Author: Bill

Up and at ’em bright and early this morning to get started for another day of diving. Still have the big group from [neighboring] Springfield IL – Dive club called Scuba Sports. A nice group of friendly folks. Visibility is still leaving a lot to be desired, especially after the monsoon rain we got overnight – but it was tolerable and very little current, which is always a good thing~! First dive site is one known to have sharks and they came out in grand style~! So I have lots of fun shark shots for you~! (at some point)  Second dive was a good one as well, but not quite as exciting as the first dive. My camera battery conked out (charger issue) just over 1/2 way through the last dive, so slightly fewer pictures taken….. but still got plenty.

I mentioned the monsoon rain we had last night…… I went to take my gear out to the truck and it was sitting in about 4″ of water….. Dammit Emmit~! So I waited until it was time to go and hauled everything out at once and only had to make the one trip….. love starting the day out having to wade to the truck (flip flops don’t keep your feet very dry). It is now parked back over by the fence until the mud dries up again.

Long day tomorrow. Have the Scuba Sport group again in the morning and shooting the IDC candidates again in the afternoon. They are doing their deep dive specialties…… so I get to get some deep water diving in…… woo-hoo~! We won’t go past 130′, so not that deep, but still looking forward to it~! I think I am also doing portfolio shots of the candidates, so I’m bringing my land camera with me as well. Love shooting that thing~! I probably won’t even get back to the house until well after 5:00 – so probably not going to be a blog (or FB) post tomorrow as I will have probably 600+ pictures to go through….. and not getting started until that late…. it’ll be one of them finish up and fall into bed days and get ready for another long day on Thursday. Probably not everybody’s version of ‘retired life’ – – – but I sure am liking it~!

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

Greetings and salutations all…….. wow-wow-wow….. crazy busy week and it doesn’t look like it’s gonna slow down any time this week. Probably one of the calmer days today so I thought I better jump on here and try to get something written. Will probably forget most of the stuff that has happened, but I have plenty of pictures for you~! I went to the Marine Corp birthday party hosted here on the island. My island ‘kid‘ was there and I felt the need to make an appearance and buy him a beer. An Air Force guy in amongst all those Jarheads….. talk about feeling like a Chihuahua in the middle of a pack of Pitbull’s …. yeeesh~~ It wasn’t bad though (besides the beer) I’m used to getting razzed about being in the “Chair Force”, especially from Marines, but it is all in good fun [mostly]   😉   I bought him a drink and hung out for a little bit, before quietly sliding out and coming back home.

Let’s see….. oh yea-! I just started my second batch of medicine for my belly. Very, very happy to report the meds are doing their job~! Almost all of the bloating has stopped and is gone. My stomach is no longer distended and it feels wonderful. I am actually getting hungry again, which is not all good as I am trying desperately to lose some of this gut – but it definitely looks like I am on the right path to “healing up” finally~!! The second batch of medicine I am taking came with a strict warning of absolutely no alcohol. That was all well and good but I really missed my after diving Budweiser and today I figured I would test it’s theory…. so far, so good…..(but don’t tell anyone)  😉 We have a big group of divers in from neighboring Springfield IL and today was my first diving with them. Fun group and they are keeping me busy chasing after them for pictures. I have all week with them, so I should be able to capture them all soon enough.

On a fun sad/good note….. my dive gear is slowly coming apart at the seams. I discussed it with my Queen and she agreed with me, that I needed to invest in some new gear. Which I did…… I swear, I was like a kid at Christmas walking into the shop to look for new gear. I had chatted with multiple divers about their gear and the owner of the shop who is probably the most versed dude you’ll ever meet when it comes to dive gear. I finally settled on a set up I liked. The owners gave me a heckva employee discount and I am now diving a brand spanking new rig. Only got 4 dives on it so far, but absolutely in love with it (and it’s purty). I had a picture of it on my phone but somehow managed to delete it…… so I’ll have to take another one of it on the boat. Kinda makes me mad…. the one I had was taken when it was brand spanking, never been dove, new……. oh well~~~ At my limit already…..

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

Sorry about missing these past couple of days……. had afternoon boats each day and I ‘needed‘ to be on them. Hell being an in demand photographer~~  😉   Afternoon boats put me back here around 5:00 and it’s 9:30 before I get done editing and putting pictures up and I am wiped by then…. so– sorry…… Been doing a lot of diving and snapping pictures, so I have lots to share with you. Today was one boat and I am already done with my pictures. Not waiting til the normal time to do this because I think I’m gonna run out to a local watering hole and buy a friend a drink to celebrate the Marine Corp birthday. All the other branches of the service don’t feel the need to make a big fuss over their beginning, but the Jar Heads feel the need to do it and I like this particular Marine – so I’m gonna go and show him a little respect, so just a blurb tonight to let you know I’m hanging in there……. More tomorrow (maybe)….. tomorrow is Veterans day and I might run down to Blues to hang out with Jim — I haven’t got to see him in a while and I could [probably] be late getting back from that…… 🙂  Enjoy the pictures…. I’ll get back to some sense of normalcy soon…. maybe.

(Vera – Some eel pictures below)

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

Up at the crack of dawn with a headache and had to whizz to boot – so I just went ahead and got up and stayed up, did my bathroom stuff and then went and took a handful aspirin and started my day. Due to the cruise ship due in late, I didn’t need to be at the dock until 11:30, so I had a nice relaxed morning to get started. My Bride slept in a little bit before finally joining me around 08:00.  She had an appointment to get her car worked on and needed to be out the door by 9:00 – so after a couple of cups of coffee, I made her an egg sammich and got her on her way.

FB started blowing up that the cruise ship was being cancelled because of rough water at the dock – so finally the dive boat was cancelled and taken back around to to the marina. Ironically, the cruise ship finally made it in, but the water was much to ugly to try and get ‘newbie‘ divers into the water. I just feel bad for the people that were scheduled because I know how excited I got every time I scheduled something new. On top of that- most of the street vendors heard the boat was cancelled, so they packed up their stuff and went back to their shops or houses, so I can’t imagine there was a lot of stuff for the passengers to look at or do once they did get off the ship. I am not surprised at that fiasco.

My Bride finally made it back and after catching up on everything, we settled in for a movie. It was a mushy romance movie that she likes and I tolerate, simply because we couldn’t find any of the type of movies I like (that we haven’t already seen) I don’t remember the name of it, but if you seen one of those type movies – you’ve pretty much seen them all.

I have taken all my batteries off charge and will only need a bump charge in the morning. Right now, scheduled for the morning AND afternoon boats – so four dives. One of the people on the afternoon dive just pinged me to ask if I will be on the afternoon boat. I dove with him Friday and I suspicion he wants some more pictures. I saw where he has downloaded some already. I like it when people request that I am on the boat. The morning boat is supposed to be another load of cruise shippers, but not near as many people this time, which makes it a lot easier on me, but severely cuts down on the possible tips. And— that’s if the ship can make it in…… local intel says it may still be to rough again. We’ll see. For now, a beautiful sunset and 80° with lots of big ole clouds everywhere……..

Happy Birthday to My Girl Stephanie — hit the big 40 this year~!

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

Interesting day yesterday….. rain, rain and then more rain…… Enough rain that the ATV tours got cancelled. With no tour to do and no electricity out at their house, Angie invited our island kids to our house for breakfast (and electricity). The eventually pulled up and hopped over the small river we had flowing down our driveway. My Queen whooped up a big ole batch of biscuits, gravy, sausage and bacon and boy-howdy was it tasty~! I think it may have even been a little better because it was piping hot and it was actually just a lit bit chilly here (well, okay island chilly….. it was in the low 70°’s) Everybody’s belly’s were full and we were chatting when everything shut off. Dammit Emmit, now we didn’t have any electricity. We continued to chat which passed the time much quicker and after an hour or so, everything sprang back to life. The kids were ready for a nap so they waded the now much bigger stream over to their vehicle and splashed their way down the driveway. Enjoying the electricity while we could, we settled in on the couch for some movies. First one was a good one – The Good Nurse. I’d give give it a strong 7 out of 10. Second movie was Back of the Net…. and it was so-so…a weak 6. Third movie was Mr. Harrigan’s Phone….. we both liked it and I’d give that one a sold 8. Stars Donald Sutherland and he did an excellent job. We wrapped our night up with a few more episodes of Hell’s Kitchen. We’re watching Season 12 again.

Up this morning after listening to rain most of the night. We had some more rain but finally cleared long enough to let the sun op out for a little bit. We had a small breakfast before taking off to pick up the neighbors Jeep at the mechanic for them. The grass finally got dry enough I suppose I could have maybe got a lawn mower across it – but my Bride said no and convinced me to sit and watch TV. We watched another movie – The Worlds Greatest Beer Run. Based on a true story and we both enjoyed it – would give it a solid 7. Then I tried again (in vain) to get the Colts game…….. Dammit Emmit~! (although after seeing the latest update, I would have been pretty disappointed if I did watch it) Still pi$$es me off I can’t get it here on this 3rd world little island. I have the Chargers and the Bucs playing in the back ground now but the [cable] picture quality is so crappy – it’s not worth looking over at it. I was supposed to go pick up the neighbors at the airport, but the air lines are playing their games now, so I’m waiting for a text to say they are on a plane. I think they did finally make it to Puerto Rico, so they’re close. I just hope it ain’t pouring rain by the time they get here as it looked to be clabbering up as the sun was setting.

Back in the water tomorrow for a bunch of first time Cruise ship folks. Always a busy and challenging dive. Rest of the week looks even busier with a couple of days maybe doing double boats.

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

The other reason we don’t go to KFC very often

IMG_2665   <—- Video of our “river”

Up way early this morning to answer “Ma Natures” call — I felt great and using 20/20 hind sight, should have staid up – but NOOoooo….. lets go on back to bed and waller around and wait until about 15 minutes before I was supposed to get up, to fall into a nice deep sleep so I feel like A$$ when I had to get up. Humans are some stupid pieces of work I tell ya. Up and at it – I got all my batteries loaded, camera loaded and everything put together. I made me a scrumptious breakfast and got my cooler of beer put together just before my Queen came stumbling out. I did get to have a coff of cuppee with her before I took off for the Marina. Traffic was almost reasonable and I got there plenty early. Gear all put together and ready to dive. A tad less crowded boat and there were several familiar faces on board as well as a couple of newbies. I introduced myself to the newbies and went through my spiel about my pictures. Less than desirable weather today and [the very rare] absolutely zero sunshine, but viz wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and the underwater critters were cooperative, so all in all – two pretty decent dives~!

Back here at the house, my Queen had drinks waiting and wrapped it up with some wonderfully delicious Spaghetti for dinner. Belly full, already had my shower and looking forward to settling in on the couch for some [probably] more Hells Kitchen. Taking the weekend off and gearing up for a very busy week with lots of cruise ship guests. Gonna quit here. Could talk about how and why cruise ship guests are a handful, but just not in that mood.

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

Well I’m fairly sure I clicked on something I probably shouldn’t have is why my update on this took so long last night, but one way or the other I got it figured out. Fun morning of diving yesterday and boy-howdy was it good to good back in that water~! I was a little concerned about my chest not being cleared out enough for diving, but I didn’t have any issues and even though we had less than stellar visibility, it was wonderful to be back down there. Had lots of fun critters to see and photograph and my strobes were on point, hardly any backscatter to contend with. On that note, during my brief hiatus from the water, I updated my Windows on my laptop. I did not think about my editing tool when I did it and was dismayed to find out the new Windows 11 editing tool is no where near as good as Windows 10 was. Dammit Emmit~! However…… during my stay with my Honeybear, she convinced me I needed to get Photoshop. I got it and Lite Room but admittedly did not do much with them when I had the chance. Well sir….. yesterday, I didn’t have much of an option…. new underwater pictures and while they were admittedly some of the best pictures I have ever taken (as far as strobe placement) — they still needed touched up and my new Windows editor wasn’t going to do it. Dammit Emmit. So I settled in and after a couple of hours was using at least part of it [Photoshop]. I had to go back and forth between the two editing systems, but I got done what I needed done. Again today as well and it went much quicker after learning a valuable lesson yesterday. When you have that kind of editing power, you can eat up a bunch of time on one pictures if you’re not really careful~! So keeping that in the front of my mind, today’s editing was much faster. On my next day off, I’m going to have to sit down and watch a bunch of tutorials on how to use the rest of it. Not really what I want to do – but it looks like I will be able to make my pictures even better~!

Today was another good day diving, with lots and lots of friendly sharks. Friendly enough I even had one wind up between my legs while I was pushing another away from me with my camera. That was my queue to get the hell outta Dodge~! My only regret, is I didn’t have my video running for that little episode. My last sharky video got well over a thousand views….. I’m sure this one would have done just as well. Oh well– live and learn~! Back on the boat again tomorrow and what looks to be an extremely busy week next week with lots of cruise ships coming in and an IDC (Instructor Development Course) going on at the same time. I think I’m gonna be pulled into the IDC course this year for pictures while it’s going on. Always a fun and physically challenging event.

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

(Pictures from yesterday)

Actually slept in a teeny tiny bit this morning, but some of that was staying up late watching Hells Kitchen. Now we have seen every season of that show (at least once) but for some reason we are on it again. Actually have watched it all day too. My Bride stayed fairly busy today with making breakfast, doing dishes, took laundry in to get done while I mostly piddled. One of my items though was getting my gear back together to go diving. I didn’t realize I did such an efficient job of disassembling my gear before we left, but I staid at it and other than a bump charge on a couple of batteries….. I’m ready to go diving….. and I get to – tomorrow morning~!

A fairly relaxing day everything considered, a couple of soothing rain showers to listen to, some Hells Kitchen and each others company. Nice, before we both head off for ‘work’ tomorrow. I think things are about back to normal. I’m a little bit curious to see how my lungs hold up getting over that crud, but I feel good, so I guess we’ll see. I think my new belly medicine is starting to kick in……. [predicted] issues a little bit, but a noticeable decrease in the bloating and there has been a couple of times, my belly actually growled because it was hungry instead of in pain. I am hopeful I am finally on the right track to getting my belly lined out. Now to get my Queen lined out. Doc says she needs to see a lung doctor and naturally, there is not one on this island, so we will be trekking to St. Thomas for her appointments. You can bet your hat that Medicare won’t pay for that~~ but as long as we get my Queen fixed up, I don’t care – we’ll figure it out. Ain’t gonna ramble any more tonight. Should have some diving pictures for you tomorrow~!

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

I think I mentioned the other day that I was excited about getting to watch the Colts game yesterday and was pumped by the time it was game time I was amped~! However~~~ it was just not meant to be…… the two places (channels) I thought I could go to watch it, turned out to be crap…… well, they were airing the game. Dammit Emmit~! I jumped on Google to find out I could get the game with a subscription to Paramount…… to hell with it – I’m going for it~! I swore I wasn’t going to buy any more subscription channels, but I really wanted to see that game~! Got the APP loaded on the TV, paid my money and in I went…… only to find out……NOT~! DAMMIT Emmit~!!! Back to Google…… it said Sling carried it…. loaded, paid…..NOT~! DAMMMIT Emmit~!!!! Google again~!! Peacock for sure~!! APP loaded…. paid but I had to call and chat with them to confirm… prefect, I can confirm I can get the game….. yes~! Then they said they needed to log onto my computer to get it set up. HMmm…. that’s weird, but not completely out of the realm (and by that point the game was half over!) Biggest mistake….. I got in a hurry. They needed a couple of minutes to complete set up….. okay – I can still catch the last half of the game~ What a moron….. if I wouldn’t have been such a rush, I would have realized something was amiss. All of a sudden I started getting fraud alerts from my bank. It took me another 30 minutes to get my card shut off and dispute charges. The other thing, these $%^&%&% were still logged into my computer. I could not find a disconnect button anywhere, so I finally disconnected my internet and powered down my laptop. When I finally powered back up, I had a box on every screen saying my laptop has been remote accessed and I could not get rid of it. Not a good afternoon. I powered off the internet again and powered down. So – that, my dear readers is why I didn’t get anything put up last night……..

After I got up this morning….. the warning screen was still on my screens, so I reached out to my guys at the Geek Squad. In short order, they swept my computer and assured it me I was clean of viruses and was no longer connected remotely. I then reached out to the bank and have a new debit card on the way so my world is almost back to normal. What a pain in the butt, but a necessary evil. The even bigger gripe is I still can’t get the Colts~! I reached out to island people for advice for how to get to watch my beloved Colts and so far……. consensus is, I probably won’t be able to……. DAMMIT Emmit~! Island Life~!

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

Boy- this not diving stuff sucks…… geesh, I can’t even imagine or remember what I did before I started diving….. probably drank too much.  😉  Up once again much earlier than needed, but due to a fitful night, I was actually a little bit relived to get up out of bed. A lot more coughing than I cared for, a tickle I just could not shake. I sat out on the couch and dozed for a bit hoping to choke it down-and- to give my bride a little peace and quiet so she could sleep. She needs the rest a heckva lot more than I do, for multiple reasons. Besides, sitting here at the house, I could lay down and take me a nap anytime I felt like it. I didn’t do that while my Queen was out laboring for the 4th day in a row~!! After making me an experimental breakfast – I felt like I needed to something, so I commenced to piddling. It was a slow but effective piddle. It was stuffy in the house despite a wonderful breeze blowing through and I took it easy even though I did manage to get some deep cleaning done. This house gets ridiculous dirty without glass in the windows and this was all long overdo. I decided to call it a day just about the same time I got the ping from Angie saying she was headed home. She stopped and picked up my new medicine for my belly issues and I have already taken some, so hopefully my belly will be lined out here in a month or so~! I did find it weirdly ironic that one of the side effects is diarrhea. LOL, course, it also said it could also possibly kill me, but — probably won’t~~ WTH ?

We are both off tomorrow and I am looking forward to the day. I recently discovered this massive bunch of TV channels hidden deep with in our TV system. Over 300 channels, including new music channels. It also has the an NFL channel plus the local channel I need to be able to watch the Colts play (they’re playing tomorrow) and I’m excited for it. Not all the channels work, but still….. it’s free and offers up lots more options~! It will also be nice to have my Queen here with me as well. Sitting here trying to figure out what to do for dinner but Angie said she’s not brutally hungry and I really don’t want to eat anything….. hungry or not. Guess it’s a good thing we don’t have UBER eats here…….  😉

Happy Birthday to Damn Neighbor Michael…….. sounds like it was a good one~!

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

(We added the “So was Red” )

My View