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 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.

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.

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…..

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!!!

…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”.

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!

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!

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.

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!