Almost there...

My joining Leslie here on St. John was a huge step for us, but now we're on the verge of being almost "complete". Yesterday morning I put her on the 6:00AM ferry to St. Thomas so that she could fly back to Melbourne, and return tomorrow with our son Shane, and Champ, our Labrador.

She endured delayed flights, lost luggage, and getting a text from Shane that said "you're flying in to Orlando, right?"

What did I do with my "solo" time on the island? To start with, after I dropped her off I went back home and tried to sleep a little more, but to no avail. Too many things on my mind.

A little after 7:00, I got a text from our friend Randy asking me if I wanted to meet him somewhere for a snorkel around 9:00. That sounded great, I needed to get in the water, I wasn't scheduled to try my luck with Shipping Guy again until after noon, and I thought Randy was supposed to have a meeting with Solar Guy this morning (Randy owns a beautiful house in Coral Bay and is on island to see the finalization of the project to add a bank of solar panels to his home).

It seems in addition to joining me for a much needed "water break", off-islander Randy (get Mr." I've been here 11 days" calling someone else a non-local!) was imparting some of his wisdom to me. He let me know that he told Solar Guy their meeting would have to wait until later in the day. The lesson: do what you came here to do, this place is on island time anyway, so don't make yourself a slave to a schedule.

Pretty good stuff - but then, Randy is no newbie - he's been coming here for a long time, and the things he and his wife went through during the building of their house provided a graduate level of study in the ways of the place. Seriously, you should check out the blog they started when they were building their place (http://www.reefmadnessvilla.com/Madness-1.htm) - it's as informative and entertaining as any book on the subject of St. John/island life!

I met Randy by the parking lot at the east end of Maho Bay and we made our way into the water, where, for the next two hours we breathed in the beauty, both above and underwater, that St. John has on offer. There were a bunch of angelfish out today - queens, grays, frenches, and the water was clear, calm, and comfortable!

Shortly before 11:00 we got out - after all, Solar Guy wasn't going to wait forever, and who knows? Maybe Shipping Guy had news for me as well. I took the North Shore Road back, and stopped at Cinnamon Bay to get a fresh water rinse in the showers there. Once home I rinsed my gear, got a bite to eat and checked my email.

Nothing.

I called Shipping Guy, and he said that he had left me a message. OK, I have a new phone that I'm still figuring out, so I went down the "how do I retrieve voicemail?" path, finally jumped through all of the requisite hoops, but still...nothing.

Back to old school, gave him a call.

"Good news, your shipment is here" (after the "how do you spell your name again?" ritual). Have you cleared excise and customs?"

"I thought we were paying a guy to do that"

"You mean Excise/Customs Guy?"

"Yeah, that's him"

"Yeah, well he hasn't. If you want him to, he can, but he might not be able to get to it for another couple of days."

"OK - assuming I do it, what do I need to do?"

"You need your bill of lading and inventory list in triplicate, take it to the excise office, then to the customs office, then bring it back here. But those guys usually quit around 3:00. Do you have a copier?"

"No."

"That's OK, I do, just come by here first."

"I'll be right there."

"Umm...I'm getting ready to go to lunch."

"How long will that take?"

"I'm not sure. I'll go ahead and make the copies for you, and if I go to lunch before you get here I'll leave them on my door"

"I'm on my way!"

I put on a shirt, grabbed the keys, and was out the door. I get to Shipping Guy's office and I'm told that he's out to lunch. I tell the nice lady my name and ask if perhaps he left some papers for me on his door, and she goes to check. Lo and behold, they are! I thank her as I shoot out the door headed for the excise office, which, for some reason shares a building not with the customs office, but with the DMV.

The DMV has a parking lot, but even though there appears to be very little DMV business at the moment, the lot is full. So I drive to the public lot, just a stone's throw away, but of course, in the opposite direction of where I'll need to go next.

I'm about to ask a guy where I go for excise related matters when I notice the word "Excise" embroidered on his shirt. How convenient! I tell him that he's just the guy I'm looking for and he says that he'll be with me in a minute. Sadly, I got there too late for him to tell me that he was having his lunch (as evidenced by the empty food container that he was carrying) but he was able to take it somewhere and do something with it for a few minutes to satisfy his desire to make me wait.

Maybe that's being unfair. After a couple of quick questions he stamped my forms and sent me on my way. On my way to where? To the customs office, which I had been told was over by the post office. I know where the post office is - it's the building around the corner from the ferry dock where there are no dedicated parking spaces (for customers) and where, when there is a space nearby that's available, they're inexplicably closed. And the customs building is "over by" the post office, kind of. It's across the street beyond the construction fencing, in the same building as immigration (at least that makes sense).

The door to the "cargo clearance" area, as opposed to boat check in, was locked, and peering into the tinted windows it appeared as though the office was empty. Perhaps 3:00PM had come early? After waiting around for several minutes I decided to brave the wrath of the officers at the boat check in area to ask if Customs Guy had gone home for the day.

"What do you need?"

"I need to get some cargo cleared so that I can take possession of it"

"Your cargo?"

"Yes"

"What is it?"

"Household stuff, since I just moved here"

"New or used stuff?"

"Used"

"You selling it?"

"No, just planning on using it."

"You need to see Customs Guy - he's the one that knows how to deal with that"

"And he is?..."

"Having lunch. You should come back in twenty or thirty minutes, he might be back by then."

(I swear, do the public servants on this island all take turns having lunch, one at a time?

"Well, I do have to go to the post office to pick up something"

"Oh yeah, that should take you plenty of time"

(You think?)

 I guess the fact that I was parked a good ten minutes walk away was enough to pacify the postal gods because, amazingly enough, the post office was open in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. I sacrificed the appropriate amount of (island) time and was rewarded with my junk mail. But had it taken long enough?

 It turns out that Customs guy was back from lunch, he just wasn't done eating lunch. Fortunately, between mouthfuls he was able to instruct Boat Check-In Guy as to how to stamp the forms, and I was once again on my way.

I finally met Shipping Guy. He was as nice as he had sounded on the phone, but was either losing his touch, or decided that he had toyed with me enough because he told me to take the papers to Loading Guy, downstairs.

Loading Guy looked over my papers, said that in fact, our stuff was there - he had just unloaded it today. But it was behind a bunch of other people's stuff, and it was close to...lunch time? No silly - quitting time! It would be available first thing tomorrow. Which was OK with me. Some friends of ours were letting us borrow some furniture to put into our new digs and it was almost time for me to meet him at his house for the move.

But before I left town there was one more stop to make. We had gotten a call from the Animal Care Center that a package (our new AT&T micro cell - you'll have to read the previous blog entry for the back story on that) for Leslie had been delivered to them, and that we could pick it up at our convenience.

Why was our package delivered to the Animal Care Center you may ask. Because it was sent via FedEx, of course. It seems FedEx doesn't deliver to PO boxes, and no one on St. John delivers to, or for the most part is even aware of, physical addresses.Still doesn't add up? Stay with me. Someone at the local FedEx office looked up Leslie on Facebook, saw that she volunteers at the Animal Care Center, they know where that is - BOOM! Do you get the feeling that things work a little differently here?

Got to our friends house - we loaded the furniture in our vehicles and I told him to prepare himself. I said that the apartment we are moving to reminded me of the kind of place where poor college students live. He remarked that it didn't really matter, that he could live anywhere. Once we started unloading he asked, " so, how long of a lease did you sign for this place?"

I made it back home, tired, thirsty, sweaty, and hungry. A shower helped with the third, and a text from Randy asking if I wanted to meet for some beer and a bite held promise to take care of the second and fourth. A couple of beers at the Tap Room, a burger washed down with another at Driftwood Dave's, and I was ready to take care of tired - and I did - like a champ!

This morning I did stuff around the house preparing to move to the new place. Many miles northwest of here, Leslie and Shane were doing much of the same. I could understand the weariness evident in her text messages - they are up against a hard deadline - today is the last day before they (and Champ) leave our home of many years, probably for the last time ever. And, as anyone who has moved knows, those "last few things" to take care of have a way of multiplying beyond belief. I was experiencing the same only a scant twelve days ago.

I did manage to get our stuff extricated from the shipping company, delivered, unpacked, and put away (sort of). This will make a good story one day, but looking over the things that I shipped, and thinking about the stuff that didn't "make the cut", all I can say is I must have been really tired when I was packing it!

Leslie and Shane are taking a well deserved break right now, having dinner and drinks with some good friends at our favorite eating/drinking spot in Melbourne. I'd like to think that afterwards they could go home and go right to bed, snatching as much sleep as possible before what will certainly be a trying travel day. I'm afraid that instead, they will get right back to working until they either say "that's enough" or they collapse from exhaustion.

We will be a tired bunch come this time tomorrow, that's for sure. But we'll be a tired bunch together!!

You have to have a sense of humor!

Disclaimer: Although it may read that way, this entry isn't a list of complaints, whining, or even cyber-venting (although if we experience some catharsis as a result of publishing this we'll take that!). We want to present many aspects of living our dream, including some of the stuff that we, as new residents, have to make adjustments to deal with.

Most everyone that has visited the Caribbean is familiar with the concept of "island time". That laid back pace and sanguine approach to getting things done is frustrating to a lot of off-islanders, but the ones that "get it" shortly realize that, A - you can't do anything about it, and B - you're here for a change of pace anyway, so why not embrace and go with it?

When you live here "B" may not necessarily apply, but let me tell you, "A" certainly does!

On Friday I went to the local cable company's office to sign up for cable, internet, and phone service. I went from window to window as directed to receive, then fill out, the various forms required - hoping to get the "right answers" and to deliver them to the proper clerks in the correct order. Playing dumb (ok - not really playing) seemed to help, and while they didn't seem to work at a frenzied pace, they all methodically waded through my forms, asked and answered some helpful questions, and generally were pleasant to deal with. When I had to call the bank that issued the credit card I was using to pay all of the deposits, because they viewed setting up those accounts so far from "home" as suspicious activity, and which was delaying the lunch break for everyone in the office, I expected some resentment if not outright attitude, but none was on display. I was out the door in two hours. Possibly long by mainland standards (but as long as it's been since I had to do that, it may not be). I had everything I needed except HD converters which they had just run out of, and was told I could come by and get on Monday.

Monday was shaping up to be a busy day. Leslie had a noon baby sitting gig in town, and we were told to expect our shipment of stuff from home (the two pallet loads I had delivered to Palm Beach the day before I flew down here) to be ready for pick up "around noon-ish".

I got a phone call Monday morning from the Cable Guy saying he would be out between 12:00 and 12:30. On Friday they had told me to expect him on Tuesday, but there was no way that I was going to tell him to come by any later than he was offering to, so ... slight adjustment in schedule. We left early for town, and while I went into the cable company office to pick up the converters (they were there - in a bag - with my name on it!) Leslie went upstairs to the deli to get a sandwich that we could split for lunch. I dropped her off for her appointment, then drove to our new place.

Have I mentioned that I had to switch our wireless family plan from Verizon to AT&T two days before I moved down here? It seems as though Verizon doesn't have a tower on St. John, but AT&T does. Guess where one of the only places on island is that doesn't get an AT&T signal strong enough for calls, data, etc. is? That's right - where our new apartment sits. While Leslie was on the phone earlier for an hour and twenty minutes with a *stateside* AT&T customer service rep, getting us a "micro cell", a signal booster that we hope will allow us to send and receive phone calls from home, I had emailed Shipping Guy to let him know that I might be hard to reach, for all of the reasons detailed above.

While I was waiting for Cable Guy, I walked out to the road and up a hill to see how far I had to go to get a signal. Fortunately, it was only a hundred yards or so, so there I stood on the shoulder of the road, dodging tourists in jeeps and locals in all manner of vehicles while I called Shipping Guy.

Shipping Guy thought he remembered seeing an email, and after searching for a few minutes, asking me how to spell my name, and searching some more, he found me! The same couldn't be said for our stuff. Sort of. He knew where it was, it just wasn't on St. John. The guy on St. Thomas who is responsible for clearing the shipments was running behind schedule (shocking, I know!). We would probably have it "tomorrow". I texted Leslie the news before I trudged back down the hill to the no-signal zone.

Cable Guy showed up on time. He was personable, competent, and thorough. The same, apparently could not be said for some of his co-workers back at the office, that didn't seem to be able to do the computer authorizations that he needed them to. He roared out of the driveway a couple of times to call them, climb "the pole" and for other assorted tasks he couldn't do on site. Eventually he told me that we were "good to go".

Translation: "Your TV signals look to be OK. (As soon as I get our shipment of stuff, which includes our two TVs I suppose I can verify that.) The line that will carry your phone and internet signal is good from the outside of the house to the inside. You will need to go to the hardware store to get face plates for the phone and cable connectors because your landlord is cheap (or maybe the previous tenants took/broke them). You will also want to go to (another business) to get a DSL filter so that the internet signal won't interfere with your telephone audio quality. Oh yeah, there is a wiring problem between the pole and the house. That's our problem and I'll put in a work order to have it fixed. The guy that does that kind of work is on vacation, but he's supposed to come back tomorrow or something like that. If you call my supervisor maybe he can have your job moved up on the priority list. Have a great day"

After he left I went to the hardware store and got the face plates. No problem. Found the other store, in the Lumberyard Complex (which was once actually a lumberyard but is now the busiest office/retail center on all of St. John). After searching around a bit the woman in the store found an old, used DSL filter. She gave it to me for free since she said that she thought she had more on order. Not too bad. Back to the car, and found it blocked by someone that had parked directly behind me. The same thing happened to me in this very parking lot just a few days prior. A look at the windshield of the offending vehicle revealed that it was someone from a villa rental agency that was in my way - just as it had been the last time. The woman at the desk was surprised to see me again, such as short time after our previous encounter and was certain that I had to be mistaken about their involvement. When she saw that it was indeed the case, I told her, with a laugh that they must be targeting me. She thanked me for my attitude and promptly got the car out of my way.

By now there was less than an hour before I was supposed to pick Leslie up, very close to where I was, so rather than drive home then turn right around to come back for her I found a public parking place not too far away and texted her that I was going to go grab a beer while I waited for her.

Leslie joined me as soon as she finished working, and we sat for a bit at one of our favorite waterfront watering holes/restaurants. Sitting by the bay had helped my mood immensely. I had arrived frustrated, tired, sweaty, and just a little down. Watching people come and go on the ferry, the dinghies and boats in the bay, the kids wading in the water, and the tourists soaking in the atmosphere reminded me of why we came down here, and helped me to regain some big picture perspective.

Our transition here isn't complete. Until Leslie leaves on Wednesday and returns on Friday, we won't all be reunited with Shane and Champ. There are still some last details being attended to before we list, let alone sell our house. Our stuff is still divided amongst the place where Leslie has been staying all of these months, what's being mailed down from Florida, what Leslie and Shane will bring down in suitcases, and yeah, those two pallets of stuff that are in some warehouse somewhere on St. Thomas. But all of that will be in hand soon. Our new place is no Taj Mahal, but it's temporary. While we're on a month to month lease there Shane can be making friends and working towards finding roommates.  Leslie was told that there's a place coming available in March that's close to town, on a road that we like, that has a nice sunset view. The owners are converting it from a short term rental to long term, and we are looking forward to living there.

We sat for a while, meeting some of our new island neighbors and talking to our friends that own the bar. The wife was telling us that their apartment up above the place was being converted to office space by the landlord and that they would be moving soon too. But she was excited about the new place they were moving to. So she began to describe it - little one bedroom, a view of Frank Bay, small porch in front and in back, and a cute little white picket fence. That sounded very familiar - we asked her what it was called. Guess what? It is the place that we thought we were moving to in March! We were stunned, they were surprised, we were stunned some more.

Philosophically, we decided (once again) that things would work out the way they are supposed to work out. In the mean time we do have a place to live. In fact, until the 31st of this month we have two places to live - three if you count our house in Florida!

The sun came up this morning. I drove Leslie to town so that she could take the 7:00AM ferry to St. Thomas where she will be giving some kids physical therapy today. I called Shipping Guy. They sent the wrong shipment from St. Thomas to St. John. The one that arrived is supposed to go to some other Steve. I wonder what island he lives on? I really should be moving some of our stuff over to the new place, but I need to be in phone contact. There are some friends of ours who have graciously agreed to let us borrow some of their currently unused furnishings and he is supposed to call me some time today to let me know when they will be loading up so that I can meet them there to unload it. I wonder when he'll call?

Island time, anyone?  :)

Settling in...

It's hard to believe that I've (Steve) been here for a full week now! We're still in a transitional period - Shane and Champ won't be here until Friday, our shipment of stuff from home is supposed to be ready for pick up tomorrow, we have between now and the end of the month to vacate the cottage that has been Leslie's home since late April, and to move into our new "temporary" place in the Chocolate Hole area.

So of course there have been the usual stuff to deal with - lease signings, scheduling service calls to get some of life's modern necessities hooked up, and so forth.

I have been introduced to a bunch of really nice people that have made me feel welcome - most of them remarked at how happy they were that Leslie and I are finally on island together! We have (had) this ten day or so window, before she flies home to bring the rest of our party here, to have the place to ourselves, and it's been nice!

We are both adjusting to not only a different lifestyle, but even getting used to sharing the simplest of decisions since we've both been more or less on our own over the last few months.

One thing that hasn't changed - we both still get almost giddy when we drive up a hill or turn a corner and are treated to some of the magnificent views that this place has to offer. And...despite the long list of to-do's and social obligations <grin>, we have managed to (shocker!) get in the water a couple of times this week.

Sunday, my first full day on island, once the Saturday night/travel day fog had cleared somewhat, going for a snorkel together was our first order of business. Leslie made me choose. There are no bad choices, and I don't know exactly why, but "Francis Bay" is what came out of my mouth. Here's a sampler of what we saw during our hour and a half plus swim...

 

We'll talk about our next snorkel at a later date - as soon as Leslie is through with her babysitting appointment we're going over to some friends' house as they are letting us borrow some furniture for the new digs!

Later we're going to meet our friend Randy in Coral Bay - he'll be here to check on the progress of the new solar panels being installed at his villa, and that sounds like a great excuse to meet him at Aqua Bistro for a drink!

"We" are here!

Honestly I need this blog entry to be much longer than it will be, but a brief update will have to suffice until I get time to fill in more of the details - which will be soon, I promise!

Saturday, October 12 - departure/reunion day has finally arrived! All of the worry and stress over our stuff, our house is behind me (at least for now!) and Shane will get to deal with some of it. My ride to Orlando, my good friend Todd, showed up promptly at 5AM. As soon as Champ finished his walk in the yard I hugged him goodbye and told him I'd see him on island soon, woke up Shane to say the same, then put my bags in Todd's car.

Arrived at the airport around 6 for a 10:30 departure, so I had plenty of time to try and learn how to use my new phone (had to switch carriers since our old one doesn't have coverage on STJ)

Slept some on the flight from Orlando to San Juan and got out of the plane for a three hour layover in a freezing San Juan airport. Spent some time on the phone with Shane answering his questions about what to do with various "stuff" still in the house as well as some active craiglist and eBay listings we had going.

Oh yeah - there were also a number of texts from a *very* excited lady on St. John!!

Made the quick flight to STT sitting beside a nice young lady from Maine who was meeting friends on STJ. Amber had not been there for many years, but was looking forward to seeing it again and was intrigued with my "story".

Missed the Red Hook 5PM ferry by less than a minute! Amber arrived at the terminal literally seconds after I did (our friends Leslie and Hank had picked me up at the airport and whisked me away to Red Hook in their car), so we had a couple of wonderfully refreshing beers while we waited for the 6PM ferry.

Finally we were crossing Pillsbury sound, and the guard had to restrain Leslie from running past the gate to meet me at the end of the dock. Let's just say we had a long hug and kiss when I made it to her - onlookers be damned!

Couldn't go home yet because Les had raffle selling duty for Monday's Just Play event. So I had to "tough it out" at the Beach Bar listening to Inner Visions play, and seeing a lot of old faces and meeting a bunch of new ones. Grabbed late night burgers at Woody's because we were starving! Eventually made it home and slept like a rock!

Sunday, October 13. Woke to a glorious STJ morning! We had bagels and Leslie gave me the 5 cent tour of the place. But we knew we had to go to the beach. Ended up at Francis Bay for a long snorkel, saw some cool stuff (more details later). Went to town to run a couple of errands then back home to rinse and polish off the leftover burgers. Headed to Coral Bay for a couple of drinks at Aqua Bistro, met some more folks, then headed back to Cruz Bay where we had a nice quiet dinner at Ocean Grille. came home and went to bed at the incredibly early hour of 7PM!

Monday, October 14. Just Play day. We were at the school at 6AM to help set up, then stayed busy until after 4PM while the kids took part in the events, had lunch, had some free play time, and were given the awards and goody bags. Met up with some of our friends that run and help out at the event for happy hour at High Tide. Came back home and forced ourselves to stay up a little later so that we could try and sleep until a reasonable hour in the morning.

Tuesday, October 14. Leslie made me scrambled eggs for breakfast, and while she was out seeing a patient I touched base with Shane (poor kid is a little stressed but he's handling a lot of stuff very admirably) did some work, and now, giving you all a little update,

I see Leslie pulling the Jeep into the driveway, so I'm going to sign off for now - another busy day ahead of us.

We are so happy to finally be together on island, and want to share all of that with all of you. I feel that now we can do what we always wanted to with this blog - report on how it is for us to *live* on St. John!

The Final Countdown...

Here we are less than a week before I board a plane in Orlando, with a one way ticket to St. Thomas, where I'll hop aboard a ferry to St. John to join Leslie to begin (as a couple) our new life there!

I still have what seems to be a billion details to attend to (even taking a few minutes to post this update seems like a guilty pleasure). I vacillate between panic because there's no way that I can get it all done, and calm when I realize that if I just maintain the pace of the last few weeks, that I will.

I really am thankful that I have a lot to do, it keeps me from getting too choked up from the realization that the place, generally speaking, that I've called home for more than fifty years will no longer be so.

I've experienced some of the emotional good-byes that I saw Leslie go through all those months ago.

Yesterday, the team of 16 year old boys that I've been coaching in soccer for well over three years all got together at a local restaurant to have a sending off lunch for me. One by one, they all stood up and said a few words (which was WAY out of the comfort zone for most of them) - some sarcastic, some touching, some funny - but all heartfelt and appreciated.

Afterwards I looked through the cards I had been given and saw a really neat picture of the team by a beach. "I wonder when they took that? Hey! - I'm in it, I don't remember that. Wait...that beach looks familiar and it's NOT one from around here...

Pretty clever photoshopping!

Today was the last game of the fall season. Next week they will all disperse and go to their respective high school team tryouts, and I'll go to St. John.

Afterward, while I waited for my friend, (who is also the head coach) to make it out to the parking lot, I sat and watched all of the activity at the park.

I spent almost ten years on an advisory board while this particular park was being planned and built, so I consider it to be "mine". This was a beautiful afternoon, and I was watching our vision play out before my very eyes and it tugged on my heart a little bit.

...but not as much as the short conversation I had with Antoine just a few minutes later. Saying good-bye is tough, certainly tougher than I remember it ever being before, and I've seen a fair number of folks come and go in my life. Perhaps our advancing years brings home the realization that this might really be the last time. Maybe the distance and fact that I'll now be a plane ride and then some away exacerbated those feelings. Who knows?

I do know that having to say an emotional farewell is a small price to pay for having had someone in my life who I value as much as Antoine. Or as Tony, who I said good-bye to earlier in the week. And there will be more to come this week, I'm sure. But I know that not only do I have a butt load of work to do to keep me from being too down, I have a smiling face waiting for me on St. John that I really miss seeing.

Oh yeah, one more thing.  Inner Visions - you better "bring it" this coming Saturday night!