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chemiste · 4 years

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Foresight ~ ch. 9

a/n : cool cool, heres ch 9, ALSO i will be posting y/n’s assignment when it’s all finished so that’ll be a couple chapters later, that’s why you’re not seeing certain pics rn. love y’all, please talk to me if you want id love to hear what y’all have to say, any thoughts theories about the story? whats going on in your life? tell meeeeeeeeee!!!!!

mah masterlist

“Guys, we’ve got a problem.”

Mitch said from the main section of the tour bus. You had been trying to get a few more hours asleep, but the soft rumble of the tour bus was changed to screams from outside the bus.

You moved your curtain back and stepped out into the bedroom compartment, rubbing the sleep from your eye.

“What is that…”

The words died on your tongue as you looked through the blackout veils in the living room. It was crazy. It was like all of Denmark was there, crowding around the Royal Arena, excitedly anticipating Harry’s arrival.

“So this is what 10,000 people looks like huh.”

You said, still a bit gobsmacked. You looked around at who was in the main compartment and saw Harry sitting on the left couch.

You plopped down beside him and threw your legs up onto the remaining part of the couch, leaning arm again his chest. With his right hand, the poster had been scrolling through Instagram, looking at all the postings from fans for tonight.

On the other couch, Jeff was on a call chatting with someone about the new people barrier they’d need to get through.

He ended the call, “The good news is our other buses were able to get here early enough and unload in the back before the crowd started. The problem now is getting us through the crowd, I called ahead and we’re gonna turn around and take an SUV in to try and be more inconspicuous. Everyone, what you need for the show cause we wont be able to get back to the tour bus till afterwards.”

The group complied and went into the back rooms as the tour bus exited the Arena parking, heading to the secret location where you all would switch vehicles for attempt number two.

You straighten your duvet out, having not pulled out anything during the drive so you didn’t have anything to pack. You glanced over to Harry who was shoving a stray piece of paper that had scribbles all over them into a journal that seemed overstuffed. “

Are those lyrics?” You asked, slinging your backpack onto your shoulder. His eyes looked up at you briefly and then he nodded.

“Yeah, uh, just writin’ whenever I can yeh know?”

You put your shoes back on and headed into the living compartment.

“Alright everyone off and into the SUV pronto so any fans that decided to follow the tour bus don’t intercept our exit.”

Jeff said, taking the keys from the rental man who handed them to him.

You all piled into the SUV, you and Clare in the very back, then Hélène, Harry squished in the middle, Sarah, and then Mitch with Jeff in the front.

“I’m a big boy why I’m I the one sitting ‘ere in the middle!”

He whined as the SUV pulled out onto the road, making his knees hit the console.

You laughed and pulled out your phone for a quick picture, but you weren’t fast enough as Harry snatched your mobile device out of your hand.

“Hey! Give that back you, thief!”

“Nope! I think we need som’ pictures of you know junebug,” the poster cackled, turning the flash on and leaning into Sarah’s lap to take a bunch of snaps of you crawling from the backseats.

You groaned and put your hand up to block the flash dots that had been clouding your eyes.

“Come on! Do better than that Y/N!”

He teased, you responded by changing you hand briefly to flip him off and then to a rocker hand sign. Satisfied, the boy handed you your phone back, that stupid smirk donned on his face.

Cute stupid smirk…

Huh? Psh, yeah whatever.

“Okay crouch everyone, we’re pulling in.”

Jeff called as he pulled into the Arena parking lot again. You watched as the SUV got through easier than last time. You could see from your crouched position some of the fans lined up, or walking together to the doors.

Some were holding signs, others had matching t-shirts. They all seemed so elated to be here, and it made you proud of Harry.

You looked up and saw Harry doing what you had been, watching his fans. A small smile grew on his face and you could see how truly appreciative he was of his fans.

Finally the SUV got to the back gate where the other tour buses had been stationed, Jeff rolled down his window and gave the man at the booth his pass. After it had been approved, the gate opened and allowed the SUV in, closing immediately as some fans tried to slip through but to no avail.

“One more time everyone, 3, 2, 1.”

The beats for Carolina started to play, and the band started up again, Harry standing in the middle of the stage still in sweats, hanging not changed yet.

It had been a few hours since they were able to get and now were just adjusting a few things for the performance like always.

You were sitting on the stage off to the side, laptop in lap. Those assignments didn’t do themselves. You were going through your photos, trying to see if any recent pictures matched some of the words you needed for your last assignment.

After that you head back to the dressing room, having time to kill as the band gets dressed and pampered. You decide to check in with Maggie and give her an update.

It was March 30th now, you were in Barcelona sprinting through the aisles as Harry performed Kiwi.

The concerts had been going well, Norway and Germany were beautiful but it all went by so fast that your memories seemed blurry.

But you remembered your off day yesterday with crystal-like perspective.

“Harry, look at this field oh my god have you seen anything more beautiful!?!”

You and Harry had taken the day off to find something of nature since the only thing y’all had been around the previous week were cement walls.

The both of you stumbled along a lovely meadow in a hill dip about an hour away from Barcelona, where he would be performing tomorrow night. The grass was tall and vivacious, little purple and pink flowers sprang up in between the stems.

H turned to you with a smile that resembled a kid on Christmas Day. He looked absolutely soft and sweet, wearing that blue and white striped hoodie. You matched him slightly, wearing a white sweater and blue skirt complemented by thigh-high boots to keep your legs warm.

“Woohoo!”

He yelled as he ran straight into the flowery abyss and flopped into the ground. You trotted over to him, laughing and snapping photos of the hill line and the fluffy white clouds.

He giggled and you looked down to the boy underneath you. You took a picture of him and smiled.

Scanning back through the photos on the small screen, you think if you’d been a least a foot farther from him you wouldn’t have heard what he said quietly.

“You’re very pretty yeh know.”

You snapped up to look at him, a bit surprised from the compliment.

“Oh, thank you. You are too.”

He crinkled his nose at your response, groaning and then sitting up enough to wrap an arm around your was it and drag you down to his level.

“Harry!”

You scream, sorta laughing as your fall was buffered by the flower bed. The sky was lovely, a bright blue. Clouds were scattered around and the wind slightly pickup, making you shiver.

“Come ‘ere.”

He said softly, pulling you rest your head don his chest. You held your camera up to his face, showing him a picture.

“This one is gonna be for ‘silly’.” You said.

“It’s perfect.”

You thought so too.

A cheer shook you out of your trip down memory lane.

Right, the concert.

You gripped you camera in your hand and scanned the stage to find the boy you were suppose to be taking shots over.

Or off of…

Stop it Y/N!

He looked good, decked out in the black and white patterned suit.

“ ‘ve ripped man trousers!” You heard him say with a laugh.

You rolled your eyes, this boy. After a few more songs, he starts up Anna and you laugh. Oh this song.

You’re taking photos, bopping slightly to it, hey it’s a catchy song!

But then he turns to you and gives you a smile.

Oh no.

The lights shining off his suit and hair make him seem like he’s sparkling, and that smile just made your heart stop.

It’s like you’re fully seeing him in a different light and it’s breathtaking.

Oh, fuck, maybe I do like him.

You’re pacing in your hotel room.

Slightly freaking out.

“I like him! I can’t believe it, Maggie was right I’ve got a stupid crush! I can’t— this, how?”

You talk to yourself, trying to figure out when it all added up for you. The little touches, him saving you from the crowd that one time, sneaking out and touring Amsterdam, even the way you interacted with each other was different from the rest of the band.

“I’m—I’m totally overthinking this right? There’s no way…”

You’ve never felt this way before, the heart races when he smiles, the look he gives you after a laugh, when you hug or snuggle into him on the couch, how his cologne smells making you feel at home and loved.

You stopped pacing.

“Oh my god, am I in love with Harry Styles?!”

Yes, yes I am.

You turn, gobsmacked and flop onto your bed.

What am I gonna do…

You’re in the terminal in at 5am, waiting for the flight to Milan.

It’s dead quiet sans the occasional custodian worker of business group getting off an all-night flight.

You’re standing at a sunglass kiosk, trying on different pairs in the little round mirror set up. The band is across the wide walkway sitting on various chairs waiting for the flight.

Maybe or maybe not you’d been slightly avoiding Harry since the night of your little proclamation. During the Madrid show, you’d opted out of taking photos, instead going out to look around the city and maybe pick up enough stupid tourist gifts to make you forget.

Thankfully Harry didn’t seem to notice your sudden change in moods, unfortunately it meant he was coming over to you right now and you couldn’t stop it.

“Like any of the sunnies?”

He asked, grabbing a pair and popping them on and making a funny face at. You shrugged, not answering.

Oh great, now he seemed to have picked up on your inner turmoil when you didn’t speak, taking the glasses off and putting them back in their rightful place.

“You okay?”

He asked quietly, concern coating the edge of his words.

You nodded, pushing back some of you hair behind your ear and turning to the small mirror to look at your reflection.

“ ‘m just a bit tired.” You answered, hoping that would be enough for him.

He nodded, thinking for a moment then holding up his phone.

“Picture?”

You smiled, “H it’s 5am I don’t look the nicest for a picture right now”

“Oh come on Y/N you’re gorgeous any time of day.”

Not helping.

“Fine fine, but I don’t want to be seen.”

He opened the camera and pointed it into the mirror, “Okay then how are we gonna take this picture love?”

You wrapped you hands around his head to cover his eyes, “Like this goofball.”

He smiled, “You’re the goofball right now.”

After throwing up a peace sign with his spare hand, he snapped the picture and then checked to see if it was good.

“I like, ‘m gonna post it.”

You yawned and nodded to his statement.

Guess I wasn’t fully lying, I am pretty tired.

“H, we’re ready to go.”

Mitch called, you both grabbed your suitcases and rejoined the group, following the flight attendant into the small plane.

You were first in line down the aisle and quickly found a seat in the back of the plane, hoping Harry would opt to sit with someone else a few seats in front of you, after all there were only about 20 seats in the plane, hopefully he’d pick not pick the one right next to you.

I’ve got too much to think about, I might burst into flames if I have to smell his vanilla spice cologne for the next two hours.

“Mind if I sit here?”

Fuck.

“Yeah sure.”

He slid into the seat with ease, tucking his bag under the chair. You curled into the corner of your seat, trying to put a small bit of distance between you but not too much to make him worried.

Harry turned to look at you, propping his left elbow up on the squishy armrest between the two of you.

“I remember the first tour we did fo’ 1D, got ’t was hectic. Stupid, teenagers on the road wit’ too much money an’ not enough discipline. The first month was crazy, all of us high on the feelin’ of performing once we’d gotten over the stage fright, then immediately going t’ a new town, meetin all these people, ’t was a dream. But then a couple months later we could feel the toll, I don’t think I really realized how exhausted I was from touring until the last night where instead o' celebratin, I went to sleep right when we entered the hotel an’ didn’t wake up till 3pm the next day.”

Harry’s little heart spill didn’t help you too much with your dilemma, might’ve just made you fall for him even more, but you appreciated the fact that he was trying to let you know he knew the feeling.

“Thanks H.”

You mumbled, face squished into the headrest of your seat.

He patted his shoulder, “Come ‘ere, yeh can fall asleep on me.”

Your eyes widen, “Oh, don’t worry about it, I’m fine—“

“Nonsense, come on, you’ll wake up without a creak in yo’r neck yea?”

Fuck it.

“Alright.”

You scooched over and nestled into the British heart-throb, soaking in that damn vanilla cologne you’d sworn to avoid.

He laid his head on top of yours and you made yourself relax, cause you couldn’t deny it, it was pretty comfy like this with him.

Pretty comfy indeed.

During the concert, all you can think about while taking pictures is how the Styles boy might be sweeping you right off your feet.

The little dance moves he makes, so erotic but beautiful in the same way, like he’s in another room dancing on his own in the dark. The way he throws he head back during certain parts of a song, caught up in the moment—

She’s such a good girl,

“Be professional! You’re on job for gods sake,” You muttered to yourself, raising the camera again.

She feels so good,

But then you lower the camera again to watch as he rocked his hips with the beat, jaw-dropping at the sight. You looked up to his face as he turns, that was now looking at you.

He started to strut on the stage, slowing making his way to you, eye contact unwavering.

“I met her once and wrote a song about her

I wanna scream, yeah

I wanna shout it out

And I know she hears me now.”

Hold on, knows?!

He finally let his eyes drift back to the crowd, singing la la las with the rest of the band.

You on the other hand, were having a miniature heat attack.

The gesture was so raw, so real, too real. It’s like he was talking to your soul, reaching out to tell you—

Does this mean he likes me too?

telephone hour for this chapter!

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gartdavis-blog · 6 years

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Visit to Aguadilla

Friends,

I recently traveled back to the house I grew up in on M street in Ramey. I have followed the state of the island since Maria hit almost 8 weeks ago, and had lots of questions going down, so I thought I’d share my notes…

Travel by air: I was not able to book in or out of BQN airport… Jetblue flights that run overnight from the states were all cancelled. So I booked AA through San Juan. Prices were reasonable on AA, but Jetblue is still the best if you can get a flight. Easy to find flights down to the island… harder to find them back. SJU airport was full, but operating normally. AC was on, and I had no trouble transiting and picking up my rental car. BQN currently only has had a regular service from Spirit Airlines from FLL. In theory, service from Jetblue and United will return to BQN before the holidays, but we’ll only know for sure once its happened. One new feature of BQN - the old ready area where the bombers used to park has been taken over by the US military, and is now a small city of lights with lots of army trucks exiting and entering near the golf course. Now that the Army’s mission is complete, this may return to its normal empty state.

Connectivity: much better than expected. I have a Verizon contract and was connected to Claro the moment I powered up at SJU and it remained so all over the North side of the island. Near Ramey, the connection is actually LTE, which means its been good enough to use my phone as a hotspot for email, research, e-commerce. I believe that this is partially a result of more than 40 high efficiency solar powered cell stations that were brought to the island by Vanu inc. (Vanu Bose, the founder of Vanu and the driver of this humanitarian contribution, was the son of Amar Bose of the eponymous corporation. He passed away last week.) People on AT&T were also on Claro. I had coverage from San Juan to Mayaguez continuously on Route 2 without interruption. I wouldn’t count on this to watch netflix, but it was strong and reliable for phone, text, and email. All of Ramey had coverage. At this point there is no value in pursuing satellite, but there are various expensive Satellite systems, like this one from Garmin, that keep you in basic communication when you're off the cell grid, but they don't actually replace Internet connection. There's a great review in there that goes on for pages - its a complicated device.

Travel around the island - Driving from San Juan to Ramey was almost completely normal except for the visuals. You notice right away that all the outdoor advertising and large signage is gone, and pretty much anything involving wood, corrugated roofing, or poles for any use. Traditional construction of concrete with metal ventanas is pretty much untouched. The impact is notable in San Juan, but becomes much more dramatic from Arecibo on. A kinda weird visual - you could tell the worst sections because the buildings looked sandblasted. Many businesses along #2 were open with generators, or occasionally, a section that had power. I took the same route to Ramey as I have done, without detours. Some traffic lights are out, but none of the really important ones where big routes cross. If you have to turn left at a busted light on rt. 2, just don’t…. turn right and figure it out later.

Water… is flowing in Ramey and many places around the island, and did not drop out when I was there. There’s still a boiling order, and when you take a shower you come out smelling like you exited a heavily chlorinated pool. But regardless, having water is great. I brought two different filtration systems, one that is gravity based (Lifestraw) and one that you pump. I bought 4 coleman solar showers, which are basically 5 gallon black plastic bags with nozzles. Down the road, I’ll try to purchase some water storage, a big cisterns for flushing, and something else for long term storage of potable water, but right now this was not as urgent.

Fuel: I had no problems getting gas, there were no lines and most gas stations were open.

Groceries: The Econo is open, and even takes credit cards. As always, its a social center, so budget 3 minutes for talking for every minute of shopping. The coolers were full and prices are about as I remember them. I bought a fresh salad that was good!

Restaurants: many are open, though some with a smaller menu or shorter hours.

Open out gate 5:

Levain (daily coffee here was sent from heaven)

Debut

Cofos Pizza

Martin’s BBQ

Cinco

Country Pizza

110 thai

Palmas

Open down the Hill:

eclipse (dinner only, no breakfast or lunch)

The frituras place at the S on the way down to Jobos

Ocean Front and lots of places near Jobos

Julios and lots of the other frituras places on the beach near Isabella

Open out Gate 1:

El Meson

Sasones

Desecheo

Lots of fast food out near #2

Closed:

Umas

Ramey Bakery

Airport cafe

Marriott (they have a small thing set up just for guests)

Beaches: After seeing pics of crashboat online I was concerned that all the beaches were just as hollowed out… not so:

Crash boat: every bit as dramatic as the pics. Right side is now tiny and not terribly safe, lots of exposed rock under the surf near the jetty. It seems that a lot of the missing beach was thrown onto the space that was the parking lot… which is now 3-4 feet deep with sand. I hold out hope that this sand can be pushed back out to re-create some of the old the beach. The left side you can still park and swim; its smaller but not that different from how it was.

Malecon Aguadilla: The brand new oceanfront walk seems to have come through entirely unharmed and looks great.

Borinquen beach: Much as beautiful as it always has been. Only new feature: a military unit desalinating water in the parking lot… impressive operation.

Survival / Martinica / Bajuras / Shacks: the Sand road down the cliff is still intact, though the left turn to go to Survival is completely blocked. You can go straight across, although its still rainy season and with all the recent dumping its turned into a bit more of a cesspool of garbage and shit than I remember. It appears that despite the violence of the storm, the waves did not break through the dunes and flood the old sand excavation area - a concern I’d long held. Once across, you can walk the strand to either survival or Shacks without impediment. I saw many hoof prints as well, so it looks like people are riding this stretch. The lawns next to the Eclipse took a beating, but the restaurant was hardly touched… hopefully people will be able to breakfast and lunch their soon.

Jobos: is in mid-construction down near the beach access, so I didn’t see that much, but did not seem too undermined. None of the oceanfront places fell in, and many were open and totally full on a Friday night.

Surfers: the road down has a couple trees propped across the roadway, but not so low you can’t pass. The parking lot structure is a bit undermined, but it was before. Waves are the same.

Spot/Middles/Isabela: I was down that way at Julios in lower Isabela on Sunday and the place was as full as I can remember, complete with the parade of Jeeps and music. The beach roads are intact and the north shore seems largely as it was.

Money / ATMs, Banks, Credit Cards: this is not quite back to normal, cash is still the only currency in a lot of smaller businesses, but I didn’t have trouble getting cash out of ATMs, and used credit cards for large purchases at Home Depot and Econo.

Electricity - This is really the biggest story that remains. The grid is a string and tinkertoy tangle that will be an enormous labor to sort out. Just to restore 30 houses on our street is a project that will require clearing/cutting dozens of fallen trees to create backyard access, and then every pole, wire and transformer is down (and will have been for months), and most connections to the individual houses are impaired as well. And the whole island is like that. Right now, the focus is on the easiest and most critical places. The most recent estimate that I think is credible is 70% of meters connected by the end of February. This leaves the 30% that pay the smallest bills and are the hardest to reach, and I could see it being another year before its 95%. While I was there, none of the housing areas in Ramey had power, but there were a few areas outside Gate 1 and Gate 5 that had been restored. Lots of people run generators - our neighborhood sounds like lawn mowers going 24 hours a day. The Solar folks, particularly Maximo Solar near us, are crazy busy. He’s signed contracts for more than 1,000 off-grid systems… only about a million more to go!

Until power is restored - There is a lot that can be done to improve quality of life even if you do not have grid power. Its hard to know how much to spend because you don’t know when you might be lucky enough to get your power back on. My view - think of your spending as one part now, one part preparation for the next Irma/Maria. But with the money thing in mind, I’ll go in order from cheapest to most expensive. I brought two checked bags of 50 lbs each, so my experience was limited to what I could brink and what i could buy on the island.

— My very favorite thing is the OPolar USB fan. This 9 inch fan doesn’t replace a ceiling fan, but it runs all night, blows enough to keep me cool and keep the bugs at bay, and uses just a part of my laptop battery, and it was cheap. We still had our mosquito nets, but the mosquitoes were actually not bad in Ramey, so I did not re-hang them. This fan actually had a review from someone in PR who used it after Maria using her laptop battery. I also found these little fans that are used to cool electronics and blow 50 CFMs each and are powered by USB ports out of the batteries. I bought two sets of two... These worked and drew very little, but the Opolar was a much better solution for cooling down and sleeping.

— I bought 4 LED solar lights that you leave outside during the day and stay on all night... they have motion detectors and you can leave them in three modes: full on, night light, or motion detecting that goes from night light to full. My next favorite thing. charge up during the day, take them inside and light your evening hours no problem. Then leave them in night-light mode so you don’t stub your toe on the way to the bathroom.

— a Two burner grill and a propane cylinder. I bought these on the island for $89 and $49 at the Home Depot in Hatillo, and now I can boil water and cook stuff.

— portable fold up solar panels (36 watts) - this is perfect for charging cell phones and kindles, but not for laptop or fan. I’d skip this, and instead, the next two are useful individually, but if you’re willing to drop the dough, they are perfect together:

—185 watt-hour battery that output USB and, with separate inverters, 110 volt AC which runs laptops, charges phones, anything up to 100 watts draw, including the USB fans (see above), but also the smaller of the standard 120 volt rotating fans.

— 80 watt fold up panel to charge the battery. These connect to each other via a 5.5 outside diameter * 2.5mm inside diameter DC cable that is female on both ends, but is fairly short, so I bought 3 12 foot male to female extenders. This combo worked great, but you really do need 8 hours of sun to recharge the battery if you’ve drawn it all the way down. It weighs 4 lbs, folds to the size of a fat laptop, and if you have a reasonably sunny day, will power up the battery I listed above. While I don’t recommend it, I did leave this unit out in some pretty heavy rain several times, and it continued working.

— One of the things that I hungered for as I tried to mete out my meager trickle of electricity was the ability to know how many watts a thing used… what would burn down my battery faster, this fan or that fan? This watt meter would have been super useful, so I’ve bought three and they’ll go back down with me in December.

— A 1000 watt honda generator. This is 26 lbs and can be brought in checked luggage as long as you never open the box. It is the quietest, lightest, smallest generator on the planet, and runs longer on less fuel than anything out there. Two trade-offs: you can only power 900 watts of stuff with it, and its pricier than many bigger, noisier, heavier generators. This will let you run things like a (modern) fridge, almost any household item that doesn’t have a heating element including all your fans to keep you cool, and you can charge your batteries in the rain. Generators could not be had at any store I visited on the island, nor could you buy a jerry can, and I looked. If you bring a generator to the island, bring a jerry can or you’ll not get much use of it.

— Cool trick: turn off every single breaker in the house. Turn everything off. Cut off the female end of an extension cord, and splice on a male end. Plug one end into your generator, and the other into a wall socket. Now all the things that are on that circuit are powered by the generator. In my case, that enabled things like ceiling fans and the lights attached to them. Warning: do not back-power the grid, make sure that the circuit you plug into is -not- open. If this sounds confusing, just think of it like water. If your neighbor has well water and your city water is out, they can run a hose to your outdoor spigot and turn both ends on, and you’ve got water in your house… now you just need to make sure that your neighbors well isn’t running through your house back out into the city water system full of broken pipes or whatever.

— Refrigeration -- Our house fridge ran brilliantly on the Honda genset… it cooled right down, and stayed pretty cool when the generator wasn’t running. Alternatively, there are some really fantastic new compressors in a 40 quart fridge/freezer (about 1.33 cubic ft) that draw just 30 watts (about 10% of the power of a normal fridge) and can run for a week on the charge in a 12 volt car battery. I'm not going to jump on this, but it may be the best way forward for folks that are trying to run a minimalist electrical footprint on portable solar panels.

— Cleanup & Tools -- Chainsaws could not be had at any store on the island. Dewalt has a new 'flexvolt' battery system with 60 volt tools. For example this chainsaw or this fan. If you buy 4 batteries, you can power an inverter power station that with the power stored in all 4 batteries is a little like the jobsite version of the Tesla Powerwall, which can power a house fridge or other normal things that need house current. I didn’t purchase / test this.

Laundry -- This becomes a top issue once you’re in week 4 and you have water and generators. The motors in older washers draw 1,000 to 2,000 watts, so you need a bigger generator than the one I brought. Modern energy star washers draw more like 500 watts. Dryers - Just no… I’ll put up a clothes line for the back porch.

Bigger Batteries, Inverters, bigger portable solar — We have had folks from RAM staying in the house, and they were kind enough to put another portable solar solution on the house. It was a pair of Centech 750 watt inverters, a Solar charge controller model cm-30a, two Uni-Solar PVL-136 roll-out solar panels, and a 935 CCA 12 volt lead acid truck battery that I bought at the local auto parts place. This system worked, but was not able to run stuff that drew more than 100-200 watts. I think part of this was just my ignorance of how to optimize the utilization of this rig.

Bigger Generators - Generators are everywhere, so the whole island is like Saturday morning with lawn mowers running. The inexpensive gas generators work great but they are -very- noisy. After waking up to the sound of a generator for the Xth time, quiet is important and merciful. With that in mind, the Honda 2,000 watt generators can be put in tandem, they have an ‘eco’ mode that throttles up and down as energy is drawn, they are efficient, and as quiet as its possible to make a generator that makes this much power. 4 kilowatts peak service will allow most houses to do most things, with thoughtfulness about what gets turned on. A dual rig with parallel cables, security attachments and extended run fuel system can be had for under $2,500.

Permanent Solar - This is the long term solution. I’ve gone ahead and committed to 21 240 volt panels and a Tesla powerwall, to be installed by Maximo Solar. This, combined with a moderation of electrical consumption, will permanently address electrical power. Two neighbors had rooftop solar arrays that survived the winds of the storm completely intact. Another neighbor out on the cliff was a bit more exposed, and their array tangled with a solar water heater tank, and was a total loss.

A couple concluding topics:

Law & Order: My experience was really very much like life on the island at any other time. Across more than 4 decades there’s been lots of petty larceny, and perhaps I’ve just been lucky, but I’ve experienced just one face to face larceny (in high school on the track bus) and zero violent crimes. While there are stories (as ever) and people should take proper precautions, I found the island as peaceful (and chaotic) as ever it has been. The mood and tone were warm, and I felt at every moment surrounded by commiseration and a willingness to help. I felt totally secure at gas stations, banks, supermarkets and airports.

The big work: I saw electrical crews out at all hours of day and night, in all weathers. Debris removal crews had started to come through our neighborhood. Its an extraordinary undertaking, with no drive-in assistance, but I think the agree with others that amidst the huge challenges and overwhelming scale of work, the key words are resilience, optimism, and heartwarming positive vibes.

How to help?

The first way to help is simply to think about this as you read the news, and as you advocate and you vote. The future of the island is absolutely in the hands of our federal government, everything from the amount of assistance supplied to the diaspora of Boricuas that are arriving in the 10s of thousands, to the way that PREPA will pay the billions required to rebuild 50 years of electrical power infrastructure. This stands on top of the basic questions that predate Maria: a decade of economic and population shrinkage, and a death spiral of debt burden.

There are many charities doing extraordinary work on the island. Global Disaster Immediate Recovery Team worked with the Vanu team to restore cell communications on the island. There is still a lot of work especially up in the mountains, so you can volunteer through the coordination site Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters. If you’re on the island and unemployed, FEMA is hiring.

At a more personal level, I’ve followed through on gofundme campaigns of friends and colleagues, and tried to work the connections I know and contribute what I can to the upward spiral. I’ve diverted resources from stateside projects to cleaning and rebuilding on the island, and tried to support others as they’ve done so as well.

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