Author: Bill

I spent most of my day today buying Christmas presents. Not bragging, actually maybe a little bit of a beef…. but with our current lifestyle, thinking 30 days out or so – is almost a must. Especially when we have a big move coming up here in about a week, which will take us off the grid for a day or so. Can happily say now though, our Grand Babies will all have gifts from Oma and Pa-Paw under the Christmas tree(s)…..

I know you don’t want to hear about that noise, and I really don’t want to talk about it – so I’m gonna leave you with a poem my Dad recited to me all the time… enough that I eventually memorized it (and can recite from memory). Take your time reading it, watch the punctuation and it will make perfect sense… and pretty good words to live by……

I’d rather be a could be,
If I couldn’t be an are.
For a could be is a maybe –
with a chance of touching par.
I’d rather be a has been,
that a might have been by far.
For a might have been, has never been.
But a has was once an are~!

I do not know who the author is – but Dad loved it, as so do I.

I have some really great pictures the Dive Master took the other day on my dive, but for reasons I haven’t figured out yet, they will not load. As soon as I figure them out – I’ll share~ (for now – some more of my pix)

Have a great evening~!

A cactus tree ?

Living the nomadic life in retirement has it’s challenges in that just keeping track of dang near anything gets tougher every day….. just keeping up with the day of the week is becoming a challenge that I never thought I’d have – but happily am learning to adapt to.  My work life was so structured – a time line for everything… and now, the exact opposite. It’s complicated and fun all at the same time….. kinda hard to describe, but I have thought about it for so long – what it would be like to not to ever have to set an alarm clock again, not to have to worry about what day it is, what do I have to get done the next day — and now it’s here. Kinda eerie in a messed up kind of way…… and I can honestly say, at this exact moment, not a big fan of it. I’m getting over it though, and it’s nice. Damn nice~! Makes some days kinda drag…… but, at least for me… they’re dragging on a tropical island where I have some of the most beautiful water in the world at my front door step…. I can come and go as I please and do pretty much just whatever in the hell I want~! Living the dream I thought about for the last 34 working years of my life. A little bit bizarre, a little bit scary….. but hot damn what an adventure~!

As we start moving towards our next island, a whole new set of adventures await as we get to scope out yet another new island. Dirty thankless job – but somebody  ‘has’ to do it~!  😉  I’m sure some of you hate me for that statement – and I’m good with that, because those of you that do, know how long I have been working toward it. I have probably discussed with most of you my hopes and dreams as I got close to this dream of mine – and we discussed possibly getting together when your particular dream comes to fruition…. and I certainly hope we get to lay on a sunny patch of beach somewhere, have at least a couple of cold drinks and talk about how bad having to ‘work for a living’ sucks~!

Conversations started today about having visitors once we settle in our new home on St. Croix. Not only started, already have 3 different families talking about when they will arrive. Interesting conversation since we are still 2 islands away from actually living there ourselves – but found ourselves with ear to ear grins at the prospect of having family and friends staying with us for a little bit. The tropical, devil-could-care, nomadic, tropical life is fun – but we miss our family and friends like everyone else, and while texts, FaceTime and Marco Polo is nice, nothing is like having them there to hug and kiss and laugh with. (at least for a while)  😉

So while we have a week or so left on this island, and 6 weeks on Bonaire…. we are already planning a base to start putting down some roots on St. Croix, so we can start sharing our tropical life with the people in our lives… so if you’re planning to come see us – start planning now – our calendar has already started filling up~!

Kan niet wachten om je te zien~!

Amazing the difference between two days…… our day started off this morning with me making a 1 tank dive with the newest dive shop we have come across…… beautiful reef and the dive master gave me enough time to nose around like I like to do….. only had to be called ‘up’ one time, as I have a propensity to work my way down and away from the dive master.  Just so many things to look at and explore down there below the surface. Probably the prettiest reef I have seen since being on this island. LOTS of pictures to share with you. Saw several different turtles…..beautiful~! Had a small boat go directly over top of me even though I was within 10′ of my dive flag……Was only in about 10′-15′ of water and it was only a small skiff, but from my angle, that prop looked about the size of the one on the Titanic~! I just dropped to the floor and laid there until it went by…. not a fun feeling. Did manage to spin my camera around and get a shot of it though……….  😉

Came home and shared tales of my dive with my bride…. downed a couple of very cold Heinekens (they always taste so good with saltwater still in your mustache~!) Then it was her turn. Loaded back up in the bus and took her back to the dive shop for a full face training course to SCUBA~! I sat out in the yard and waited until she finished her class room training and then we loaded up into the dive shops ‘bus’ and headed to a new beach for my Queens big plunge. I helped her into the water with her gear and the dive master took over. Previously made arrangement was that I steered clear of the 2 of them while the water training started. Which I am proud to say I did [mostly]. I kinda hovered off to the side, but stayed well [mostly] out of sight. Bless her heart….. as scared as she was – she went in like a trooper. Her and the dive master snorkeled the surface for 5 – 10 minutes, and before I knew it, they had sank beneath the waves. My Queen was SCUBA diving~!! So proud of her~!!  I hovered on the surface for a while watching until I realized they were suddenly at 18′ and about 500′ from shore….. so I swam back to the beach, got my snorkel gear and swam back out to watch them. I followed above and behind them for a good 15 minutes while I proudly watched my bride SCUBA diving~!! She did so good~!! Dive master did an excellent job with her~! (Relaxed Guided Dives – strongly recommend them if you wind up on Curacao)  When they finally started back toward the beach — I swam out and around them and got into shore to take my fins off and was waiting for them as they approached shallow water. I did manage to get a shot of my Baby as she came in.  🙂   It was great to see the look on her face. As scared as she had been – I could tell she had a good time and was much more relaxed. Got loaded back up in the dive shop bus and headed back. It was great fun to sit and listen to her talk about the various things she had seen. At last she knows now, the ‘rush’ that I have when she would listen to me talk about my SCUBA adventures. She is pretty sure she will never become a PADI certified diver (at this point) but she is talking about maybe wanting to do another dive like this one. I am elated, because I should be able to go with her (dive) on the next one~! A dream come true~! Probably more details to share later – but for now….. gonna sign off and leave you with some pictures…….

Hebben een heerlijke nacht

Well, the internet is back…. Kinda….. I’m writing this on a word pad hoping the internet comes back from its warp factor MUD speed and I can just paste it in. Day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday shopping ??? Oh hell no~!!! We were going to go to the beach today, until the postman delivered a notice saying we needed to go to the C-Post (island version of a Post Office) to pick up a package that had an amount due. We thought that was odd because the forwarding station we use normally takes care of all of that, but we loaded into the bus and headed for the big city. Drove straight to it – kinda nice not getting lost every time we take off now. 😊 Sat in the C-Post until our number was called (which was right at 30 minutes). Went to the window, only to be shown our package, given a weird look and told to sit back down. Another 10 minutes rolled by, called back up to the window. Turns out, they were mistaken about the postage due and gave us our package.
Came back home, to dive into that wonderful package. Almost reminded me of being in the Air Force and how nice it was to get something in the mail from ‘home’. Had a variety bag of stuff, some good, some not so good – typical mail stuff, but the best item of all was a very nice letter from our Granddaughter Charlotte (my Sugar Pop). It was mailed in very early October, but was still a delight to get. (yes, mail taking well over a month to get to you is also another Island Insight for you)
Almost 2:00 by the time we got back and got through the mail, so we wrote off the rest of the afternoon to sit out by the pool, have a couple of drinks and just enjoy the sunny gorgeous afternoon. Taking it easy as it were, as we both have a big day tomorrow.
I am going to make a one tank SCUBA dive tomorrow with one of the new local dive shops we have recently checked out, but the really big news, is my Queen signed up a full-face certification SCUBA dive~! She spoke with the Dive Master who teaches the course and feels comfortable enough with her, that she wants to try it~! YAY~!! If she can do it (she has tried to SCUBA before and just couldn’t make herself do it) I will be able to go with her on her next dive. She always looks forward to my pictures from my dives – I’m hoping now, we can dive together and she will be able to see first-hand what I’ve been showing her and telling her about~!
So, if I can get this loaded into my blog and share it with you…… you’ll know tomorrow will be a fun day to write about.

Haben einen tollen Abend~!

Enjoying our island version of Thanksgiving~!

My grilled turkey~!

Skipped my walk this morning knowing we would be out and about, shopping  for our Thanksgiving dinner. Kinda weird….. for the past 17 years or so… I have been responsible for our Thanksgiving dinner. An event that included [as the years wore on]  4 Daughters, 3 Son-in-laws, 8 Grandchildren, inevitably 2-8 friends and the occasional straggler….. Have had up to 32 folks, which had our house almost bursting at the seams…… Crowded ? Yes~! Mad house ? Absolutely~! But lordy what fun….. watching folks chat with each other, some they hadn’t seen since the previous year [or longer] —- good times. Do I miss them ? Yes~! Do I want to move back and continue it ? Oh, Hell no~! It’s time for my girls and their families to start some traditions of their own….. and I want to be around to at least see and/or hear about it…..

Here on the island… tomorrow, (Thanksgiving) is just another Thursday, as Thanksgiving is a strictly an American holiday. I tried to find some place on the island that was serving a traditional Thanksgiving meal ( I figured since us Americans contribute greatly to the economy of the island, there might be some place that would have a Thanksgiving meal) ….. but didn’t find anything even close…… so my bride and I set out to get fixin’s for our own Thanksgiving here on the island…… It took several stores, but we now have what we need for our own personal Thanksgiving meal. For the first time in 17 years or so – I looked for the smallest turkey I could find (versus the biggest)…. I found it, or so I thought. Came home with my 3 pound turkey, which I figured would be perfect for my bride and me. Throwed it in the pool (to defrost) and commenced to drink and skinny dip and listen to some wonderful old timey music…….. Turns out, a pool in the sunshine and 85 degrees thaws a 3 lb. turkey REALLY fast….. I took my bird in to rinse it and put it in the fridge…… as I cut it open, I did not have a 3 lb. bird… but 3 lbs. of breast meat and dark meat (and a small packet of gravy)…… I feel mildly better in light of a little turkey didn’t die just so we could have turkey…., but still – So tomorrow, I am going to grill our Thanksgiving bird [meat] (we do not have a conventional oven in the kitchen)…. we have almost all of the other standards….. smashed taters, corn, green beans, peas, stuffing (albeit Stove Top)…. won’t have rolls, cranberry sauce or my beloved ‘tater balls’ – but we will celebrate the holiday and for all the things for which we are thankful. Near the top of the list – Living on a tropical island in the Caribbean, doing whatever the hell we feel like, whenever the hell we feel like it, will be in the top 5 things on that list….. Our family being number one…….

If our family is so important……why did we run off  and leave our family behind ? I’m sure that’s crossed at least a few minds……… Fair question……. we decided very early in our life…. that we wanted to have our family, get them well on their way and still be ‘young’ enough to enjoy some of our life together. Might sound pretty advanced for a couple of 21 year olds….. but that is exactly what happened, and that is exactly what we did……..do we have times we wish we were still ‘home’ to be with our family ? Absolutely~! Do we regret our decision ? Not for a second…… we knew a long time ago, we were not going to be the dotting type of Grandparents, that lived for our Grandkids….. do we love them ? Hell yes – but – we raised our kids… and feel like we did a pretty good job of it. It is time for our kids to live their lives…with their kids… and Oma and Pa-Paw can still be around to enjoy it here and there…. it might be romping around on a Caribbean beach, but there are worse ways to spend that time….. but we’re enjoying whatever amount of time we have left on this planet — on our terms……

So, get together with your families…. or your spouse, or friends or a crowd or all of them together…. think about the good things in your life and be truly thankful for the time you get on this rock hurtling through space….

I hope you all have a truly wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving……

B.

Started my day out with another stroll through the country side…. came back, took a quick dip in the pool to cool off… it was already in the mid 80’s…. awe~ Right ? 😉   Finished up a small breakfast when my bride told me she was not feeling well….. said she was getting sick to her stomach. Suspecting the heat was getting to her, I went in and turned on the A/C in the bedroom and suggested she go lay down for a bit. Thankfully she did – for almost 3 hours. She finally got up, looking and feeling better. She said she wanted to try something to eat – so I made her a requested ham and cheese sammich. Apparently all is good as she is up and around and says she is feeling much better.

I think I mentioned shortly after we got here – that the house is not fully air conditioned, just the bedrooms. We have been trying to make do, by just keeping the house well ventilated, which is usually pretty easy to do with an almost constant trade wind. We have come to realize, however, we become have quite accustom to having conditioned air. We went through about a 3 day stretch where the typically available trade wind, just all but quit~! While multiple fans kept the house ‘airy’, it is just not the same as having conditioned air, and I believe that has been a deciding factor in both of us dragging on occasions. While we both love hot weather, we always had a nice cool home to retreat into when the heat started whoopin’ up on us. Plus, there is just something about coming in out of a good sweltering heat into a nice cool room. That ‘AAHhhh’ when you walk into the room, and you can suddenly breathe easier…… your clothes ‘let loose’ of you…… just an all around environment that we miss.  With that being said – I will make sure going forward, any new place we wind up in, will have conditioned air, at least it will be there if we want or need it. Another lesson learned in our island travels…… (there is a particular movie that used the term conditioned air [and because I liked the terminology, I started using it] can you name the movie, without Googling it ?)

So – not much went on today, but here are some pictures I took during my walk and a few others…… and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

хорошего вечера

New day….. got up and went for my ‘trying to get rid of this disgusting belly’ walk…. added an extra 30 minutes to it….. this ain’t happening near fast enough.. but have to keep telling myself – I didn’t put it on overnight…. probably ain’t gonna come off overnight (without surgery)…. so I’ll continue to up my cardio game a little bit [hopefully] – but it sucks……

Went into to town to find a new post office to send some stuff to all of our Grand Kids….. didn’t find what we were looking for, but jacked around and finally got the items in the mail……yay~! Came back (with minimal getting lost). Stopped at the the local mall (which has wonderfully conditioned air) and picked up a couple of shirts I was needing….. stopped in at a new restaurant for a bite since we skipped breakfast… nice little place but horribly slow service…. even with Island Time factored in…… My bride had the salad bar….. I opted for a cheeseburger with bacon and mushrooms (after all – I did an extra half hour on my walk~!) but am regretting it now…. it was either mixed with goat or some equally ‘different’ kind of meat — or the beef was not exactly fresh…….. AHHhhh, that to shall pass  😉  Ya don’t know until you try it though…….

Stopped on the way home at a local dive shop that I found the other day just a few minutes away from the house. Chatted with them a bit to see if I felt comfortable diving with them…. I did, but better yet, got to talking about an introductory course I think my Queen might be comfortable with (using full face mask)   Much like a ‘Resort Certification’ I think she may be able to do this as long as she doesn’t go for the full certification… which would be fine by me….. it would be nice to do a dive with her…. regardless how it happens. She is mulling it over and we’ll see how it goes…. in the meantime… I have signed up for a 1 tank dive this coming weekend. Would have liked to do it a little sooner….. but maybe I can sneak one in before this one somewhere else……. as long as the money holds out…..

Came home to a steamy humid afternoon on the patio. Shucked our clothes and bailed into the pool. Before long, drinks were made and we were lounging in the pool, with drinks, smokes and watching a fabulous sunset….. yea, yea, I know…. those of you dealing with winter weather now are thinking ‘a$$holes‘… and that’s okay — we’re good with that  😉  Got some good music going and sent a couple of texts to some folks that came to mind with certain songs and got to thinking how nice it will be when we finally get to St. Croix and can finally start having folks visit us…… island life is wonderful…… but so are family and friends…… and we can’t wait to start combining the two~~~  🙂

disfrutar de la vida es increíble ~~

Told ya I was gonna be eaten by a shark~!!

Trying out our fresh off the tree plantain Banana’s~!

More ripening — Yum~!! (Neva – yes! I think they taste MUCH better than the ones in the store~!!)

Last couple of days have been overcast, almost constant sprinkles to down pours…. makes for a slightly cooler day, but actually much warmer, in that, that  wonderful trade wind is not there to whisk away the tropical humidity that comes along with the rain. As such, we have not got a lot accomplished these past couple days other than some laundry — Woo-Hoo~!  Yes sir – ya still gots to do laundry…even living in paradise…… unless you’re just a pig – and we’re not. Maybe eventually a pirate….. but not a pig~~  😉

A little more island insight [particularly for this island]: Yet another thing came to realization on my past couple of morning walks (as they were along the main thorough fare)…. The EPA apparently does not have a hellva lot of say so on apparently pretty much anything here….. factory smoke stacks, cars, anything that has emissions….. I have inhaled enough diesel smoke (most cars here are diesel — and — apparently not very well maintained) to clog a set of filters if I was wearing them. Good grief….. I’ve had a couple of people warn me to be careful when driving, because the roads get extremely slick when they get wet — now I know why….. diesel soot on the roads~!  In part I believe, it is one of the things that makes this island so dirty looking. It is also dirty looking because the people apparently do not take a whole lot of pride in their island. Trash is just dumped apparently where ever you get the notion. I know a lot of people who have been to the island will want to argue and say it is a beautiful island. Those people are the ones that never leave the resort they’re on, or only go on excursions where they are taken to the places that are kept clean. Don’t get me wrong. There are many beautiful, beautiful things about this island….. there are an equal amount of very ugly things on this island…… I guess it depends on how you want to look at them.

Damn…..I’m starting to sound a little cranky ain’t I ? I guess I need to get my butt back into that beautiful saltwater and soak up some of that underwater beauty~~

el sol vendrá mañana

Another morning of large ominous clouds beckoning a call of looming rain kept us chilling again the better part of the day. I did get a morning stroll in to try and burn off some of that double quarter pounder I had yesterday….before coming back and doing a mega load of nothing and got a couple of fun pictures to share with you as well as a little more Island Insight…….

I miss cold water….. something that didn’t dawn on me until visiting a Daughter who lived in Florida at the time…… warm climate places, especially those with no or dang little elevation…. don’t have cold water….. and I miss that…. especially in the mornings…… from as far back as I can remember, I always washed my face with ice cold water when I first got up. Dad instilled that in me at that very early age…. He always told me, wash you face and comb your hair right off the bat – it took probably a month or so of getting my a$$ beat until I learned that particular habit and getting the hang of it, but been doing it every since. It has served me well… particularly through 17 years of working a swing shift and then another 17 years of dragging my happy a$$ out of bed at 03:45 to go to work every morning……. wakes you up and kinda jump starts your day…. you don’t have cold water on tropical islands (at least we haven’t found it yet)   Guess I could take one of my bottles of water out of the fridge with me to the bathroom…. but it kinda loses something in translation. Applies as well to ice cold water out of the kitchen tap – I’m talking about so cold it almost makes your teeth hurt. Course I guess that is something to be thankful for, for having water that comes from deep, deep springs where we lived the last 30+ years…….Same thing for brushing your teeth…. doing it with tepid water just doesn’t do it for me…… curious if it does for anyone reading this…….and….taking a nice cool/cold shower after a long day in the tropical heat (or any hot muggy day).  Again – tepid water just doesn’t do much to cool the heat of the day.  I miss cold water……..

Ik mis koud water~~

Woke up to some very intimidating clouds….. so we had breakfast and just kinda hung out waiting to see what they were gonna produce. (Lots of clouds makes for very poor visibility underwater)  Turns out all they produced was some shade, although it didn’t help much… it was still awfully hot and humid… yea, yea, yea – I know all you folks around ‘home’ are saying… AWE~~~~  😉

Wound up sitting around on-line most of the day. I sewed up a few more details for our next move (getting a car for Bonaire) and a temporary place to stay on St. Croix (while we look for a permanent abode). Got to be 4:00 or so and my bride said she was getting hungry…… neither of us felt like cooking, so I offered to run and get some Mickey-D’s. A little Island Insight here: When you’re on vacation, you typically (at least we don’t) really think about ‘home’ kinda stuff….. but actually living ‘away’ from your comforts, somethings just feel good to do. Like getting a Big Mac…. something familiar…. so I made the run and brought back a bag full of greasy goodness…… We had already had, had a couple of drinks, and besides the wonderful artery hardening goodness of that bag full of calories, it created a wonderful feeling of everything is okay…… kinda hard to explain, but that one little thing made it….just – wonderful~!

Finished up our Mickey-D meal (including a delicious apple pie).. had another couple of drinks and just enjoyed each others company. My Queen had jumped in the pool while I was out fetching calories….. and looked nice and refreshed… so I shucked my shorts and bailed in. Not sure what possessed me to do it (alcohol probably had nothing to do with it), but I did a forward flip into the pool. Now I have to tell you…. I have always sucked at forward flips….. but actually did pretty good on that one. My Queen was so impressed she wanted me to do it again, so while she readied the camera, I got out and headed for the edge again. My Queen normally is as good with a camera as she is navigating for me [insert small eye roll here]…. but she did a pretty good job capturing the big ole fat boy launching into the pool. She didn’t get my feet for the launch – and it kinda looks like I went off a chair or something – but I give you me word – that is pure old fat boy effort from ground level~!

The clouds finally cleared out, that wonderful breeze picked back up and I have moved inside to regale you of my day. I know it’s not very exciting, but that is another very realistic part of living on an island….. not every day is going to be beaches, snorkeling and pirate treasure hunts. Sometimes you just hang out and enjoy the fact, you can do whatever the hell you feel like….. and appreciate the fact we have some eggs.     😉

(I must be having internet issues, because this will not let me edit any of my pictures…. so apologies if you have to kinda crank your head a bit)

Lilah Tov~~