Well, all work and no play again this week. We had planned a couple of play days but the window installation took a few days longer than expected. Like with most things island, window installation was the picture of non-efficiency. The owner of the company has the car and provides the transportation for the worker bee. He drops the worker bee off at the boat and then heads out to meet with customers, buy supplies, etc. Day one: no owner or worker bee arrive due to delay at previous job. Day two: The worker bee begins to fit the new windows but discovers they need to be trimmed down. He contacts the owner to bring him the sizing tool. The owner must go back to home base (30 minute drive) to get the tool. Then, owner drives tool over to worker bee. Worker bee dry fits windows and tapes into place for the night. Day three: owner drops off worker bee. Worker bee dry fits remaining windows and secures two windows into place. Day four: Worker bee cuts portlight holes into two of the windows and begins to secure final windows into place. Owner arrives to pick up worker bee at 3:30pm. Bill tells worker bee to keep working and tells owner he will drive worker bee back to home base once all windows are secured. Worker bee secures remaining windows and Bill drives worker bee back to home base (1 hour round trip). Day five: owner drops off worker bee. Worker bee sets two portlights into place and secures. States that he is done until the windows set and the framework is ready to be installed. Worker bee waits an hour for owner to return to pick him up. Now we wait for them to return someday to finish the framing. At least we know “it will take a couple of days” actually translates to “we’ll be there at least a week and personal taxi service appreciated”.
My second worker bee biography this week is on our local laundry lady. She has a business here at the marina and we take our dirty clothes over to her and she washes, dries and folds them which is a far cry from laundry torture days in the Dominican Republic last hurricane season. We discovered her the first week we were here at the marina. Over the weeks, I have begun to notice a pattern. In Grenada, all prices on items and menus are generally round numbers. For example, on a menu, you will only see items that cost 15EC, 20EC, 40EC, etc. You will sometimes see prices such as 18EC or 28EC but you will never see prices such as 18.25EC. I did not even know they had smaller than 1EC currency until recently when I went to pick up the laundry. Suspiciously, the cost of the laundry is always an “off” number. One week it might be 56.25EC or 86.75EC. Then, when we give the lady a round number of bills (ie 60EC or 100EC), she never quite has the correct amount of change. She’ll always be just short by 4.75EC or 13.25EC. Well, not this week! I sent Bill with every denomination of money that exists in Grenada just to call her bluff. When he arrived, the laundry cost was 86.25EC. Bill asked if she had a 10 and a 5EC change to which she responded ‘no’ which would be statistically impossible given that we were the final laundry pick up for the day. He then asked she had a 20EC bill and she said ‘yes’ so he magically pulled out the exact amount needed in order to get full change back. I can’t wait to see what the magic number is next week as her Einstein math brain works to calculate an unchangeable sum. I figure next week’s laundry costs will be Pi to the thousandth digit. This next week is a biggie as two of the fuel tanks arrive and the pool hopefully reopens! Grenada has once again shut down anything fun due to the Stupid but hopefully we can work in a trip to the north side of the island to reward Bill for success on the fuel tank installation. Fingers crossed that the tanks fit and that they install easily. I know you are all on the edge of your seat waiting for the next installment of the Saga of the Fuel Tanks….I am trying to come up with more exciting sagas but at this time, this is all you get! The seedier side of Boat Life…..
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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