Tomorrow

Mission Highlights: SpaceX's Dragon Makes History from SpaceX on Vimeo.





My feet Are Warm




Yesterday...after almost 4 weeks...we got the insulation sprayed in the crawl space.

Right off the bat I can tell you it is far superior to the old school batting that was there. The house is evenly warm and there are no drafty spots.

All of this cost about $14,000 with insurance picking up all but $2,700. I had to pay for the upgraded spray on foam and the deductible.

No more dooky under the house, a clean and new vapor barrier on the ground, and new insulation.

The casualty in this is that my home owners got canceled for two claims this year...this one and another incident with Tanner.

A wReggie Day

About 63 today and it felt like 80.



I tweaked my dive gear some. Believe me...this looks messy and it is, but I am making headway.


I fed the animals. It is so muddy up at the barn.


I cleaned up dog dooky.


I rigged up my two quiet 2000 watt generators to supply me 4000 wats for the RV. Now I can carry each easily and have AC in the summer when I travel.


I saw the webcam was down and reported it to Wendy. She drove into town and fixed it. Otherwise she would never have noticed.


I stained a curtain rod and holders for the screen room's new East Curtain.


I spread fertilizer in the yard.


I cleaned the cobwebs in the screen room and watched a bit of The Daytona 500.


These are the curtains I am going to hang on the driveway side. It will give us privacy and reduce breeze in cold weather. Plus it will look cool.

I am tired.

Sunday

Finally...it has stopped raining.




I spent Saturday sorting dive gear and built a hanger for my Wet Suits, dry suit, 3 BCDs (buoyancy control device), to all neatly hang and dry equipment.

Man do I miss the ability just to throw on dive gear and walk in the ocean and dive.

Today, if I can, mud permitting, I'll put out grass fertilizer and weed control.

Then I have some very cool bamboo curtains that I want to get hung in the screen room.

Breakfast

It was epic.


I'm loving these pink oranges. The bacon was crist...eggs perfect, and the sour dough toast was all buttery.

The chicken of depression is now pecking corn in the back yard.

The Off Season

It is the off season for tailgating, football, and just about anything fun.

We have been in the grips of shitty weather all week. Here there is cold drizzle daily. Can it be more gloomy?

Finally, this week, I was visited by the chicken of depression.


That little voice in my head is screaming, "Pull up! Pull up!" And so I did.

I often cook when in a funk. Last night I recreated and improved some sliders ( I hate that term for little hamburgers) that I hoovered up down on the island.

I caramelized a big pile of onions and garlic. Then sliced dill pickles for the bottom layer. I buttered soft dinner rolls and toasted them while cooking thin, small burgers with cheese.

I stacked it all up with some mustard and popped open a beer.

Heaven I tells ya, simply heaven.

I Beg Your Pardon...


I was in Asheville, NC today calling on some clients, and got lost for a brief time. I looked up at the road sign to get my bearings, and saw this. 





© 2013 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

Special Things

Some things take a lot of effort and planning to get to me, and I appreciate it more than they know. The top 5 things are:

1. Coffee - burlap bags on a donkey and shipping and roasting.
2. Lea & Perrins Worchestershire Sauce - don't know what the hell is in it but keep making it until I die please.
3. Bananas - the soft fruit.
4. Bourbon - nuff said.
5. Direct TV - a machine 25,000 miles above beaming me football.



In Case you Missed it....



The Bachelor aired a 2 hours episode from St Croix last week when I was on the island.  This is two hours boiled down to 3 minutes. There is even some fuzzy bosom shots if you like bosoms. 



© 2013 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

For My Readers Who Don't Read This


From The Blogfather Gazette. This is quality reading folks. Whatever you are consuming Phfrankie, please keep doing it. 

Scene 1, Act 1

Why did Bob bring the goat home? Nobody knows, or at least they aren't saying. All I know is one day, early June it was, of last year,Bob comes rollin' in to the compound and unloads a goat from his GTO and says Phfrankie! Come on look at my new goat! Why he picked me out of the group can only be pondered on. Did I like goats more than everyone else? No. WTF??A friggin' goat! And not a regular goat, either. It was a blue goat. Yeah....blue. Not your sky blue...or your Wedgwood blue...no, the goat was a vibrant, shimmering, deep, electric, the-Pope's-underpants-blue. Dude! I said, Yonder be a swell goat! But git it the hell outta here! Are you outta yer friggin' mind?? But Bob he just unloads the goat and brings it right into the living room and commences to bring it some chow. Got any more o' that tuna casserole?, Bob asks me. Lucy ate it, I says. 

Sundown came to the compound and there I am stuck with a vibrant, shimmering blue goat. Bob said Lucy shouldn't of oughta ate the tuna casserole, because Lucy should be eating the DRY, but he got over it and the goat got some chow and Bob had a beer or two and it SEEMED like everything was settling down to normal, for having a blue goat on the couch. I say "seemed" because as soon as Bob went to his cabin, the goat looked at me and said, plain as day, as if he was speaking to the Commonwealth Club, he says Pssst...Phfrank...my name is Naaango and if I don't get back to my peeps, chop-chop, there's gonna be trouble. What kind of trouble, I ask. Well, he says, in all seriousness, the gang will come looking for me, with their croquet mallets, and all hell's gonna break loose. These guys are NOT NICE, Naaango says. They are from a lost tribe of The Blues and they're gonna want to thump the shit outta Bob, and probably you too. Git me outta here, Phfrankie! I'll call Ken, I says. Nooooooooooo Phfrankie, noooooooo! Not Ken! But Naaaango, I says, Ken can help. Noooooooo Phfrankie, Noooooooooo!

I took Naaaango to Donny's for a late night cuppa joe and he let it all out, man, told me the whole story of his wacked-out life. Sometimes he was crying and and sometimes he was mad but mostly he seemed just glad to get it all out. As it turns out, Naaaango had quite a story to tell. He was born in the Marquesas Islands, in a beautiful valley, he says. Life there was golden; immaculate. Every goat had his own grass shack, which he could eat iffin he wanted to, but nobody did onnacounta there was plenty of other better things to eat, instead of a guy's OWN HOUSE. He says he never thought anything of the fact that all the goats on the island were red...it was the only thing he knew so it was rilly strange when a gaggle of blue goats landed on the beach one day and started thumping his bretheren and hauling them into their boats. I ran like a bastard up into the hills, says Naaaango, but they found me and thumped me with their thumping mallets and tied me up and put me on the boat...say, Phfrankie....could ya spring for a couple o' McDoubles...I'm frickin' starving over here. Sure, Naaaango, I says, and while I'm at it I'll call Ken. Nooooooooo Phfrankie, Noooooooooo! he says, so then he continued his story...




© 2013 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

Monday Crab Races


The Monday Night Crab Races are always good for a few laughs. You place your bet (rent a crab for $2), name the crab, buy a beer and some shitty half roasted peanuts from Miss Judith, and watch the festivities. 




I never win, but my friend did win a bottle of rum this time.

© 2013 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

A Short Film


I didn't shoot much video on St Croix…I was too busy doing other things. I did manage to shoot this short section of video mainly to test out the camera. I hate this camera and will sell it on eBay and get a Go Pro. It was one of the rare times I bought in to the wrong technology. 

As it starts we are all floating on the surface getting last minute instructions. Isn't Reliance beautiful on the blue water?  No filter used, the water is that blue.

We drop and descend toward the bottom. You hear my breathing and then a few bursts of air being inflated in my wing. This stops me from dropping further. At this point we are about 40 feet and getting out bearings. 

As I go down, I put on a lens filter to bring in the colors at depth. Later I removed the lens just to see the difference.

At 2:17 into this epic film….I burp. Sorry.

The rest is surface film as we chase a whale but he never surfaces again. This was a big whale. 

The majority of my time was classroom or training on side mount diving. 

Enjoy:



© 2013 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

The Time Came

It came time to go home. I cleaned, sorted, and packed the dive gear. I love those tile floors...they feel so good under foot.


The famous "Yellow Boys" swim trunks were securely packed.


I went into town for a few last minute items and then lunch with a dear old friend.


I managed to nod most of the flight back. We landed early only to get caught in a huge east coast backup caused by a short but vicious snow storm.


It seem Charlotte was caught off guard by rapidly falling temps and sudden ice buildup. There weren't enough de-icers to keep traffic moving like in a northern city.

It turns out it took us 2 and a half hours to taxi to the gate. Then almost 45 minutes to exit the airport.

Home safe.

I Learned a Lot

12 dives this week, 4 technical dives included. I learned new equipment and a new mindset. I learned to be a more self reliant diver. I learned tips and techniques from other experienced divers that you just can't learn in a book.

YouTube Video

I also realized just how convenient this dive operation is the the snack bar for lunch and a cold beer.

Winter Colors

A free hotdog if you can identify that second plant. Credit can be given towards a tire rotation in lieu of hotdog. Must be over 18 to guess. Not available in Maine and California. Open to residents of the VI.


















I'm legal

I was up early with the morning sun. Three little birds came to my door step and said, "Don't worry, about a ting, every little ting, is gonna be alright".


And it was true. I made my dive plan. 100 feet for 17 minutes to kill lion fish. Then ascend to 60 feet for 17 minutes where I was to deploy a lift bag. Then ascend to 15 feet for a decompression stop. 39 minutes and it is over.


The dive was executed without any hiccups.


I found out is is common among side mount divers to get meat pinched off of both thumbs.

I got my cert card in the afternoon and now I too can breathe the evil voodoo gas just my showing my card.

On a side note, the second dive was skills. One drill was out of air. I signaled I was out of air and the instructor hands off a regulator to me. I take two breaths and it goes dry...no air. I gave him out of air signal for real and I grabbed my good regulator under my chin.

It turns out that his hose was crimped. Before he found that out he tore down the regulator at 50 feet trying to determine what the cause was.

Yep...did it

A technical dive with real tech divers. It was thrilling.


Seas were rough around 5 feet with frequent swells. It don't matter...we are tech divers.

The currents exhausted me.

I managed to perform my tasks....some were very clumsy.


On a different note, Keith the fellow in the blue shirt is a familiar homeless person. He has mental illness but is friendly.

Any hoo, every day when the dive boat comes in we fill up big barrels with water to rinse off our gear. Keith takes this opportunity to bathe.

He washes his hair, then uses a tee shirt to was the rest of him self and rinses with a spare plastic bottle. Then he had washes some clothes for tomorrow. He just continues to take clean water with the plastic bottle. It's not like he is bathing in the barrels.

Clever I say. We just worked around him.

Best Intensions

I got up early and headed to the nearest gasoline station. Most gasoline stations here have a kitchen in the back. There I got this ham and egg sandwich with the thrifty use of the bread end. The coffee was good too.



I headed to conch territory and set up.




This was the beach beside the villa I used last summer.



But the others thought we were meeting elsewhere so we missed this opportunity.

In the afternoon I had about 3 1/2 hours of pretty intense classroom for my Advanced nitrox class.


Then we took in a crab race and supper at the Pickled Greek.

Dive 99, 100' and 101

Got my dive on first thing Sunday. Two tanks in the morning side mount. The first was clumsy and sloppy while I sorted out this new equipment. The second dive was better.


Lunch with a view.


Then I headed west.


To Carambola for a shore dive.


Then relaxed at Off the Wall with a beer.


And saw a whale. We heard them in the morning.


See the tiny plume in the middle?

Conch Diving

I was met by my local friend Westin and he was ecstatic to inform me that it was conch season here.

Apparently, for a short while, it is open season.

Westin and his friends are seafood enthusiasts and planned to free dive a place when he had an idea. Get wReggie to do the diving and have a conch feast at wReggie's.

Westin even pointed out that there is a brand new 22 inch weber grill. he knows I love grilling.

So tomorrow morning, with local fishermen and free divers, I will go ah conch hunting. Sounds like fun.



We Reach

The fancy new bypass.


Gifts await us from the grounds keeper. Fresh coconut, fresh mahi, and a partially consumed bottle of rum with a big bag of fresh limes.


Out door pool.


My old friend Izzy.



This Could Work


Just imaging a few additions of flat panel TVs, a nearby wine rack, and some kind of anti drown mechanism for when I fall asleep in that warm water.    


© 2013 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

T Minus One

Three couples are headed down tomorrow.


Anticipation. Anticipation is the blue flame by product of a planning ahead. It rises in my soul and gives me extra energy.

My packing is all staged now and I am merely waiting for a few favored dive tee shirts to come out of the dryer.

I have one more dive test to complete today. I have financial affairs to handle today.

Then, about 4PM I will be on vacation….a state of mind. Worries cast away. No clouds on a sunny day.


© 2013 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

These are all true


It has been quite the week. Here is what has been revealed.

The work continues under the house. They say it was one of the worst they had ever seen.

It is safe to say that there are no homosexuals in scouting. Zero. This will change in May.

The seats I sat in for 10 years at Panther games are gone. End of an era. The PSLs were sold. Section 513, row 9, seat 19, and meet a new ass.

Advanced Nitrox studies are challenging for me.  I am down to the wire on my work.

Two days until paradise. I am mostly packed. 


© 2013 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

Yellow Boys

My favorite swim trunks, Yellow Boys, will make it down to the Virgin Islands for an incredible 10th year.


It is estimated that these trunks have flown at least 30,000 miles over the last 10 years.

Yellow Boys are known for their comfortable fit and gentle mesh lining.

Good Night


Lawrence Welk of my time. Man this is good. 




© 2013 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

Close Wally


Walter, you missed it by a few hundred pounds and a couple of cubic yards.

I can do all this on my iPad.....in my hands....anywhere....now.  

Technology is amazing.  



© 2013 wReggie’s I’m Always Mentally on Vacation. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.wreggie.com (the “blog”). Terms and Conditions can be found at http://reghunnicutt.com/terms.html.

This Weekend

I slept in.


Packed dive gear with friends.


Fed livestock.


Hung out with more friends.


Day dreamed about a week from now.


Then suffered the final loss of the football season. But I am accustomed to loosing.