Our journey, Chapter 9: Days go by
Keith Urban’s hit song, “Days Go By”, is one Natalie and I can’t help but turn up. In it, he describes the rush of the life most of us live and cautions us to “better start livin’ right now ‘cause days go by.” Moving to the Caribbean is a really good way to follow his advice.
We’ve shifted to “island time”, going to bed and awakening with the sun. The days pass slowly, especially when we are on the beach being serenaded by the lapping of the surf.
On Sunday, Natalie noticed a crab was trying to make a home beneath one of the runners of my lounge chair. After watching it for a while, I realized it would be seriously at risk if/when someone moved the chair. I solved the potential problem by finding a flat rock and placing it where my chair had rested. Apparently off-put at first, the crab hunkered down and ceased its home-building project. But, it eventually reappeared, once again dragging sand from under the rock and pushing it away from its entrance. Fascinated with the process, I watched for over an hour as my crab friend constructed what must be a four bedroom, four bath residence in the sand.
Yes, the days pass so slowly that crab watching becomes a fixation. I wonder what my blood pressure is now…
We realized our fifty-day celebration of fifty years will soon come to an end. Our time here has perfectly mirrored life, itself. Each day has passed slowly but seems a blur in retrospect.
The faint scent of a cigar floated to us on the breeze and introduced us to Mark. When we told him of our goal to find a place in the Caribbean and that we are going to St. Kitts as part of the process, he said he had lived and worked there for ten years building the very community we are interested in seeing when we go in October. Mark is probably the tenth person we have met over the past five weeks who has told us they have lived on St. Kitts and how much they love it. Each of them had a reason for leaving, family moved, job opportunity, etc., and each said they would love to return. Natalie’s convinced it’s a sign. She’s not been secretive about her Kittian bias, but despite our largely lethargic stay here on St. Thomas forced by the need for her leg to heal, she’s very interested in seeing the properties Martin is going to show us. St. Thomas does check a lot of boxes.
Ernesto is on everyone’s mind. Martin scheduled us to look at homes Thursday because the storm is supposed to hit us Tuesday and Wednesday. Friends and family have been reaching out, concerned for our safety. I’m not going to try to predict the weather. People who get paid to do that seem to be wrong more often than they are right.
Seriously, what do you think when you hear there’s a fifty percent chance of rain? Why don’t they just say, “Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. I can’t believe I earn a living doing this!”
Nope. I’m not going to compete with the professionals. I’ll simply include a picture of our stormy Tuesday. You decide.
I really do hope we don’t have a major storm surge. My crab friend will have to rebuild.
Natalie’s response was, “Meh” when I asked her thoughts about Cowpet. While the condo we’re in has been beautifully redone, she said she has seen others that she described as very tired. When we first met Martin, he suggested Cowpet is overpriced with owners of units that haven’t been updated asking big bucks. So, probably not. We’ll see what Martin has to offer.
As we walked back to the condo from the beach, we again passed the tortoises’ love palace when Natalie discovered that in addition to the tortoises, there is a rabbit hutch. Tortoise and hare? Really? Guess a testament to Aesop. No pets on Cowpet? Humph!