Road to Neltjeberg

Ok, let me tell you that you definitely need 4-wheel drive to safely get to Neltjeberg. It was a crazy drive! There are sections that are poured concrete but the biggest part is a rough dirt road with boulders, ruts, drop offs, you name it. And to me, it wasn't that great of a beach to be worth the drive down. There are beaches that are much more beautiful and have easy access. I wasn't too crazy about the permanent shelters that were set up with people sleeping in them. And the sand was dirty, it had black stuff in it so after walking down the beach your feet are covered in black sand. The plus is that overall it is a pretty beach, and you have it pretty much to yourself (except for the people sleeping in the shelters). So, I'm glad I went and I would go again if someone offered to take me in a big monster truck but not my top pick of St. Thomas beaches.

Neltjeberg

Silvia and I decided to be adventurous today and find Neltjeberg. We had some people tell us that you need a hummer to get down there and others said it's not that bad and well worth it. So we decided to give it a try in Silvia's little Suzuki Aerio. Not a four wheeling type of car but what the heck.

First we took the wrong road down the hill and had to call a coworker for directions. She gave us some details on how to find the road that included looking for a sign that says "private property thief will be shot"...nice. There is also a car port with junk cars with tarps over them and a ratty house with flags. So were not getting a warn fuzzy feeling about finding this place. But we go for it anyway.

So we find the right road and start heading down. It's not that bad at first so we continue. Then there is a section that's paved so we thought this is going to be easy. Then the rough part starts. Rough road with huge rocks protruding, trenches, drop offs, you name it. We kept saying what in the heck have we got ourselves into. Then we'd hit another section of paved road so we thought we were in the clear. So this repeats several times but we finally make it to the beach...,whew!

It is a pretty beach but don't think I'll go through that again unless we have a big monster truck! All i know is I hope we can get back up the road when it's time to leave. If it rains we're screwed! I'll report back once we make it back up the hill....keep your fingers crossed!

Hurricane Preparedness

It's that time of year again to start gathering all the items necessary for your hurricane preparedness kit. The University is having a town hall meeting tomorrow to discuss thier plan and help you get your plan put together. I'm definitely going to the meeting, the more information the better. We don't have a generator at our new place so that sucks. Maybe we should start looking for a good deal on a used one to have just in case.

Update: the meeting has been changed to Friday, June 5 at 10:00 am.

Success at DMV

Well, after lots of stress and headaches, Silvia has passed all her tests and officially has her VI driver’s license, yea!! What a crazy process this has been for her. She ended up having to use a driving school to take a couple lessons and then use their car for the test. If you don't have a license, you can't buy a car and get insurance. But to take the driving test, you have to have your own car. So if you don't have a friend on island that will let you use their car, then you have to use a driving school and of course they want you to take at least one lesson with them before they will let you use their car. The lesson cost $30 and to use their car for the test is $50. Silvia used Paul's Driving School and said he was very nice and very helpful. He even picked her up at work and at the house for her lessons. So she definitely recommends him.

So here's the recap:
1. pay $2 medical form
2. pay $12 for exam book (since online is different than printed version)
3. pay to get passport pics taken
4. pay for medical exam and eye exam
5. pay $10 for written test, pay each time until you pass (everyone I know had to take it more than once)
6. pay $8 for permit
7. pay $30 for driving lesson (pay for each lesson until ready to test)
8. pay $50 to use instructors car
9. pay $10 to take driving test
10. pay $35 to get license

So, pretty much it costs $200 (and lots of headaches) to get your license plus the cost of your medical/eye exam and that varies depending on if you have insurance or not. So, definitely do NOT let you state side license expire if you plan on getting a VI license!

Must have Bluetooth

Well, I got pulled over Saturday morning for talking on my cell phone!! I was on the way home from dropping Jay off at work and Silvia called from St. John in a panic because no one was at Slim Man's parking lot and they needed to park somewhere for the day while they went to Jost. So I was trying to help her figure out where to park when I turned on to the road that leads up to our house......which happens to be at the Police Station. Well, there was an officer standing outside of the building and saw me talking on the phone. I panicked and threw my phone across the car but it was too late, he pointed to me and pointed to the curb. So I pulled over. Here's the conversation:

Officer: mam, you do know its illegal to talk on the cell phone while driving?

Me: yes, sir I do. I'm very sorry.

Officer: Where is your head set?

Me: Well, I just recently moved here and I'm still getting settled in and haven't bought one yet.

Officer: How long ago did you move here?

Me: um.....real recently (smile)

Officer: How recent?

Me: a few months ago (couldn't say almost a year!)

Officer: Well, that's long enough that you could have bought a head set.

Me: I know, I'm really sorry. It's just that my friend called me in a panic from St. John and I was trying to help her and I couldn't find a place to pull over so I pulled up the first street I came too (couldn't say it was the street I was going to turn on anyway)

Officer: Well, I'm going to let you go with a warning, but go buy a headset.

Me: Thank you very much. And yes I will go buy one right away. Where can I pull over to call my friend back to make sure she's ok.

Officer: Pull down the street a few feet but make it quick.

Whew! Close call. That would have been a $150 fine if he had written me a ticket! So I went to AT&T store yesterday and bought a head set. Of course I bought the cheapest one and I still haven't gotten it to work, so I'll probably have to take it back. But, lesson learned. Do NOT talk on the cell phone while driving in the USVI.

More DMV bs

Poor Silvia. So she finally got all her paperwork in order, downloaded the driver's manual (link on the Daily News website under Special Supplements) and studied and studied. A girl in her office brought in the printed book that you have to buy at DMV for $12 (I think that's the right amount) to compare to the online version, and of course it was different. So she started studying the printed version. We found out from someone who recently took the test that although DMV has computers that are supposed to be used in the administration of the tests, are not used. It is a paper test that is manually graded by a DMV staff member. She also told us that she had to take the test three times before she passed and they would never tell her what she missed so that she could study better. She also said the format of the test got easier with each attempt. First it is a multiple choice with five essay questions. If you don't pass, then the next time it is a true or false test, she didn't say what the third was. Crazy. Some of the questions were pretty ridiculous. For example, what do you do if a cow or goat is in the middle of the road and won't move? Well, under no circumstance are you to blow your horn. You must pull over to the side of the road and patiently wait for the animal to decided when it's time to move along. What? Anyway, so Silvia decided she was ready for the test so we dropped her off at the DMV this morning and told her to let me know as soon as she took the test. Before I even got to the University I had a text from her saying they are not giving tests this week until after the 20th. No reason was given, I suspect the person that grades the test is probably off work. Absolutely Crazy!

DMV Follies Soon Come

Well this is the post before the post. A bit of a teaser. Silvia, the tenant downstairs, is trying to get a VI drivers license. Deb and I breezed through this when we moved down thanks to some streamlining of the process. The only problem is the process is only streamlined if you have a state side license to surrender. Well Silvia is from Croatia, she did go to college in the states and had an Idaho license at one point, but no more. So she has had to jump through hoops and will continue to jump through hoops to get her new license.
So she had to go to the doctor and have an exam and some paperwork filled out. You have to be in good shape to drive here as it is a contact sport. Then she has to go this morning and take the written test, which is only given on certain days from 8:00 to 10:00. Then assuming she passes she will have to go back on a different day and take the driving test. Since she hasn't bought a car yet she has to pay a driving instructor for the use of his DMV approved car to take the test.
I am so glad we went the other route and we will keep everyone posted on how it goes.
Jay

Here is the list on getting a drivers license if you don't have a valid state license:
1. Go to DMV to pick up a medical form, pay $2. Also, pick up the license application.
2. Have a medical and eye exam, pay for visit, have doctor fill out medical form.
3. Have two passport pics made, not sure of cost (they don't really need these because they use a digital camera to take your pic for the license but because it hasn't been taken off the list, you still have to bring them.
4. Come back to DMV Mondy thru Friday from 8:00-10:00 am to take the written test, pay $10. Make sure to bring your medical form, completed application, passport pics, passport, birth certificate, SS card.
5. If you pass the test, pay $8 for learners permit and make appointment for road test.
6. Come back for road test on your appt time. If you don't have a car, you can use the driving school car for a fee (not sure of this yet).
7. If you pass the road test, pay $35 for your license.

So the lesson is, if you are coming to VI and you have a us drivers license, DO NOT let it expire. Renew it in the states so that when you come here all you have to do is turn it in, pay the fee, and get a VI license. Simple as that.

Hurricane Kit

Hurricane Kit, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Checked my hurricane kit just to make sure we have everything. While I was taking this pic the power went off so Jay showed me how to start the generator and use the transfer switch to switch the power over. Pretty ironic that the power went off when it did. I needed to learn how to run the generator so I'm glad I can mark that off my list.

Heres the kit:
Candles
Lighter
Flashlights
Batteries
Radio
Lantern
First aid kit
Bug spray
Bug zapper
Zip locks
Canned food
Manual can opener
Water
Ice chests
Paper plates, paper towels, plastic ware
Cash

If you can think of anything else I need please let me know.

Innovative Cable Update

Well after all the high drama last go round about the cable boxes, we finally worked through it all and now have a cable box in the living room as well as one for the tenant. Without a total rehash of the last post. Deb got the "Notarized" letter from our land lord and went over last Wednesday on her lunch hour/and a half, to try to get the boxes. Well the lady that originally started this process was off. So she was assigned to Ms Smith. She promptly took one look at Deb and decided "no box for you", yes there is a Cable Nazi in Tutu. She decided that the "Notarized" letter granting us permission to pay the outrageous deposits, the first months bill and any and all related paperwork and additional misc. fees, signed by the landlord, as well as two Id's a copy of our lease, etc. etc. simply wasn't proof enough.

She now wanted the work order form, which is a carbon copy form in triplicate, you can't make up stuff this funny, signed and notarized by the land lord, who by the way lives in NC and was preparing for a Tropical Storm while this was going on. Now mailing this form to NC getting it signed and notarized and mailed back is twenty bucks worth of priority mail and two weeks minimum turnaround. Well Deb was already over on her lunch hour, didn't have the stomach for causing a scene so she went back to work and called me to let me know that the Cable Box not soon come.

So after stewing on this nonsense for about a half hour, I took the better part of my lunch hour, called Innovative and asked to speak to a customer service supervisor. I actually managed to get one on the phone, she wasn't in a "meeting" or anything. I ran down my short version of the events involved, and my previous weeks conversation with the lady in "Cubicle #4" about the "Notarized" letter and asked her why the whole thing changed. She took my number and said she wanted to check into it and would call me back. Well low and behold in about twenty minutes she called me back, she said that Ms. Smith said that Debbie came in and claimed she was Shelba, our land lord and tried to order the service and until she asked for ID Deb never came clean. Well this is when I went A type personality on her, this was an out and out lie to cover up the fact that Ms. Smith is a mean lady playing Cable Nazi. Deb went in and gave her a notarized letter explained the whole story about the lady in "Cubicle #4" wanting it and that is all we should need. So after I told the supervisor about the lie she wanted Deb's number to verify her side of the story. So she called Deb, agreed that we had plenty of documentation and indeed we should have been given the boxes. Deb says fine I get off at 4:00 I will come back and get them. Not so fast we are currently out of boxes, yes we had them this morning when you were here but we are out now. "So I will call you tomorrow if we get any in and I will hold two for you and you can come and get them." Well 3:30 Thursday no call, Deb calls back, yes we had some this morning but we are out now. So she goes all A type on the supervisor, who then assures her we will have them on Friday. Deb calls again Friday afternoon and they do have them and the lady in "Cubicle #4" is holding two for you.

So on Friday we both go over, we arrive around 4:30 Deb signs into the second receptionist, as we already know were to go at this point the first receptionist is a mute point. Low and behold the receptionist is none other than Ms. Smith aka the Cable Nazi, Deb let's her know that we need to see the supervisor and she reluctantly goes in the back and gets her. She promptly takes Deb to Cubicle #4, I stayed in the lobby, I figured with my personality and the stinky sweaty clothes that I had been working in for eight hours, the cubicle wasn't the place for me.
I won't go into the details but the paperwork took an additional forty five minutes. Then Deb had to go across the hall, pay the cashier, because it would make to much sense for the customer service rep to be able to take a check for the deposit. Then she had to take the receipt back to cubicle #4 and prove she actually paid the deposit, then and only then did the rep do the final paperwork, a warranty for ninety days on the remotes that we had to purchase, and give us the boxes. She had explained to Deb during this drawn out process that all of the paperwork and restrictions were due to FCC regulations about cable boxes. Well in the almost famous words of a friend of mine from WV, I have to call Bull Shit on that one. Everything about this company, much like a lot of the government offices and utilities here are designed to maximize employment, period. They have a person for everything, and a dozen forms to go with it, just to justify employment.
I have never written a song before but I am seriously thinking about turning this one into an Alice's Restaurant kind of ditty:)

Two Problems Solved

Well you saw Deb's short post about the car, and heard my whining about the pool. Well two of our four friends that are coming to visit showed up yesterday and in their baggage was the new impeller and seal that I needed for the pool pump. So as you can see from the picture after vacuuming the crud that had precipitated out over the last week, then topping off the water, adding a little shock and running the pump all night, it is as clear as it has been for a while.

The pool saga has been going for a while. The motor was overheating on the pump and shutting down so it would only run for about twenty minutes. After doing some research on the pump it turns out the motor is a fairly simply thing to purchase, even on the island, and replace. Well the problem came with the impeller, when I tried to remove the old impeller from the motor shaft it had basically become one with the old motor and left the threads on the dead motor. So the pump motor was readily available on island so you would think the impeller would be as well? Of course not the Jumbie's won't let things be that simple in D'Islands. After two trips to Smith Bay on my lunch hour, in a car that only had two of the four gears it was supposed to have, no impeller. Another shop on island said they thought they could get one in a week maybe, so we googled the pool store in our home town, called them and gave them the part numbers that of course they had in stock, sent our friend Carol to pick them up and she flew them down in her luggage. Actually two employees in the pool shop said they would be glad to fly them down as well. One problem solved.

Problem number two, the car. Well Deb and I did a lot of research and planning prior to the move down. We debated the car issue and decided that selling our relatively new cars in the states, eliminating car payments, and paying cash for an island car was the best course. Well of all the decisions we made prior to moving this is the one I would change if I had it to do over. We paid to much for the Celica, then we continued to spend money on it. Brakes, wheel bearings, freon for the A/C, flush the radiator, new hoses, new battery, well you get the picture. It was actually costing us as much a month, even with me doing most of the work on the car, as a car payment on a modest new or newer car. So this week when the transmission started acting up and getting worse by the day that was the straw that broke the camel's back. We reversed our previous decision, did a little shopping and bought a new car with a lifetime warranty on the drive train.

So my work isn't quite done on the Celica. I am going to have to have a used transmission shipped to me from the states. Install it then sell the car as it basically has no value without the transmission working and we have to much money in it to let it slide. Wo HOO

Jay

The cistern runeth over

The cistern runeth over, originally uploaded by captainjay.

After two heavy rains, last night and night before, the cistern has had enough so its running out the overflow.....which is a good thing.

Fuel In De Islands

Fuel In De Islands, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Here are the current fuel prices.

To the Doctor's office we go

So we finally made an appointment with the doctor's office just to get established with a doctor so that when/if something happens, we'll already be in the "system". We chose Yacht Haven Family Practice which is part of the Red Hook Family Practice. It's a really nice office; new, clean office with friendly people. I felt really comfortable with their service. One less thing to worry about.

The Gym Not Likely Soon Come

Well after Deb's experience with the Gym last week. I did a little digging on the USVI Relocation Forum. It appears that the business may be down for the count. I read through the posts and tried distill them down but in the end it is definitely a modern day "Don't Stop the Carnival" moment. So instead of trying to edit two pages down I will just post the link to the thread. Have fun with this one. http://www.vimovingcenter.com/talk/read.php?4,72255,page=1

Jay

I was one day away from being caught up in the mess. I went in on a Thursday to check it out and pick up the paperwork. I was going to go ahead and pay, but decided to wait until Saturday when I came back for my first workout and that's when I found out that they were closed. Crazy. I would have been soooooooo mad if I had paid and then they closed the next day. So, now I'm exercising at the house and walking around the track at UVI after work until time to pick up Jay. I guess it worked out for the better.

Deb

Joinin' the Gym

Well I finally decided it was time to join the local gym and get out of "vacation" mode. Waiting at Hook, Line & Sinker everyday for Jay to get off from work, is not doing me any favors. So this morning, I got up, put on my work out clothes, filled out my gym application and took Jay to work. I get to the gym and this is what I find........

......it figures! The gym had been closed for awhile and finally reopened under new management. I guess they haven't worked out the kinks yet. There is another gym somewhere and a Curves, but they're kinda out of the way. This gym was in the perfect location for me to get off from work, go to the gym, then pick up Jay. I'm going to wait until this afternoon and see if they get this thing worked out and try it again. If not, I guess I need to find the other places. Bummer.

Deb

Cistern Photos

Due to popular demand here are a few shots of the cistern. This is one of the two access points to the main cistern. There are two basically equal sized tanks. There is a crossover pipe about four feet above the floor that keeps the tanks equalized at or above that level. Once the level drops below that level one tank is held in reserve to give you time to decide what to do if you run low.

Jay

Well the car is much better now. I had the bearings installed yesterday by a local mechanic. The logistics of trying to do it myself just weren't viable. The whole wheel assembly had to be taken apart and then the new bearings had to be pressed in. Which would have ment renting a car and spending the better part of a day of running around the island and working on the car. The shop did a good job and charged a reasonable rate. I was actually referred to them by two different people.

Jay

Wheel Bearings and Fast Priority Mail

Well Brad & Kim mailed us the parts for the car last Wednesday, they showed up on Monday. So that's five days via priority mail. That has to be some kind of record. So we will try to get that buttoned up and taken care of. It will be nice to have a car that doesn't sound like the wheels are falling off when you apply the brakes or make a sharp turn. As for the cost and savings, the wheel bearings would have been $87 each at NAPA here. My cost for them in the states were $57 each. The hubs that we needed weren't even available here without going to the Toyota dealer and we still would have had to order them. My guess would be that we got them faster and about 30% cheaper via the mail. Total shipping cost of two hubs, two bearings, two oil seals and some odds and ends was $30. Not too bad.

Jay

Busy Busy

Well I went to Home Depot yesterday on my day off to get some stuff and look around. I was impressed with the availability of materials. It is pretty much the same inventory as a stateside Home Depot. I am numb to prices so I am sure there are some variations as to stateside prices but it wasn't a huge difference on most things. The cash registers were of course a disaster. They had one girl trying to run one of those four register check yourself out stations. Not a good idea any place on the planet. Half of the items wouldn't scan which of course required her to come an d enter them manually then there was the bulk wire has to be entered manually. Then there were the items that didn't weigh the correct amount when placed in the bag they had to be overridden manually and the alarm at the door that goes off constantly as the little RF tags on expensive items weren't being properly deactivated by the customers playing cashiers.

On a brighter note I did procure enough stuff to fix the timer for the pool pump.

Jay

Wal-Mart Update

Well here is the skinny on the Wal-Mart Order. The order was shipped on 2/18, it was received by our mail service on 3/6. It only took 6 days to get to Puerto Rico, but it took 11 days to get from Puerto Rico to STT. Seventeen days for a package that would have only taken 7-8 days via priority mail. So the long and the short is if you have time to wait, it is a reasonable way, by island standards to order something. But true to large corporate mentality their chosen method of using FedEx to get it to the local post office, or in our case the regional center in Puerto Rico isn't necessarily the most efficient means of shipping but there is no flexibility in their plans. The shorts fit well and I wish I had ordered two pair of each.

Jay