The Last Man

[Wayne23]

1/1/2053: 2 easy wins at home to start ACC play.

1/15: 16-1, 6-0, #2, RPI #3. Alone in 1st in the ACC. We’re playing really well right now.

1/29: 20-2, 10-1, #2, RPI #3. +12.6 PPG, +7.8 RBs, +5.6 TOs. Alone in 1st, up by 1 ½ on 2nd.

We lost at home to NC ST by 1.

Love is #11, Deqq #12, Rand #17, and Lack #20 on the Norton list.

2/12: 23-2, 13-1, #3, RPI #2. 3 game lead in the ACC.

Love is #12, Deqq #13 on the Norton list.

2/26: 26-3, 16-2, #2, RPI #2. +13.0 PPG, +8.2 RBs, +5.1 TOs. We win the ACC by 2 over Duke, 4 over Wake Forest.

Love is #1 in the country in RBs, Deqq is #2 in assists. As a team we’re #1 in RBs, #2 in blocks, #4 in PPG, #6 in assists.

3/5: Little used sophomore guard John Poke declares for the draft.

[Wayne23]

November, 2156: Disaster struck last night. We went through the worst storm yet. It was very frightening, and it went on for hours. The kids were all crying and the adults weren’t far from it. Finally, in the middle of the night it ended. We tried to hail the other ship. Radio communications were not answered by the robots. There was nothing we could do but wait for daylight.

Daylight came and the boat was nowhere in sight. The protocol is for the boat to find us after a storm passes, and to stay within visual range.

We searched all day, and hailed constantly. At dusk we had to conclude that the boat had sunk.

This is a huge problem for lots of reasons. First, it means all of us will need to stay on this boat. It has 6 cabins. That means one for Lana and me, one for Kevin and Joy, one for Marcie, and the other three for what will soon be four kids. That’s fine for now but as they grow it will leave us one cabin short. And with all the cabins in use that limits our storage space severely. We need room for the 3D printers, the HCs, the robots, the solar panels, batteries and cells, the discs, and other things. Even finding places to set up a printer and a HC becomes problematic. There’s a galley and a bar in the boat. We use the galley as a dining room and as a place to meet where we can all sit, and we have used the bar for storage all along.

The 2nd boat was vital in so many ways. It gave us a backup boat. It would have allowed some of us to live on each boat as time passed and the kids got bigger. It provided all kinds of backup equipment. There were just as many printers, HCs, robots, solar power things… on the 2nd boat as on the first.

This will make things very difficult. I suppose there’s still some chance that the other boat didn’t sink but it seems very unlikely. There would have been some way for the robots to make contact. Even if all of the robots were lost the boat itself was set up with ways to signal us. The fact that we’ve received no signal tells me the boat is gone. We’ll keep searching but where? In which direction? It seems hopeless. Even if the boat didn’t sink the chance of finding it on a world that is all water is exceedingly slim.

Next: a month of searching

[Wayne23]

3/7: #9 seed Miami, 14-15, 9-9 in the quarters. We beat them by 2 in OT here so we’re taking this seriously.

3/8: 77-55. 18, 5, 4 for Deqq. +10 TOs. It was never close.

#4 seed Virginia, 17-11, 11-7, in the semis. We beat them by 8 there.

3/9: 91-67. 20, 13 for Love, 18, 4, 11 for Rand, 22 for Deqq. +13 RBs. Birn hurt his writs but he’ll play. Not sure how much.

#2 seed, #14 ranked Duke, 23-6, 14-4. We won by 8 at our place.

3/10: 80-77. It was a battle. We took our last lead with 2:01 left, then hit a 3, then 2 from the line to go up 6. They got it to 1 twice, but never had the ball with a chance to go ahead. 23, 4, 4 for Deqq, 18, 10 for Love, 14, 3, 6 for Rand.+10 RBs, but 18 TOs.

3/12: 29-3, 16-2, regular season and tourney ACC champs. #2, RPI #2. I’m thinking #2 over.

As expected, #1 seed in the Midwest. We play Bethune-Cookman, 17-13.

3/16: 75-52. 21 for Deqq, 17, 10 for Birn. +17 RBs, but 15 TOs. We’re not taking care of the ball lately and I’m not happy about it.

#9 seed Villanova, 20-10, in the 2nd round.

3/18: 92-72. All 5 starters in double figures. Love led the way with 18 and 17. +20 RBs.

#4 seed, #8 ranked Charlotte, 27-4 in the Sweet Sixteen. Balance. No real stars. But they do most things well. We think we’re the better team, mostly because we’ve played much tougher teams.

3/23: 73-64. It was 43-18 at the half. The final score was as close as it got. 25, 7, 5 for Rand, 13, 11 for Birn. +11 RBs, 11 TOs.

#10 seed Western Kentucky, 24-10, rode a series of upsets to get to the Elite Eight. Their PG is very good, as is their SF, but we don’t think they can match our talent and depth.

3/25: 89-67. It was close for 33 minutes. We went on a 21-5 run at that point and that was that. 5 in double figures and Love had 14 boards. 10 TOs (+13) made me happy.

#1 overall seed Marquette was trounced, 74-59 by #5 ranked Memphis, so we’ll get a rematch with Memphis in the Final Four. They beat us by 10 there in December. They’re guards and their Center really played well that night. Their SF is also very good. We’re better now but they probably are, too.

On the other side it’s #4 ranked Maryland, 31-4, vs. #18 Oklahoma ST, 26-9.

4/1: 102-99 in OT. What a game! Rand hit a 24 foot three at the end of regulation to send it to OT. Then he hit a 22 footer with less than a second left in OT for the win. He had 25, 4, 7. Love had 17 and 12.
12, 3, 10 for Deqq. All 5 starters on both teams were in double figures. Their SF almost beat us single handed with 41, 8, and 4. When we doubled him they found the open man. We were +10 in TOs, which kept us alive. The turning point may have been when their PG fouled out with 1:52 left in OT. We’re heading for the title game, but it was a near thing!

#4 ranked, #4 RPI Maryland, 32-4, won by 16 so we play them for the title. Their starting PF broke his ankle in the Elite Eight. He was their 2nd leading rebounder and a double figure scorer. Their SF gets 22.7 per game, and their C is excellent. We think we have an edge outside.

4/3: 73-77. We were up 10 at the half, 12 early in the second. And then the wheels fell off. It seems we got whistled on every other play. They went to the line 42 times, we went 18. In the 2nd half they went 29 times, we went 3. They made 36 free throws, we made 12. That should never happen but it positively should never happen in the national title game. Having said that, we shot 25% in the 2nd half. This was a very disappointing loss. The supervisor of officials caught up with me after the game and he actually apologized. That’s never happened to me before. Doesn’t help, of course. I’ve preached this sermon often, but officiated is the one things that drags the game down. It is way, way, WAY too often inconsistent and out of balance. I get the officials miss calls, and I don’t criticize when they just honestly miss one. But when they’re inconsistent I’m all over them, and I should be.

4/4: Awards: Bill Love made 1st team ACC. I thought he should have made 2nd team All American. Kee Deqq and Key Lack made 2nd team ACC. I was conf. COY.

4/9: A lot of good teams are calling but I’m staying here. The climate is changing- for the worse here, as it is in so many places, and I’d certainly be more comfortable in a northern city, but for now, there’s work to be done here.

4/16: We need a #2 assistant. Terrible.

4/23: We ask for another facilities upgrade. No luck.

A great season with a disappointing finish. 34-4. Overall, I’m 690-170, .802 for 25 seasons.

[Wayne23]

December, 2156: We have searched for the boat for the past month and have seen not a trace of it. We’re trying to do all we can to maximize the space we have but let’s face it, there’s not a whole lot more we can do. We can fit everything we need in, but it’s crowded, and at times a lot of things need to be moved to get to whatever it is we need at a given moment.

We’ve decided to stay in this area for now, on the ridiculously small chance that the boat will somehow turn up. We’re only about 300 miles from where we planned to stop, but who knows if that would make a difference.

Marcie is due in February. The pregnancy has gone very smoothly to date. I spend time with her. Lana encourages that, saying Marcie needs it. I mean we all spend time with her, of course, but I’m the father of this child so it’s important for me to do so.

Lacy will turn 4 next month and she’s quite the kid. She’s already reading- not just words, but books, some of them written for 2nd and even 3rd graders. She’s very physically active. She understands about being on deck, and about the dangers of going into the water, but she’s still not allowed to be up there alone. She’s bright enough to argue that the robots are programmed to protect her, and to know if she gets hurt, or falls into the water, but we still want a human with her. Adam is a year and a half and is walking and talking. He tries to tag after his sister whenever he can. She’s good about it most of the time, but she wants her alone time, too, and we provide that by taking Adam off her hands. Max is 4 months old.

Next: A new baby. We give up the search and move on.

[Wayne23]

5/1: The usual reports.

#2 preseason, behind Maryland.

6/5: Nobody in the transfer pool.

6/26: Only one scholarship. We’ll take the best player we can get. Looking at 10 recruits.

8/7: 6 on the Norton list: PF Pat Tras is #4, PG Kee Deqq #14, PF Will Birn #21, SG Kal Barr #22, PF Bry Lock #34, and PG Hal Rand #36.

8/21: We offer to an SG and a C (I cut a guy).

9/18: Got the SG, #3.

Preseason NIT vs. Georgia Tech. Lots of ranked teams.

9/25: Got the C, #10.

10/2: 1st day of practice.

11/6: Here’s the lineup:

Soph Kee Deqq and frosh Kal Barr start at guard, backed by soph Hal Rand, who started last season.

Senior Jam Holi starts at SF.

Soph Will Birn returns to start inside along with frosh Pat Tras.

Backing up inside are juco junior Mick Wams and frosh Bry Lock.

In the latest poll we’re #1 in the nation and in the conference.

[Wayne23]

February, 2157: Amy Lynn is born. She and mom are healthy as can be. Barring the unforeseen this will be our last baby. There simply isn’t room for us to have any more.

We decided a week ago to move on. We should reach our destination in a few days. There’s a great deal of concern about being confined to one boat but we had to face the realization that the likelihood of the other boat having survived the storm was hovering around zero. There were two more violent storms, and that was the final straw. We hope that being a few hundred miles further southeast will help with that.

Four children age four and younger means the five adults are busy people. Child care is a major part of what we do these days. Our regular assignments are (1) childcare, (2) checking the boat for any problems/issues, both those reported by the robots, and any that may have slipped past them, (3) checking that solar cells, panels, and batteries are being regularly recharged by the robots, (4) checking that 3D printers and HCs are operational, (5) supervising and doing any repairs that need to be done, (6) meal prep. Meal clean up, laundry, “house” cleaning and such are done by the robots but we need to check all of that as well. It’s a lot for five people, and it keeps us busy.

Robots help with child care but they are never left alone with a child. That may not be necessary but we’re not taking any chances. There are usually two of us on child care duty, and at night there’s a robot stationed outside the area where Lacy and Adam sleep, since they’re old enough to get out of bed and wander. When they do, the robots send a message to whoever is on standby at the time, while the bot tries to distract the child and keep her/him from getting on deck. This is the one time a robot is allowed to pick a child up; we can’t chance a child getting on deck and going overboard. That has never come close to happening and we want to make damned sure it doesn’t!

So yes, we’re busy, but there is still time for fun. We do things together and on our own during our free hours. I still spend time in the HC on my various programs, and the hoop coaching game is still something we all keep up with. When we get to the post season it becomes a MAJOR topic of interest and discussion. I won the first two seasons but Joy won the third, and Lana the fourth, so everyone is figuring it out, which makes it much more fun. None of us has won a national championship yet; winning means doing best, out of the five of us. There’s a complex formula involving winning pct., winning in conference pct., RPI, and a couple of other things.

All of us are conscious of the importance of keeping fit and we all work at it.

Lana has been suggesting that I should consider the idea of she and Marcie as sister wives. She says the fact that I have children by each of them makes that something that just makes sense. Maybe it does but
I’m not ready for it. I’m not saying it won’t happen, given how extraordinary our circumstances are, but I need to get over a lot of conditioning in order to be open to it.

Next: A potential game changer.

[Wayne23]

11/14: 75-66 over GA Tech in the 1st round of the NIT. It was not as close as the final score; 41-20 at the half. 19, 10 for SF Jam Holi, 10, 12 for C Pat Tras. Three others with 10 or more. +16 RBs but 16 TOs.

#5 seed, #23 ranked UMass in the 2nd round. They beat Texas by 16, so they can play.

11/16: 88-78. 27, 8 for SG Kal Barr, 22 for PG Kee Deqq. 9 TOs (+16), but -4 RBs.

#3 guard Hal Rand hurt his knee but it’s not serious. He’s day to day.

#16 seed Texas A & M beat #1 seed Duke and #8 seed Kentucky. We play them in the semifinal. Their SG and SF have been on fire.

11/18: 80-59. We were up 3 at the half. I raised all kinds of hell. We had a plan for stopping the SG and the SF and they hadn’t followed it in the 1st despite my calling two time outs, and talking about it during all of the media time outs. I told them I would pull the starters the next time one of those two scored, if it happened in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half; I then went over the plan one more time. It didn’t happen; one of them scored after 7 ½ minutes but by then we were up by 19. Those two guys scored 29 points in the first half, 8 in the second. 28, 14 for Tras. 56 RBs, 6 TOs.

#3 seed, #7 ranked Oklahoma in the title game. This is our first big test of the season. Their SG and PF lead them. They can play.

Both recruits sign.

11/20: 73-74. They had a lot of weapons and we had trouble stopping them all. We out rebounded them but 17 TOs really hurt. They went to the line 27 times and we went 11, but they were quicker, and we fouled when a guy got past our defender. I can’t fault the refs for the calls. I got upset at some non-calls on OU, but the refs didn’t beat us tonight. It’s early in the season. \We’ll teach our kids to play better
D. We have a lot of young players on this team. 16, 6, 10 for Deqq, but he had 9 TOs. He’s a veteran; he should know better. 14, 11, 3 for Holi.

12/4: 7-1, #3, RPI #2. Balanced scoring. Our starters average between 14.5 and 9.3. We have three very good subs.

12/25: 11-1, #2, RPI #1. +10.3 PPG, +6.9 RBs, +5.9 TOs. We just beat undefeated, #3 Maryland by 16. Only Oklahoma, who beat us by 1 is ahead of us. #1 in RBs, #2 in blocks, #4 in TOs, #8 in PPG. 4 guys do
the bulk of our scoring- 15.2 for Barr, 14.3 for Tras, 13.7 for Holi, 12.8 for Deqq.

[Wayne23]

July, 2157: We reached our destination three days ago. I don’t know that there’s anything magical about it, but it’s about as far as we thought we could get from the origin points of all the storms, give or take a hundred miles. We planned to cruise a little in the general area, but we thought this was where we would stay.

And then two days ago we spotted something way off in the distance. Whatever it was, it was either very large or very far away. We “pinged” it to get the distance, and it was very large, based on that, maybe about 8-10 times our size. Further long distance probing told us the object itself was not alive, so what was it? An aircraft carrier? An iceberg that had mostly melted?

We headed in its direction, slowly.

Three hours later it was clearly visible, and we knew what it was- a cruise ship. In the 2040s and 2050s, while society was falling apart, new cruise ships were being built- It had become a “haves and have nots” kind of society-worldwide, with an all but non-existent middle class, and the wealthy wanted their toys. The generation before had produced cruise ships that were not as stable as they should have been. If they happened to encounter rough weather they were in trouble, and in very rough weather, they sank- well, two of them did. So these newer ships were redesigned with safety in mind. They were smaller than the gigantic ships that preceded them, but they weren’t going to have as many passengers, so that didn’t matter. And not many were built, 3 or 4, as I recall. But they had every conceivable luxury- huge cabins, by shipboard standards, luxurious dining rooms, ball rooms, game rooms, gambling rooms, HC rooms… The best of everything. And they were all but unsinkable.

The ship we encountered was one of these. It was dead in the water, its engines and such having given out long ago no doubt, but if we could find a way to repair it, most of our worries would be over. It would be all but unsinkable, as I said, and given that it was designed for more than 1000 passengers we’d have plenty of room. Oh, it was a little more than 700 feet long. In the old days that would have meant more than twice as many passengers as this ship had, but again, huge, luxurious staterooms.

These latter day ships were served by crews that were more than 90% robots. Only supervisors and waitstaff were human. It seems people had never quite trusted robotic waiters and bartenders.

We had lots of big tasks in front of us but we were going to do everything we possibly could to get this big bird operational.

Step one was getting on board- not all of us, that would need to wait until the ship was working, but a few of our most mechanically programmed robots, and me. I was way more technically savvy than anyone else, so I was the logical choice. We also had to get a working HC and a working 3D printer on board. Maybe lots of printers, if we couldn’t get the ones on the cruise ship going, but that was for later. The HC was so I didn;t need to go back and forth to consult my holoexperts.

After giving the problem a lot of thought, and consulting with those holoexperts, we managed to modify one of our robots. We gave it some pretty amazing climbing skills. We found the best spot on the ship for it to scale its way up the side and onto the deck, and set it loose. It got about ¾ of the way up, and fell into the water. We retrieved it, and worked to improve the design and the climbing ability.

Three days, and 11 failures later, we finally managed to design a robot that was able to get on board. We then replicated the design with three other robots, and got them on board.

At that point we had the ability to lower a lifeboat, which the robots did. We loaded a HC and a 3D printer into the lifeboat, I climbed in, and the lifeboat was raised onto the deck of the cruise ship. It was a wobbly ascent, and a couple of times I thought I might go for an unscheduled swim, but the boat made it.

Ten days later: There was a LOT of work to be done. We began by checking out the engines. There was nothing seriously wrong with them. They needed to be thoroughly cleaned, and they needed their solar panels and batteries replaced. As with most everything else designed during that era they ran on solar power.

At the same time we were looking to the engines we worked on getting the ship’s robots back into operation. I knew that some would be salvageable and some would not. It turned out that about 50% were salvageable. Given that there were hundreds of them this would take a long time, but as we brought them back to life we programmed them to work on the other robots to bring them back to operational condition. As we did that we got the new ones working, mostly cleaning up. The entire ship was filthy, due to decades of neglect, as well as exposure to sea air. We were not going below the fourth deck for anything not directly related to keeping the ship operational. We would inspect every inch of the ship, right down to the very bottom, and would do that regularly, but we wouldn’t need anything below the fourth deck- quite possibly ever. Still, we needed to clean absolutely everything, just as a matter of disease prevention. There was mold and mildew everywhere. This was a gigantic task, and even when the hundreds of robots had been put into use it would take some time.

By this point we felt like we could successfully get the ship going, but it would be a while- maybe quite a while. There was lots to do, beyond just the engines and the clean up. I didn’t want to bring everyone on board until the ship was 100% “ship shape.”

As we got more and more 3D printers operational we were able to print things we would need. We decided we'd live on the 3rd deck, in the most luxurious cabins, all of which were on that deck. There’s all kinds of interesting stuff on the decks below, but we can replicate all of it in the holochambers. There’s even a cruise ship program in there that has even more luxurious stuff than this ship has.

We needed to print out new mattresses. No one wants to sleep on mattresses that had been abandoned for all those decades at sea. There was mold and mildew everywhere. The same held true for bedding, linens, towels- well, most everything. Some things could be cleaned but lots were simply too disgusting to bother with. They would be disposed of.

It seemed like every day we discovered some new tasks that had to be done.

Meanwhile, on our now very small seeming 80 foot boat, life went on. It went on without me most days. I spent 10-12 hours on board the cruise ship. I didn’t spend all that time working, but I wanted to be on board whenever work was being done.

Anyway, on our boat, the other four adults did child care and kept the boat running. Lana and Joy were the most mechanically inclined among the four so I had taught them all I could, and they supervised the robots who kept our boat going.

We had decided that we would keep that boat operational, and have it stay near the cruise ship once we moved. We liked the idea of a backup.

Next: A month later. Progress.

[Wayne23]

11/14: 75-66 over GA Tech in the 1st round of the NIT. It was not as close as the final score; 41-20 at the half. 19, 10 for SF Jam Holi, 10, 12 for C Pat Tras. Three others with 10 or more. +16 RBs but 16 TOs.

#5 seed, #23 ranked UMass in the 2nd round. They beat Texas by 16, so they can play.

11/16: 88-78. 27, 8 for SG Kal Barr, 22 for PG Kee Deqq. 9 TOs (+16), but -4 RBs.

#3 guard Hal Rand hurt his knee but it’s not serious. He’s day to day.

#16 seed Texas A & M beat #1 seed Duke and #8 seed Kentucky. We play them in the semifinal. Their SG and SF have been on fire.

11/18: 80-59. We were up 3 at the half. I raised all kinds of hell. We had a plan for stopping the SG and the SF and they hadn’t followed it in the 1st despite my calling two time outs, and talking about it during all of the media time outs. I told them I would pull the starters the next time one of those two scored, if it happened in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half; I then went over the plan one more time. It didn’t happen; one of them scored after 7 ½ minutes but by then we were up by 19. Those two guys scored 29 points in the first half, 8 in the second. 28, 14 for Tras. 56 RBs, 6 TOs.

#3 seed, #7 ranked Oklahoma in the title game. This is our first big test of the season. Their SG and PF lead them. They can play.

Both recruits sign.

11/20: 73-74. They had a lot of weapons and we had trouble stopping them all. We out rebounded them but 17 TOs really hurt. They went to the line 27 times and we went 11, but they were quicker, and we fouled when a guy got past our defender. I can’t fault the refs for the calls. I got upset at some non-calls on OU, but the refs didn’t beat us tonight. It’s early in the season. \We’ll teach our kids to play better D. We have a lot of young players on this team. 16, 6, 10 for Deqq, but he had 9 TOs. He’s a veteran; he should know better. 14, 11, 3 for Holi.

12/4: 7-1, #3, RPI #2. Balanced scoring. Our starters average between 14.5 and 9.3. We have three very good subs.

12/25: 11-1, #2, RPI #1. +10.3 PPG, +6.9 RBs, +5.9 TOs. We just beat undefeated, #3 Maryland by 16. Only Oklahoma, who beat us by 1 is ahead of us. #1 in RBs, #2 in blocks, #4 in TOs, #8 in PPG. 4 guys do the bulk of our scoring- 15.2 for Barr, 14.3 for Tras, 13.7 for Holi, 12.8 for Deqq.

1/1/2054: 2 wins to start ACC play. And we’re ranked #1!

1/15: 17-1, 6-0, #1, RPI #1.

1/29: 21-2, 10-1, #1, RPI #1. +11.4 PPG, +6.6 RBs, +5.8 TOs. Tied for 1st in the ACC with Duke.

Kee Deqq is #12, Kal Barr #13, and Pat Tras #17 on the Norton list.

The same 4 guys are still doing the bulk of the scoring. Pat Tras gets 9.0 boards per game.

We lost to Clemson by 3 there.

2/12: 24-2, 13-1, #1, RPI #1. Deqq is #13, Tras #14, and Barr #15 on the Norton list.

2/26: 28-2, 17-1, #1, RPI #1. +14.4 PPG, +8.2 RBs, +6.1 TOs. We win the ACC by 2 over Duke, 4 over Virginia, 7 or more over the rest. The 4 who have scored all year for us, Barr, Deqq, Tras, and Holi account for 53 a game. Tras is #2 in the nation in RBs with 9.6. We’re #1 in RBs, #2 in PPG and blocks, #3 in TOs.

3/5: We lose 3 to the NBA draft: starting SG Kal Barr, PF Bry Lock our first big off the bench, and PF Ken Tric, who didn’t play much. Better than it could have been.

[Wayne23]

August, 2157: We’re making progress getting the cruise ship ready for occupancy. I didn’t mention it last time but I wear a hazmat suit over there. Once I got below the top level on the first day, and saw how much mold, mildew, and general filth there was- everywhere, I had the 3D printer make me a hazmat suit, and, annoying as it is, I put it on before going over to the ship every day, and take it off in a special changing room in an HC as soon as I get back on board our boat. Occasionally I stay overnight on the ship. When I do that I follow the same procedure, and sleep in the HC.

I’m doing all that I can to stay healthy in a very toxic environment, and all that I can to detox the ship 100% before anyone else comes on board.

We’re making steady progress, and my hope is that in another month or two the job will be finished, but it’s a big ship, and we need to detox every single millimeter of it.

I have about 50 robots on the job, and a program that detoxes them when they finish the day, which is when I decide I can’t keep going any longer. As I’ve said I don’t want them working when I’m not available to supervise. They are all programmed to report anything out of the ordinary, and there are multiple alarms every single day. Some are false alarms but many have to do with things that need attention and repair. Even the tiniest possible problem is reported; I set the robots’ alarms to the most sensitive level.

We’re working top to bottom, and as we get further down I expect more trouble. There may be standing water down there, minor leaks, cracks, or other problems with the hull, who knows what all else. So far every problem we’ve found has been solvable, most of them easily, if not quickly. We’re on level 8 of 11 right now, but each level takes more time and trouble than the one above it did.

The kids are doing what kids do, growing too quickly. When I finish my work and get back to the boat I always make time to spend with all of them. Same thing in the morning before I go over to the ship. I also spend time with Lana and Marcie, who did become my sister wives after all. I wasn’t comfortable with that, but realized I needed to get over it or Marcie would be in a situation that would very probably lead her to be very unhappy, and quite possibly even clinically depressed. As it is, she and Lana are absolutely best friends, and everyone is happy.

There have been storms, and there’s lots of rain, but none of the storms have been either extreme or dangerous since we got here. That’s a very good thing!

Next: A new home.