A day of Shooter

A Long quiet day of not doing much of anything…. Breakfast and a whole lot of our new series Shooter. Stopping for the occasional cigarette and texts from the kids in the states with pictures of the Grand babies. Did get a text from our landlord – he has scheduled a realtor in for Monday morning to take pictures to get ready to rent/sell the place as soon as we are gone….. dammit…. guess we’re gonna have to clean the place up a little bit…….  😉

Really not a lot else to ramble on about tonight – so gonna leave you with pictures…………..

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

Don’t know what it is – but Dave was excited about it
Epstein Island
My Queen….

Epstein Island
Epstein Island

Me & Dave

Me, Liz and my Queen

 

Boat PIZZA~!!!!!!!

Diving and Flyers~~~

Up again before I was ready, but probably a good thing, as during my first cigarette of the morning… a fart almost turned into a SHART that almost went really bad…… those of you over 45 should know exactly what I’m talking about…. Any how – that little escapade out of the way, I readied myself for another day under the water seeing what fun things I could find. A REALLY small boat load today (my favorite kind) and the few people on the boat, I knew [and actually liked].   A small ‘local’ crowd, and all fairly experienced divers – we were open to the whims whatever the hell we all wanted to do – I LOVE those kind of loads…. First stop was Captain Morgan, even though I did that dive just a scant 2 days ago… It doesn’t matter – great thing about diving and a bad memory…. It’s always new, fun and exciting~! The dive did not disappoint~! LOTS and LOTS of pictures.. a 1 hour dive, chasing sharks, that took me much deeper than I intended to go…. but hey – you’ll have that every now and then….. second dive site was one I had been to before as well – but it had been a while….. WOW – I had forgotten the beauty of that place~!!!  By the time we sank beneath the waves for that dive, we had some pretty serious cloud coverage… so decent lighting for pictures was at a minimum…. but I still managed some decent shots that you KNOW I’m going to share with you~!  Back, showered, pictures uploaded and starving….. I convinced my Queen to go out to dinner with me at a place called Flyers….. Been there once before long, long ago and wanted to scope it out. We showed up shortly after they opened, was seated immediately (at a table that was either 6” to short or the chairs were about 6″ too tall)…… We got our drinks…. and some appetizers (eggrolls and pretzel bites) followed by a NY Strip steak for my Queen and a half rack of ribs for Moi~~ All very tasty. We ate what we could before ordering a wee bit of dessert….. Bread Puddin’ for my Bride and I had Banana Brownies (I had to try them)…… My Bride did not care for her Bread Puddin’…… but my Banana Brownie turned out to be quite tasty~~~ Left overs boxed up, tab paid and a short 15 minutes later was back at the condo. My Queen wanted to stop by Blues – but I was just not in the mood, so they’ll have to think we have been abducted. A full week without going up there – I’m sure they’re ready to call out the Coast Guard on our a$$e$ soon~~~ 😉

Right now – I still have tons of pictures to put up for you….. so gonna do that and call it a night……. gonna make up for that early morning out of bed before I was ready stuff……. 😉

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

Locke & Key

Slept in almost as late as I wanted to this morning after staying up to well past midnight to start a new show. I say almost as late as I wanted to sleep, but that ever present call of nature urged me up out of my slumber. We finally finished up Scandal….. 7 seasons and they really should have quit after 5 seasons, but entertaining none the less. Still a little bit before we were ready to head to bed, so I looked up a series my Nephew told us about… Locke & Key. He made it sound really good, so we were anxious to try it. We watched the first two episodes before finally calling it a night. Less than impressed, but it was late, we were tired [and had about a half a snoot full] – so we thought we’ll pick it up again in the morning. Our usual leisurely start, and then some breakfast and sat down for more Locke & Key………. Half way through the day and now half way through the season, we were still under impressed. Only way I can describe the show is like a FUBAR’d mix of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Partridge Family and Harry Potter, all rolled up into one goofy mix….. but we finished the season…….Thankfully there was only one season and we were not upset we didn’t have any more to watch. Luv ya Alex (if you’re reading this) and will always listen to show recommendations, but just for future reference…. for shows like Locke & Key – Nope.

I have got another 2-tank dive scheduled in the morning…..not sure but I think our island kids are gonna join me on this one. I’m trying to sneak in a couple of extra dives as I suspicion we’re going to be fairly busy later in the month with moving….. so want to blow bubbles when ever I get the chance now. Just means lots more pictures to have to share with you all. 🙂   That’s really about it. We haven’t been up to Blues all week – they probably think we got kidnapped or something…….. I’m sure we’ll make up for it soon……

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

A couple of Tarpon.
Lots of fishes.
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Barracuda 

The Indians ( great snorkeling)

Caves!

Willy T’s~!

If you jump from here (at Willy T’s) topless – you get a free T-Shirt….. me and Randy jumped and still had to pay for our shirt… not fair~!  🙁

2 Tanks on the North shore~

Right after I posted my blog last night – I managed to get myself on a 2 tank dive off the North shore for today…. Yay me~~! Already much later than  I wanted and still had FB to do – with a nasty headache building…… I finished everything up and crawled into bed around 11:30ish, crawling back out a little bit after 06:00….. but I was going diving~! That is kinda like getting up early to go fishing…. hate getting up before you’re ready, but when it’s for something you’re looking forward to – it’s not that bad~! I nuked a small breakfast wrap and gulped it down before running out the door for the dives. The sea was a touch rougher than I like – but the water was just as gorgeous blue as ever….. Knocked out two soul  calming dives in water at a crisp 78°. My first year on the island – that was perfectly comfortable diving temperature water…. but now going into my 3rd season diving and getting a bit more acclimated to the weather here….. 78° now seems a bit chilly to me – but a refreshing kind of chilly. I have already told myself if it gets cold enough that I need a wet suit – I’m just gonna stop diving until it warms up a little bit. My two experiences with wetsuits proved to be a phenomenal pain in the touchas to put a wet suit on and just not worth the effort~! For now though, I’m still enjoying my diving in just my trunks and a rash guard……  🙂

Got home and started loading pictures of today’s dives when I had to pause and chat with our Damn Neighbors [via texts] and look at pictures of some of the most wonderful looking ribs I have seen in a while. Probably didn’t help I was about to starve at the time I guess though….. It is always so much fun to hear from those goofballs…. that’s not what I normally call them, but this is a mostly G rated blog as I know at least one of my Grand Daughters reads it occasionally~ Anyhow – got our spirits lifted chatting with them (it eventually turned into a phone call)….. also pulls at our heart strings a little bit, missing having them next door to us.  Miss you *******~~  😉 (they know that word is)  😉

My Bride is making a meatloaf right now as I type this and I’m drooling bad enough the keyboard on my laptop is getting soggy….. so I’m gonna put up some more sailing pictures…. you’ll tell me when you get tired of those pictures won’t you ??    😉    Actually – now that I see the pictures – they are snorkeling pictures….. Hopefully settling into some Meatloaf and Scandal shortly~!!

Happy 10th Birthday to my ‘Squirt’ Evie…. Love you Sweetheart~!

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

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Taxes and kids………..

After another decent nights sleep and a scrumptious breakfast whooped up by my Queen before settling into the couch for some more Scandal…….. My conscious got the best of me after a couple of episodes and I finally convinced myself to sit down and start working on taxes…..UGGHHhhhh….. I have been putting it off using every excuse in the book….. but as you should well know – only two things in this world you can’t get out of…… death and taxes….. both kind of the same things to me – but that’s a whole other blog.  Most of my ‘important’ tax type paperwork I get digitally, which makes it easy to save into my tax file, but I had a pile of envelopes that I got in the mail as well, that finally stopped growing. I had to sort through them, scan them all into my computer and then save them into my tax file – so I could upload all of them into my tax preparers server, so she can start that process. I have the nasty, nasty feeling that we are going to get our collective a$$e$ handed to us this year. Long story that I won’t go into – but I don’t think it’s gonna be pretty……… time will tell. I finally got all that done and since I was in that particular state of mind – I started working on the taxes for the Veterans organization that I  am the treasurer for. I dread doing those almost as bad as my own….. but again, it has to be done. Just about the time I launched into them, I got a ping from our Island Kids saying they were going to be in our part of the island and was wondering if they could stop by and borrow my spray painter. “Sure – come on by” Shortly afterwards a knock on the door and here they be……. We sat and chatted and caught up a little bit and before you know it, drinks were made and we were all out on the patio enjoying our view and each others company……. drinks, some munchies (meatballs), good chat, more drinks and a short 5 hours or so later, I finally told them they needed to go home…… (in a nice kind of way)  😉 Besides, we were mostly out of booze at that point (mostly, never completely out) and my tired old a$$ was ready to relax a little bit…… besides – I had to get this written~~~ So kids on their way home….. my bride is sitting quietly on the couch playing her game and I’m chatting with you now……… Gonna have to go grocery [and booze] shopping tomorrow… and a few other odds and ends that just did not happen today…… but that’s tomorrow….. for now, gonna give you a break on the sailing pictures and put up some shots from my last dive…………. (also tying to score a couple of dives for the week)  😉

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

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Scheduled – finally……..

Another very leisurely day today….kinda what you ‘dream’ retirement is all about….. woke up a touch earlier than I wanted to – to answer the call of nature. I did not get up any at all last night, so not terribly upset about getting up a skosh early for that……. First part of the morning reserved for catching up on world news (for me) and then all things that is FB. About time my Bride started a nice breakfast of French Toast…. I got the few essentials out of the way and then started in looking at plane tickets, hotels and cars for a trip back to the land of plenty. E-Gads….. every time I look at this, the price goes up to $200-$300 dollars~! Where in the hell are the savings for booking early???? Eventually sat down to our scrumptious breakfast…. got in an episode or 4 of Scandal, before I got up and came back to the computer. One of the things I have been wanting to do, is lay out a map of the area we covered on our sail trip. I finally got that done today…… probably not 100% accurate, but it ought to be fairly close. I will include the picture of it on tonight’s post, so you can get an idea of where all we went. Again – I think there were a few more small islands we stopped at, but this will give you the gist of it. I also logged back into my travel sites to check on tickets again……. Jumpin Ja-oseph-fat~! First site says prices were up another $300~! Just a friggin’ minute~!!!!! I went to the second site I use a lot…… saw a little better flight times, same hotel rates and a better deal on a car for a little less money this time……. I caved and went for it….. so, we now have plane tickets, hotel room and a car confirmed for our next visit back to the states. For those of you that are interested….. we will get in on the evening of the 2nd (of June) and will fly out early on the morning of the 9th (of June). We will probably spend a night in the Cincinnati area one night in the middle of that – but if you are gonna be in the Vanderburgh / PoCo area around then – maybe we could meet up for a drink somewhere if you’re interested… just ping me and let me know. It’s gonna be a fairly busy schedule, but will be glad to try and carve out a little time for you……. Until then —- more sailing pictures…………..

Good Night Ya’ll : : : : : : :  : : : : : : : :  Thank for stopping in~!

Rough idea of where we went~~
Misty
Misty trying out a slack line
Misty not doing very well on a slack line

LOVE this saying~!!

Randy & Misty
Working on our dinner for the night~!

Wow
WOW

Notice Dulce and Derricks faces
Notice Dulce and Derricks faces

Finally – a decent picture…….

I had CRABBS

Leisurely start to our day before heading out for a Board meeting of CRABBS, our local dive club. Meeting took place at a place we have been to many times, but always for an event of some sort. I actually did not realize they served drinks and meals like a regular restaurant…… after all – it is billed as a gas station~! Always a good time at the events they held and it was kinda neat to find out about their other options. Doubtful we go out there for anything other than special events as it is a pretty decent drive (an almost whopping 30 minutes~!) along a less than nicely paved road. Anyhow, the board of the club met and we talked, drank and ate for the next hour or so before finally calling an end to the meeting. My Bride and I did not partake of chow during the meeting, as we were unfamiliar with the ordering process there, and by the time we would have got our stuff – everyone else would have been finished. Lesson learned.  So we stopped at Cheeseburgers in Americas Paradise on the way home for a bite to eat. I had a classic burger and Angie had Chili Cheese Fries and we both, naturally, had a drink or two to help wash it all down. Back at the condo – I had some paperwork to catch up on for the club as well as some bills to pay (that time of the month). I got the bills all paid and the club paperwork done. I then commenced to looking  into airplane tickets, hotels and a car for our impending trip back to the land of plenty. I think I touched on it mildly last night about how big a pain in the A$$ that is…. #$%^&W#E$%^&~!!!! I finally got fed up and dropped onto the couch for some more Scandal. I pray to whomever has anything to do with it – our real government is not as nasty, vile and corrupt as what that show tries to make it out to be……. sad part of it is – I think it may actually be more true to life than I would ever care to think about. Taking time out from the latest crisis to get you a line or two….. and a whole lot more pictures……

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

Randy in all his glory
Randy keeping an eye out…..
GORGEOUS old sail boat

Dave
Dave conked out
Dave & Liz enjoying their sailing…..

Beautiful blue water~!

A big 4 mast sail boat

My Bride & Misty watching the sites

The sites…. Kite boarders

Me & my Queen

Captain Dulce guiding the boat up to a mooring point

Quite the view for a bar

Me and my Bride [again]

 

Just pictures…….

A very quiet day mostly watching Scandal . Breakfast, doing some home work on coming back to the states for a visit. Jeez what a pain in the touchas…… I guess it would be to friggin easy to simply just to put in the dates you want and get the best price for it…..NOOooooo….. let’s make it where you have to look at 8000 different sites with 300 options on each site…………… but I digress……. not a heckva lot to chat about and I’m not in the right mood to try and recall our boating expedition events tonight….. so I’m just gonna put up a butt load of pictures for tonight.

Good Night Ya’ll ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Thankx got stopping in~!

Beach Bar

Beach at Cane Garden Bay (or something like that)
Play time
Hurricane damage

Me and my shadow – well, technically just my shadow : )
Quite the menu

Dave & Randy

Moss covered rocks

Lots of them

Liz, Misty and Dave

Misty, me and Dave
Big wave chasing this kid…… I thought it was funny as hell~~~
Boobi
Pelican
Drying off
Pelican as he starts his dive
Goin’ in for the kill
Lunch time~!

 

 

Into a Blur~~

With life going on now here back on the island and not having written any more pages while on the boat – things are all kind of blurring together, so bear with me as I ramble about trying to figure out what to ramble about. The rest of the sailing trip turned out to be even more fun as we got to do more snorkeling and I got to make my dive (R.M.S. Rhone)….. have I talked about that yet ? I’m gonna have to go back and read to see….. if not – that will be one whole blog by itself. Fascinating story that goes with it, as well as being part of the movie that made me want to learn to SCUBA dive. I’ll look back and see if I covered that yet before I go any farther into it…… I don’t think I have. We stopped at one location called The Indians. We had breakfast there and got in several hours of some fascinating snorkeling. Again, we saw so much stuff and had so much fun, it was really hard to keep straight in my head…… course, drinking most of the day, every day probably didn’t contribute much to my memory….. glad I took so many pictures so I can look back and remember it.

Got the news today, our new place isn’t going to be ready on Sunday like expected. The landlord is having a hard time to getting the work they need done on the place. I would offer to do it – but it is well outside the scope of my capabilities. We are trying not to panic [yet] …. but keeping fingers and toes crossed they get the work done soon…….

Heard from family they are planning a visit for July. Yay~! Always something to look forward to~! Sitting here trying to lean over my belly to type. My Queen made spaghetti tonight for dinner and made enough for the entire condo it looked like – I did my best to wipe it out, but had to throw in the towel after I got to the point I couldn’t hardly swallow or breathe  😉   So  I’m gonna put up a bunch more pictures for you and go back and stretch out on the couch.

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

My Queen & Misty

Sunset from the Captains seat

Dave & Liz

Mood lighting for boats

No tall tales being told here~~
Randy & my Bride
Mood lighting for boats

Breakfast~!

We were greeted with a rainbow some of the mornings

Captain Dulce

Diving and sailing…….

As I was worried about….. our sailing days are starting to blend with our everyday life back on the island…… I think 2/20 is up next, primarily because I haven’t taken the time yet to figure out what we were doing on 2-19. I think If I look at 2/19’s picture I can recall, but I haven’t slowed down enough yet to do that. I had a 2 tank dive this morning off of Cane Bay’s boat (IBIS). I was the only solo diver on the boat – the other 6 people were all instructors with students – and because they all know me and my capabilities, I was left to my own accord……. and I LOVED it~! I got to go where I wanted, at my pace and bottle-ass around to my hearts content. Factor that in on the first dive with visibility at well over 100+’, it made for the perfect dive to work on my photography. I took pictures of all the students and their instructors and still got to shoot as many ‘artistic’ shots as my heart desired. Second dive, same situation, but the visibility dropped off and not as much fun to photograph, but still a good time.

For the rest of tonight’s blog – I’ll put up the next entry from my boat logs….. I hope you like….. and tons and tons of pictures left to share……..

“2-20”

Life on the sea continues……..we now are at Anagorda….. a small really flat little island with gorgeous beaches and a handful of bars. We rented a small truck to haul us around the island and check out the sites, which were mostly bars and gift shops. We stopped at a Flamingo sanctuary. You could only see the flamingo’s by climbing a small tower and looking through a telescope. I took my peek at the flamingos. I’m not 100% satisfied those were actually flamingos. One, they were massive…. I mean they looked like ostriches painted pink~! I’m also not 100% convinced they were real. I never did see any of them move. Me thinks, maybe they put up a bunch of K-mart variety statues and set them far enough away, thinking us dumb Americans wouldn’t know the difference…. So, I’m still on the fence about the flamingos.
We got back on the boat and headed for Virgin Gorda. A fun more modern looking place, we stopped for some provisions before mooring up just outside some of the biggest rocks I have ever seen in my life. I do have some pictures of them, but the pictures just do not do them justice. When you look at the pictures, look for something close to them for size reference (like people, boats or houses) Most of the group headed in to do a tour called The Baths. My Bride and I opted to stay on the boat and enjoy not doing much of anything. Unfortunately, I’m wasn’t in the mood to do nothing, so I grabbed some snorkel gear and bailed in the water to check out the sea life around those big ole rocks. The ship’s mate (Derrick) bailed in and joined me. Turns out he is a presentably good free diver and it gave me something to watch as he demonstrated his skills. Turns out we got quite a bit of sea life to watch as well. Saw a big ole Barracuda, a nice small sting ray and one of the bigger octopuses I have seen to date. Of course I have pictures of all of it for you. Just have to make sure I’m showing you the right pictures with the right notes.
We have not had phone service or internet almost from the time we left – so I have been writing all of these as word documents and will paste them into my blog. I have my ‘fantasy’ dive coming up this afternoon and am amped for it. More after the dive~!

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

Very fun bar – probably one of my favorites on the trip
My Queen and the gang~

Kinda looks like Achmed the dead terrorists don’t it ?

Took this one for my ‘Damn Neighbors’ 😉

Miss Liz

Bussing our butts to the next bar/beach

LOVE this~!

Dave & Randy
Randy & Misty

A little bit late getting Christmas decorations down…..
My Queen
Beach sofa

LOTS of this happening……