Living the life most people just dream about~

Up bright and early this morning to prepare for a couple of dives this morning. I was at the boat 15 minutes early…. met the only other 2 people on the boat and was off before we knew it. There was some early chatter about making 3 dives this morning and I was all for it – but multiple issues came up that finally blew that possibility out of the water. Our first dive left a lot to be desired….. mediocre visibility, a current that eventually wreaked havoc with everybody including the Dive master… so just suffice to say, not the best dive I have been on in a while…. I can say with no uncertainty – that I got in my ‘cardio for the week’ getting back to the boat. Woo-wee….. Second dive was ten-fold better….. almost 100′ visibility… eels, turtles, lobsters and got to ‘bottle-ass’ around most of the dive…… goood stuff~!  I have to light out for my appointment with Doc very shortly – so gonna load some pix from todays dive……. diving again tomorrow morning…. WOO-HOO~!!… for now – I’m out~!

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

A pretty non-descript day today that I’m not even gonna try and drag a blog out of….. pretty sure you’re not interested in the routine stuff which all today was and I’m really not in the mood to try and make something up out of it.

I have a 2-tank dive scheduled in the morning and a doctors appointment in the afternoon (follow up – still trying to get my BP in check) So new underwater pictures for sure~! Since you checked in…. a couple of pictures for you as well…..

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

Slept in a little bit this morning, which was really nice and enjoyable to get up when I woke up instead of when I needed to get up. Calm start – no turtles in distress or  anything out of the norm. Some wake up time, a tasty breakfast, a couple of episodes of SUITS – then I sat down to get caught up on my to-do list. Happy to say I got all but one item done on my list…… but as the day wore on – I added another couple of items. I finished that up and started Christmas shopping…… and shopping….. and shopping. I got ¾ of my shopping done……. not saying I bought a lot, but I heard Amazon shut down for the rest of the day saying they had made enough for the day…… 😉

I finally quit around 5:00. My Queen made us a drink and I settled in on the couch for some more SUITS. Getting a bit hungry and still having a LOT of turkey left over — I carved off a little bit and throwed it in a bowl with some mayo, mustard, onions and pickles (didn’t have any celery) and whooped me up a turkey salad. Made for a couple of tasty sammiches. Some more SUITS and now here I am.  A couple of drinks, a full belly and I’m ready for a nap. Really not a lot else to rattle on about…. so I’m gonna scrounge up some pictures for you and call it a night. Got a little bit of running to do tomorrow and I did get a couple of dives scheduled for Thursday morning…. so will have to see what else crops up-

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

 

Well our first day ‘off’ turned out to be a dang site busier than either of us thought. It started out by going out for that first smoke again this morning and seeing one lone little turtle on his back trying to get flipped over. Poor little dude – no telling how long he had been there. I went out and flipped him over but it was obvious he was struggling and soon was on his back again. Closer examination revealed he was having real issues with his back legs. I walked him down close to the water but he could not stay right side up – even though he was making a valiant effort. Not knowing what else to do – I called S.T.A.R. and talked to them. They said if I was okay doing it, just take him down and put him in the water. He was either going to make it – or become a nice meal for other life in the Sea that may need it. They do not have the manpower, money or time to try and save him. They said if I was not uncomfortable doing that – they would be glad to send someone and take care of it. While I felt sorry for the little guy, I fully understand how life works and survival of the fittest. I walked him out into the water and set him down. He was off in a flash, as could swim a lot better than he could walk. I silently wished him good luck and watched him swim off.  🙁

We finished getting woke up before running out the door to my Fish With A Vet meeting. The meeting went 2½ times longer than usual as we covered what went right, what went wrong and how to make it better next year. Finally away from the meeting we had to kill some time because the condo had a scheduled power outage of undetermined length (“possibly several hours”) – so we stopped by the local hardware store for a couple of Christmas decorations I wanted – stopped by the AT&T store for a new data transfer cord (trying to get my videos to load) that turns out doesn’t work, so I’m gonna have to ping the Geek Squad again…. hunted over the entire mid-section of the island before I finally found a locksmith. I wanted to get an extra key for DD 2.0 as I only had the one….. $ 225.00 for one key (with a fob)… $ 225.00~!!!! AHhhh island life. I asked how much a key would be without the fob…..$ 145.00~!!! Shut the front door~!!! Guess I’ll get by with only one extra key……geeeesh~~ We ran by the condo, dropped off everything…. cooled off for a couple of minutes (electricity was back on-Yay-!!) then went out and got the island kid’s car and delivered it to the airport for them (they’re coming in late tonight). From there to Sweet Bottom Dive shop for a little shopping then over to the restaurant next door for an early dinner. Just had burgers – but a killer view to go with it before finally back home. Now 6:00 and while I got a lot done today… didn’t get a damn thing checked off of my to-do list here on the table. Dammit Emmit~! Guess it’s a good thing I’m retired and have the rest of the week to try and get to it.

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

 

Must have been more pooped from a long week of laboring than I realized…. as I didn’t roll out of the sack this morning until almost 09:00~!! Course – sitting and watching SUITS and sipping on Vodka/Cranberry while doing it until Midnight probably had a little something to do with it~~  😉

Stumbled out onto the porch for my first cigarette and before I even got out the door – saw what  I recognized to be a baby turtle trying to make his way toward the Sea. Without bothering to light a cigarette – I headed out into the sand just in time to see a hatching going on before my eyes….. them little dudes were boiling up out of the sand just as fast as they could~! Absolutely amazing to be able to see this, let alone in broad daylight. They normally hatch late in the evening – but here they were and we were so thankful to catch it. I took several pictures and videos for you to see. Sadly I still do not have the video transfer issue figured out yet – but I did manage to get the videos sent to FB straight from my phone – so you can watch them there. Once again, it took all of 8-10 minutes from the time they popped up until they were all in the water. It made it a whole lot easier to make sure they all made it into the water since it was broad daylight~! After we were done “herding” the little dudes into the water – we went up on the porch to enjoy a cigarette and enjoy such a great start to our day.

Rest of the day was getting some paperwork done for tomorrow mornings meeting to discuss how we did with the fishing tournament and chat about improvements for next year. I have to collect receipts, pay outs and all the other fun stuff that goes with being the Treasurer for the organization, before coming back here and recording it all. So – a little bit of running tomorrow, a LOT of paperwork and then I get to start buying Christmas presents for Grand Kids…. should be a good day~! I also get to plan my next dive now that I have recuperated from all that manual laboring last week~~  😉

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

Up before we wanted to again – we got our morning routines out of the way before heading out the door again to Frederiksted and Gecko’s Island Adventures. Short day today as only one tour was scheduled. We got there and got the place opened up well before Jamal showed up to open up the garage. In short order we had the 4-wheelers out and lined up for our guests who apparently managed to get lost on their way to us. They finally showed up, under the threat of heavy gray clouds. We got quite a bit of rain over night – so I didn’t have to worry about being coated in dust like my last 9 tours. Mud was going to be a whole different issue……. Thankfully the ground was dry enough it sucked up most of the rain – and the trails were pleasantly dust free. Our big ole mud puddles were a little fuller however. Bringing up the rear, I usually always have the slowest rider in front of me. Part of my job is to keep them moving along and some where near the rest of the group. The young lady today – took me to task. She had never driven a 4-wheeler before, and was by-God determined, to not go one mph faster than she was comfortable with. I continued to ‘nudge’ – she continued to crawl…… Then we got to our first big mud puddle…..OMG…. hehehe…. The rest of the tour was well ahead of us as I got off of my bike and walked up beside her to explain the best way to navigate the mud puddle. Off she went, down she went, out she went, launched out side ways into the weeds and finally landed in the brush well out of the water. I have to give her credit — she held on and stayed on top of the wheeler. Trying desperately not to laugh… I waded through the mud hole and into the weeds, calmed her down and got on her bike and got her out of the weeds and back on the trail. Next time wasn’t quite as bad, except she didn’t want to gun it while she was in the middle (afraid she’d launch into the woods again) and stopped in the middle of the mess. So I waded out, got on the wheeler and rode us out….. then waded back to get my wheeler…… this was going to be a looooong trail ride. She got progressively better as she went, and by the last big puddle – she blew through it like a pro…… and I was glad….. I was as muddy as I wanted to be…… The tour took almost 30 minutes longer than it should have because of her – but we made it back and I think they all had a good time…… and I was glad. Got the wheelers all washed off, cleaned up and put away…. and I was glad. This work stuff ain’t no fun~~~ Home, drinks in hand…. some SUITS. My Queen made us smashed taters, corn and a damn tasty Chicken Cordon Bleu….. and I ate til I hurt….. and I was glad. Ready for a shower and some sleep. Don’t think I’m gonna make the dive tomorrow I was thinking about. Looking forward to waking up when I’m ready to wake up…. and that makes me glad.

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

 

Sorry about dropping out on you last night…… we both slept in yesterday (until almost 9:00~!) Guess we aren’t much used to the every day work a day world anymore and was apparently pooped. After a small breakfast, we relaxed and did a whole lot of nothin’ except get caught up on SUITS…… We had a turkey Breast Roast given to us [actually last year] and we thought it would be the perfect time to cook it up. We passed up on the multiple offers to join in on the Thanksgiving on the beach held every year out at Cane Bay. Don’t know if it was because we were tired from a long ‘week’ of “work’ – or that fact we both had quite a bit to drink during the course of the day…. HMMmmm… maybe both ??  😉

I started our turkey roast around 1:30 and we continued to have cocktails and watch SUITS while we slowly got to enjoy what was [happily] a magnificent aroma coming out of the kitchen….. no where as good as my usual bird and stuffing – but this wasn’t bad~~ As cooking time drew near – I went in, pulled our ‘bird’ out – and while it rested – whooped up a small pot of stuffing and some brown gravy. We both agreed to skip taters, peas, corn, tater balls, and cranberry sauce [sorry Honeybear]…. we were both tired and both only after bird and stuffing. The Turkey Roast turned out quite excellent (even if I do say so myself) and the stuffing and gravy were acceptable as well. We ate to our hears (and stomachs) content. I begrudgeonly got up and cleaned up the dishes and put everything away before collapsing back on the couch watching more SUITS….. I just could not make myself get up to write to you all. I’d like to think you were all too full and watching football to worry about reading last night anyways, although the hit counter shows a lot of you checked in on me anyway……. very sorry – but thankx anyways…….

Up again this morning to report ‘back to work’ – traveling to the West end of the island, to chase people through a very dusty [and muddy] trail through about 13 miles of the most gorgeous scenery you ever want to lay your peepers on. Only 2 tours today – and I was good with that….. while keeping the folks on the tour ‘amped’ and taking pictures for them and answering a myriad of [the same] questions over and over – it’s still neat to see the excitement in their eyes while they are having the time of their life on their vacation…… very happy to be able to be a part of that. Back here and cleaned up writing to you all, we have both showered and wiped out a couple of turkey sammiches while I’m writing to you. My body says it time to hit the couch, then the bed – for another day tomorrow. Should be our last day for a little bit unless Miss Cynthia gets some more phone calls during the day/evening tomorrow. Either way – I’m stoked – cause if I ain’t gettin’ dusty — I plan on getting salty…. underwater~!

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

 

Another day on the trails for our ‘island kids’….. 3 groups today — Thankfully, not a lot of machine troubles to deal with altho I suspect that may change on the next day or so’s rides….. 3 groups – all fun and a bit of a pain in the touchas as well….. all three tours are what I refer to as Grandma tours…. slow… slow….slow…… for me it makes the tour seems like it lasts forever — I figure it does for Jamal as well (tour guide) as he has to stop and wait for me to bring the slow ones up from the rear……. Still fun – watching folks who claim they are “comfortable” driving ATV’s and then seeing them on the trails. Kinda like my skydiving days, watching my ‘hotdog’ students [usually guys] who were all balls and brawn until that door came open…. LOL~!

3 tours – made for a fairly long day – especially rinsing the bikes off between each tour – sanitizing helmets – reloading drinking water and heading out and convincing the group you are as excited as they are about going on the tour. I’m not 100% sure I could do that every day – day in and day out and convey the excitement I know should be conveyed. For me now — mostly new to this – I can still do it easily….. after a month or so of 2 3, or 4 tours a day every day….. HMMmmm….. not so sure – so a new respect for the folks at Gecko’s Island Adventures that do it. Throwing folks out of airplanes provided it’s own brand of excitement – without a lot of effort from me…. so I just had to play on it. This – requires a bit more made up enthusiasm on my part….. I still enjoy doing it – although I can tell you without any doubt or reservation…. my old, fat worn out body is not on the same page as my brain…….  😉

A ‘day off’ tomorrow – to relax and let my body rest a little bit. Also get to spend some time with my Queen and get caught up on some episodes of SUITS. We have a very small, very informal Thanksgiving meal planned and looking forward to sleeping in, enjoying the day and each others company and not doing anything we don’t feel like doing.

We’re getting into the time of year that is most “painful” for us, as families start planning get togethers and enjoying the joyfulness of being together during the holidays while we are perched on our little rock here in the middle of the Caribbean. Awww… right ? There are perks to this life style and there is some ‘pain’ to this lifestyle – the secret, for us, anyway, is to find the right balance. For now though, we are working our way through it…… good and bad…… I hope for whomever is reading this – that you get to spend the day (or at least some time) with the people you love and regardless of what is going on – give thanks that you still can spend time with people you want to be around, the people who do the jobs that let the rest of enjoy our freedoms and privilege’s, or whatever it is you find your self being thankful for. Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving~!

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

Up again for another day of gainful employment – both foolishly skipping the most important meal of the day and out the door by 08:30. Made a little better time getting to the West end – so plenty early – got the place opened up and waited for Jamal.  He opened up the garage [across the street] and we started moving machines. We filled up the ones that needed it with gas and before long our first group showed up and ready to roll. Minimal issues with this group – albeit, one of the slower groups I have followed behind – but still a fun ride. Back safe and sound – immediately loaded the next group and headed out again. This group was more of a challenge as they had one young rider that wanted to press the limits of what he [thought he] could get away with. Nothing grossly out of hand and a couple of [gentle] reminders of  the rules – and he was good to go – but kept me (bringing up the rear) on my toes.

While each tour is basically the same – they can all be extremely different as these two groups proved. That’s okay with me though – adds a little distraction of watching wheelers bob and bounce along a dusty muddy trail. Learned several ‘tricks’ to try with my camera and see a little bit of improvement in today’s pictures. Driving one handed and trying to frame a shot helps add a new dimension to bringing up the rear as well – but starting to get the hang of it and ‘shots’ are definitely improving.

Got machines all washed up and mostly refilled with gas (ran out of gas and will have to stop on the way in in the morning for more) – Will finish refueling machines in the morning before getting ready for an even longer day tomorrow — we actually have 3 tours tomorrow – so will be a tad bit longer day for…. at least we’re being broke in gradually……

Stopped by new mechanic to check on DD – he said he is tracing wires to ensure there is nothing shorting out (very time consuming) before he gets too deep into the computer – which at this point he doesn’t suspect an issue [yet]…. Finally back at our nice cool condo — My bride made up a batch of stuffed peppers and I am now full as a tick and ready for a shower and some rest…… We’ll see what 3 tours brings for tomorrow~!

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

Crashed at a semi-reasonable hour last night as we had to be ‘up for work’ this morning. We both opted to skip breakfast while we woke up…. an option I’m not so sure I’m going to use tomorrow. We arrived on the West end of the island (about a 35 minute drive) arriving at our work place about 10 minutes early. Got everything opened up. Jamal showed up right behind us and started bringing the 4-wheelers over to the yard. While my Queen did her thing in the office I went over and helped Jamal bring over the wheelers. The machine I was supposed to ride wouldn’t start so I moved to another one. It took some finessing, but it finally turned over…. I moved it up, filled it with gas and then took it over to the yard to wait for the tour while Angie got everybody signed in, helmets doled out and completed necessary paperwork. We were ready to take off…. except my machine did not want to start  🙁  Finally got it going and we were off like a herd of turtles~! I didn’t even get to the edge of town and my machine died…. a little bit of coaxing it restarted and before I could catch up to the rest of the group….. it died again…… I tried everything I could think of, but could not get it started this time. Because I could not get the machine into neutral…. I had to wrestle it sideways to get it off of the road. I only manage to burn myself once before getting it far enough off of the road to feel safe. I called all the appropriate people to let them know I was okay – but dead in the water [so-to-speak] I had to stay with the machine and I knew the group would be back by in an hour and a half or so. After about 30 minutes – I finally got the machine into neutral and pushed it down the road to a small piece of shade where I sat until the group came back by. I’m not complaining – I had a view to die for – just wished I would have worn my swimming trunks – so I could have bailed into that gorgeous blue water. Finally hauled back to the shop – I got another machine [that runs] – loaded up the next group and away we went. Lots of dust and bumps and even though we have not had any rain to speak of in the last week or so – there were still a half a dozen mudholes to big to avoid for the folks to go through and feel like they were getting the true 4-wheeler experience  😉  Back safe and sound, machines all washed off and put away, office cleaned up and locked up, we headed back to mid-island. We were both starving by this point (3:00pm) so we stopped at the Palms for cold refreshments and a bite to eat. It feels pretty good to be “workin’ folks” again….. but we don’t want to get used to it.  😉  Showered and more cold drinks and some A/C —  AHHHhhhhh….. I experimented with my GoPro on the trail and managed a couple of shots…. looking forward to refining those shots over the course of the week…….. More trail ridin’ tomorrow~!

Good Night Ya’ll * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stoppin’ in~!