1010am the rains start coming down, gray skies
1017am sun playing peek-a-boo, but rains still falling
1029 rains top but sky is still overcast with sun playing hide-and-seek (19 minutes of rain! WOW!)
1035 am rains start up with more gusto!
1036 am rains stop, quite abruptly
1046 am DA current done come back on, after only one hour, now daft is pretty quick
Typical sort of rains are the norm in the islands. Typical BVI Electricity outage is the norm too. Dat guv-ment keep saying dey fixed our current problems. But like my friend says,"Da guv-ment here for one purpose and one purpose only and dat is to mess t'ings up for the rest of us!" And I must admit, I agree whole heartedly.
Like many residents I plug-out my t'ings like dat computer and stuff I don't want dat big bad BVI Elec-tricky to mash up if and when they decide to flip that big switch and bring us back online. Lucky for me I have cellular internet and laptop batt-tree, so I can still communicate even when dat elec-tricky mash up.
By the way, the BVI is on Atlantic Standard Time, year round. So for those of you that still honor that semi-annual daylight savings time, we don't! Folks here are very confused about time. When they say they "go to come back", that means they are leaving and will be back in 10 minutes, or 5 hours or 3 days or 2 years. Many folks do not wear watches or own calendars.
I was at the hospital last week and waiting in line in my pilfered wheel chair, to pay my bill so I could get more X-rays. Several people were scattered around in the waiting room. The man in front of me pulled out a check book and asked what day it was. Someone said Thursday and he nodded. A lady gasped Thursday? But my appointment was for Wednesday! An old woman said "What? You been waiting here 2 days to see a doctor?" Meanwhile another said the 25th, a lady said, no the 26th and someone else said, no it's the 19th. Eventually we voted for the 26th. Then he asked what month it was. Someone volunteered September and another corrected them to October. The old man scribbled on his check book. Then he asked and do you know what year it is? The line was silent for a moment then someone said I think it's either 2005 or 6. Then he asked if we thought it was 2pm yet. Two said no and three said it was later than 2.
So can you imagine if we decided to change our time twice a year? It's confusing enough that we keep changing the day every 24 hours. The seasons just don't change much here to mark time. Dusk and dawn have very quick twilights, so basically either it's dark or it isn't. Hence the term dark-thirty. I must admit, when tourists ask me what time it is, if it is still daylight, I look at my bare wrist and say "It's half past a freckle..."
Indeed if you are outside and ask the time, during the day, many folks will look heavenwards and give you an approximation that is very often pretty darn accurate. So why wear a watch? T'ings start late here, folks show up late and time and watches, are just something new-fangled that the rest of the world uses.
Rolex
is going to open up a shop here soon. So now we can pay $7,000 to know what time it is. While I am sure the tourists and some of the well-heeled sailors will flock to the new store, it is doubtful they will make many sales to islanders.
years ago i got 2 or 3 major papers a day. how i get none. they don't come out here anymore, we live in the sticks. when i did not have a cell i used to call time and temp at the phone co. i did not have a cell because i am cheap and i did not want or need one. my daughter decided her mom needed one, so she got us both one. if you are not in my phones address book, i don't answer. if i bring my cell i'm in business.otherwise i just date checks for the last date i remember.
ReplyDeletestay out of trees.
sherbet. raz
I like to answer my phone, I haven't had time to manually add all my friends yet. Every day I have long list of things to do, that I never seem to finish, no matter how hard I try.
ReplyDeleteIf I let it always go to voice mail, then I waste a ton of time checking voice mail and calling back.
Sometimes I just don't have the phone with me, so it goes to voice mail. Then I do check and call back.
I want more time in my day, so I try to shortcut where I can. It's frustrating to my friends if they know they can never reach me "live" on the phone. With so many of my close friends deceased, I do still enjoy chatting with the living ones.
Indeed I do still end up playing phone tag with some, but I try not to. It's frustrating.
:)