Monday, November 29, 2010

Well I'm packed and ready to go tomorrow, I hope! I'm trying hard not to have an anxiety attack. I will be so much better once I get to Idaho. Then the worry and anxiety wills tart all over again until I get home. Uggh!

I finished up my Creative Writing Class today. I really enjoyed it. I got a 97% on the final exam, being a little stressed and in a hurry, I misread one of the questions or I'm pretty sure I would have had 100%. I hope I can pry Rachel's computer away from her for a little bit each day, so I can continue to write. Blog at least. I did find that writing really helps me think and destress.

Well that's about it for tonight. Want to spend some time with Rick, as we will be apart for two and a half weeks. We have spent time apart before but we have never been this far away from each other. I'll try not to think about that.

Sunday, November 28, 2010




What a weekend. I have been a little stressed trying to get organized and ready for the trip, finish up my creative writing class and take the final and take in enough of St. Croix to last me for a month of cold and winter.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, as you can see by the pictures of our table set out on the Galleria (or deck). Elder and sister Babcock came for dinner and we had an absolutely delightful time. Way too much food but it was all good. Sister Babcock brought desert and they were wonderful. Yes I did say they, we had a pie per person. She made two pumpkin pies, one blueberry cream and a flan. The flan was my favorite, it was undoubtedly the best flan I have ever had. The pumpkin pies and the blueberry cream were excellent also, and I had my fill of all but, the flan was my favorite. It was really nice not to have to make everything for Thanksgiving. All I had to do was the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams and green bean casserole. It was the easiest Thanksgiving Dinner I have ever made.The Babcocks stayed into the evening and we played games and had a fun time.

Friday the day after Thanksgiving I slept in. I didn't get out of bed until 10:55AM. This was most unusual for me, but I guess I needed it. We did a few things around the house and then went to do our time in the phone store. Rick and I have been operating off one cell phone for the past six months.
Since we have been trying to save money and we are together so much anyway it has worked out, but now that I'm going to Idaho ahead of him we needed another phone. We decided to go with AT&T on this one and guess what, it actually works in our condo. This will be Rick's phone, because it's more important for work that he have the local number and a phone that has better coverage. So I will still have the (208) phone number and have to be "call forwarding" it into the land line at home, but hey it works. I did take us almost two hours in the AT&T store to get everything squared away. I hope we don't have to go back for a long time.

After that we went into Christiansted to Jump Up. Jump Up is a street carnival that they do four times a year here. It's a fun party with live music on many street corners and a lot of vendors selling various things and a whole lot of food. The Mocko Jumbies show up to ward off evil spirits and this time we even saw a fire dancer.

Saturday was Cruise Ship Day in Fredricksted, so we were off to visit with our friend Abraham. It was pleasant, now that things have cooled off so we went to Rainbow beach to Rhythmns for lunch. Local lobster casedillas, yummy.

So thankful for Sunday and a day of rest. After church I was going to lay down for a few minutes and fell asleep for two hours. It was wonderful. Still have a lot of preparations for the trip, but I don't want to spoil the peaceful feeling of the Sabbath. It will all wait until tomorrow.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Up early on this Thanksgiving morning,no reason other than I can't sleep. I did want to put the turkey back in the refrigerator. It was still a little frozen last night so we put it in a sink of cold water but I think five hours of that is enough.

It almost doesn't seem like Thanksgiving because I have so little to do. I did spend yesterday cleaning the house (my second least favorite think to do) I wanted it nice and clean for Thanksgiving but I also had to get it taken care of before I left for Idaho and I want to be able to really just kick back and enjoy the weekend, so now that's all done. Generally the night before Thanksgiving I have so much to do, stuffing to make, pies to bake, candy apples to make, rolls, bread, etc, etc, etc,. Because we're sharing the meal Sister Babcock is bring the pies, rolls, cranberries and some relish so all I did last night was cook the yams. Almost seems like I'm forgetting something. I don't need to put the bird into the oven until 11:30, so I have the morning to myself.

Thinking about all the things I have to be thankful for and they are overwhelming. This year I am particularly thankful for Rachel and her new daughter. I'm thankful that they are both healthy and safe in their home. I was really worried about her at the end of her pregnancy. It was hard to be so far away, as if I could have done anything if I was there but somehow it's comforting to be close. Anyway things seem to be good for them and I will be there next week.

I am thankful to be here on St. Croix. Some days it's hard and sometimes I miss my things, does that sound silly. I never thought of myself as that attached to my things but you really feel at home if you are surrounded by your things. for the most part, I am surrounded by someone else's things. Little by little the apartment reflects more of us, but..... I did hang an 8 x 10 picture of Macy over my desk the other day and it's nice to look up and see her. When I return from Idaho, I hope to have a whole bunch of pictures of her and Rozalyn. I will also be shipping some other things back here. Pretty soon we'll have so much I'll be complaining about that.

I'm going to go have some breakfast and go for a swim in a little while. Now that's something I don't think I have ever done on Thanksgiving before.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The trade winds are really crashing around here, last night it was so noisy I had a hard time sleeping. It has also gotten really cold at night. Rick told me today that I must be Cruzan for sure because today we went to K-Mart and bought a lightweight blanket. I have been cold that last two nights.

Talked to Rachel today. She was having a quiet morning at the hospital with Rozalyn, Don had gone to pick up Macy and check on their livestock. Apparently, SE Idaho is really getting hit by a winter storm, lots of snow and wind. Today all the schools were closed and most of the government offices. People were going home early from work and a lot of places (like the schools) have just shut down for the week. The doctor told Rachel that she could go home today, but then the nursing staff tried to discourage them from leaving this afternoon because the roads were so bad. She assured them that they had a big truck and would make it home ok. She just called to say they were safely snug in their home. I was relieved.

Rick and I went grocery shopping this evening to get the fixings for Thanksgiving and a few things for the weekend. The store was packed. Everyone was buying for the holiday and looking for unusual things. There was a real festive feeling as people were helping each other find things and talking about the Holiday. When we got home and heard about the storms in Idaho, Rick was saying that it would probably put a damper on some folks holiday, if they had not shopped early. It got me to thinking, that would be me, because I never did the final holiday shopping until Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of Thanksgiving week. We learned that the road to our old house on the ranch has been closed since yesterday, so we would have been snowed in. Another reason to be grateful to be on St. Croix.

I am hoping that these storms blow themselves out before next week, so I can fly back to Idaho with no trouble.
Contrary to what you see here, I am doing a lot of writing. I have been consumed with my Creative
Writing Class. In the class we are encouraged to write daily and one suggestion is to keep a Journal, since my blog is my Journal I really need to be better about writing here. Unfortunately I have started way to many of my entries exactly this way.

Yesterday was a truly exciting day. We have a new member of our family. Rozalyn (undecided middle name) Thorp, she came into this world at 2:23PM MST weighing 9 lbs and being 20 3/4 inches tall. both Mom and baby are doing well. I was able to talk to Rachel and although she sounded tired, she said that things were a whole lot easier this time. Her labor was induced and in total it was only about 5 hours.

Rozalyn was born in the middle of a great blizzard. They were actually snowed in when they tried to leave to go to the hospital and had to dig out. It was unclear as to whether or not Macy was going to get up to the hospital to see her new sister last nigh due to the snow. Rick says that according to the weather predictors they have another storm on the way and then an arctic blast of cold air. sound like winter in Idaho. Can't hardly wait to get on that plane next Tuesday and have my turn holding little Rozalyn. At least by that time everybody will be tired of holding her and I won't have to fight for a turn.

We are so grateful for this new little life coming to our family. We were pretty worried about both her and her Mom for awhile there, I hope the diabetes thing is completely over for Rachel. She did tell us yesterday that they checked the baby's blood sugar and it was fine. Babies are such a miracle and Grandchildren are a most welcome blessing.

Back to St. Croix. The wind has been blowing so hard here for the last few days that except for the palm trees, warm weather, ocean out our door and so on and so on and so on, it would seem like Idaho. The trade winds are really crashing, to the extent that the noise has woke me up at night. Oh well, at least it is nice and cool, we are even turning the ceiling fans off, especially at night.


As Thanksgiving approaches it's hard to get excited. We invited the Sr. Missionaries over for dinner and a young man who is currently a student at UVI, who is also preparing to go on a mission but it won't be the same without the kids. Rick and I both feel that we have so much to be thankful for, that we don't want to cast a pall over Thanksgiving just because it will be different. I think I will just have to approach it like everything else on St. Croix as just another part of the adventure. There will be Jump-UP (a big street festival) on Black Friday so that is something fun to look forward to. Hope to finish up a little Christmas Shopping there.

Still searching for more work. It looks like this job will go until at least the end of the year. Rick cleared it with his boss to be gone for the 10 days at Christmas and it was no problem. He did get an offer for a position with a Land Trust, but he turned it down, it was not nearly enough money and they wanted exclusive rights to his time (no side work for anyone else). It was a hard decision for Rick, but we know there is something better out there just have to keep looking, praying and having faith.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

More lessons and blessing from laying things down. Yesterday I was talking about the vehicle crisis and the things that we were not going to be able to do over the weekend. Rick was concerned about work on Monday and Tuesday, so he called the guy at the tire store to see if he knew anybody who sold used tires. We figured if we spent $50 for two used tires to get us around for 4 or 5 days we would be ahead of the game. This guy found us two used tires which he gave to Rick and even mounted them for free. Of course, we will be having our repairs done there and buying new tires from him but still this was a great blessing for us and a lesson is laying our problems at the feet of our Savior.

So...last night we went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We both enjoyed it immensely and even though there were many things left out we both felt that it was true to the book. It is definitely not a children's story anymore. It was very dark and sinister, the evil is more evil and good is having a very hard time overcoming. The stopping point for this first half of the last book was very dramatic and we are anxiously waiting for the conclusion.

Didn't get the cleaning done today that I had planned but Rick and I had a very pleasant day together and since we will be apart for about 3 weeks, it's nice to have these days together. Planning for Sunday and our church responsibilities and going to watch a move and have homemade pizza.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Friday, and it's a new day. Well of course, it's a new day, but for me a new day in more ways than one. I have really been struggling with a lot of things lately and wondering why everything has gotten so hard. In actuality nothing has gotten any harder, I had just given stopped having the faith that things would and could work out. This probably grew out of my having several crisis to deal with at once.

First, my ongoing dental crisis. I had a three tooth bridge put in about five years ago. At the time this dental work was done, I was not happy with it but instead of pursuing having the dentist correct the problem right then and there, I let it go, thinking I would deal with when I had to. Well here I am, five years later and 3500 miles away having to deal with it. This bridge that I paid over $2600 for never did fit right and so a piece broke off from one of the teeth right away, like within six months, then about eighteen months ago in fell out. My dentist at the time, cemented it back in and didn't say much. Somewhere in the first month here on St. Croix, it fell out again. I found a dentist to cement it back in again, which he did without saying much. That lasted about three months and I was back in the chair with the bridge in my hand. Now the dentist tells me that he can cement it back in but it won't last, because the front tooth under the bridge has broken off and it won't hold. So with that in mind, I paid him to cement it back in, in the hopes that it would last until after the first of the year and I could figure something out. Well this time it lasted about two weeks. I called the dentist back to find out my options and he wouldn't talk to me over the phone but said I had to come in for a consultation and x-rays. Went back paid him $50 for the consultation and $30 for two x-rays (they wanted to do a full mouth, but I told them let's just start with the area in question) to find out that I need a new bridge to the tune of $3600, plus I need the front tooth (in this bridge) pulled and a temporary crown made for the back tooth for the sum of $600, so this little dental crisis is scheduled to cost me around $4200 before it's over.

I made an appointment for the extraction and temporary crown and left the dentists office wondering how in the world I was going to come up with $600 for this first part of the ordeal. Spent two sleepless nights and twice as many days in gastro distress, when I realized that there was absolutely nothing I could do but worry and make myself sick, so I started praying. That was when I remembered something in the scriptures about Jesus saying that we should lay our burdens at his feet and he would make them light. I decided that this is what I needed to do, so I gave this burden over to Him. I did make several attempts to pick it up again, but I kept reminding myself to have more faith and LET IT GO. When we got paid, last week, I went through the budget and low and behold there was the $600 to pay for this. Now my first thought was of all the other things that I would rather spend that $600 on and then after having a little talk with myself, I was simply grateful that a way had been provided.

Yesterday was the appointed day and I had the deed done and paid in cash. Can't say that having a tooth pulled and a titanium post put in another one was a whole bunch of fun but it's over. I did get to eat ice cream and lay around and watch movies for the rest of the day without any guilt. That's gotta be worth something. I have to go back to the dentist on the 29th to see that everything is healing up nicely and then I can go to Idaho and relax. I will have to face the new bridge and the $3600 price tag when I come back, but somehow I know there will be a way.

Second, our ongoing vehicle crisis. Three weeks and three days ago we had to put new front tires on the "island car". That cost $200 that we had to rob "from Peter", but the really bad news was that when they went to do the alignment they found that the front end needed some work done, to the tune of $800. Rick decided and I agreed with him that we weren't going to put $800 into the little "island car" that we paid $2500 for, so we mereily drove off thinking well we'll probably lose some time off these tires but we'll face that bridge when we come to it. Well three weeks and three days later, there we were at the bridge abutment finding out that it had been washed away in our reoccurring deluge of car troubles. We took the car to someone we trusted (we didn't go to him for the new tires because he didn't have any to fit our car) for a second opinion and yes we need the front end work done, he was a little cheaper, he could do it for $750, but keep in mind that now we also need new tires again. We don't have much choice, so we charged the $400 they wanted to order the parts and are hoping they come in (ETA, Tuesday 11/23) before both tires go(well last evening one went, so now we have the "bicycle tire spare" on the car and are afraid to go anywhere, in fear that the other tire will blow out and we will be without a spare). Are you laughing yet? You should be, because somehow it seems that this can only happen to Rick and I. Today,, now that all the novacaine has finally left my brain and I'm thinking, I realize that this is another crisis that I can't handle, gotta lay it down and let someone else take over.

This started me thinking about all the things that I can't get done over the next four or five days because we really can't drive the car. In a effort to be a glass half full kind of person I turned that around and started thinking of all the things I could get done at home with no excuses to having to go somewhere. Things that I wanted to have done before I leave for Idaho, this is the way they can all get done with no guilt over thinking I should be somewhere else doing something else. Kind of like that eating ice cream all day thing because I had a tooth pulled. Anyway, maybe it won't be so bad. Rick has been able to arrange to get to work, so we'll still get paid and I do believe that somehow we'll be able to get where really need to be. See I'm getting better and better at this "laying my burdens down" thing.

We had planned to see the new Harry Potter movie this weekend and that will have to be put on hold, a little disappointing maybe but certainly not a crisis, and I was hoping to go to the beach on Saturday, but maybe we can walk to the one down below our place or maybe not, the beach will still be there next weekend. It's great to be able to see thing clearly now that all the fog has passed.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

So, as if I wasn't depressed enough, today we can't get the Internet to boot up at the house. So, we're sitting at the Brew Pub having dinner and doing some business. Since I didn't get on yesterday and blog I thought I would take a few minutes to get this out of my system.

The weather has turned absolutely gorgeous here, cool, breezy, sunny and beautiful blue skies. Have to admit I could use a light blanket at night. I still go to the pool daily and workout, but once finished, I have been getting right out. Once I have worked out and gotten really warmed up, just hanging out in the cool water and really cool air, gives me the shivers. Guess I have acclimated faster than I thought.

Feeling anxious and more than a little "blue" lately, not exactly sure why. Trying to immerse myself in my writing class and now the Internet won't work. Oh well, I guess I can write anyway and wait to post it on my class whenever the service improves.

I'm trying real hard not to be negative here. I'm keeping this as my Journal and I'm not sure I want to come back to this a read a whole lot of negativity, much less have someone read about what a boob I was 100 years from now. (Of course, that's assuming that 100 years from now someone has the most remote interest in reading about me.) Yesterday when I was talking to a friend, I said that I needed to be careful not to be negative and she said she could never remember me being negative. That did make me feel good, because sometimes I feel that, that's all I am is negative. I truly have nothing to be upset about, but all the same I can't seem to shake feeling "bad". Maybe I just need more prayer???

Monday, November 15, 2010

What a beautiful day, finally. The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing and I got a lot done. Even had time for a swim in the pool (actually bobbing around after working out). Rick had a job interview tonight, for a job he seems to be excited about, I'm not so sure, but I'm not going to get too worked up until they offer the position to him.

Talked to Rachel this evening, after her doctor's appointment. She is going in next Monday morning at 7:30AM to have her baby, unless something happens before then. Hopefully she can hang on until then. I am disappointed that I won't be able to meet my new granddaughter until she is a week and a day old. I knew this was a possibility when I made my reservations. Rick was kind enough to offer to try to change my reservations, because he knows how much I want to be there, but I really don't want to leave him alone for Thanksgiving and when I first started looking at flying to Idaho, I was saving almost $300 by flying the Tuesday after the holiday as opposed to the week of, so I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap. I know Rachel will be fine without me there and the new baby really won't know the difference. It's the down side to living so far away.

Well I am going to look at the glass half full and get excited about the fact that two week from tomorrow night I'll be there with Miss Macy and my knew granddaughter. Now I really had better get with it in planning and getting everything ready. Also, have to finish up my creative writing class. The final exam becomes available on Nov. 26th, so I have four days to study up and take it and post my final paper. I really want to get that done before I leave.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Second post for today, because I am feeling and doing much better. I think just the act of saying that I would work hard to remove the negativity from my life has been a tremendous help. Also, no negative phone calls today. Also, had a great day with Rick, we went to Fredricksted, saw some friends and even went to the AT&T phone store to do some phone shopping for him ( you have a minimum wait of 45 minutes there) but it was all good. Praying for the strength to resist the negative has been a great blessing.

Talked to Rachel tonight and she is so ready to have this baby. I really feel for her, I know things are a little tough right now, but I also believe that they will be better soon. I'm starting to get excited about going and being with her and Macy and the new baby girl.

Started to get excited for Christmas too. Have to admit that's a first for me, cause I usually like to enjoy Thanksgiving to the fullest before I begin to even think about Christmas. Things on the island are starting to get festive with the Holidays in mind, so maybe that's it. We noticed today Christmas decorations up on the light poles all through town, it's kind of funny to see large snowflakes (I suppose winter themes just go with Christmas,no matter where you are). Today I bought a Christmas CD, all familiar Christmas songs with either a reggae or calypso beat. Kind of fun.
So, it's 5:45AM and I have been up for about an hour, that's up and out of bed, I have been awake for about 2 hours. Can't sleep. Not sure what's wrong with me. Seems like a lot of stress mixed with a little depression but I really can't put my finger on where either might be coming from. This is simply NOT me. Things are going pretty well for us here on St. Croix, so I really shouldn't be stressed and I really don't feel depressed. I haven't felt physically well for a few days, but I'm starting to wonder if that isn't just more stress and depression than actual physical illness. I think I am going to have to push myself a little bit more to get up, get out and shake this off.

I have to admit that I have been confronted with a whole lot of negativity lately and that is never good. It isn't me who is being negative but it seems to be coming from a lot of different directions. I do know that it is up to me to eliminate it from my life, no matter what. I really don't understand people who insist that the glass is half empty, it's just as easy to look at it as half full.

I become exasperated at people who are always complaining about a bad situation and yet they won't do anything to make it better. I think for me I am going to have to stay away from those people, so I don't let their frustrations and anxiety be my frustrations and anxiety.

I go about thinking that it's my job to listen to other people and their problems, then when they ask for help and I make a suggestion and they don't listen, I become frustrated. I have to realize that some people go around asking for advise and venting all of their problems because the want to complain and because they want to complain and have something to complain about they really don't want the bad situations in their life to get better. I know that we all judge from our own experience, but the idea of having a bad situation in your life, bad enough where you seek outside advise, then you refuse to listen to the advise (even though you admit that it is the same advise that several people, some professionals, have given you), and you keep complaining about the situation and seeking advise (from the same people who have already given you their best opinion), makes me crazy. This is so toxic to everyone involved.

Well maybe this late night/early morning rant has been worth something, because I think I have a clear course to follow. I need to eliminate anything and everything from my life that creates any negativity (at least for the moment). Apparently, I am way to susceptible to it. I definitely need to pray more and find my peace again. Then I need to be sure not to give my peace away to anyone for any reason. It is up to me. Just like I truly believe that no one can offend us, because we choose to be offended or not. I also believe that no one can take away our peace, with negativity or anything else, we choose to give it up. I will not do this again, I am worth so much more.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Realizing how derelict I have been in writing. The last few days have been so full,of what I'm not sure, but by 9 I'm ready to hit the sack and read for awhile. Both Monday and Tuesday I didn't make it to 10 before the book was slapping me in the forehead. Today we had errands to run all over the island, amid all the flooding and flash flood warnings, it was kind of exciting. It did feel good to get back to the safety of our condo this evening. Rick had to go out again to visit someone and unfortunately they were too flooded out for him to get to their home.

Trying hard to get things in order so I can make this trip to Idaho. Not exactly sure where to start. I guess I'll take the advise of Scarlett O'Hara about "tomorrow being another day".

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Absolutely terrific meetings at church today, even if I did have to teach in Gospel Doctrine class. Glad to get that over with. Rain today, but not near as much as they have been predicting. Nice nap, good dinner and we have been continuing on with our Harry Potter Fest, getting ready for the big Day, Nov 19th.
Up early and ready for church, realized that I didn't blog last night, so I thought I might catchup a little. I spent so much of the day writing, it didn't occur to me that I didn't write here. Really enjoying the Creative Writing Class, getting totally immersed into it.

Did break down and go grocery shopping in the afternoon. You know how much I love that. The upside is that we finally got some appropriate computer paper to do our "not Christmas letter"on. I really want to send this out by the 15th of November, so everyone will have our new address in time. Stating to realize that it's only 23 more days until I leave for Idaho. Hoping Rachel and Mavis can hold on that long. Rick seems to think that if the baby is born in the next week, I should try to change my flights and go early, we'll just have to wait and see what happens and keep praying.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Just got off of Facebook and was so disappointed in some of my "friends". It seems the ones who have so much to be grateful for, can't stop complaining. It certainly makes me more aware of the things that I post and my general attitude of gratitude.

Spent the morning dealing with my ongoing "dental crisis", spent the better part of last night laying awake stressing about said "dental crisis". Finally came to a conclusion that I can't figure this one out and the burden was getting to be too much to bear (in other words, I was stressed to the max), after a lot of prayer and wondering I decided (actually I think I was told, maybe in a dream) that I just needed to lay this burden at the Lord's feet. Once I did that I felt an amazing sense of calm, not that I didn't have to remind myself several times throughout the morning, not to go back and pick that burden up again. Incredibly things have started to work themselves out. I still can't see the end, but I'm not worried anymore, I know it will work out the way it should and I will be OK in the process.

After that morning crisis, I spent a good part of the afternoon writing. The assignment for my class this week is to post the first paragraph of our "final creative piece" and I haven't even come up with an idea for mine. Oh, oh, here comes the stress.... I started writing some disjointed paragraphs, good in their own, but I was scared to post any, because I didn't know where I was going to take them for the final piece. Rick was kind enough to take me out to dinner (I think he could see how stressed I was and how wrapped up in the whole thing I was getting and he had a fine sense of "no dinner tonight) we talked a lot about my anxiety about this assignment. With his help I came to the conclusion that even seven hundred page novels are written one paragraph at a time and not everyone has an outline of the entire work at the first second or even three hundredth paragraph. The real creative process is to just write and see what's in there (kind of like my blog, each night I just start writing and don't really know where I'm going). Anyway...I feel much better now and even think I have an opening paragraph for my "final piece", not quite ready to post it yet, need to sleep on it and make a few more revisions, of course, it has to be perfect.

Talked to Rachel today and learned that she is having contractions. She was at the doctors today and when they noticed the contractions they checked her to find out that she is dilated to 3 or 4. They kept her in the doctors office, under observation, for a few hours and when the contractions stopped, they sent her home. It does look like things "have begun". I sincerely hope she can keep that baby in for a few more weeks. She'll probably hate me for saying that (I do remember how "done" you are at about 8 months), I just want little Mavis to have every opportunity to have a good healthy start. I also want to be able to be there to be of some real help, not coming three weeks after the baby is born. Well, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Praying for them both to be healthy and things to go well.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Energy is back and I actually got quite a bit done today, mostly paperwork and writing at the computer, but hey, it's an improvement over yesterday. I'm enjoying the writing but not the paperwork, ugh, I hate that stuff (not as much as grocery shopping, which I have to do tomorrow) it just tends to bog me down.

Weather is still cool and really windy. Watching the weather channel today as Haiti prepares for Tomas. It's only a Tropical Storm now but expected to reach hurricane status by the time it gets there. I can't even imagine what will happen with all of those people still living in tents. An interesting fact that I just learned about Haiti, although it's a tropical island, there are no tress, the mountains are barren, because they have cut down all the tress for building and other reasons. I just have to ask myself, how could a country be so uninformed and have gotten in such a mess. Many people here on St. Croix don't have much sympathy and say that it's God's will or wrath, that these things are happening in Haiti. I just can't believe that, nor can I believe that the world really isn't helping much. Keep praying for them.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Today was an energy less day, a day in which I had no energy. I felt like maybe I was coming down with something, maybe I was just coming down with a bad case of laziness. I should have been writing, but it just wasn't there today. I even had trouble with my class assignments and usually those are able to generate some real excitement. I did read a lot today, maybe that will count for something. It was pretty overcast most of the day, maybe that's the reason, the clouds just drained the energy out of me.

Tried to look at the elections results, it was very confusing. I know who the governor is here in the VI and was able to pick out some of the other winners in the states, but it seems like there should be a web site that you could go to and just see who won, race by race. There probably is one, I just don't know how to find it. I did find some of the "losers" comments to be interesting. It must be very hard to be in such a public race that seems to basically be a popularity contest and then lose. It's too bad some of these people compound their embarrassment at losing by making ridiculous statements about the election in general. Oh well, at least the political ads will be over for a while. Now if they would just take the annoying signs down from along the road. I'm really tired of seeing some of these people staring out of their cardboard frames at every intersection. There outta be a law!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Election day, I wonder what it will bring. There certainly is room for change, but real change would seem to be important. I have to ashamedly admit that I did not vote. Rumor has it that if we register to vote in the VI, we will not be eligible to vote in the next Presidential election. In an effort to get to the bottom of this rumor, we waited too long and did not register in time. I sure do hope that the candidate that I'm pulling for in the Gubernatorial race here wins, or at least that he does not lose by two votes.

I have been very disappointed in my voting career. It seems the choice generally seems to be between the lesser of two evils. I can't remember the last time I was actually excited about a particular candidate.
Even when I have started out feeling really good about someone, they go on in their campaign to do something that I consider embarrassing (like engage in mud slinging) and I end up once again discouraged.

Today my daughter sent me an email titled Iron Jawed Angels, it was about women gaining the right to vote, it truly did make me ashamed of the times I did not vote (like today). It is an important right and it's up to us to exercise it. Unfortunately, I do believe that their are some elections where we really don't get to make the decision about who will represent us (like in the Presidential race) but it is still important to cast our vote and stand up for what we believe to be right. I will be sure that I am voting in the next elections and probably locally, no matter what the consequences may be, I live here now and I want to make a difference.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Well I haven't been here for a few days, Halloween was a little uneventful except for the weather. At 8:30PM, we had a major squall blow through here. The wind was howling and the rain crashing, it was kind of scary, only lasted about 45 minutes. Then again at 2:30AM there was another one, it woke us up and lasted long enough that, we figured that we better turn on the news or the computer or something and make sure there were no warnings or anything going on. This time it lasted about an hour. Once I knew all was well I went back to bed, it took Rick longer to fall asleep. Then this morning nobody wanted to get up, I slept until 8:40AM, very unusual for me.

I'm really enjoying my writing class, probably couldn't tell it by my blog. There are some exercises that we have to do that seem so hokey, but it's amazing the thought process they evoke and the things that they can pull out of you. I just have to keep writing and be sure to spend some time every day actually doing it. I suppose the blog counts, but it's not as creative as I like to be, after all I really only want to post the "truth" here.

Weather is still a little stormy like, nor really raining but pretty windy most of the day and the clouds keep rolling through. Supposedly still the outer bands and remnants of Tomas. The weather guys keep saying it will reorganize and head for Haiti but it doesn't look like it to me. At least it's beyond us, but I still hope Haiti can dodge this one too.

I do want to say that although Halloween was uneventful we had incredible meetings at church. There were quite a few people there and the Spirit was really strong. Our talks and lessons were great, it is amazing what this little band of saints can pull off.