All Is Well

There is a lull in the rain! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and everything is lush and green and, well, tropical. The tropical depression seems to have dissapated or moved west. The strong winds never arrived. We have had a lot of rain, some major downpours, but not in the tropical storm range. It has been very cool all week, in the 70s, but with the sun out, the temperature shot up to 90 on our deck and it is humid!

The RECO protesters were no where to be seen today, unless it was back at their jobs. The roads were all clear; the only remaining evidence is the number of recently cut trees that were used as roadblocks and are now pushed off to the sides of the roads. That is what we saw on our way into Coxen Hole today; I don't know about the rest of the island except that all roads were open. I also have not heard how this was resolved overnight.

Coxen Hole was back to normal. There was a very long line outside the bank waiting to get in. I had never seen that before. Must have been due to the roadblocks this week keeping people from getting to the bank, or anywhere else. We decided to go into Yaba Ding Ding first to buy a thank you gift for our favorite banker back home who has helped us out so much in resolving our stolen credit card number and getting a replacement. The bank line was just as long when we came out, but we reluctantly got in the queue because we needed to get some money (remember, everything is pretty much on a cash basis here, no checks used). The security guards were only admitting just a few people as customers came out. There were long lines inside, too. Sometimes it's good to be older; there was only one other person in the old person/pregnant woman line. It was time to renew the car license for the RAV4 that we bought from Dennis, so I was able to take care of that also. One-stop shopping! Beats having to stand in another long line at Department of Revenue back in the U.S. The one year renewal was only $63.00, less than we thought it would be. The wait in the outside line took longer than renewing the license and withdrawing money for the week. Not bad.

The grocery store was quieter than usual. The produce, most of which is brought over daily by ferry from the mainland, looked decent and not all wilted like it had been sitting on a boat too long during a strike. Some of the bread items were in short supply and there were no tortillas to be had!! My chicken was only $4.50, a better bargain than the last one I bought.

It was too early for lunch when we finished, so I didn't get my weekly fix of a black Angus burger and fries at Nardo's. Otherwise, it was a great morning.

Just saw this message from one of the Warrens (owners of RECO):

"An agreement was reached last evening with the Commission representing
the group that was protesting RECO's fuel adjustment charges that
provides the following:

1. RECO will reduce the current month fuel adjustment from 3.89
lps/kwh to 2.88 lps/kwh.

2. The resulting reduction in the fuel adjustment will cost RECO
approximately 6,000,000 lps. Zolitur and the National Congress will
provide 1,500,000 lps which, when received, will be used to subsidized
those whose bills are 6000 lps or less. (Not clear how this will be
applied)"