Author: Bill

Up this morning and had the place to myself a little bit as my Queen slept in for a change. Had my breakfast, cameras all put together and batteries all loaded before she finally joined me. Because of some fairly stout winds, the boat remained out on our end of the island today. Because of some fairly newer divers on the boat today, we opted out of the deeper dives and stayed relatively shallow for both dives. Fun dives and fairly decent divers. I pulled double duty on the boat today, acting as the second Dive Master and the photographer. Again, less than stellar visibility made keeping an eye on our group a challenge, especially since we had a couple that liked to lay way back from the group. Even when you try to keep them moving, they meander along at their pace and only pick it up when they start running low on air……. luckily, I know where we’re at {most of the time} and can get them quickly back to the boat. Not too much of an issue today, but it did contribute to a lot less pictures being taken. First dive, I missed most of my picture taking opportunity as me and the other Dive Master worked for several long minutes to free a small Slipper Lobster that was snarled in a discarded fishing net. By the time I got him free, I was low enough on air, I needed to head up for my  safety stop. The other Dive Master, finished freeing him and I got to watch him come back to life and finally scurry away. A pretty good feeling~!

Second dive was a little less uneventful, but we had several turtles. We found an eel and a small Nurse shark, but both were tucked away far enough back in their cubby holes, I could not get any decent pictures of them. I did make up on my human picture taking though and I think our guests will be happy with what they see. I made a couple of sales on my web site and also got a couple of Venmo type tips, and with that, my faith in people is slowly being restored. I just got all the stuff in I need to set up more stuff in the local stores, so my first day off will be prepping all that and getting it taken to the stores. Hopefully that pans out and generates some residual extra cash. The boat was moved out to the North shore for tomorrows dives, so it will be interesting to see what that water looks like now after a couple days of hard winds……. for now, gonna get the rest of my batteries on charge and head for the couch. Trying to find a new series to watch when we don’t have time for a movie……..

Good Night Y’all – – – – – – – – – – – – – Thankx for stopping in~!

GX010291 <—- Swimming Turtle Video

After what seemed like a month, I once again got to drop below the surface of the sea and spend a couple of hours doing my thing. Operating in a bit of a Dive Master capacity as well as photographer, we had a group of 11 divers. Visibility left a lot to be desired, so keeping an eye on everybody proved to be a challenge. It also made good pictures a challenge. I apparently had my strobes out of whack and didn’t notice it, so pictures came out less than stellar. I did a LOT more editing than I’m used now and remember just exactly bad I don’t enjoy it. Not to mention it takes a lot of extra time and the pictures are not the quality I’m proud of. Editing saved a couple of them. Live and learn.

My Queen just pulled up with pizza (a surprise). She’s been out running around with Doctor’s appointments. She is having pain in her shoulder and trying to get it checked out. Her regular doctor is saying it is a rotor cup – but I have my doubts (being the brain-iac I am) 😉  I just got the run down on all of it. Apparently new doctors agree with the FUBAR’d rotor cup diagnosis. Now they are talking physical therapy and possibly surgery……..  My brain is trying to wrap around the information she just dropped on me and I went straight out of writing mood…… more tomorrow~~~

Good Night Y’all + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Thankx for stopping in~!

We decided last night, we would do breakfast/brunch at Blues this morning. I held off saying something last night, because those kind of plans tend to fall apart pretty easy. I thought having to get up and get ‘at it’ fairly early would be one of the reasons those plans would fall apart, but I managed to get my stuff together fairly early and headed out the door to the ATV yard to get it trimmed up. I pulled in and had most of the yard done when the ‘kids‘ pulled. We chatted a little bit before they went about what they were doing and I finished up the yard. It was still fairly early and reasonably cool, but Lord have mercy was it sticky. Was it sticky you asked ?? Yes, it was sticky, those kind of mornings where you don’t have to do anything to have your shirt soaked through and through. I finished up and head back out to the house. I got the gear all cleaned up and put away, took a bit of a ‘bird bath’ and was ready to go eat….. I was hongry~!! A [lengthy] telephone call delayed our exit and I was just about to nuke up a burger when the call ended and we got to take off. I was anxious to get an icy cold beer, something to eat and be able to chat with Jim a little bit. I don’t spend near as much time with him as I would like, and I was looking forward to our visit. We got there and got the warm welcome we always get, whether we were there the day before or if it’s been a couple of months. Instead of my usual biscuits and gravy – I opted to try a Blues Breakfast sammich that I have been eye balling. Excellent, excellent decision. This is a couple of pieces of sausage, with a couple of eggs, a couple big ole slabs of cheese, a smattering of mayo and probably something else, all set on one of Deb’s big ole home made biscuits plus a handful of fruit on the side (ya gotta make it a little healthy) 😉   OOH-Rah…… excellent decision~!! Probably one of the best sammiches I have had in a while. Me starving may have added a  little bit to the equation, but none-the-less, still a damn fine sammich~! I may even make it my choice again on our next visit, as I think I liked it even better than the biscuits and gravy…..(did I just say that out loud??)…. plus there was an icy cold Budweiser [or two] to help wash it down. MmMmM good~!! We finished our meal and wound up staying for another drink [or two] and eventually wound up shutting them down. I miss that, although our health and our wallet both agree it’s probably a good thing we live out West and can’t do that very often. Safely back here chatting with you all now. I am doing a full blown swap of all my batteries and camera’s, giving the other set a ‘rest’ for a month. Looks like I have a full week ahead of me coming up, starting tomorrow out as Dive Master and maybe taking some pictures. We’ll see.

Good Night Y’all : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Thankx for stopping in~!

A pretty typical day here on our little island today. Slept in a tad after staying up way past my normal bedtime. We watched a really good movie last night ( 7 days in Utopia [Amazon] Vera— I think you would really like it) My Bride went to bed shortly after it and I stayed up to watch some of our newest series Outer Range. We finally finished Will & Grace~~ Outer Range is intriguing…. a little hard to follow in places but still intriguing. I was still up by 07:00. We had pancakes for breakfast and shortly afterward, I went out and spent a couple+ very sweaty hours mowing and weed eating. ATV’s were running, so I didn’t go in and do that yard, so that’s on my agenda for tomorrow. Rest of the day was sitting in front of fans and doing keyboard stuff.

We’re doing a little planning about rearranging plans for our visit in October. Probably gonna extend our stay, since it is the [thankfully] only visit this year. Little Sister wants us to come spend a couple of says in Michigan, Daughter wants us to come to Florida, so seeing how much of that we may be able to accommodate. That is a lot of extra expenses and traveling, so got to think it through and see what we come up with. Will definitely extend our time in Indiana, that’s all we know for certain right now. That’s really about it…… gonna head to the couch here in a bit and see what’s going on out on the Outer Range.

Good Night Y’all * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

Actually slept in a teeny tiny bit this morning. I still find it odd at the ripe old age of 65 that I still feel small pangs of embarrassment when I ‘sleep in’. It’s gotta make you wonder just a tad, what happened in your life, that at that ripe old age, you still feel ‘bad’ about sleeping in. I’m not talking about moping around and down in the dumps, but just that little rush of ‘guilt’ when you realize you should have been up an hour ago. I slept until almost 07:00. I woke briefly around 05:30 when I normally get up and knowing that there was nothing important to get up for, I managed to get comfy enough to score that extra 1½ half hour of sleep. Yay me~! As I stretched and fidgeted, preparing to roll out, I could hear/feel my bride scramble to get out of the bed. I presumed she needed to potty much worse than me (I got up around 04:00 and resolved that issue)– so I let her go and I opened up the bedroom and made the bed while she did her bathroom stuff.

We had a nice slow casual start to the day. Angie made us a wonderfully tasty breakfast, fielded a couple of phone calls and still managed to stay mostly seated at the table with me. After dishes were done…… I wandered into the second bedroom [more commonly known as the junk/storage room] and working on a ‘suggestion‘ from my bride, I spent the next couple of hours, rearranging, reorganizing and straightening up the room. I also spent another hour or so, sorting through a stack of paperwork, of which most was tossed. At the end of it….. I hauled out a massive bag of trash, several bottles of expired cooking oil, a small load of empty boxes and other random crap to the truck and made a quick run to the dump. On my return, Angie ran into town for a a handful of odds and ends before settling back down at the table. She informed she ran into a friend and he said he may stop out for a drink, which he did. We sat and swilled beer for a couple of hours and just kind of caught up. He is now on his way as I sit and extol the days events to you. Didn’t get the lawn mowed due to intermittent rain showers all day, so maybe tomorrow.  Not pretty, glamourous or exciting, just a calm slow day in our little piece of paradise. Going to try and find some pictures you haven’t seen yet for you……..

Good Night Y’all – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –  Thankx for stopping in~!

Up early on my first day off in a bit to make sure my Queen got a hearty breakfast. I made her, her egg & cheese sammich. She surprised me this morning and said yes when I asked her if she wanted a second one~! I got her on her way and then made me a hearty breakfast anticipating a busy day. We had a couple of respectable showers during the night, but I figured the grass would be mow-able by noon or so. I worked on assembling and trying to understand our new vacuum cleaner. I perused FB while I ate my breakfast and then got my diving log up dated and cleaned up breakfast dishes. I wanted to get some pictures of our Flamboyant trees before they start losing their color. I grabbed my land camera and headed out. Got to my first location and I’ll just be dipped if it didn’t start sprinkling just as I got out of the truck. I swear that camera attracts rain~! That is a bad thing because that camera is a supreme weeny when it comes to moisture of any kind. (kind of ironic huh?) The sprinkles passed and the sun peaked out a little bit, so I started shooting. I wound up going to a half dozen different spots, ducking rain showers as I went. There was one last location I had intended to hit, but the clouds had built up and it was a steady down pour by then…. so I just headed on back to the house.

The battery was charged up on the new vacuum, so I tried it out. Wow…… does a really nice job. I’m almost ready to start going barefoot in the house, it did such a good job on the floors. There are a couple of attachments I want/need but according to my Son-in-Law they might show up separately, so I’ll give it a week or so. My luck, someone snatched them. Coming through Puerto Rico, I’m amazed the vacuum made it. So we’ll see. If not, I’ll order what I want….. especially if it means I can go barefoot in the house~! I got my pictures edited just as my Bride pinged me and said she was headed home. There have been drinks, a movie (The Hunted with Tommy Lee Jones) and snacking on Smoked Gouda and Ritz……. a pretty fine afternoon. The movie wasn’t terrible….. maybe a little bit cheesy. I’d give it a 7….. but only because I like Tommy Lee Jones. That’s about it, other than trying for mowing again…. not sure what tomorrow is gonna bring.

(Side note: I decided instead of just Flamboyant trees…. I would create a file called Island Sites and try and capture pictures of sites typical here on our little rock)

Good Night Y’all – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –  Thankx for stopping in~!

Fed me and my Queen and out the door to start our respective days off this morning….. her off to Blues for a day of making consumables and me another morning under the water trying to convince sharks to come hang out with me. A tiny boat this morning…..a woman and her Daughter diving and a son snorkeling. Neither of the divers apparently very experienced, but they made a good effort and required only minimal assistance. They were friendly on the boat and just nice friendly people in general. They also tipped…….. It’s been almost 2 weeks since I got a tip from anybody. As a rule I try and not think about tips, but these past 2 weeks, I have been busting my hump [more so than usual] to make sure I’m getting shots our guests were asking for. They heap piles of praises on me (and I most certainly appreciate that – but praise don’t buy a lot of gasoline or groceries) and tell me how they’re gonna ‘take care of me on Venmo’. ” Oh wow – ok – great….. Thank you very much…I would certainly appreciate that” I say with my best smile, knowing that they are probably lying to me. I am exercising my patience though….. maybe they just haven’t got around to it yet, but that’s why the young lady today was a little bit of a morale booster, she not only said how much she appreciated all I did…. she showed it…. and very nicely at that.

Now – I am off for the next 4 days (as of right now) and I’m good with that….. even though my Queen has to work tomorrow, I have enough odds & ends I need to get done, tomorrow should be a good day for it. I also want to get out and get some shots of our local Flamboyant trees, they are in full bloom right now and would make some great [hopefully sellable] pictures, so I’m gonna grab my land camera and see if I can get a couple of good shots and maybe add them to my gallery of shots that will soon be for sale in a couple of local shops. If I do manage to get out for those shots…. maybe I’ll get a couple I can share with you for a change of pace………annnnnnnd the grass needs mowed again  😉

Vera – a couple eel pictures, but it’s a small one…. not the big green one.

Good Night Y’all > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thankx for stopping in~!

…….your dives were gonna get boring, you have a dive (two actually) that almost out does every shark adventure you’ve had to date. Yes Sirreee Bob……. (another one of them sayings I never quite got) after a less than stellar start to my day, I had one of the most epic shark dives I’ve ever had. Not once, mind you, but twice….. I had to evacuate my happy little self from the middle of a group of feeding sharks to  ensure all my parts remained intact. These were all big boys as well, with 2 of them being well over 6′ in length. I have some video I’m itching to watch, but have yet to up load it. I spent a little longer on pictures than usual because I have so many great shark pictures~! It may be a day or so before you see today’s pictures, as I’m running a bit behind on sharing all I have with you so far…. yea, yea, yea….. I know…. I’ll only show you part of them and then forget about the rest……. probably, but I try not to put more than 15-20 pictures up as I think you may get bored if there are more than that on one post….. true ? Going out again tomorrow (make hay while the sun shines~! ) [that one I get] Going to be even a smaller boat, with only 2 divers and one snorkeler.. still diving though~!

Belly issues taunted me all day today but am feeling better right now, so hopefully whatever it was has worked itself out. Finished off the last of my KFC and followed that up with a small bowl of vanilla ice milk. It was supposed to be ice cream…… but that wasn’t ice cream…… still tasty and sweet enough to be considered dessert~!

Vera— Heads Up….. 1 eel picture, but he is mean looking one.

Good Night Y’all + + + + + + + + + + + + + Thankx for stopping in~!

The Saharan dust is thick right now and just as soon as I stepped out of our mighty finely cooled bedroom full of conditioned air this morning, my nose started running. With no windows in the house…… all areas (except aforementioned bedroom) are subject to the local environment….. which is dust….. lots of it, coming straight from the desert of Africa. My bestest good friend (and damn neighbor) Michael always talked about how much he loved Africa…… I just wondered if he was in an area of it that had this dust [sand actually]. Jesus it’s hard to believe your head can generate that much snot. I finally took my morning dose of Actifed and once it kicked in, I was good.

By comparison, today’s two dives were almost down right boring (in comparison to the past couple of days dives). I did get up close to another gorgeous Stingray…. but no turtles and didn’t even see a shark…. but hey, ya know— You’ll have that every now and again. I am still in awe when I’m under water. It is an entirely different world down there and I’d give anything if you all could see it like I do. Until you all learn to SCUBA dive and join me for a couple of dives here on my little rock….. You’ll just have to settle for seeing it through my eyes.

I convinced my Bride to let me take her out for some Taco’s since it’s been a hot minute since she’s had some. I got my cheeseburger wrap and fries. They were out of Tater Tots. Dammit Emmit~! I finished my fries and should have stopped there. My belly hasn’t been 100% all day and I knew trying to eat my wrap was going to be a big mistake…… and I was right. I ate half and am miserable right now. Stupid, stupid, stupid……. live and learn though….. back here now currently in the midst of a sneezing ‘fit’…… The dust is a good thing for the island…… not so much for sinuses……. give & take…….

My Queen is getting ready to take her shower and I’m wanting to finish up and hit the couch. Schedule is loading up and it looks like I can dive everyday for the rest of the week if I want to. Probably gonna take a day or two off for lawn care and other stuff and try to get back to my M-F diving gig…… Weekend boats are usually full of locals and while it’s fun to dive with them and I enjoy seeing them……… they don’t tip worth a damn or buy downloads  😉

Good Night Y’all : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Thankx for stopping in~!

Up bright and early this morning partially in anticipation of possibly diving my favorite dive site and partly due to a bladder that was about to explode. Both fine justifiable reasons to vacate the bed. Up and getting my morning started…. I had just barely got my lemon water finished when my Bride came stumbling out. We had coffee and I made me a good hearty breakfast. She was going to wait until later, so I didn’t make her one this morning. Cameras and gear all readied and loaded and by 07:45 I was out the door. We’re still out West so I only have about a 3 minute commute. We finally got our 10 divers (and one ride along) loaded and briefed and away we went. YAY-YAY-YAY….. we pulled up to Armageddon and there was very little current~! (Means we get to dive it~!) I’m here to tell you, it did not disappoint~! Didn’t take long for a couple of sharks to show up and one of them was bigger than usual….. I’m guesstimating it was 6½’ – 7′. A Big ‘Un~! It was also friendly…..almost aggressively friendly. Got some crazy good shots~! Rest of that dive and the following one was fairly uneventful, but still good~! Came back and got the boat unloaded expecting a long dry spell, only to find out another boat has been put together for tomorrow….. so I get to dive again tomorrow. Still out West so an easy commute again and maybe dive Armageddon again…… AAWwwww Dang……. that would be terrible~!!  😉    So – still fairly early. My Queen has already fed me some greasy KFC chicken (yea, yea…. I know) but I had an itch and she took care of it for me. So gonna put up some pictures for ya and head for the couch.

Good Night Y’all * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!