givingshelters (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} givingshelters) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} givingshelter,@ 2005-10-16 20:06:00 |
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Day Off?
Sunday we took a day off from deploying shelters to replenish our supplies of kits. It's incredibly tedious work, cutting the PVC poles to size, laying the templates against the tarps so they can be cut and clipped, applying the clips in the right position so they can hold the poles in place, and, most frustrating of all, cutting the vents.
This has been a source of some frustration for the team. The shelters, as originally designed, didn't have any allowance for airflow. In the heat of the Mississippi day, which often runs into the humid 100's, they are virtually unlivable for stretches of the day. An earlier deployment had worked out a hack that involved cutting a hole in canopy, arduously (and unstably) taping in a mesh window, applying bits of Velcro to hold open and closed tarp flaps, then attaching a second canopy to keep the rain from getting in through the mesh.
This design had a few problems: a) the second canopy doesn’t let much airflow in, reducing the efficacy of the vents, b) the taping of the vents is slow going, unrewarding work and c) the tape is unlikely to be long-term effective at keeping the mesh in place. It’s a problem that everyone here is well aware of (especially Jake, who’s Zen-like approach to the venting process has earned him the nickname “Captain Venti”), but nobody has been able to come up with a better alternative.
“Until me,” Jordan I thought to myself smugly this Sunday morning.
I had spent some time in transit between jobs and lying in my tent at night trying to puzzle out a solution, and by Sunday morning, I thought I had one well hatched. But, can you believe it, my brilliant invention was met with the same fear that halts so many great innovations. Sam in particular, in charge of production of the new kits, insisted that we stay on plan, and I could see in his eyes visions of days lost to some new hare-brained scheme. I assured him that I wasn’t going to derail the day, that we should continue producing canopies with the old design while I experimented with my new approach. Thomas, bless his crusty old carpenter’s soul, ultimately came to my rescue and encouraged me to go off and do some “R&D”.
Well, as anyone who is familiar with my prowess with tools and handicraft can predict, my new design did not end up saving the day. I feel good about it, it did solve some of the problems that hamper the old design, but introduced several new problems of its own, so after a few hours spent sweating over my prototype, I abandoned it and spent the rest of the day with the others sweating over the construction of several new kits for our coming deployments.
Sunday we took a day off from deploying shelters to replenish our supplies of kits. It's incredibly tedious work, cutting the PVC poles to size, laying the templates against the tarps so they can be cut and clipped, applying the clips in the right position so they can hold the poles in place, and, most frustrating of all, cutting the vents.
This has been a source of some frustration for the team. The shelters, as originally designed, didn't have any allowance for airflow. In the heat of the Mississippi day, which often runs into the humid 100's, they are virtually unlivable for stretches of the day. An earlier deployment had worked out a hack that involved cutting a hole in canopy, arduously (and unstably) taping in a mesh window, applying bits of Velcro to hold open and closed tarp flaps, then attaching a second canopy to keep the rain from getting in through the mesh.
This design had a few problems: a) the second canopy doesn’t let much airflow in, reducing the efficacy of the vents, b) the taping of the vents is slow going, unrewarding work and c) the tape is unlikely to be long-term effective at keeping the mesh in place. It’s a problem that everyone here is well aware of (especially Jake, who’s Zen-like approach to the venting process has earned him the nickname “Captain Venti”), but nobody has been able to come up with a better alternative.
“Until me,” Jordan I thought to myself smugly this Sunday morning.
I had spent some time in transit between jobs and lying in my tent at night trying to puzzle out a solution, and by Sunday morning, I thought I had one well hatched. But, can you believe it, my brilliant invention was met with the same fear that halts so many great innovations. Sam in particular, in charge of production of the new kits, insisted that we stay on plan, and I could see in his eyes visions of days lost to some new hare-brained scheme. I assured him that I wasn’t going to derail the day, that we should continue producing canopies with the old design while I experimented with my new approach. Thomas, bless his crusty old carpenter’s soul, ultimately came to my rescue and encouraged me to go off and do some “R&D”.
Well, as anyone who is familiar with my prowess with tools and handicraft can predict, my new design did not end up saving the day. I feel good about it, it did solve some of the problems that hamper the old design, but introduced several new problems of its own, so after a few hours spent sweating over my prototype, I abandoned it and spent the rest of the day with the others sweating over the construction of several new kits for our coming deployments.
