Author: Bill

I opted to skip the first dive boat of the day today in order to sleep in with and spend some of the day with my bride, before heading out to shoot pictures for the scheduled afternoon dive boat….. The JR dive boat, I know I have spoke to this particular dive before, where we encourage parents to come out and do a dive with their kids. We have been having a lot of success with this particular dive lately and I was looking forward to shooting it. It’s normally a challenging dive, to keep up with those little people, but always entertaining to watch them. After a delightful breakfast, I was taking it easy getting a couple of on line things taken care of when I got a ping from the dive shop saying the JR dive had been cancelled. Well how about that? I didn’t ask why, just appreciated the fact that I now had the entire day ‘off’. I finished up as much as I could on line and it was only 10:00, so I conjured up the gumption to get up and head out to get the grass cut. Because I skipped it last weekend, it was now in serious need of a mowing. I normally do that on Sundays, so I can run into town and get the ATV yard done at the same time while I’m already sweaty and dusty. I suspected there wouldn’t be any ATV tours today, so when I finished our yard I ran into town and got that yard cleaned up as well, then came back and finished the weed eating here at the house. After I got done, I cleaned and put everything up and came in and cooled off before taking my shower.

We have since had a tasty dinner (chicken cordon bleu with rice and mixed veggies), watched a couple more episodes of Seinfeld (now on the last season). As soon as I finish this (and FB) I can slide over to the couch for a movie~! Tomorrow is a full blown day off (since mowing is done) and I’m excited for it~! Angie said something about the island ‘kids‘ coming by for burgers tomorrow afternoon, but don’t think that has been confirmed yet. That is always a good time when they stop by. If not, I may do burgers and/or hot dogs (I have some new hot dogs I wanna try) any way. I’m about in the mood for a good burger. So far, looks like a fairly calm week ahead. I am taking Tuesday off from diving to help Shawn with a tour or two on the ATV’s. That’ll be a nice change of pace. It’s been a while since I have done that……….

Good Night Ya’ll – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Thankx for stopping in~!

(Vera— eel warning)

Up earlier than I needed, but I always enjoy the extra time….. Got all my stuff assembled and hauled out to the truck….. about that time my bride got up and we had coffee and chatted while I had my breakfast. I got to leave a little later because the dive boat is out West next couple of days and is parked at the pier, which is about 4 minutes from where I live. Headed out to the truck and was a smidge dismayed to see that a goodly portion of my roof [patch] on my truck had let loose and was about to come off. Dammit Emmit~! I came in to get my gorilla tape, but naturally, couldn’t find it….. Dammit Emmit~! My bride recommended packing tape – and I had little choice but to use it. I couldn’t afford to loose my multiple layers of tape. Yes– I have a true island truck…. held together with duct tape, silicone and imagination……. it doesn’t smell very good because the floor board and floor mats stay mostly wet because the roof and windshield leaks and the seats are stained from a lot of wet things in and out of the truck (mainly me), but it runs good and hauls me anywhere I need to go. It has been loaned out to almost every friend we have here on the island for one thing or another, so it’s earned it’s keep so far. I slapped some packing tape on it and away I went….. I should be good for several tanks of gas before I need new/more tape on it.  😉

Our  really full boat this morning dwindled rapidly and by the time we finally got going, only had 5 divers doing their DSD (Discover Scuba Diving), so it was fairly easy keeping up with the divers and making sure I got their shots. I JUST now finished up the pictures from the wine tour last night and everything loaded, so I am just about caught up. Now I can start mowing and all the other little things that need done….. like fixing the roof on my truck  😉 and at some point I need to start laying more floor tile…… my back is starting to hurt just thinking about it…. but that is another conversation…… right now, I’m going to enjoy this drink I am having…… first one in well over two weeks, only gonna have a couple, and happily, don’t really miss it that much any more. I still have a beer when I’m done diving….. but it’s one a day…….. wildly different from my former self……. I still have to reschedule my MRI and still have to try and find out what is causing the issue…… but for now— I’ll enjoy and reap the benefits of not drinking so much in that my stomach and chest don’t hurt and I am actually starting to drop a little weight……… small steps…….

Good Night Ya’ll * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thankx for stopping in~!

Well I think we’re just about back into our regular routine now….. breakfast, heading out the door for some type of ‘work’- back here for editing and drinks and if really lucky a couple of hours for a movie. As it turns out, we inadvertently finished the season of Heartland we were watching….. didn’t realize it, so we are back to watching movies again. I am just about to finish up Seinfeld. So far there is only one episode that I’ve never seen before– which is the main reason (besides the fact I like it) that I started watching it, to see how many episodes I have missed….. 1, so far, and have about a season and a half left.

Pretty unremarkable diving today…. the diving was great, just not a lot of big critters….. but O. M. G….. I was spot on with my strobes today [placement]. When they are set perfectly you get very little to no ‘backscatter’……. backscatter is the little white dots that show up in underwater pictures when the flash bounces off of them…… I can removed it from pictures, but it is at least one click, to remove one spot…… and there can be thousands of those spots~! Very time consuming. Today—- I bet I didn’t remove a total of 50 spots (out of the 100+ pictures I saved) which helped me finish up my editing in record time~!! Now if I can remember (and repeat) how I had the strobes set, I will be able to save myself a butt ton of time while editing~! PLUS– the pictures really pop when there is little or no back scatter in the shot. Pictures from today were awesome– even if I say so my darn self~!

That’s about it good people……. don’t want to try and ramble just for the sake of getting my word count up. Until something a little bit more news worthy happens here on our little rock…. I’ll call it a day. OH!! I found out we have a Wine Tour boat tomorrow afternoon/evening….. I usually don’t get back from those until close to 9:00, so I doubt if there will be a blog tomorrow night.

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

More of the same starting the day out….. 2 fun dives, not much in the way of sharks or turtles or sting rays- but we had Big green moray eels~!! Ya-buddy…. my favorite critter. So be advised Vera….. lots of eel pictures coming up in the next several days. (I’m still not caught up yet….. pictures you are seeing on here right now are from several days ago yet) I’m back in one piece today (yay)…. pictures edited and posted. My Bride fixed up a delicious meal of meat loaf, taters and mixed veggies. I sat and filled out forms, posted stuff on line, scheduled payments, finished up tax stuff, talked about pictures and worked on my gallery….. all while trying to eat. Been a busy couple of hours now and while I basically didn’t get a damn thing done— I got a butt load of stuff done all at the same time. Makes a lot of sense huh.

I’m excited that I am finally getting my gallery set up to where I can start selling some of my pictures~! I think I’m getting good enough that I can start asking for (and getting) some money for some of my better shots. It’s been a long complicated head-ache type pain in the butt, but I think I’m really close to having everything in place for it. My Lil Sis is working on some business cards for me that I’ll be able to start handing out on the boat which I think will finally start bringing me my fair share of tips. Right now it is a long complicated story, but it’s all coming around now.

For those of you not familiar with my web site…. it is an on line photo gallery. Right now you can see pretty much all the pictures I take on there. You can not only see pictures, but you can order prints, albums and lots of other goodies, all based on pictures I have taken. If you’ve never been to it…. I encourage you to check it out. It is absolutely free to look through it (and currently free to download any of the pictures, but not for much longer) The web site is: Billhein.passgallery.com ( http://billhein.passgallery.com )  I’m excited about it~!!

That’s it for now…….. more diving tomorrow…….

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

Up this morning after a mostly delight night’s sleep. I slept most of the night and had a nice dream to boot that seemed like lasted the entire night. Up without feeling groggy or terribly sore. Batteries all loaded, everything loaded into the truck. My bride joined me for my last 30 minutes. Wasn’t in the mood for making breakfast, but wound up nuking a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. Odd…. I’m usually starving and can’t wait to eat breakfast…….

Uneventful day on the boat today. FULL boat today…. all reasonably decent divers, a couple of return divers that I recognized and they me….. Had one young lady showered me with praise over the pictures I took of her back in December. That never gets old  😉 Guess she was happy enough with today’s pictures she went on line and Venmo’d me a really nice tip. It was kinda funny….. I had just PayPal’d a donation to a Grandson for a walk-a-thon thing at his school. Our donation to that was the exact same amount as the tip I got……. in and out all within 5 minutes……so it goes…….

We just finished a Subway sammich that I brought home for dinner. That’s always an adventure stopping in there trying to order something….. but fresh out of the water, I was mostly relaxed and remained mostly that way until I had our sammiches. Do you know that a Subway Tuna salad sammich has more calories than a Subway Turkey and Ham sammich ? Who would thunk it ?? Still….. something just enough to stop the belly from growling and reasonably healthy….. a little bit…. kinda……. sort of~

The Sun is setting later and later here as we warm up into Summer….. (and not getting snow like some places)  😉 The water temperature looks like it has started it’s climb back up to it’s usual 83°. Granted, it’s a slow climb….. but I’ll take it. I just lowered the shutters and turned the lights on here in the house. Me thinks it’s just about time to slide on over to yon couch~~~  😉

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

Vera— heads up— more eel pictures……   😉

Yesterday was one of those wonderfully relaxing days that just kind of casually passes you by without you even realizing it. Slept ‘in’ even though we were both up by 07:00…. a nice easy start to the day, a little bit of breakfast. I piddled with my on line photo gallery trying to figure out how to set it up to start selling some of my pictures. I fooled with it until I was so mad I couldn’t hardly stand it any more. This place won’t let me call and actually talk to a human being, which really just flat pi$$e$ me off~!! All I need is probably a 10 to 15 minute conversation with them – and I would be done. NOOooo… that would be to friggin’ easy. They keep sending me links on how to do stuff and I guess I am not holding my mouth right or something, because I still don’t understand several key points. Instead of ruining my [our] weekend… I just gave up and moved over to the couch for some idiot box watching with my bride. Boy did we see some hum dingers…….. Finally discovered that a new season of Heartland was available (my bride really likes that one) so we started watching it. The next thing we knew it was dark and way past our bedtime…… so I shut everything off and went to bed…… completely skipping all my afternoon stuff.  As it turned out – I didn’t have to do the swimming stuff and a late text told me that I wasn’t taking pictures today (Sunday)…….. so nothing went as originally planned….. it was still a good day.

Today is becoming a repeat of yesterday.  French toast for breakfast…… we did have a little new entertainment though. Our neighbors finally sold their boat which has been sitting in the lot next door for the past year or so. The entertainment came when I went out to watch them try to move it. All six tires on the trailer had went flat and once they got them aired up, they moved the boat about 6′ before the tires all dug into the soft ground and buried the trailer until it was sitting on the ground. An ensuing couple of hours of jacking, digging and getting boards under the tires, they finally got the boat out. I pitched in on a couple of the less strenuous activities, including loaning a shovel and a hammer to the effort. Finally got them on their way and came in for more TV. Sadly, the couple of movies we chose, sucked. So I’m taking a break to do this before we go try it again…….. Back to diving tomorrow~!

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

P3290079 <—- Shark video

Good Afternoon all Y’all……

Pretty tame day today here on our little rock. Yes– even on Aprils Fool’s day. Mercifully, nobody tried to pull any inane tricks on me today. I got ‘over’ that whole thing about 15 years ago….. just a grumpy old fuddy duddy I guess now. LOL~ Up after a mildly better night’s sleep….. enjoying the still cool mornings that we are getting. I think they (cool mornings) are coming to an end as it is usually 80° by the time I get to the marina now. That’s okay with me though….. That’s why we moved here (for the warm weather) and it makes it feels so much better when bailing into the water. I had my lemon water and read up on the news before switching over to FB. After I read comments left for me over night- I got up and loaded the camera up, got everything put together and hauled out to the truck and then came in to make me a good hearty breakfast to get my day going. Two eggs, a couple pieces of sausage, a nuked [leftover] biscuit and a small glass of milk. Just what a growing boy needs….. unfortunately I’m a fat old man  hahahaha…… but it was tasty and carried me easily through both dives. Nothing special about these dives to speak of to. A lot less critters out and about today, but I still managed to save almost a 100 pictures. I am getting pickier and pickier about what I am keeping now. Also cuts down on my editing time by being pickier.  😉

Back here, my Queen fed me some more spaghetti [yum] all my editing is done and posted and my evening stuff is done and I am looking forward to hitting the couch for a movie….knowing I get to sleep in a little bit in the morning. By sleeping in I mean, getting up when I want to instead of when I need to~~ Still not sure what tomorrow is going to bring. I thought I was gonna get called down to do my last couple swimming tests to finish up my Dive Master stuff, but now the Instructor is not sure. One thing I do not have to contend with this weekend is mowing….. lack of rain and cool night temperatures have kept the grass reasonably short this week. A rare treat I only get a couple of times a year (getting to skip a week of mowing). So I’m gonna put some pictures on here for you and go plop down on the couch with my bride for a movie and enjoy the fact I am living my dream~!

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

P3280101 <—- Video  (Turtle swimming)

Howdy Y’all…. a much better day today, although I can’t promise this will be a full 500 words tonight either. After a mediocre nights sleep and waking up with a mostly stiff back….. I got up and moving…stretched enough to work most of the kinks out and got my day started. My Bride was up shortly behind me because she had her second day at Blues to go in for. She must have been extra hungry as she asked for 2 egg & cheese sammiches for her breakfast……. Made my day to make her a second one…..! I got her on her way and was out the door right behind her. EASY boat today. A couple of cancellations and we wound up with only 3 divers on the boat. The seas were a might bit ‘sporty‘ but outside of that — easy peezy day on the boat. No cooperative sharks today, or eels, but got several nice turtle shots and some new shots of Sea Biscuit…..  The Dive Master on board today shared some of the boat tips, so it made for an even better day~! Long complicated story about the tipping process, but as a rule I am not included in boat tips…. so- good day~!

Been looking into having some business cards printed up that should help get the tipping process leaning a bit more in my direction….. I have had multiple requests for them. Most of my customers are older and still feel comfortable with things written down  😉  Ordering cards on line (from this island) is turning out to be as confusing and maddening as trying to get Medi-gap policy….. but I digress. I reached out to Office Depot (we have one of them here on the island) and that whole conversation turned out to be a phenomenal waste of my time, so I’m just gonna go into the store and see what I can get done there….. Might have to have a drink or six before I do that though~~~ Speaking of which…… really, really, really cut way back on my alcohol intake (Maybe a 6 pack since I have been back) I think I may have actually lost a pound or so~!! Small steps I guess. It’s also been a year since I quit smoking and since I officially started taking pictures for Cane Bay. All kinds of fun stuff~! Diving again tomorrow….. a little fuller boat, but should still be an easy day compared to that last cruise ship day. Might also try and finish my Dive Master stuff this weekend…… busy, busy, busy!

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

P3270100 <—- Sting Ray video for my Mess

This is probably gonna be short y’all…….. I sat and did the picture thing until 6:00…. then immediately went to work trying to get the Medicare extra policies I need. It is now 8:00 and my nerves are shot and I’m madder than a wet hen…… Can’t get a medi-gap plan, can’t get the advantage plan and can’t get most services offered just because of where we live…… what a load of horse shit~!!  I’m sorry- but I am PO’ed~!!! This is U.S. Territory and we’re being treated like 3rd world citizens living here…. what a load of crap~!! I’m going to wind up paying almost what I paid for private insurance and only get a third as good of the service. It’s Bull Shit~!!! !@#$%^&*&^%$#@#$%^&*&^%$#@#$%^&*(

On a brighter note…… I had a GREAT day under the water today….LOTS and LOTS of sharks, Sting Ray, Turtle, Lobsters and my favorite, a big green Moray eel~! You won’t see those pictures tonight…… I’m still catching you up from other dives…… but I’ll try and give you a warning Vera when I do put the eel pictures up  😉

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

Up bright and early….. batteries all bump charged and loaded into the camera and flashlights. A hot tasty breakfast and I was out the door for a day of chasing folks off of the big ole cruise ship parked at out dock. ( I can see the boat from here) Cruise ship divers are usually energetic, fun, [usually very inexperienced] divers. They don’t rate very high up on the scales as tippers either, but that does not diminish the service we provide them one iota~! Todays two loads were maybe a hair over that inexperienced line…. wooo-weee. The first dive was supposed to be certified experienced divers….. while the majority of the Eight of them did pretty decent, there were a couple that turned into a handful. As the guy “bringing up the rear” of that dive….. most of it fell to me handle. Nothing terrible, but it made me have to drop my camera and handle it….. which means not a lot of picture taking.

The second dive were all first time divers. There was an extra Dive Master assigned to that load. So the first Dive master took his experience folks and took off….. I stayed to take pictures of the newbies with the other two Dive Masters. WOW…… SOOOoooo many things happening right off the bat. I spent the bulk of that dive helping out with folks who were struggling. So once again I dropped my camera to deal with the issues at hand. Understand, my camera is tethered to me, so it dangles underneath me. Some of these folks get really excited and you have to keep them in check and safe, so watching what you’re swimming into, away from, onto….. can be a challenge all in itself. Somewhere along the line, my camera apparently made contact with some rocks or coral and I now have a couple of big ole gnarly scratches on my viewing screen. DAMMIT Emmit~! On  top of that, there were hardly any pictures taken during that dive, so the odds of getting tips from that dive are really slim….. DAMMIT EMMIT~!! I guess it’s a good thing I’m retired and not relying on that money to earn a living……although in all fairness if I was, I would be doing things a WHOLE set different~!  😉

Back at the house, showered, belly full of some scrumptious spaghetti. Pictures are edited and posted (easier/quicker to do when you only have half the amount of pictures you normally have)….. some surprise rain showers are blowing through and there is a wonderfully cool breeze coming through with the rain. Should make great sleeping. The cruise ship just sounded it’s horns and is pulling out away from the dock bound for it’s next destination….. I think I will move on to my next destination as well……. (the couch)  😉 More diving tomorrow~!

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