Author: Bill

It just occurred to me as I sat down to do this, that this is Labor weekend. I commented to Angie that it would be a nice weekend to be back in the states as everybody will be getting together for parties and such. I guess the longer we are here [[and the older we’re getting]] having family around may be pulling a little harder on the heart strings than we when we first got here. Could also be that it’s been almost a week since I’ve been diving and I am bored out of my gourd~! Apparently, bored enough, sitting watching video’s on FB of the se smart a$$ punks that apparently have nothing better to do than go around “exercising the constitutional rights” and filming it all so they hopefully get enough followers to make them some easy money. At the same time they are aggravating the hell out of people just trying to live their own lives or get a job done. I watched enough and got aggravated enough I started leaving some comments exercising my constitutional right of freedom of speech. Apparently Mr. Zuuckerburg and his cronies found one of my comments offensive and throwed me into FB jail. So much for freedom of speech. All I did was comment that the individual in one particular video “someone needs to punch him in the mouth”. JAIL~!! Angie put a post up on FB for me, so I hope my folks see it and explains why I won’t have a post tonight…… I personally think it’s funny as hell and might start doing it a little more often, just to see if I can figure out ways around the system~! LOL

I have the chance to dive tomorrow, but am not. Weekends are for me and my Bride. Besides- there are a couple of boats scheduled next week, so I’ll start my “work week” off on Monday like normal. Watched a couple of movies…. A Cowgirls Song. Vera – you would love that one (I think) Watched 13 Lives… I wanted to see it (for what will be obvious reasons when you see it) and loved it~! (so did Angie)  We’ve started 2 this afternoon and wound up turning them off because they were stupid. In the middle of one now that seems to be really good called This is 40. Good so far but a really long movie….. I hope it stays good. I’m going to have to mow either tomorrow or Sunday as you can actually stand now and watch the grass grow. Trying to figure out the weather…. we have several tropical weather systems brewing around us and it’s spinning out multiple rain showers…… I guess so the grass will grow a little faster.

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

Here we are already……. September (the one-th) Holy moley this year is screaming by. Jeez– we’ll be back in the states before you can blink real good. Looking forward to this trip maybe a little more than the past couple of trips (no body died) Mainly because it is not <shouldn’t be> brutally cold yet. It will be a nice little break for us to come back and cool off a little bit….. LOL. Normally people come here to escape cool/cold weather….LOL

Angie had to work (a half day) today and I had diddly to do….. and I Got ‘Er Done by golly. I even excelled at it. I didn’t think it was possible, but I did even less today than yesterday. From the looks of it – I get to do it again tomorrow and then of course the weekend – so I should be God-awful relaxed by the time I get back in the water. I probably should check my gear. I don’t think it’s been that dry since it was new. I did get up early and take the neighbors to the airport, so there’s that…. even though it caused me to miss out on making my Queen her breakfast – but she promised me she ate…… That’s really about all I have to ramble about today.

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

An uneventful night….. non descript morning…… I got my Queen fed a hot breakfast and out the door once again leaving me here to figure out what I was going to do with my non-diving day. I got pretty much everything done yesterday that I wanted and that needed done….. what to do, what to do…… it took me most of the day to figure it out, but I did. Not a damn thing…… I kept trying to feel bad about it, but talked myself out of it every time. I piddled a teeny tiny bit – but for the most part, did absolutely nothing. Kind of a good feeling once I got past feeling bad about it. Why not ?? After all — I am retired~! I piddled on line….. I piddled around the house…. and got nary a thing truly accomplished. Kind of a free-ing feeling. I don’t particularly want to do a lot of it, but for a day….. it was kind of neat. The neighbors stopped by after they got home. They said they had so much fun at dinner last night, they wanted to keep it going. We sat and discussed all things deemed pertinent and had a good time. They are flying out tomorrow for the states and I am their ride to the airport. That means we can have the TV turned up as loud as we want it for a while~~~  😉

Found out that tomorrows boat has been cancelled because most of the divers are flying out tomorrow afternoon. For those not aware….. diving and then getting on an airplane can be very detrimental to your health, so the shop told them no……. not diving with us. Safety first, whether our guests like it or not so- other than a run to the airport early tomorrow morning, another day to keep my self amused. My Queen made the suggestion and I had thought about it. I may grab my big camera and go get some “Island Sites” pictures…. palm trees, beaches, Iguana’s, crabs, etc..  I did manage to book an ‘above water’ family photo shoot for next weekend…. so that’ll make up nicely for lost income not diving~! Something to get me out and away from the house for a bit….. for now – I have to come up with a song for FB music trivia…. some pictures from January of this year for you……………..

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

Up much earlier than the past couple of days. My Bride had to go to ‘work’ this morning and I wanted to be up to make sure she had a hot breakfast in her before she started her day. We had our coffee and did the on line thing before she was out the door, leaving me here to my own devices……. I really need to do some looking and find out exactly what the hell that expression really means. Shortly after she left- I swapped out all the trash cans and bagged everything up and headed for the dump. Sadly, when I picked up Angie’s trash can in her breathing room….. her trash disintegrated in my hand. Understand, this trash can has fought the good fight but could not take it any longer and crumbled into hundreds of pieces this morning. Undeterred, I swept it up and and dropped it into the bag of gar-bage that was destined for the dump. As I left the dump – I swung [swang] ? [went by] the local Dollar General store in hopes of procuring another trash receptacle for my Queen.  It was only 08:30 in the morning and they were closed……. huge shock…… swang ? [swung] by the Post Office…. way too crowded <no where to park> so I came back to the house……. Not sure what got into me, but I launched into an unprecedented cleaning regime…… primary target: ceiling fans. Trust me when I tell you….. in a house without glass in the windows (just screens) dust builds up…. everywhere….. OMG~! So for the next several hours, I vacuumed and “Pledged” ceiling fans and vacuumed all the high spots in the house. 15′ ceilings make this task a tad more challenging, but armed with my big ass step ladder and our handy dandy new Dyson battery powered hand held vacuum. I was a cleaning machine~! I wound emptying the collection chamber 4 times of dirt, dust and spider webs (and the occasional spider). I also dissected the bed, fixed the busted mattress support, flipped the mattress and and vacuumed under the bed……. may not sound like much, but 4 ceiling fans [and ceilings]…….. I earned my keep today. That all done….. I managed to get our second security camera operational and re-installed. I came in and vacuumed the rest of the house, then ran back up to procure said trash receptacle for my Bride. I stopped by the shop and picked up last weeks pay check and finally back to the house. Again, may not sound like much, but ole fat boy was tuckered. My Queen finally pinged me and said she was on her way home. She got here and we had a couple of drinks. I offered Taco’s since I weenied out on them last night and my Queen was all over it. We are since, back, after being joined by our across the hall neighbors and all is well on our end of the island…… still no boat…. DAMMIT Emmit~! But I’m done for tonight.

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

( Vera – heads up — a couple of Green Meanie shots below)  😉

Slept in a tiny bit this morning. Up and enjoying the quiet. My bride slept in. Really slept in. I guess her feeling bad yesterday took it out of her and she still needed the rest as she slept in until just after 09:00. I was happy with that and am happier to say she is back to her ole self. She made us a very tasty breakfast and I did dishes while she did her thing on line. I got caught up on computer stuff and then got up to work on our security cameras. Apparently one of them ‘died‘, so I swapped places with the one that works so we continue to have coverage on our vehicles. I spent some time looking at new cameras as I am less than impressed with these. So much crap you have to look at for those damn things…. subscriptions and a bunch of other stuff I don’t like to fool with. After the whole tire incident thing though, I don’t feel good about not having an extra set of eyes on the place though. I finally got that done (still haven’t decided about new cameras yet) and we moved to the couch for some movies. Only got one watched called Look Both Ways. Sappy kind of love story but Angie likes them and this one wasn’t terrible by my standards. Still have a couple to watch that Miss Vera mentioned. Right now, the next one up is ‘Barefoot‘. I think it’s gonna be another sappy love story, but even those are better than some of the groaners we have been watching. Angie is in town picking up dinner. KFC~! Probably the very last thing I need after the way my stomach has been acting today, but I figure if it’s gonna act up — might as well give it a good reason. I’m a smidge dismayed as it’s been a month or so since it’s acted up like this. I haven’t had any booze (even my beloved Budweiser) since Friday and I have been drinking lots of water, so not sure what is bringing this on. Seems like it is always something. As far as I know, there is no boat again tomorrow……. dammit Emmit~! I have had a couple of conversations with a couple of people asking about some extra-curricular photography sessions, but they are out a little ways…… Angie just came in with some greasy goodness, so I bid you a gentle good evening until tomorrow.

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

(( Pictures are from my file I am using to sell photos and plates of — – these are all Anemones))

Slept in again after another late night watching a new series. Series is Glitch…… about dead people coming back to life. After the last episode though, I’m getting the feeling that we may have already watched it – but still interesting. The original plan was to go to Blues Backyard BBQ for brunch. I was gonna get all fired up and get the mowing and weed eating done before we took off. That plan got idled as my Queen said she was not feeling very good and not up to going out, so we sat and nursed coffee and just sat. She finally let me make her some chicken noodle soup (that’s hard work you know, opening up that can and heating the contents up)…… She did manage most of it while I went out and got the yard mowed. She said she might go lay down for a little bit — so I took off into town to do the ATV yard. Got that knocked out, chatted with Shawn & Cynthia for a little bit….. they are heading out for a whirlwind vacation that sounds awesome. I stopped and picked up some Ritz crackers (we were out at the house and my Bride wanted some) and swung by the dive shop and dropped off a disk of photo’s for the boss. When I got back to the house, Angie was in bed asleep. Not wanting to wake her up, I let everything sit in my truck. I still had weed eating to do at our house and I didn’t want to wake her up [windows open] so I sat quietly at the table and watched Tik Tok videos. She got her in a really solid nap. 4+ hours. She said she felt much better and had some color back in her. So I went out and finished up my weed eating and got everything cleaned up and put away. Now I’m trying to figure out what I can feed her. She says she is not sure what she wants. We have a couple of new movies to watch, compliments of Miss Vera, so I’m gonna get off here and grab a quick shower, hopefully get Angie to eat a little bit something and settle in for a movie. No dive boats scheduled until Thursday~!! [[Oh Lord… what am I gonna do ??]]  LOL

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

((Pictures are all from my ‘Island Sites‘ folder))

Slept in this morning…… really slept in. I got up around 05:00 this morning and whizzed and then on back into bed. Found a position that was reasonably comfortable and slept until just past 08:00~!!  Woo-Hoo me~! Of course, now I’ll want to stay up till Midnight, but I’ll deal with that later. LOL  Pretty chill kinda day. Had a tasty breakfast of French toast, with some meat. Good stuff. I did run into town and picked up some ‘work‘ at the dive shop, stopped and filled the truck up and then came home and finished the ‘work‘ (dumping a bunch of pictures onto an external hard drive for the boss). Got bills paid for most of next month before moving to the couch. Watched a decent movie for a change, The Bounty Hunter. We initially thought we had seen it, but weirdly hadn’t and it was actually enjoyable. I think you would like it. Started another movie and about 3/4th of the way through it, before we had to take an intermission. Take potty break, stretch legs and allow me to sit and do this. It is called Me Time and so far been fairly decent.

Tomorrow is lawn mowing day for me….. not really looking forward to it, but it really needs it with the rain showers we been getting. Other than that, not a lot else going on. My schedule next week looks really light…… slow season here on our little rock. I’m sure something will come up….. it always does.

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

Yesterday was a bit of a surprise for me, being reassigned. The boat only had a couple of folks on it and there was a young lady that had won a scholarship or grant, or something similar to learn SCUBA diving and the boss wanted me to document her training. Alrighty then – I’m on it~! However, before her training started, there were two sets of couples that were doing a DSD, booking through our only All-Inclusive resort here on the island and the boss wanted that shot as well (both of them) So– two DSD’s before the young lady started her training. The first couple were very excited to try out SCUBA diving. Maybe a smidge too excited. Although she didn’t express it— I’m sure the young Instructor was very happy I was along. We spent the better part of their hour long dive, chasing them and correcting small issues they were having. I would snag one and get them under control and the Instructor would take them off of my hands. While she was dealing with that, the other person would get into some kind of jam…. floating, sinking, flooding mask, chasing stuff…… just to name some of the things, so I would take off and go after them and the whole process would repeat…. jeeez that was tiring….. plus, I had to try and get some pictures during the middle of that circus. They finally settled down and the last 10-15 minutes of the dive was fairly tame. The second couple showed up as the first couple walked off and we repeated the whole thing again. This couple had some [pretty typical] issues, but overall did a really good job and thankfully tired out after 30 minutes or so. By the time we got them back to the shop, the young lady (Meg) was there waiting on us. She had some class room training to finish up and by the time we got done with the water portion of her training, it was almost 5:00pm. Pacing a student learning their Open Water certification is tiring for an old fat boy…. especially with the morning I just had. I drug all my gear home and tied into editing pictures and getting them posted. By the time I finished up it was 10:30pm and I was just too whooped to do anything except fall into bed….. so, sorry I didn’t get anything put up.

Day two of Megs training didn’t start until noon today, so I got to sleep in a bit and got a good breakfast in me. First half of the day was pretty hectic as she had to repeat almost everything she learned yesterday and finish up another half dozen tasks. Once she finished that (she rocked it!) We did a ‘fun’ dive and got to relax and let her enjoy her training. I didn’t get back here until almost 5:00 again – but all I had was pictures from her training and the fun dive, so I got them knocked out pretty quick. I have already got my shower, been fed a pork chop and some Mac-N-cheese and ready to hit the couch if there is time…. it’s almost 9:40 now. Off for the next couple of days. Other than mowing, nothing planned.

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

Up a little extra early this morning because I had to give a ride to one of our guest and I had to leave early enough to stop and pick them up. Got to the boat, loaded and away we went. I was invited by a friend on the boat to join him on the first part of the dive to a location other than where everybody else was going. This particular dive site has an awesome shelf that is just ‘a little deeper‘ than recreational established standards…….. but I opted to skip out on taking pictures of our guests for a little bit and join in on that part of the dive. I forgot just how awesome that part of that dive site is. The water is considerably cooler ‘down there’…. awesome, awesome, awesome……… we finally rejoined the group and I resumed my photographic duties……. Other than that little detour, nothing real spectacular, but some beautiful scenery.

Back at the house, showered, editing pictures, my boss stopped by to look at some of the pictures I want to sell. She is going to put some in her shop and took a small box full with her.  It doesn’t sound like much, but for the ensuing hour and a half, I had 4 or 5 text messages going along with several FB messenger messages going all while trying to edit and post pictures….. made for quite a hectic afternoon. My Queen finally came rolling in. She is now sitting here talking with Jeni and my Cutie Patootie (Kinsley). I stopped long enough to listen to my Cutie Patootie chatter a little bit before she got bored with me and ran off….. it is great listening to the rest of the conversation though…… me and my Honey bear just discussed the need to wear out the new Taco Bell in Mt. Vernon while I’m there plus an assorted other bunch of places that sell bad for your health stuff to eat. << Insert: It’s been an hour and a half since that last line… neighbors have been over and just now back to their place>>

I have lost all train of thought and I’m starving….. so I’m gonna go make us something to eat….. I’m shooting a bunch of students tomorrow at the Boss’s request….. should be an interesting morning…….

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

The day started out decent enough even though it didn’t particularly end up that way. A bite to  eat- truck loaded– another mad dash to the bathroom….. finally out the door. Bigger crowd today, 8 guests including one student. The good thing is I knew and dove with all of them at least a time or two, so not a lot of pressure to get everyone’s photo’s. The ones that wanted pictures seeked me out, which always makes it a lot easier. We dove one of my favorite places. It’s called Sea Mount. It’s a deep dive, so it doesn’t last very long, but tons of photo’s ops and it usually holds a couple of big sharks….. up near 8′ in length. Just arrived to the site and was settling in to get shots of the student when the Dive Master got my attention and pointed off to the distance. I knew it had to be good from the way he was gesturing, so I took off. Big mistake……! Rookie mistake~! Oh- what he was pointing at was worth the attention…… but it was deep and moving fast. Did I say it was deep ?? I meant deep~! I put in a solid 2-3 minute kick going after this gorgeous Eagle Ray….. at 133‘ deep. That 2-3 minute kick on the surface or shallow water will wear my tired old fat butt out…… at 130’…. I used up about ¼th of my air…… so by the time I got back to the pinnacle….. I had to head back to the boat. Dammit Emmit~! I didn’t get any keep-able pictures of it, but I did manage video of it…. so I have ‘proof’. Second dive wasn’t as pretty, but had lots and lots of sharks. A couple of dead lion fish kept the sharks in close and engaged. So, so much fun~! A slightly smaller boat tomorrow, but once again, I know must of the divers, so both dives should be fun and relaxed.

I was gonna go into the way my day went when I got back here to the house (to warrant todays title), but it gave me a nasty headache and it’s just about gone now, so I don’t want to rehash it right now…… Thank you for the input on the questions yesterday. I don’t have enough ‘space‘ left in todays ramblings to get into part II of the questions, so I’ll save it for another day when I need something to write about.

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