Earl Blows

Oh man... poor St. John...

There'll be many iguanas hurtled from the trees. I hope the islands recover quickly.

BNL - Alcohol

Dr Desert Flower had this song in her head this Friday morning, in anticipation of the weekend. My St.John Island T-shirt that I'm wearing this morning reminded her once again. =)
Lyrics:
Alcohol, my permanent accessory
Alcohol, a party-time necessity
Alcohol, alternative to feeling like yourself
O Alcohol, I still drink to your health

I love you more than I did the week before
I discovered alcohol

Forget the cafe latte, screw the raspberry iced tea
A Malibu and Coke for you, a G&T for me
Alcohol, Your songs resolve like
my life never will
When someone else is picking up the bill

I love you more than I did the week before
I discovered alcohol
O Alcohol, would you please forgive me?
For while I cannot love myself
I'll use something else

I thought that Alcohol was just for those with
nothing else to do
I thought that drinking just to get drunk
was a waste of precious booze
But now I know that there's a time
and there's a place where I can choose
To walk the fine line between
self-control and self-abuse

I love you more than I did the week before
I discovered alcohol
Would you please ignore that you
found me on the floor
Trying on your camisole?
O Alcohol, would you please forgive me?
For while I cannot love myself
I'll use something else.

Would you please forgive me (x2)

Caribbean Inspired Water Conservation

The US Virgin Islands are a relatively dry place. Except when they are getting a hurricane, and when Dr Desert Flower and I vacation there, they get very little rain. The islands have cacti all over them. Rain that falls on roofs is captured in cisterns channeled from gutters. St. John even has a small reverse osmosis desalination plant, and a larger one too. Water is expensive there, and therefore, it is conserved.

While we were there, we kept toilet flushing to a minimum, never left the water running, showered outside in a poolside, semi-enclosed shower (which was pretty cool), and conserved water as much as possible. In the shower, you'd get wet, turn off the water, lather up, rinse, and not leave the water running, to save a few gallons.

Well a month later, and here in Phoenix, I find myself doing the same kind of things:
- not leaving the water running in the shower
- installed 2 large plastic cups in the toilet tank so the volume of flush water is cut in 1/2
- filling a gardening watering can when running the kitchen sink to get hot water to come out of the 70 feet of buried copper line between the kitchen and garage water heater
...maybe it is just a guilty conscience for having a pool in the desert.

Global scientific and economic experts predict that future wars will be fought over water resources... I hope it's not in my lifetime.

Disinfecting Properties of Magnesium Sulfate

When I was in St John, I accidentally kicked a rock with my flippered foot in rough water at Cinnamon Bay with a downward flipper motion. Then, later that night, after a good deal of rum, I stumbled along a rock paved path outside the condo, and bashed it again, this time against the tip. Even with the rum, it hurt like crazy. I washed it, and figured, ok, I'll probably lose the nail.

After being home for 2 days, the toe was pretty red, and swelling some, so an idea struck me. Any bacteria that thrives on human skin - that tends to cause infections - is not gong to thrive in a massively saline environment. So I began to soak my toe (and the whole foot) in a strong solution of magnesium sulfate - Epsom Salt. First night, for an hour while watching DVR'ed Daily Show and Colbert, I put it in a large, shallow Lock-n-Lock. I covered the bottom of the container in a 1/4 inch of magnesium sulfate, and then 3/4rds of an inch of water. Foot immersed, the toe nail was just covered in a super saturated saline solution (no where near the sea shore).

My size 11 foot barely fit, so I upgraded to a Tidy Cat litter bucket, (that I previously disinfected with Lysol) into which my foot fit in comfortably the 2nd night. About 1/2 an inch of salt, 3/4rds of an inch of water, foot immersed, lots of white goo began to ooze out, the 2nd and 3rd nights, for an hour each night. MMMMM, yummy. Each night, the swelling reduced and the pain subsided. By the 4th soaking night, smashed toe was the same size and color as un-smashed toe, and caused no more pain. The super saturated saline soakings were discontinued.

Now, almost a month later, the left toe nail is still hanging on, and a new root nail beneath is slowly growing out and pushing the damaged one forward, millimeter by millimeter. I'm tempted to get a pair of pliers and just PULL it off to hasten the progress, but it's not flappin in the breeze yet, and I want to keep the old one around as a "guide" for the new one, avoiding ingrown possibilities and misalignment.

So Magnesium Sulfate is not only good for soaking aching bones in a warm bath, and for it's supposed laxative properties (read on the label, but never ingested, ew - I eat enough salad and fiber, thanks)... but it is also good for killing sub cuticle bacteria infections as well!

Thousands of Fry, all around.

Trunk Bay had no shortage of schools of these tiny fish. The pelicans knew it too, and at one point, I nearly bumped into one, as I saw little webbed feet paddling 2 feet in front of me while snorkeling.

Truly an amazing feeling, to float slowly, among so many living things, all around you, and if you don't move quickly, they don't get scared, and clouds of shiny silver fry form all around you. Reach your hand out, and the school parts, in a concentric withdrawal from around your hand and arm, communicating to each other with light pulses along their body lengths. Everyone should do this, at least once in their life, if they get the chance. Magical.

Zombie Fish?

Do Zombie Fish enjoy eating Brain Coral? I do not know.

If you are in Virgin Islands National Park, on the underwater snorkeling trail, keep an eye out for the Zombie Fish. If you see one, try to swim slowly, and breathe gradually, staggering slightly from left to right, as if you are a brain seeking zombie too!

Thou Shalt Not Park Here

St.John's only Roman Catholic Church, Our Lady of Mt.Carmel, in Cruz Bay, has very little parking. It's downtown, on a one-way street, and has these ineffective signs, posted outside of it. They obviously don't work too well.

I snapped these photos one late afternoon, on our way to Happy Hour somewhere... each day in the V.I. has become sort of a wonderful blur in retrospect. All good stuff.



And this reminds me... if you are renting a vehicle in the Virgin Islands:
1) make sure it is 4 wheel drive. Some of the mountain roads are literally inclined at a 45 degree grade.
2) ask for a rental with rubberized fenders, over the wheel wells. There's lots and lots of tight clearances, narrow roads, hairpin turns, tiny parking places, that painted metal quarter panels will sustain scratches and dents that the rental company will scowl at. Rubberized fenders and flashing, are much more robust and tend to not be as easily damaged.
3) Remember, everyone's vehicle has to be turned in before 10 or 11am, so when you are turning in your jeep, get your family and their luggage out of the way of other renters who are returning their vehicle as well.
4) if you do scratch your paint, with say... a white fence post... some light scotchbriting with a kitchen sponge will remove all but the deepest scratches. =)

Sand Sand Everywhere

This is our third week back home after vacation, and I am still finding sand in unexpected places. Sure, shoes and beach bags are supposed to get sand in them. But suntan lotion? Not the bottle.. the lotion... on the inside, was gritty on applying to my nose before poolside yoga today - lol! Inside the shutter of the water proof camera... in the outside zipper pouch of my laptop bag (which never went to the beach, that I know of), in the hinge of the igloo cooler - yeah, I was stupid and took a hard sided cooler in my luggage. According to Jill who went with us, we'll be finding residual sand for the next year. Then it will be time to go back! Next time though.. maybe Maui.

Caribbean Island Sayings

Posted over nearly every rest room toilet:
"In this land of fun and sun we never flush for number 1
Be so kind that when you do, we all flush for number 2."

On a t-shirt that made me laugh (and that we purchased):
"Better to have sand in your thongs on the beach than sand in your thong on your seat"

On another t-shirt that made me laugh (and that we also purchased):
Drink Right, Drive Left
(The Virgin Islands all drive on the left, though nearly all the cars are left drive, imported from the US).

The Persistance of Clooney

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wasn't (fantastic, that is).
Saw it on the plane, or at least the first 70% of it before Delta cut it off. No loss. Kept hoping it would get better, it didn't. Kinda creepy too.

Oh Brother Where Art Thou? - Clooney was very good in it, and it's one of my favorite Coen Brother's movies, after Raising Arizona, Fargo, and No Country For Old Men... and along with Hudscuker, Miller's Crossing, & Burn After Reading. Oh Brother was playing on the TV one night when we got back to the villa and it was raining in St.John (Broadcast out of Puerto Rico).

Up In The Air - Watched it on the return trip. Somewhat likable, and again Clooney acted well. I just didn't like the premise of the film, finding it painful to watch in many places. The plot"twist" to me, was entirely predictable, but I was not the target audience.

On a side note, non Clooney related... I did enjoy "Law Abiding Citizen" which I watched on private video screen on the plane - back of the seat in front of me. It was good to see Gerard Butler keep his shirt on for a change, and I enjoyed the 'look what a driven genius can do' motif, even if it did have a ridiculous ending that was so full of plot inconsistencies as to nearly spoil the film. Overall, I enjoyed the ride that Gary Gray took the viewer on. Too gory for Dr Desert Flower's delicate tastes.

Sail Pepper - for local flavor

While in St.John, we booked a sunset sail On the 23ft sloop Pepper (link here). Captain Fred and Renee were wonderful hosts. Renee kept the Cruzan rum flowing into our cups as Fred kept a steady hand on the rudder. Initially, the weather threatened to spoil our evening, but by the time we arrived at Maho Bay, the light rain had abated, and winds had died down somewhat.

Fred sailed us out towards Great Thatch Island between Whistling Cay and Mary Point, towards the edge of US / British Territorial boundary. 'The weather started getting rough' but the tiny sloop was not lost. Wave crests that blotted out the view of Great Thatch Island and sent bow spray over the passengers (including Dr Desert Flower's hearing aid! yikes!) began to rock our small craft, when Fred turned us around and back into Francis Bay towards Cinnamon Cay, where Tim and I had tried to snorkel the day before, but had to call it off due to choppy seas. By the second glass of dark rum, my grip on the boat's edge had relaxed. By the third glass, the sun was setting, and I was having a marvelous time. My other cruise-mates had 2 glasses - Tim had to drive the winding mountain roads back to Cruz Bay afterward and the wives are light weights =P

It was Fred and Renee who taught our experienced hosts Tim & Jill the vernacular "St.Trauma" for St.Thomas in 2009 - once you take a careening, poorly maintained, jammed-full-of-tourists van ride from the St.Thomas airport to the Redhook ferry terminal, you'll understand why it's accurately called "St.Trauma". This trip, we learned the traditional jingle about Caneel Bay:
"for the newly wed, and the almost dead. The well fed, and the over-read." There are some suites at the private Caneel Bay resort that go for $12,000 a night - about 40X beyond my price range. I came up with these limerick additions:
"Caneel Bay: for the ridiculously paid who could not otherwise get laid"
"Caneel Bay: for the small member compensating and the chronically constipating"
and
"More money than sense, collagen lips & silicone chests"
We talked about customs & immigration hassles to get to the British Virgin Islands, the best places to see octopus and sea turtles on the island, how more and more yachts are showing up flagged to the Marshal Islands (damn Republicans and their tax loop holes!). It was a very pleasant cruise.

Pepper also has daytime guided snorkeling cruises as well. Check out their website.

Contrasting Yoga Environments

In the Winter here, I typically do yoga on a yoga mat, poolside, in the sun. The vitamin D is refreshing, gives me a chance to see hummingbirds, smell my lemon tree, and humans are inexorably drawn to bodies of water. It's sort of the "standard" to which all other yoga venues are in my mind. On the pool deck, I use an old, clean, twin bed sheet - that doubles as a painting drop cloth - to keep the dusty pool deck from contaminating my mat.

In the summer here, when the sun's rays bake the yoga mat to a burning 130F+, I have to move inside, or in the the shade at least. When it is not noon +/- an hour, finding full shade can be difficult in the Arizona summer. Doing yoga indoors is not as refreshing and satisfying as it is doing it outside.

When we went to Hawaii last October for a genetics conference, we had a wide ocean view 16th floor balcony on which I practiced yoga almost every day. The breezes and view were invigorating, but the humidity made it a sweaty endeavor. It's the 2nd best place I've ever practiced yoga.

Last August, for our anniversary, Dr Desert Flower and I went to Sedona for the weekend, and there was a balcony there as well on the small Hilton Hotel room I got with HHonors points. Same low humidity and climate as home (a little cooler) but the view was not as good, over-looking a parking lot. (We Did see bats at sunset, which was really cool)

Last month I traveled back to my company's headquarters, and did yoga in the Hilton & Hampton hotel rooms where I stayed each evening. Same sheet barriers used, but Ew! The smell of hotel carpet permeated the sheet and my mat, requiring a thorough cleaning. The softness of the carpet also lead to a "sponginess" that took some getting used to. Watching the Olympics on the TV while doing yoga was also somewhat surreal.

Earlier this month, I attempted to do yoga in St.John US V.I.. The villa's downstairs where we stayed was too tiny to facilitate rolling out a yoga mat, so I attempted to do it on the pool deck just after dawn one morning. Lots of no-see-ums and tiny biting insects appreciated my close proximity to the bougainvilleas at the edge of the pool deck, and enjoyed feasting upon my flesh & blood. That made for a not-so-relaxing experience. 2 days later, I did yoga, pool adjacent, far away from the shrubbery, and this helped to dissuade the insects from biting me, but, it began to rain 15 minutes into the session, sort of spoiling things.

On two different St.John beaches, I practiced yoga. On Cinnamon Beach, I did it at the mangrove tree line, where the sand was firmly compacted. This worked well for standing poses, but seated poses were not a good idea, with the number of crawling insects busily carrying away mangrove fruits and various foliage. For the seated poses, I did those on the towel, in the softer sand, closer to the shore line. I don't like to do yoga in public, and prefer to have some privacy... except after drinking, and then I throw privacy to the wind and my don't-give-a-dern factor tends to multiply.

On Trunk Bay's beach, on our last snorkeling day, I tried to "compact" the sand near the high tide line, a few feet from the end of my towel, with my feet. Gradually, pressing down with my heel and ball of my foot, I tried to "flatten & compress" the sand, in 3 areas about one foot square - one to stand in the middle and one to do spread-leg downward poses for each foot. This was a failure. The sand was not fully compressible via the weight of a 92Kg man. While the venue was lovely, with gently crashing surf behind me, tropical mountains, palms, and soaring pelicans abundant, the shifting sands caused me to pull several muscles and strain connective tissues in the upper legs and lower abdomen. I paid for this on the long flight home the next day, and for 2 days afterwards, hobbling a little - in conjunction with my stubbed toe from 10Mar10.

I cannot recommend anyone taking a yoga mat that they want to keep to a St.John beach, with blowing sand, salt, very soft surfaces, and the impossibility of minimizing contamination. It's really impractical. If you do attempt to do yoga on a sandy beach, be very careful about "extreme" poses that could cause you any strain. Stick to simple seated poses on a large beach towel, and avoid over-extension.

Once, about 30 months ago, I did yoga in business class in a Delta 767-ER on my way back from Barcelona Spain to Phoenix via ATL. No one was seated behind me or beside me in my middle row seat (sparsely populated that flight, 2L, 2 middle, 2 right seating - only United tries to Cram a 3rd seat int he middle of a 767 in the US). The seats reclined to about 170 degrees. Dark cabin lighting gave the illusion of being "alone". The seated poses were easy. Lack of turbulence provided extended opportunities to do the standing poses without being in the aisle. As the passengers disembarked, and elderly lady asked me how long I had been practicing yoga, and that she'd never seen someone do it on a plane. It was only at that point that I realized, the 'illusion of being alone' in the plane's cabin.

As the sun's radiation continues to warm my pool, I plan on swimming in early April - il faut voir. Pool temp is 69F as of yesterday. More sun, and it will continue to climb. I documents last year the beer-pool-yoga, and I intend on renewing that. Wine-pool-yoga may be a lower carb alternative that needs to be explored this year.

Snorkel not Snorkel!

Just when I try snorkeling in the Caribbean for the first time in my life last week, and enjoy it tremendously, I don't even get to revel in it for more than a week. Another stupid Congressman goes out and publicly disgraces himself and drags the word 'snorkeling' along with him. Instead of floating serenely looking down at corals and tropical fish, having a school of hundreds fry all around me, or a pelican floating a few feet away from me, at one with the aquatic world before my eyes... the word conjures sophomoric, juvenile, disgusting Navy sexual pranks & unwanted advances. Ew! Thanks Massa, for tainting the word "snorkeling" for English speakers with your fixation on your own taint.

Great Cruz Bay Iguanas

The villa we rented on the South Shore of Great Cruz Bay in St.John was smack dab in the center of Iguanaville.

There were iguanas in the palm trees lounging on fronds.

Iguanas in the wisteria - which they munched as a delicacy like a cat devours catnip.

Iguanas being very very friendly to each other on the drive way.

Iguanas posing for photos on the drive way.

Lounging iguanas are very cool, and by proxy, very relaxing. We saw a few in the wisteria along Great Cruz Bay Rd. The ones in the palms above the pool, we kept thinking (and hoping) that one would fall down into the pool and swim around, but no such luck. The largest iguanas we saw were about 4 feet long.

Iguanas are not graceful climbers. The slowly amble up a sturdy tree trunk, and find a sunny spot to soak up solar radiation for their cold blooded metabolism. Once they're sufficiently warmed up, they don't bother to climb down. No, instead they leverage their potential energy and drop down into the bushes below. I've heard stories of iguanas dropping 60 feet onto hard ground and not being injured - how they do it, I do not know. We watched many an iguana drop from the 30 foot palms, the 15 ft tropical lemon trees to the driveway, and the 15 foot tall wisteria bushes.
Once they drop into the bushes, they slowly & awkwardly crawl about, seeking out leaves and nutritiously delicious flowers - they are vegetarians.

We really enjoyed hanging out with the iguanas, and thought they added ambiance to the villa. Very cool reptiles.

A Useful St.John Prayer

This was seen at The Tap Room, in Cruz Bay US V.I.

The Tap Room is a fine place to imbibe some of the island's finest beers.

Limin Time Sunset

Arizona has some lovely sunsets for sure... but Greater Cruz Bay in St. John US V.I. gets it's share of lovely sunsets as well.

Keep in mind, the camera settings were not optimum in this photo, as nearly every sunset, my blood alcohol content was "do not drive" level. But it was beautiful.

What To & What Not To Take to St.John

In case you're thinking about going on a tropical island vacation, I've compiled this short preparation guide, to help you if you've never been to the Virgin Islands before.

First, what you don't have to worry about:
What not to take on a St.John Vacation
(when staying in a rental villa with Caribbean Villas & resorts)
- more than one large roll-on luggage bag per person
- an Igloo Cooler; the villa we rented had 3
- Laundry Detergent; I took a sample pack of Tide, there were 3 other packets at the villa and a large box of powdered Tide as well. There was fabric softener too.
- Garbage Bags; ample supplies of kitchen and large trash bags were provided
- Bug repellent (DEET); villa had 3 spray cans
- more than 2 pairs of socks
- dress shoes; it's all casual
- rum; it's extremely cheap on the island
- bath towels & wash cloths
- an umbrella; you're gonna get wet, don't worry about it
- plastic 16oz drinking cups; villa provided. The 4 I brought, remained unused
- wet wipes / baby wipes; villa recycling septic systems can't take them
- a jacket or sweater; it's the tropics and it does not get cold
- a National Park Pass; it doesn't get you into the beaches where you have to pay for access, but it's ok, since it is only $4
- a bottle opener or cork screw; the villa had a plethora

Before your first trip to one of the 3 small groceries on the west side of the island, take an inventory of what is in the fridge and pantry. We found Tequila, Jim Beam, Sambuca, 2 bottles of Margarita mix, 3 bottles of salad dressing, pickles, butter, blue berry preserves. We left the Jim Beam & Sambuca =P Bleh! Then, at the grocery, be careful not to over-buy food. Remember, it's all brought in by ferry and the prices are hiked accordingly.
- $7 Ben & Jerry's pints
- $5 Organic Spinach
- $8 Orville Redenbacher 3 pack of Popcorn
...we left in the condo, for good karma.

What one should bring on a St.John Island Vacation
- tons of sunscreen; 1 can of spray/day in the sun
- cash; many places do not accept credit cards (like the ferry ticket office!)
- waterproof camera with which to take underwater photos, or photos in the rain
- flask of favorite whiskey; I brought Makers Mark
- dried Fruit & nuts; Apricots, Mango, Almonds, etc
- antihistamines if you have allergies; it's the tropics, everything is in bloom
- duffel bag to put island purchases in for the flight home
- beach towels, 2 per person. Yes, the condo provided 4 towel, but it's nice to have extras.
- Ipod; villa had speakers in each bed room and the living room area
- shampoo & soap sample sizes
- yoga mat & an old sheet to spread out under it (villa provided mats were really disgusting, covered in little kid goo & slime)
- books to read; I took Armageddon in Retrospect, K.Vonnegut; A Brief History of Time, S.Hawking; The Truth About Chuck Norris - 400 Facts About The World's Greatest Human, I.Spector; Afghanistan - A Short History of Its People And Politics, M.Ewans, and finished all except the Ewans work)
- Organic Lemons (& Limes if you got'em) from your backyard citrus trees for your drinks
- PATIENCE. Not much happens quickly on the island. Foot & auto traffic is slow. Service is slow. Progress is slow. Swimming while snorkeling is very slow.

Money leaves your pocket quickly. The weather changes quickly. I've heard barracuda swim very quickly, but we did not see any barracuda this trip - not even that guano crazy barracuda-wanna-be governor who quit her job and now spends her time on Facebook and getting paid to talk to the gullible!

I hope you find this short guide helpful. If you have any questions, do not be shy about asking in the COMMENTS section!

Best Scrambled Eggs

While in the Caribbean, our friend Tim cooked us all bacon and eggs each morning - except for the one morning we all went to Jake's, and the last morning where I cooked up the last package of bacon just before we had to check out at 10am. The scrambled eggs were light and fluffy, and delicious. Tim's an excellent chef.

His method was as follows:

1. Bring the large eggs to room temperature - a bowl of warm tap water, helped to accelerate this process.
2. Add about a teaspoon to tablespoon of half and half per egg (we had no cream)
3. Whisk with sea salt and freshly ground pepper
4. Non stick pan with butter on medium low heat (villa had a gas stove)
5. Increase to medium high heat once curds start to form
6. Serve from bowl with a large spoon, to keep the fluffy yellow eggs in-tact, accompanied with buttered toast, bacon, coffee or tea

My attempt to duplicate the same method chez moi this afternoon did not produce the ethereally light texture, as I used left over 2% milk from my mother-in-law's visit, and did not let the eggs come to room temperature before scrambling them. I'll have to try again tomorrow. =)

Seatguru does not lie

The Seatguru site (link here) does not lie. Delta's 757s suck. Most of the 757s are older than my son and are in severe need of an upgrade. Delta has refurbed a few, but most are Reagan era builds. Uncomfortable, tightly spaced seats that do not recline. Scratched windows with shades that don't go up or down easily. Blurry/static-filled over-head screens that anyone over 5'11" bashes their head into when getting up to use the antiquated, poorly ventilated, cramped bath rooms. Dr Desert Flower and I sat in 6C and 6D from St.Thomas to Atlanta.

The tricky part of Seatguru, is understanding which of the many different configured aircraft that the airline will shuffle you onto. The plane you booked your ticket on may be downsized to something smaller if they don't sell out (or over-sell) the flight.

Mystery of Missing Checked Bags, Solved

As we were sitting in one of Delta Airline's 757-200s at the tiny St. Thomas Airport Saturday for an hour, waiting to take off, I heard the head ground crewman say to the pilots at the cockpit door "too heavy? by how much?" A moment later, the yellow vested crew chief exited the aircraft and the pilot announced "we have a problem with our weight and balance in the flight computer, it's a safety issue we're working on, sorry for the delay." Well, weight and balance can be a problem in small and large aircraft, sure. I've been on Lufthansa CRJ aircraft (20 rows of seats) flights where they asked you your weight before they assigned you a seat, and Gawd Forbid you change seats mid-flight, or the Air Nazis, er, I mean Flight Attendants would reprimand you to return to your original seat At Once! Jawohl!

So when Dr Desert Flower, who was seated beside me next to the window, said "they're off loading bags!" - it did not surprise me. I'd heard the forward cargo door open beneath our seats a moment before. She counted 10 large roll on bags (approx 50 lbs a piece) being off loaded. None of them had the yellow "Priority" tags on them, as ours did, since we flew 1st class and I am a medallion member frequent flier with Delta. The St.Thomas ground crew placed all 10 bags on a large rolling cart, wheeled it away from the aircraft, and there it sat, for another 30 minutes. Once the pilots rebooted the flight computer enough times to get it to take the new weight and wind speeds, they closed the cargo door, drove the conveyor belt truck away, and left the 10 bags on the ground, as we took off for Atlanta.

So the next time you're booking a trip on a full flight, and you're checking a bag, consider that your bag is not intrinsically linked to you and your boarding pass. Your checked bag is just more ballast in the hull of the ship, that may be jettisoned if the Boeing software can't reconcile the passenger, cargo, fuel, and provisions' weight inputs. Why they didn't empty out the lavatory sumps (liquid human waste weighs alot more than checked luggage) I do not know. Somewhere, some MBA calculated that it is cheaper to pay for lost luggage & courier delivery than it is to pay a waste discharge fee in the St. Thomas airport, and so those 10 bags that some "non priority" customers were counting on had less value to Delta than the blue dyed human waste stored in the plane's lavatory tanks.

How do I know they didn't discharge the lavatory waste? The surly flight attendant who refused to give me a double whiskey on the rocks (really? you can't serve a double? the last 5 flights I took this month had no problem serving me one... but ok young missy, it's your plane and your rules) brought around a snack tray that previously had Sun Chips on it, before it reached Dr. Desert Flower and I in the last row of 1st class. Now Sun Chips are not low carb, but they are tasty, so I inquired "are there any more chips?". "No, we only have what we brought from Atlanta on board" the Flight Matron replied. An hour after we took off, she came around to "take our order" of "curry chicken, or curry chicken, since the pasta is imaginary" (those were her words, seriously). Twenty 1st class seats, and she admitted "They only gave us 7 pastas in Atlanta". Would have sucked if I was a vegetarian. I told her that curry would leave me in the lavatory the rest of the flight, and she brought up a fruit and cheese plate that they were selling back in coach - which was the only nice thing she did for me (1 of 20 1st class passengers she looked after) the whole flight.

So Delta sends planes to the V.I. with round trip provisions. Delta Doesn't take on food or water once they land in the V.I., and doesn't discharge human waste, taking on Only Fuel - since it would be unsafe to land with 60% full fuel tanks. Besides, a 757-200 doesn't really have a safe 8 hour flight range with 2 full power take offs involved. And Delta (now the "world's largest airline) values not paying the waste disposal fees on the island more than they value re-uniting passengers with their checked luggage. Wow.

It looks like Delta took on all of Northwest's worst customer service aspects, and repainted their aircraft white after absorbing them. What a shame. I used to like flying Delta.