stx today,comments

I Like all the stories about JJ and trw chickens etc. keep them coming its nice to see and hear about happy people on stx and the other islands.

I ABSOLUTELY love all of your stories of a "day in the life" ! Keep them coming! I would tell of my days in Atlanta, but they are not nearly as entertaining. (Well, actually the Mommie stories with me and the 11 month old may be, but that is for another thread, on another board, on another website. Hee Hee.)

The JJ Stories sound like the epitome of a child growing up in the islands and also like a child growing up in the USA a generation ago before life got so complicated and the only games kids play are from Nintendo and Sega instead of Milton Bradley and Mattel. Lucky kid!

This weekend was busy with boating and enjoying the beauty of STX and Buck Island and the waters in between. Saturday saw 25 Air Force flight crew members out with us on Parrothead and then 2 families of real estate customers plus a few other friends joined us on Sunday for a group of 14 on board. It was a lot of fun to see half a dozen teen agers meet for the first time and end the day as great friends. Two of them have grown up here, two have lived here about a year, and two are planning to move here later this spring. They all had their own questions and answers about island life and school to share with each other. All of them LOVE St. Croix. The two coming soon have lived in the Dominican Republic for a few years and were in ecstasy as they explored STX the past few days. The 15 year old boy especially was excited both about having a theater with first run movies, a real school to attend (Country Day) plus water that is safe to swim in without an abundance of jelly fish or sharks such as they have near their home in the DR. Took the dinghy to rescue my husband and another friend who were kite-surfing and got stranded at Coakley Beach without enough wind to come back to Buck Island.

Closed a sale on a condo this morning, deposited checks for this closing and one from Thursday. Spent time on the phone with a few buyers wanting information about STX listings. Getting ready to go show a few houses and some land to buyers this afternoon. Mondays are all about errands, phone calls, emails and prepping for the week ahead.

My husband just sent this--I think this is a wonderful St Croix story; shows how we all roll with most anything that comes along.......

I was speaking with Lionel Downer in the office this morning about the CCT production of Chicago. They finished the weekend with two extra sold out shows.

During Saturday's performance WAPA had another power outage. The audience sat in the darkened theater by the light of the safety exit lamps while the pianist played a medley of show tunes.

The players came out and sang songs acapella from Bob Marley to those from past shows as the audience lit up the theater with their open cell phones.

When the power came back on an hour later the show went on.

Don't you just love living here? Carl

My prayers are with Captin Lewelyn...

Wonderful story Carl. I do love living here.

Thanks to all of you who have enjoyed my JJ stories.

I have to go back to the states for a couple of weeks at my very favorite time of the year on St. Croix. Easter.

I will miss the Paddy's Day Parade and all the West Indian families camping on the beach. Last year I went to one of my favorite beaches on St. Croix only to find that the spot that I like to go to had 5 tents set up, a porta potty, grills, playpens, tons of children's toys, well everything but the kitchen sink. I had guests visiting us for Easter and we had planned a cook out on the beach. Well we drove a little further down and set up our chairs and grill but it wasn't a great place as we all like to swim and the beach was rocky where we were. Anyway we grilled our food and sat on the beach. Finally I walked down to where the campers were at the nice sandy beach and got into the water. There were about 15 people in the water. I didn't think that they were together because some were black some hispanic and a few whites. They greeted me with good afternoon and soon we were all talking. This was one huge family. There were very elderly grandmothers and grandfathers sitting in chairs up on the beach. Aunts, Uncles, cousins, bothers and sisters. It was amazing. I went and got the rest of my family to meet them all. They invited us to share their food and to play board games. We listened to music and Doug taught the children to snorkel. I felt embraced by this wonderful Cruzian family. They camp at this particular beach for 2 weeks every year at Easter and have been for as long as most of the family can remember. They encouraged us to come back every day and visit while they were there. The kids played and played while the adults sat and talked or played dominos or cards. That was one of my very best days on St. Croix. It reminded me of when I was a little girl and we would all go over to my great grandmothers house for Sunday dinner after church. We played hide and seek and tag. When night fell we caught lightning bugs and put them in jars. A good day in paradise. I will miss Easter on St. Croix this year.

so today i went to the cell phone store because some days i'm dumber than others and i could'nt figure out how to put my personal greeting on my voicemail, press 2 and pound easy right well i tried a few times and the phone still rattled away in spanish and nothing so i go in a ask for help,the lady there was patient and told me to push 2 and pound and listen so i move away and push 2 and pound and nothing no english just more spanish,well the store manager came walking through so i just held up my phone with a desperate look on my face and he came over and i explained what my problem was and he told me to push 2 and pound and i told him it did'nt work for me and that the lady already told me to do all of that, so he yells at her "why am i talking to him(me)and not you" i just thought dude are you channeling a 5 year old girl having a fit or what, sorry i need help,so he asks me for my number and runs back to his computer and cames back and tells me you're programmed in english and i tell him yes i am i figured out how to do that all on my own a week ago i'm just having problems getting my greeting on voicemail, then he makes some snide comment about my phone being a pre paid phone and i'm thinking well i have a perfectly good land line at home this is my car phone,the other half, my bosses at the 2 jobs,my sister,my brother and number 2 are the only ones with this number oh and the governor has it because he gets bored at work over on STT and calls me sometimes but other than that it's a car phone because i drive alot and so the phone never really gets used so why would i want a contract phone, so anyway the 5 year old girl just looks at me and grabs my phone and starts pushing buttons and then gets this smug look on his face and hands it back to me and i listen and it's all in english and he stomps off to go buff his nails in back or something and my problems are solved and i put my greeting on my phone and come home and write this. Now i know it must be rough to be a manager at a cell phone store but i went in asking for help with a phone i purchased there and i get a channeled 5 year old girl having a fit in response. LOL who knew.

Awesome trw.

Here is the flip side to my JJ and fun on the beach stories.

The last two weeks wapa fried my power supply for my laptop, my mothers dvd player and my toaster.
One cistern has a leak and the water is all gone. Should have been full as we don't use it unless the other 2 are empty. The house guest completely emptied another cistern. Our pool leak emptied the overflow cistern. Hubby says overflow cistern still has 2 feet of water so he will not buy water until there is none. House guest drank all of our bottled water. ( I never saw them drinking water only rum and beer.) Go figure. Oven is still broke. Wapa is almost $800 this month. I had to pay close to 5 thousand dollars for 4 tickets back to the states because I waited until the last minute to purchase tickets during Easter break and because mom can only take short flights. Thank goodness I can make that a business expense. Got to start preplanning as much as possible for trips back to the states.

Ok we need to pick a time when we can all step outside at the same time and do a rain dance.

My garden is now producing peppers, tomatoes, green beans, squash, zucchini and okra. Yum

well just went out to go to work and back tire is flat, the other half has the air compresser in his truck as well as the keys to the jeep, the donut tire i had to use when i had a front flat tire is flat as well(it went flat in my trunk) so here i sit stuck in cane bay and missing work because the other half won't check his cell phone, he's out with a friend from the states and is probally somewhere out of cell range (bar) lol thinking he's safe because i'm supposed to be at work right now.

Lord, trw, you have had a rough day. I hope you made it to work. Or maybe not. It sounds like you could use a night off. Thank you for reminding me that I have no spare because my daughter had a flat in my truck a couple of weeks ago and it is still sitting in the truck bed. I hope you have a better night but your adventures do make for good reading.

Heard some bad news today. Chico's in Yacht Haven Grande is closing March 31. I thought they seemed to be doing well & every time I went in there seemed to be a lot of customers. Probably the rent was too high for the business they did do. What a shame. 🙁

Another busy day, but it sure beats being stuck in an office...
Started with taking some buyers to a house they want to buy so they could take another look and plan their move, then off to check on a couple condos that were just vacated by short-term tenants. Found a passport in a drawer at one place, so I suppose I will hear from them at least one more time...
Next stop was to tour a new home that is nearly complete. Nice place, but more $$ than I would personally ever want to spend on a house. There are so many other ways to spend $$ that add fun to life instead of more square footage to clean.
Spent about 45 minutes in line at the post office to pick up a check for a security deposit for a rental house. Off to the bank to make deposits. Then an hour to check a few appliance stores and buy a new dryer for a rental condo. Property management is more work than it's worth most of the time! It's much more fun to work with buyers and sellers and tour houses and drive around this beautiful island! 🙂
Had to track down another Realtor to take him some keys from a showing yesterday on one of his properties. Drove 14 miles to give him the keys. Why don't ALL Realtors use key boxes on properties and save us so much extra driving and confusion?
Stopped to pick up more keys for showings tomorrow and made some calls to set up other tour times. Dropped by my husband's business to pick up some receipts and rent checks that had been dropped there by a tenant who thinks it makes more sense for her to drive across the island to the airport to drop her rent check in person at a location I rarely visit than to spend the pennies on a stamp and mail it to me so it arrives in my PO Box at the post office where I go anyway.
Back to my home office to send some faxes and emails and respond to more phone calls. My dog let me know she loves it when I work from home and she isn't left here alone.
Squeezed in some laundry and packing for a weekend sailing trip to the BVI's.
Tried to call my husband who it turned out was off kite-surfing again so I got his voicemail... which was followed by a long list of instructions in Spanish before it eventually got to a beep... so I don't know how many messages he's missing from people who hang up in confusion and don't wait the extra minute for the beep to arrive. He's been trying to work on getting that fixed by the same "5 year old girl" being channeled by the AT&T manager that trw had fun with today.
Hmm.... never had lunch so I suppose I should think about having something for dinner sometime soon.
Still have to edit the copy for my April Houses Magazine ads and get it sent off tonight.
Tomorrow will be another busy day showing properties for sale plus a couple of rentals and then provisioning the sailboat for the weekend trip to Anegada and Virgin Gorda.

Have a great trip Alexandra. I am so jealous. It sound like you need a weekend off. Have fun.

Tam

Tam- thanks... but I'm not sure I'd call it a weekend off. I wind up being the one who runs the boat and cooks the meals, etc. There is some fun along the way, but I'm not really on vacation... and I'll be dealing with real estate transactions remotely via cell phone and email even underway. David always has a whole group of passengers along who expect to be waited on hand and foot while he parties with them. I skipped a trip once and he got a real shock when he had to do everything himself! I headed off on a liveaboard SCUBA trip that time instead and had crew waiting on ME and I got to dive 5 times a day. 🙂 Now THAT's more my idea of a vacation.

So when are YOU going to have time to go out with us at least on a jaunt to Buck for an afternoon? Now that the parties are past and the guests are all back stateside it's time for you to play a little.

Alexandra, I am ready anytime. Just PM me when you need a crew mate. I am a good cook too.

Lesson for the day. Don't let a 4 year old eat beer nuts on your white comforter.

LOL Alexandra thank you now i know it's not just me,hahahaha, Trade white house black market is owned by chicos, at least in the states they are, so that might be an option for you. So the other half showed up about 10 minutes after i made the flat tire post, lol he must have felt my screams of rage because he checked his cellphone and there were no messages from me and he has not had his phone long enough to know how to delete things haha so i don't know whats up with that, when i called him i got his voice mail and left messages but his phone shows nothing so thats odd.He was buzzed and grinning and i started yelling and he (lol) holds up a bag of catfood and said "the cats were out of food so i had to go into town" so i did the "jesus christ" thing and said give me your keys now and please deal with my car and i need your truck at 5am as well so the faster my car gets fixed the faster you get your truck back hahaha and so when i get home tonight no other half and no car so i go track him down at one of the watering holes up here and trade keys with him and the other half bless his drunk little heart just laughs and say "the tire held air so it must be ok now" lol well i had to leave at that point, more tires in my future at h and h, with all the driving i do i have to have reliable tires and slow leak ones just don't work for me.

just getting ready to leave for the 12milejob,i bought "Staind's cd collection of their singles from 96 to 06, good stuff,song #7 just about sums up my life to this point in time,ha, it's called "epiphany"

""so today i went to the cell phone store because some days i'm dumber than others and i could'nt figure out how to put my personal greeting on my voicemail, press 2 and pound easy right well i tried a few times and the phone still rattled away in spanish and nothing so i go in a ask for help""

This happened with my hubby's cellphone also. What a pain. I tried to set up the voicemail with my limited spanish but it didn't work. *sigh* He still has the spanish greeting!

Its not so bad outside today, almost 55 degrees. The guys that take samson outside said he didn't want to come in so fast today. A little difficult to get on the computer, the center has 10 but only 2 work. We had five new kids come in today (four Army one Marine) They all came out of Walter Reed which has improved since the papers stomped on it (the Hospital). This center is pretty good and their all close to their homes, so family and friends can come and visit. In the rec room where the computers are, I have to let them read the daily posts or they will not let me online. They read all the posts, discuss them and even picked their favorites. Well have to go ,talk to you soon, God Bless, stay safe and have fun!

Lizard, good to hear from you. Tell all those men and women thank you from me. I come from a long line of those who serve and protect our country including my son and husband. Thank you all for your sacrifice. You are all in my prayers and thoughts every day. Thank you. Bless you.

Tammy

hiya Lizard, when you coming home? well nothing of any consequence happened today,lots of rain here in lavallee and then tonight way out east,i have tomorrow pm off and fri am off so thats like a whole day off right? Both jobs are in the down cycle for a few more days then it's busy for about 5 weeks, still waiting for my accountant to call and yell and then tell how much i owe,then i want to find an attorney here to look over our wills and powers of attorneys and all of our legal stuff we did years ago in minnesota,do some updating, i recently put the other half on the house title and mortgage,lawyers,quick claim deeds and money spent, we just need a good review, on march 11th we hit 16 years of happiness and bliss together LOL well ok some misery and suffering as well but hey it's all good. Time for bed.

Congrats, trw on 16 years. Lizard, give my best to those Vets. They are appreciated.

Can't figure out what's with all the rain lately. I hope this doesn't mean the summer will be dry. I swear, the not-yet-finished intersection in front of the Lucinda Millin Home is actually helping traffic. Anything would be an improvement.

Just found out my hairdresser's dog was elected King of the Prom at the Doggie Ball/Prom for our Humane Society. He raised $1200 or $1500 in votes (can't remember which.)

Trade, I hope like you that the rain does not mean a dry season ahead but I am happy for it now.

trw, congrats on the 16th.

I found out today that I am going to be a grandmother.

Hey, congratulations! JJ will be an uncle.

Congratulations Grandma Tammy...is this your first grandchild? (I have two granddaughters, Chloe is 4 & Aubrie will be 2 in June) It's one of life's greatest blessings!