Finished

When we spent our winters on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the shops were not fully stocked as we were used to in the U.S.A. That's because everything on the island, and I mean everything, except maybe chickens and some fresh produce, had to be brought in by boat.

All of us expatriates survived anyway. In fact, I think that doing without, changing plans, and making do taught us a lot about flexibility and tolerance, which retired people sometimes lack.

I remember how, one December, there was no brown sugar on the island - not in any of the five or six grocery stores. No one had seen any for a couple of weeks, and it was time to bake Christmas cookies.

When I first noticed the lack of brown sugar and asked a grocer about it, he said, "dat finished," the Montserrat way of saying, "we're out of that." I asked when there might be brown sugar again, and he said, "when de boat come."

The boat brought everything

Word spread quickly through the population of 11,000 when the container ship showed up.

"Necessity is the mother of invention" became my mantra. If I was planning to have some neighbors over for dinner, I learned that planning the dinner menu ahead of time would only lead to frustration because the Idaho potatoes or the raw carrots, both of which were imported, might be temporarily "finished." I learned to buy yams and local green beans - or whatever else was available - instead.

One time, we went to a drugstore to buy aspirin, and it was in such short supply that the pharmacist was parceling them out six to a customer.

As there was not much in the way of new furniture for sale in the shops, and what there was cost twice as much as it would have in the States, many people did their own re-upholstery. We did too, even though we didn't know what we were doing. A lot of the island's furniture was ruined in Hurricane Hugo, so that seemed the only answer.

We heard from a neighbor - we all learned from each other - that foam rubber sheets in various thicknesses sometimes were available, but only in one small shop in Plymouth, the capital. The neighbor said we could use this foam to bulk up a sagging seat or repair a lopsided chair back.

When I visited the shop, I was told the foam supply was "all finished," but the boat was expected in a week or two. That was optimistic. I kept calling or stopping by for several weeks, but the foam, called "sponge" by Montserratians, hadn't arrived, and we were due to return to the United States for the summer. At last, the sponge arrived on the island, but it was "in customs" for two weeks after that.

By the time we flew home to Indiana, I had finished just one chair out of the three I hoped to. I will have to say it wasn't too lumpy.

  

Snow, Florida Style

Some of our friends up north can't understand why we would go to Florida and, heaven forbid, live there all year. "Don't you miss the change of seasons?" they say. Well, we have our change of seasons, too, but the changes are more subtle than falling leaves and the onset of sleet storms.

In fact, we have our own version of snow in the form of "Mexican Clover," now blanketing lawns that aren't treated with herbicides. Alas, there has been on occasion a question sent to the local newspaper's plant guru, along the lines of "What are the disgusting lavender flowers that are cropping up in our yard, and how can we get rid of them?"

Mexican Clover

Dutifully, the guru outlines an eradication plan. As for us, we prefer to go natural.

                                                                       Do you agree?

Outdoor Decor

wardrobe for enjoying outdoor Christmas decorations

Although we've lived in the tropics and sub-tropics since the early 1990's, I find it a little difficult to get into the Christmas spirit when people are running around in shorts in December and temperatures in the daytime are in the 80's. We Floridians try, however.

A couple of weeks ago, one of the towns around here rented a snow-making machine and manufactured a good-sized hill so kids could go sledding for a day. Many of them had never seen snow, except maybe on television news. Several thousand people showed up to enjoy their fake winter.

A man in Cape Coral, a town near where I live, outdoes himself every year with his light show, which is synchronized with music. The crowds grow as the word spreads, to the point now that he has put on his website the best way to avoid traffic jams. The night we visited, we saw people setting up lawn chairs to watch the spectacle. A lot of the viewers were wearing shorts or Capri pants, and one was barefoot.

unbelievable

the minimalist approach

As for ourselves, we are minimalists, I guess. But we do accent our palm trees with spotlights and hang colored lights on the front of the house. And today we put up our inside - artificial - tree. So we are ready!

If Only...

Here's an exercise I used to give to my grammar and composition students at Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis.

Change the meaning of the following sentence by where you insert the word "only."

She hit Bob in the eye.

Answers:

1. Only she hit Bob in the eye. (She was the only one who did any hitting.)

2. She only hit Bob in the eye. (Her sister had nothing to do with the fracas.)

3. She hit only Bob in the eye. (She didn't hit Bill, too.)

4. She hit Bob only in the eye. (She didn't hit him in the jaw as well.)

5. She hit Bob in only the eye. (the same as the preceding)

6. She hit Bob in the only eye. (He'd had the other one knocked out several years earlier.)

7. She hit Bob in the eye only. (the same as 4 and 5.)

What other sentences can you think of in which the placement of a single word changes the meaning?

Do you agree with me that 4, 5, and 7 mean the same thing? If not, why not?