Written with a red stylus... mostly.

Nov 7, 20178 min read

Deviation Actions

Published: Nov 7, 2017

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Guess who survived TWO hurricanes AND a few months without electricity & wi-fi?!

Anyway... I've been without power since Hurricane Irma. Water came back a few weeks after Hurricane Maria. There's only so much entertainment an iPod can provide before becoming boring. I had to dig out my Game Boy Advance SP. For those that don't know, they're rechargeable.

In my neighborhood there are two sounds: Near absolute silence and running motors from generators. I provide one of those sounds. I can hear them in my sleep.

Irma didn't cause a lot of damage. Maria fixed that. There was a lot of devastation, flooding, debris, etc. I actually had to run out into the hurricane to save my house from flooding. Do you know what that feels like? I hope you never have to find out, and if you DO know, I hope you never have to go through that again.

Surprisingly, there wasn't a lot of damage to my house. I spent the days after that cleaning around the house, fixing things, moving debris off the street, rationing water and checking in on family. With no power anywhere there were long lines at gas stations, supermarkets, fast food places, banks, just everywhere. I once spent 30 minutes in line at a supermarket just to get inside, and 6 hours at a gas station. Apparently, it's easier to buy gas on foot than by car. One tends to waste more gas waiting in line in a car than what you're allowed to buy.

Eventually, I was allowed to go back to work. I took full advantage of this and bought stuff I needed, especially when we employees were allowed to shop before the store opened normally. This didn't last long and I had to count on luck most of the time, which is how I was able to get a lot of good stuff.

I heard troops from the U.S. came here to get us back on our feet. I see them everyday at work. I heard Trump came, spent 5 hours on Puerto Rico, then left.

....

Things are normalizing little by little. Lines are either short or non-existent. I don't have to wait 6 hours for gas anymore. I hate fuel runs. I hate that I have the best luck at them. I kept hoping that the power comes back so I wouldn't have to make fuel runs every two days anymore. I have to gas up a generator twice a day: Before going to work and before going to bed. Those 5 gallon canisters are heavy, too heavy for my mother to lift. At least we always have cold water and never had to throw out any rotten meat.

This started at the beginning of September. Irma hit us during my two-week vacation and haven't been able to relax since. I want to at least be able to sleep in late without having to get up early to turn off the generator. I want all the debris cleared from the neighborhood. I want wi-fi!

Through my actions during this time, some not typed here, I have become the hero of the family, and this hero deserves a break... and to be taken to Chili's for a free steak lunch... or at least KFC.

My only source of entertainment in the mornings when I'm off from work are these three puppies from across the street. I call them "The Intrepid Explorers". They somehow escape from their house and play outside. There are more puppies living there but those can't escape. Too healthy, I believe. I hear them crying over their good health. This was incredibly distracting when I was cleaning up debris. Who can work while hearing a puppy cry?

Sorry if my thoughts are all over the place. I started writing this on October 24 and kept adding stuff as time goes on. It's hard typing with a stylus on an iPod.

Without power, morning traffic jams are horrible. Not every intersection has a police officer directing traffic. I have to leave my house at least 2 hours early to make it to work on time. After dark, there are no officers at intersections. Drivers have to be careful but, everybody is in a hurry and wants to be first. Weekends are okay. I can make it to work in half an hour then.

Unfortunately, weekdays are slow at work compared to weekends. Everybody can come in on weekends compared to weekdays where shopping is restricted to us employees and the visiting troops I wrote about before. Also, sometimes around noon, a live band shows up and plays. They keep the customers spirits up, but they make it hard to work because they're loud. Customers and employees are yelling at each other for an hour. I heard them play the theme song to "Super Mario Bros.". That was awesome.

Whenever I'm at home, I keep an eye out for hope... In the form of a vehicle from the electric company or an environmental agency to take away all the fallen trees. The garbage people never pick up the debris. They will if it is bagged. A little bribe in the form of cold water helps out too. This is why I have nothing in front of my house while the neighbors still have their small piles of debris. Piles that could easily be taken by the trash people.

I'm gonna have a lot of stuff to catch up on as soon as I get wi-fi: Fanfiction, YouTube subscriptions, e-mails, TV shows. I don't even know what movies or shows are out now. I do know that "Spider-Man: Homecoming" came out on blu-ray last week. Whether I'm at home, work, or some random fast food place when I get wi-fi, I'll get started on that.

November 2, 2017:

I missed out on Halloween and any and all Halloween specials on TV! Yeah... nobody was going trick or treating while the power's out. Still got free candy at work though.

Trees and debris still litter the neighborhood, still it could be worse. I pass under a bridge on the way to my grandmother's house and it is filled with garbage under there. Yikes.

The Intrepid Explorers invaded my lawn a few days ago as I was leaving for work.

Que suerte la mia.

Fuel runs still suck. My car stinks during these runs and I wouldn't be surprised if they gave me nausea one day. Free gas would be nice right now.

I was told of a place that has wi-fi AND good, spacious parking. I'm gonna go over there and try my luck. You'll know I succeeded when this appears on DeviantArt on the same date, but that don't mean I'll be doing this every day.. Maybe just long enough to complain to the electric company. Let's see how many hours I can spend there. There's also a KFC there.

In desperation for entertainment, I re-installed an old VCR/DVD combo just to watch something, ANYTHING, during the times the generator is on. Also, said combo gave my videotapes problems in the past, but the DVD's work great. Yesterday, I watched "Iron Man 2" during lunch and "Pokémon Chronicles" at night. I have two more unlabeled tapes. I wonder what's on them?

Still no wi-fi or cable at work. They make us watch these month-old commercials on a loop. By now, I'm tired of "Wonder Woman", "Baywatch", and "Nutty by Nature". At least its air conditioned environment is slightly better than being at home with no power, or with power and a lot of noise.

During this time, I realize how lucky I am. Other people have it worse right now. Still, I need a day with no responsibilities so I can relax.

November 7, 2017:

Found a place with wi-fi. Not a place I can go to all the time. This place says that it has free wi-fi, but only because in the vicinity of the food courts Burger King. That's false advertising. Just came from a fuel run and parked my car in the shade. Now I can waste a few hours here AND get takeout.

I'm not answering my messages until I get wi-fi at home. That goes for DeviantArt and Facebook too.

235 Notifications? Not bad.