What's your typical STT day like?

I get up, walk the dog, surf the net (all of this is sometimes at 4:00 or 5:00 AM. To get to work takes about 1/2 hour more or less & I get my paper from the lady under the mahogany tree by Port of Sale. I'm management so I work as long as it takes. No kids.

I buy mostly at Gourmet Gallery & pay through the nose because it's just me & I'm usually too tired to fight the hassles at the regular grocers. I sometimes go to Cost-u-Less or Pricesmart to stock up on basics & meat & try to avoid Pueblo if I can. Food Center & Plaza Extra are out of the way for me. Sometimes I stop at Texas Pit BBQ which will take care of 2 or 3 dinners.

Days off, I usually go out for breakfast or lunch with friends, take a nap, read, enjoy the view from my deck. I try to do major errands on the way home from work to keep my days off free but that doesn't always work. The long thread about STX is pretty much the same as day-to-day on STT. I don't "do" gyms. There are dentists/orthodontists here.

Typical day starts at 5:30 AM with my nine pound alarm clock shaking his collar to go out. Come back, make breakfast for my wife and kids, get them up, make lunches for them and myself. Send them out the door about 6:50. Get myself ready and out the door about 7:00. Not alot of time for leisurely coffee on the balcony.

Weekends are filled with soccer on Saturday mornings, chores around the house Saturday afternoons and usually skim boarding on Sundays.

Grocery shopping usually requires 3 different stores to get all the things and brands we like. Pricesmart, Cost-U-Less and Pueblo.

Our son has braces and our Ortho is Dr. Naidu. He is absolutely great!

Good Luck,

Kelly

Trade - Sounds like you're having the time of your life! 🙂 I envy you! 🙁

Yeah, but I didn't mention the part about killing myself at work for the other part of the day. To afford to live here, you're going to work harder than anywhere else you've ever lived or at least that's sure been my experience.

Do you find that people work as much overtime there as they do on the mainland. My husband is an engineer in the construction field and they work quite a bit of OT here. Should one expect the same there? I was thinking that folks were more layed back in STT and worked less OT.

I don't mean to laugh, but it really did make me chuckle. Don't be naive about this place and see it through vacation googles. People work very hard here for less then they usually do stateside, and the cost of living is higher here for most.

I don't know about construction & overtime. You'd have to check with the companies themselves if nobody here has the answer.

Hi wasame

You will find alot of people work 2 (or even 3) jobs to be able to afford to live here.

Pia

I gotta laugh! Yes, you folks on STX probably work hard, but at least when you DO GET SOME TIME OFF..You can go down to the shore...stand there...feel the breeze blow across your skin....gaze into some of the most beautiful scenery in this WORLD...dip your toes into the warm water and THANK ALMIGHTY GOD! that you are there. I on the other hand, am still stuck in the belly of the beast up here on the Mainland Metropolis Monster! But hopefully, I can join you soon. I pledge to Heaven I will never ever ever complain once I get there...The Lord bless you all!

" I wish I was there tonight, on Jost Van Dyke...."

Kenny Chesney - Somewhere In The Sun -

Neal

Living near a beautiful beach is in no way going to make your life some kind of perfect vacation world. Snap out of it. Yes it beautiful, but not everyone is willing to lessen their quality of life for a little scenery. Is the scenery really going to magically make your life better? This island is not going to make your life any better because its warm. I'll bet any sum of money that you to will complain, its just human nature. Once you see the govt corruption here its hard not too.

I grew up near the beach so I don't get peoples obsession with it. I think living in cold climate's does something do ya'll brains, that as a southerner I just don't get.

When moving with kids here, I really wonder if people try researching moving somewhere in the mainland where they can be close to the beach and good public schools. And not have to kill themselves to afford it all.

NOTE TO BETTY:

I live in Atlanta, so I also am a "southerner".. I also own a condo near Tampa, so I can live near the Beach and have all the benefits of the Mainland if I want them including great goverment officials. I have travelled the WORLD in the Military and seen the South Pacific and lived for a bit in Hawaii. I'll make you an offer, when I'm ready to move down there. probably 3 years from now... I'll offer you a home up here in Atlanta suburbmania ..you come up and try it ..and I'll bet you will be a runnin back to the V.I... Keep Smiling.

Neal

Oh, so those of us here are either accused of sugarcoating what life is like but now we're complaining. Neal, you'll find out IF you ever get down here.

Personally, I love it here on STT (which is what this thread is about) but it's more difficult to live here than it is in the States on a day-to-day basis IN MY EXPERIENCE. I haven't been to the beach in years.

i honestly liked the 2 months i spent on STT, i feel life is easier(not better) than STX,it's smaller and busier and alot easier to get around if you don't have a vehicle, you have alot more choices than over here,it's like being in the city basically,the hours i worked for the money i made was about half what i do over here,i just missed STX,my house ,dogs and the other half,i'd been in the states for 10months getting to know my birth father and i thought i wanted to spend season on STT and i made it 2 months before the missing STX got to me, the only real drawback for me about STT was the road rage i got everyday trying to get downtown for work in the afternoon coming from frenchmans bay.

It has been my experience that you definetly have to hustle to live in the VI. But it is worth it. I have found that Trade is pretty much spot on in all the advice he offers. Always to the point and non biased.

Neal what you are saying is the grass is greener on the other side. And then accusing people who live here that we are whiners. You just don't know yet if it is or isnt going to be greener pastures. Wait til you move down here and have gotten past the honeymoon stage before you judge everyone.

Sugar, I know I don't want to live in Georgia, nice people and great food, but not my cup of tea. We've lived all over the US and IF we go stateside next their are several places we have in mind. I've been at home in the city and the country, you can find beauty anywhere if you want to. If you can't find it in Altanta, I'm sorry, I thought it was a really pretty big city. I'm also a very blunt person, it does rub the idealistic on this board the wrong way.

So just try and hold back on telling everyone that lives here that everything is perfect here because of the view. IMO the view is not at all at the top of the list of why I like it here. Scenery is like a pretty man, it only goes so far...

I'm a she, not a he, Amanda but that's OK. Thanks! 😉

Although I tend to have a more positive outlook re living on STX than Betty we agree on the following:

Island life is not for everyone and you won't know if it's for you until you're here. Take 2 weeks and come down for a PMV. If you decide to move, plan to leave most of your stuff in storage at home for at least 6 months. And finally, if you have children, think and think again about making the move.

I have to disagree on a 2 week PMV. If you don't take at least 3 months on the island I do not feel that you are going to really see all that is happening and experience the "good, bad and the ugly", as they say. I took a 5 month PMV and most everyone I met said that it takes a year to know if you are right for the island and the island is right for you. I do understand that some people cannot take that much time off but it is MUCH different living on an island than living in the US states. Two weeks is much more like a vacation than learning the advantages and disadvantages of island life...IMHO...

I was speaking primarily to those who have never even set foot on STX. And I agree, it will take 6 months to see if island living is for you. But, IMO, that's not a PMV, that's moving and leaving most of your stuff at home, just in case....

I would split the difference- Come down for a 10 day tp 2 week visit in which you look at all the things you would do if you lived here- go to a grocery store with your typical list, go to a drugstore, to K-Mart, etc. Don't go to the beach! Okay, well maybe once... Then, if you decide to move here- don't move all your stuff. Don't burm your bridges back home.Give it a good 6 months to decide if it might be a fit for you.

Ok not my typical day but today- nonetheless.Had coffee,made breakfast, started laundry, - the washer started to leak out the bottom - after wrapping towels around the base until it finished ,I turned it 1/2 over to find the main tub seal is cracked. did another load anyway ,it is a day off right. -- The house water pump started cycling on a short cycle - the plastic air volume gadget cracked - took it apart and straight plumbed it - what does this gadget do anyway? - decided to go to Home depot to find a new one. Car battery is dead! - Called a friend and got a jump start - this is the 1st automatic trans. car I have ever owned here so now I can't push start it. Went to Western Auto - it is Easter Sunday nothing else is open and bought a new battery - mine was a week out of warranty - how do they get it so close? Went to Home depot - no one working had any idea about air volume pump gadgets - bought a new 2 switch for the outside light socket that died last nite and a spiffy new face plate. Went to Bottoms up for lunch -- nothing compares to listening to peoples boat problems to minimize your own difficulties. Came home and installed the new switch - one works ,one doesn't -wrong switch design. Face plate doesn't fit at all. I am not a plumber,electrician or mechanic but did all those functions today just to solve normal everyday things here. Cleaned the gutters too. So--- the washer is leaking beyond my skills, I have the old pump gadget in hand and will find one at a real plumbing store,will take the old broken elec.switch with me and get the right design at an electrical store-- all after work tomorrow . Typical day in STT right?

Don't know about STT but it sounds like a typical day on STX for me.

there were two things that I said described my life in stx....
1. I learned to do so many things I NEVER wanted to know about--(cause what choice did I have if i wanted it fixed?) and, as the man who helped us with our maintenance problems said, when I had someone offering to teach me to sweat pipe I should just pay attention...
2. it said something about my life that they knew me best in the hardware store, usually with my holding whatever just broke---

Caro:
it all depend on what you do now.If you are coming here to live and work,then you do the same here as on the mainland.If you live on the mountain,you will see the image you mentioned,but if on the lowland, you may only enjoy deep blue skies.All in all ,this can be a paradise if you do not have a job and you have MONEY or have job and a good attitude [and good manners].
The people are warm and RECIPROCALLY respectful and hot all the time.Come down and have a positively life changing experience.