Hurricane Ian 07

Please note: As of this entry, my posts are being backdated as to give “real time writing” for what happened during Hurricane Ian.

The posts will be mixed with personal thoughts, news interjections and random items. I tried my best to give times, but there are points I did not write it down, so you’ll have to understand that there may be some time spans.

As I typed this out, if I’m talking about news for some bullet points in a row, I am trying to keep them together. In instances where I am rambling, as I usually do, don’t mind the nonsensical freeform. That too, I tried to lump together.

Reader discretion advised (there is some TMI [“too much information”]).

Pictures to come at some point (over 1,000 snaps).

October 4 2022

 

7:28am – we have four charging bricks for our phones or other USB devices. The good thing is the bricks are transportable. The bad thing is there is no on/off switch on any of them. Once they are fully charged, they start losing juice. I had all of them at 100% at the start of Wednesday, but by Thursday afternoon, they started puttering out. I think they were at zero by Friday. I don’t know when they fully died because there is no display on them, so we couldn’t charge our phones after that. I think it was a hard lesson that we need to make us go buy the solar powered chargers. That’s the one thing I am going to be putting on my holiday wish list because all my relatives start asking me what I want for Chanukah around this time. After sitting outside all day / every day for the last 5 days, I think I need it. I know some types are expensive, but I think it’ll be well worth it. We were telling the neighbors the other day about it and they all said they’d totally get one too. It’s again, a hard lesson in how reliant we are in these technological advances.

Every day a neighbor is outside in their car, charging something. Some kids are sitting in the cars charging everything. A couple of these solar charging thingies, and you’re good.

I hope.

It’s so nice outside right now – high 60s. The breeze does make me feel like I’m back in Massachusetts, but it’s not freezing – just enough of a calmness to say “summer’s over?” It’s really friggin nice.

 

News is reporting so many open distribution centers and most of the places are makeshift. Kids are going back to school in places soon as well.

 

How? I know there’s about 50% of people with power problems, but if you’re in a part of the city where there is nothing, what do you do? That’ll be interesting when it’s full force back.

I don’t know when I’ can go back to work, or would. I still don’t have power and with the news reporting that the local government is saying to not take left turns in some major intersections, my route will change a bit. Which will put me in more traffic and some intersections have blinking yellow lights if they are up and running. Gas line is still over 2 hours long. I don’t want to drive right now. It is not worth the risk – my safety – both mental and physical (car). The worry of traveling to that area is already making me worry. I hate driving in that direction as it is. Having no street lights to contend with is far worse.

 

Oh boy, they just said on the news that we are going back to humidity next week. Overnight lows are going to be in the 70s.

 

Sanibel is not letting anyone on the island. It is still too dangerous to get there. EMS, construction workers, FEMA, all need to get over but no one else on the bridge for the safety of the community. The Marriott has workers coming in to work and do repairs but the city wants people to stay away from the area for reconstruction and cleanup can continue.

 

One of my mom’s friends brought over a Ryobi lantern. She said the first few days she used it, it lit up her entire house. Her neighbors thought she had power. She stopped over the other day see if we wanted to borrow it, but we’ve got so many lights, we don’t need it. So Arlene took it to her house and we just saw her from my window and she said that the lantern lit her whole house; it’s amazing. She plans on buying one when this is all over and will buy another one as a thank you for Linda as a spare. Linda also let us borrow a Ryobi portable fan. It’s nice, but we aren’t wasting the battery. We tried it for about 20 minutes and it’s powerful. Only time it would be really good, would be if we lost power for a few days during the height of the summer.

 

It is 8:15am. Might as well start getting dressed to go get coffee. It’s been nice to not have to wear certain items every day. I’m not going anywhere, who am I to impress? But I did enjoy showering with a wash cloth yesterday. I felt amazingly clean yesterday.

 

2:06pm – we have gone to Mary and Tom’s house because they have power and live in our community. We charged our phones and I charged two bricks. Ellen said “be careful what solar charger you buy” because she “bought one that needs to be returned. It took six days to charge and could not use it until it was ready”. Okay, well, I’m sure there are others that don’t need all that sun. I know you need full sol for multiple hours, but it seems weird you’d need six days to get it going.

Especially if you take it camping or hiking or what not. How are those people able to use it?

If you listen to the news, when they say they are watching a storm, start charging the thing. Most come with an adapter to wall charge, so at least if you do it that way, you have some charge for when / if you need it. Jump start the process before you lose power and have problems. If you do need it, do what you can with it. If you can sit outside, take the thing with you. Don’t hook it up to a device, but just get sun to charge the panel. Think this through – if it takes DAYS to charge, via daylight hours, well, use your noggin. You don’t need to use it as a charger every single second of the day. Hang out and let it bask in the light when you can.

 

So the community news is there is a lift station (sewer) at the start of the transient section of the houses. That is what is possibly causing the problems for our flushing needs. Because we don’t have power yet and the station needs to be run by electricity to work, we won’t get functionality from it until things are repaired.

 

As of 2:42pm my mother (on her 5G phone) can check Facebook. There is a private FB group for the community. People are reporting that the sewer is now slowly creeping into the lakes around the community, so call the county and report it. The more we can kick this up the ladder, the better we are as it is going to become a health hazard and emergency by the end of the next day or two. We need the city to check on us; pause the electric restoration in random spots. Fix the grid that is broken in our complex. Put up full power to all of the community, work on the lift station. We are going to lose more if we are getting the sewer backing into the lakes and (now clean-ish) water system. All the work they are putting in to rebuilding will be for naught.

This happened at the hospital over the weekend. They got flooded and the sewers backed up, becoming a biohazard area. They worked tirelessly to fix it and it was back up and running by yesterday, I think. Now it feels like it is traveling our direction… the shit luck. We’re only about a half mile down the road from them. this is so ridiculous, it’s turning into a literal shit show. 

 

7:25pm – Sun is starting to set. I got to check my email on my phone, but, the battery is overheating. It’s been having “battery is seriously degraded” message for a few months, but the overall capacity use is 79%. I know I have to get it fixed and now I really know I need to get a new battery. I just don’t know what to do about it. “Back in the day”, you could pop the phone case off, pop out the batter, set a new one in, put the shell back, and off you go. Now, you need special tools to open the phone, change the battery, get the sealers back on, the shell, the Otterbox. It’s a big to do. Places want you to leave the phone for over two hours and it’s not cheap. What seriously takes four hours for a battery change? Are the re-building and re-soldering everything from scratch? It should be a 10 minute fix, tops, under normal circumstances. I’m sure it’s quire the damn expense too.

Which is another challenge – if it is over $75, what is it made of, gold? Do I need to pay on Venmo or with Bitcoin? Because then you can keep the damn thing. Factory reset it and I’ll just spend $600 and get a new phone. Say it was lost or some shit.

There are many places that charge labor. We’ve been screwed from a certain battery store because they don’t tell you they charge to put your battery in. A $5 battery can come with a $10 technician fee. Trust me, I know from experience – a few times I’ve been in to this store to get a battery for my car fob or a battery for a watch, something inexpensive, the employee charges a fee if they have to touch the connector screws for the item and then work on the battery (replacement).  One day I went to get my fob replaced. Saw what the guy did, made conversation. He opened a 2 pack of CR batteries and did his thing to replace my old one. Said he would charge me for one battery and I wanted the other, he’d give it to me, because he couldn’t sell the second one without a pack to it. I questioned it and he said it’s legit. He never mentioned there was a labor charge until I looked over my receipt to see a price that was several times the amount of the battery. I asked him what that was, and he said “labor charge for changing the battery”. I said “really?” and he affirmed a response, saying they “always charge to replace batteries”. I didn’t know it was some rule there, where they charge everything for everything. Also, I didn’t know or see after the fact, was he charged me twice for a single battery. I didn’t notice that until I got home. It wasn’t until I needed another battery for another fob, when I drove to the dollar store, bought the CR disc for a buck, did a little video research to figure out how to open the case, replaced old for new, and I was good. All it cost was $1.06 and 10 minutes of my time.

Needless to say I’m a little leery about wanting to bring something in to a store to get a replacement piece and being charged exponentially for it. I’ve heard horror stories from the Apple Store where you’re waiting in long lines as it is, and then you’re being charged a lot too. We are being charged too much for our phones, but why pay half the price of the trade in worth, for something as simple as a battery?

I just need to bite the bullet and get it repaired. Hopefully it will last through all this craziness and some place is open and can do it. A lot of places are closed right now since they still have no power and employees are still dealing with cleanup, displacement, etc.

Cell towers are still buggy. No internet, no power.

Everyone is so exhausted. We are tired and tried. We are drained. All we do is sit. We try to stay hydrated but we don’t want to have to keep running to the toilet since we have that sewerage problem now. It’s definitely starting to feel like a really lousily badly shitty vacation. The worst luck vacation, and yet, this is supposed to be my “home”.

Hopefully power is restored by Friday. My mother and I need to get our cars checked out. I haven’t touched mine since last Tuesday morning when I put my car in a neighbor’s garage.  I hope the cars are fine. Neither of us can afford a new car right now, not with the situation that just happened. Since I haven’t been to work since last Monday, I am not getting an income. No work = no pay. No pay = no big (luxury) expenses. I’m afraid to attempt to go to work once my car is out of the garage, mainly due to the traffic and gas situation. I have enough cash “to get by” at the moment, but I’m sure it won’t last long if I need to keep running out. If every place can get power and internet, I can surely get cash from either the lobby or ATM; or even as a last resort, use my credit card and just transfer some money into my checking account to cover the Visa bill. But until that happens, use cash sparingly, which a lot of people can’t do. I know and accept that. I’m not trying to say I’m better than anyone. I’m trying to figure this out like everyone else. I try to be conservative with my expenditures – plan what I can and pay for what I can. Some things I just can’t justify in my head, even though it’s a stupid silly thing – something I could use at the moment. It’s dumb, I know. At this point, if my job were closer (less lights), I would totally be up to going once I got my car out and running. But my route takes me through three tricky intersections (on a good day) and I just can’t do it with out a light. I’ve been in the situation where one of the main intersections were out due to a regular storm. It was a mess to get through because no one played fair to let others go. One guy almost hit me and started screaming at me, when I followed 2 other cars (including a big truck). More reason to not try it, and even more reason I miss (reliable) public transportation! I hate driving as it is, so if there was an easier way to go, I would. I just think I was spoiled at school in Boston for the T and then the BAT system in Brockton. Everything was much more walkable there, and if you needed a bus, you could hop on one at any time, it felt. Here in Florida, good luck finding a bus if you’re walking, especially with this heat and humidity.

 

News: Evacuees from Sanibel have 12 hours (7am – 7pm) to go to the island to see your house or to work on it. But your own your own – you need to find your own transportation and figure it out yourself. Just remember, you have 12 hours.

(Not 13 hours in which to solve the Labyrinth and rescue a baby brother)

Ding Darling is Federal Property, so no is allowed there right now – no docking, no parking, and no trespassing. So starting tomorrow, you can be there from 7-7. Do not bring a generator; do not start fires of any kind. There is one fire truck for the island and it’s full of water for an emergency.

 

The library down the street from me is going to be a disaster relief building tomorrow. Every day it will be open 9-6 and you can go there to get information on what to do to find a new job in case you lost it, check with FEMA for disaster / displacement information, get with your insurance company, there will be power for device charging and internet checking, loads of vendors to help ease the mind for a minute.