Taking out the Trash

As I've written here before, some of the things that we take for granted on the mainland - in the cities, at least - just don't happen on St. Thomas. One of these things is garbage pick-up. Now, some areas apparently do have pick-up service, because I've occasionally seen garbage trucks on the roads, but the majority of residents have to do their own trash disposal. 

This is made relatively easy by the placement of dumpsters at regular intervals alongside the island roads. It's not pretty, and our guests usually think we're joking when we point these out to them and explain the purpose. Here is one site, complete with someone who just pulled up to drop off their trash:

This place usually has 5 - 8 chickens sitting on the edge of the dumpster and the fence, waiting for something appetizing to be dropped off. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pictures of them.

At the large site below, you can see what happens when people dispose of items which they aren't supposed to leave at the dumpsters (computers, appliances, etc.):

Bob & I took advantage of the knowledge that lots of people leave those items anyway when we had 2 different small wine fridges that the continuous power surges & outages had fried. Bob placed the fridges near a tv that was sitting to the side of the dumpsters. When he drove to work the next morning, however, the tv was sitting alone - apparently someone thought they'd see if they could get the fridges to work :)

Our condos, however, have a great benefit: trash removal service. Monday thru Friday, we just put our trash bags on the front porch, and a friendly maintenance worker removes it. And if we need to dispose of something during the weekend? We are free to toss our trash into the bed of the pick-up truck that the maintenance men use. We love this perk that is available only at Cowpet East :)

An EFFICIENT Island Experience

Since everyone knows about "island time," and I've posted some of our experiences with that here, I thought it would be only fair to write about an experience that didn't fit the stereotype.

Several weeks back, I did my normal, weekly all-day grocery shopping (usually requiring stops at 4 different stores). As I unloaded my purchases, I heard a hissing sound near the right rear of the car. Always logical and pro-active, I decided to put away the groceries and eat a snack and hope that I was mistaken about the source of the sound.

So, a little while later, I went back out to check out the situation. The hissing sound had lessened some, but the tire also was looking low. Bummer.

After consulting with both Bob and the dealership, I hopped back into the car and headed to Rodriguez Auto Parts. This is the preferred tire supplier on the island, as they are reputed to sell tires that actually will hold air, rather than ones that have been sitting around so long that they have completely dried out.  Seriously.

I entered the store front, paid the cashier $8, and took my receipt out to the shop bays. A repairman directed me to back into a bay, where he removed my tire and found what was left of a nail I'd apparently driven over. He repaired the hole, aired up my tire, and replaced it on my car.

Total time for the entire procedure, from paying to heading back home? 20 minutes. Wow!

Now, it is entirely possible that everything transpired so quickly because I arrived at 4:35 p.m., and Rodriquez closes at 5:00 p.m. But, whatever the reason, the efficiency was impressive!

A Different View

A while back, our friends/neighbors/landlords invited us to join them on their boat for a sunset cruise. It was our first time on a boat since we got here - not counting ferries.

As we motored out of the marina, we saw all types of boats, tho no others were quite like this one:

It was really interesting to see familiar areas from the water:

Secret Harbor

And this looks like a pretty nice house ...

This is the "Castle" - the original owner reportedly flew a pirate flag from the pole above the tower when he was in residence. He also shot cannon balls toward the Cow and Calf rock formation beyond the point :)

Here is part of an abandoned sugar mill:

And this is our condo development viewed from the water. Our condo is in the middle of the picture, on the front, just to the right of the trees along the rail.

Unfortunately, clouds filled the western sky, so our view of the sunset was hidden. But there were some really nice sailboats sharing the cove with us:

We had a really nice evening!