Author: Bill

Up fairly early again even though I stayed up later last night than usual. My  bride  crashed on me around 9:00. I wasn’t ready for bed and wanted to watch one more episode of a new show we started. We thought it was a movie with 2 parts…. turns out it does have two parts, but apparently each part has close to 20 episodes. It got intriguing enough, that we stayed with, although must confess there were several times we both mentioned it needed to ‘pick it up’ some. We just got into Part II this afternoon… tough to follow some times, but still interesting enough that now we need to see how it ends… Show is called The OA… not sure what that stands for yet…… I “think” it is Original Angel….. but not sure…. I’ll let you know as soon as I know for sure.

I got my new strobe in yesterday and spent the morning going through it, making sure it is ready to go tomorrow morning and getting it mounted on my camera. I also remounted my Go Pro bracket, as I picked up some small stainless steel washers I needed the other day when I picked up my Bondo. Oh yea— I finally got that done too. I didn’t get ‘Bondo’ [the brand name] – but this stuff is supposed to be the new equivalent of it. I’m usually skeptical of that kind of new stuff—- but at least I’ll know. Got my new bracket mounted, new strobe mounted and hooked up, back up batteries all charged and batteries ‘to be used‘ all loaded and ready for a bump charge in the morning before I leave. Can’t wait to get back in the water, seems like forever, even though I spent almost an hour in it yesterday, I’m ready to be diving again and having a full camera set up. I got my defective lights all packaged up safe and sound and run them up to the Post Office to get them on their way. I sure hope warranty covers what ever the issue turns out to be.

My Queen is in the process of making us some spaghetti and I’m trying to get this written in the process . The wind has laid down a little bit and it is getting down right toasty here on the island now (currently 87°). We still haven’t fired up the A/C in the bedroom yet, but I don’t think we’re to far from it. For now enjoying that nice low electric bill….. if you call $ 150 a month low (for a <600 sqft house).

Good night Y’all ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Thankx for stopping in~!

((Happy Birthday to Grandson Kayden– big 12 years old~!!))

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Wow, it’s really hard to spell like what Jed Clampett sounds like when he talks……. My day started out like most of the rest. Woke up of my own accord, even though I went to bed almost a full hour later than I normally do. We stayed up later than usual watching the shows I mentioned yesterday….. we watched another movie after I got done chatting with you all last night….. but you know what I didn’t do….. ? Ding, ding, ding……. not write it down~!!! We have a winner~!! So- I have no friggin’ clue what the movie was…… dammit Emmit~! It wasn’t that good or I would have remembered something about it……. right now, I can’t even think of what it was about, but I do remember we didn’t care for it. Dammit Emmit~!!! I digress…….. dang it……. Up way before my Bride finally rolled out, so I had just over 2 hours of extra quiet before she came stumbling out. I opted out of breakfast because my stomach was ‘in a mood’ and instead took off for all points mid island, leaving my Queen making herself her Egg and cheese sammich. I should have made it for her, but it was just not in the cards this morning. Again, I journeyed to mid island, only this time to find the business of my target open for business. I went in, found some uber small stainless steel washers that I needed, met the guy I went to meet, unloaded the stuff out of my truck for him that I meant to get rid of…… so even though he didn’t have Bondo….. everything else was a plus and I made a new aquaintence on the island. In this environment, it’s not what you know…. it’s WHO you know~~  😉 He did give me what turned out to be sound advice on what I was hunting. It wasn’t Bondo– but supposedly the new 2022 version of it. I made the plunge and got it. Hopefully that doesn’t come back to bite me in the touchas. Got everything [I think] I’m gonna need to get get my truck fixed up and headed back. Stopped by the dive shop and secured an available Instructor and told her I would be back shortly, and that I needed her to watch me swim. Long story shortened…… I showed up, I swam…… and swam… oh people…. it wasn’t pretty….. I made it out to my turn around point (400 meters)… that wasn’t bad…. I had the wind at my back and it kinda help blow me out there…. U-Turn and head back into shore…. UUGGHHHhhh…. into the wind…. ran into another #$%^&^%$#$%^& current….. DAMMIT~!!!! I however, managed to power through this one….. once on the other side of the current…. stopped often enough to get my breath back before dog paddling my fat, tired, worn out, old butt back to where the Instructor was waiting. NOW…. I had to go put on ALL my gear [have the Instructor put on ALL her gear [[including weights]] and I had to tow her 100 meters in less than [I think] two minutes……. I wasn’t worried about this one….. I had my fins on and all my strength is in my legs now……. 58 seconds~! I towed that cute little sh*t 100+ meters and didn’t hardly blink~!

Wow– way over, so ….in conclusion…. I should have everything I need now to get my Dive Master Cert…… took my bride out to dinner for some of her taco’s…… Good day~!

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

Even after sleeping in a little bit this morning – I was still up a heckva lot earlier than I wanted to be, but was looking forward to a nice early, cool, quiet start to my day. That changed as soon as I came out of the bathroom and saw that my Bride was up and was joining me. A cup of coffee or two and Angie jumped up and made us some pancakes, bacon and sausage [for me]. I told her as soon as I finished, I was going to go get the Bondo and get that out of the way. I pulled up the hours on the place I thought had it to confirm they were open and away I went. It was a solid 50 minutes to get there even though the roads were fairly open. (Sunday, many islanders were in church). I pulled into the parking lot only to discover that the store was indeed closed. Rookie mistake….. believing what I saw on line and not calling to confirm. DAMMIT Emmit~! I swung by a couple of other places on the way back that I thought might have it, but they were all closed as well.  I came on back to the house and decided it would be a good day watch movies….. and so we did. Actually got into a couple of decent ones. Now both of us are sitting here trying to think of the name of a movie we watched (and enjoyed) less than 3 hours ago…..O.My. Gosh…….. I’m guess I’m going to have to start writing this stuff down…. pitiful….. OOOH~!!       Dumplin‘…..  Vera I think you would really like it….. Stars Jennifer Aniston. The last movie we just finished is called Hello, My Name is Doris, starring Sally Field…. another pretty decent (and entertaining) movie…. OH….. one that was decent from yesterday was called The Silence…… maybe I’m not completely over the hill…..yet  😉

Still want to try and get some Bondo tomorrow, but also think I’m going to see if I can wrangle up a spare Instructor tomorrow and get my last two swimming requirements out of the way so I can finish up my Dive Master stuff. Apparently going to be a smidge busier tomorrow than I figured. Guess I better hustle up, it’ll be time to get back in the water [diving] before I know it. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

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

Wide awake this morning around 05:30 but got the smug satisfaction of knowing I did not have to move a muscle unless I wanted. As I lay there deciding whether I was going to get up and relieve my whining bladder….. my bride got up and moseyed into the bathroom. For a second I thought she was going to stay up when she finished her business, but she came back and snuggled up against my back which felt good, good enough enough to keep me laying there. For a little bit anyway….. my bladder finally won out after a little bit and I finally got up. I struggle to go back to bed once I’m up– especially if the sun is up, which it was by that point. Sometime this morning….. or maybe last night…… I was volunteered to go pick Shawn up at the airport today. Maybe I was voluntold to do it— I don’t remember me volunteering to do it……. and I wasn’t even drinking….. anyway— that kind of put a wrinkle in the plans I had for shopping for Bondo today. Not a big deal because I still have 3 more days to mess with that– so I enjoyed my first full day off with my Queen. She made us a tasty breakfast and we sat and stared at our individual screens until it was time for me to go to the airport. Island Son picked up and brought safely to this end of the island I went back in and shortly there after assumed my position on the couch, ready for some big screen entertainment. We watched a movie called ………. dammit emmit….. good show that we watched less than 2 hours ago and it was so good I can’t remember the name of it……. crap. Can’t look it up because I have another movie started and I don’t want to lose it. (Senior Year) We stopped for some meatloaf, smashed taters and mixed green stuff. I think my Bride is trying to keep me fat……….. So I’m gonna sign off and move back to the couch…… and hunt for Bondo tomorrow….. maybe  😉

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

Really good day of diving today. Two really good dive sites. First one was Armageddon, which is my best most favorite dive site…. love it, love it, love it. Shooting pictures was a challenge because I am down to the one strobe and for whatever reason I could just not get it dialed in to eliminate backscatter. Dammit Emmit~ Second dive was another favorite and again, for whatever reason, this time… I dialed the strobe in perfectly and had almost zero backscatter. Go figure. My new/replacement strobe should be here tomorrow, so that issue should go away once I’m back to using two strobes. Then to try and figure out why the old strobe failed… as well as my video light. I am using an old video light as a back up, so I am good to go for a while….. I hope. Those lights are actually more expensive than the camera~! Ain’t none of it cheap………

I brought my good land camera with me today and did some experimental shooting on the boat. The pictures I took came out almost as good as I was hoping. The quality is there, but my subjects weren’t smiling where I hoped they’d be smiling…. but still got some awesome shots. I’ll put a couple on here tonight so you can see what I’m talking about. I’m off for the weekend and as of right now, there is no boat scheduled for Monday or Tuesday (we are going into our slow period) so it looks like I have a 4 day week end coming up…. woot-woot~!! I have decided I’m going to go to the auto parts store and see if I can find a can of Bondo and see how much of my body work skills I remember to work on my truck. At one point, many, many moons ago, I was actually pretty good with it. Pretty sure I can’t make it any worse…… course, I may have those words come back to haunt me, but I have to do something or the entire roof of my truck is going to collapse in on me here soon. So- a project of sorts for my days off. It’s a shame Home Depot is out of floor tile…… I could have finished the floor in the house~!

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

I was going to wimp out and skip writing anything tonight. My day on the boat went really long today and I just now finished up getting my pictures edited and posted. Today took a lot out of me [but in a fun way] and I’m leaving butt tracks when I walk. Like I said, I was gonna weeny out of this, but I owe you an apology and an explanation. I could have sworn I said what my MRI was for…… but apparently didn’t and I guess I needlessly worried some folks. Not at all my intention and I dang sure didn’t want to sound like some 12 year old girl on FB hinting around for sympathy. My MRI (with contrast) was for my Pancreas. The last battery of tests that Doc had me do a bit back- showed my pancreas was mildly enlarged. Doc said she wasn’t really worried about it but wanted me to get it checked out- out of an abundance of caution. She knows my Dad’s history and knows that I am [probably overly] concerned I’m going to suffer the same fate. As far as when I get my results…… honestly– your guess is as good as mine. Island time. It could be in the morning or it could be a week or so from now. Even if I get it, unless they got an 8th grader to write out the results, I’m probably not gonna understand it anyway  😉  I do have an appointment to see Doc now that she is back to work, but it’s not until the middle of next month (the earliest I could get).  I’ll try and get her new email and send the results to her. I’ll find out one way or the other and let you know asap. So my loyal readers… I apologize….. I shouldn’t have been so secretive even though I didn’t mean to be.

Fun diving today. First dive at a site I only get to do once or twice a year and while I didn’t get to ‘play‘ on this site ( it is a very deep dive site… very deep) it is always a treat to dive there~! Massive shark, that did not want a dang thing to do with me. Dammit Emmit~ That was one of the biggest sharks I have seen around here. Next time  😉 Nothing overly noteworthy on the second dive but always fun~! Still have the big group in from the states, so the boat is packed, but they are all decent divers and do not require hardly any “baby sitting”. Tomorrow is their last day with us. I’m bringing my good [land] camera with me for some nice group shots for them…. I also have some portfolio type shots I want to try. They use some very specialized equipment and I think it will make for some really great pictures. Tomorrow is probably going to be even a later day, but I’ll try not to weeny out on the blog.  😉

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

Up much, much earlier this morning than I wanted to be, but had an early morning medical appointment that required me to be there by 07:30, which meant leaving here about 06:45. As it turns out, traffic was light enough that early in the morning (I should have known) I could have waited until 10 after seven and still made it….. but you come to not rely on that kind of logic on this island. My appointment was for the MRI that was originally slated for the beginning of the year. Long story shortened….. the MRI was going to cost me $1600 and change with my previous insurance. One of the reasons I waited until now to do it, as you may remember, I am now a bona-fide card carrying member of Medicare. My out of pocket [so far] now is $261.00. Yes Sir– Much better~! The whole MRI ‘thing’ was a lot more taxing than I remember. A lot of holding my breath and whirring, banging, clanging and popping. Plus I had to have contrast so they had a hootus stuck in my arm as well. So not a pleasant way to spend the morning, especially since I could have been diving~! Please keep your fingers crossed that results come back favorable, this one ‘scares‘ me a little…………..

I stopped in at Office Max for some dry erase pens, stopped at the local butcher shop to redeem a gift certificate I got as a Christmas present from the [dive] shop. I am now the proud owner of a right impressive pile of  ½ lb burgers. Can’t wait to get them bad boys on the grill~! I spent the rest of the day bottle assing around. I got quite a few ‘piddly‘ things done…… I’ll not bore you with them. I will mention though, I did break down and clean and prepped the air conditioner in our bedroom to have it ready for use. I will continue to hold off as long as I can before firing it up, but at least it’s ready. Spent a lot of time getting my camera rig ready for tomorrow. I have a replacement flood light now and an extra strobe I can use if I need to.  Seems like it is always something~! My bride is finally home after a long day at Blues. Skies are clouding over and it is acting like it wants to rain. That would be fine…. we need the rain and it cools it off so I can put off firing up the A/C for another day  😉

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

I started my prep work on my camera last night as I hadn’t touched it in 4 days and I needed to get it ready for another week of diving. Boy howdy did I get a surprise when I opened my first strobe’s battery compartment. A funky smell wafted out and the inside was all gummed up with rusty gunk. DAMMIT EMMIT~! I settled in cleaning and swabbing and all everything else I could think of to do including filling the battery compartment with rice. I got everything as clean and dry as I could and finally went to bed. Up bright and early – I dumped out the rice, did another clean job on the inside, took the big rubber 0-ring off and cleaned it and lubed it up and reassembled everything. I hooked it up to the camera and was delighted to no end that everything worked like it was supposed to. The only thing I lost out of it were the 4 batteries that were in it. I always have spare batteries – so I was in good shape. I made sure everything was sealed and tightened accordingly and doubled checked it again, right before I got in the water this morning. Dive was going good (lot’s of shark action) and the strobe was working perfectly…….. was…..about halfway through the dive, the flash-ready light went out and the strobe quit working. DAMMIT EMMIT~!! To shorten this up a little bit….. I had to shoot the rest of the dive and the entire second dive with 1 strobe…..makes it really tough to get the kind of pictures I’m used to getting with just 1 strobe…… but a new one is now on the way and when it gets here, I will have that defunct one sent back and hopefully repaired under warranty……. can’t wait to find out what the issue is. I also managed to drop by my phone on my way out to the truck this morning [without realizing it] and didn’t notice it until I got to the marina ….. DAMMIT EMMIT~!!! Didn’t realize how much I use it during the course of a work day until I didn’t have it. Bright side of it is that I didn’t run over it when I pulled out leaving~ I also forgot the red lens on my GoPro…… #$%^&^%$#~!!!!!!! I think maybe I should have stayed home today……. Now I need to work on the microphones for our little PA system we use for our dive club meeting….. I’m hoping all I need to do is change batteries. They keep cutting out, so hopefully an easy fix…….always something~! No rest for the weary….. or is that wicked ???  😉  Dive club meeting tomorrow night, so probably nothing on here tomorrow night…. we’ll see~~

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

Well what do you know….. I slept in a little bit. Could be that I didn’t go to bed until after 11:00 last night (finished up Major Dad)…. could be my Queen came back to bed after getting up to go potty this morning and laid there with her hand on my chest for a little while…… could be I didn’t sleep worth a damn as my back and knees were killin’ me, could be I was just plain ole tired or [more likely] a FUBAR’d combination of all of them….. either way, I didn’t get up until almost 07:30~! Woot-woot~!! Got up, made the bed and got the house opened up while we waited for coffee to finish brewing. We sat here for a little bit before my bride got up and made us a tasty breakfast. Shortly after that, I went out and started mowing. It is already good and toasty during the day here, getting up into the upper 80°’s and by the time I got the lawnmower uncovered, filled with gas and started, my shirt was already soggy. On top of that, everything is very dry….. and dusty. Very dusty, so by the time I was done mowing and weed eating, I was one dusty, dirty little feller. Really glad I had already got the ATV yard done yesterday – I had everything done, cleaned and put up by noon. I wiped off the top layer of dust and ran into town and picked up a couple of gift certificates from local dive shops for next dive club meeting. I also looked into the latest GoPro (#10) and accessories. Gonna be a smidge more than I was expecting, so I might hold off. There are some rumors going around that GoPro is coming out with the 11 fairly soon and when they do, the #10 will be MUCH cheaper. We’ll see. Got that out of the way…. came home, ordered some stuff that I forgot to order last week. Got confirmation I got Medi-Gap policies for me and Angie and got a birthday present ordered for Grandson Kayden coming up~! Pretty productive day and I’m glad to say, I’m Done~! That leaves tomorrow with absolutely nothing that needs done~! Course, now that I said that…….. somethings bound to come up~! If not– even better~! Just finished some Stove Top pork chops with smashed taters and mixed veggies…. ready for a nice cool shower and some couch time~!

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

Happy Birthday Eugene~!

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Up a little before 06:00 this morning even though I was allowed to sleep in. Didn’t have to be at the yard until 09:00, so I had lots of time, but full bladders and old habits just didn’t see fit for me to score on that extra rest. I went ahead and got up and enjoyed my quiet morning until it was time to go rouse my Queen. After we got woke up, I made breakfast for us and Angie actually ate two egg-n-cheese sammiches this morning. I was happy~! I had my usual goodness. Got my GoPro pulled off of my underwater camera and housed up so I could use it on the trails today and I was out the door. Angie drove separately so she could drop off laundry and didn’t want to hang around after the guests were done. Tours went okay….. first group was late, which automatically puts me behind the 8 ball to get the tour done and get the guests back [safely] in time for the next tour. I guess even though they were all smiles and said they had a ball, they must have felt rushed or something, because they left without so much as a friggin’ dime for a tip. You’ll have those kind of folks occasionally.  Fortunately (and sadly) the second tour was even later. I told them I would hang out and do the tour for them (since I didn’t have any other tours). They finally showed up and we were finally on our way a full half an hour late…….. Since the only schedule I had to worry about was mine…… we took our time and wound up doing a full tour. The guests drove reasonably, were mostly friendly and engaging and had a good time as well. They did leave a tip. Not much of one, but it was something. My Bride got them on their way and she took off for the house. I stayed and washed the machines and got them all put away. I also “mowed” the grass….. using that term loosely tonight. Being dryer than a pop corn fart around here, the grass hasn’t done a heckva lot of growing and I’m fine with that…… but the clumps of grass needed some attention, so that’s done. Hopefully I get to sneak another month of ‘not mowing’ in there~!

Finally back here…. pictures edited and put up. Showered and now thinking about what I can scrounge up to eat. Would seriously pay 100 bucks to get a good pizza delivered here (in less than 2 hours)…… I’m out of SPAM and Vienna Sausage and I don’t think we have lunch meat….. dammit Emmit. It’s to late (and I’m already showered) to fire up the grill, but I may not have a choice. Angie has already said she don’t want to go out to eat…… Hmmmm……  I’ll think of something~

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