Maryland Monday

Today is the day. 10 AM is my fathers funeral.

The flight yesterday was OK except my ticket said United but everything was USAirways. So my mother couldn't find my flight at the airport.

After I left yesterday, we went off the air. I think we're still off the air.

Flying today

thanks for the comments yesterday. In reality my Dad died when he got sick, he's been gone since then. It's better now that he isn't suffering any more, and that he didn't live for years in the vegetative state he was in.
I fly at 1 PM. I'll be cleaning the house. (Seems like the only time I clean is when I leave the island and I don't want the dog babysitter to know what a total pig I am. Kinda like someone who only brushes their teeth right before they go to the dentist!) I also clean when I anticipate visitors.

I brush my teeth every day. More than once. FYI

After an exchange of emails and phone calls, the OI Girl and I are giving it another go.

July 29

My Father passed away this morning. 1 AM. It's good he didn't stay a long time in the state he was in.

Additionally, it looks like the OI girl and I have broken up. Not quite sure exactly what happened there.

Ready for a Weekend!

Today will be expensive. My car is ready. They did a lot of rust removal (I found a big patch under the carpet in the back. And they fixed my famous oil leak. I never had to change my oil, just add. (My car doens't really leak oil, it just marks it's spot)
I got paid Wednesday, but have been so busy I haven't made it to the bank. I have to pay all my bills. And grocery shopping. And the OI Girl wants me to go see her.
It was hard to wake up this morning.
I hope to do a dive this weekend, and have made plans to kayak with a friend who has never been.

It was a good day yesterday . . .

But it's a great day now!

Yesterday was a good day. I didn't get to go to the beach, but it was a good day.
There is another radio station in town. It is very close to our studios. Because of their location, they create a lot of noise and interference on other stations, especially one of my two. Their engineer and I came up with a plan to move them out to the same tower my transmitters are on. There were others coming up with plans too. Yesterday, our plan was chosen.

Today, I don't think there's much that can keep me from the beach for a little while at least.

PS: I'm typing this topless, (Froggie!)

Another topicless post

I don't know what to post about today, I worked till about 10:30 last night, and my split shift today is filled in by a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, we carry the speeches live after the lunch part.
I can tell my legs are getting in shape from riding my bike back and forth. I haven't had my car for about a week. I should get it back any day. Today, I predict! Next comes the engine work, it leaks oil, and having my car for a week made my mechanic appreciate what that means.
Also, today is PAYDAY! I get paid once a month. Last month I had two airfares and a lot of expensive junk and I hope to re-coop from that at least partially. I have some big bills coming up though, I just hope I can get caught up to date. I can. But I have to pay the duty for my land I bought, and I should have the certificate of ownership any day now!
It feels like this week has already been 10 days long at least. It is good to be busy, I feel better. Exercise helps too.
AND I should be getting the materials for my college course today. (It'll be late, packages always are, but soon!)

Weird dream

Last night I had a dream I was in a waiting room, someplace like the place where you get your drivers license, or a doctors office. There was several people standing in line with me, a little kid and his mom, a pretty girl who smiled at me when she caught me looking at her. The little kid and I were making faces at each other. I remember I felt good and I was happy. I was standing in line in a tank top, shorts and flip flops, I think I just came from the beach. The girl was sitting in a chair, she had brown hair past her shoulders, and she was wearing a blue skirt and a green shirt. Suntanned legs. There were several people in line, a nice clean, modern well-lit waiting room.
I remember the song on the radio, it sounded like Steven Tyler:

Baybeee,
Baby Baybeeeee
Won't you love me one more time?

Over and over.
Finally it was my turn, and I went in this office. This guy gave me a form to fill out. When I got done, he opened a drawer and I was surprised when I threw my pen in the drawer. I thought "I won't be needing that any more". In the drawer, neatly folded, was a filthy denim shirt. It had some serious ring around the collar. It was filthy-filthy. I didn't want to put on such a dirty shirt because I was nice and clean but I figured it really didn't matter. I asked "What's that shirt for? Handling the dead body?" He said yes and gave it to me to put on. Then he started to lead me into another room and I realized in my dream that I already knew I was there to be put to death.
Then I woke up, angry that I would have such a dream, and sad too. It was weird that I would report for death and just accept it, without fighting or struggling or running, like it was normal. I don't think anyone else in the line was there to be put to death.

reading this makes me want to cry.

5 things:

I've been simutaneously tagged by Shoo Shoo, Daisy and Froggie Mom to do a list of 5 things:


In my purse/wallet:
Drivers license, American Express (don't leave home without it) A key to my car (usually, but not now, since my car's in the shop). Insurance card and government fuel card. very little money

In my Refrigerator:
grape Cool-Aid, water, wasabi, turkey, bread and cheese

In my Closet:
Clothes, shoes, a half dozen or so wetsuits, multimeter, and boxes of books and computer parts.

In my Car:
XM receiver, a stuffed animal that my ex-niece gave me, A friendship bracelet that an ex-girlfriends daughter gave me, a big bottle of water for if I need to rinse off after the beach, usually my bailout bottles for diving but not now, because my car's in the shop.

I tag: Restless Me, Southern Sweetheart, Ashman ('cause he never says much, just posts pictures), Moxey Poxey, and Anduin.

This was an easy post.

Not another Monday

That was the shortest weekend I remember. I can't believe it's Monday.
Yesterday I went back in the canals on my bicycle. I've been back there a lot, but yesterday I explored them quite extensively.

Typical road, with canals on each side. This one has small canals

I went to my old spot where I used to go with my dog. It is not far from where I used to live when I was married. I also went to the farther parts where I had never been before. I found a spot that was in the North Sound that was quite a nice spot. Also it would be good for putting my Kayak in the water there. There was someone back there fishing.

End of the road at the North Sound

There were a lot of iguanas back there, there always are. The canals were dug as part of an old mosquito program. I guess they are still part of of it. Also there's two big ponds. after hurricane Michelle, they put the turtles from the turtle farm there.

water control gate

I felt like I was hurrying all weekend to do what I wanted to do, and never had a chance to really kick back and relax. It was a way short weekend. Also, without a car, it's harder to spend money! I like just having a bike (in a way).
I couldn't get Windows 2000 to work on my laptop, so I put XP back on it, which means I wasted my time totally. With 2000, when I loaded the video driver, the screen stayed black and I couldn't think of any to fix it except reinstalling Windows. I tried 2000 a few times but then just said "fukkit".
I don't wanna go to work this week. I really don't. I wasn't done with the weekend.

Nothing happening

I went to the beach for a long time yesterday. I'm working on my tan. It seems like nothing happens though, except my white parts get whiter! I did a little snorkeling but it was a little wavy so low visibility. I have a thermometer on my watch and it showed 130 degrees F in the sun. Did you know that whenever they say the temperature on the TV or Radio that it is always in the shade? I like it hot! The hotter the better. I've seen 142 degrees F on my watch before.
Today is more of the same. Beach.

I have two laptops and two desktop computers. The laptops are Windows XP. The desktops are Windows 2000, commercial version, no serial number required. To me, 2000 has always been better that XP. But almost everyone I know disagrees. I'm thinking about putting 2000 on one of mylaptops, just to see how it works. I'm worried about the drivers. They came on my Toshiba CD that came with the laptop, but I wonder if I can EASILY extract them for windows 2000 to use. . .
Maybe I'll give that a go today.

Predestiny

I believe my destiny is to spend the entire weekend at the beach. I have no car, can't transport my rebreather. The beach is across the street, and that's what I'll do.

And clean my apartment.

Slow starting Friday

I stayed up last night watching the movie "Signs". I had seen it before but it was good again.
Normally I go to bed about 9PM. Last night I went at 11:30. I woke up at 3:30 with a backaache (from riding my bicycle?) and I took some ibuprophen and went back to bed.
But it was hard to get up. I got up at about 40 minutes late.

My landlady called yesterday. She's cranking the rent up more that 15%. And she wants me to sign a new lease. I really don't want to sign a lease, as I hope to have a house built to live in by 6 months of so.

I didn't get my car back, I went to pick it up and I found a lot more rust. I told you I thought the price was too low! Now I'm pretty much going to get all the body work done. I probably won't have a car all weekend. Heck- I definitely won't. Its FRIDAY!

Bike Ridin' paypaya grower

A long time ago I planted some Papaya seeds, a long time ago like 2 weeks. They didn't come up and I was beginning to worry. But this morning, Ta daaaa! 3 out of 4 little papaya plants are growing. Maybe the fourth will come up today. I planted them from seeds of a papaya I ate.



My car is still in the shop. I rekkon I'll get it back today. I rode my bike home yesterday and will ride it in today. It amazes me that people are amazed that I ride my bike to and from work. It's less that 10 miles. I bought one of those geeky helmets. As a car driver, I take a biker with a helmet more seriously that one without. Like they're a tri-athlete or professional bike rider or something.
I've been thinking about buying a Vespa. Instead of paying $70 a week or more for gas I could pay $6 every other week. the only problem is that I'm worried about killing myself. I don't quite understand why I am worried about wrecking or getting run over on a Vespa more than my bike. On my bike, I could get run over by a Vespa! Maybe it has something to do with an engine, or license plates. On a Vespa, I'm in the same class as a car in some ways, but on a bike, maybe I think drivers have an obligation to look out for me. . . I dunno.

Act Normal

Today I have an appointment to get some rust fixed on my car. I'm kind of having reservations because of the expense, but it's going to be less than 200 dollars. I guess I should get it done.
Because . . .
I found out the other day that my inspection expired in JANUARY! that's 7 months ago! When I first noticed, I thought I must have scraped off the wrong sticker after after having it inspected, but no. the paperwork says it's way overdue!
I've been driving around for seven months in ignorant bliss, and I haven't been stopped, but you can bet your bottom dollar that now that I'm driving around with a guilty conscience, I'll get busted for sure!
So I might as well get my brakes fixed too, and that WILL be expensive!
Plus I got that dirt theifin' thing to worry about . . .
I hope my next couple years of posting aren't coming at you from JAIL!
Yesterday my life was SWEEEEEET! Today I'm a cop-dodging fugitive!
I'm just going to try and act normal. If you see me around, you try to act normal too, OK?

Oh yeah, check out this: Kelli got a blog.
finally.

SSDD

The weather here has been following a strange pattern. It is nice and sunny in the morning, then around noon it gets cloudy and rains and thunders, then at about 4 or 5 it clears up again.
It just hit me that this is going to be one of those days I can't think of anything to post.
My BBC receiver at work seems to be failing. It stays locked onto the receiver, but looses audio. that was the original symptom, before the guy dropped a tree on the dish. That added to the problem quite a bit.
Also I stole dirt this morning, There's a construction site across the street, and this morning I went over there and stole a flower pot full of dirt.
I signed up for an on-line college. Cleveland Institute of Electronics. My resume has gotten kind of stagnant, my current employer has provided zero training so I decided to do something on my own. Hopefully it will be challenging without being too difficult. Most of the info in the course I have already had. If I need help I will be asking you. And my study habits have gone to crap.

Fantastic Dive Yesterday

Yesterday was a great day! I went for a dive I always wanted to go on, a shore dive to the Carrie Lee. I went to this fairly new park, I think it's called the Dart Family Park. It is adjacent to the Carrie Lee and there is no piece of land that is closer. I parked in the parking lot and geared up and walked down to this antique boat ramp and got in and compassed out. I saw a nurse shark, a spotted eagle ray, turtle and a lot of good things.
As I went out further, the current got stronger and stronger. I tried to compensate, and when I got to the depth the wreck was at, I couldn't find it. I swam into the current for a while, looking for it, but nada.
When I reached the shore, I was a little north of where I intended to be, which makes me think I think I over-compensated for the current and I should have looked the other way for the wreck. It was probably right there! It was too deep for my camera. Too bad, the shark was beautiful!

After the dive, I invaded a hotel swimming pool, You should have seen this girl there. she was wearing the smallest, lowest bikini. I wished again that I had my camera! When it comes to womens swimsuits, less is more!
After staying at the pool for a while, I went home for lunch and to rinse my rebreather. Then to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

I'm at work already, we were off the air one one frequency this morning. It was the BBC Satellite receiver, it was locked onto the satellite, but there was no audio, I re-booted it and it started working. We musta had a power failure last night.

Since I came in early I plan on taking off early and that means extra beach time!
Have a good week!

It rained but it quit

Yesterday I worked and it was hot and sunny. Then as soon as I got off it started raining thundering and lightninging. So (after I got my car out of the shop) I came home a took a nap. When I woke up it was sunny so I went to the beach and went snorkeling and took some more of the same ol' pics . . .

click all pics to enlarge

A school of fish. In person they are much more purple

A lobster

A Parrotfish (they were acting weird yesterday, not running away)

Me! (I love this ugly mask)

Another Flamingos Tongue

And yesterdays answer was a dictionary. Congratulations Scott!!!

un pregunta

It's Saturday and I'm getting ready to go to work. My car is in the shop because the radiator started leaking and the engine was overheationg. I just had that fixed less than a month ago. So I a have works van. Thank you to my new boss.
I want to get done working and get to the beach. I want to go diving tomorrow. I think I'll assemble my rebreather before work today.
My coffee's good. I'm out of Costa Rican and I'm drinking Cuban. OI Girls dad is sending her some more so maybe I'll get some of that! Did you know Starbucks uses Costa Rican coffee?
In case you can't tell, I can't think of anthing to post today, I'm just rambling.
Posts like this don't generate many comments. I love to get comments, so I'l leave you with a question:
Here on earth it is true, yesterday is always before today; but there is a place where yesterday always follows today. Where?

Luck is not the main ingredient

People always tell me I'm lucky to live here. Luck is when something you can't control works out in your favor, so I am lucky, but also I took action to be here, and I learned action is infinitely more important than luck. Action generates luck.
First of all, let me give some history. I lived in Hawaii and planned on staying. I wanted to stay and work for a year at a new job before I went back to visit my parents, but I hadn't been home in 3 years and they urged me to go so I went.
While in Maryland, the job I had lined up in Hawaii fell through. Looking back, not going back to Hawaii was a prime example of inaction. I ended up working in DC a year and I moved with my job to Virginia.
And I got into credit card debt.
After I quit drinking and doing drugs and decided I needed to get out of debt and move back to the tropics (The Marktic Circle). It took a long time to pay off my maxxed out credit cards.
All the while I was planning on moving, and planning and planning, and looking and looking. I thought that Belize, english speaking, 400 years of unbroken peace, looked pretty good. So I was looking and looking. Library and internet. Looking and thinking about it with no action.
Then one day I got a call from an acquaintance who I usually saw only one weekend a year. He was going on vacation. He usually went with his son, but his son couldn't go that year so he called me because I was a scuba diver. I wanted to think about it for a while, (which would have been more inaction) but in this case that wasn't an option and I ended up saying yes. Then I came here and met a girl.
When I was leaving to go back home after my vacation, I had a strong sensation I was supposed to stay.
I kept in touch with the girl, I thought she might be "The One" (she wasn't). But she sent me the ad for the job I have today. I applied and came back down and interviewed.
When I got the job, I was still scared. But I called the newspaper, ran an ad for a yard sale. I called the airlines and bought a ticket. And I made calls to sell my van and rent my house. I turned in my resignation at work and that was it. I was surprised at how easy these little actions were.
From the time I decided to move and took the first action, to the time I was living here, was two months. There was very little planning and thinking involved. Before that, I was planning and thinking for years and years. With zero results.
Sure I was lucky, I got hired, I met the girl, but all the luck is the result of my actions. I could have sat in Virginia and thought about and planned it forever, and nothing would have ever happened. After I took action things happened, and my luck started.
So now I'm here, and grateful every day for it. I get a little irked when people tell me I'm lucky, but I know I am.

Thursday Back to work

I had the day off yesterday, for the OI Girls visit. Today it's back to work. The OI Girl is here till Friday morning. We're meeting for lunch today.
Yesterday, I was writing my post when the OI Girl got out of bed and came out to the kitchen. I think it's the earliest she's ever woken up. have never shown anyone my blog, so I just kinda stopped writing where I was and published the post.
Yesterday we went diving, our first Grand Cayman dive together, and her first time seeing my rebreather in action. Then we found another geocache by another beach. She liked it I think. There's not too many more here to find here.
Now I'm drinking my coffee while she sleeps. I'll wake her up when I go to work.
Saturday, I'm working.

thanks!

Thanks for all the comments yesterday! I love those double digits!
I'm taking the day off work today and my girlfriend arrived last night. I'll take a picture of my shower for you later, it's not that small! It's a standard stand-up-no-bathtub shower, probably bigger than half a bathtub.
Now, when it's your birthday, I want you to post a pic of you in your birthday suit! (not you Randy)

HBDTM

Happy Birthday To ME!

I was wondering what to post about today and was reading the comments from yesterdays post and Kelli reminded me it was my birthday. When you get as old as me, (46 today) birthdays aren't a good thing. I'm now on the wrong side of 45. 50 will be here in no time.

The OI Girl is coming tonight. I haven't seen her in some weeks. I have the day off tomorrow but I feel kind of guilty, like I've been taking too much time off lately.
I'll try not to let it bother me tooo much!

For my birthday, I'm posting a picture of me in my Birthday Suit!

Coccoloba uvifera

I walked across the street yesterday evening and took these pics at Cemetary Beach.

Click to enlarge

Description:

Sea grapes are grown as both spreading, evergreen shrubs and trees that reach approximately 30 feet in height. The leaves are round, alternate, and measure as much as 6 inches in diameter. Leaf texture is leathery, and color is bright green to reddish nearest the petioles. Older leaves are often rust colored before they drop. Flowers are small and white, blooming nearly year round. Fruits are fleshy and hang in grape-like clusters. Individual fruits typically measure under 1 inch in diameter. Immature fruit is green in color, while mature fruits are reddish or purple.

Habitat:
Sea grapes are common in coastal dunes, backdunes, and hammocks. They are also heavily utilized as landscaping plants. They are exceedingly rare in Indiana, USA.

The reddish fruits of the sea grape may be eaten raw, cooked into jellies and jams, or fermented into sea grape wine.

They grow all over the beaches, You can eat them, but they're sour and the fruit is barely bigger than the seed. My friends parrot loves them.

In the olden days, the leaves were used as toilet paper!

Most of this information came from HERE.

Thanks Daisy!

Redwalk

I went back to that beach I mentioned a few days ago and went up those stairs and through that bramble of sea grape trees. It was really cool on the other side. Apparently, someone was going to build some condos there or something but never really got started. There is quite a lot of expensive stonework and nothing more. I've heard it's been that way for more than 10 years.


I found one geo-cache there and another at the East End Light house. I deposited the travel bug I found last weekend at Stonewall Beach then found another travel bug at East End Lighthouse.

After that I went to the Fosters Annual 800 Meter Sea Swim, While I was swimming, I thought I was doing fairly well, but was dissapointed at the place I came in. But my time was good, less that 20 minutes. The little kids amaze me though. Some of the 8 and 9 year olds swim it in under 10 minutes. If we measure by body lengths, that's fast! Suppose the race is 1000 of my body lengths, and a kid is half my height. So it's 2000 of his/her body lengths. If they swim it in half the time, then proportionally, they're going four times faster than me. I wish I could go four times faster than I go.
Here's a hot sexy picture to drive the ladies wild. The H3 on my arm means that if I pass out, call the Hospital in less than 3 minutes. How do you like my hat an' shades?

The Travel Bug

A Travel Bug

Last weekend, when I found the geocache, there was a travel bug in it. Today I'm going to put it in another cache, if I can find one. I have two places to check.
Also, hopefully, I might find a beach to stop at along the way!
This afternoon is a half mile sea swim that I might swim in.

Poorer now

I bought the land I talked about yesterday. I went to the bank to request the cashiers cheque and I thought it wouldn't be ready till the next day, but it was ready in minutes, so I got the check, called the seller and we met at the Lands and Survey Department, and transferred the land. No bank, no loan, no real estate agent, no BS. It takes a couple of weeks for the documentation to go through and then I'll have the certificate of ownership. I can use that as collateral to get a loan for construction or, I can sell my house in the US and use the money from that. But I'll try to find other options too.
I don't have too much in my bank account any more! But I'm happy and excited and I can't wait for the paperwork!

Cold Feet

Well, Today's the day I take the money out of the bank for my house lot. I have cold feet. I've been saving a long time and I just got nervous last night! I think that Friday will be the day I close on the property. I always feel like this when I'm getting ready to spend a lot of money!

See the yellow rectangle? that's it!

click to enlarge

It's a quarter mile from the sea.

New Window

I got a new window in my car yesterday, Here's a pic of the broken one.
Around here, it's like a punishment, if you leave your car unlocked, this retarded crackhead insane person who walks around will rifle through your car and take whatever he can, He's taken towels and flashlights from me, my neighbors have lost iPods and stuff. I don't think it was the same guy night before last. He didn't take anything, and the regular crook never broke anything. The police got some fingerprints, and all my neighbors agree to call the cops each and every time someone rifles their car. So hopefully we'll establish a pattern and some action will eventually be taken. Everyone knows who it is, but nobody can really prove it. But like I said, I'm not sure it was the same person who broke my window.

Today I am ecxited because it is my split shift day and yesterday I didn't go to the beach or into the sea at all. Today I'm jonesin to go.

Stonewall Beach

Yesterday, after my dive, I went exploring. I found the Geocache I was after yesterday . . . . .

I found the TREASURE!

The actual cache

. . . . and an excellent beach up on the north side of the island.

The path to the beach

The east end of the beach (Why didn't I take a pic of the west end? I dunno!)

An abandoned staircase that led up to a dead end and a bramble of sea grape trees.
(Through the sea grape trees requires further exploration)

It was a good day. Now I'm getting ready for work and I found that someone has broken my passenger window of my car and rifled through everything. I called the police this time. Apparently nothing is missing, my scuba tanks, wsetsuit and XM Radio are all still there. Waiting for the fingerprint technician now...

Cliffs of Dover? Not Quite!

Yesterday was a good day. I went diving first, then I went to a beach I saw on Google Earth.

click all pics to enlarge

It was a very nice beach but not as secluded as I thought it would be. Also I thought I'd never been there before but I had. I was laying there on the beach alternately reading my book, listening to my little radio and playing with my GPS when I noticed I was only a half a mile (800 meters) from a Geocache waypoint. (I was planning on going to a different one yesterday) So I picked up myu towel and backpack and started walking. At first it was OK, beautiful secenery, crashing waves and a nice cool breeze with the hot sun. My favorite clime!
But the terrain got rougher and rougher
Until it goet completely impassable and I had to turn back. I mean, there is NO WAY you could walk across this. It is razor sharp.
This isn't the best route in anyway. So I went back to the beach and stayed till I ran out of water. Then I came back home and had a cool shower and a nap.
I will go back and get there from another direction.

This morning I am getting ready to go diving again. Today will be a deeper one.
Then, who knows?

Geo-Caching

I found a website, http://www.geocaching.com/ it is very cool. All ever the world there are Geocaches, kind of like little treasure chests that people hide, then post the GPS location on the website. Then others with GPS units find the cache, take an something and leave something. There's also different types other than actual caches too. Like a place of interest. For example, yesterday I went there looking for a cache, the actual coordinates are in the middle of the construction zone for the new turtle farm and I figured the cache was gone. I got ran off by a security guard when I was 56 feet from the waypoint.
I went back home to report it missing on the website and DUH! The Turtle Farm is the cache!
It was my First Time. (I have a GPS like this, it's small, not too expensive, fist in your pocket, and everyone thinks it's a cell phone)

Today after I go diving, I'm going to try to find another geocache. This one actually IS a cache!