Current and things

Wow. We went to the main island for a long weekend. Taking a break and having a great time doing tourist-y things. (Ahem - I had to do some research in all the gift shops.) We went into a shop for snacks and THIS headline greeted us! Ugh. Our poor island!

The "current" (electricity) went out Saturday morning. We returned home on Tuesday evening. For some blessed reason, the current was back when we arrived home. That gave us a chance to clean out the refrigerator and freezer. Whew! What a stinky mess! Then Wednesday morning the current went again and didn't come on until Friday morning. No current also means no pipe (tap) water and no Internet.

We learned some tricks when the current went out in October. First, we brought a 3 lb. brick of frozen spinach home with us to cool down the freezer. And stuffed towels in the freezer for extra insulation. Second, we headed down to the house that sells ice. They were out, but taking orders and selling it as fast as their ice machine would go. Third, of course we used our wind-up radio and battery-operated lanterns. And refilled candles - we'd let them get low awaiting wicks that were in a CARE package that was lost in the mail over 3 months ago. (A stroke of bad luck, Teri!) But smoky wicks are better than no wicks at all, so we made do with what we had. And Fourth, we ralaxed and enjoyed the stars and fireflies at night.

"No Gas" in the headline refers to gasoline. To run the generators in the shops and guest houses. We had plenty of cooking gas. (See "A Christmas Story" blog entry last December)

We went to the Town Hall meeting on Monday evening. What caused the six-day power outage was that when the engine broke that produces our island's current, the backup engine was found to also be broken. Oops! So other engines had to be found and brought to us to get us up and running again. The most visionary idea to come from the meeting was to use wind and solar power generators. We have a big supply of wind and sun. Wouldn't it be great for our island to generate all its own electricity and become energy-independent!!

Yes, that's Lionel Richie's photo on the front page, too. He was part of a big music festival (Romantic Rhythms) that weekend. So was Kenny Rodgers and others you would recognize. Hugely well attended, and a big boost for our main island. Things are happenin' here!