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Hello my treasured readers…… SO glad you stopped in to see the latest adventure of two old crazy people who gave up their very comfortable life and left everything behind to live the life most people only dream about to live in the Caribbean~!

I’m supposed to pick up where I left off yesterday – but to be brutally honest with you~~~ I’m just too tired and too f**ked up to do that tonight…….. after trying out a new laundry service, chasing down the mysterious and rumor laden 100# propane tank, giving rides to folks in need, following folks to their house (in their vehicle) so when they sober up in the morning their truck will be there, and signing up for a dive club group – on top of a 6 pack and several, several screw drivers…….. I’m just too tired and too f**ked up to do a lot of chattering tonight… Is that a my bad ??? I mean, it’s not Friday night yet – but when you’re happily goddamn retired and living what can only be described as an ideal life…. does it really matter ?? I certainly hope not….. at least not to you my dear readers…… yeah – you can’t tell from this I’m f**ked up Huh ???  😉

So a couple of pictures for you so I can go and crash — I have to be up way early tomorrow morning to take my Queen to an appointment for a hair cut and some other female related such stuff and a fairly long day for me — so…………

Good night ya’ll —- Thankx for stopping in~!

 

 

 

 

 

Our upstairs neighbor was at it bright and early again this morning so there was no sleeping in for me. I swear that woman is apparently an insomniac furniture mover who likes to practice her craft…..jeesh. I’ll wait for the opportune time to bring it up, but until then, I guess my days of sleeping in will be a crap shoot for a while. My Queen managed to sleep through it….. After she got up, I had a cof of cuppee with her and we chatted for a bit. She said her stomach was feeling much better, but was not up to going up to Blues with me, so I loaded up and took off by 09:00, wanting to take advantage of some of the cooler morning temps.

There was a pretty ragged fence line that needed pulled out and the area it covered cleaned up. Over the years, vines over took the fence and crumbled part of it, people walking back to their cars in the back lot, decided it was a good place for their empty beer bottles and any other trash they were too lazy to throw away properly. Then pile some storm damage on it – and the whole area just became run down and was pretty much an eyesore. I tied into it with gusto and was soon soaked in sweat and breathing like I had just [tried to] run a marathon. It doesn’t take long to warm up once that ole sun ball starts climbing down here. Most of the old fence posts came out fairly easy – but there were a couple that required some back muscle and a pick axe….. What made the whole thing really fun though, was that there was enough barbed wired laced in through the area — you could have started your own P.O.W. camp with it. At one point, I clipped a section loose, and I guess it was under a bit of stress. Once released, me and the barbed wired did a tango trying to get out of each others way. I didn’t do a very good job of it. By the time I got it under control and taken out, it looked like I had been sorting Bobcats for most of the morning. Little trickles of blood e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. on me~~ Mixed in with the sweat – it really looked like I wasn’t going to make it – I finally got the wire wound up and secured, rolled up the chain link fence and got it put up, pulled grounding rods, weeds, a million or so vines and some rocks – but I got it done. There was a huge pile of dirt left by the power company where they had installed a new pole – I shoveled it and got it mostly leveled out as well. I haven’t finished it yet – because by then it was past noon and I was exhausted. I keep this mess up and I may actually manage to lose a pound or two. Sat and had a couple of beers and then headed home for a shower.

A lot more to the day – but again, already past 500 words……. so I’ll save it for another day plus a couple of pictures when it’s done.

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

  

     

 

   

    

Picking up from yesterday’s adventures here on our beautiful island.  After I dropped Eddy off, I came back to the house to collect my Queen and head out to try and knock out the list I had made the day before.  First thing on the list was to drive out to the West end of the island to a favorite dive shop to check out a new gear bag that had been ordered for me to put my new gear in. The folks I needed to talk to weren’t in and the young lady there said they had run down to Rhythm’s for lunch. Since I had skipped my normal hearty breakfast and my Queen only had a bowl of cereal, we decided we would go to Rhythm’s as well for a bite to eat and maybe a nice cold adult beverage. We scooted on down the road and soon sat down at a table there inside the bar. We ordered some snacking types items – I got Blackened Mahi bites and some Mozzarella sticks and my bride ordered a bowl of the Lobster Bisque. All wonderfully delicious, especially washed down with a nice cold drink. I saw and spoke with the dive shop owners and told them I would meet them back at the store. We had a couple of ‘dessert’ drinks. They were called Blow Jobs — very tasty concoction with a small dollop of whipped cream on top. I could make several wonderfully nasty comments as how the drink get’s it’s name, or other lewd comments and probably do one whole blog on them alone – but in the interest of brevity (and the fact some of my Daughters and at least one Grand Daughter read this) — I’ll leave it with saying they were good enough we wound having a couple of them  😉  Finished up and headed back to the dive shop — I looked over the gear bag and didn’t much care for it and opted not to get it. For the money they were asking for it – I am going to have to be tickled to death it. We hung out and I chatted with a dive gear rep that was there for a bit – just asking some general questions. We finally loaded back up into DD’s and headed back toward the middle of the island.

By then it was a little after 2:00 and between being tired, hot and having a small buzz going – I opted to skip a couple of the things on the list and swung into the grocery store to pick up needed chow. 30 minutes in there and I was ready to head back to the condo — Between getting up entirely too early that morning, moving and everything else – I was done for the day. We got back, unloaded the groceries, made drinks and settled into the couch to suck up some conditioned air….. Ahhhh~~

Got to sleep in this a.m. and got up with the intentions of going up to Blues fairly early before it gets stinking hot, to work on the fence line I want to clear out, but my Queen was dealing with some kind of stomach distress, so I stayed and tended to her. While she’s not feeling a 100%, she says she is feeling better – yay~ so I’ll see what tomorrow brings and maybe get to the fence then.

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

Woke up a whole set earlier this morning than I had planned on…… at about 05:15 I heard noises that I thought was coming from inside our apartment. I got that ‘rush’ feeling and eased out of bed to check out the place. It didn’t take long to realize the noise was coming from our up stairs neighbor……. I grabbed a cigarette and stumbled out onto the patio to hear neighbors boyfriend out on their patio banging and rattling around. I asked him if that was going to become a habit and he got about half $hitty and said he was packing up to leave —  Just cause he was pi$$ed he had to be up that early – he didn’t have to make sure everybody else was up. Good friggin’ riddance $hit stain….. With that event – I was up….. like I said before – once I’m up — I’m up. What complicates that, was I sat up until Midnight the night before working on my blog and some other stuff.

I had plans for a fairly full day, so I used the extra time to enjoy a beautiful sun rise, a cof of cuppee and some piece and quiet now that $hit stain was gone. About the time I formulated my plans for the day – I got a text asking if I was still willing to help move a couch……. crap – forgot all about it. Fortunately, I have all the time I need now – so I replied sure. I had agreed to help one of the bartenders from Blues (Eddy) get rid of his couch. The original agreement was to let him use my truck to haul it off (while I sat at the bar and drank) but that managed to morph into actually help move it. He said he would buy me a case of beer for helping him. I told him that wouldn’t be necessary….. then after a couple of seconds thought, added…unless it is a big sectional or up 6 flights of stairs. He stared at me for a second and said “well– I guess I owe you a case of beer.”  Dammit Emmit~! Why didn’t I ask about that before volunteering. It wasn’t a sectional – but tie me to an ant hill and smother my ears in jelly was there stairs…. and stairs…. and more stairs. Then he pointed out a very large box at the bottom of the stairs and said  “hey – would you mind helping me bring the new couch up while you’re here?” Whadda ya gonna do at that point ??? Let’s put it this way —-the old fat boy got his cardio in for the day…….! Possibly for the week~! We finally got the couches swapped out, loaded into DD’s and drove around half of the island looking for a dump that would take it. We finally Got-R-Done and I dropped Eddy off back at his place to enjoy his new couch.

Dang– I’m already at my 500 words and just getting started, but I’m gonna quit here. I started early so I could get my touchas in bed early tonight and it’s already after 21:00 (that’s 9:00 for you civilians out there) — I’m gonna load up some pictures for you and drag my tired old butt to bed.  More about the rest of the day later.

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

Actually slept in a little bit this morning rousing at a delightful 07:20…. woo-hoo~! Went through the normal routine of cigarettes, stretching, coffee and a big breakfast which took us out to almost 11:00. Really nice kind of morning and a great way to start any day. We managed to do slightly less than we did yesterday, which was a challenge in itself, as we did nothing yesterday — 😉  Hey, retired life can present some fun little challenges if you apply your self properly~~

We found a new series on Amazon Prime and started in on it. It is called Tin Star, and we wound up watching most of the first season today. It’s not bad, but not near as good as Justified was. That, and damn near everybody in the cast has an English accent or Irish brogue and we struggled to understand a lot of what they were saying, still interesting enough to sit through 11 episodes. Took a break between later episodes to grab a bit to eat ( you work up quite an appetite sitting there doing all that watching). My Queen made her some fish sticks and Mac-n-Cheese. I was mostly bloated from drinking (yea, we started that earlier in the day) – but my belly finally started insisting on something solid, so I went in and grabbed the remainder of the Mac-n-Cheese. It struck me that Mac-n-Cheese is one of the very few foods that I occasionally put ketchup on. (scrambled eggs is the other) As a general rule – I don’t like ketchup (big fan of mustard though) – but once in a long while — I like it on my scrambled eggs or Mac-n-Cheese ….and….about once every third blue moon – I’ll have some on a corn dog — dang – can’t believe I admitted that out loud………..

I don’t know what got me started on it – I guess the fact that I did indeed, just have scrambled eggs that morning with ketchup and now I was having Mac-n-Cheese with ketchup….. but the thought occurred to me —- next time we have some Mac-n-Cheese left over — I may have to save it and make me a Mac-n-Cheese omelet~! I like them both, so it should stand to reason I would like them combined ? I mean after all, I occasionally will drop some cheese on my scrambled eggs…… and then I got thinking… hey!  I have a cheeseburger left over from the other day — I could crumble it up inside my Mac-n-Cheese inside of my omelet and have a Mac-n-Cheeseburger omelet~!!  I’m terrible about mixing foods together to see what I can come up with – and this will be no exception~! One of the best things I have ever mixed with my scrambled eggs, is stuffing. You don’t need to wait for Thanksgiving to try it though, whip up a 5 minute box of Stove Top…. it works almost as good, and then blend some in with your scrambled eggs…… I think you’ll dig it.

Gonna leave with you right there and let you dwell on it a little bit while you look at pictures.  Good night ya’ll —- Thankx for stopping in~!

I don’t know why I can get the pictures to enlarge now….. Dammit Emmit~! I’ll keep working on it……..

I  missed yesterday ramblings through no one’s fault other than mine own….. Dammit Emmit~! After a solid breakfast, my Queen and I headed back up to Blues for a little more work around the yard. I cinched up the section of fence I was working, and put up some mesh around one of the buildings to help keep birds out. Angie continued prepping the fence (there is a LOT of that fence) It took me until 2:30 in the afternoon to get to a good stopping point. We both agreed we had did about all we cared to do as the temperature was really getting up there. One of the great things about being retired and volunteering your time…. you make whatever hours you want  😉   We were both soaking wet with sweat and ready to call it a day.

It clouded up a little bit and the breeze picked up, so we actually got reasonably cooled off – so we got us a drink and sat and chatted with folks as they drifted in and out. One of my Queen’s favorite bands was playing later on in the evening, so after a handful of drinks (and a couple of shots) we loaded up and came back to the condo for showers and some conditioned air. After appropriately cleaned and cooled, we jumped back into the truck and headed back up to Blues. The band had already started playing, the air had cooled off fairly nicely and the place was hopping. A friend was celebrating his birthday as well, so there were shots going around and everybody was having a good time. About the time the band wrapped it up – we were both about worn out from the day (and drinking) so we packed it up and came home. Lord have mercy did that conditioned air and couch feel good….. HHMMM good~! Real Good~!  Good enough, that after a quick bite to eat, I sat there and fairly promptly fell asleep…. okay, okay OKAY~!! Passed out, fell asleep……. six of one a half a dozen of the other…… either way – I was zapped. I woke up around 11:30 to a dark house. My bride had already went to bed and was in bed sleeping soundly. I mustered up enough energy to go out for a quick smoke, came in, got a drink of water, took a leak and went and got into bed and fell promptly back to sleep.  I was entirely too out of it to even think about writing anything – so, sorry about that……

We spent the day today – mostly recuperating from the week. Sitting on the couch and eating off and on most of the day. Not sure what tomorrow brings…. but we’re rested and ready for it. Hopefully something worthy of discussing a bit.

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

         

 

Got up after a mostly pitiful nights sleep….. I was really depressed – I figured since I had put in a grueling day in the Caribbean heat and manual labored most of that day, following that up with a 6 pack of cold beer, a cool shower….. I figured that I would pass out from sheer exhaustion and sleep like a log all night~!  No …no … no….. Dealt with parts cramping up on me, some very sore joints and had to get up twice to drain the beer. Dammit Emmit~!

I had to have DD at the garage at 09:00, so I dropped it off and walked on down to Blues for a second day of manual labor. My Queen wanted to help – so I got her started scraping the fence surrounding the place, ( I dropped her off before going to the garage so she didn’t have to walk) prepping it for staining. I started back in on and finished up the main section of the fence and by the time I got to that point – it was time to call it a day. We sat and had a couple of drinks, I walked back to the garage and picked up DD and came back to fetch my Queen.

Both of us were about shot when we got here (tired, not plastered). We each got us a nice cool shower, made a drink and poured our selves into the couch, basking in the satisfaction of a well accomplished day. I finally got up and grilled us some big ole greasy cheeseburgers with lettuce, tomato and onion. Bellies full, nicely relaxed – we settled back onto the couch for a nice cool evening.

Not sure whether I’m going up for another day of manual laboring tomorrow or not. Kinda gonna wait to see what kind of sleep I get tonight.  😉

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

Got to sleep in a bit (06:20) and got up to start the day a fresh again, with our gorgeous view and ‘cool’ temps (73°) What a great way to start the day…. after we had our coffee, my Bride said she was getting hungry – so I whooped up our standard breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown and toast). After I finished up the dishes we sat and watched the idiot box for a bit and to let breakfast settle. I finally got up and got ready to head to Blues to work on the hurricane damaged fence.

Job turned out to be a tad more complicated than I had initially planned on – but nothing I couldn’t handle. What I had failed to plan for was just how freakin’ hot that sun got….. wow. It is officially Summer time now here on the island – and smack my mouth that ole sun ball just gets down right serious about how hot it gets.  I commandeered an patio umbrella and set it up as an escape from that blazing sun. Temp didn’t quite make it out of the 80’s – but jeeez Louise was it  friggin’ hot~!  Not a stinking sweltering Southern Indiana hot, but cook your brains out hot. I had to take many more shade breaks than I thought I would have to – but I am all to familiar with the symptoms of being over heated — so I paced myself, made sure to stay properly hydrated and took it easy.  In the past year of being , happily, gleefully unemployed….. I didn’t realize just how fast your body starts quitting on you. I’m here to tell you ya’ll — I was sweating like it was my job~! Wow…… I have to confess though, it felt good to be doing ‘something’ again.

Most people fantasize about living on a tropical island…… and a fantasy it is.  Being as we are actually doing that – it has it’s drawbacks (small as they may be) …… yes even coming from us…. but going to the beach everyday is just not realistic. Especially if you are dreaming of having the local pool boy bring you drinks while you lay there and enjoy your life. You can make it happen – but you damn sure better have a whole wad of money to make your dreams come true. It is fairly easy (at least for us) to become bored….. particularly if you led a fairly  active lifestyle until your retirement. Which brings me back to my ‘project’ I’m working on. It’s  hot, I hurt in places I forgot I had…….. and I’m looking forward to going back tomorrow. Do I want to do that everyday going forward — OH Hell no — but it’s a nice distraction…… 😉

Going to put up some random pix now, just because you read this far and I hope you are looking forward to some pictures of island life. As soon a I get my project finished – I’ll post a couple pix of it …. until then – I hope you enjoy these.

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

 

 

 

 

I got to get up on my own accord this morning (without the help from upstairs neighbor) unless you count having to pee so bad my eyeballs were floating…… I hate that. Makes for a mad dash to the bathroom……. My Queen had just got up also, so we got a cof of cuppee and enjoyed yet another gorgeous sunrise.  Angie made breakfast for us this morning and I did the dishes when we were finished. I told Angie that I wanted to get up to the garage that worked on my truck and get what was needed straightened out. I spent probably 30-45 minutes chatting with them – and I think [or hope] we are on the same page now. DD goes in Thursday morning for hopefully the last time for a while.

Finishing up there, I decided it would be a good time to swing out past Home Depot and pick up some things I’m gonna need for a project I’m working on at Blues Backyard BBQ. Hurricane Maria reeked havoc with a big wooden fence surrounding part of the yard and I’m going to get it patched up and standing tall again. Got what I needed and pulled in at Blues to drop it off. Well we couldn’t just drop stuff off and go – that wouldn’t be neighborly – so we got us a drink and sat and chatted with the crowd there. The bartender asked if I could do him a big favor, by driving over to the other side of the island and picking up a battery for his Jeep. I wasn’t doing anything other than sitting there drinking beer, so I said sure. Got over there, got the battery and came back and commenced to drink more beer. He then sheepishly asked if I would get the gas can and go get him some gas as he managed to run out. I wasn’t doing anything other than sitting there drinking beer, so I said sure. I ran down the street and picked up some gas for him and brought it back. I noticed he had been gone for a while, so I walked around to his Jeep, only to find him sitting there cranking away at the Jeep. I tried the couple of menial little things I thought might help [they didn’t]…. I asked if the Jeep was standard or stick — he said it was stick and could I help him maybe push start it. First we had to push it back a way from the pole it was up against. Finally got that done and got him going fast enough to ‘pop the clutch…. but being on gravel, the tires didn’t get a very good bite and it didn’t work. Then we had to push it back off the road out of the way. Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat I forgot just how hard it is to physically push a car….. even a small 2 door Jeep.  I also got a nasty dose of reality in just how far out of shape I am…..  🙁

Came home, took a shower, made a bite to eat — Angie had Mac-n-cheese — I made me some Brats~! Yum~! While standing out on the patio havin’ a cigarette and watching the sun set – I noticed what turned out to be, the biggest crab I have seen on this island so far. I took a couple of pictures of it and with some prodding from my Bride – wrangled his a$$ up onto the patio so she could get a close up. It’s hard to tell from the picture – but his big claw was about the size of my hand! Pictures taken, I took him back out to where I got him. Ya gotta love island life~! With the sun completely down now…. we are enjoying a full moon tonight down here in this part of the world. I tried to get some pictures of it through the palms and the way it lights up the beach and breaking waves – but my phone just does not have that capability….

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

 

Woke up this morning to the sound of what can only be described as a barrel full of empty propane gas tanks being dropped and rolled around on the floor above us….. We have been listening to that kind of stuff for the past several weeks as our new neighbor renovates her entire unit directly above us. It is usually just annoying to listen to that noise – but at 06:15 this morning, it was a little harder to take than usual. I went ahead and got up because while the noise didn’t scare the pee out of me, it did wake me up enough to realize how bad I really needed to go and once I’m up — I’m up, so I went ahead and washed my face and brushed my teeth and headed out on to the patio to greet the day.

The primary purpose for moving away from Southern Indiana was to escape the meatball weather the place had become noted for. Especially the god-awful Winter weather. When people here ask me why I moved, my standard response is “the only place I want to see ice any more is in my glass”. I have to come to very easily embrace walking out on the patio every morning, looking out at the beautiful water and being greeted with a 75° breeze, regardless of the time of the morning. I love it – I absolutely love it~!! I also get that delicious breeze as soon as the sun starts setting. Love it, love it, love it~!

My bride joined me an hour or so later. Another lazy day for us. After she got good and woke up, I made us a small breakfast and we spent the day just lazing around.  We finally got up and headed out and picked up our load of laundry (mostly beach towels, sheets and comforters) and then stopped to pick up some groceries. There is a culture shock I’m still getting used to…. $200 for a ‘quick stop’ for groceries……$13.00 for 12oz of bacon….ouch, especially when you like it as much as we do. Took the laundry and groceries home and decided to run up to Blues for a drink or two and a bite to eat. The place was pretty quiet today. A lot of conversation was about Memorial Day and what it meant. One of the owners is a Vietnam vet – and the owners was buying the first drink for any veteran who came in. It was nice.

After some fish, a burger and a couple of drinks, we headed back here. My Queen is in bed snoozing away and the upstairs neighbor sounds like she is filling up another barrel. Should be interesting to see how long that noise goes on before I go up and say something….. Another new fact of island life I guess I’m gonna have to get used too.

As I have run out of organized pictures and we haven’t been out and about anywhere photo-worthy….. I’m gonna load some of the pictures that failed in previous attempts – so a Hodge-podge of pix for you tonight.

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