Power was down yesterday on the island (yes, the WHOLE island). Not sure what the problem was but it did prove that I am adapting well to island life. When it went, I was in a café with a co-worker. The entire patronage did the same thing at exactly the same time. Everyone raised their eyes skyward to the lights to acknowledge the outage, then kept right on speaking. Not one single reference to the fact that it was dark and that those of us who had ordered hot food may have to change their orders.

My friend and I continued our conversation, paid our bill (thanks, Damien, next one's on me), and went back to work. At the time we were coming from a client's office so we were on the other side of the island. When we arrived back at our own office, I heard the generators blasting away and it occurred to me: I had just driven the length of the island, through about half a dozen traffic lights that were no longer working, and I didn't even notice. Or rather, I noticed the traffic lights weren't working, but it didn't actually slow me down the way it used to.

In fact, in many ways, non-functioning traffic lights tend to speed things up a bit. People do NOT follow the four-way stop rule so it depends heavily on what direction your facing and how aggressive you are. The last part is something I've improved greatly on. I'm no longer worried about offending someone by cutting him off to get through an intersection, mostly because I've discovered that no one is ever offended by bad driving here, mostly because it's so rampant, I suppose. But there are surprisingly few accidents, especially considering how church-going the people are (“I'm sick of waiting. I'll just put my foot down on the gas pedal and let God get me through this intersection.”).

But I digress…and I'm not really sure where I was going in the first place. I guess my point was that my driving skills have deteriorated enough to be considered a local.

On a totally unrelated note, if any of my readership decides to come visit me, don't bother taking a cab from the airport. I'll pick you up.