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Slept in a bit this morning due to a turbulent earlier morning bout in the bathroom….. I rolled out of the sack about 08:00 feeling like I had been rode hard and put up wet. Couldn’t have had anything to do with the half gallon of alcohol I had up at Blues the night before  😉  Finally got woke up and motivated and my bride suggest we go out for breakfast and then get the grocery shopping out of the way after that. About the last thing I wanted to do (either of them) but it was a lot better plan than I had in mind, so we gathered up our stuff and took off. Not wanting to battle downtown traffic and it’s hideous parking I suggested going to the Palms at Pelican Cove which is not quite a mile down the road from us. Got there to a mostly empty restaurant except for a small wedding taking place out in the court yard. I tried their biscuits and gravy and my Queen had a standard eggs and ham breakfast. My biscuits and gravy (with a side of sausage) left a LOT to be desired – but in all fairness, once you’ve had real biscuits and gravy from the South, nothing else can really compare, but much like pizza – I’ll try it everywhere I go ‘just in case’. My brides breakfast wasn’t a whole lot better, I mean, it’s hard to screw up eggs – but her ham was just lunch meat ham like you’d get in a package of Oscar Mayer lunchmeat ham. Pitiful~ The view from the place is really hard to beat though. Gorgeous beach, crashing waves and palm trees – kinda helps make up for a lack luster meal.   Kinda pricey too I thought. Angie had a Bloody Mary – I had a glass of orange juice – our meals and 2 glasses of milk — $ 47.00  Not completely out of hand for the island though. Yes Virginia, there is a price to pay for living in paradise~~ Finished our breakfast and headed out West to one of the big supermarkets. Armed with our lists we hit the isles. 40 minutes later and $326.00 later we were done. Got to the truck and got flagged down by an older gentleman needing a jump as we got ready to back out. (not an uncommon request here on the island) I pulled around and hooked up to him — nothin’…. no clicks, or anything. Not sure what his issue was, but it wasn’t anything I was going to be able to help him with. I closed up DD and wished him good luck and took off. Halfway home, another older gentleman who looked to be struggling to get across the road [walking], so I stopped to let him get across the road. Turns out he was wanting a ride – so we scooted the groceries over and told him to hop in. He was wanting to get to the Post Office which wasn’t very far out of our way so we said we would take him. I felt sorry for the old guy. Apparently severally afflicted with diabetes and could hardly walk. Got him to the Post office and then we headed for the condo. Got the groceries unloaded, changed into our comfy’s and settled into the couch for some conditioned air and almost the entire first season of The Andy Griffith show. Old black & white episodes. Corny, but funny. Getting ready for a shower and some sack time…. No alcohol for me at all today, so hopefully, a little better sleep tonight~  😉

Good night Ya’ll — Thankx for stopping in~!

Beer tasting in the grocery store – it’s a real thing here on the island~!

Island life~~~~    🙂

July 6th…… my Dad’s birthday……..I’m not one usually into a lot of that happy heavenly birthday stuff….. but I thought a little bit more about my old man today than usual. Dad died when I was still fairly young (31) and for reason’s I’ll probably never figure out or understand…. he was on my mind a lot today….. I wondered what he would think about my life decisions…… Dad was not what most people would consider a model Father…. but I don’t really care…… through good and bad, I thought my Dad was one of the greatest dudes on the planet – good and bad factored in. I wonder what he would think about my decision to up and leave everything I’ve known and what was ‘comfortable’ to me. To leave my kids and grandkids behind to pursue what I wanted to do. I’d like to think he’d be proud of me…… being raised in an era today’s kids will probably never understand — it’s something kids my age didn’t hear a lot…. at least I didn’t. I like to think he was proud of me…… but it is and will remain a question in my brain until I check out. I hope there is not a lot of “kids” my age with the same question nagging at them……. think the best and move on…. it’s easier that way…… but what ever the answer — Happy Birthday Dad — wherever and however you are.

Wow – with that out of the way — another wonderful day on a tropical island…. even though we have a fully classified hurricane aimed directly at us. (Beryl) I have faith it will peter out before it gets to us and I will have the opportunity to get some damn righteous pictures of a small scale hurricane as it blows past us. Most of you that know me, know that I am the weirdo, when a nasty weather front came through, threatening a tornado or such – was the one, out strapped to a tree with googles on trying to get ‘that shot’……. same thing here, except it will be a palm tree I strap to and using my diving mask for eye protection. Something about the Sea and the colors it turns as a weather front approaches. It turns from those gorgeous blue colors you all are familiar with to an awesome black…. kinda like it’s angry….. absolutely beautiful~! Obviously don’t want to get hit with a full scale hurricane… but really want to get the shots I have rolling around in my brain……. more as Beryl gets closer~~~

Spent the vast majority of the day working on legal type paperwork. Good for frayed nerves and a nasty headache – but some things are just unavoidable. My Queen wanted to go to Blues for dinner, so we loaded up and hit our favorite spot. Her favorite band – Blues Experience was playing tonight while we dined on my Smoked Turkey Bacon Ranch sammich and she had a steak sammich without the bun….. Fully sated with a delightful meal and about half in the tank – we motored back for some conditioned air and a shower. Never did make it downtown…… Dammit Emmit~!  😉

Good night Ya’ll …… Thankx for stopping in~!

Tim~

Jim & Debbie

 

The day started out by rolling out of the sack around 06:30 after a not so restful night. My bride was having a fitful early morning, and we she has those mornings – I usually do too. Only difference, she can go back to bed and zonk out, I have yet to master that particular talent. I guess you’ll have that though when you share a bed. Does lend some credence though to couples who sleep in separate beds….

Plan today was to make a run into town to a local hardware store and pick up a couple of things for the condo and then for dinner, check out a new restaurant my Queen wants to try out because they offer Oysters. That woman can wear out some Oysters and she hasn’t had any since we left the states. Kinda like me and my pizza fixes, except pizza is easier to find…… good pizza is a little bit tougher….

Got a slow start to the day and breakfast became brunch. By the time the dishes were done and bellies settled, we were pretty much out of the mood to go into town, so we spent the day watching the idiot box. By the time we started getting hungry again, my Queen said she wasn’t really in the mood to get cleaned up to go into town and that she would just make something. I have to admit, I wasn’t thrilled when she said she was making lasagna…… last time she made that, was probably 10 years ago and I told her ‘thank you for dinner’ but she did not have to ever get in a hurry to make it again….. but I was ready to give it another try. She made some garlic bread with it and the condo smelled wonderful. She brought out what turned out to be some nice looking lasagna and it was actually pretty tasty. I found out later it was a store bought bake and serve, but hey– it was tasty and I didn’t have to cook – so….win/win. Wound up the day pretty much the same way we spent the day….. and here I am. Still have some pictures from the dive the other day, so you have new pix to look at, and we’ll see if we make it out tomorrow.

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

Happy Fourth of July~! I hope you all had a wonderful day today celebrating this great country’s independence. Oddly, the island doesn’t do a heckva lot of celebrations. There were two fireworks shows tonight, one on each end of the island. Because of the day we had, we opted not to drive to watch either show.  Even more oddly, you cannot buy fireworks here on the island unless you are authorized agent. Not even sparklers. Definitely one of the quietest 4th’s we ever been a part of, and where we live, we could not even see any of what went on. Kind of sad, as many of you that know me, know that I used to be quite the pyro-maniac. I think it’s kind of a guy thing, that men, as a rule like to blow stuff up. I’ll live though….. just a little quieter and on the plus side, it saved me a bunch of money  😉

I went up to Blues this morning and put in almost 4 hours of volunteer time working on projects up there.  I built and installed another gate and put up some lattice that was missing on a section of fence. I didn’t mess with any pictures of my work, as I don’t figure you’d get real excited over pictures of another gate……. if you insist though, I’ll take some pictures of it next time I’m up there  😉  Finished up and joined my Queen at the bar. She spent the morning getting her nails done and running errands while I was working. As it turns out, we wound up sitting up there enjoying the company of some real good people and getting about half pickled….a 4th tradition I was proud to uphold  🙂   Finally ordered a couple of dozen wings (Wings Wednesday) and brought them home. I plopped down on the couch to soak up some of that wonderful conditioned air, wolfed down about half of the wings ( I hadn’t eaten anything all day) and passed out on the couch for a wonderful little nap. Finally got up, took my shower and stood out on the patio looking for some kind of sighting of fireworks….. nadda. Dammit Emmit~!

Tired and ready for some shut eye — I’m gonna put up the couple of pictures I took today and some more from my dive the other day. Again, I hope you had a great Fourth and that you still have all your fingers…….  😉

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

I had my alarm set for 06:30 this morning….. I hate setting an alarm, but this was to be up in time to get my ‘morning stuff’ out of the way before I took off for my dive – so it’s not as bad. Woke up about 15 minutes before my alarm and just kinda lounged and stretched until shorty before the alarm went off. My Queen was up shortly behind me and we enjoyed another gorgeous morning with coffee and watching the surf outside our living room. Definitely enjoying this place and retirement to the “NTH” degree~! 🙂

Took off a little bit before 08:00 to be out at Cane Bay to meet the Dive Master from Adventures in Diving STX by 08:30. He finally rolled up and had me follow him to our dive location, about a mile or so down the road. We got out and discussed our entry and dive path, then suited up and was soon wading into that gorgeous blue water. The dive location is called North Star (no idea why) and I had heard many wonderful tales about this particular location. It was supposed to hold lots of ‘big’ wild life. (rays, eels, sharks and the occasional dolphin) I was amped~! I get to see literally thousands of fish all the time, and they are beautiful, but I like to see the ‘big’ stuff~! Getting to our descent point was a lot longer surface swim than I care for. (Surface swim is exactly what it sounds like….. you swim on the surface out to your descent point to conserve your air)….. most shore dives have a surface swim… some much longer than others, but a lot of the dives here are shore dives (don’t use a boat), they’re a bit cheaper and just something you have to deal with. If I wasn’t fat, out of shape and could breather better, probably wouldn’t mind them as much, but I don’t see that changing any way soon  😉  Finally got out to the marker and started our descent. I love that first time you put your face in the water and see all that beautiful blue water and get to see what you’re sinking into. Water clarity lacked a little bit as we have had some pretty intense winds lately that is keeping the water a tad stirred up – but visibility was still an easy 45′-50′. Fun gorgeous dive, but sadly not one shark, eel, ray or dolphin to be seen. You’ll have that every once in a while – but the things you get to look at while you’re down there more than make up for it. It never gets old. I could dive the exact same place tomorrow and see hundreds of different things. I got some nice pictures for you of it. Got one video as well that I think you’ll enjoy. It’s kinda like I get to take you along with me 🙂

More to the dive and the day, but I’m at my 500 words, so gonna cut it off here and load some of the pictures…… I’ll save some of them for later.

Independence day tomorrow…… If you can read this….. Thank a veteran….. if you’re reading it in English….. Thank a teacher. I hope you all have a wonderful and safe 4th of July~!

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

Video is too big…. will have to go to FB to see it)  🙁

 

Some people’s opinion…….

Rolled out of the sack at a whopping 07:30 this a.m. — woo-ho~! Must have been them wonderfully marvelous Salisbury steaks I had in me that made me sleep so good  😉  My Queen rolled out about a half hour after me and we just took it easy waking up and enjoying a gorgeous morning. Not really hungry until about 10:00, we decided to wait until 11:00 and go up to Blues for our breakfast/lunch. I had to do some ciphering for my next project anyway. We got there right at 11:00 and sat down and had a couple of drinks. I got the measurements and info I needed for the project and came back to the bar and got me a hotdog. These dudes are almost as good as my 214’s I used to make back at the house all the time. Those of you lucky enough to have stopped by when my grill was going, know what I’m talking about. Best hot dog on the planet~! My bride had a BBQ pork sammich with coleslaw on the top. We had another drink and chatted with the Blues crew. We each contributed a dollar to the Shake of the day which was at $ 1183.00 today. Slogan on the board wasn’t changed, so I decided another picture of it wasn’t really necessary.

Came back to the condo and I decided I needed to try out my new toy. Switched to my swimming trunks and ocean shoes, grabbed my camera and kayak and headed out into the water. Not a clean and smooth process for my first attempt…. not by a long shot, but I finally managed to get my big touchas situated and headed out into a not very friendly surf. It wasn’t pretty my friends……. nay though I tried mightily to look smooth and cool – it never happened. First off, trying that (a new small racy kayak for the first time) in those conditions, is not something a smart person would have done……. never having been overly intelligent, I went anyway. Secondly, doing that right after drinking 4 beers or so and inhaling a 1/4 pound hotdog wasn’t an Einstein moment either. Especially when you’re a worn out old fat man that is about 15-20 lbs heavier than he ought to be —- but I gave it the old college try~!  I did manage to make it out past the breakers….. I did manage to get off a picture or two [I think, I haven’t look at them yet]  I even managed to actually get my feet up into the boat for about a minute…. damn that thing gets real wobbly when you do that. I spent probably 20-25 minutes out there before I finally called it and pointed it toward the shore. Wow, my belly felt like I had been doing sit ups for an hour. Just trying to keep the damn thing upright was a workout in itself….. so yeppers – I think this will help get rid of my gut, provided I maintain some kind of regiment (and not go out full of hotdogs and beer). Interested to see what I got for pictures for you. My bride took some shots and a couple of video’s, so you should get a little entertainment from that (if they’ll play for you). I’ll put them on FB as well in case they don’t work here. Dive planned for tomorrow — Can’t wait~!!

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

IMG_6272   <—-Video

IMG_6273 <—- Video

Was really looking forward to sleeping in today knowing I had absolutely nothing planned for the entire day. Well that went over like a fart in church….. shortly after 06:00 I woke up having to pee so bad my eye balls were floating.  Tried to shift around a little bit, but that didn’t do any good either. So I got up to whizzz – and I was up…… Dammit Emmit~! Went out to enjoy the cool morning breeze and was almost knocked over by the smell of the Sargassum seaweed…… jeesh that’s a nasty way to wake up too…… Finished my smoke and a little bit of stretching and came in to get caught up on what was going on in the world. It’s a mess in case you haven’t been keeping up with it. Got through that and got on FB…. I always like to see who got the music trivia from the night before and much to my surprise – I had a stumper….. really caught me off guard as I thought it would be an easy one (Cold, Cold Heart by Hank Williams).

We had our coffee and eventually a nice big breakfast and settled in for a day of movies…… was just finishing up one movie when my Queen asked if I’d like to go look at a kayak. I had seen it on FB, but didn’t really want to spend the money on it. She pestered me enough, I finally got up and we drove out to the East end of the island. I had almost forgotten how nice the views are out on that part of the island. (Southeast) We don’t get out that way much, so I took some pictures for you while we were out there.  Finally found the place and met a delightful young lady selling off her 2 kayaks. We talked and I looked it over, nice little rig that looks like it will suit my needs – so we wound up getting it. It is called an Surf Kayak, slung low to the water and more suited for choppier water. Maybe I’ll finally get to work on getting rid of this gut. Kayaking provides an excellent abdominal workout, and I have a hellva abdomen to work off  😉  Plus it’ll let me get out and explore the local reefs for possible new snorkeling places~!

Came back home for some drinks, dinner (TV dinner with Salisbury steaks – probably one of the worst things on the planet you can put inside you, but I absolutely love them!) and a couple more movies. It’s been a good day. Not sure what tomorrow is gonna bring…… got a dive planned for Tuesday morning, at supposedly one of the best sites on the island, so should have some fun diving pictures for you from that.

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

 

 

Needed to get a couple of things done up at Blues today, so I rolled out of bed around 06:00 and was up there by 07:00. Got some barrels cut up for the smoker, added another layer of protection to the stock room as it appears our big furry friends are still managing to get in – but not near as bad as they were. I’m on a mission now to keep those nasty bast*rds out of there. It’s amazing just how small a hole even the big ones can get through~! Got that done and started in on my next project which was building a gate to help contain the watch dogs when they are out and on duty. I had saved a section of [wood] fence I had torn down several weeks ago, so I drug it out and dis-assembled it to use the wood on the gate. I even managed to salvage most of the screws it was put together with. Got that done – took some measurements and away I went. By 10:30, the gate was built and put up, so I cleaned up my mess, had a couple of beers while I cooled off a little bit. Donated a dollar to the shake and then headed back to the condo and my Queen.

Seaweed continues to pummel our coast line. It has a lot of the locals baffled. Apparently they never saw this stuff up until about 3 years ago. Water currents and winds must be changing, because we are being hammered with it now. Supposedly all coming out of Africa. My bride ran out for a quick grocery run while I got a showered and cleaned up. She surprised me with a ‘cardboard’ pizza and we munched on it while we watched The Hitman’s Bodyguard. Actually a fairly entertaining show if language doesn’t bother you.

Looking forward to a full day of lounging tomorrow and more movies to watch. As a rule we don’t go ‘out’ on the weekends as beaches and bars tend to be really crowded. One of the great benefits of being retired – going to do things through the week, while the rest of the population works  🙂  Of course, on a tropical island, you always have a fair part of the population on vacation, so you have to deal with them…. but normally only a lot of them during “Winter”…… and they don’t know about some of the ‘secret’ spots~~

That’s about it — couple pictures of my project and the seaweed….. may throw up a couple of my favorites.

Good night Ya’ll …… Thankx for checking in~!

Day was spent lounging due to some real weird weather all day today — heavy overcast, yet very little rain…… big wind gusts and lots of Sarah Dust so my bride and I hung around the condo all day watching the idiot box and taking it easy. So not a heckva lot to ramble on about today – am putting up the rest of the pictures from yesterday and we’ll see what tomorrow brings~~

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

Papaya ^v

 

I actually slept in a little bit this morning [woo-hoo] rolling out about 07:30~! My Queen was already up and started in on her coffee. We lounged and took it easy through a small breakfast and rolled out the door by 11:45. We decided that neither one of us was in a particular hurry to get in the water today, but wanted to scope out some new places for when we have visitors, so we would have lots of options of places to take them. Going off of a couple of leads we had received from friends – we headed to the West end of the island (where it is almost ALWAYS calm water) We stopped by my favorite dive shop first to pick up a Fathers Day present from my SCUBA diving Daughter. It’s an underwater flashlight that I can’t wait to try out. I have seen the difference they can make – so I am pumped to give it a try~! I scheduled a dive for early next week with them – so I may get to try it out there. Supposed to be one of the top 3 dive spots on the island~!! More on that after I make the dive. We left there and stopped by the Frederiksted Fort, which is supposed to have some quality snorkeling as far as animal life….. might check it out tomorrow to see if it holds true. We left there and headed out Veteran’s Drive to check out another spot we heard about. We stopped first at Louie’s & Nacho’s [fun little beach bar] to wet our whistle before heading out to spot # 2. Found the second place to be very intriguing as far as offering a nice easy entry into the water, which is what we were looking for as far as making it easy on the little guys getting in and out of the water. Really looking forward to scoping this place out~!

Left there and headed back to center island….. and needed to wet our whistle again, so we stopped in at Blues for a quick drink and a shot at the ‘Shake’ – well over a thousand dollars now – and still was when we left.  🙁   Went next to another small park, rarely frequented, so I’m sure we’ll have it to ourselves whenever we go. Not quite as luxurious as some of the others, but still a really nice place for little fellers to splash around. From there we headed out farther East out past Cheeseburger’s in America’s Paradise to Chenay Bay — as it turns out, it is a real respectable hike from the parking area to the beach, so we opted out and headed back. We stopped in at Blues for another drink or 6 before heading back to cool off, get cleaned up and then right back to Blues for drinks and dinner. My guy, Jason Jones (the dude who ‘kills’ Johnny Cash) was playing, so we sat, drank, socialized and thoroughly enjoyed listening to “JJ” do his thing.  The bar called ‘last call’ so we paid our bill and headed back here…..  Pretty nice day today, beaches, sun, sand, surf, alcohol, JJ and some really good friends…. all in all, a really good day. I hope you all have a day like this at least once in a while….. better yet if you get to visit our gorgeous island and let us help you have one of our days……..  😉

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

IMG_6214

My Father’s Day gift from Steph & josh~~  : )  ^

This is apparently what I look like getting into my truck~~

View from Louie & Nacho’s bar~

View from Louie & Nacho’s bar~

View from Louie & Nacho’s bar~

View from Louie & Nacho’s bar~

Looking forward to seeing what this is about~!