Sharks and days off~~

Well you can definitely tell it’s the slow season here for us….. I have been ‘off‘ (not diving) just about ever other day…… that’s good and bad…… it’s good— it gives me time to piddle and not do all the little piddly things I should be doing… yes you read that right…… it’s also keeping me out of the water…. although admittedly, that is also something I can do something about – so basically it’s just giving me a lot of time to screw around and do nuthin‘. Not very productive but sure is a lot of fun. Had a good day in the water today….. first dive was really sharky~! Gotta love that. Sadly, there is no boat tomorrow and with my Queen doing her thing at Blues, it leaves me to my own devices….. that usually makes for an interesting day. I may even start on the body of the truck~!  LOL~! Got another boat lined up for Friday. It’s a really full boat and I’m not a fan of those, but whatcha gonna do ?? They are doing a night on Friday as well. Several people are pestering me to go, but unless the Boss tells me to go — I’m keepin’ my happy touchas here.

That’s really about it sports fans……. I’m not gonna bore you by rattling on for another 250 words……. Catch me tomorrow and see what I wound up doin’~~~

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

Funky calendar

Wow– these whacked out schedules I’m dealing with here lately have got my calendar and days all out of sorts. Let’s see…… OH Yea…. Sunday was Fathers Day. Because we were going out, we skipped any kind of formal breakfast and waited until we went out. A new Hibachi on the island and I couldn’t wait to check it out….. what an idiot. I should have realized we wouldn’t get anything as classy as an actual Hibachi on this island. This was a Blackstone grill…. two of them actually, with one dude manning them both. More on that in a minute. Having to factor in traffic and not knowing exactly where the new place was at, I left the house a little earlier than we needed to. It advertised itself as a restaurant/bar/lounge so I figured it was a safe assumption [yea, yea — I know] that they would have a bar we could sit at until our seating time. I drove straight to it without any traffic to deal with and we were just over 30 minutes early. They did indeed have a bar…. it seated 4 people, in a room slightly smaller than some closets I have been in that had a fairly nice ‘stereo‘ system…. playing….loudly….. island style music….. loudly….. lot’s of bass….. did I mention it was being played very loudly ? Mercifully….the 30 minutes went by without me completely losing my mind and we were led away to be seated…… YAY~! We were led outside…. under a small tent with two Blackstone grills set up…… you’ve got to be sh*tt*ng me……. crap…….. In all fairness….. the ‘chef’ did a reasonably impressive job….. he tried hard to keep the crowd engaged and entertained, he managed both grills, fed 25 people and apparently got most of the orders correct by himself despite some less than quality food he had in his prep area. The 2 or 3 servers did a mediocre job of keeping drinks served. The food was okay. That’s all I can say. Mine and Ange’s steak was some kind of roast…. hard to say for sure but it damn sure wasn’t steak and it was cooked to a solid medium even though we both ordered medium rare. My shrimp was good but I only got 4 pieces. I did ask if I could get a small sample of the Salmon…. I did and it was tasty but probably why I only got 4 pieces of shrimp. So…. sitting under a tent, with 2 hot grills going, damn little breeze, no fans, a couple of annoying flies and the occasional cat walking around under the table between your legs looking for food….. I’m gonna have to give it a thumbs out. Not down, but not up. Doubtful we go back…… at least you couldn’t hear the music out there.

No diving today [slow season]….. watching stupid movies… first one was Night Hunter, actually not terrible….. second one was Survive the Night, a 2020 flick with Bruce Willis…… peee-uke….. don’t waste your time. (Angie has taken to writing down the titles)…. LOL

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

Yes – that is a QUART and thankfully not already spoiled….

 

Weird Friday…..

Watched a really good movie last night (Vera– I think you would really like it) called Restoration on Amazon Prime. Was still fairly early when it was over and my queen wasn’t up for another movie so she went on to bed. I started watching a new series called……… something or other, with Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly)….. really pretty stupid, but it succeeded in finally getting me drowsy enough to go on to bed. Thankfully, I faded off to sleep fairly quick. Since it was a little past my late bed time [10:00] I looked forward to hopefully sleeping in a little bit in our dark cool bedroom. Yes– the A/C is a definitely must have for bed time now….. will probably stay that way until probably Thanksgiving-ish. It adds about a $100 bucks a month to our electric bill, but worth every penny of it. As for the sleeping in thing….. that would be a big ole negatory there Storm Trooper…. I got up a couple of minutes after 06:00 to take a leak and I was up for the day….. dammit emmit. My Bride did it right, even going to bed really early, she managed to stay racked out until almost 09:00. Just showing off  😉

Up and getting the day started, Angie started breakfast while I ran in town for milk. Came back and set down to a mini-mega breakfast. Kielbasa sausage, Jimmy Deans sausage, Biscuits & Gravy and bacon. Wow— I was informed she had intended to do this Sunday morning for me for Father’s Day, but since I decided I wanted to go out and check out a new restaurant for Fathers Day, she knew I wouldn’t want a big breakfast [perk of being with each other 44+ years].. and I’m diving in the morning, so I got it this morning. 🙂  Belly [very] full…. I was telling her my plans for Monday to try and get my truck fixed…. I accidentally broke one of my windshield wipers and did not have the tools, skills, or patience to fix it myself. She told me to run to a place near us and see if they could do. I started to argue with her, but decided that was going to be futile, so just grabbed my keys and went. Glad I did now….. took an hour or so and I got to watch some true island engineering — plus $50 bucks, but my wipers work [almost] good as new.

Back here, caught up on some on-line stuff, made a couple of well placed phone calls and getting ready to head back to the couch and hopefully find a show at least as good as the one we just finished (The Resident-Amazon) It wasn’t terrible… I’d give it a strong 7. I’m diving in the morning…..don’t normally do weekends, but diving has been kinda skimpy this week so I’m gonna jump on the boat in the morning.

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

 

Piddling~~

Up earlier than I would care for, but I wanted to make sure my Bride got up and fed before she left for her day. I did just that and then after feeding myself commenced to piddle….. and piddle I did, successfully I might add. I did dishes, got the coffee pot set up for tomorrow, went to the drug store and pick up some prescriptions for me, dropped off stuff at the dump, stopped at a local deli only to find out they were closed, stopped at the beach for pictures of the pier (and a video for you to enjoy) came back and worked on a diagram (of the pier) I thought I was going to need for the Pier clean up dive tomorrow. Found out the clean up has to be cancelled/postponed because of a Pride celebration happening most of the day in Frederiksted. Had to call the four different dive shops that I went around to yesterday giving them a heads up about our clean up on Saturday, and basically tell them ‘never mind’. Made a couple of overdo phone calls. Got a couple of forms that needed filled out– got them filled out and then scanned them into my computer to send them back. Neighbor came over to gripe for a while. I haven’t figured out what it was he was griping about, but he seemed to feel better when he left so I guess all that ends well kinda thing……. Went out and worked on the truck a little bit. The windshield wiper on my side decided to quit working. If I had the tools and the patience, I think I could fix it, but currently have neither, so I guess it’s going back in the shop….. at least it shouldn’t be to long or to expensive…. I hope.

Angie back from work and we just kinda hung out while I finished up my piddling. We finally moved over to the couch. We settled on a movie called Home Run….. we’ve seen probably a dozen movies all based on the same premise, but Angie likes them, so we watched it. I was correct… a down on his luck stud/famous somebody or other has to coach a local ball team of little kid lousy players. Said famous down on his luck stud muffin coaches them to amazing victories, gets saved, falls again, gets saved again, falls in love with the female in lead which is either an ex girlfriend or ex wife and occasional [like this show] discovers one of the kids is his…… ex and him get back together and all is right with the world again. My Queen likes them though, so I guess that wasn’t our last one~~~   😉

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

Up close and PERSONAL

Why would you make a candy that looks like a butt hole once you’ve bitten in to it ??

It took a little longer than I hoped….. but I did a thing~~ ⇑

Me “at work” doing my thing

IMG_8835 <——- A little relaxation video for you

Didn’t I just do this ?

Wow….. that must have been one long blink. Just a pitiful, pitiful night last night. Kinda felt like I didn’t get any sleep at all before I was getting back up. Breakfast made for my Bride and me and away we both went. Diving was really pretty mediocre today. Not many critters and the ones we had were unsociable – but – our guests had a ball and are safe, so it was a good day. I got pictures done and posted just about the time my Queen came rolling in. I got her welcomed in with a kiss and a drink and here we are again sitting in front of our own fans doing stuff on the keyboards…… I swear I just did this a couple of minutes…… No boat tomorrow…. dammit emmit…… maybe not one Friday. There is one Saturday and I would normally jump on it but our local dive club is doing a pier clean up dive Saturday morning and being on the Board – I am expected to be there…… so looks like a mostly dry spell for the old fat boy. OOOHHhhh~!! I can always grab a tank and go play at the pier if I need a SCUBA fix……. well friends, family and neighbors…..It’s been close to an hour since I typed “grab a tank”. Got a phone call from my best good friend Roland. Just wanting to catch up and I was happy to do that. Always enjoy hearing from him. Now, I am in desperate need of a shower… so I’m gonna sign off. Not sure what the next 4 days or so are gonna bring…. I just hope it don’t bring it so friggin’ quick~!

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

 

Meetings

This probably gonna be brief as I have to take off for a meeting of the local dive club tonight. Went and saw ‘Doc’ today. Really not a lot to report back about. For an old fat guy, I’m in reasonable shape. She is getting me some muscle relaxers for my back and she said I need to lose some weight. Straight forward, guess one of the reasons I like her.

Piddled around with little things most of the day. Just didn’t feel like doing what I had planned. Looks like I’m diving tomorrow and the way it looks right now…. ‘off’ Thursday and Friday due to lack of customers…. hope that changes. At least I have my truck to work on now if I don’t have diving to do. That’s about it– Got to get cleaned up before I head out.

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

 

What’s going on ??

Up early and [mostly] easily this morning. Back and neck didn’t hurt as bad as the day before….. so I’ll take it. Stomach not right so I talked myself out of eating anything and my chest was killin’ me……. not like heart attack killin’ me…. just pain. Guess it’s the price I pay for drinking. I popped a couple of Tums [it seems to help some times] and went on about my morning getting my stuff done. Easy, easy day today… Father & Son were the only two people on the boat today. Makes for a fast, easy day. The son was excited at the thought of getting his picture taken by a professional and hammed it up pretty good every time I pointed my camera in his direction. It was funny to watch. Fairly decent divers so didn’t require much tending to. Back at the house early, not near as many pictures to deal with and was done by 3:00pm. I could get all kinds of used to that.  Looks like I might not have a choice this wee. Only 1 more boat scheduled for the whole week right now… and that’s on Wednesday.

Back here– pictures edited and put up, I invited my Queen out for Taco’s and she was up for it. Somewhere…. just about the time I was finishing up pictures, someone must have snuck in and pulled my bones out of my body. It was all I could do to get my travelin’ shorts on and a shirt and by the time we got back here- I couldn’t hardly make it to the door. What the hell ??? I went in and took a nice refreshing cold shower, which did perk me up a wee bit….. but now sitting here writing this, I can’t hardly keep my eyes open. It would be just about my luck to come down with something now……. I have an appointment to go see Doc tomorrow… just routine stuff— follow up stuff. I’ll bring it up to her. I’m not worried…… I think~~

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

 

Brunch with friends

A casual start to the day. My Bride slept in a little bit before I went and rousted her around 09:00— we were supposed to go to Blues for brunch and I was starvin’. I had also mentioned to friends Dave & Liz that we were planning on brunch and they wanted to meet up with us. My bride up and coffee’d….. we were soon on our way. Pulled up a seat at the bar and got a drink, Budweiser for me and a Cranberry Mimosa for my Queen. Dave and Liz showed up and we moved out to a table in the shade. For the three hours, we sat and chatted and drank and ate and just had a ball. Chow was good, drinks were cold and the company was wonderful. Almost reminded me of some of the morning events with our damn neighbors way back when. What a fun, fun morning. It got to be a shade after two which meant Blues would be closing soon, so we paid our bill and made the long trek back to our end of the island. I really like those kind of mornings and would like to do them a bit more frequently……..

Rest of the afternoon has been sitting quietly at the table with fans blowing on us. Our week resumes tomorrow. I have a full week of diving [I think] — I am out Tuesday for a doctors appointment. Follow up mostly. I’m about tired of Doc’s effort to figure out my gut issues… I may sic her on my newest woe which is constant and almost debilitating back pain….. got to be an age thing but I am getting super annoyed with it. Might be I’m 30 pounds heavier than I should be, I’m older…. I don’t know, but I damn sure don’t like it.

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

((Vera— a couple of spotted eel pix))

 

Long days…. .

Well hells bells……. Dad said that a lot, but I was never quite sure what it meant. Kinda what I’m feeling at the moment though. Yesterday turned into a long day for me…… a really long, tiring day. I went into the shop for what I thought was going to be one very trying, very exasperating, very tiring dive, chasing around 12 DSD’s. It turned out 2 of the folks talked them selves out of it before they even got to the shop (guess I’ll probably understand how or why people do that)…. but only 10 showed up….. still a challenge at best as far as getting that many people trained, in the water, in control and keeping them all safe and still managing to get decent pictures of all of them. There were 3 Dive Masters in the water with them and me. I managed to wrangle a couple that were trying very hard not to panic. I did manage to also get everybody at least one really nice picture of themselves. You are just going to have to trust me when I tell you that is a lot harder than it sounds…….. While waiting for the cruise ship divers to show up, I wound up chatting with the boss and in her cute, unique kind of way, decided that I needed to be on the afternoon because of the big group that was gonna be on it. A group of 9 people plus we had 6 other scheduled divers, plus 2 Dive Masters and me…….17 people in the water.  LOT of people in the water in one place, off of one boat. The big group turned out to be a lot more of a challenge that anticipated….a lot more. During the course of the day….. I wrestled the boats anchor, trying to get it to hold and “chased” 25 different people to get pictures. I had my masked kicked almost completely off of my face, had my regulator kicked out of my mouth and was bumped into so many times I lost count….. I finally got back to the house around 5:00…… I slammed down an icy cold Budweiser, and had a couple of drinks with my Bride before going to stand in the nice cool shower for a couple of minutes…… I didn’t get done editing pictures until almost 10:00pm….. and that includes eating a sammich [while editing] that my Queen had picked up at Subway for me……… She was already in bed by the time I finished my pictures…… so when I finished what ‘had’ to be done….. I shut everything down and stumbled into our nice cool bedroom and collapsed. So I think yesterday definitely qualified for a long day. Not sure what the deal is…… I don’t remember those kind of days taking that kind of ‘toll’ on me. Surely it can’t be because I’m getting older……..  😉

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

 

 

She’s back~!

Horrible movie last night after I got off of here….. horrible, horrible, horrible….. what’s worse, is we sat through. It was one of those that you just can’t make yourself stop watching. Raging Grizzly. OMG…..don’t… just don’t…….. It must have impacted my Queen….. she had a fitful night sleep….. which means I had a fitful nights sleep……. none the less….. up and at ’em this morning. I fed us both and away we went. Really tame day in the water today…. A couple very distant sharks…. one massive cooperative turtle…… but two fun dives. Water color on the second dive looked almost fake. You’ll know it when you see it…….

Came home and was sitting here editing pictures when the garage called and said my truck was ready…. Yay~! We packed up and left immediately. I stopped and filled the Suzuki up with gas before dropping it off where it belonged. Angie met me there and hauled me the rest of the way to the garage. Had to kerplunk down just over $300 (that’s after a $215 deposit) but I had my truck back. I had forgotten just how much I like that truck… it’s big, I fit in it….. I can tip my beer up and finish it without craning and hurting my neck, it’s solid…. it don’t rattle when you hit a pot hole…. the glove compartment don’t randomly fall open… I don’t have to shift/use a clutch. Bust my buttons, I didn’t realize how much of a pain in the touchas that is….. especially when you have to slow down and/or stop 50 times before you get to your destination. I am not complaining…. I am eternally grateful for having a vehicle to use so I wasn’t stuck here in the house this past week…. especially since it didn’t cost me a cent…… thankful~~ but oh so glad to have DD 2.0 back~!

I think I only have 1 dive tomorrow morning instead of the typical two….. but will probably be more worn out from that one than I usually am with two. I think I mentioned….. there is going to be 12 DSD’s on the boat tomorrow morning (cruise ship is in) DSD is Discover Scuba Diving. People making a dive for the very first time….. chasing 2 or 3 DSD’s is a challenge…… tomorrow I have 12….. and those dives usually last right around a half an hour (they are excited and breathe hard/fast)…. which gives me about 3 minutes per person to get their pictures. Which means swimming my a$$ off to catch up to each and every one of them. If I get it done properly…… should mean HUGE advertising for the dive shop. Not going to hold my breath for any kind of photo tips….. cruise ship people are notoriously cheap when it comes to tipping for something like that. I’ll definitely be ready for a couple of days off…. but I’ll be driving my truck~!  😉

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

GX010063 <—- Video