The Solitary Man’s Refuge (10 page)

“
Well, I guess I will end up in a bar this morning
anyway despite my best intentions not to go sit in one,
there isn’t anything else out this way and I want to find out
what happened to the Treasure Ship. That being the case,
I guess I am destined to do a repeat of yesterday.” Don
thought as he pulled into the parking lot of an old working
mans beach bar and joined the few morning patrons
already saddled up to the bar and a few drinks ahead of
him.

Donald placed his order for a Budweiser and
looked up to see the TV screen all scratchy and fuzzy. The
Barmaid told him the TV had been out since about 11:30
last night and seemed to be a beach wide outage. The
scoop on the Restaurant was that it had been torn down 6
months ago, one of the patrons told him as he settled in to
gossip and bar chat. The owner was up in age it appears
and had just taken the insurance money and razed the
place to the ground after really not that major of a fire and
put its lot up for sale and retired. Donald hung around for
another beer in the now gloomily depressing place and
then wandered back out to his truck and considered his
next move for the day.

There was another very old wooden Florida bar
just across the street that everyone used to put their
military unit patches up on the wall in and he decided he
would go visit his old unit patches. He knew this wasn’t the
greatest thing in the world to be doing this fine day,
because that would lead to swapping war stories with
someone and more beer drinking. He half heartedly
promised himself he would leave after just one or two
beers and find something less self destructive to do today
as he entered the place. He went inside and found only
one other customer around and ordered a draft. He
listened to the conversation the bartender and he were
having about ham radio signals being so messed up last
few days with great interest before joining in the
conversation. He knew there was some solar activity
predicted this week but it was supposed to be just an M
class solar flare at the worst, he told them, and then asked
if they had heard anything more or expected with the
space weather. The bartender said that before the cable
went out that NASA said we had an X1 flare headed our
way that they were watching closely but that’s about all
that he knew. Donald finished his beer and then started
back to the other end of the beach and his hotel room to
grab his laptop and check space weather out for himself
before going somewhere for an early lunch later after he
found out what he could.

“
More than likely I bet the internet is not going to
work at that old hotel either today.” Donald thought while
pondering where a suitable WiFi location might be.

“
I think I will go gas up my truck first so I don’t have
that chore to do on my way out of town day after
tomorrow.” he told himself and pulled into the next gas
station open.

Donald filled his tank and then grabbed a six-pack
of bottled water to carry back to the hotel room with him as
well as a small jar of extremely overpriced coffee. The
lights in the store flickered once or twice while he was in
there and the cashier complained it was all the cable
people working on the lines causing the flickers. Donald
hoped that was all it was messing with the electricity and
hurried back to his truck and towards his hotel to get his
laptop and do some web searches. On the way back he
had to keep reminding himself that most likely nothing
more was going on out here other than a regular glitch in
technology systems. However, he wanted to be sure and
wanted some confirmation. It would be just his luck about
now to be stuck in Florida and a major coronal mass
ejection or CME occurred or was about to. Well, this might
just give him an excuse to cut his trip short and head on
back anyway a bit early. He really wasn’t into chasing
nostalgic times in Florida anymore and this vacation was
turning into more unwanted stress and a lot less relaxation
so far.

“
What if the big one was actually already headed
his way? What should he do?” Donald thought as his mind
switched over from beach bum to Solar Prepper mode.
Well, first thing was to calm down and not sweat the
unknown or mentally make up shit about things he knew
nothing about yet... Next was to try to get some hard data
on the likelihood of a solar storm event occurring and plan
from there. His mind raced over a basic drill of what to do if
he actually got a real government sponsored forecasted
warning and he figured at the very least he would
disconnect his battery cables if he didn’t have time to bug
home right then. Home! Hell, he would need to get word
back to Janice. He resisted the temptation to see if that
stupid trac phone cell phone of his had a signal to make
the call. Half the time he had trouble with it anyway finding
one” Donald thought.

Donald pulled into his hotel and hurriedly started
uncasing his laptop while noticing the cable was still out.
He got it turned on and sure enough, couldn’t get a
connection. He pulled his cell phone out and luckily had a
single bar signal and immediately called Janice back in
Alabama.

“Where have you been? I tried calling you last night
and a few times today! You told me you would be good
about checking in somewhat regular. Anyway have you
seen the NEWS about that geomagnetic storm they said
was heading our way? Why haven’t you called me
sooner?” A somewhat irate but shaken and concerned
Janice unloaded on him all at once.

“You can fuss at me later; first tell me what you
know about this solar storm.” Donald finally managed to
get out.

“They said it was an X2 class and could possibly
cause some disruptions to the grid and communications
like GPS. NOW where have you been?” Janice said
gearing back up before Donald could choke out a question
or an answer.

“I am sorry; I got sort of sidetracked playing
yesterday. Can you get on the internet for me?” Donald
said in what he hoped was a humble enough response.

“I don’t know if I can or not. The cable has been
messing up most of the night and this morning. What do
you need?” Janice said, put out with him still but willing to
help out if she could.

“I need to try and get more info on this Solar
Storm; an X2 can turn a lot nastier under certain
conditions.” Don replied

“Didn’t you bring your lap top with you? The hotel
that you said you were going to stay in has a signal if you
are on the right side of it the manager said last time we
stayed.” Janice whined.

“I can’t seem to get any connection; I will try it out
by the pool before I go hunting a hot spot though, as a
thought. Look, I might come home early depending on the
news I hear and I am not having much fun anyway.”
Donald told her.

“I am sorry you’re not having any fun. You think
this solar storm is something we should be worried about?”
Janice asked carefully.

“Probably not, just one of the many storms like we
had most of this year off and on as the Sun heads for solar
maximum in 2013 but I will check it out and give you a call
back.” Don said wishing he could hurry up and get off the
phone and go find himself a decent internet connection
somewhere.

“Well, I got to go into work in one hour, so just
leave me a message if you need to and stay safe
yourself.” Janice said sensing his impatience to get off the
line.

“Will do, you take care and I hope you have a
good day at work.” Donald said hanging up his cell phone
and then hurrying outside with his laptop to see if he could
maybe pick up something. He tried his laptop out by the
pool and didn’t get anything but a very weak signal so he
went on back to his room to think over his next move. He
finally decided to go ahead and load up his truck now in
case he decided to leave later on today and it only took
him a minute to grab a single bag and his laptop carry
case and head out. There was a Waffle House he thought
might have internet about 5 miles up the road so he
decided that would be his first destination and then he
jumped a mile as a power pole transformer blew out about
a block away.

“Coincidence? Damn, he sure the hell hoped so!”
Donald thought as he gingerly tried to start the truck and
was rewarded with it turning over just like it always did.

Donald pulled out of the hotel’s courtyard parking lot
and out onto the access road to get over to front beach
road and noticed the strong smell of ozone in the air. He
was pulling onto Front Beach when he noticed the power
lines on the sides of the road had started smoking in some
places around the conductors.
“
Oh Shit! Game on!” Donald said to himself, not

needing a computer report to read these signs that the grid
was going down this minute! First thing to do right now
was getting the hell out of dodge and hope no power lines
fell burning across the road he was traveling down.” He
decided, maneuvering towards the center of the road
somewhat.

The little bit of traffic in front of him appeared to not
have noticed anything at all. But he knew there would be
some knocked out traffic lights up ahead clogging up a
major intersection and decided to turn off and try for back
beach road even though he wasn’t sure if you could even
get to it from where he was at the moment.

“
Damn! Both he and Janice were probably going to
have a big laugh at his expense about him racing home
like Chicken Little just because he had gotten a little
spooked about a normal power outage. However, it also
could be that the kind fates had dealt him a good handoff
card this time and given him a little mercy in the form of
two steps out the door and away from here. He was lucky
indeed to be heading out of town at this very moment if it
was indeed necessary to escape some major bullshit
coming down the pike if the grid was down because of a
CME. Donald then began to think about several different
scenarios that just now might be starting play out
worldwide. He was very grateful to the powers that be, if
this was indeed some kind of lucky chance maybe an edge
he now possessed to have got a little forewarning and be
out on the road already.

Donald was basically navigating by the seat of the
pants haphazardly through unknown neighborhoods and
streets in the direction of Back Beach Rd. This road lead to
the highway he needed to get homeward bound. He
became a bit anxious as he pictured how many stoplights
would be blacked out and the number of turns he had to
make on the streets ahead. Turning right on Back Beach
won’t be nothing, but trying to go left over 4 lanes of traffic
onto Hwy 79 would be difficult at best and more than likely
impossible. He decided he would just proceed straight if it
was too bad and then, if necessary, he could go past it and
then make a U turn and come back to make his turn,
worse case scenario.

“
Uh oh! This isn’t no dream or normal power
outage we are dealing with here now!” Donald said
observing several stalled 18-wheelers on Back Beach that
most likely had their computer controlled engines fried and
wouldn’t be moving anymore. Three damn big rigs like that
don’t just breakdown all at once in the same general area,
no sir. No way! Mr. Sun is the cause of that little gotcha...
Traffic was beginning to snarl up but it was at least moving
forward, he mused.

“
Way cool! Looks like two motorcycle cops got it
under control and are standing out there directing traffic.
That’s right, the police station and Chamber of Commerce
is right up from this intersection so they got right on it.
Good for them and good for me” Donald related to himself
as he zoomed over to the left lane as quick as he could to
get in the turn lane.

His truck slowly stopped and started towards the
intersection and after he was easing around a semi finally
made it to the left turn lane where the cop was directing
traffic, about another 5 minute wait he got waved on to
make his turn and start cruising for home.

“
Hell yea! Donald thought to himself. “On my way
now bud, yea, but which way should I be going here? The
next town ahead wasn’t anything to worry about traffic light
wise. There was a ton of construction going on though.
Most likely all that diesel heavy equipment is still running;
also seems like most cars are, too. Hard to say though, he
hadn’t observed but a couple vehicles that appeared to
have broken down so far. This road rarely gets a semi on
it, but if anyone is stopped on portions of the two-lane road
ahead, it’s going to be a real booger bear to get around. I
got a map in the glove box, but I can’t stop to be reading it
now. Somewhere to my right is Highway 231 north and
that’s all 4-lane heading north straight to Montgomery area
where he needed to be. What the hell, let’s see where this
road leads me. I know I will eventually have to run into the
highway, so lady luck please stay sticking with me on a
little detour.”

There wasn’t any traffic hardly to speak of at all on
this county road. Donald was making some good time
down the road and contemplating his options pretty
leisurely now.

“
I need to pull over here somewhere
and check the
map. Better yet, stop at a store somewhere and ask
directions. I bet 99% of the folks in the US don’t have a
clue what just happened yet. That is big time to my
advantage right now. I got about $170 hard cash on me
and if I can find a grocery store on this road somewhere, I
can load up on the way home some stuff soon to be in
high demand. Mean time let me pull into this wooden,
looks like it’s going to fall down, country store and figure
out where the hell I am at.

Donald got out of the car and was greeted by an
elderly old man who immediately told him it was cash only
because the power was out. Donald said that he
understood and only needed a few things and the man
welcomed him in. When Donald asked how long the power
had been out, the man said it had been a few hours and
he was thinking about going home soon and shutting the
doors.