First full day on Job; First Bike Ride and other random facts

By Scott

We had our first full day on the job yesterday. We are working from Noon until Ten with a hour break for lunch and another hour break for dinner Monday thru Thursday (8-5 Fridays as there are no evening classes and some Saturday mornings as needed). That means we have the mornings for ourselves. Yesterday was our last day with the car so we needed to get maximum use. We got up at 6 a.m and walked north up Hirst road this time we kept going past the golf course all the way to the sound. There is a Heritage trail marker up there for Careenage which is the place where they used to turn the boats on side to clean the bottom. The sound is quite beautiful and very peaceful.

After finishing our walk and having breakfast we headed back into George Town looking for Uncle Bill's Home Improvement Center where we were told we could get high quality bikes. We found a pair of Trek bikes and bought them along with helmets and locks. Uncle Bill's delivered the bikes to the college. We also went back to the big Kirk's supermarket (like costco with bulk stuff - some of the items) and bought lots of food items for our hurricane kit including 5 galloons of fresh water, canned meat and fish, canned vegetables along with some non food items we hadn't gotten on Saturday like work gloves matches etc. We heard a news report on the radio while driving around that ended with the announcer saying in a totally normal voice "report from NOAA" (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), "no hurricane activity in next 48 hours". We looked at each other and laughed because down here that isn't a joke; they really mean you are clear the next 48 hours and that is important news. There are inserts in all the papers about hurricane kits and hurricane preparedness so we have taken very seriously getting a good kit together. Fortunately we had brought the most expensive items on island (first aid kit 25 in US 80 here, good flash light, batteries etc with us). We got more food for our use and headed back to the college.

In the afternoon, I returned the rental with Elsa following behind and then giving me a ride home. Katie began working in her new office organizing and inputting registration materials. In the evening I met with the current acting Dean and began sitting in on academic advising sessions and learning the Dean's part of the registration process which has just begun for the Summer quarter. We finished around 9:45 and called it an early night. I am currently drafting an exam for the Fundamentals of Business Law course people who are taking the class by exam (so it felt a little like old home-Scott).

This morning we took our bikes out for the first time. We rode up to the sound and back. Katie's back wheel seemed low so we tried to pump it up with our air pump but really only accomplished letting out all the air. Fortunately, Keith, Elsa's husband and the college maintenance man used to repair bikes in Jamaica. He had already helped us adjust the seats and now he helped us (really he did it) pump back up the tire using a good bike pump. He also pulled out the inner tube to make sure there was no puncture etc. and that the only reason it was low was because they hadn't pumped it up before delivery. We went out a second time to the sound and returned about 2 miles round trip so we biked about 4 miles this morning total. The trip out is downhill, back uphill. We didn't really realize how much exertion it was until we stopped after the first trip and realized we were drenched in sweat. This will be great exercise in addition to giving us a way to get around.

We did a little research on that song I hum to help with driving and, technically, the dutchie refers to a dutch oven and passing food from the dutchie but pretty much everyone on the net that I looked at said the song is slang for the happy weed so who knows, kind of like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, it is what you want it to mean.

There is tremendous amount of work and we keep reminding ourselves of something my mom told us before we left "we can't do it all in 24 hours". For those of you on windows live messenger/MSN we will usually be on in the mornings Monday thru Thursday and regular evenings Friday through Sunday.