My First Urban Gifting Trip – Towerbusting Boston 6/7/23
June 29, 2023 - by Anonymous Gifter
It is an honor to have been asked by Sharon and Gabe to contribute to their blog! I live north of Boston and have been following their work for about five years. A year ago when New England was allegedly in the middle of a “severe drought” (which ultimately consisted of three months of little to no rain), I decided to start gifting myself, focusing on cell phone towers and arrays mainly north of Boston and into New Hampshire with very interesting results (significant rain and other sky and weather transmutation that has continued ever since). While I have gifted in rural areas, towns, and smaller cities, Gabe and Sharon for some time have been encouraging me to tackle Boston itself. An opportunity to do so recently arose.
As usual, I turned my cell phone completely off during this outing, but I forgot to bring a piece of foil with me, so I didn't wrap it. This was the first gifting trip during which this happened, and time constraints didn’t allow me to find a store to buy some foil. I decided to put my trust in the power of the succor punch, a device made from a quartz crystal wrapped in a mobius coil and powered by a nine volt battery which scrambles location tracking data.
The weather was basically cloudy and mild before, during, and after my trip, with the sun coming out during it a little bit. The clouds were all very puffy and there was no haze. It sprinkled a tiny bit a couple of times. The local weather people had been complaining about haze from the "Canadian fires," but I saw no such haze anywhere that day, nor did I see any "planes.”
I used my AAA paper map and a list of places I had made in advance to go to in a grid pattern of one towerbuster approximately every quarter mile, suggested by Sharon and Gabe if one can’t see exactly where the cell towers are. The main issue I had was finding appropriate places to gift, since as a newbie city gifter I was always afraid that my potential spots could somehow get "unbusted." I was able to use a total of eight TBs, which took me an hour at a fast walk/slow jog. The massive rooftop arrays seemed to appear out of nowhere, but I of course couldn't see them if I was right next to a tall building. The grid strategy was definitely the right way to go unless there was something particularly nasty needing additional attention. Downtown Boston is comparatively dinky and was easy to walk in. Everybody was on their phones, so nobody seemed to care. I just had to watch out for the tourists taking pictures and all the security cameras, but avoiding them was easier than I had anticipated.
I did not encounter any significant challenges, but I did experience something really cool. In searching for an appropriate spot to gift, I "accidentally" came across a very promising area. Since it was touristy, I wandered around looking for a good site that wouldn't get unbusted and finally discovered a place that looked ideal. When I moved away some leaves so that I could place my gift appropriately, I found another TB already there! I was so shocked that instead of deciding not to deploy my own TB, I just added it to the other one and quickly left. Needless to say, I was very excited to learn that there was at least one other person gifting the city! I assumed that this was a fantastic sign and that my own gifts could only strengthen what had already been put there.
Even though I was not in Boston to have traditional fun, I did encounter some interesting entertainment. While near the State House, I heard someone talking and a cheering and clapping crowd. Approaching what I thought might be a political rally, I was instead graced by the presence of several drag queens on the State House steps about to perform! I was indeed tempted to watch this show, but quickly chose to go on my merry way, as I had more pressing matters to take care of. I finished my gridding by visiting a fantastic bakery with lots of bad-for-you sugary delights.
I was curious to see what would happen weather-wise after my trip, as I had deployed only a small number of TBs. The day after, on the North Shore and into New Hampshire there was flat white haze with puffy clouds forming underneath, which ended up turning into a lot of 3D cumulus clouds with a little blue sky. The second and third days were more dramatic. The temperatures were on the cool side (50s and 60s). I observed threatening clouds – white clouds in front of dark gray clouds, dark gray clouds in front of white clouds – all 3D. There were no "planes" or messy white hazy stuff in the upper atmosphere, and there was blue sky in between all these clouds when you could see it. A thunderstorm came through and dumped a bunch of rain for 15-20 minutes, moving off very quickly, and more of the clouds described above continued to appear. Threatening weather travelled north to south from New Hampshire towards Boston, rather than the typical west to east pattern, bringing in blue skies. In general, a lot of transformation and transmutation!
Overall, this urban trip has inspired me to consider additional city gifting. The greater Boston area is a true east coast epicenter of DOR activity – currently and historically – that ideally needs hundreds of TBs to neutralize fully. I will keep chipping away at it when I can and keep track of the results. Many thanks to Gabe and Sharon for their encouragement, advice, and TBs!
