JULY 20 2009

The recent rains have done nothing to settle the Sahara dust. I guess more just flew over and landed after the rains. There is a tropical wave moving east to west, south of us and another one rolling off Africa, about midways in the Atlantic.

86 degrees with constant tradewinds, no surf yet! So far 50 days into hurricane season and no hurricanes yet. Amazing!


FLYING HIGH...
When I flew back to the islands recently, I had to change planes in Philadelphia, then hop on the one to St Thomas. I fell asleep and when I woke up it was about 2:30pm. The stewardess announced it was 3:30 local time and we would be landing shortly. I looked out at the ocean we were rapidly descending towards. That's all you see until the wheels hit the tarmac.

I was thinking about my friend who flew down here a few years ago, and when they made the announcement they were about to land, she saw the ocean getting closer and closer and concluded the plane was going to land on the water!

Anyhow, passengers all around me began changing their watches and cell phones. I reached up with intention to ding the stewardess to let her know it was really 2:30pm locally but I couldn't reach the button unless I stood up. Before I got my seatbelt off, the flight attendant came on the loud speaker and proclaimed it was 1:30 local time and apologized for the previous error.

Folks dutifully changed their watches and cell phones again. I giggled. Maybe now was not the time to point out this new mistake. Then the captain came on the intercom, thanked us for flying with him, and announced the correct local time was 3:30pm. You could hear a loud groan now, as people changed their watches and cell phones for the third time. Then a different voice came on the loudspeaker and announced the time was 2:30pm, and had been locally verified. At that point I heard some cursing, groaning and loud sighing followed by giggles and laughter.

The islands don't do daylight savings time in the summer, so we are on Atlantic Standard time year round. Which means in the summer, our time is the same as Eastern Daylight Savings time, but in the winter we are an hour ahead (sun comes up here first).

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