St. John Talk Blog

Today marks the beginning of the 2008 International Rolex Regatta. You could watch some of the goings on right from our deck this morning. Check out some of the racing boats:

This photo was taken at 10 PM (well after dark here) from our house looking at St. Croix, 40 miles due south.  We had noticed a strange orange light, almost as if a large city had suddenly emerged among the hills and valleys of this generally rural island, resulting in a big area of light pollution.  Well, it was something worse (for the environment at least).  It was Hovensa, the large oil refinery, buring off excess something or other.  Scary to think the flames were so bright that 40 miles away we were able to see its light.  Very carbon neutral……NOT.

[Note:  The local paper, St. John Tradewinds, published this picture on the front page a couple weeks ago.  -Matt]

We took Casey to Hart Bay today for a romp on the beach.  During the hike down to the beach, we say this guy chomping away at the cactus (yes, the dildo cactus, that is):

So, is that like saying, “Bridge Freezes Before (or Possibly After) Road?”

A couple of weeks back, before we had the swimming pool chemistry straightened out, Matt decided that he had waited long enough, the pool looked too inviting not to use, and he was going in for a swim.  Now, I was a chemistry major in college, but that did not seem to help me one bit in getting the pH, alkalinity, chlorine level or any other level correct in the pool.  So, this is a photo of Matt in 9,000 gallons of water (we won’t call it a pool just yet since it wouldn’t have met any public safety standards) with essentially no chlorine and a pH so low that it would strip the paint off a car.  Now, what do y’all think?  Brave or crazy?

Installment 2 of Bringin’ Sexy Back comes to you from Solomon Beach (it’s a video, be patient):What you can’t see is that this 60-something gentleman is wearing a black g-string…If you have not yet, check out Installment 1, here. 

So, there’s this anole lizard (NOT a gecko as my herpetologist friend Kris pointed out) that hangs out on the window screen in my office while I’m working.  I don’t know if it violates any patient confidentiality rules for this lizard to be there viewing patient images and information, but the NOT-a-gecko, which I’ve decided is female and is named Phyllis, is my idea of a good luck charm.  She is with me the entire morning.  I am thinking of putting a stamp on my reports that says, “Your examination was double-read and checked by Phyllis.”  I believe it would be comforting for patients to know that there was more than one set of eyes reading their examination.

Nope.  It’s just our house…