NOW Thursday, April 26

I made to 66 years old before broke a bone.

No "you should see the other guy" here. The "other guy" was a driveway. Except for a bit of my blood, "he" looks pretty much the same. We were loading a couch into the back of the truck. I lost my balance and fell off a fairly high porch. My right hand/wrist took most of the fall followed by the faceplant. I fractured my ulna. I gotta make up a better story than that.

We're headed to see an ortho guy in a few minutes.

If i'm MIA from here for a while, that's why. This one-handed, left-handed hunt-and-peck typing is tedious.

At least it wasn't my hip!

Maria log day 48 November 9, 2017, thursday

Thursday, November 9, day 48

We have receive so much love in care packages from so many amazing wonderful people! Water filters, Food. Personal care stuff. Solar lights. So so much love1

As much as we can, we share with others, especially through Ciudad de Salvacion. They are still out looking in remote areas for people who need help. All of the supplies are so appreciated.

One the most loving packages came from our friend Jynx, aka Colleen Baker. Jynx is a tattooed Harley-riding kite flyer. We're friends but we've never been as close as we are to some others in the kite community.

Jynx's friend recently lost her husband. Instead of flowers or the usual donations to charity, this woman asked her friends to "pay it forward." Jynx chose to send us a huge box of supplies for the relief efforts. What an incredible gesture from both of these amazing women!

I can't say often enough or loud enough how grateful we are for so much generosity.

Sometimes small things can make a huge difference.

For example, Kiki, the young man who is taking care of Sprocket the rescue horse, lives as far from the grid as we do. He has 17 horses he cares for every day. His last feeding is at 8:00 pm in the very deep dark. To see he either holds his cell phone on his shoulder for light, or has his wife hold it.

We gave him a couple of the "head lights," battery-powered LED flashlights that you wear on your head, that we received in one of the care packages. I wish you could have seen his face! His eyes lit up like we'd given him a million dollars. Now he could work in the dark and see and have his hands free. That simple light changed the way his life works.

We received a care package from Elaine's sister Mary. She used dish towels and wash clothes as packing material. At first I thought that was kind of weird. Then we got another. And another. And another.

Okay, I'm a little slow on the uptake but I finally got it. Rather than packing relief supplies with useless, actually harmful plastic packing, she packed them with things people could actually use!

BRILLIANT!!!

NOW April 17, 2018, Wednesday

Deja vú all over again!

You may have read about the island-wide power outage. We didn't read about it until two days later. We only knew it was island-wide because a friend in Wisconsin sent us a text message about it.

Anyway, there was instant panic. Lines at the gas stations formed like magic, like lines of ants attracted to sugar. We were driving home from the horses and actually needed gas. So we decided to sit in the line. After all, it wasn't that long. I hopped out of the car, ran across the street to the little colmado (bodega in the city, convenience store everywhere else), grabbed some beers, and we waited. Hey no problem. We know how to do this. We've had practice; we have experience.

It was in fact a major power failure caused by construction workers severing a major underground transmission line (so much for buried lines being safer!). Original estimates were 24-36 hours to repair. We got power back in less than 24 hours. Hooray!

All is good. We have changed from one state of normal (power off) to another state of normal (power on).

NOW, April 7, 2018, Saturday

Saturday, April 7

After the hurricane: Temple ruins, Crashboat

Sorry I got behind on posting  I'm working on a couple of projects now that I have the computer and photo software back.

One of the projects has been working with the first photos I took of the underwater wreckage at Crashboat back in November, two months after Maria. I took the photos snorkeling, from the surface, in poor visibility. The color originals are pale, washed out, low contrast, no detail, just vague shapes.

I started playing around with the images to see what was there, hidden in the image files. At first I got these strange, distorted colors.

I've said before our post-hurricane world was like living in the Upside-down from the Netflix series, Stranger Things. This is even more evidence of the Upside-down. But wasn't exactly what I was looking for. So I remove all the color and played around with the images in black-and-white (which I've always loved). I'm really happy with the results. I like the gritty, post-apocalyptic feel of the images.

Now the question is what to do with them. I'm looking for a space locally for an exhibition of prints. I'm also exploring options for an online exhibition.

That's just one project. I also have two video projects and a magazine article in the works based on Crashboat photos. And then there are the horses which another whole thing.

Stay tuned. Exciting times ahead.

Maria log day 46, November 7, 2017, Tuesday

Tuesday, November 7, day 46

Today was a hard hard difficult day. We said goodbye to one of the best friends I've ever had. Amber joined his brother Jazz.

Even after the shots this week, Amber continued to get worse. Last night he couldn't get settled, couldn't sleep. He needed help getting up and down from the bed. I had to carry him down the stairs. He was in so much pain.

The decision for his sake was easy. No more pain. No more fear. No more anxiety. All the hard parts were selfish. He (and his brother) has been such a huge part of our live for so long - 17-1/2 years! He taught me so much. He's been a great friend. It was hard to let him go.

No, that's not right. It is hard to be without him  It is strange and sad and empty. He touched so many lives. His spirit is still with us. And the memories. And the love.

Run free, my friend.

Maria log day 45, November 6, 2017, Monday

Monday, November 6, day 45

There is so much need - not just among humans but animals as well.

Today was the first day of the "helping horses" food distribution. More than 60 people representing more than 300 horses came to the Picadero today.

Our biggest problem is going to be keeping up supply. We're using donated money to buy grand locally but it's hard to find. We have donated grain coming from the mainland but it is so expensive to ship. And, for whatever reason, not all shipments are getting though.

We gave out all the grain we had today and started a waiting list for tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll be able to find grain to buy.