stx today,comments

trw,
We have terrazzo, which is in OK shape, some stains and a couple of minor cracks. It could be refinished to look like new. I just don't happen to like the white-gray look. I like something a little warmer. We went to look at concrete, which is applied very thin and then stained and troweled and somehow comes out looking like stone. It really does. Now we just have to get our schedule lined up to knock out a wall, (if the engineer says we can), demo the old kitchen, put down the new floor and install the new kitchen! Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it.

is this the Kasey Canton company?

Yes, it is. Do you have, or are you familiar with this floor? What are your thoughts? Michele, who works with Kasey, was gracious enough to have us come look at her floors. They are 11 years old, she admits to never doing anything (like re-sealing), and they look great. I would prefer the "grout line" to look more like actual grout. She had some ideas to make that happen. I'm pretty much sold unless I hear something in the next few weeks to change my mind.

I don't know about Paul & Ringo doing karaoke but there was a group on one of the ships that came with Paul Revere & The Raiders on this cruise. That's another blast from the past. Not anywhere near the Beatles, of course. Heating up the leftover chili. I hate when I can't find oyster crackers but will make do with Saltines.

I'm right handed, this AM I went to the post office to mail some items, put them (the items) in my left hand at the house and looked all over for my car keys for about 10 minutes. Yup! They were in my left hand, I've done the glasses on top of my head already, this is a new one for me. Oh well, have a great day in paradise everybody.

I haven't seen the floors. i spoke with Kasey earlier in the month, but I was looking more for stamped concrete, which is not something they are stressing at this stage. We did not get into pricing on the other alternatives, but I'm guessing they are pricy?

Thought I'd seen it all but I guess not. Coming home from work by Havensight, a tourist on a rental bike with a kid about 9 sitting behind him cut in front of me from the right & I nearly ran right over him. Traffic stopped at the crosswalk. Then the guy's wife (I guess) tried to pass me on the left & was riding in that gully & lost her balance & turned the bike over right next to me but she managed to catch it so it didn't fall completely. I called her a stupid idiot & she just looked at me. I soooo wish a cop had seen it. You want to risk your own neck, fine. Don't get your child killed too - not to mention ruining my life by being the one to kill you.

i'm not sure why some tourists do not take the same precautions here as they would back home, i agree with you Trade. It's not part of the job description for living here.

just got home from 2 long days of work,tired and sore, as a waiter dealing mainly with tourists i get asked a million times a day why i live here, the why why why questions i call them, i point at the ocean and say "well this is my office" or i moved here for the weather. I've been thinking about my reasons for living here lately and asking myself WHY do i live here, and my answer is because ever since the first time i came here as a tourist and landed at what was then the airport here back in 94,walking down the ladder steps from the plane and the salty air and heat just hit you full force and the smells, well for the first time in a long time i felt that i had come home and i finally felt comfortable in my skin, i still feel that way 14 years later. i don't know of too many other places like this, i was at a meeting the other day in town and a speaker was talking and a couple baby chickens came wandering in from off the street and started to kick up a fuss because their mother was no where around and they were running around making noise and the speaker kept on talking and then 2 people got up and chased out the chickens and nobody missed a beat with anything, or having to stop while your driving to let the goats pass or when the cows get out of the fence at annaly farms,or going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and there's a big ol land crab in the kitchen eating dog food out of the dish ,or at work today the cart i was using had a squeeky wheel and one of the women i work with said the wheel is sick,when you add up all of these unique experiences you realize you're living somewhere other than america i guess,i don't know. Driving to work the other morning at 4:30 am passing by charles harwood there were 2 of our local "ladies" out walking the road promising earthly delights for a small donation and i just laughed and thought ladies you are sooo barking up the wrong tree with me,lol. About 3 years ago we would be sitting in the living room watching tv and we'd hear a BOOM outside in the bush and then a few minutes later another and so on for about an hour so i walked over to the bar to ask sylvie or whoever ran it then what the noise was and she laughed and said the neighbor guys had learned how to make bombs and were practicing, i rolled my eyes and said oh and went home and continued to watch movies to the sounds of expolsions in the bush, lol i mean really what do you say?or do? in the states i would have worn out the buttons pushing 911, down here i did'nt worry about because everyone in the neighborhood knew who was doing it and knew they lived here so they belonged and it was'nt an issue, these same guys pick the fruit from my trees and use my well to water their horses, they did this before i owned the house and continue to do it today, they ask permission and they've been told whenever they want, they know our dogs and they know the house is unlocked and it's just never been an issue, i think respect goes a long way here as well as a live and let live attitude, something i never really felt in the states, oh well i'm rambling i'm wiped out and i need to sleep, i have a whole day off tomorrow and it's laundry,haircut,acid peel facial, then the bookstore to see ginger and buy a book and then for sure a movie at 7:20pm i'm seeing mad money because i like queen latifah and i need to feed my brain some junk so if anyone cares to join me feel free.

well so much for sleeping in.

Wonderful post, trw.

thanks Trade, i think one of the more interesting things that we've encountered here is the old naked white guy washing his car in our yard..... One morning we were sleeping in and we heard the dog barking (at that time we only had one) then we heard the gate open and a vehicle drive into the yard and turn off, we thought it was the yard guy or the neighbor guys coming for water for their horses, the well pump was turned on and it ran and ran and ran some more so finally the other half got up and went to look and then came back and said that there was an old naked white guy washing his car in the yard, i thought ewwww but just asked is he scaring the dog, the other half said no the dog was fine just laying there watching so i said don't worry about it then, so about 20 minutes later i wandered out with 2 cups of coffee and gave one to him and said "whats up" and he said the guy who caretook the house for me knows him and let him wash his car there because he said "well water gets his car cleaner and does'nt leave streaks" and would it be a problem for him to come by every now and then to wash his car, i said no and 7 years later he still stops by every couple of months pulls in strips down and washes his car.

well just got home from haircut, facial and sonya's, i'm now the not so proud owner of a gangsta pimp mustache,lol i went to the shop in sunny isle by the post office cause i like it there and told the man to clean me up and then i just shut my eyes and let him have at it, i wear a crewcut so how bad can it be? well he started in on my stache and i assumed he was just cleaning me up so i kept my eyes closed, when he was done i looked in the mirror and lo and behold a gangsta pimp stache, god i look like senator hill hahaha, good haircut though. then went to office max for a cable but had to go to radio shack instead, then over to gallows bay for tinas book and then upstairs for my facial, she washed me up and then steamed me and then she splashed acid on my face and stood back and laughed while i was screaming and writhing on the bed in agony promising her my firstborn if she'd just make the pain stop, then she wiped that off and started "extracting", interesting word that one, it's just a nice word for more pain, then she wiped me down again and started in with the sandblaster,lol sand and scrape,sand and scrape, the more wiping and then a mask and then more wiping and then sunblock and waalaa i'm 16 again, well ok not quite but all in all she's did a great job and i go back in 2 weeks for more fun, she said you can buy the glycolic acid and do it at home and i just thought ok cmon honey lets go throw acid on each other and whisper sweet nothings while we're doing it hahahahah,i don't think so, then i went to sonya's and picked up the hook i dropped off for cleaning last week, i love that store.

You sure have a more interesting neighborhood than I do. 🙂 Does the naked white guy strip down to get a tan? What does he wear to get to your house?

Better you look like Sen. Hill than ex-Sen. Chuckie.

yes Trade the north shore can be quite interesting at times after all we have Raymond,although he no longer wears his robe when he wanders the road, the old naked white guy always shows up in clothes and leaves in clothes, and do you remember "chucky's" fingernails,god thats a fright, i thought i heard she moved to STT,maybe her and berry are roomies over in frenchtown

i hear bad karaoke coming from sylvies place and i need to be up by 3:45am for work, looks like it's a sleeping pill night, more STX adventures another day folks,gnite

Where and what is sylvie's place?

Years ago I dealt with Chuckie & yes, I remember those nails. I suspect that the horror movie Chuckie was based on her. I hope she's not over here on STT. She ought to be in a Federal pen.

so true Trade.so true, Juanita, sylvies place is the neighborhood bar in Lavallee, it's not a local bar or a tourist bar or a statesider bar but a very nice blend of all 3,generally when the other cane bay bars close she's still open,so you get the bartenders and servers and people who live up here,no riff raff at all because we are on the other side of the mtns, she's a great woman,her bar has yet to be robbed when the others get hit, lol not too good an idea in Lavallee that close to the village anyway, it's just a nice place to go because she's so nice, on holidays she usually does a pig roast or something and the place will be a good spot to see the parade for mardi-croix, and no i have no financial interest in the place other than a desire to see her successful.

well between yesterday and today i've seen more than my share of dead dogs lying on the roadside,sigh,st.croix animal control in action. As i was leaving work tonight the power went out so i drove 18 miles in the dark.

Lordy, I hate seeing that. Ruins my day.

just got home from the 12 mile job,one of the women i work with asked me today "haw many chilren you got" i said none,thinking at this point i'd just keep my mouth shut so any pearls of pithy wit i wanted to say would not emerge.if she has'nt figured me out yet i doubt she will, so any way she started to tell me i was not doing what the lord wanted me to do and i was going to hell for not going forth and multiplying and that i need to get busy. well she got one of my looks you know the one when your glasses slide down and you look at someone over the top of them instead of through them and i just asked her if she was jewish,she said no, so i asked her why she was following 6000 year old jewish tribal law, well she did'nt have a clue on that one so i went back to waiting on my tables(st.croix eye roll head shake and keep your mouth shut day) some days the ignorance can be overwhelming. Yesterday on the drive to the 18 mile benefit job i drove the south shore road past hess and out that way, the area by castle nugent farms is just beautiful!!!!! Drive slow so you can appreciate the rolling hills it was just one of those really cool take your breathe away moments, it's been about 10 years since i'd been out that way, since i'm all over the island in my car everyday i see so many new homes being built, i like the fact that so many people are spending money here.

Yeah trw, thanks for starting this thread...I have enjoyed it as well. Sweet - you get into football, you kinda surprised me by mentioning the Vikings tho. I used to be a Broncos fan until Davis retired. Now I like to play pool,,,any other pool players out there?

Went to lunch at Wikked today. Some of the yachts parked there at Yacht Haven Grande are gorgeous, especially one named "Relentless." Must be nice. . .

thanks Teri, i was born in albert lea MN lived in delevan and blue earth on farms then down to laredo texas then to grand forks then to denver then back to grand forks then to minneapolis where i became a fan because i worked as a waiter at the closest hotel to the stadium and got to know alot of the players from waiting on them same with the twins and timberwolves, then we moved here, then i spent a year in omaha and then back home here,pool at the moonraker and sharkeys as far as i know