The Last Man

[Wayne23]

September, 2133: I waited and waited and waited for the snow to melt enough for me to be able to, first get to the bus garage, and eventually, get to Worcester to get the 4 self-driving pickup trucks with plows attached.

It finally started to warm up in August. The sun actually poked through slightly a few times, for the first time in nearly two years. It was enough to finish melting the snow. Once that happened I got the bus garage in shape, and returned some HCs and 3D printers to that location, and got ready to drive to Worcester.

The plan was to take 8 robots, using the big box truck to get there. That way I would also have a 3D printer and HC along. I wasn’t sure what, if anything, I would need the printer for, but better to have it than not to have it. The HC would allow me to go in to consult with my holoexperts as needed, and even to bring parts in to show them. As it turned out I spent quite a lot of time with the experts.

The robots were programmed to get the trucks going- replace solar cells, panels, and batteries, change all the fluids and belts, get good tires on the vehicles, and do whatever else needed to be done. With two robots working on each vehicle, under my supervision, I had hoped we could get the 4 trucks operational in a day.

It took three days, but it happened, and the caravan drove back to my bus garage. I got the 4 pickups into bays, and when the snow started falling again we’d be ready.

With the sun beginning to make an appearance I dared to hope that the frequency and amount of snowfall might lessen, but time would tell.

So after another period of working too hard, I decided to do as little as I could get away with for a while, and I spent two weeks all but living on the yacht. It felt good!

Next: A calm fall and early winter.

[Wayne23]

3/9: #8 seed California, 14-14, 8-10, won their play in so we play them in the round of 8. We beat them by 25 here, then 16 there.

3/10: 80-54. A walk in the park. 14, 17, 3, 2, 5 for Myer. 4 others had 10 or more. +26 RBs. We’re #2 in the country in rebounding.

We meet #4 seed Stanford, 19-9, 12-6, in the semis. We beat them by 21 there.

3/11: 91-65. Another blowout. 19, 5, 5 for Herr, 17, 4, 6 for Kim, 11, 12, with 6 blocks for Myer. +11 RBs.

#3 seed, #13 ranked Oregon, 24-7, 15-3, for the title. Their starting SF tore an ACL two games ago. We beat them by 17 here. A win would guarantee a #1 seed in the big dance.

3/12: 65-55, in a game that wasn’t that close. We jumped out to an early lead and stretched it to 16. It was 14 at the half, and 10 was as close as it got in the 2nd. 17, 9 for Kim, 15, 7 for Herr, 10, 11 for Myer with 5 blocks, 13, 5 for Hong. +14 RBs, +6 TOs.

27-3, 17-1, regular season and tourney champs, #3, RPI #1. We have to be a #1 seed, possibly #1 overall with that RPI.

#2 overall, #1 Midwest. We play #16 seed Long Beach ST, 19-11.

3/16: 80-65. They actually took an early lead, and got it to 9. They were up 5 at the half. Their bench was killing us. We adjusted in the locker room and won the 2nd half by 20. 17, 7, 6, 5 for Kim. After the game I told my guys that this was lesson. Keep your focus or you can wind up at home very quickly.

#9 seed Indiana, 20-11, in the 2nd round. Down year for them but they’re tough inside.

3/18: 56-58. Never more than a 7 point lead by either team. At the end they had the last possession and they managed to score. 26, 7 for Kim.

A very disappointing way to end the season. We expected a lot more than this.

3/26: On a brighter note we get our last 2 recruits.

4/3: #12 Cincinnati won it all.

4/4: Awards: Frosh Mal Kim and Cy Myer made PAC 12 1st team. Senior Lal Herr made 2nd, and I got COY.

4/9: Crappy offers yet again. Here for another year.

4/23: We ask for a budget increase and get $13,000.

28-4, 17-1. Great season until the NCAA tournament. Overall, I’m 254-101, .715, in 11 seasons.

7 very good players coming back, and 6 recruits.

[Wayne23]

January, 2134: It has been just what I needed, a calm few months. We’re getting sun most days, not really strong, but it is breaking through, and that is wonderful.

The little snow we have gotten has been an inch, 2 at the most, with no storm dropping more than that yet. The winds are calm, and I don’t think the temp has fallen below 20 yet, and it is usually in the 30s and 40s. Just lovely weather.

Everything that needed fixing is fixed, everything is cleaned up. I’ve taken a plow to Northampton, so I can now get to both Worcester and Northampton, the two places I sometimes need or really want to get to.

There has been plenty of yacht time, and I’ve even had time to get to my other favorite HC programs, and even some that I use less often.

I was really running on fumes for a while but now I’m feeling great. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking for any unnecessary excitement. It can stay like this for years and I would be just fine with that.

Next: June, 2135: Still calm. Health update.

[Wayne23]

5/1: West Coast Gold, national and international basic.

Guard Kent Reid transfers out. Fortunately, we’re strong at guard.

6/5: Looking at transfers.

6/12: We get a PF and an SG, both of which are gambles.

6/26: 4 scholarships.

8/7: 3 on the Norton List: PG Mal Kim is #21, PF Joe Hong is #27, and C Cy Myer is #31.

8/21: We offer to 2 PGs, 2 bigs.

9/18: Lost a recruit.

We’re in the WS Midwest Invitational vs. Charlotte.

Challenging schedule.

9/25: Got a PG, lost 2 bigs. We offer to 2 others.

10/2: Got a PF.

1st day of practice. I like what I see.

11/6: 8 man rotation:

Soph Mal Kim starts at PG, plays a little SG. The rest of the guard time is not settled.

Senior Jon Watt will start at SG. Juco junior Ty Walk will back up at SG, and frosh Mike Grif will back up at PG. The guard situation will need to work itself out.

We’re also split at SF. Senior Tim Wags will start, and will sub at PF and C, and senior Cap Judd will back up at SF.

We’re solid inside with soph Joe Hong returning at PF, and soph Cy Myer returning at C.

We’re picked to finish 3rd in the PAC 12.

[Wayne23]

June, 2135: The long peaceful spell has continued, and I’ve just relaxed and enjoyed myself. I yacht, as always, play my games, coach my team, live my life. I have no doubt trouble will find me again at some point, but the longer it stays away the happier I’ll be.

I’ve been doing more cooking than usual. I have the time, it’s something I enjoy.

A word about my health. It has been a century since I’ve had a cold, a sore throat, an intestinal flu- any illness at all. I’ve had injuries, which I’ve reported on, but as to illness, it simply doesn’t happen. I don’t think about it, but once in a while it occurs to me., When that happens I think about how awful all of those illnesses were and what a great deal it is to live without ever having them.

Next: Darkness descends.

[Wayne23]

11/20: 2-0 start. Ranked #23. Beat the #25 team by 10 at their place. D is solid, rebounding is okay, but we need to take better care of the ball.

Headed for the WS Midwest Invitational. We play 2-0 Charlotte, the #3 seed. We’re #6.

11/21: 86-57. 52-23 at the half. 21 for Kim, 14, 10, 4, 3, 2 for Myer, 15 each for Hong and Judd. 42 RBs.

We play the #2 seed, #17 ranked New Mexico, 4-0, in the semifinals.

11/22: 72-60. 17, 9, 5 for Kim, who has led us in scoring in every single game so far. We led most of the way but it was close for a long time.

#16 Stanford, 4-0, and the #1 seed, for the title. They’re strong outside, we’re strong inside.

11/23: 75-65 and the tourney title! 23, 6, 5, 3 for Kim, who has been terrific. 15, 4, 5 for our SF Tim Wags.

12/11: 8-1, #5, RPI #1. Kim has still been our leading scorer in every single game. Cy Myer is leading the country in RBs.

Still chasing 2 recruits.

12/25: 10-1, #7, RPI #1. +12.9 PPG, +8.0 RBs, +2.9 TOs.

Kim and Myer continue to lead us, and Myer is still #1 in the country in RBs, and he’s #2 in blocks.

[Wayne23]

September, 2135: The quiet continued all through the summer and then on a day in early September, a little after lunch, as I was working on a robot that had stopped working while it was sweeping the driveway, the sun disappeared. It just got night time dark. I have no idea why, but it has stayed dark for 2 ½ weeks now. I searched the data banks in the computer and on what was left of the internet, asked the holoexperts on cosmology, astrophysics, and related subjects, set up a powerful telescope and took a look, but nothing. No data, no reasonable guesses, nothing.

The sun has to be out there because the planet has not frozen. It’s colder than it was, of course, but not deathly cold.

It has snowed a few times since the blackout, and it really hasn’t gotten warmer than about 35 degrees, but it is rarely below 10 degrees.

Not quite sure how I’ll deal with this over the long run, and even less sure whether it is permanent or not.

Next: Still dark and cold, more snow.

[Wayne23]

1/1/2040: 12-1, 2-0. Good start to conf. play.

1/6: Little used sub SF D. J. Owes torn an ACL. He’s a senior, and it is a career ending injury.

1/15: 16-1, 6-0. #4, RPI #1. We beat #3 Arizona by 5 in OT here. Alone in 1st in the PAC 12, 2 up on 4 teams. It’s early though.

Mal Kim continues to lead us in scoring, and Cy Myer is #3 nationally in both RBs and blocks.

TOs are much better but still too high at 13.7. Still, +2.6.

1/29: 19-2, 9-1, #5, RPI #1. We lost by 10 at Oregon after 9 straight in conf., and 13 in a row. +13.1 PPG, +10.3 RBs (#3 in the country), +2.0 TOs.

Mal Kim is #9, and Cy Myer #20 on the Norton list.

We got a PG to commit so now we just have one big guy to corral and we’ll be finished with recruiting.

[Wayne23]

December, 2135: Still “dancing in the dark,” to quote a song that was very old when civilization died. I still listen to old music and very old music. I can’t make music so I get the old stuff. All of the artists I like, popular and classical, are on disks in the HC, so I can listen, and even go to concerts, which I do from time to time.

It’s getting colder. I have a program that automatically tracks temp, wind chill, precipitation, wind speed and direction… Each of the last three months has been colder, wetter, and windier than the month before.

The snows are regular. They are very, very light, but almost continues. I think we get an inch a week, unless there’s a bigger storm, but now it never gets above the high 20s to very low 30s, so the snow never melts.

I am all but fanatic about keeping my four trucks and 16 robots in good shape, and the plows go out every day, clearing a path between the house and bus garage, and plowing my routes to Northampton and Worcester. The fact that the snow is so light means there’s not a great deal of wear and tear on the equipment, so as long as I check it every day, and do regular maintenance, we’re fine.

We’re back to creating artificial sunshine in the HC to run everything, but I know that routine well enough to make it happen, and actually, I have now programmed the robots to remove the solar cells, batteries, and panels, and bring them to the HC to be recharged. I double check though. I try to leave as little as possible to chance.

What do I do? I inspect the area around the house and bus garage. Since the last super volcano killed all reasonably complex life forms it is perfectly safe to do that, but I travel with two robots, again, leaving nothing to chance.

I also check vehicles, robots, everything else that could go wrong. I make sure the robots have taken care of dust, dirt, and debris that could clog up important areas and devices.

I stay alert to anything that might happen.

The rest of the time I play with my cats, cruise on the yacht, and do things in the HC, all of the things I’ve mentioned already. I try to spend lots of time in the Hc using programs that get me “outdoors” and in the “sunlight.”

Next: 6 more months of darkness. My mood.

[Wayne23]

2/12: 23-2, 13-1. #4, RPI #2. Still in 1st, 1 up on #2 Arizona, 4 or more on the rest, so it’s a 2 team race. new play them there on the 17th, and we expect a tough game.

Kim is #10, Myer #15 on the Norton list.

2/17: Huge win over Arizona, 81-78 there. It was a real team effort, close all the way. It came down to one possession. We set a double screen for Kim and he knocked down a 3 with less than a second to go. The win wraps up the #1 seed for the PAC 12 tournament.

2/26: We end the regular season at 27-2, 17-1, #4, RPI #2. +13.9 PPG, +9.6 RBs, +3.2 TOs. 2 up on #3 Arizona, 5 or more on the rest. Terrific regular season. On to the post season!

3/5: We don’t lose anyone to the NBA draft, which is a very pleasant surprise!