Author: Bill

Up much earlier than it turns out I needed to be – but I like the early morning so it works out in my favor. I gathered up most of the photographic equipment I own and loaded it into my truck. I made me a most wonderfully delicious breakfast of eggs and sausage, finished getting caught up on world events and all the news that is news on the wonderful world of FB, before giving my bride a long kiss and a hug and heading out the door. Today’s assignment….. on a Sunday as it were…… was hang out with a family vacationing here on the island and the whole bunch of them are getting their Open Water [SCUBA] Certification from our shop. They are good friends of the owner [of the shop] and she wants the whole escapade photographed. Being in her employ and she indicating she wants the whole escaped photographed…. I’m on it~! (Sunday or not) I wound up at the house where the family is staying. The house has a pool just barely big enough to accommodate the family, and Instructor and a photographer. So that is where the ‘confined water’ portion of their training was to take place. This house where they are staying, sits directly on the North shore with a view ‘to die for‘. I met the Instructor there and for the next  6+ hours, we trained and photographed the family. The wind picked up and the sea got rougher….. the sun shone brightly down upon us as we worked through the day. The family did an excellent job learning what they needed to learn to advance to the next stage of their training and I spent the day with my camera’s doing what I do. Above and below water. A little break to refill air tanks and a bite to eat and we were back at it, finally wrapping it up close to 4:00 in the afternoon. I spent almost all day in that brilliant sunshine and ever increasing wind….. without my trusty ole hat. Dammit Emmit. My head is not burnt….. but OH SO close…… it has a purty red shine to it right now that I am sure will ‘brown out’ over the course of the next day or two as long as I keep it [appropriately] covered. We will be in the Caribbean Sea for the next two days….. so the ole ‘dome’ should have considerably more coverage from ‘Ole Solé’……… (going for the old timey version of the Sun there) and hopefully no further pain shall be inflicted………. Gonna leave it here with you….. My Spark…. Slam…. whatever the hell I drank is starting to wear off and I’m coming down and in for a landing right now [hopefully on the couch]………. Some pix from today….. no sharks or anything cool, but you’ll get an idea of my day…….

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

A fairly decent nights sleep…… a wonderfully tasty breakfast. My Queen even let me make her one of her sammiches for her. She was up way earlier than she should have been considering she didn’t have to be. She [usually] likes to be up to see me off to ‘work‘. Headed out and always forget how peaceful and quiet the roads here on the island are on the weekend. Particularly in the fairly early morning……. I could get used to that. It’s a 20 minute drive to the marina with little or light traffic…. 30-35 minutes any other morning. A little bit bigger boat today, but all decent divers and none really needed any tending to. Viz sucked…. but there ain’t a heckva lot we can do about that. The sea was a bit sporty today but can’t do a hellva lot about that either. Second dive the viz improved and we even had some sharks come up and get friendly with us. I saw one of my big green eels on the first dive so all, in all, it was a pretty decent dive day today.

Pictures are all edited and up….. it is raining ever so slightly. I just told Angie, if it’s not raining when I get home tomorrow, I’m gonna have to mow when I get home. I hate that, but now that the ground has some moisture in it our grass is growing like it used to….. needing mowed about every three days….. I am working tomorrow. The boss has friends coming in and are all getting certified…. so I am shooting like a documentary of the whole process. Working through the weekend. Not a fan, but sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do……. Good thing is…. everything tomorrow is in a pool [training] – and that makes for some gorgeous underwater pictures. Plus I get to use my land camera as well so it ought to be a good ‘shooting’ day for me.

I’m sitting here listening to Angie talk with our oldest Grand Daughter who is on vacation in Punta Cana with her family and celebrating her 15th birthday~! Love the giggling and laughter I’m listening to~~ Okay….. I’m done…. for now~

Happy Birthday my Sugar Pop~!!  ♥ ♥

Vera— heads up…. couple of eel shots

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

Good to be back on ‘my’ boat this morning….. and with only two guests today, it made for a pretty quick, relatively easy day.  They had booked a package and even though a couple of other people that were scheduled backed out – we still took them out. The sea was a smidge sportier than I would have liked for our guests and the visibility on the first dive was horrendous…… thankfully got a little better for the second dive. Lots of critters…. not big or exotic, but still made for a couple of fun dives. I got to practice my new knowledge of Macro [very close up] photography. For my first serious attempt at it — I’m not disappointed. Have been chatting with the Boss and just now found out I apparently will be working Sunday through Wednesday at a minimum. I was going to go ahead and ‘work’ tomorrow (Saturday) because this week was really light [only two days]….. now, apparently there is an entire family coming in that are good friends of the boss and they apparently are all going to get Open Water certified to SCUBA dive…… and the boss thinks it would be a really good opportunity to get pictures of them for advertising for “family togetherness doing SCUBA” type stuff. So my really short week just turned into a really long week. I’m good with that…. for now.

Just sitting here looking out the window and notice my fresh mowed grass….. needs mowed again. We have had some serious rain the past day or so and you can almost watch the grass growing now. Dammit Emmit. I really enjoyed not mowing….. now apparently right back into the the mowing every 3 or 4 days thing……. Dammit. Working Sunday will make that an even bigger challenge…. but I’ll figure something out. Calling it quits for the afternoon.

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

The bright yellow thing is an Arrow Crab, and would very easily fit into the palm of your hand……

These are all slightly smaller than thimbles

Just noticed when I opened this up, I never put a title on it. Normally it’s the first thing I do when I start one of these and then try to write something that kind of goes along with the title….. last night I had no idea what I wanted to title it or write about……. I got over the what to write about part – but apparently brain farted and forgot to put a title on it. Kind made tonight’s title fairly easy.

Up and at ’em this morning, looking forward to diving with the island ‘kids’….. it’s been a hot minute since we got to dive together. I was a smidge out of my comfort zone- as it has been an even longer hot minute since I dove off of that boat and was no longer familiar with their routine. Again, also a smidge weird being the ‘guest’ on the boat and sitting and watching while the crew did their thing. I know the captain of the boat and speak with him fairly frequently, so that helped ease some of the weirdness…… Spent the bulk of both dives taking pictures of Kadence and family. Dives were led quite like I’m used to either, but I did my best to roll with the punches. Had a couple of gulley washers while we were out on the water and then again when we got back to the dock…. so I humped my gear two blocks in a driving rain….. but I was already soggy, so just considered it a good fresh water rinse for me and my gear…… but I did jump in the shower as soon as I got my stuff in the house…… just some places even a down pour don’t adequately ‘rinse’~~  🙂

Back on ‘my’ boat tomorrow and back to my routine…… so calling it a night right here……. We are both already showered and fed….. so about time for some Will and Grace~!

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

I wasn’t going to write anything tonight, then remembered I didn’t write anything last night and got a small case of the guility’s….. so figured I better get a couple of words down here. We had a CRABBS meeting last night (local dive club) and as a departing member of the board, I was dropping off the rest of the equipment and ‘stuff’ I had and wanted to be present in case the new Board needed any help. I got there early enough to go over how to operate the speaker and went through the goodie bag I dropped off. I then got me a table off to the side and sat down and ordered myself a pizza and a beer. (which sadly, both turned out to be hugely disappointing) I was soon joined by 3 other former Board members and we all agreed it was ‘weird‘ to be sitting there and not up running the meeting. It was a good kind of weird though– I was ready to get out of it. Just to busy with all kind of other things. The new Board is off to a really good start and I’m happy to see it. I’ll probably make the next meeting or two before I start dropping out of them. I don’t want to drop out completely, because there are a bunch of good folks that belong…… but on those evenings when I’m a little more worn out than usual [like tonight] — I can sit out and not feel bad about it.

Today was a tough day…. our mostly full boat required a LOT of attention on both loads. I stayed plenty busy being a Dive Master versus a photographer. The second dive we had a pretty decent shark event….. to the point where I was putting myself between overly friendly sharks and a guest who was scared out of her wits. Then it happened again…. and I thought…. “hey— dipstick….. take pictures while you’re doing that”….. so I did….. and wound up with a couple of nice shots. That’s a good thing because I didn’t get to take hardly any non-people pictures….. dammit emmit.

Taking the day off from ‘work’ tomorrow to shoot some pictures for my island family. I will be underwater, but not with my shop. The decision has been made to split the day (was supposed to be a full day photo shoot) but now we’re gonna do the underwater pictures tomorrow and the land shots next week end. Should be a fun relaxed shoot tomorrow….. just hope nobody from my shop sees me on that other boat  😉

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

Slept in just a wee bit longer this morning after a semi-disturbing night of whacked out dreams, but woke up feeling none the worse for wear. Dear old Dad always said that any day your feet hit the floor was gonna be a good day. Statement gets truer everyday. My bride was fairly close behind me, which distresses me ever so slightly…… That woman can knock out 10-12 hours of sleeping without even trying, so when she is up early, I worry. She made us a tasty breakfast of pancakes. I convinced myself to get up and go out and work on the truck a little bit….. which turned into a lot. It’s in the middle of Summer here now and starting to get toasty. Even in the shade with that awesome tradewind blowin’… I still managed to soak the shirt I was wearing. Being caked with Bondo dust doesn’t help the situation. About the time I was getting into the groove of laying on more Bondo – a familiar blue pickup came rolling up the alley. Jim & Deb from Blues~! They were out on our end of the island and decided to stop in. What a great surprise~! Jim being one of my best friends here on the island. I have been making an effort to get to Blues a little more frequently, but it’s always nice to get to spend some time with him, when ever and where ever that may be. They stayed and chatted for about two beers, before loading up and heading back out. I went back to work on the truck, but had pretty much lost my momentum about half way through the first beer….. so I cleaned up everything and came in. I’ve had my shower and sitting here typing while my Queen has some left overs for dinner. I don’t have an appetite for anything we have here in the house. I would like to see if I have the grit to go without eating anything until breakfast, but so far I stink at that. One of the very few things I have not been able to do yet when I put my mind to it (be hungry). My rational brain says that is not the way to lose weight, but my rational brain ain’t haulin’ around an extra 30 something Lbs. [well- I guess it kinda is, but you get where I’m going with this] I got to get rid of this gut….. one way or the other. No diving again tomorrow…. so will probably work on the truck a little bit more. My Bride has doctors appointments tomorrow, (routine kind of things) so I might try and get some bottle-assing done while she gone as well~~~  I have a CRABBS dive club meeting tomorrow night and I get to turn in all of my stuff as I finally relinquished my spot on the board….then…. I get to sit and listen to the meeting and eat good. hot. pepperoni pizza and drink beer [so much for that not eating in the evening thing huh?] and not ‘run’ the meeting~!  YAY~!

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

Up much, much to early for a day off, but old age issues warranted it. My knees were screaming and so were my hips. My belly decided to join in letting me know that there was going to be an uprising of sorts in a show of solidarity with the bones. I really didn’t want to get up at 5:20 something in the morning when I didn’t need to, but by the time I got up and eased the call of nature and popped some aspirin…. I was ‘up for the day’. I just got the schedule for the next couple of days and there is No Boat…. so I am left here at the house to annoy my Bride. Enjoying getting everything that needed done – done yesterday…. I enjoyed a solid day of leisure today. Read some news, a dandy breakfast of Biscuits & Gravy & Sausage, I spent the rest of the day on the couch watching movies. Have watched 3 so far….. none of them terrible, but none of them were what I would consider passing on to you all. Taking a break to catch up with you all on here, thinking about something to eat. My Bride says she still has Taco fixings left…… gulp….. that was the last thing I had before my week of a really un-enjoyable belly…… so I’m a skosh leery of that, but it “kills” me to throw out any edible food…… what to do, what to do.

Gonna leave it here……. Good Night Y’all – – Thankx for stopping in~!

Believe it or not — I slept until almost 07:30 this morning– woo-hoo~!! Up and settled in for an hour plus before my Queen came stumbling out to join me. I had my glass of lemon water, a cup of coffee and got to actually read some news (I didn’t have internet yesterday when I got up, so I didn’t get to catch up on all the latest crap going on in the world)….. my Queen made us a right fetching breakfast. While she did that, I watched a couple of tutorials on a new type of photography I want to try out and am excited to try it. I did a little maintenance on my pellet gun that I got for Christmas and then went out and practiced with it for a little bit. A friend needs to borrow it and I wanted to make sure it is working properly. That done– I headed out for some lawn maintenance….. it’s been probably 2 months since the last time I mowed and our yard just barely needed it. The strip of ground across the road (that I maintain) however was out of control, so I fired up the lawnmower and went at it. After I was done, I realized that I was mowing just about in the nick of time. Came in, cooled off and hydrated……. then headed back out to weed eat. Now that definitely needed done~! Finally finished that up….. came in and cooled off again, before heading in town to check the ATV yard….. Oh My Lord…… I don’t know if it’s water from washing the bikes or if they got more rain than we did….. but that yard was way over do for some love. (Cynthia, if you’re reading this, yell at me next time it starts getting that wooly) Guess I’m gonna have to make it a point to drive by and throw an eyeball on it every so often….. anyhow….. a good solid hour and I was done with it. Came back to the house, cleaned everything up and got it put away.  My belly feels better every day and my back doesn’t hurt quite as bad as usual….. so I kinda feel like I’m getting back in the groove of things.

There were only 3 kids (no parents) for the Jr dive today and it was off of the pier, so I opted not to go in for that. Just way to much input to do that event with dang little to show for it afterward. Just got the latest schedule and it looks like I don’t have any diving scheduled until Wednesday….. so I may get some time to work on my truck and see if I can get the back door to open without having to open the front door…… I may have to sneak off down to the pier and practice my new camera technique at some point…… decisions, decisions…….

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

Dang it…… sorry y’all — I forgot to mention the other day, that I had a Wine Boat event to shoot last night. The event went a little later than usual and coupled with the fact we didn’t have any electricity/internet when I got home…. just made it way too late to try and get on here to write you anything. It was 10:30ish before I got in bed the way it was and that was getting just the bare minimum done. Thankfully the power came back on just time for me to get the pictures uploaded. ( I used the battery for my laptop and don’t need internet to edit). It also allowed our bedroom to cool off nicely before I crawled into bed and “died“.  Two dives in the morning, drive back, edit pictures and get them posted just in time to drive back to the marina, spend  2+ hours riding around on a boat taking pictures, drive back, edit pictures and get them posted an or or so past your bedtime…. makes for a long day for us old fat fellers……..then back up for more diving this morning…… It’s a great retirement gig. There is supposed to be a “Jr” dive tomorrow afternoon at the pier, but from what I’m hearing, there is very little interest in it and may be cancelled. The boss has already said if there are only a couple of participants, I don’t need to shoot it. Yay~~~ That will help give me a little extra time. I have quite a bit of computer work to get done (mostly tutorials on ‘How to’ do things with my cameras)…. and for the first time in a couple of months…. I need to mow the yard~! Didn’t really miss mowing, but that is a good cardio work out for me, even though I maintain my ‘work’ is a hellva cardio workout for me and I’m doing that 4, 5 or 6 times a week. All but cut out booze, dropped food consumption by probably 30-35% (including ‘junk’)… Dammit Emmit – I should be looking like an Anorexic Ethiopian by now …. and before anybody gets their knickers in a knot….. it’s a joke….. get over it. On a better note…. after a solid night’s sleep (albeit slightly shorter) I awoke with my belly feeling better than it has in a week now….. neither of my ankles are swelled, I have no new bites or cuts…….. dang….. almost good as new~!  😉  Don’t I wish~~ But I’ll happily take every good day I can get. That was one thing I did get from D.o.D….. he said that something hurt almost daily and occasionally he would have a pain free day (or part of a day)  and that he would ‘Take it’…..  It makes a heckva lot more sense now. Now I’ll see how long I can go before I louse something up~ 😉

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

Christmas Tree worms

Up this morning way before I needed to be. I was anxious to see how my stomach was gonna feel….. in particular if I was going to feel up to diving. The night before last, my Bride made up a right fine batch of taco ingredients. The onions seemed especially potent, but aside from that, everything seemed okay. They were certainly delicious~! (enough to have 4 of the messy little rascal’s~! After signing off from you all and catching our fireworks display from off of the pier (it actually lasted 12 minutes and looked like real fireworks this year~!) I went in to catch an episode or two of Will & Grace. As I sat there my belly starting swelling up/bloating and getting real hard. I finally wandered off to bed figuring the onions were getting ready to punish me [or more so Angie]. Good Lord knows I love them, but here lately they aren’t very friendly to me……. I woke up the next morning in agony. Belly was solid/bloated and felt bruised [like I had been kicked in the stomach] I felt a really good ‘passing of gas‘ would have made it feel much better….. but just could not make it happen. Dammit Emmit~! I spent the bulk of the day on the couch praying for a good hearty [let’s just call it what it is] fart……. which never happened…. not to any degree anyway. (that’s why you didn’t see anything from me)…. Angie ate everything I had and she is fine….. so God only knows. Probably some other stupid thing that comes along with getting older….. DAMMIT Emmit~!! Just another one (of a 100) reasons I wish Dad was still around… so I could ask what to expect out of this aging crap……. it sucks~!! Speaking of my D.o.D.,  today is his birthday. After I finally got old enough to have some money left over at the end of a week….. I looked forward to getting him something for special occasions, that I knew he wouldn’t spend money on for himself. Hard headed old fart— spent money like he was a millionaire unless it was something he wanted……. I also enjoyed the ‘fuss‘ he’d make when I actually figured out what he wanted (and got for him) and told me how I shouldn’t have wasted my money–but could see the smile, even as hard as he tried not to smile. Funny….. the memories that pop up…… not FB memories…. the good ones…. buried deep in your brain that come creeping out at just the right time~~~

Anyhow— I got up this morning still tender as hell, but felt like I could probably safely complete a couple of dives. I did eat a good breakfast….. I made a couple of dives, humped tanks at the end of the dives and delivered gear bags back to the shop. I didn’t feel as good as I usually do….. but I made it through the day and don’t feel any worse for wear…… but if you hear a loud tearing of underwear and bedsheets tonight and catch the feintest whiff of methane……. just know I’m smiling like hell~!

(Vera – eel warning)  😉

Happy Birthday Dad~

Good Night Y’all / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / Thankx for stopping~!