thehood.html

we are changing
it's been awhile since i've written, i know. time to get back into the swing of this thing. because there is very, very much to talk about. the virgin islands are becoming more politically aware and discerning. maybe they always been, but have also been disheartened, which lead to a sort of giving up. no more. the sleeping giant is stirring. will it be fully awake by september 11 2010 (primaries) and election day? i can see it being so! this is good. 08/14/10

we are getting stimulated
i love the visource online virgin islands news! they always get the story first because they are online and all the way live. our governor outlined how the stimulus package will help us. hope they use as directed. 02/20/09

president. barack. hussein. obama.
end. of. message. 11/05/08

we were on a break (updated)...
said ross to rachel for the 5th time. it's a "friends" joke, ask somebody. i am going on a break, due to hurricane omar. and not a moment too soon, i spend too much time online anyway. but i'll be back when all is said and done. please follow tropical weather at stormcarib in addition to the national casts, which tend to gloss over, ignore or underserve us. no offense, they never send reporters here, and they just don't know... see you soon! 10.15.08

By now you know, in the middle of the night, as Omar went from category 2 to category 3, he also apparently changed his mind about that Virgin Islands vacation. Instead of the northeasterly track he was on, he began to head more due east, pulling him off of St. Croix and giving us all a 'kiss'.

So, while St. Croix experienced quite a bit of infrastructural and environmental damage and St. Thomas did experience rock and mudslides and a collapsed Brookman Road (a main artery to the east by way of the south shore), we did OK for ourselves.

We are all very grateful as we were in the direct path of this hurricane, small as it was.

Y'all take care! 10.17.08

i'd kiss the ground but that's just nasty...
just got back home from visiting with family. apparently there is a jumbi in the machine because as i took to the air on the final leg of my journey the wrench came down in the works and the flight tracking apparati (can i use that as plural?) stopped passing on information and just started burping and hiccuping uncontrollably. flights jacked all the way thru the afternoon until 6pm from what i read. to say nothing of trying to dispose of all the displaced, now flights overbooked, crews overworked. so glad i missed that one. i did not know until i'd landed. good to be home 08.27.08

like a brother to us...
*turns face earnestly, eyes piercing yours via the camera*: "america..."

that's all bernic mac had to say on his "bernie mac show" and i'd giggle. i just knew that whatever it was, helixing upwards from gut to brain, was going to be perfection. *crack! home run!* have you ever known anyone who could do it every time??? few and very far between.

and bernie mac never missed. he was genius on a stick. he was beyond words... a hecking spiritual flack storm. he turned his painful childhood (which kept its silvery claws clicking at his ever-racing heels) into hilarity. but we knew the truth of the man who rescued his sister's children, thereby creating the most loving fodder ever tasted this side of destiny. gosh. bernie mac is gone. i am grateful for the film that runs in my mind whenever i hear his name. he was something else, like that brother who always knew, he just knew. how can you love someone you've never met? until you do it, you'll never know. so long, bernie... 08.09.08

they're not here no more...
but this is still "home" to theron and timothy now known as "rock city". since they were very young, they have been working hard and now they belong to the world. they are writers, as well as performers, and they are poised to become superstars. they named themselves after their home town and island, st. thomas, u.s. virgin islands, which now enjoys the benefit of a level of promotion that money cannot buy. long may they (jump and) wave... 07.20.08

you've got it backwards...
i am sick and tired of people killing folks they claim to "love" and then turning around and claiming they also want to commit suicide. forgive me for being so ... unforgiving, but you've got it backwards. if you're gonna kill yourself, be a man (or woman) about it. don't practice on others... check the sad story in the St. Thomas Source --- and the Virgin Islands Daily News... 04.05.06

long live the king of the road...
nicholas "nick" friday, real first name "trevor", which i'd never known until now... also known as "daddy friday" of the illustrious jam band, has passed on due to complications from diabetes. and, never has the territory seen such a wailing as this one. people from all around the world continue to flood media outlets with mournful articles and letters to the editor(s) while thousands attended not one, but two viewings and a funeral. i have a feeling that he is looking down on all of this, but it pains me that he could not have benefited from all of this raw love (as opposed to adoration, which isn't real) while he was here with us. no, i didn't know him personally. but nick friday was a star. caribiadigest.com has my missive... i'm the editor, so i wrote a letter to myself just like fats waller... 10.16.05

milestones
my first bomb scare. today of all days, i decided to drive down to the post office and hit the atm for a few ducats on the way to work. what was i thinking? once i hit downtown, i saw nothing unusual about the sluggish emptying of the side street i'd taken onto vet's drive. it was, after all, rush hour. a time for folks to fail to signal, block the intersection during MY green light, and otherwise impede traffic with no skills whatsoever. after i'd waited a good 15 minutes just for the opportunity to turn westward, with absolutely NO traffic headed eastward, i sensed that something was afoot.

well... more like amile, amileandahalf up the road. nothing was moving. when i saw the port authority boat pull up to the seaplane dock, i thought that now might be a good time to hit the radio and see what was what. my tony robbins cd cooling, my engine idling, i caught "amvi" on radio one, where carol henneman (sitting in for the vacationing lee v.) took a caller off the open lines who was wondering why no one was trying to direct traffic during what was described as a bomb scare. she was not the official word, but she was the only one i had. as soon as i was able, i turned tail using a 20 point k, and headed back east to an unobstructed atm.

i enjoy a little excitement as much as the next person, but in this age of terror alerts and osama bin ladin going straight to video every 2 months, i'd prefer if our local authorities understood that if there is a bomb scare, the object of the game is to keep folks from heading towards the alleged incendiary device. all inlets to the veteran's drive should have been headed off as quickly as possible. it appeared that this did not begin to happen until some time after i'd long left my trapped fellow human beings behind. what if there had been a real bomb? let's not think about that. at least not today... 06.24.05

pennies from heaven
at long last, my tax refund has arrived! plus a few bucks in interest due to the long turnaround time. so, that drama is ended. otherwise, nothing scintillating to report. except for the fact that i stepped in some dog poo trying to get into my car after having dinner with some friends. had to drive home with windows thrown open wide! yuk. 02.27.05

¡no moleste el irs!
so i poked the cobra with a stick. i called the i.r.s. to ask about my check, since thanksgiving has passed. this time i heard that it will be 2-3 months before they are finished deciding what to do about my tax refund. talk about paying for your mistakes. everytime i call tax folks to ask about my refund, they seem to add more time to when i can get it, so i'm gonna stop calling and just fuggedaboutit 12.04.04

one of these things is not like the others.
one of these things doesn't belong... sesame street? not. just a gasp away from the senate presidency, re-elected senator (elect!) louis patrick hill was ceremoniously voted into the senate president seat, only to see himself unceremoniously dumped, with one senator (allegedly!) stating that the fact that senator hill hails from dominica (as did our previous senate president) was a dealbreaker. so, he and two other senators "overthrew" the vote of their fellow democrats and went across the hall to form a new majority and elect a new senate president.

this thing was done with such boldness that i have trouble believing that it is not "business as usual" in our legislature; it just happened to see the light of day because senator hill would not go quietly. he has lost his taste for the senate presidency, though. him nah eat dat raw meat, mehson.

in case you're wondering, my tax refund check has not yet found its way home to my loving arms and checking account... i was told by the i.r.s. way back in september that it should have been here by thanksgiving. fortunately, i have much for which to be thankful. 11.28.04

the people have spoken!
still no sign of my tax refund check. but i have a reason to be cheerful. on saturday, september 11, 2004, with the significance of this day of infamy on our minds, the people of the virgin islands took back the date and used it to raise a collective voice. current delegate to congress donna christensen has been a proponent of a chief financial officer for the virgin islands as corruption and wanton waste flourish to our detriment.

her opposition claimed that this signaled a desire to return to colonialism, while inciting fear in government employees that jobs would be lost and we would lose our power. meanwhile, the attorney general was compelled to tender his resignation after a 2-page document (authorized by the governor and doctored by him) that sought to further corrupt government contract procurement practices was sent to the legislature for approval and the possibility of allowing fraudulent bills to be paid!

the people came out in record numbers to a traditionally slow election day (the primaries) and beat back not only the delegate's opponent, but a particular st. croix senator who seemed to specialize in pushing for laws that would favor special interests. this particular (st. croix senator) crowed during his concession speech that not only would he no longer seek senatorial employment, but that the private sector was scratching at his door. big surprise. i am interested in seeing whether any of the special interests he sought to help (although thwarted, on occasion) will be his benefactor...

i'm not as dumb as i must look. 09.12.04

anticipation...
well, if it was just ketchup it wouldn't rankle. i accidentally filed my tax return with the feds instead of the local (virgin islands) government. corrected my error, and even sent back the refund i'd gotten. i like the way the feds do it. e-file, pay online. or, if you are owed a refund, it's deposited right into your bank account if you like. well, the virgin islands government said that they would be done with all tax refunds by aug 15 2004. still no check.

the nice ladies that i spoke with told me that my return is processing and will be paid soon! it has to come all the way from philly for some reason. in case you are still waiting, i'll let you know when it bounces in. 08.28.04

daddy's home...
it's fathers' day on sunday, june 20th, 2004. if you've got a daddy, or someone who's a daddy to you, tell him you love him, now. then, buy him a tie... 06.18.04

tragedy strikes, part 2...
the dominican republic and haiti are under water, and in the worst way. they recently found themselves on the receiving end of a deluge that left over 900 dead and 2 nations in shock. visit the american red cross to find out how you can help... 05.28.04

tragedy strikes...
no way to truthfully know what brought it on, but the rumours are always lurking - on st. croix, a man kills 3. his infant, his wife, and his brother (who had come to the defense of the wife) in an incredible chain of events over the past weekend. he is a well-respected and well-liked fireman. the people who take care of us often feel that they have no one to take care of them, and they have my deepest empathy. but i don't know if there is EVER a good excuse for killing because you are hurting.

we have lost control in the worst way. what will YOU do when you have that spit-second decision to make? if we could all just hold ourselves together for just one second more, give ourselves a chance to think!!! i hope you choose the path that allows for reconciliation... 05.18.04

ch-ch-ch-ch-change(s)...
i just started a new job, and although the hours are better and the stressors are comparatively fewer, just the act of the move to another field of work, the modification of my schedule (even for the better!) and interacting with a new set of peeps... is proving stressful! i feel like a big baby, but if you check the holmes stress scale, you'll see that according to the experts, i may be cruisin' for a bruisin'.

certainly, i've been thru worse. and as i peck, folks are going through worse. and i have a lot to be thankful for. i've got about 183 points going - not nearly the 300 (eek!) danger point. so, i'll cease my whining and get on with it.

if ya really wanna know what's raising my pressure, it's the choosing of jamband's "soldiers" by the vi carnival committee as the 2004 road march. i was at the adults' parade, where the winner is allegedly calculated based upon what bands and sound systems play when they reach the grand hotel square. and i could have sworn i heard "bangalang" more than i heard "soldiers". must be the stress...05.05.04

cultural door no longer ajar...
with the theme "journey through a cultural door for carnival 2004", virgin islands carnival slipped noisily into the history books amid the slick rhythms of road march contenders like "bangalang" by jam band and "big belly papi" by d.j. poppy pops of 105 jamz. incident-free, nobody acted so much the fool that anyone had to wind up stone cold dead in the market or any place else...05.03.04