Author: Bill

Hello all—

I know I have been out a lot longer than I usually am out, but this outage was a little different from the others. I guess most, if not all of you know, I went back to the states for the death of yet another Sister. This time it was Leta. Leta was a year younger than me and while her health had been a mess for the past decade, she was actually doing really well recently. Guess that is the main reason this came as such a shock. Nobody saw it coming. According to the Coroner, it was very quick in her sleep. The optimum way to go if your are lucky enough to have a choice. So we got that whole thing done and out of the way and then spent some time with family. The days and nights were filled with a lot of family time and things to do. We got to see almost everybody we wanted to see including my #1 blog fan Vera, whom I’m happy to report is doing wonderful and looking wonderful as well~!!  I think the Damn Neighbors were the only ones we couldn’t line up schedules with….. hopefully the next time. Lots of ground covered in the air and again on the ground……. way to much driving for $4.00 a gallon gasoline and especially after flying 2000 miles~! Oh well……….. The weather mostly sucked, which made it even tougher to be there….. so, so, so happy to be back on our warm little rock. I had one day to recoup and try and get stuff together, before being lured back onto the dive boat….. LOL. I used the term lured…. loosely~~~

Once back on the island– Met up with a young man and young lady from our neck of the woods back in the states. They took us to dinner and ‘picked our brains’ about our little piece of heaven here. They had been here a week already but happy we got back in time to spend some time with them. I’ve known him since he was knee high to a grass hopper and I worked for several years with her out at SABIC. It was a very enjoyable evening and meal with them. They are heading back tomorrow.

In the meantime, I am back at ‘work’. Lord have mercy it felt good to hit that water……it was like being in a massive all body hug. What made it even better, was we are having unheard of visibility right now….. 300+’….. incredible~! Didn’t see many critters today….. but it was like swimming in an aquarium….. just what I needed for my first day back. I have the first two dives of the day under my belt now, pictures have been edited and put up. We even ran down to Louie & Nacho’s for dinner as my Queen was hankering for some more Cheeseburger Taco’s. We’re back now and I’m trying to settle back into a routine once again….. this is my start~~~ Busy, busy, busy day tomorrow….. cruise ship in…. always makes for an entertaining and busy, busy day and lots of pictures~!

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

Made a couple of dives this morning…. took a lot of pictures with some really good, fun folks…….. got back to the house (my Bride was at work) gave my gear an extra good rinsing as I know it’ll be probably a week or better before I get to use it again and I need it to be clean and ready for the next time…….. Last night, I sat and edited pictures until I thought I would puke…… but I didn’t, mainly because I had some really awesome pictures….. [[ even if I say so myself]]  😉      I actually got caught up for 3 different dives this afternoon……. I took almost a thousand pictures yesterday (literally)…. and ran out of time last night trying to get them edited and posted. I think maybe only the second time in a year, I did not get pictures “up” on the same day of the dive………. A fun productive day today…… lots of good fun pictures……. my bride finally made it home. I broke down and am having drinks with her..,… probably 1 [maybe 3] to many drinks…… but where my heart and head is right now…. think I may kinda need it. Leta leaving us hit me a little harder than I was ready for. Unfortunately, my Bride has to deal wit that side affect……. booze probably ain’t making it any better, but this is a hurt that needs a little ‘help‘ coming out. A text from a good [work] friend kinda put me over the edge… but again… a push [I think] I needed. Hopefully will get to connect while we are back state side…..

Have to be honest. Right now, not really looking forward to this trip back. Yes- always great to see family and friends while we’re there……. but……… traveling until late in the night tomorrow, so probably no blog tomorrow night. Plans already being put together for get togethers for as long as we’re there this time…. so not sure how often I will get on here until we get back to our little sanctuary….. patience please as I sort my way through this one………….

Good Night Ya’ll………………………………….. Thankx for stopping in~!

After going to bed plenty early last night in anticipation of getting up to go diving…….and getting a mostly pitiful night’s sleep, I was rudely awakened by the alarm that I had set. That was the first time in recent memory that I was not awake well before the alarm went off. Regardless.. I got up, did my bath room stuff and sat down at the table, still mostly in a fog. Somewhere along the line, I remembered to put all my batteries on charge so they were all ready. I reloaded everything, hauled it out to the truck and then sat back down at table to catch up on the events of the previous day. I had absolutely no appetite what’s so ever, but forced an egg, sausage & cheese biscuit into me. I was just about to head out the door when my bride came out. Actually, I think I woke her up when I had to ‘sneak’ back into the bedroom to look for my trunks. That should give you an idea how out of sorts I am…… my trunks and rash guards normally just stay in then bathroom because they never completely ever dry out. Anyhow— guess I need to work on my ‘sneaking’~ I made it to the boat, did remember how to set my gear up…. prepped my camera and away we went. Thankfully, a fairly small group today. When I first hit the water, I thought maybe I made a mistake going diving. I just kind of suspended there under the water like I had been stunned. Thankfully, I snapped out of it fairly quickly and my brain re-engaged. From there on out, the rest of the day went pretty much without any spacing out or issues. I got a lot of really great pictures (and even made a decent amount in photo tip money~!)

Back at the house, pictures edited and posted my Queen indicated she would like a couple of Taco’s if I was up for it. I am always up for when she wants to go out. Honestly, I had zero appetite, but knew I would need something before bed, so I had a burger and a couple of fires, washed down by a decently cold Budweiser. Now back here, watching the sun set. I was under the impression most of the day that there would be no diving for me tomorrow because there wasn’t going to be enough room on the boat. The Dive Master today changed all that saying there is always room on the boat for me…… [[aweee]]……. and now– as it turns out, I’m not only diving tomorrow, but will be on both boats…… so 4 dives tomorrow. That is why I try to never make plans for anything on this island…… gotta just go with the flow~~ I’m good with it as I have another ‘dry’ spell coming up. Wednesday is the last day I can dive, so gonna dive while the diving is good..

Just got a message from Alex with the details for Leta’s services. I will wait until tomorrow to share that information in case he needs to tweak it any.

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

I finished up all my ‘stuff‘ last night a little earlier than usual was and was feeling pretty smug in the comfort of already having had my shower and being camped in a position on the couch that alleviated most of my back pain. We were watching a movie [whose name already escapes me and I’m too lazy to Google it]  was  just starting to get half way decent when my phone went off. Because my phone rarely ever rings, I tend to answer it when it does. It ‘pings’ all the time and I admittedly have become quite complacent about not even looking at it when it does (pings). By the time I managed to hit the pause button on the remote, found one [weirdly] missing flip flop and waddled my big, old, fat nash over to the table where my phone was, it had quit ringing. Pulling up the information, I saw where it was my Nephew [Alex] that I hear from occasionally. He is also my number one source of intel on my little Sister Leta [his Mom] and how she is doing. If you know me, or follow this blog any, you know my Sister Leta has had a tough road to hoe when it comes to her health. In all fairness, I personally think she she brought a lot of her issues on her self and I would routinely would ‘grind‘ on her about it. I figured she had did something else stupid to make her health take a turn for the worse and Alex was just keeping me up on the newest events. The second I heard the tone of his voice, I knew that was not the case……. I wasn’t quite ready for this….. during her afternoon nap, my Sister Leta passed away from an apparent heart attack in her sleep.

The next 18 hours are kind of a blur. I was supposed to sleep last night…… I was supposed to dive today (3 dives)…… neither of those happened……. I don’t remember a whole lot else…… just a messed up kind of day…. I knew I shouldn’t be underwater today….. seems liked I worked on the kitchen door for a little bit….. I did some grass mowing….. I knew that was gonna need done before we leave…. so that’s done… door is fixed….. got plane tickets, a car reserved…. I think we’re about ready…… We will be coming in late Thursday the 15th.  We don’t have to many other details right now….. but we’re moving forward. Slowly. Because the most important details have been taken care of now….. I can relax a little bit. I’m gonna get in a couple of dives before we go back…….. some type of normalcy before the craziness of the end of the week commences……

Alex has not put anything on social media about his Mom passing yet, so please do NOT mention anything about this to me on social media yet (FB, IG, Twitter, or any of those others)…. Thank you— Posts here will probably get more seldom as this week wears on….. bear with me~~~

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

Up this morning watching it rain and happily wiping out any thought of mowing the grass that I had. Even though I had a decent nights sleep, I still had pain in enough places that mowing the yard was one of the very last things on the planet that I wanted to today. My Bride made us a small breakfast and while she did dishes, I went into our spare room and cleaned out the closest, repaired the shelf that had fell down and put all my stuff up that I had drug out the last several days. With that done, I took a handful of Ibuprofen and sank into the couch. There I sat until a handful of minutes ago. Doing my afternoon ‘stuff’….. watching out investment accounts spiral nastily downward. They have been doing pretty crappy all year but with this Russia/Ukraine business they are really going into the toilet. Dammit Emmit. I’d hate to have to come back to the states because of crap like that, but when prices climb frantically there in the states, here on the island they really go nuts. So far, we are holding our own though. As I sit here, it occurs to me, the sun has been shining most of the day and the grass looks easily cut-able….. drats….. guess I should have checked earlier  😉

Instead of my normal weekend ‘off’ – I am going to go diving, 1) since I haven’t been wet in almost a week and 2) a previous guest reached out to me and said she is going to be back on island for a couple of days, diving with our shop and by chance would I happen to be on any of the boats she will be on. How can I turn down not getting on those boats ? Plus, tomorrow afternoon is our bi-monthly “JR” Dive, where we encourage parents to come out diving with their kids. Used to be an afternoon people came and just dropped their kids off, but the past several months, they have been actually going out diving with them. It makes for great pictures. It’s a lot of work to chase them little scallywag’s around all over the ocean floor, but it’s worth it…… so from a week of nasty physical labor to starting my new week off with making 3 dives on Sunday. I like it. I’m putting up a Hodgepodge of pictures tonight for you to look at that I have snapped over the past week or so, so a little bit of everything for you tonight…….

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

Slept in ever so slightly this morning after staying up a little later than usual editing pictures. I mentioned I had a wine pairing to shoot and that I did…… but only after getting the kitchen floor grouted. Pain in the but task, but one that has to be done. Got it grouted, shaved and showered and then off for a couple of hours watching the sun set and shooting pictures while folks sampled wine and had snacks that were prepared especially for those wines. A fun evening and everybody had a good time. I got the pictures edited but decided to wait until today to get them put up. I sat quietly and had my lemon water while I waited for my Queen to join me. She did really good sleeping in. We had our coffee as we could walk on the kitchen floor. Because the stove was sitting in the living room and I was anxious to get the kitchen put back together- I skipped breakfast and launched into what I needed to return the kitchen to standard operating conditions. That involved trimming a metal framed screen door, but thankx to my new cordless grinder, the job went relatively easy. I then bounced and slid the stove back into place and then the refrigerator. That was as big as a pain in the touchas as I figured it would be, but it is done. Scuff marks rubbed out, a good sweeping and our kitchen is back in order with a shiny new floor~! 60 sq. ft. done….. about 500 more to go~~~ maybe. 😉

Due to the fact, I skipped any kind of nutrition this morning, as Supper time rolled around- I was starving. In a celebratory mood I suggested KFC or Subway and Angie decided on KFC. I ran uptown, walked straight in and straight up to the counter, got my order toot sweet and was back out the door. I was er-mazed~! Back just in time to watch our neighbor wrestle an exploratory Iguana out of his bathroom….. I thought it was funny until I realized we had a smaller version (neighbors was pretty fair size) trying to gain access to our house. We got ours out with a lot less effort and hassle. Finished supper and now here explaining my day to you all…… Yet another cruise ship just sounded it’s horn and backed out of our little dock……. life goes on here on the island. I’m taking tomorrow ‘off’- then doing a couple of boats on Sunday. Last one being another one of our “JR” dives…. always a busy albeit fun dive to shoot.

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

P3010274 <— Turtle swimming video

Well I said I would try to keep enough strength to get on here and let you know I didn’t kill myself…….. I didn’t, but I sure took a whoopin‘. WOW…… I’m trying to stick to the mantra, “Don’t let the old man in” ….. but after today I thought about it for a little bit. Holy Toledo……. I didn’t realize just how far and badly out of shape I am. Today erased any questions……. It’s been a hot minute since I did this kind of work and frankly, would like to think I won’t ever have to do it again….. but that is letting the old man in….. and I ain’t ready for that yet. So I’m gonna get me a hot shower to hopefully ease the throbbing in my back and then stretch out on the couch and/or bed and try to rest up for tomorrow. For reasons entirely to lengthy to go into here, I decided not to take up the old tile. A decision that I feel got better with every tile I laid. Had a host of other issues trying to get the job started. I should have known and expected that- but I was trying to be hopeful. Bottom line…. we have a brand new floor in our kitchen now. Tomorrow I’m gonna do the grout and Friday I should be able to put the appliances back in. For now though…… I have kept the old man at bay one more day….. tomorrow is another (hopefully easier) day.

I did find out we have a Wine Pairing scheduled for tomorrow evening and the boss would like me to shoot it…. so hopefully I’ll get the floor grouted early enough to be able to get a shower and get on the boat for the Wine cruise. At least it is out on our end of the island this time, so we should have a spectacular sunset for it.

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

Well, once again, plans made, plans blown right out of the water……… started out Monday morning. Everything going to plan….. truck loaded with everything I needed for the day….. you know, gear, camera’s, fresh batteries, beer. I made me a good nutritious breakfast and was soon out the door. It’s kinda funny….. as I come around one curve in particular, I can look ahead and see the dive boat sitting at it’s spot along side the little pier and I say [usually to myself] “that’s my boat..” channeling my best Forrest Gump. Only this morning as I was forming the words in my head as I came around the curve, I looked up to see my boat wasn’t there. Hhmmmm….. I pulled in and parked thinking maybe they had run it out for a trial run or something. I checked the staff conversation on line to make sure I hadn’t missed a conversation saying the boat was supposed to be out West and didn’t see any. Perplexed- I finally reached out and was finally replied to that ‘Sorry- we assumed you knew the boat was out West’. Dammit Emmit. I was going to get bent out of shape about it and throw a fit…….. but when I thought about it, I thought, you know what…. #$% it, no skin off my a$$. I mean, am missing an opportunity to dive and maybe make a couple of bucks, but you know what……? In the grand scheme of things….. it just wasn’t worth getting fired up about. So, I stopped and picked up a dolly and headed back to the house. My Bride was happy to have me home and we wound up making a day of it. Snacking and watching movies. As such, the day kinda got away from us. We had our phones turned down and was having a ball watching movies together. We actually managed to find a couple of good ones, even though the names escape me right now. When I realized I hadn’t done any of my evening stuff….. it was too late to worry about it then…… We finally got up and went to bed.

We both got to sleep  in after a decent night’s sleep….. My Bride racking up an extra couple of hours of sleeping in. As it turns out, because of schedules, there was not going to be a morning dive boat. Because I had made afternoon plans, I could not do the afternoon dive, so I had the day off today as well. After a nice breakfast, I began prepping for my next couple of days. I am going to put a new floor in our kitchen. The first thing needing done, was getting the refrigerator out of the kitchen. I have a very small kitchen and it had to come out. To make that task even more fun….. I had to take the doors off of it so it would fit through the door to get it out. Since I’m at my limit already, I’ll go into the condensed version….. Finally got the doors off, fridge moved and doors remounted. So fridge is now in our little bitty living room with us. I’ll slide the stove out tomorrow after I make my Queen her breakfast and get her on her way to work. Then I’ll launch into tearing out the floor…… should be an interesting day to say the least. I will try and save enough energy and strength to write a little something tomorrow night.

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

IMG_4865 <— Dolphin video

IMG_4877 <—- Video

As a rule…… I don’t dive on the weekends. This is by design and strictly due to personal preferences……. I dove today……. and was reminded multiple times why I don’t normally dive weekends. The dives were okay, the divers were not an issue, the water condition was a little sportier than usual, but nothing that couldn’t be dealt with. I really don’t want to go into those reasons…… just suffice to say I was slightly more than agitated by the time I got back to the house. This is more of a challenge now for my Queen because she cannot pour me 2 or 9 good strong drinks to calm my happy a$$ down. Dammit Emmit~!!! Can’t go out and deep inhale a cigarette to help calm my happy a$$ down either. DAMMIT Emmit~!!!! If I could have enjoyed a couple of smokes on the way home….. I would have been in a better, proper mood to greet my Queen…….. my nerves wouldn’t be as shot either…… #$%^&*(*&^%$#~!!!!!! Really starting to wonder if quitting drinking AND smoking was a good idea or not…….. of course I’m kidding [kinda]……. guess I need to find another (healthier) way of de-stressing….. guess I could just not dive on weekends…… but pretty sure that ain’t gonna happen. As a matter of fact, I am diving again tomorrow….. but it will be much different from today. 1) it will only be one dive, 2) it will not be off of the boat, instead, jumping off of the pier. 3) I will be starting the day off by being a Safety Diver for our local swim team. I volunteer to do it and usually do it for them once or twice a year. When I get done with my duties for them I get to “burn up/use” the rest of my air, so I’ll just do a nice casual dive by myself. I will not have my [big]camera with me, although I will have my little Go Pro with me…. so it’ll be a nice, [mostly] quiet, relaxing morning. Will probably have to mow grass when I get back…… no rest for the wicked… or weary….. I forget……   😉     Short diving week next week….. I think…… I’ll explain tomorrow.

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

Vera—- The Caribbean Team is rooting for you from way down here. Hurry up and get your self healed up so you can get back and keep an eye on those Damn Neighbors of ours……  I think they’re up to something~!  😉

Another typical day, or so I thought as I made me my breakfast and readied myself for yet another day under the water. Day was going pretty much like the others…… another very small group today (which secretly pleases me because I get to spread out and have lots of room on the boat) so another easy picture day. We had a roaring 3 whole guests on the boat today so we wound up having more staff than guests. It happens every once in a while. First dive was going along smooth and easy…….  I was laying in behind everybody, trying to get the shark’s attention, which didn’t work at all today…… as I started to catch up with the group, I saw one of the divers pointing frantically off to the distance. As I tried to figure out what was rustling his feathers, an Eagle Ray came into view. Now I’m sure I have mentioned these magnificent creatures before and some of you may be familiar with them from seeing them on TV…….. but for those that need a reminder….. an Eagle Ray is shaped very much like a Sting ray. I see those (Sting Ray) on almost every dive. An Eagle ray though is much bigger. The tail is 3-4 times longer than a Sting Rays tail and an Eagle Ray does not have a barb on it’s tail like the Sting Ray. It also has gorgeous marking all over it’s back, where Stings Rays are your basic olive drab brownish-green. Well friends, neighbors and countrymen….. let me tell you. As soon as I spotted it, I took off, swimming as fast and as hard as I could, to try and intercept that magnificent creature. I might remind you….. that I am a portly, elderly type of diver (that sounds nicer that old fat fart) and for me to exert that kind of energy requires some serious huffing and puffing on my part. But I made it brother, I am here to tell you…… while I did not get the ‘right on top of’ kind of pictures I would have liked….. I managed several brag-able pictures. It took me quite some time to get my breath bank and because I used up so much air, the Dive Master had to turn the dive (head back to the boat) a little early.  He was a little wigged out that I ran out of air that quick until he found out why. Turns out, he didn’t see the Eagle Ray, so then he understood. He wasn’t happy he missed it—- but glad the guests got to see it and that I managed pictures of it. Second dive was much tamer….. just sharks, Sting Rays, you know…. the usual under water wonderfulness I get to look at at (and photograph) every day~! Normally off on the weekend, but one of the Dive Masters is doing an Open Water certification  and requested me on the load to document the event for the young man. Happy to do it.

Happy Birthday to “My Squirt” Evelyn…. a big 12 years old today~!!

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

HAD to put one picture of the Eagle Ray here for you……. I’m still putting up pictures (here) from last week  😉