Happy Thanksgiving week, friends!
We are planning a get-together with friends to be thankful and stuff our faces together. No power means no oven means I have a flawless excuse for ordering two smoked turkeys (from Rincon’s resident BBQ expert Ryan Reed, hailing from none other than Kansas City)…rather than roasting them myself.
Robbie turned 10 yesterday! We had a surf party, which turned out to be a beach party, because the waves and the current were a little strong for the kids. They had fun anyway, complete with an amazing strawberry cake from Paradise Catering and Bakery. Then a few of Rob’s buddies came to sleep over. I think they finally crashed at 3 a.m. They have more staying power than me. I’m way too old for that mess, plus I’ve gotten used to this “go to bed with the sun” thing. The next day we went skating and by that afternoon we were all exhausted. So, it was a successfully exhausting birthday weekend. I have until April to recover and get ready for the next one (that’ll be Zeke’s 9th).
Last week we hooked the generator up to the washing machine and I did three loads of laundry at home. That was fabulous. And much easier than hauling laundry elsewhere. Our water is back on at full-pressure. I’m still THRILLED every time I turn the tap on.
There’s been a lot of work happening on power lines in our area, but I’ve heard no news or predictions or even rumors about when we might get power on. I think it would be a fabulous Christmas gift.
But… whatever. I have water. Running water. Power? Meh. Who needs it.
Just kidding, power would be great, I mean: REFRIGERATION.
But until then… We’ll rock and roll with our solar chargers and inverter and so on. If Joseph Mueller keeps making progress on this solar stuff he’s doing, maybe we won’t need it. Off-grid sounds great.
I’ll leave you with a Rumi quote that’s been in my head all week:
“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
Here’s an update from Joe:
Thank you so much to all the generous people out there who donated here and sent care packages. We will be sending out all the thank you messages soon but I wanted to mention it now. Your support helped us set up shop and repair many of the generators and chainsaws in town. It is crazy to me that almost 2 months after the hurricane people are still out working, power and water has not been restored to many homes, including ours (water came back partially yesterday). I am packed with generators and new ones show up daily.
Check out the Rincon Maker Space Page. This will be started with the momentum from Maria. The goal is to get the business up and running by January 2018 and host an off grid maker festival in May or June in hopes of helping the town of Rincon, Puerto Rico recover from the SUPER SLOW tourism season Our family will continue working with this great community to rebuild and grow stronger than before. Blessings!
-Joe Mueller and team