Living like a Crucian

snowbirds are just people who come for the winter every year. They do seem to mostly be older, but when you're young, it's hard to have two homes.

Snowbirds also refer (and I think more generally) to the young people who come here to latch onto jobs in the hospitality industry in high season. Since the economy has slumped there are WAY less of them than in years past - the jobs just aren't here like they used to be.

makes sense. Most people that are young in this industry, usually seem to have the mentality that they want to be here long term. I think of them more as migrant workers.

Africa is where the desert dust comes from. And others answered your question to me about the flat top stove, gas is preferable.

Not everyone can have a gas stove. A glass top is much better than the old type electric!

There are seasonal workers and there are snow birds. Snow birds are generally older with independent incomes. Seasonal workers mostly work bars, restaurants, and or excursion companies. Snow birds = "mature", seasonal = "young."

Many seasonal jobs are posted on craigslist for the Virgin Islands.

Thanks, speee1dy. I researched quite a bit before I came here, and had the (apparently totally wrong) impression that the weather is pretty much the same all year around. Where does the desert dust come from?

These delightful nights that you've been experiencing with temperatures in the lower 70's and strong trade winds will soon end. The Christmas Winds usually falter in April and the trade winds will become light and variable. It will be dead still far too often. The night time temps in the summer, depending on your elevation, will remain in the 80's. Sheets and pillow cases will be warm to the touch. Fans will become your friends. On a positive note, all of those fans set on the highest setting will help to drown out your buddy Petey.

Daytime temps in the summer will not be nearly as high as what you've known in NC. Our high temps on STX are usually in the high 80's or lower 90's. It's the sun here that is the killer. The tropical sun will be straight overhead around May 4th and will remain within 6 degrees of straight overhead well into Sept. It's brutal. Tin roofs will get blistering hot. Concrete walls hold heat. You'll learn to love rainy days although they are few and far between.

The humidity is definitely much higher in the summer but, once again, probably not nearly as bad as you've experienced in NC. The Sahara dust blows in thick as hell at times and can sit over us for days. You'll sweep up little piles of dirt weekly that blew in through your screens. Forget dusting.

Summers on St Croix? This says it quite well from my perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpktBGInl60

Day 6 (continued).

The world is complex. Very complex. It has always been. You may think that it may not be the case, because the entire Universe was a singularity some 14 billion years ago. However, the entropy of that singularity was extremely high. In fact, it was so high, that if you peeked inside, you couldn't tell a rooster from a Puerto Rican screech owl. Things were packed together to an astronomically high degree. 14 billion years after the Big Bang, which is today, you can see that Universe appears more orderly and structured. There is less entropy.

Two questions thus arise:

1. Why does anything exist at all?
2. How does one cope with the complexity?

I will deal with the first question on day 7 (tomorrow, that is). The following addresses the second question.

In this forum, I have been classified to belong to the following categories of people: "snarky", "condescending", "witty", "troll", "funny", "sock", "female", "typical white", "crazy", "mon", and "non IDC" (don't know what the last one means). Compared to other forums, this one is actually very civilized. The intensity and the diversity of classifying people is much greater in the continental forums. Contrasted with the continentals, the STXers are mellow, kind, and irie. Still, why the need for classification? And why am I classifying the STXers, too?

The answer stems from the need to understand and cope with a complex world. To understand the Universe fully, one would need to know the spin and the velocity of about 1080 particles which comprise the Universe. Not only that, you would need to be able to know precisely where each one of those would be in the future, near and distant. That's an enormous amount of computations to do in your head. So, what to do? The solution was proposed by the Western school of thought about 2000 years ago. Simplify by classification! In the Western school of thought, things can be black and white, fruits and vegetables, far and near, good and evil, boys and girls, STXers and continentals, Ancestral Native Virgin Islanders and Native Virgin Islanders, season and off-season, electricity and no electricity. Everything is classified: time, distances, objects, people. The Western school of thought revolutionized the thinking process and galvanized it. Suddenly, the complexity became manageable. When meeting a stranger, it became possible to understand by classification: height and weight, race, gender, body language, spoken language. It is believed that the interviewers make the hiring decisions within the first 45 seconds of the interview. It doesn't matter much what the job applicant does or says after that. I interviewed a lot of people, and I am that typical 45-second interviewer.

To compensate for the ineptness of the interviewers, the companies in corporate America started to computerize the interviewing process. The interview questions changed, too. Whereas before they were "What are you strengths?" and "What are your weaknesses?", the typical questions that you are asked now are "What is the number of piano tuners in New York city?", "How many quarters do you need to stack up to reach the height of the Empire state building?", and "If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?". The interviewing process is designed to classify you based on how you think. If you can't think about why the manhole covers are round, you are filtered out. Classification: qualified and not qualified. Easy enough. For the most part, the system works.

Message Removed.

My favorite question is this:

Imagine you are surrounded by 1000 angry, hungry tigers; what do you do ?

the answer reflects on a metaphysical level, your understanding of reality and your psychological state.

Stop imagining it?
Swan

Stop imagining it?
Swan

if you already know the exercise, ruining it is no fun for anyone 😛

Stop imagining it?
Swan

if you already know the exercise, ruining it is no fun for anyone 😛

I'm sorry, LF. I sincerely knew of no such exercise. It just seemed logical. Accept my apology please.
Swan

Thanks, speee1dy. I researched quite a bit before I came here, and had the (apparently totally wrong) impression that the weather is pretty much the same all year around. Where does the desert dust come from?

These delightful nights that you've been experiencing with temperatures in the lower 70's and strong trade winds will soon end. The Christmas Winds usually falter in April and the trade winds will become light and variable. It will be dead still far too often. The night time temps in the summer, depending on your elevation, will remain in the 80's. Sheets and pillow cases will be warm to the touch. Fans will become your friends. On a positive note, all of those fans set on the highest setting will help to drown out your buddy Petey.

Daytime temps in the summer will not be nearly as high as what you've known in NC. Our high temps on STX are usually in the high 80's or lower 90's. It's the sun here that is the killer. The tropical sun will be straight overhead around May 4th and will remain within 6 degrees of straight overhead well into Sept. It's brutal. Tin roofs will get blistering hot. Concrete walls hold heat. You'll learn to love rainy days although they are few and far between.

The humidity is definitely much higher in the summer but, once again, probably not nearly as bad as you've experienced in NC. The Sahara dust blows in thick as hell at times and can sit over us for days. You'll sweep up little piles of dirt weekly that blew in through your screens. Forget dusting.

Summers on St Croix? This says it quite well from my perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpktBGInl60

Thanks, aussie, this is very helpful. Before I came, I compared the average monthly temperatures between NC and STX, and found that even during the hottest months, STX is cooler than NC. So, I assumed that it would be comfortable all year round. Maybe I should come for another PMV in August, to really feel it.

Here is what I have from weather.com:

Christiansted, VI: average high in August, September, October: 88 degrees. Average low:77-79.
NC (in my city): average high in June, July, August: 87-90 degrees. Average low:66-69.

I am missing the humidity data, though.

My pleasure, wanderer. Late August will tell you everything you need to know - as far as the heat goes, that is. As a bonus, the sea can lay as flat as a sheet of glass in August and the water goes gin-clear. The snorkeling and diving is awesome.

My pleasure, wanderer. Late August will tell you everything you need to know - as far as the heat goes, that is. As a bonus, the sea can lay as flat as a sheet of glass in August and the water goes gin-clear. The snorkeling and diving is awesome.

Are there Sahara desert dust storms in August? I'd like to experience that as well. Thanks.

Yup. They're not really storms though. It's more like thick smog settling over you. The dust keeps the big ol' spinny thingies at bay 🙂

Yup. They're not really storms though. It's more like thick smog settling over you. The dust keeps the big ol' spinny things at bay 🙂

Excellent.

Stop imagining it?
Swan

if you already know the exercise, ruining it is no fun for anyone 😛

I was going to say crap my pants, if it makes you feel better. lol

My favorite question is this:
Imagine you are surrounded by 1000 angry, hungry tigers; what do you do ?
the answer reflects on a metaphysical level, your understanding of reality and your psychological state.

If it were a job interview question, I'd say what the interviewer probably wanted to hear: "Remain calm. Look for a safe place. Do not make sudden movements. Look for a solution, such as take a stick and put it on fire".

If it were a real situation, I'd address the tigers as "What's up, mo*******kers?"

Stop imagining it?
Swan

if you already know the exercise, ruining it is no fun for anyone 😛

I'm sorry, LF. I sincerely knew of no such exercise. It just seemed logical. Accept my apology please.
Swan

I think you're brilliant, Swan. I would've thought along the same "crap my pants" response as Jamison did. smiley face.

Is this real person???

Jury is out.

Day 7.

STX, as part of the United States Virgin Islands, is classified as an "unincorporated organized territory of the United States". That's quite a mouthful. To further confuse the matters, the U.S. government refers to STX with a Latin word "insula". There are 170 thousand words in the English language, and it's really a shame that people of certain occupations (such as doctors, lawyers, priests, and U.S. government officials) are so poorly educated that they have to resort to Latin, the language of the Italian goat herders, known as sermo vulgi, which means "the speech of the masses".

STX was purchased by the United States government from Denmark in 1916, for USD $25M, with a single purpose: to build a Naval base on the island, and to fight German "U" boats in the World War 1. Ever since, STX has been a possession of the United States: not a state, not a district, but an unincorporated organized territory.

What this means is the following:

1. STXers are the United States citizens, but they can not vote for president and can not have senators in the congress. They can have a delegate in the House of Representatives, but the delegate is not allowed to vote on the congress floor.

2. STXers do not pay federal income taxes. They mirror the IRS code, but the taxes that they pay are collected not by the U.S. Treasury, but by the local treasury.

3. The United States Constitution and the Bill Of Rights applies to STXers partially, only to the extent that the U.S. congress has legislated.

This curious arrangement appears like a fair deal, until you realize the following. STX is subject to de-annexation. What this means is that at any time, the United States may sell STX back, if it so chooses. Let's say that Venezuela and Colombia start a war, and Colombia feels like building a Naval base on STX to torpedo Venezuelan submarines. Columbia would approach the United States government, and if the price is right, a sale may occur.

An even more interesting scenario would unfold if a single individual buys STX and establishes a brand new country. I often think about it. What would I do if I bought STX and established a new country? What type of government would it be? Kingdom? Monarchy? Dictatorship? Do I deport all STXers to start from "scratch", or have some sort of "application process"? Would it be a John Galt type of society, unapologetically capitalistic, or a Kibbutz? What do I do about the roosters and the police force? And most importantly, what about WAPA?

what does "sock" mean? and as aussie said August is the oven. rash rash rash from all the wet. my mother swore to never come during august ever again as her and her husband had to take multiple showers to stay cool. we of course call them cool down showers. and during the weekend we have been known to take about 5 a day if we are not at the beach.

Is this real person???

Clearly a figment of your imagination *-)

I still haven't figgered out how to get out of the blender 🙂

Shrunk to that size, the glass would be about as thick as my body so I can't imagine there'd be much chance of breaking it. The blades would be formidable hunks of steel at that size. Little chance of breaking them off and using them. I don't wear enough clothes to tie them all together, toss them out the top, and hope to snag the handle. I'm too old to put my hands against one side, my feet against the other, and try to scale it. That's just a quick path back to the blades. I'd be long dead before I could pee enough to float to the top. That leaves me with just screaming like hell hoping for succor from a benevolent giant and hoping they don't just slam down the lid while yelling, "GOTCHA!"

I'm not going to get the job, am I?