Me like gwan de beach fo’ de weeken, Meson

Me sit an’ watch de chirren run to de wahtah trippin’ in de juice box an’ beer can an’ t’ing

Me sit an’ eat me chicken leg, undah de tree enjwyin’ de wahm breeze

De smell o’ de Pampah wi’ shit in de bush waf’ in de breeze

Me t’row me plate o’ food in de bush wi’ de Pampah fa’ de animal dem to eat

Life E Good, Meson!

Nex’ time me come – de beach i’ clean up!

Mus’ be de schtupid white people dem wha’ patrol de beach

Me cyan keep leaving me shit aroun’ fa dem to keep cleanin’!

Yah, we like i’ so!

I started writing this at the end of June, then other issues caused me to stray from the draft of this post.

Anyway the VI Energy Office has been advertising on the radio that they will give up to $5000 to people buying a new energy efficient vehicle. Wow! That’s a chunk of change!

They have been giving rebates on appliances, even televisions for quite a while, so when we needed a washing machine for SunDog House, we chose one with a good energy star rating and were promised a $200 rebate. Cool!

We went out to Frederiksted with the paperwork to apply for the rebate and were told that we’d receive our check in “10-12 weeks”. This was February 19.

However, since I have lived here 16 years, I knew I needed to make sure that would happen. So I kept a copy of the application with the name, phone number  and extension of the woman in charge, in case the time went by and we didn’t get the money. I put it in a prominent place so it wouldn’t get lost in the black hole.

After 12 weeks (the end of May), we still hadn’t received our rebate. So I called.

“Oh, the checks have been delayed, the next batch will go out at the beginning of June,” said the nice lady. She took a few minutes to look up may application and found that it had been approved.

So we waited, and at the end of June I called back. The nice lady was apologetic and said that she didn’t know when we’d get our check but she’d look into it and get back to me.

Riiiight…..

I’d probably still be waiting for her call if I hadn’t called back. By this time I was pretty irate. I did let her know that I would be contacting the inspector general of the federal DOE to let him/her know that the VI Energy office was spending money to advertise rebates, but then taking an inordinate amount of time to send them out.

She said the next batch would go out at the beginning of July.

We finally got ours then. But I still contacted the inspector general of the federal DOE through their website.

Is it just me, or are others sick of companies calling themselves “green” without really making the commitment?

First, here on island, there was the Buck Island tour company that had a new “green” boat built. It already had two sailboats (sailing is the greenest, non-manual mode of transportation on the planet), but this new “green” machine has electric engines in addition to its diesel ones. Interesting, but not “green”, in my book.

Then, there are the new “alternative energy” companies. Whatever. A bunch of people have jumped on the bandwagon that one guy started here on St. Croix YEARS ago. But few, if any, have the experience to put the systems together properly and in a timely manner. They get front page articles in the paper, though. I’d also like to see how many of the people selling “green energy”  products actually use them. That would show me some true commitment.

The Alpine Energy Group is a whole other can of worms, which I may discuss in a future post.

Now, for the past few months, a local grocery store has been calling themselves “completely green”. I spoke to the owner a while back, after I heard the radio ad about this. I was excited and asked if she’d be putting solar panels on the roof to run the refrigeration, etc. Well, no, but they’re not using styrofoam containers anymore for their take-out items, and the plastic bags are degradable, too. Well, that’s a start. But no wind generators and no solar panels, so no “completely green”.

Okay?

….my mother would say,”….don’t say anything at all.” So I’ve been stewing at the shit that the universe has thrown my way for the past month.

My mother didn’t practice what she preached either. And I believe more that “honesty is the best policy”.

After a fabulous but short vacation on Anegada, we came back to a ridiculously screwed up ad in “the publication formerly known as the pink paper”, loud music blaring into the night and a resulting altercation with one of “St. Croix’s finest”, a letter to the chief and commissioner of police reporting the offending (and offensive) “officer”, a small claims court battle with Juan F. Luis Hospital (still not settled), a negligent property manager for the property we’ll be renting for the next year, and the news of Michael’s job being terminated.

Needless to say, I’ve too depressed and pissed off and still busy with getting ready to move, to write.

We had spent all of our money fixing up SunDog House, and now the expected income for the season was not coming in due to the messed up ad (when there are 3 contact numbers and the first 2 are wrong, how many people will call the third?)

Anyway, our ad will be fixed next month, and we’ve gotten our first confirmed reservation for SunDog House, so things should be getting better.

I’m not perfect. I don’t purport to being even close to perfect. I’ve lived on this island for over 15 years, and I’m so much more lax in my life than I have ever been. Sometimes, I’d even refer to myself as a slacker. I  do try really hard to help my clients and my favorite non-profit organizations in whatever ways I can. But I know my limitations.

If there is something I am not emotionally, physically or financially able to do, I will not do it. Okay, I may try. But as soon as I know I am not up to the task, I will admit it and move on.

Unfortunately, this is not so for everyone. Just look at our Virgin Islands government.

There are also, a couple of people I have personally dealt with in the last week, that take the phrase “delusions of adequacy” to entirely new levels.

At this time, I will not talk about the first one, because s/he works for the attorney we are using to assist with property acquisition and incorporation. And we’re not done with this, so I don’t want to jeopardize any of it.

The other one, however makes me wish I had a punching bag with her face on it. Or a voodoo doll. For most of the day I was visualizing smacking her upside the head, then choking her.

I actually spoke to her on the phone at one point and wanted to scream, “ARE YOU F****** NUTS?! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING YOU RIDICULOUS MORON?!!”

Ahem. But I didn’t do that. I calmly spoke and listened to her while my blood pressure rose to the point that I thought my brain would fly out of the top of my skull.

The situation we were discussing involved a little dog that we tried trapping a couple of weeks ago. Since then, we have seen many people stopping to leave food for the little thing, and since we’ve been incredibly busy with turtle activities, work, household chores, and starting a new business, we decided to leave it to others who might have more free time and could therefore do a better job.

And then, when we went by the area of the little dog over the week-end, there was a BIG sign posted on a tree which read, “Please do not feed the puppy, we are trying to trap it…..” or words to that effect. And it had the person’s name on it. So we thought, “Oh good. Someone’s trying to do it right.”

Riiiiight.

When Michael was coming home from work yesterday, he saw the little dog and stopped to see if he could convince it to come home with him. But another car came up behind him and scared the little dog away. While Michael was there, he noticed that there was no trap anywhere in the area. So when he got home, he tried to contact the person whose name was on the sign.

This person no longer has a land-line, so he couldn’t call her directly. He tried her at work, but she was not there. He asked one of her co-workers to give her a message to please call us about the little dog. The co-worker said that her cell phone number does not work at her house, so he’d just have to leave a message and she’d get it whenever.

Sigh.

So today she called and told me that she hadn’t really set a trap since she needed someone to “help her with it”. But she’s leaving tomorrow for 10 days, and….Meanwhile, the dog has not been receiving any food because there’s a BIG sign on a tree telling people not to feed the dog because….well, you know. As she was explaining this to me, I felt like a crazed cartoon character. I wanted to reach into the phone and grab her by the neck and pull her through to my side where I could twist her scrawny little neck into a knot.

But I remained calm. I went to get the trap, and brought it to Michael who set it up on his way home from work. We went to check it tonight and we have set up a schedule with another competent and reliable dog-lover. We will catch the little guy and we know someone who will give him a good home.

I do not know the moral of this story. I just know that stupid, inept and apathetic people are the reason I am self-employed. If I worked in a situation where others were slacking off, I would feel responsible and probably either do their jobs for them, or I’d lose sleep over it. Unfortunately, I see over and over again, that they are everywhere. They haunt me. I could write my own version of Sartre’s Huis Clos.

Sigh.

Well, the new place at the corner where the South Shore Cafe and most recently, Kaleidoscope used to be, is (ugh!) a Santo Domingan-type “bar & rest.” Called El Azuano and opened last week-end with blaring music well into the wee hours.

I did call the police, but nothing happened. The music went on until the tylenol pm kicked in. Ugh!

Michael promised to go over to try and ask the people to keep it down in our nice quiet residential neighborhood, and today, on our way back from doing errands, we did stop by. We asked to see their business license. It does not say “night club”, only tavern, restaurant and tobacco retailer. We asked them to keep the volume down. They looked at us like we have twelve heads.

It’s pretty quiet there tonight. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Hope I don’t have to call 911 again. Although that would be a fun blog post I’m sure. Hahahaha, they probably won’t be answering with halloween and all…..

Well, we don’t even know if the person or persons responsible for contacting the service animal registry still read this blog. They may have started their campaign against us a year or two ago, when there were a lot of critics who commented by calling us and our friends names and even threatening us.

Believe it or not, some disgruntled reader contacted the company we used to register Goliath as a service animal and complained. This very peculiar company chose to believe a person with a personal vendetta against us and revoke Goliath’s certification rather than contacting us to discuss the situation. I received a certified letter the other day after I repeatedly called the company which had cashed my check for renewal, but never sent me updated registration cards. When you call this strange company, you always get a voicemail, and there was no signature, not even a person’s name on this letter.

So we’ve gone with another much more professional service animal registration company. You can see Goliath’s new service animal registration here. You can search their data base with my last name, Chretien, and Goliath’s name, and there you have it!

So, some of the suspense is over (for our faithful readers). We however still do not know, and we may never find out who was so petty as to stoop to trying to prevent Goliath from going everywhere with us. The three of us will be watching out for him/her or them, though. I’ll spend part of my day today fixing the little snuggli we have for him, and he’ll join us even more places from now on….

Ha, ha, ha!!!

Tuesday was my daughter’s 29th birthday. And we all know, you only turn 29 a few times, so….

…we kayaked to Buck Island, then went on a sunset sail, visited with Maggie at the Deck Bar (haven’t been there in ages!) and got to see Christine, who has been living and working on a dive boat in Indonesia for a couple of years, then we went to the Pickled Greek.

And that’s how fast that day went by. Whew!

Oh, the new stuff……let’s start on the east end. The word is that chef David Trask will be opening a deli at the Reef where Lori’s used to be. It’ll be nice to be able to stop and pick something up on the way to Buck Island again.

Zebo’s has a new chef. Dave Vargas is now running their kitchen. We were there the other night and it is amazing! Vargas has been personal chef to some of the island’s most (ahem) interesting people, but now he brings his incredible talent and commitment to Strand Street, Christiansted.

We absolutely LOVE the fact that he is using as many local products as possible. Local fish, both fresh-caught and farmed at the university. Locally grown produce and meats. We had the lobster bisque  (which was fabulous), fresh wahoo, and local butter lettuce salad. Yum!

Our dear friend Mitchell, one of the owners, brought us some local cockles! We’d never heard of cockles, but they are shellfish similar to, but smaller than RI quahogs. And they are delicious! Mouth-wateringly tender and juicy. We’ll go back soon and hopefully have more of those! Dessert was also incredible. Mitchell has hired a pastry chef who put together a chocolate dream. Rich chocolate cake with berries and fresh whipped cream wrapped in a chocolate shell. Magnifique!

One of the best things about using locally produced products, besides supporting our own hard-working farmers and allowing us to be less dependent on shipped in foods, is that the menu changes daily depending on what’s available. We love people who think outside the box! Congratulations to Mitchell and Dave Vargas!

Oh, and now the irony!

Tuesday evening while we were in town talking to Maggie and Christine and other friends at the Deck Bar, a guy with a couple of adorable dogs was on the other side of the little inlet where the tarpon feeding occurs nightly. His dogs were barking like mad at the fish in the water. Their loud barking made it difficult for us to enjoy our conversation. So I went over to ask the guy to quiet his dogs down.

He said that he didn’t have to, and he said that if we had a problem, we should “go talk to the police right over there”, who allow him to have his dogs on the boardwalk. I had had a couple of glasses of wine (after champagne on the sunset sail), and since he refused to make his dogs behave appropriately, I said something about him needing attention and maybe it was because part of his anatomy was too small.

He then came over to the Deck Bar and asked Michael to make me behave appropriately. Michael happened to agree with me about the dogs, so we went over to the police officers on duty and complained about the guy. The guy came over with his very well-behaved dogs and showed us all how nice they were. And they are great dogs. But they shouldn’t be allowed to bark and carry on while people are trying to have a conversation at the bar.

After a while, Officer Hernandez walked over to the Deck Bar and asked Maggie and some of the other patrons whether the dogs had been bothering them, and they said that yes, they had. So Officer Hernandez asked the guy to keep his dogs quiet. Hooray!

When we went back to the Deck Bar to see Maggie, she related the story about the nice police officer. She also said that the guy with the dogs probably wouldn’t like it if someone sat across the street from his restaurant and allowed their kids or dogs to create make a nuisance of themselves and disturb his customers.

We asked which restaurant he owned, and she said, “Zebo’s”.

So deal with it.

I absolutely REFUSED to get involved with Facebook. I have enough to do.

BUT, I was nosey about something in an “I’m trying to be helpful” kind of way, and I signed up. And only gave absolutely rudimentary information. No picture or elaborate description about myself and my life. If someone wants that, they’ll have to work harder for it.

So ugh! Now I’m getting “______ has added you to his/her friend list” notices in my e-mail box from High School and College friends. What a mistake that was!

How and why have these people suddenly decided to “reach out”? It scares me for many reasons.

First of all: There’s a really good reason I live here in St. Croix, USVI. If I’d wanted to be involved with all the people I knew in High School and College, I’d have stayed there in America and kept in touch. I feel that I have so little in common with anyone from my past that being in contact would just either piss me off or depress me. Sort of like when I speak to my father on the phone. If I want to be “in touch” with someone, I want to be able to see and touch him/her. If someone wants my attention, s/he needs to come visit. Period.

I have enough to do and enough people here, on St. Croix to admire, sympathize with and just generally give my precious energy to, that adding baggage from the past is neither necessary nor desired.

My life is full enough. I don’t need to go to reunions (I’d rather have a root canal) and Michael had to drag me kicking and screaming to one of his family’s regular “reunions” last year. It was scary enough. Thank dog I did not get an invitation to what would have been my 30th(!!) high school reunion!

I wonder about how needy others are, that they wait like vultures for someone whose name they recognize to come up. I’ve felt like I’m being pounced on. Too weird for me!

When I graduated from High School, it was like cutting a stifling umbilical cord. Although I had some great friends there and I loved school, there was a whole new world waiting for me. And I didn’t need the baggage. I remember one of my friends just sobbing pitifully.

But I was done with that stage of my life. On to the next one! C’mon let’s get going!

…or is it?

I was brought up in a world where honesty was the best policy. Period. So I have a real hard time kissing up to assholes.

I guess I should just stop here.

However, once again, we have vultures trying to get a piece of what we’ve worked for over ten years (12+ to be more precise).

new concierges (I just get sooo tired of them) have recently contacted us to arrange for Massages at Villas that We have been to for Over Ten Years (see above). And they get upset when we require contact with the actual people we will actually be massaging.

Massage therapy is a very personal issue. Every person I massage is an individual with an unique body and special requirements. Michael and I treat each and every one of our clients individually. And we so appreciate the trust that each and every client places in us.

Therefore, our business does not translate well with a “concierge service”, unless that particular service actually knows us personally and can answer questions from both sides.

When will a concierge actually get a massage from us so s/he can thoroughly explain how wonderful a massage on the beach (or at a fabulous villa as opposed to in a sterile cubicle) truly is? Only Anna and Wendy at www.gotostcroix.com have, and can give people a first-hand experience. We love those Ladies!

I may lose some business,  but today, I responded to a “concierge service” with the following:

We massaged some triathletes last week, and as one of them approached the massage table he said, ‘Oh, you’re the professional ‘ass rubbers’”. To which I replied, “Absolutely! We rub ‘em, but we don’t kiss ‘em”.

The triathletes were all very happy with their massages.

Is honesty truly the best policy, or should I kiss all the asses too?

I’d just feel so dirty!

Wednesday, April 22 was a long, busy day for us. I actually had to get up before 5am to bring my lovely daughter to the airport. Yup it’s that time of year again. Her annual jump out of a plane (and hopefully not go splat!).

When I got back home, my darling hubby was cooking breakfast.      (Woo hoo!!)

Shortly after we did the dishes, it was time to head out to the University of the Virgin Islands’ Great Hall for an Earth Day Conference put on by the EPA. We saw a few people that we knew, but I was disappointed that only about 1/4 of the seats were occupied.

The speakers were from Puerto Rico and our beloved territory, the USVI and they spoke about the state of the environment in the territory and world wide. We were given reusable shopping bags containing compact fluorescent light bulbs,  pens, and lots of brochures and reading material (too much paper wasted on people who are interested in conserving) . However, there was only one other person in attendance (besides us) who brought her own beverage cup. The rest of the presenters and listeners drank coffee or tea out of the styrofoam cups stacked up by these beverage dispensers.

There were also individual plastic cups of juice, which many of the presenters took,  (and can I say disgusted us!) along with an EXTRA plastic  drinking cup to pour the juice into !!!.

Did I want to scream or what?! It was  friggin’ EARTH DAY for crissake!!! And our (the USVI) UNIVERSITY prepares a spread of food and drinks with NOTHING environmentally sensitive to serve them in or on!!!

I start to lose hope often these days. This type of thing does not help me.

The presenters were mostly very self congratulatory and politically correct, but much of what they were saying was, “Hooray for us, we have amazing potential, but we are just barely fulfilling our requirements to preserve the environment for our children”.

As we’ve seen here on St. Croix, despite the fact that Paul Golden has received certain permits through convoluted channels, [he has been allowed to erect a huge sign well outside of acceptable parameters (with no specific permit), build a huge fence with an immense gate denying people access to the beaches (this is against VI code - T.12, § 403) and dig up the Great Pond Area, because he has received other questionable permits and the people at CZM and DEP continue to say "He has permits", declining to specify WHICH permits he has)] our Department of Planning and Natural Resources and Coastal Zone Management Departments fall very short of doing the job they are paid to do, which is, according to Dr. Nadine Noorhasan, Director of the Division of Environmental Protection, “We gotta protect our land!”

Actually though, Carl Soderberg, from PR spoke about population growth being a major stressor on the environment. We rarely hear that from Caribbean people, and I was impressed. It seems that most island folks just love to see everybody having more and more babies. Mr. Soderberg showed us lots of tables and numbers, but there was a lot of information which wasn’t really explained, because there wasn’t enough time.

Hugo Hodge, Executive Director of  WAPA spoke, as well,  and when Michael asked questions about the “net metering” program, Mr. Hodge used examples of windmills generating power at night when WAPA doesn’t need it, when in actuality, our solar panels generate excess electricity during the day (peak hours), when WAPA needs it most. Mr. Hodge also stated, when asked about net metering customers getting cash back at the end of the year rather than losing all of the credit they’ve  accumulated over twelve months (our meter is spinning backward right now, even on an overcast day on St. Croix because we are producing more power than we need – we have been for many months -  and are selling it back to the utility) that individual consumers/producers will not have credit at the end of the year! That’s total baloney!

Hodge was funny, though, when asked about the RFP that WAPA has had out for alternative energy production. He justifies the foot-dragging that’s been going on by saying that it’ll actually be better to deal with a company that can make it through the current economic climate because it’ll be a more stable company to deal with. So WAPA just keeps burning that oil……Aaaargh!!

Don Buchanan and Bevan Smith of the Virgin Islands Energy Office were honest about their accomplishments (in the face of extreme ignorance and adversity, I might add) and I felt they were the only two scheduled speakers from the VI who weren’t in denial about our problems. Don started his presentation with a great quote about how the war in Iraq will cease, but the war on nature cannot because money talks, and it does not speak for the environment. I don’t remember who he said said this, because he was saying so much and I couldn’t write everything down and listen at the same time. Buchanan spoke very bluntly and quickly about there being perhaps a “glimmer of hope” for us with the Obama administration. He spoke about Thomas Friedman’s books, including his newest called, Hot, Flat and Crowded, and also Glenn Beck’s, An Inconvenient Book. Whew!

A couple of our senators made perfunctory appearances. Better than nothing I guess.

We learned about our groundwater situation here in the USVI (not great) from Sigredo Torres-Gonzales, Groundwater specialist from the Us Geological Survey. With the rising of sea levels caused by climate change, our fresh ground water will become more brackish in the coming years.

Paige Rothenberger was supposed to talk about the coral reef situation here, but she did not show up, so Dr. William Coles, endangered species specialist, filled in for her. He was actually quite brief and to the point for the most part about the stresses on the fragile reef systems around our island. He spoke of sediment run-off, improper boat anchoring and boats hitting the reefs, garbage getting caught on corals and choking them, and the latest threat from lionfish among other things.

With all of the problems our reefs are already facing, it makes me crazy to see more huge developments being planned for our island which has some of the few remaining coral reefs in America. We can barely handle the environmental challenges we already have, yet people think nothing of creating more and more.

I wish that the people in DPNR and DEP would be allowed by the governor to do their own jobs instead of ignoring the serious issues in the name of “jobs for the people” in the cases of allowing developments in very environmentally sensitive areas. I wish there would be common sense in government instead of the usual politics and “politricks”.

The last speaker we got to hear was Sindulfo Castillo of the US Army Corps of Engineers. He had some great information and I wish we’d have had time to speak to him afterwards, but we had to get home to feed the kids before returning to tat part of the island for the CZM hearing for the Robin Bay development.

This was the “first annual” US.EPA Earth Day Conference. I don’t know if I’ll go again next year. All of the speakers were informative and did a good job of presenting, but I’m more about action than talk. And in my opinion much of this was just giving lip service to the environment.

Senator Craig Barshinger just called the radio station to try to explain the reasons for ousting Foncie. He explained that the position of senate president is that of a “unifier”, of sorts, and that Foncie is more of a “Maverick”, which is why they voted him out.

I personally love a “Maverick” and hope that Foncie, Craig and Nellie (since we’ve seen more of a “lemming” situation with the other new “senators” – Sanes and Thurland) can continue to do the work of the people rather than continuing the trend of the “unified” body which has been sucking  the blood out of us and our children.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead
US anthropologist & popularizer of anthropology (1901 – 1978)

Repeal act 6905 and save our children and our islands!

We’ve long been concerned about the trend of ever increasing disposability of modern products. But frankly, we’re stumped by this latest development:

Jimmy Cliff has always been one of my favorite reggae artists. He has a positive message, and has for years  given it to us in many different ways.

I was reminded of his song, “Fantastic Plastic People” at last night’s reception for the “Robin Bay” project.

(Sigh) Yes, another casino/hotel/golf course/resort/timeshare blah blah blah thing that will, (sigh) once again save all of the people of the Virgin Islands from their continuing abject poverty. (Sigh).

Oh, everybody who is anybody was there. We, of course did not receive an “official” invitation, but one of our friends did, and she included us in her RSVP.

And, of course (sigh), we got the same old same old “jobs for the people” spiel, but with lovely artist’s renditions of this monstrosity which is supposed to go on the south shore between Great Pond Bay and Grassy Point. Ugh!!

Curtis Robinson, one of the major players in this development was there to dazzle us with his “style and class” (oh, and promises of jobs for the people). His female partner sat there with her perfect blond braids and sparkling earrings, looking very Paris Hilton. Cheese an’ bread, me son! They soooo don’t belong here. Even our most spiffed up islanders with their $$$suits are more real than these dolled up robotic creatures. I really had to wonder if there was flesh and blood under all that glitz. Hollywood comes to St. Croix!! Awww lawd!!

“All pomaded and so perfectly braided”, is my official description.

“Fantastic Plastic People” is a song about the superficiality of today’s society. And there it was, hitting us smack in the face at this cocktail reception. Unfortunately, people here continue to buy this rhetoric.

When are we going to get real around here?

Since we apparently don’t have enough to do, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (VIWAPA, or just WAPA) has decided in the last couple of days to send vehicles specifically to our location to check on the status of our meter. This means that I have to go outside, put dogs away, and interrupt my window washing or plant watering or letter writing to federal agencies, to talk to WAPA personnel.

We have spent approximately $30,000 to install solar panels to generate our own power and for months, the utility has benefited from our generosity by getting clean, free electricity during the day (peak hours) when the sun shines on our south shore home.

Our most recent bill (for some strange reason) asks us to pay approximately $70.00, when in the past three months, our bills have been in the negative numbers because we have been generating excess electricity and letting the utility use it. Our usage has certainly not become excessive in the past 30 days. Why would it? We have not changed our lifestyle to quadruple our consumption.  Also,  WAPA PR person, Cassandra Dunn has told Michael that WAPA is severely understaffed. Interesting, since in the past 2 days, 3 WAPA staff members have been to our house…..

Michael’s letter to WAPA:

Ms. Dunn,

I appreciate your assistance in this matter. We did make contact with Mr. Milligan and had two meetings, first with him and then together with a line Engineer. We presented studies indicating that WAPA’s policy of requiring a manual external disconnect switch for net-metering customers was redundant, and ultimately a liability for WAPA. They agreed in theory, but informed us the policy was set jointly with the PSC and they could not make exceptions until the PSC changed the policy.

In the end, we were told that if we intended to pursue a net metering agreement, we would have to move our meter and install the unnecessary disconnect switch, at /our/ expense, for WAPA’s benefit.

So, we have undertaken to make these changes, at /our/ expense, to meet WAPA requirements. We have consulted an electrician and installed a concrete pillar for the meter at the road. The next step will be to dig a trench for laying conduit underground from the new meter site to the current meter connection at our breaker box, and install the conduit, new meter box, manual external disconnect, and masthead. Finally, we will get both the new meter location and the solar power/inverter installation inspected, then contact WAPA to come move the meter and hopefully install a new dual register meter for net metering. As you know, these things all take time (we’re a little short-staffed ourselves).

Meanwhile, as an act of good faith, we have continued to pay the $5 monthly customer charge, despite a credit appearing on our bill, and have been providing WAPA clean safe electrical power at no charge.

And what do we get for these efforts? The WAPA billing department has arbitrarily decided to estimate our bill this month ( we are not in cycles 3 or 4 and the amount is in no way “computer generated and based on an average of the three previous months’ readings” as indicated in WAPA press release of 3/13/09). We were also visited by three WAPA employees over the last two days (apparently your short-staffed days are over), regarding our “irregular” meter readings.

I find it somewhat amusing that this week, “Energy Education Week”, described in the Avis as “designated in the territory to highlighting and encouraging responsible and efficient use of natural energy sources”, when some in the community are being awarded for “lighting the way” with grant money and the assistance of the VI Energy Office, WAPA chose to start harassing others in the community who have taken it upon themselves, from their own pockets, to quietly reduce their use of fossil fuels (something WAPA itself has failed at miserably).

Sincerely,

Michael Dance
Therese Chretien

I have told Michael that I don’t think we should spend another PENNY to help this utility if they are going to harasss us, but Michael, being the diplomat that he is has begun the process of building a pillar ($$ our dollars), after which we will need to dig a trench ($$) to pull wires from the house to the pillar ($$) and hire an electrician ($$$$$) because of some ridiculous rules that they can’t change right now.
Meanwhile, the tax credits that people are getting for converting to alternative energy don’t apply to us because we did it too soon……

Let’s see….

Every morning for the past couple of weeks we’ve woken up to hear the beautiful sounds of the doves and bananaquits and wind chimes drowned out by the sounds of the traxcavators going down to the Great Pond to rape one of the most environmentally sensitive areas on St. Croix.

I am nauseous every day when I wake up. I will call it “morning sickness”. But it will result in the birth of one of the most disgustingly ugly children St. Croix has ever produced.

I really want to write about the friendly, loving people in our neighborhood that paul golden has recently screwed over, and how we met them on Sunday after they had fished in the (currently, but not for long) pristine Great Pond Bay, and how they welcomed us after our confusing trek to the beach, but I’ll have to do that later.

Sunday afternoon, we decided to try to get to the beach that this ridiculous project has denied us access to. Roy Rodgers, one of the proponents of this project for years (along with others we will not mention at this time) told us a few weeks ago, that we could access the beach from other sides.I t took us waaay too long to get there. And we were in a Land Rover.

It’s just not right that Paul Golden gets away with breaking the law:

VI code T.12,Section 403,  states, “No person, firm, corporation, association or other legal entity shall erect, maintain, or construct any obstruction, barrier or restraint of any nature whatsoever upon, across or within the shorelines of the Virgin Islands as defined in this section, which would interfere with the right of the public individually and collectively to use and enjoy the shoreline”.

We have been working behind the scenes to try to get this project stopped since we’ve seen the machines, the locks on the gate and the damage that they are doing EVERY DAY to this pristine area. We have written letters, listened to arguments against this project or years, but ….

We need more voices here!  They are destroying the Great Pond! Right now!

Call and/or e-mail our senators to let them know that VI laws are being broken EVERY DAY by those involved in this project. And/or call Robert Mathes, Commissioner of DPNR.  He may tell you that it is a “construction site” and it for “your own good” that they are denying you beach access, but quote the VI code. There is NOTHING there that allows a developer from New Jersey to deny ANYONE access to a beach on the south shore of St. Croix.

Copy and paste the VI Code and keep it with you when you go down there, too.

In the words of Robert Nesta Marley: “Get up! Stand up! Stand up for your rights! Get up! Stand up! Don’t give up the fight!”

What a surprise! Not!

As the article in yesterday’s Source stated, the police DID NOT EVEN RESPOND to a case of the LAW being BROKEN.

Apparently, there was not enough evidence to convict the creep who beat this poor creature. More examples of our tax dollars being wasted on people who do not do their jobs. Aaaaaargh!

I could offer many other examples of the police being called and not responding appropriately, but none of those cases were as important as this one involving Max. Some deranged individual deliberately harmed Max because he believed the dog knocked over the garbage!?! What would he have done if a child had done this? Obviously, Max was hungry, and to add insult to the injury of hunger, he is brutally beaten for trying to find food in the garbage.

I hope this guilty creep who beat an innocent creature, is as energetic about making sure the problem of garbage on the sides of our roads gets solved. Ha!

I am disgusted and deflated and our legislators should be, too.

Why go through all the trouble to create laws to protect our community if the laws will be ignored by those called upon to enforce them?

See the article in today’s Source here.

Whew! Here I am sitting down at the computer with a little time to write! Oh, but this will take a while, let me get a glass of wine…..

So, finally, after MONTHS of waiting for Trudi to return to paradise, we got to meet her and Walt at the guesthouse they’ve been staying in out west. What a lovely property! It borders a wildlife sanctuary in an amazing lush green valley, and contains many remnants of a sugar plantation. The grounds are beautifully cared for and artists often come here to paint.

We arrived just before sunset, and stood out on the gallery, taking in the gentle breezes and sensational scenery as dusk muted the brilliant colors of the bougainvillea around the circular footprint of the sugar mill. From above we could see the wooden gears which were an integral part of the animal mill (there isn’t enough wind in this spot for it to have been wind driven), and after dark, the well-placed lighting transformed the property into a magical shadowy wonderland.

When we exited the car to meet Trudi, she commented that she felt like she was meeting a blind date. That expressed my feelings perfectly as well. We hadn’t, as far as we knew, ever really met in person, and, although we’ve seen photos of each other on-line, people often don’t look much like their two- dimensional images (except for Michael, of course. He always looks like Michael, and people always recognize him).

We exchanged hugs and walked out onto the splendiferous veranda to begin an evening of fun and fabulous stories about Montana and St. Croix, and places in-between. Trudi is an excellent and expressive story-teller, and she has dozens to recount. I envy people with such detailed memories, but, as Trudi said, there were so many outrageous characters and situations, that it would be pretty difficult to forget them. What a blast! We laughed until we cried!

After a couple of hours, we traveled to Villa Morales for dinner. Michael had never eaten there, and I had been there once or twice when I was a strict vegetarian and found nothing wonderful to satisfy my limited palate. So this time we agreed to try as much of their seafood as possible. And we ate a lot of delicious conch. We had a conch soup and a conch paté, and conch in butter sauce (while conch is available, we like to try it in as many different preparations as possible) and also salmon balls (sort of like salmon croquettes). We had rice and beans and plantain and tostones, and we stuffed ourselves until we had to ask for a “doggy box”(the dogs would NOT be allowed NEAR this food, however. We had it for lunch the next day).

We could have stayed and talked and listened well into the night, but we had to drive back and stop at Plaza on the way, so we agreed to meet again the following night at Trudi’s art opening at Designworks.

I had to work until 6, and when I got home, Michael had forgotten about the opening, so it took us a while to get down there. Trudi’s work is whimsical and wonderful. There’s an interesting story behind every piece (go figure) and I wish I had more wall space because there were a few very cool sculptures that I really liked. Ah well, as we always say……when we win the lottery…..

Saturday we took Origami out to Buck Island. It was a partly cloudy day, with rather mellow seas, so we packed Biggie up and headed out into the blue yonder. We went to the trail side first, passing by Big Beard’s Renegade and out to the mooring buoy at the dive site closest to the trail. It took us a while to get in the water. I’d almost forgotten how to do it, but managed to escape drowning as I jumped off the little dinghy. The water was cold, but I wore my wetsuit, so I did not turn into an icicle immediately upon contact with the chilly brine. I checked my watch and hoped to spend at least 30 minutes partially submerged. We saw the ever-present Wreggie fish upon entering, then a 3-foot long barracuda. During our short swim toward the barrier reef we swam with a huge school of blue tang, lots of great coral formations with arches and crevasses that we attempted to take pictures of each other through, and then, after a bit more shivering, we saw a humongous lobster in a hole. Shortly afterwards an even LARGER one came by and went into the hole. Some wrestling ensued and the smaller one came out, the larger one chased it and then they both went back in. We didn’t know if this was some sort of mating behavior or if they were fighting over territory. We’ll investigate, though and next time we promise to have a more educated explanation.

Saturday night, we went to the Animal Welfare Center’s annual “Fur Ball”. This year, we found out late that we had tickets (Michael’s very generous boss buys tickets for employees and spouses), but we were able to make room in our busy schedule for another night out. Actually, we were able to find presentable outfits in our own closet, so we were allowed in. It was held at the Palms at Pelican Cove, and it seemed to be a great success.

There were a bunch of items in the silent auction, but only four in the live auction. Two live auction items were package deals, and the local romance package included a couples massage from Ambrosia Body Care. Unfortunately, we forgot the gift certificate on the table where we had carefully placed it so as NOT to forget it. Anyway, we know the woman who bid highest on the package, so I dropped it off with her this morning.

We only bid on a door. The shelter needs re-inforced doors for kennels and such, so they asked for bids of $300 for each door. We bought them one door. that’s all we could afford. Just the day before, we bought ourselves TEN interior doors to replace the cheap “cardboard-with-bugs-living- inside” doors we currently separate our rooms with. So we were on a door roll.

Anyway, I drove my adorable wine-soaked husband home and we slept soundly until it was time to get up and call Trudi early on Sunday to see if she and Walt felt like exploring the east end. That did not happen, so we caught up on laundry and other cleaning chores before I went to work at 2:30 and Michael worked with Dave the Rover Guru to fix fuel pump issues on the green monster.

After I got home, we opted for dinner of Chinese food, at a place that disappointed us last year. We thought we’d give them another try. Their record is still intact.

This post has gone on long enough. Stay tuned for more about Robbie and golden……

We went on a hike Sunday with SEA. It was led by Olasee Davis and was very informative. There were at least 2 dozen other folks there, and we were hardly ever close enough to Olasee to hear his informative narrative. But it was fun anyway.

We’ve gone out to Carambola many times to hike down to the tide pools at Wills Bay. We used to think it was Annaly Bay, but Annaly is farther west. See, we learned something! The hike was scheduled to start at 8 and end at 11:30. We carried only a small waist pack and two small bottles of water, which was enough to get us to Will’s Bay and back, but when we had only a couple of gulps of water left, we were offered the option of going to the top of the ridge overlooking Annaly. It was about another mle and a half. We declined the offer and went back. We had planned to swim at Cane Bay after the land activities, and then we’d have to get home to the kids.

We did get directions from Olasee to the top of the ridge, though, and will check it out some time in the future when we are better prepared. There’s a dirt road that goes all the way up, so it shouldn’t be that difficult. We also learned about a Yellow Prickle tree and how the jeeps that go down to these bays are causing environmental problems from erosion of the roads they drive on. We could see before that this would cause a problem, but people just LOVE those off road jeep tours, so we’ve kept quiet. Anyway, after we left a handful of people to carry on to the top, we hiked back to Carambola and drove to Cane Bay.

When we got to Cane Bay, we stopped for a beverage at the beach bar and approached the beckoning sea. The beckoning sea felt like it had ice bbbergs in it! We swam fast to keep from getting hypothermia in the chilly brine. We quickly saw some nice fish and nice coral and a big barracuda, then quickly swam back to the warm car which contained warm dry towels. Brrrr!

Michael “I told ya so’d” at me (he did it nicely, though, so I didn’t mind), since earlier he’d suggested I take my wet suit. I really didn’t think it would be THAT cccold! Oh well, we were pretty hungry anyway, and after quickly drying off and warming up a bit we went over to see Diana at Off the Wall.

Off the Wall has always been one of my favorite beach bars. I love the views and the proximity to the crashing waves. And the food is good, too. We sat with Claudia and Ryan who had gone on the extended hike. They had a calzone, Michael had a calzone and I had a tuna sandwich. We shared a piece of home-made pumpkin pie for dessert. Yum!

As we finished up, the Harleys arrived. Roy and Sue and a few of their biker buddies filled up the vacated seats and added more lively conversation. Full of food and fun, we headed back to Sally’s Fancy to take care of the fuzzies.

Fabulous!

This article appeared in today’s St. Croix Source. It’s about friggin’ time!

Hmmm, the senytah has had many years to make many dollars to pay people off. But he hasn’t been paying his attorney. Too funny! Let’s see what happens….

A new restaurant has opened in Frederiksted.

Normally, we would be thrilled, and we would rush out there to sample the new offerings. BUT the guy who opened it was working for a very good friend of ours, while our friend’s regular chef was in the states getting chemo and radiation. And he totally ripped our friend off.

Apparently, this chef/restaurateur is a pathological liar (well, chefs are weird anyway, but this guy is a REAL case), because, while he was working at our friend’s restaurant (and ordering things from the purveyors that this restaurant didn’t serve…..hmmm racks of ribs…..can’t make spanakopita with that…..and telling our friend that he could get him stuff that “fell off a truck”), he also claimed that his ex-wife and son were killed in a car accident in the states after he was caught in one or more of his lies. So he was too traumatized to talk about any of it.

He’s also threatened our friend with bodily harm, in public.

All I have to say is, “Oh No! Don’t go there!”

Dear Mr. Mathes (Robert Mathes is the commissioner of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, DPNR):

I am still waiting to hear about the repercussions Paul Golden will face for locking the gate on a fence that we did not see an earth change permit posted for, for preventing beach access, and destroying the fishermen’s beachfront shanties on Friday, December 12.

I have researched the issue on DPNR/CZM website and it clearly states:

“If your structure was permitted under a CZM permit, you may not need a CZM permit for any building activities. However, you need to contact the division of coastal zone management before undertaking any work on the structure. And if the structure was not permitted, you need a CZM permit regardless of the activity undertaken.”

Paul Golden did not have a permit to demolish any structures, and he did not contact anybody to let them know that he was planning to do it. He has also been in violation of VI Code T.12 § 402 and § 403 regarding restriction of beach access.

Why do we have laws if they are not going to be enforced?

A recent example of someone taking actions in violation of the laws of the territory and getting away with just a “slap on the wrist” comes to mind. I refer to the owner of Royal Furniture who cut down the mahogany trees on the sidewalk in front of his store. He’s another one who waited until the week-end so that DPNR law enforcement could not be reached. He should have been fined $7500 per tree and ordered to replant a certain number of trees. But his fine was lessened greatly and the number of trees he has to replant was reduced as well.

Why are people in your department allowed to waste my tax dollars by not doing their jobs?

The St. Croix Environmental Association has followed all the laws to the letter and their application to develop (in a very environmentally sound manner) their own property at Southgate has been denied and the Bureau of Land Use Appeals has put off their appeal for over a year. Also, they were required to post notices on the shanties on their property and obtain permits to demolish these structures. They knew that if they did anything in violation of the law, that they could face a $10,000 per structure fine.

I am becoming weary of the double standards I’ve seen here over the years. The New York Times last week called the USVI the second most corrupt government under the US flag.

Do I need to contact The New York Times and give them more examples of this? Because I will unless I hear before the Christmas holiday, that Paul Golden will pay $10,000 per structure in fines for his transgression.

I hope to hear back from you very soon.

I am also sending a copy of this letter to Governor deJongh.

Have a pleasant day,

Terry Chretien

I was so disgusted by what I saw at Great Pond Bay on Saturday morning, that I came right home and wrote this poem. We’ll be sending it to the newspapers this week after the story of Golden’s destruction (hopefully) gets printed:

T’was two weeks before Christmas, and at Great Pond Bay,

Local people cleaned the beachfront to celebrate the day.

They removed all the garbage and spiffed up their shacks

But soon heavy equipment appeared making tracks.

A large front – end loader on Friday at five

Crept down to the beach to perform mash-up jive

A fence had been built to keep good people out

And a gate was attached which would cause one to shout

“To deny us beach access is against VI law!

Who thinks they can do this?” But later, we saw

“No trespassing” signs stating “Golden Resorts” does

Believe he can restrict us and not cause a buzz!

The people said nothing, but kept careful watch

Sure enough, back-hoe goes down to beachfront to squash

Their shanties and beach shacks just at the week’s end.

The buildings demolished, now how would they mend?

And after the mash-up, the guy in the machine

Locks the gate to stop folks who might check out the scene!

What a present to give to the community!

Golden Resorts says, “F*** you, Merry Christmas to me!”

We woke up to partly cloudy skies, had breakfast of fresh fruit salad, toast and bagels, cheeses, and jams and cereal and yogurt. Then we set off for Mustique.

The skies were dark and foreboding and the theme song from “Gilligan’s Island” played through my brain. Michael and Scarlett (and probably Michelle, too) took pictures of a rainbow  over young island as we motor-sailed out of the harbor. The seas became a little less hospitable, but we’d been in much worse in Origami and on Cruzan Time in the around St. Croix races. Michael and Scarlett started feeling queasy, so out came the bonine and dramamine and acupressure wrist bands. Scarlet managed to not be as sick as Michael, who tossed all his cookies and more over the side between getting rained on. At one point, Scarlett decided that she felt better lying down (as far away from Michael as possible), and even stayed horizontal under a towel out on deck in one of the downpours.

We arrived on the leeward side of Mustique in Britannia Bay before noon and had time to swim and snorkel before lunch. It was overcast and drizzly, not my favorite snorkeling weather, but Michael needed a distraction from his bellyache, so we dove in and explored some nearby rocky reefs. Being that it was gray, the colors did not stand out. We were not  overly impressed with the health of the reefs nor the quantity and diversity of the fish anyway, but it was nice to be in the water.

During our lunch of roti (yummm, mine was filled with curried veggies, the others had chicken in theirs), Grant asked if we were interested in an “island tour”. None of us were overly excited about the prospect, but the weather was looking iffy, so we decided to go since more people going meant a lower price per person. It’s not that anybody was cheap on this trip, it’s just not the kind of thing any of us are into.

Our driver, a Rastaman named “Boom Boom” with a green toyota safari-type pick-up took us around and pointed out the various villas in the hills. This one is owned by an American, that one an Italian, the next one a Chinaman, or a Brazilian. That one there was Shania Twain’s house. His spiel got old after around 30 seconds. But we stopped at the Cotton House which is a nice hotel and restaurant complex and walked around a bit..

We went to the other side of the island to Macaroni Bay, passing by Mick Jagger’s and Tommy Hilfiger’s villas on the beach. The Atlantic side is much less serene, but still beautiful. And we took pictures. Then it was back in the truck for a trip up the hill to the famous “Firefly”, where all drinks are over $10 US.

Just as we got there, it started to pour down rain. So we got wet, since Boom Boom did not have an umbrella for us.

We were brought up there for sunset cocktails, but it was too early for the sun to be setting, and none of us wanted to continue to pay that much for drinks that we could get for free on the boat. Beside, the sky was funky and the sunset would be invisible behind the clouds. And Scarlett got really sick this time from a too-sweet foo foo drink. So we walked down the steep, slippery hill to Basil’s where we’d meet Grant and Tara.

Basil’s prices were a bit less steep, but we stayed for only one each before heading back to the boat for dinner. The carnivores had steak, and Tara and I had snapper that she’d prepared perfectly. She served the entrees with broccoli, corn on the cob, and fried breaded eggplant. All my favorites! Dessert was devils food cake with whipped cream. Magnifique!

We went to bed relatively early and slept by the sound of the generator, kept on that night only, for Scarlett who was still feeling awful and needed A/C.

For more pics, go to our Vacations Photo Album.

Thursday evening we went to the CZM hearing concerning the construction of the William and Punch Partners’ resort/casino/marina. There were hundreds of people there. It is a very interesting project and not quite as controversial as many that have come up in recent years. The proceedings began at around 6:30, and the presentation went for over two hours. After that, people would have time to testify. There were about 50 people signed up to speak.

We hear that it ended at around 11:30. Many of the people who wanted to speak went home before they had a chance to. We left at around 9:30. On a normal night, we would have gotten home in 30-45 minutes. But this was no ordinary night.

There had been thunder and lightning during the hearing and at one point (and the timing was impeccable for this – former senator Adelbert Bryan was just ready to speak) there was a tremendous flash and a crash of thunder and the lights went out.

Raucous laughter followed the startled gasps, as many in the audience recalled the time he had a tantrum and shut off the microphone when someone else was trying to speak on the floor of the senate.

Anyway, we left after listening to a few more speakers. They were given only five minutes each, I presume because there were so many signed up. It was just beginning to rain as we got to the car. But as we headed east, it began to pour. The streets were starting to flood as we passed Kmart west and I decided to abort our mission to stop at Plaza west for some eggs and bread.

It was VERY dark. Electricity was out and it was pouring. The only time we could see even remotely well was when the lightning would flash. Thunder crashed directly overhead and scared the living daylights out of both of us at one point. So Michael decided to get to the Melvin Evans highway so we could make it home sooner. There was not a lot of traffic, and what there was, was moving pretty slowly. It’s a good thing, because when we got to the Clifton Hill intersection, there was a car stuck in the lake that the rain had created there. We could barely see its headlights above the water. I guess that’s what they mean by  a “flash flood”. We were forced to back up on the highway, not really being able to see out the back window, so that we could turn and go uphill (or should I say “upriver”). We stopped shortly thereafter so I could try to call 911 to help whomever might be stuck there, but their mailbox was full (!!!), so we crawled on, veering away from the deepest parts of the rushing waters and instant lakes and ponds wherever possible.

When we reached our own neighborhood, the streets were practically dry. But an hour or so after we got home, it started to rain here. And torrents fell from the sky for much of the remainder of the night. We were glad to have gotten back before our dogs could freak out because we weren’t with them.

It was the longest and most frightening ride from Frederiksted either of us had ever had.

But I still believe in appropriate punishment for criminals. Like “an eye for and eye…..” for example.

A few years ago, our legislature passed a bill (much to the amazement of people like me) that makes animal cruelty a felony. It was seen as a victory for animals in the territory.

Then the hard part comes……actually getting the “law enforcement” guys to enforce the law. It doesn’t usually happen. Pit bull fighting is still a problem here. Cock-fighting is accepted as part of the “culture”. People have told me that laws such as the one which makes pit-bull fighting a crime will never be enforced because many of the cops are dog fighting enthusiasts. I don’t know this for a fact, but it’s what I’ve been told.

Anyway, there is an animal abuse case which is actually coming to trial. Unfortunately, it has had to be postponed because the assistant attorney general is on sick leave. The case concerns a dog named Max who was severely abused before he was saved and brought back to health by the Animal Welfare Center.

I have a real hard time writing about this, but Max was tied to a tree and brutally beaten with a stick with a nail in it. His eye was gouged out, his skull crush and his legs broken. How anyone that can do this to a living creature can be called “human”, I just can’t comprehend.

Call me barbaric, but I wish the guy who did this could receive the same type of beating.

I wrote this a few days ago, but hesitated to post it:

I don’t know a heck of a lot about finance and the economies of large corporations and nations, but I can balance my own checkbooks (personal and business) and I know where each dollar (I actually earn by working) comes from and goes. I like to keep it simple. But that’s just me.

Recent news about this bailout of gazillion dollar companies to “save the American economy” makes me want to vomit. Blue collar working class real people, like my family will have to pay more taxes to make sure these fat assholes with their diamond rings and Hummers won’t have to step down and get real jobs where they actually have to get their hands dirty.

But in truth, I don’t know if there are any “blue collar working class” people any more. When I was growing up, there were factories in my birth city making things. My mother and all of her sisters worked in factories making fancy things for people who could afford them. No one we associated with could afford them.

I have heard talk about there being no middle class any longer, it’s just the “haves” and the “have nots”. But I haven’t been in America in a long time and my family is retired, so I don’t really know. I just know that I have a bunch of uneducated cousins that work somewhere and they’re probably going to bear the brunt of this “bailout”. Or they might be on welfare. Obviously, I don’t keep up.

Meanwhile, in my back yard, Haitian people  have MUD IN THEIR LIVING ROOMS AND KITCHENS AND BEDROOMS, up to their waists. Their babies – the ones they can’t afford a grain of rice to feed – are suffering, not only from the usual malnutrition, but dengue fever because of the recent hurricanes and tropical storms. Okay, Ike made a mess in Texas, but there will be rather speedy salvation for Texans compared to how long it will take for the people of Haiti to recover from the natural disasters that pummeled them during the past few weeks.

It makes me want to vomit that overweight, diamond-studded, SUV drivers may have to lower their standard of living while people in Haiti (skinnier than anyone I know) are DYING by the thousands.

Anyway, if these bail-outs actually happen, I will have to concur with Reverend Wright in saying, “God damn America!”

Anyway, just heard the bailout ain’t happenin’ and I can’t say I’m sorry. It will have tremendous repercussions for many people, but it was inevitable. Our friend Karl Eklund has talked about the decline and fall of Western Civilization and guess what, this is just the beginning…

Yep, it was a 2 for 1 night. Wow! Very strange!

I’m a bit hesitant about posting my dreams on my blog, but if Wreggie has the courage to do it, then certainly I can, too. I await massive amounts of commentary from the dream interpreters of the blogosphere…..

Last night was a very bizarre and vivid dream night. The first dream I remember concerned an invisible evil. Actually, they both did, but in different ways…..

In the first dream, I was living in a house somewhere (maybe my birth city?) which seemed to be a combination of a house that I once owned, and my grandmother’s house. I had been away for a while and came back to find my daughter and a friend of hers staying there. They had redone certain things at my house to sort of Feng Shui it, or more to make the invisible evil force less likely to affect us. In particular, they had added certain colored curtains to the colorful ones I already had. It would ward off the evil. But they ran out of actual curtain panels and were forced to use a table cloth for one of them. We were supposed to close the curtains to keep the evil out, which we did.

We were discussing this and went into another room (one without special curtain colors) to find our cat, Milo fighting with some invisible force! It was the evil! I tried to save Milo from it by screaming at it, and I actually screamed out loud and woke myself up.

Phew!

I’ve had a LOT of trouble sleeping this week, but I had just had this terrible dream and didn’t want to fall right back asleep in case I fell into the same dream. That would suck, so I tried to keep myself awake a while. And eventually I slept and fell into another dream where my husband and I were at some sort of outdoor learning camp or workshop. We knew we were only going to be able to incorporate what we learned here for four days each week and would be too busy the rest of the time to carry through with it, so we decided not to buy the books. The “workshop” was run by one of our friends, and, while it was going on, my husband became dizzy and had to lie down in the grass.

While I was comforting him, my eyes started stinging and I could not see. Eventually, we realized that we had been sprayed with some sort of “atomized irritant” (invisible evil) that made him dizzy, and fortunately, I hadn’t inhaled (hahaha), so it only affected my eyes. The “workshop” we were attending was supposed to help us avoid these problems, so we decided that we needed to use these skills (or whatever) EVERY DAY, and needed to buy the books. Next thing we knew a HUGE box full of books was in front of us.

Then I woke up.

A certain division (or divisions) of our Virgin Islands Police Department is (are) called “Public Safety”.

The place that you go to register your vehicle is called, “Public Safety”, and I guess the traffic division is included in this area.

Funny stories: a couple of weeks ago, Michael and I were heading to the hardware store to get the last of the pavers for the front yard project. We were on our way up the winding, curving south side of Lowry Hill Road in the orange rover, when a police car came up behind us.

As we rounded an uphill curve in this 50 year-old vehicle, the officers decided to flash their lights and siren us to pull over. The guys came out of their car and approached the drivers side (the middle of the road side) on this winding curving hill to tell Michael that there was dark smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe of the vehicle and that they could hardly see and were choking on it and it was quite dangerous for us to be driving this vehicle in public.

Michael explained to them that he was working on adjusting the timing so the smoke would not be so overwhelming and they agreed that that was what he needed to do.

Michael, in his infinite wisdom, did not explain to them what a dangerous situation they had put themselves and other users of this road in by stopping him at that particular spot on the dangerous curves on Lowry Hill. Good Boy, Michael!

Other “Public Safety” funny story: I was driving to the grocery store at 2:40pm on Tuesday afternoon, heading east, when I saw a police car coming up behind me. The driver was wearing a white tee shirt and decided to take a right turn across traffic with out signaling. He came up on the right side of me to do it. The license number was PD 367 and the license plate said, “Official Use Only” on it.

He didn’t look very official in his tee shirt using no indicator.

… well, muddy. No surprise there! This place sits at the bottom of a watershed. Our house is in the same watershed. Its considered a “special flood area” and we’re required by law to have National Flood Insurance, but we’re a good 15 to 20 feet higher than the “Mongoose” site and we’re off to the side of the watershed. The Muddy Mess is smack dab bottom-dead-center of the watershed that feeds the Great Pond. There are only two guts that cross Rte 624 to feed into the Great Pond area. I was standing above one of them to take these pictures. Yep, almost all the water that doesn’t soak immediately into the soil, from nearly a half-mile either side of this plot passes through here before spilling into the Great Pond.

Someone in the private sector, with clearly more dollars than sense, decided it would be a good place for a commercial center, service station, etc., complete with underground tanks, leaky vehicles, and all the rest. And someone else, in government, had the PHENOMENAL lack of foresight to approve the plans! Any idiot with a firing synapse or two could have predicted this was a massive mess waiting to happen. One can only hope someone with a little more sense and the requisite regulatory authority sees this and puts the brakes on it before they cause irreparable damage.

[Click on images to see larger version.]