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Going to see if I can at least get a couple of paragraphs to load tonight…… last night was just plain ole goddamn painful……..wow.    I’m trying using the hotspot on my phone tonight to see how it will work…… at least so far it is letting me type…..

Not a lot went on the past couple of days – doing some more shopping picking up odds and ends that we’re going to need for impending kids and grand kids visit. AMPED about that -!

Ventured out into the surf today on ‘our’ beach. Ouch…. the old fat boy took a beating…. wow, much, much tougher than I thought it was going to be. The plan.… was to get out past the breakers and see if I could get some snorkeling done out there, but jeez Louise – I don’t know if I caught a rabid set of waves or what – but the breakers just beat the absolute hell out of me. Being very comfortable in the water and not going into an outright panic is the only reason I came out still breathing. Wow – really hard to describe the violence and power of that water. I’m not gonna quit there……I will have to try again… just gonna have to be a little more patient and a whole lot smarter when I try it the next time. Paddle board is definitely not going to be an option here – so will probably go for the next best thing which is an ocean kayak. More on the later.

Stopping here and see if I can get some pictures loaded for you. Good night ya’ll …. and thankx for stopping in~!

 

Well I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to write anything tonight….. internet service has been crappy all day (and that’s being really polite) I tried to pay a couple of bills on line and couldn’t even get the web pages to pull up….. modern technology my a$$~! Anyhow, started the day with another nice breakfast ( I think my Queen is trying to make me fat)…… watched a couple episodes of Kitchen nightmares to let our belly’s settle then headed out for the local Home Depot store. I was actually fairly impressed when we got inside….. it is the only store of the kind on the island and it is very well stocked…….. picked up some odds and ends for more cleaning around the house, plus a cover and some propane for my new [to me] grill.  Stopped by and got mail and then came straight back to the condo. While my bride piddled around on the inside, I was out on the back patio cleaning my grill…….and cleaning….. and cleaning. I put in a solid 4 hours on it and it looks almost brand new now. Ya gotta know what you’re working with when starting out on a new piece of equipment~! I hooked it up and one press of the starter and wa-lah -! I was in business. I gave it a good burning, to make sure all cleaning solutions were burned off, worked down the grilling plates and then let her cool off. Good to go~!

It should probably go without saying, but we started having drinks about the time I was wrapping it up and the plan of a grilled meal went out the window after about 5 drinks….. maybe tomorrow.

Because the site seems to be working fairly decent at this point – I’m gonna stop here and see if I can get some pictures to load……. keeping my fingers crossed~! Good night ya’ll — thankx for stopping in~!

 

[Uh – that would be a big negatory on the pictures there storm trooper…ain’t gonna happen – Thankx AT & T~!]

 

 

Pretty calm day today….. got up early to get woke up enough before I took off to pick up my grill. A good friend gave it to me (Jim, one of the owners of Blues Back Yard) I pulled in at 08:00 and we loaded it up. I brought it back to the condo and managed to get one of the local maintenance guys to give me a hand getting it lugged around to our patio. It was in need of a serious cleaning – but the sun was beating down directly into where it was sitting so I opted to go inside and start on multiple projects waiting for me there…… I had a ton of mail to sort out, which included making various phone calls to address some of the mail I got. Finished up with that and got a clock hung up, some wall ornaments that my Queen wanted put up, which tends to be a chore when you’re working with poured concrete walls with a rough stucco finish – but I got-R-done~!

Opened up and installed my new printer and then sat down for a breakfast of bacon, sausage and pancakes. Breakfast sat kinda heavy (go figure) so I spent an inordinate amount of time sitting on the couch watching Kitchen Nightmares… when my belly finally stopped hurting so bad….. I went out and started working on my grill. Big ole thing – 5 burners with a side burner as well.  It apparently had seen quite a bit of use there at Blues, plus sitting unattended for a pretty good while – weather and dust had built up quite a bit on it too. I spent the next several hours working on the outside of it and have it looking almost like new. I still have quite a bit more work on it, but it will be worth it to have a nice big grill to cook on again. I have to go get a couple of propane tanks for it, and a cover and should be ready to go by tomorrow afternoon. I can’t wait and my bride is anxious to have one of my steaks~!

Finished up the evening with an entirely too big of plate of spaghetti, but I have had a hankering for it – so I made up for it….. now my belly hurts again… but oh so worth it. : )~

Gonna wrap it up here….. I don’t have any new pictures but will see if I can get a couple of others that I don’t think you’ve seen yet to load. Good night ya’ll ….. Thankx for stoppin’ in~!

 

………….well hell’s bells….. guess it’s a good thing I didn’t have a bunch of new pictures because our little ole hot spot ain’t feelin’ it tonight….. sorry – maybe tomorrow.

Well my getting up and taking a nice long walk to work off this ever growing beer belly didn’t work worth a damn this morning…….. slept in a little bit (06:45) got up and had my one coff of cuppee and had to launch into a couple of phone calls to work out some issues back in the states…… It is really hard to make people back there understand just how different of an environment it is here in the islands….. like intermediately slow internet….. mail that should take 3 days now takes 14 days….. that kind of stuff.    AT&T in their infinite wisdom, wants to charge me another $ 209.00 for a defective hot spot that I had to send back – because it did not get sent back in their allotted 10 day time frame……. it took 3 different phone calls and about a total of an hour on the phone with 3 different people to make them understand that I did what I was supposed to do — in their friggin’ time frame — I just don’t have any control over how long the U.S. Postal Service takes to do their thing from here……. I mailed the hot spot back on the 23rd of March — it still has not got there yet.  Jeeeez~!

After that, I had to put together a spreadsheet with corresponding receipts for substitute landlord, to be reimbursed for items we bought that should have already been in the condo……. We may be living in paradise – but are still dealing with regular everyday kind of headaches…… no worries though…. when my head got to hurting or my nerves were getting shot – I’d go out on the back porch and light a cigarette and watch and listen to those waves crashing in on the beach – and it didn’t take long for everything to be alright again……..   : )

After a nice breakfast my bride whooped up – we headed out to finish up finding needed items. We abruptly stopped in at a furniture store we had missed and within 20 minutes had the bedroom furniture we needed, paid for and set up for delivery. A stop at the post office to pick up lots and lots of mail and we were headed for Blues for a celebratory drink, only to be called and told our furniture was being delivered (right then) – we actually met the delivery guys in our parking lot. Furniture was brought in and set up lickity-split and they were gone. HOT-Damn~! After 7+ months — We get to [[FINALLY]]  unpack our suitcases…. Woo-Hooo~!!!  : )  Well – we’ll do it tomorrow, because as soon as the furniture dudes left – we jumped back into DD and headed for Blues  😉  We sat and had a handful of drinks – chatted with folks for a while and finally came back home.

Watched a little bit of Kitchen Nightmares (we finished all the available Hell’s Kitchen’s) – had a bite to eat and getting ready for showers and some sleep — big day tomorrow — I’m gonna go pick up a grill and then come home so we can un-pack~!!

Going to see if internet will let me load some more pictures~!  Good night ya’ll …. Thankx for stopping in~!

Timothy – awesome bartender~!

Woke up again early this morning…… still getting used to the new place and all. New sounds, smells, etc. We don’t have ferry lights blasting into our window anymore like we did in the last place – thank goodness — or the sounds of the trucks unloading the ferry — but we also do not have the stellar internet we had there either….. and that makes me sad. That was something I got used to really quick and am not adapting well to the menial effort our little hotspot is putting out. Ah yes, island life…….. anyhow …. got up early again and watched another gorgeous sunrise while listening to waves pound the beach right outside our door. Sitting there with a cup of coffee and a smoke is a great way to wake up in the morning. Pretty darn nice way to wrap up the day as well (swapping out the coffee for a drink) as we get some pretty spectacular sunsets here as well.

I finished my standard 1 cup of coffee and decided I was going out for a walk. I have gotten out of that habit the past couple of months or so as we bounced around trying to find permanent housing and with Lil Sis visiting and so fourth…… so I told my Queen – I would let her ‘wake up’ while I went out for a stroll. Strapped on my walking shoes and off I went happily taking pictures as I eased out into the just now waking up world. I get to actually see all the stuff I have been driving by while on my walks, as I’m dodging potholes, or people who are dodging potholes…… so I have the time to look around and actually start seeing some things most drivers don’t. I went by one of the schools that got torn apart by ‘the storm’ (Hurricane Maria)…… kind of eerie walking around looking at the building that is not savable and already starting to be taken over by Mother Nature. Sadly, vandals have moved in and already left their marks – even though some of the artwork was actually pretty impressive. I moved from there on to another big building complex that I understand was once “Section 8” housing. Much like the school – it looks to be pretty much un-savable and too already being consumed by Mother Nature. I would really liked to have seen these two big buildings before ‘the storm’ so I could have some kind of context. I took a couple of pictures, but probably ain’t gonna be able to get anything loaded….. I just barely got logged in here tonight. I headed on toward where I figured the coast was and soon popped out onto the beach. Fun looking spot that I was looking forward to checking out, but about that time – ‘Nature’ reminded me that I had not answered her call before I left for my walk, so I scurried on down the beach back to our place to tend to that matter.

After a wonderfully large breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits & gravy — we retired to the couch for the bulk of the day to an impressive amount of dang near nothing…… I really do like being retired.  : )

Good night ya’ll…………… Thankx for stopping in~!    (wow – actually got some pictures to load~!! Walking pix later)

View to our living room

view from living room to kitchen

Master Bedroom

our backyard

view from back porch

Sunrise from our backyard

Sunrise from our backyard

Sunrise

Now it feels like home~~

Sunset from our back yard

 

Well we finally done it….. got moved into a place that we will be in for at least a year. Nice little place — 2 bed / 2 bath – directly on the beach. When you step off of our back porch, you literally step onto the beach. Not necessarily a beach well suited for swimming – but it is on the beach none the less. We got the last of our stuff moved in by 09:30 this morning and went straight to work cleaning. As I stated yesterday, whomever did the “cleaning” for us to move in did a really terrible job of it. We cleaned until about 2:00 in the afternoon and decided to call it a day….. we were both sore and hungry, so drove down the road a couple of minutes to The Palms restaurant for a bite to eat. They had a big buffet laid out (we both forgot it was Easter Sunday~ duh), but got there in in time to be able to get a plate of salad, Mahi-Mahi, rice and BBQ chicken. While it had been sitting for a while – it was still quite tasty, especially to two worn out old people that aren’t as used to manual labor as much as they used to be……. The restaurant has a really nice beach that we may have to bring Grand kids to, as it looked suitable for young un’s. The view is pretty spectacular to look at while you’re eating lunch as well. Came back to the condo and just piddled a little bit with odds and ends still trying to make the place our own. By 5:30 or so we decided it was time for a drink and some Ramsey…….. one small complication though…… turns out we either didn’t understand correctly or were just blatantly lied to again, but we have no cable or internet [yet] in the building~!!!! Dammit Emmit~!

Not to be thwarted, I pulled out our TV and our handy dandy little AT&T hotspot and got them connected and had Hell’s Kitchen going in no time. We have to deal with a LOT of buffering as the hotspot does a barely acceptable job (as you might remember from some of the other places we had to use it) – but we are on line – albeit very slowly…… so not sure if I’m gonna get any of the fun pictures I took today loaded or not. Rest assured, one of my primary objectives will be to get us cable and [decent] internet up in here (up in here)……   ; )

That’s about all I’m good for tonight….. the ole fat boy is tuckered and I still need to get a shower – so I’m gonna try and get some pictures to load for you while I go knock the top layer off in the shower.

Have a good night ya’ll — Thankx for stopping in~!

 

{{{Well – SH*T…… 20+ minutes and the first picture hasn’t even loaded yet…. so – sorry ya’ll…. not sure if I can get any upon FB either…..}}}

After a less than restful night sleep (probably from the 5000 calorie ‘snack’ last night) — got up, got coffee’d and had a decent breakfast. Knowing that tomorrow is moving day and knowing the truck was almost full on our last move – and knowing our new place was vacant and ready for us – we decided to get a leg up on the moving process and hauled all the big suitcases and stuff we knew we wouldn’t need today to the new place.

Took off after dropping all that off for a trip to Kmart for some supplies we knew we’d need right away. (Turns out substitute landlord did less than a stellar job of having the place cleaned) Also picked up some odds and ends we knew we’d need around the house anyway… dropped all of our goodies off at the new place and since it was 4:00 by then and our new place is only 5 minutes from Blues – we decided a drink was in order before heading back for our last night here. Well, the band Blues Experience was playing – so we had to sit and listen to them for a while (well, until they were done playing, but whose watching their clocks?) — and then headed back to the condo for some Ramsey……

Not sure what kind of internet we have at the new place yet….. and not sure how long it will take us to get settled in….. so might be a day or so before I get another post up…. so until the next time….. Happy Easter~!!  [and thankx for stopping in~!]

Don’t ya hate it when you get up in the morning with a noggin full of great ideas, you’re gonna just set the day on fire with all the things you plan on getting done and then only get a fourth of it done because a bar got in the way ? Dammit Emmit I hate it when that happens……. well, actually I don’t, but I kinda felt like I should say it  😉   After we got and moving yesterday – we headed out toward the East end to a golf course – to hit up the local pro shop to see if they had any golf balls. A small gift of appreciation to a friend that helped us find our vehicle and the place we will be living…… while we were there – we were told the resort on the premises had a nice beach. Needing to find nice safe beach for impending grandchildren visits – we figured we’d check it out. Cruised on down to the local bar/restaurant and scoped it out. Nice little place with water sports type rentals and a nice little beach. While enjoying some refreshing liquid libations at the bar (hey — it was a bar – we kinda had to get a drink) we were told about a neighboring beach that might fill the bill…. so off we went. Wound up cruising a round a neighborhood that was probably just a little bit outside of our budget…. I mean, these folks probably do not worry about how they’re gonna pay their local utility bill every month…. some pretty nice digs if I have to say so my damn self~!!  I stopped and snapped a couple of pictures for you – just for reference…..

Finally found the second beach – very cool, but maybe a tad rough for little folks…. but had the coolest grown over walk way to get to it. Not much fun if you’re over 5′ tall – but cool none-the-less……… (got pictures of it too)…. loaded up and headed for a 3rd beach to check out, but got side tracked when we stopped by Blues for some more refreshing liquid libations…… and then some……. and then some more…… wooey……. finally decided we’d better head back to the house while I could still see……..passed McDonalds and thought food would be a good idea (you know, kinda soak up some of the refreshing liquid libations)…. so stopped and picked up about 5000 calories worth of goodness and headed on home.  We put on Hell’s Kitchen when we got there….. but after I got a belly full – I pretty much passed out on the couch until my Queen finally shook me and told me to go to bed….. so – no FB, no post…… just slumber… so – sorry about that…… I’d like to say it won’t happen again – but who are we kidding here ???

Got up today with intentions of finishing what we started yesterday – but it turns out, the island pretty much shuts down for the impending Easter holiday – for 4-5 days…. so everything will be pretty much closed until Tuesday ‘ or so’…….. Gotta love island life……. so we wound up once again at Blues…… had a new band there tonight – Electric Andy – that turned out to be pretty damn good (Neil – you would have loved these guys) — we waited until the band quit and packed it up and headed back to the condo…….. and here I be….. so I’m gonna try and get some pictures loaded and then head my happy ass on to bed…….

Good night ya’ll ……… Thankx for stoppin’ in~!

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Up early this morning while my Queen slept in a bit….. After she got up, coffee’d and woke up a bit, we opted to skip a big breakfast and head out for a day of furniture shopping. Went to 3 different places looking for dressers and chest of drawers. Being mostly content with what we found (we now have to share that intel with substitute land lord) journeyed around looking for a couple of odd ball items we wanted….. including looking at snorkel mask sets and floaty thingys for impending grandchildren visits~! Can’t wait to see them little rascals~! We are waiting until we get into our permanent place before we start stock piling those items.

Came back to the condo in time for a maintenance dude to arrive and work on the fridge and the clothes dryer. He showed up exactly on time and set straight into work – while we sat in the living room and Ramsey’d while he toiled away in the kitchen. Took about an hour – but finally had everything fixed and working properly. Some of the ‘woo-hoo’ was lost in the fact we only have 3 days left in the place. When maintenance dude left, we both agreed a visit to Blues was in order. We loaded up in DD and headed out to our favorite place.  Several drinks, a small basket of chicken wings and some really good conversation and we were ready to head back.

Got home and settled in with some more Hell’s Kitchen…….. when I got a mail from my wonderful tax preparer saying that there was some pretty good news waiting for me in my files. Couldn’t pass that opportunity up – so Ramsey is on pause while I jumped into my mail…… wow~! Turns out we are getting a really nice tax refund~! A REALLY nice refund — which will make island life a whole lot easier for a while~!!  Tina has been doing my taxes for the last 34+ years and always does an amazing job — but this year – she out done herself. If you’re in need of an excellent tax preparer – (She is also one of the people who was very instrumental in helping me achieve the life we are living now and I simply cannot say enough good things about her~!)  I’ll be glad to share her contact info with you – just ask~!

So now that I have got my ‘evening’ things done and shared my day with you…. I’m gonna head back to the couch for some more Hell’s Kitchen. I think we are supposed to go back out for more furniture shopping tomorrow since Angie got the name of another furniture store from Blues [Thankx Deb]…… so who knows what we’ll wind up doing.

Have a good evening ya’ll ….. Thankx for stopping in~!

 

 

 

Hello sports fans, readers, friends and neighbors….. back on the air tonight…. as a power blip yesterday left us without electricity for a while and when it came back on apparently FUBAR’d the internet….. so we were off the www for the evening.

Absolutely nothing went according to plan yesterday – but I got to tell you – that is a whole lot easier to deal with, when you don’t have a pesky job or any other obligations to deal with~! After breakfast, the plan was to head out to look at furniture for the new place. About the time we were getting ready to go, our ‘substitute’ landlord called and said he had the lease papers ready for us to sign. We told him to come on over knowing he only lived about 3 minutes from us. Come over he did….. after about an hour [sorry, I got hung up]…. I read through the contract, corrected the things I disagreed with and was ready to sign until he wanted me to initial the box that I had received and read the HOA agreement for the condo complex. Well sir – I had not received and read the HOA agreement for the condo complex and told him to scratch it out or furnish said copy. Well, I’m gonna have to go get it.……. and off he went. Knowing that would be probably be at least an hour, we settled down on the couch for some Ramsey (Hell’s Kitchen). A couple of hours had went by and we decided that substitute landlord probably wasn’t going to be back and that a drink was in order…. I (weirdly) wasn’t up for Crown or beer, so I grabbed a bottle of wine my weeny little Sister left in the fridge and started in on it. Gordon was in rare form as we continued watching…… I finished that bottle of wine and grabbed another bottle that weeny little Sis left and I commenced in on it. Sadly it did not taste near as good as I was hoping…. but continued to power through it. Now with a snoot full of grapes….. substitute landlord shows back up [sorry, I got hung up again] ….. I told him I wasn’t signing anything that night, took the agreement and told him I’d see him later.

Because we didn’t have TV or internet – I hooked up the DVD player and we watched a couple of movies: Into the Grizzly Maze and Courageous. Both surprisingly good movies – ! By then the second bottle of wine was empty and I couldn’t keep my eyes open and we wandered off to bed.

This morning we woke up to massive gray clouds which turned into a pouring rain, that lasted almost all day long. Really surprised us as the longest we had ever seen it rain here was about 20 minutes. I’m sure the locals are happy as we have been going through a dry spell and the rain was much needed to restock storage basins that many locals rely on for their water. The island itself needed it too – as much of the greenery was starting to turn brown. Not in the mood to get out in that mess – we stayed in and binged watched Ramsey damn near all day long. I did manage to grab a couple of pictures to share with you so I’ll see if I can get them up (internet is still acting a little ‘iffy’) Not a word out of substitute landlord…. probably got hung up somewhere…………………

Going to try and get out for furniture shopping tomorrow…. we’ll see. Good night ya’ll …… Thankx for stopping in~!

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