It was cold.

My hands and toes had long since gone numb, even in my "moonboots" and "hofingers" ski gloves. We were standing on the continental divide, my 9 year old self, my 7 year old brother and my dad, who we weren't sure was going to make it.

Here's my dad, with his Irish Setter, "Autumn"

While it's a bit hyperbolic, this feeling of being alone and not having any way to get help, was similar to discovering that my brand new @dolphinschool account had run out of bandwidth this morning, after only one post, three resteems and half a dozen comments. Isolated.

Of course no one was suffering from hypothermia, there was no fear of dying, but the feeling of being alone and helpless was real. I'll tell you my solution in a minute, but first, let me finish my story.

It had started out like so many winter Saturdays here in Wyoming. We lived in Rawlins, 40 minutes from the continental divide, in a high desert, populated by rocks, sagebrush, rattlesnakes and antelope.

From left: some lady, My brother Tim, Dad, Steve, Me

We'd gone hunting for coyote. There was a bounty for pelts that winter and dad was working on getting enough for a trip to Oklahoma City for Christmas. It was a far cry from his "day job" as the preacher for a tiny congregation of 60 in the rowdy little mining town of 7000.

Now, before you judge me, this was the 80s and, if you've never been there, even today, nearly everyone in the state owns a hunting rifle, or a gun safe full of them. Men walked down the streets with 8 inch buck knives, sheathed on their belts, and the occasional six shooter on a hip was nothing out of place.

We think the wild west is relegated to the pages of history, but having spent 4 years of my childhood in this magical place, I'm here to tell you, it is alive and well. In a country where you can literally drive 75 miles on a smooth, four lane highway and not see another living human soul, in nice weather, trust me when I say, alone, out here, in the winter, you are a law unto yourself and you do what you need to survive.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure this is hypothermia," my dad said. "We're gonna walkd down off here to the car, and hope I make it. But, if I can't keep going, you boys take the keys and get to the car. There's enough gas for several hours and it will keep you warm.If you can drag me, do it by my arms and stick to deeper snow, I'll glide."

I looked at my brother. His eyes were wide as saucers. I knew we had to get going. I grabbed the rifle and slung it over my shoulder.

"Steven, grab the tape recorder, and let's get going," I said, as calmly as I could. "I was trembling inside my royal blue down jacket and not just from cold.

I'd experienced just how vast this place was when we'd been with a friend a few months back in warm weather, Off roading. When his full sized Chevy Blazer 4x4 had dropped it's front wheels into a shallow gully, and high centered, we'd had to walk 7 miles to the nearest highway before dark. My dad threatening to beat him with the wrench, the only tool he had, when my dad had asked where his jack was to get the truck out. (he was half joking, at least he was laughing when he said it)

That night, the Blazer owner and his dad had come out to retrieve the truck in the dark.

Although the blazer had a brilliant white top, their million candlewatt spotlight had failed to pick it up, and their tracks the next day, showed they'd come within 50 feet of the stuck SUV. This place was big, and deadly.

We could see our 1973 Chevy station wagon, parked just off the road from our perch, high up on a ridge, so I knew where to go. Dad seemed okay, but what he'd said had scared me. In school there, you get some winter survival training every year, stuff like snowcaves, and foil thermal blankets with a utility candle providing eight hours of life-saving heat, but nothing about this.

So, back to Steemit for a minute. Over the past ten days of #Dolphinschool bootcamp, I've been hearing about the Plankton dilemma, post, or comment? Resteem, or not? With bandwidth being in short supply, so, I was aware this might be a problem when I started with 3 SP on the @dolphinschool acccount. I can't imagine the frustration if I didn't have another account and friends to rely on.

Halfway down the hill, a little red fox that had been curious about our "dying rabbit" hunting call, blaring from the little Radio Shack cassette player, came back to check us out. I'd never seen one so close in the wild. Dad wanted to stop and take a shot at him, his pelt being much more valuable, but I knew we didn't have time for that. Besides, my brother and I really didn't want to see him shoot it.

Not that we were squeamish, we'd helped with antelope and deer hunts, but a coyote that will kill a rancher's sheep and might threaten a lone child, was much different than this fox, out hunting whatever small creature might venture out in this cold.

Then, my dad stumbled. He went down on one knee and my heart froze. The car was still several hundred yards from where we were. This was about to get a lot harder. In my head, I was looking for a place to leave his Remington 22 rifle where I could help him recover it later if I had to drag him.

"Hey, I'm okay," he said, laughing. (but I knew, hypothermia could make you giddy, so that was hardly reassuring) "I just stepped in a hole." He got back up, was unsteady for a second, but soldiered on, taking the rifle from me, since he could see it was getting heavy.

When I got up this morning and tried to resteem @makingthebest09 for his AWESOME article on commenting*I sighed with irritation when I saw "bandwith exceeded" dammit.* Well, I'd have to kick in a bit more to get it started, that was all. So, I sold a few SBD (found out the price was up, YAY!) and sent it to @dolphinschool, assuming the problem would be solved.

By the time we reached the car, he was pretty shaky. I carefully laid the rifle across the hood and dug into his pocket for the keys. I wasn't even sure the two of us could get him in the car. Thankfully, we didn't have to. I got the door open and he climbed in. I put the keys in the ignition and that faithful old 350 V8 roared to life. Within a minute, heat was pumping into the passenger compartment.

I slid the rifle in the back and my brother and I got into the front bench seat, to be close to the vents. After a few minutes, my hands were thawed enough to take off my gloves and get the emergency rations from the glove box, a tin of hard, wheat crackers and a small jar of peanut butter, a can of Spam and some hard crusty bread that would last about a month. It was pretty standard, not tasty, but filling. I made peanut butter cracker sandwiches and got one down my dad, found the thermos with water (to keep it from freezing) and he ate and had a few sips.

Even though, I'd heard the story, I was still surprised when I went to the @dolphinschool wallet and tried to power up the steem. Bandwidth exceeded! SO, WHAT DO THEY EXPECT A PLANKTON TO DO?? I silently screamed.This was ridiculous, the little "Wait to make transaction, or power up steem" message seemed to be taunting me!

My dad survived that fight. None the worse for wear. Thirty minutes after it had begun, we were home, sucking down cocoa and telling our adveture to my mother, who didn't seem to think it was okay at all! Her top lip, straight and tight against her teeth. She'd say something to him later, right now, she was busy propping him up on the couch with blankets, glad he was home.

So, why am I comparing my issues with SP to this story?

Well, first of all, I just wanted to tell an awesome true adventure from my life. Looking back, the things we did there in Wyoming are some of my favorite memories, even the slightly scary parts. Without the training we received in school, I wouldn't have had it drilled into my head that panic was your worst enemy in the wilderness, which this was. On a cold, wintery day, no one had a reason to be out there. We saw very few people on our way there, or home.

But, I also wanted to make a point.

About a week ago, @steemgoblin put up a post about this very topic. The struggle for new accounts, sometimes even with investment capital, is real! We can't, as one old timer suggested, just slog it along with 20 posts a day, in hopes of catching enough attention to get some SBD and move on. Even if that happens, you've got a seven day waiting period, and even then, you might not have the bandwidth to make the conversion!

So, how am I posting this? I solved the problem, for now, I'll tell you how in a minute, but first let me share this.

I think we should all consider adopting a plankton!

Why? No one helped me in the beginning! Yeah, but I promise you, no such limitations existed before recently. You may not know what they're up against! I really wanted to launch this account with minimal SP and work it to the point it reached escape velocity, without adding more money. So, here's what you could consider.

Pick a worthy Plankton. If you don't know who they are, get on Busy.org

On busy, everyone's stats are up front when you click onto their profile.

Choose someone that not only needs help, but is helping themselves.

• Choose someone that is adding value, not just "sh*t posting"
• Are they commenting and replying, as best they can?
• Have they managed to raise their reputation score?

Once you've found a good candidate, here's how you can help!

1. Encouragement: Upvotes, follows and comments are great!
2. Promote them: Resteem their good posts, or mention them with links in your content.
3. If you use Steemplus, consider sharing revenue to them!
4. A small loan of SP in a delegation (easy to do on SteemPlus) is huge!

That's what finally broke me out of bandwidth prison this morning. It remains to be seen how far it will go, but delegating 5 SP to this account was enough to allow it to power up the other 3 I'd already added. Delegation is the only way to charge these accounts when the battery is completely dead!

That's why I told that story!

I personally think that developing more solid users in the minnow and dolphin categories is the solution to a higher price of steem, the only thing that will life the cap on the value of the daily reward pool! But, without help, most of these plankton will quietly die!

Had I not been able to access another account, I'd have been stuck. I couldn't post to say why I couldn't post. I couldn't even reply to comments, or use a transfer message to ask for help!

Plus, even if I could, who would I have asked? If I'm new here, why would anyone listen, or even notice? I get requests from newbies all the time in spam comments and tip notes. I'm already helping as many as I can, so I'm forced to ignore them. But, if everyone with more than 100SP were to even lend 2 or 3 SP to a plankton. (you can take it back anytime) It could make a HUGE difference.

• Small investments help us see value in our selves.
• You'll definitely have a friend for the life of that steem account.
• You might lose 1/2 a cent of voting power temporarily.
• You'll feel better for having done it!

I'd love to hear @Ned or @Dan or @Blocktrades or any witness chime in on this next part!

I'd like to see some changes. If it is technically possible, I think somethings should be possible, even with low SP.

1. Powering up. If I've added my own money, or gotten someone to gift me a bit, why shouldn't I be able to power it up? That's what the site is telling me to do!
2. Buying and selling coins on the market. This is what's required to get the steem, liquid assets must be converted.
3. The ability to reply to comments.

I don't know what the bandwidth requirements are, but perhaps, along with the loan of SP, new accounts could be granted slightly more for their first few weeks to make it possible to get a good start.

Here we are, touting steem as an international solution to poverty. But, in places like Africa, and South America one steem coin is equal to a month's wages right now, in some nations.By making it impossible to reach out and contribute, we cut them off at the knees before they even start.

Now, it's also true that many of them still make it, despite this, and maybe, that's the point. The ones that survive the initiation, should be the ones to extend a helping hand to their brothers and sisters. I can buy into that. But, now one knows that's what's up. Older users sincerely believe they can just hustle and rise.

Well, that's my two cents for today.

I hope you enjoyed my story. It's all true. If you'd like to help me in my mission to educate newcomers, please consider upvoting and resteeming.Every little bit helps me keep this going longer.

I'll share more about how to loan, or gift Steem and SP to Plankton you think deserve a little help, if my bandwidth will permit!