixed in with a half a dozen other tracks and I’m not a 100% sure you would be interested in continuing to see dozens of turtle tracks… new or old. Does that that still interest you ?? Inquiring minds want to know  😉    Around 09:30 I ran the keys to the house I have been working in out to the owner (back from the states)   and chatted a bit and then came back to the house to a scrump-dilli-ious breakfast my Queen was working on. I was waiting on a couple of phone calls on a couple more possible ‘jobs’ …. but I have not learned yet to incorporate Island Time….. it may be another week or two before I actually get those jobs (and as it turns out – also those calls). I’m not really looking to go back to work – but having something to occupy a little bit of my time and make a few bucks in the process is not going to be a bad thing.

Wound up sitting and watching the idiot box the better part of the day…. watched one movie with Jeff Bridges called Crazy Heart….. not bad… not great but entertaining…. It got to be dinner time and my bride said she was going to make spaghetti…… feeling the need to ‘do something’….. I went out and worked on the beach while she made dinner. Our # 3 daughter is coming in, in a week, and I want the beach to look nice for her….. so I have been raking up sea weed, and leveling the mounds created by a dozen plus massive turtles. Doesn’t take long for that kind of effort to take a toll on an old fat guy and by the time dinner was ready – I was ready to quit. My bride felt the need to snap some pictures of ye old fat boy out there sweating like it was my job – so the least I can I do is share them with you — I hope you’re done eating before you look at them~~ 😉

Think I’m going to run up to Blues for a little bit in the morning to put up the last 2 pieces of lumber that I need to finally finish the build part of the fence….. but outside of that – probably another tame day here on the island…… am going to put up some more pictures from the dives yesterday and try not to duplicate anything……..

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

Some photoshop fun with my belly – I wish it was that easy~!

Crashed much earlier than usual last night….. guess I was plumb tuckered out from all of that heavy duty television watching. Amazingly I slept most of the way through the night before rolling out to take a whizz…… Went back to bed for a little bit – but that was pretty much an exercise in futility. Finally got up to start my day. Walked out again to heavy cloud cover and a newly dug up beach — 2 more nests. One of them was right against the step of our patio…. WOW…. that makes 13 diggings (and hopefully nests) Wasn’t long before I was gathering up my gear in anticipation of making a couple of dives out at  Cane Bay. I made me a quick breakfast of 3 eggs and a couple pieces of sausage – as a two tank dive really takes it out of me. Especially when they both have a lengthy surface swim out to the dive site. Finished my breakfast, grabbed my gear, kissed my bride and was out the door by 08:30. I arrived promptly at 09:00 and pulled in right beside the Dive Master…. followed shortly by his students. A husband and wife team completing their Advanced Open Water training. I was tagging along to try my hand at underwater photography. There are a lot of similarities in the 2 types of photography and one obvious difference….. this style is much, much slower….. almost at a stand still most of the time, versus the 120+ mph I was doing as a freefall photographer….. There are some new maneuvers I need to work on, but for the most part I think I have a pretty good grip on them. Only other thing I would like if this takes off, is a little better camera. My GoPro does a nice job but anything deeper than about 50′-60′ I need to be using a flash. I did get to do some roaming a round for ‘pretty’ pictures during their exercises and guess what I saw?? Guess – go ahead, guess~!  A shark – two of them actually. Both were reef sharks. I wanted to go after them, but I was there to do a job and besides… they were in much deeper water than I am certified to go….. but it took everything I had not to go after them. I did get one picture [not very good] and some fairly decent video of one of the sharks….. unfortunately all the video’s I took today are too big to get on here – so you’ll have to go to FB to see them. {sorry}

Just went out to smoke a cigarette and scan the beach for baby turtles, tonight is the first night they might start popping out. Didn’t see any babies yet – but we do have turtle  # 14 out there digging a nest~! Even though we have seen multiple turtles now…… every new one we get is equally as fascinating as the first one~! I snapped a couple of pictures….. but don’t want to disturb her, so leaving her be for the rest of the time.

Gonna leave it here with a bunch of pictures for you……..

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

Reef Shark~!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up again at the crack of too early…. only it wasn’t weather, or having to whizzz that roused me….. it was our upstairs neighbor moving what sounded like empty oil drums around…. only she must have been dragging them. Now that I had been zapped out of a mighty nice slumber….. my conscious mind told me that my eyeballs were almost at floating level again……. Dammit Emmit~! I begrudgingly got up and plodded to my bathroom to ease the pressure….. well by the time I was done – I was awake…….. dammmmmmmmit~!   So I washed my face, brushed my teeth, combed my hair (yes – I still do that) and stumbled out onto the patio to greet another day of clouds and rain showers…. The start to morning was made even a little bit better when up stairs neighbor dumped out a bucket of what I hope was water, over her patio to our patio below….. it didn’t hit me, but I was an unwilling target of the splatter….. yes sir – a lovely friggin’ way to start the day. I was going to yell some expletives at her….. but I seriously don’t think it would do any good – and I’m trying to rise above that kind of stuff…..still pi$$e$ me off though~~~!!!

The day was a little less clouds and rain than yesterday – but still enough to squash any desire to venture out – so my Queen and I sat on the couch the bulk of the day and watched movies [another successful day of internet]….. First one we watched was Stand up Guys….. definitely recommend it…. had several big names and will keep you entertained through out…. made thoroughly more enjoyable by my breakfast of hot dogs and beer. For whatever reason…. I just wasn’t in the mood for my usual scrumptious breakfast….. so I made what I felt like having….. and it was fabulous~! I think I need to do that a little more often….. it kept me sated better than my eggs breakfast usually does…….. maybe Babe Ruth was onto something~~ Next movie was called The Neighbor….. I was kind of hoping it would remind of our Damn Neighbors…… but the movie turned into a real yawn festival and I would not recommend it. Third and final move of the day was called The Heist…… DeNiro and some other big names……  you definitely want to see this one…. Entertaining and will keep your interest all the way to the end of the movie~!

It got to be 16:00 and we were wanting to go up to Blues….. tonight was Daniel’s last night working there….. he is one of the Chef’s…… he is leaving to embark on his own restaurant venture…… Good guy and we wanted to wish him well. At some point we’ll go check out his place… but at $20 for a burger (granted it is a Wagyu burger – but damn….)   I’m not going to get in a hurry….. unless my Bride wants me to) Got up there, got a drink and started chatting. It didn’t take long before I had 2 more jobs lined up “if I’m interested”……. so running out of things to do is not going to be a problem…….

Well damn…… I’m already past my 500 words and haven’t even got to my subject line topic yet……… so I’m gonna quit here and save it for another night…… I’m lined up  [again] to shoot pictures and video on two dives tomorrow… so should have some ‘fun’ pictures for you tomorrow…. until then….

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!   (Happy Birthday Lil Sis Susan)

 

 

I thought I woke up extra early this morning because our bedroom was still real dark when I rolled out of my comfy spot – having to pee so bad I could dang near taste it, but as it turns out, I was up at my regular time….. it’s just that it was very cloudy and raining like the world was coming to an end outside…… holy cow~! Super heavy cloud cover and lots and lots and lots of rain……. there were some brief intervals where the rain quit for a couple of minutes… but they were few and far between. It amazes me what the Sea does during those squalls….. it goes from that gorgeous blue, to a deep gray and occasionally almost black looking. Beautiful in it’s own right. I snapped a couple of pictures today so I could share what the remnants of a tropical storm look like here……. just thankful we are not having to deal with the mess South Carolina and that area are. Hoping the best for those folks.

My Queen and I spent the day watching the idiot box…… truly amazed we never [knocking on wood here] lost electricity or cable. The internet was sketchy most of the day – so we were relegated to watching the cable – which is mostly 1980’s reruns as opposed to streaming movies. Around 17:00 we got enough bandwidth that we finally got Amazon Prime to pull up. Watched a fun movie called Play the Game with Andy Griffith. Would definitely recommend watching it – especially if you’re a ‘Sheriff Taylor’ fan.

That’s really about it — not going to try and hit 500 words on sitting around watching it rain all day. Calling for pretty much the same thing for tomorrow — so we’ll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

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

IMG_7453      <—– Video

Actually slept in a little bit this morning…. woot-woot – that is if you call an extra 45 minutes sleeping in…. either way – I’ll take it~!  With nothing particular on the agenda… and let me tell you – that is a wonderful thing……. knowing – you do not have to do a Godamn thing if you don’t want to…… it can be almost debilitating if you’re not careful~! I have dreamed about that particular capability for a lot of years – let me tell you~! Dad always made sure my happy a$$ was up and moving when it came time to work – regardless of what I felt like – and the good Lord knows, I created ample opportunities to not be ready for work in the morning…. but I learned… the hard way…. if you want it – get your happy a$$ up and WORK FOR IT~! May not have been the easiest life – but it has served me well for the last 47+ years or so….. because now, I am living my dream of living on a tropical island – where the weather is perfect almost every single day (give or take the occasional hurricane) and I am doing what ever the hell I feel like~! It really is a great life….. and I am good with the fact I worked to earn every friggin day of it~!

As I write this….. Tropical Storm Isaac is blowing by us…. winds have picked up – the Sea is a treacherous and gorgeous deep gray as the waves break onto our own private little beach…. but absolutely beautiful in it’s own mysterious little way……. I love it~!  It is supposed to rain for the next couple of days catching the tail end of the storm as it blows by — but it’s all good…… the island can still stand the rain. My Queen and I went shopping for more ‘hurricane supplies’ today…. squeegees and sand bags…… won’t need them for Isaac – but we still have a month or so left in what appears to be a very busy hurricane season.  Finally got everything we need for today… we headed up to Blues for drinks and dinner….. It was steak night up there and my bride does like her steaks…….. I opted to drink my dinner since I had a couple of slices of pizza from the night before, for lunch. Bellies full, we stayed for another drink or six…. or so. Tim finally announced last call, so we paid our tab and headed back to the land of beach and conditioned air. Angie has already had her shower…. mine turn next – got to rinse the salt off before retiring for the evening….. I took several random photographs today – I don’t want you all getting bored looking at repeat pictures….. so hope you enjoy what I got so far……..

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

Zoom shot of local visitor~~

 

I stayed up a lot later than usual last night, not hitting the sack until about 00:30 this morning….. that was my plan to be able to sleep in a little bit…… Nope….. 06:15 eyes popped open and my bladder said it was time to get moving….. so up I got. My Queen whipped up a nice breakfast for us after we got woke up. Afterward she decided to go hurricane supply shopping today. I opted to stay at the condo and deal with a small insect problem we’re having. Don’t know what these things are or how they are getting in…… but I’m getting about tired of them. I emptied all the cabinets and bombed them with bug spray…. while waiting for the spray to dry I also cleaned all the ceiling fans, scrubbed the kitchen floor and put down 2 coats of mop & glow……

My bride finally made it back and we unloaded the truck and sat down to enjoy some cold adult refreshments. She wound up making a really nice dinner of breaded pork chops, stove top stuffing and corn on the cob. The corn on the cob was actually reasonably fresh — a real treat here on the island.

Bellies full, now watching the idiot box and clouds rolling in. Hurricane Isaac is still on track to go South of us – but we’ll probably have a day or two of rain and storms as he passes by. I may have to venture out for some hurricane pictures… we’ll see. Pretty tame day today….. and I’m ready to hit the sack……

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

DCIM100GOPROGOPR3177.

Up early again due to a growling belly and the urge to pee for an hour….. both of those items addressed and headed out to see what the new day is going to bring. It started out with two new turtle nests…. for those of you counting that is now 11 nests~! I hope they all turn out to be active~!!  Our beach seriously looks like a war zone out there now. I have some of the beach raked and leveled out, but cannot keep up with these big mommas coming in here – it’s great~! My Queen finally rolled out and we did our morning thing of coffee and waking up.  I made a commitment to be back out to the house I have been working on by 09:00, so the place would be open for the ‘counter’ guys. I loaded up and headed out and was there shortly before 09:00. I started right in on the doors and by the time the ‘counter’ guys showed up – I was half way through my second door. I finished it up and started taking measurements for the third and final door. I had to hold up on it as I was going to be in the way of the guys putting in the new counters. They finally finished up and left – which left me to my last door. I dreaded this one the worst, as I had to set the jamb into concrete walls – and that never works out as well as I would like it to. None-the-less….. I stayed at it and by 13:00 had the door trimmed, drilled and hung.

Hung out at the condo the rest of the afternoon with my Queen until after Judge Judy,  before leading up town for a meeting of the local dive club. It was supposed to be held at a place that advertises the best pizza in the Caribbean. Challenge accepted. We got there early enough to order and eat dinner and be done by the time the meeting started. Good plan – except somewhere in the process, the meeting got changed to another location — and I apparently did NOT get the memo~! Dammit Emmit~! One good thing that did come out of it, is that I have discovered my newest best pizza on the island~!  (so far)…….. We didn’t make it to the meeting, but our bellies were full and we waddled off to crawl into DD and head back to the condo for some of that wonderful conditioned air~!  I guess Summer is in full swing here now…… the temps are going up and that wonderful trade wind has all but died and O.M.G. is it getting hot~! It’s always very warm here, but with that trade wind gone…… it is  getting hotter than a hooker on 2 dollar night……. I’m not complaining though~~ I like it~! Especially when I know the weather back on the main land is starting to cool off~!

Next big news I guess is Hurricane Isaac…. Yep, we’re watching it but all latest forecasts says he’s going to go South of us. I sure hope they’re right. More on that in a day or two~!

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

Start of a new week for us here on our beautiful island……. I rolled out after sleeping in a bit (07:15) and a decent night’s sleep for a change, ready for a new day. Had a coff of cuppee with my Queen and had me a small happy breakfast (see pic) before heading out for another door job. I had to remove what once was an exterior door and relocate it to a now new exterior door location,  I had to add an extra hinge and put in two locks. I had to make a run to Home Depot to pick up some additional lumber I needed, but within 2 hours, had the door moved and rehung in it’s new location – locks and all. It’s kinda neat how training and instruction from 40 years ago come flooding back – and it feels good to put that knowledge back to work. Two more doors (which I plan to knock out this week) and I’ll be finished with that job – which means I can get back to Blues and start working on more projects there – until I get “hired” to shoot photo’s/video’s, clean boat bottoms or play drums……. woo-hoo~!! Go me~!  😉

Came back home around 14:00 to spend the rest of the afternoon with my Queen…. Owner of the place I’m working at, pinged me and asked me to go back and secure the place [he had to go back to the states on personal business] – after several yummy drinks, my bride joined me to go lock up the job site. Both hungry, my bride decided that Mickey-D’s, KFC and Domino’s was not an option, so we whipped into our very favorite location for some grub (and a few more drinks)….. bet ya can’t guess where that was at….. huh? Bet ya can’t guess… can ya? huh? Huh? 😉   We pulled into Blues with the intention of A drink and a bite to eat and then come back for a nice cool shower…… Ahhh … the best laid plans……. before we knew it – Eddy was calling last call….. with my drink almost full, I opted for another shot……. Jack Daniels FIRE….. rapidly becoming a favorite~!!!  I met and was chatting with a young couple… he was from somewhere up North [Jeff] – but his beautiful wife was from just outside Shreveport……[Annie] – we had such a great time chatting. It’s always good to talk with folks from ‘back home’.  I finished my drink and my shot….. bid my new friends Adieu and gathered up my Queen for the short drive back here…….

I will be [hopefully] finishing up my door job tomorrow, then waiting to see what the world brings next…….. Even though that wonderful trade wind had died down for most of the day and it was hotter than a $2.00 pistol…….. it still turned out to be a very wonderful day~!  I sure hope yours was as well~!!

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

My ‘Happy’ Breakfast~!

View from the place where I’m working (the door job)….not bad huh?

Latest bit of ‘news’ from our condo….. Dammit Emmit~!

 

Rolled out this morning pumped to be making a couple of dives and try out my first opportunity to shoot pictures for a ‘profit’ again…… Had coffee and a breakfast biscuit before making sure my camera was charged up and gathering up my gear. I was heading for Cane Bay…. one of the hot dive spots on the island. I arrived exactly at 09:00, got me a good parking spot and unloaded my gear…. and I waited…. and waited some more. If you have to wait somewhere [for anything] that is a premium place with a view that is almost unmatched on the island. I had a cigarette and just got lost in the view. Then another cigarette and eventually another…… Then I started to doubt whether I was at the right location (the dive master had mentioned other opportunities at the pier in the near future) Convinced I was in the right spot, I finally grabbed my phone to verify we were still ‘on’. No Service……. Dammit Emmit~! I walked up the road to a local eatery thinking they may have a little better signal up there — nope.     Finally, I rebooted my phone and when it came back up – I had 1 bar. That was enough. I pinged the Dive Master and got a fairly quick reply… saying he had woke up with a head cold and was cancelling. (“…he hadn’t got to me yet”) I was supposed to be there at 09:00 – after a half hour drive – and waited 25 minutes…. and he hadn’t got to me yet……. I was not happy about it, but whatcha gonna do??? I walked back to the truck, loaded everything back up and drove another 30 minutes back to the condo.

Spent the rest of the day taking it easy with my Queen watching TV and movies. A pretty tame day, but it felt good after the long day we had yesterday. Other than a couple of pictures I took during my wait this morning….. no other new pix for you. So short note tonight and just a couple of pix for you. We’ll see what this next week brings~~

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

Cane Bay