Actually, it was more like a hopeful snicker. But it wasn’t sad. It was a joyful, but tentative, rejoicing.

We stopped into the Pickled Greek on our way home from Luncheria last night. The restaurant was about half full and there were a few more folks outside. We sat at the bar to order a couple of drinks, and suddenly, the lights went out!

Fortunately, we’d gotten our drinks first. Phew! But it was still pretty scary. Nikki and Doug and others, got their lighters out and we could see each other for a few seconds until the generator kicked on. Yes! The generator kicked on! Wild cheering could be heard all over the island. It was coming from the Greek. Well….it was quiet……the TV’s island-wide had gone dead……so people could hear better. Okay, maybe a couple of houses in Tide Village could detect muffled sounds coming from the inside of the Pickled Greek, but we heard ourselves cheering. Loud and clear!

They turned off one of the AC units so as not to strain the great machine, a gift to Peter from a friend who’d left island. But every time a compressor on a fridge turned on, the lights dimmed. Finally they turned off the other AC unit and opened the door. We felt it was cool enough and it didn’t stifle anyone (except maybe the kitchen staff - Peter said that the other day, it was 120 degrees in there, but that was not because of the power outage - there’s just way too much equipment running in there and not enough ventilation - but they’re working on making more holes in the walls and roof ).

At one point, the kitchen staff thought they might start the dishwasher, but it got really iffy and seemed like the generator wouldn’t be able to do it’s job, so they decided to wait on that load of dishes. It stayed dark outside, except for the headlights of passing cars, for about 45 minutes. Finally, WAPA came back on and the generator turned itself off.

We went outside with Peter, Nikki, Nicole and Amanda, to sit and visit some more, and watch them smoke. An SUV went by and a woman inside it exclaimed, “Oh my god! They’re open!” So we said, “Yeah! We’re open, come on in!” But she drove on by, hopefully to return soon….

So, hooray for the Pickled Greek! Another hurdle overcome. They will undoubtedly be busy during the coming power-outage season, since so few restaurants have generators. Look at your calenders, folks. Sunday, June first is when you’ll start getting the tropical updates on the weather channel. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that Peter’s generator doesn’t get too worn out in the coming months.

Tags: generator, pickled greek, power outages, restaurants, St. Croix, WAPA

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 11:36 am and is filed under Island Buzz, St. Croix, Terry Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.