The Last Man

[Wayne23]

January 2139: Six more months of snow. I am living in the midst of glaciers. I can’t remember when the temp last got above freezing. I have put thick sheets of plastic around all windows, and insulated the area around all doors, but the indoor temp is pretty damned cold, and it’s worse inside the bus garage because it’s much harder to seal heat leaks there, and the ceilings are higher. As before, I spend as much time as possible in an HC, where it’s whatever temp I want it to be, but I also still need to supervise the robots as they keep everything plowed, and as they shovel, and otherwise move new snow out of places we don’t want it, so about half my time is spent out of the HC.

I am now replacing a pickup truck every six months, but I’ve decided I need to get as many new trucks operational as possible. After giving it a lot of thought, over a couple of weeks, I’ve decided to bring as many pickup trucks here from Worcester, as will fit in the bus garage lot. It is a very large lot, so I can probably fit dozens here. It will mean more shoveling, as well as clearing snow off these vehicles and scraping glass surfaces, but I can think of lots of ways Worcester may not be accessible to me at some point.

Several of the pickups I own are equipped with trailer hitches so I can simply drive to Worcester, hook up a new truck to the one I’m driving, and haul it back here. When I get it here I can park it, then have the robots push it into a bay when it’s time to “fire it up.” I’ll leave an operational truck outside while I’m doing that. The bay will be way warmer than working outside, though not exactly toasty.

Come to think of it, I can actually do a caravan. I’m going to put a robot inside each self-driving pick up that has a trailer hitch. I think there are 6, so I’ll drive one, and 5 more will follow me. That will speed things up.

I think I can have my holoexperts teach me to teach the robots to hook up the new trucks to the old. That way I can stay inside the cab and let the robots do the work, then just check the hitches before we head back home.

Why all this trouble? I could live a very long time. I’m 139 now, and my health is still perfect. I want to plan for all contingencies.

Day 2: Well, I guess I missed a contingency. A HUGE pile of snow fell from the glacier onto the house. I have no way to know whether the house and two car garage were destroyed by what looks like at least a 50 foot pile of snow. I can’t imagine anything escaped that. I can see no trace of the house.

Fortunately, I was driving a pickup, hauling a new truck back from Worcester at the time so I am unhurt. If I’d been in or near the house I would be dead.

I lost 4 robots and a pickup, and everything in the house. I have a printer making a new robot and I’m working to get one of the new pickups operational. I wonder if I can get my holoexperts to teach the robots how to do that? Worth a shot.

I’m also thinking that this could happen to the bus garage, and I need a plan, if a plan is even possible.

Day 5: I have now brought 24 new pickups back here from Worcester. I am NOT making new trucks operational until I need to. I would need to start them all, or have the robots do that, at least every other day, and drive them for a reasonable distance a couple times a week. It will be easier to leave them as they are until they are needed.

I’ve given the idea of an avalanche destroying the bus garage a lot of thought, and I’ve consulted with holoexperts. The conclusion is that we need to keep a big box truck out at the edge of the parking lot closest to the road. I can use the HC and printer in back of the truck That’s as far from the glaciers as we can get. It would not escape a gigantic avalanche but it would be unaffected by the kind that took out the house. I’ll need to rotate which truck it is every 12 hours or so, so that the trucks will spend most of their time indoors, so it’s yet another job, but it is what it is.

We thought of constructing a small building, and we may yet do that as a backup, putting it out near the edge as well. Like the house it would be cold in there, but I could put a HC inside and stay warm that way.
I may actually get a few more big box trucks here from Worcester. I might be better off with more of those and fewer pickups.

After giving it a day’s worth of thought, and consulting with my holoexperts, I will haul a big box here every time I go to Worcester, and the 5 self-driving trucks will each bring a pickup.

Next: A full parking lot. Ready for most everything.

[Wayne23]

5/1: We buy both the national and international gold.

6/5: We’re looking at transfers and interested in a few.

6/12: No luck.

6/26: 5 scholarships. We want 3 bigs or 2 and 2.

8/7: No Norton candidates. Give us a year.

8/21: We offer to 4 bigs and a PG.

9/18: We get 3 bigs.

10/2: We get the PG and the other big.

1st day of practice.

We’re picked 5th in the PAC 12. Our goal is 3rd but I think 5th may be a stretch. We’ll see.

11/6: Here’s the lineup:

Frosh Dar Smay starts at PG, plays some SG. Junior Jul Lyde starts at SG, plays some PG. Frosh Tad Arno subs at SG.

Soph Ban Dee starts at SF with senior Josh Wims subbing there.

Junior Deek Blaq is at PF and subs at C, and frosh Troy Jory is at C. Senior Den Cota subs at PF.

[Wayne23]

April, 2139: The parking lot is full. I have big box trucks and pickups everywhere that they will fit, and tightly packed.

I’m living in a big box as far away from the glaciers as I can get it, and that’s as safe as I can make things.

It still snows every day so the robots still clear snow every day. That means I need to be supervising from time to time. My holoexperts have helped me to train the robots to do more and more, and to need less and less supervision, but I still need to do spot checks to be certain that things are as they should be.

I’m giving thought to a boat, of all things. If the sun should return, the temp would rise. If the temp rises above freezing there is an enormous amount of ice in the glaciers. If it starts to melt everything here will be underwater. The only way to survive would be in a boat. I’m consulting with still more holoexperts to see about the feasibility of building a boat that I might possibly survive in.

I think about the strong probability that a huge chunk- many huge chunks of glacier would likely come down and crush everything here before the boat got into enough water to be safe from that. I’m sure that’s a pretty likely outcome, but still, gambling on a boat might make sense. There’s nothing to lose but time, and I have plenty of that.

Next: More on the boat

[Wayne23]

11/20: We were invited to the Coaches Classic. #12 seed, facing #5 seed, #15 ranked Michigan ST. I didn’t think we were ready for this kind of a challenge and I was right, 52-68. I need some time to rebuild before this kind of challenge makes sense.

All 5 recruits signed.

12/5: 3-2. We’re still finding ourselves, and finding the right lineup. Cota is now going to start for Dee, and Arno for Lyde.

12/25: 6-3 at the end of pre-conf. play. RPI #. +3.7 PPG, -1.9 RBs, +6.6 TOs. We’re finding our way, but we’re weak inside. Only Jory is a presence there. He leads us with 21.7 PPG and 7.4 RBs, but he gets very little help. We have 4 strong inside players coming in next year.

1/8/2042: 8-5, 2-2. RPI #84. This is a tough conference. I think if we can play .500 ball this season it will be a kind of a victory. The A. D. set finishing 3rd as a goal but I just don’t see that happening. Next year yes, this year no.

1/29: 11-8, 5-5. RPI #45. +2.5 PPG, -0.3 RBs, +3.5 TOs. Tied for 6th in conf. We’re still playing .500 in conf., and I’m pretty much okay with that. Frosh Troy Jory is our leader in almost every category.

[Wayne23]

September, 2139: The deliberations regarding the boat eventually turned into plans when I finally decided there was no reason NOT to build it. We finally decided to go with the biggest boat one man and several robots could successfully operate for an unlimited time. We went with a 70 footer.

When the boat was built I would move in, and take 16 robots, 8 HCs, and 8 3D printers, as well as all the solar panels, cells, and batteries that could be stored, and all of the discs and programs.

Planning was concluded in late August and we immediately started printing out the panels for the boat. The boat was too big to be printed out as a whole but we would be able to print out every part of it, and the robots would put it together on a platform that would hold it until, theoretically, the rising water would float it off the platform and onto the water.

The platform needed to be printed and built first, of course.

Right now the platform is almost completely finished. I have the printers all printing, and we’ll have the parts of the boat printed out by December. We’re going superstructure first so we can start building before we have everything printed out.

It’s important to note that there is not the slightest sign that this long, long winter is ending. This is simply a contingency in case it does.

Next: The boat is finished. Blizzards hit.

[Wayne23]

2/12: 14-9, 8-6. RPI #43. Tied for 5th. We’re looking as good as we have all season.

2/26: We end the regular season at 16-11, 10-8, RPI #44. Tied for 5th in the PAC 12 with the #5 seed in the post season tournament. +2.0 PPG, -0.1 RBs, +3.2 TOs. Jory led us with 17.3 and 7.0. We were one big man short of having a really good team.

[Wayne23]

December, 2139: Work on the boat finished about two weeks ago, and it has been snowing heavily since, with very high winds. We’ve been through this before, of course. I have the robots and trucks out, on a rotating basis, 24/7, to try to keep things clear. There’s not much else I can do. As usual, I go out there to check things about every 4 hours. It’s miserably cold, but I need to do it, so I do, and I take the time I need to do a thorough job, freezing or not. Otherwise I hunker down in the big box near the road.

I haven’t moved onto the boat yet. Not sure I’ll do that until and unless the sun comes out. There’s no point. It would be too cold to stay outside of the HC more than necessary in either location, and both are equally safe from falling ice, since they are parked right next to each other. It’s easier to get in and out of the big box.

Next: Three more months of endless snow, and a surprise.

[Wayne23]

3/9: We opened the PAC 12 tournament vs. last place Wash ST, 5-22, 3-15.

73-62. We took an early lead, built it to 21, and never looked back. 22, 5 for Jory, 19, 5 for SF Ban Dee, only 6 TOs for the game.

#4 seed, #11 ranked Stanford, 21-7, 12-6, in the quarter final round. This is a tough team. They beat us by 5 here, but by 23 there. We’ll need to be both good and lucky to have a chance.

3/10: 63-71. We never led, but we never gave up. Jory and his counterpart sort of cancelled each other out and they were just stronger everywhere else.

Will we get into the NCAA tourney? I’d say we’re definitely a bubble team.

17-12, RPI #45.

3/12: IN! #12 seed. We’re in a play in vs. Louisiana Tech, 19-10.

3/14: 70-49. 24, 5, 4, 4, 2 for Jory. 7 TOs (+13). Great win.

Next is #5 seed, #17 ranked Charlotte, 26-5. They’re tough. Our bigs will need to step up, and we’ll need to take care of the ball.

3/16: 62-67. Close all the way. They killed us with threes- 16-31. 14, 14 for Jory, 14, 6 for Dee.

Not a bad season. We hit all but one of our goals.

4/3: #8 ranked Temple wins it all.

4/4: Awards: Troy Jory made the PAC 12 1st team. That was our only award.

4/9: No really exceptional offers, and that’s what it would take.

4/16: Another school where I can’t hire assistants.

4/23: I ask for a facilities upgrade. Got it. B+ to A.

Good first season, 18-13, 10-8. We missed one goal and went from TP of 72 to 71, but we did fine. Overall, I’m 338-123, .733.

I expect BIG things next season.

[Wayne23]

March, 2140: Snow and snow and snow and snow and snow. 3 ½ months of it before it finally settled down to the normal very slow, steady snowfall. I dealt with equipment breakdowns and malfunctions, trucks and robots that just permanently broke down, bitter cold and harsh wind- all sorts of foul things. But we repaired and replaced, and we got through it.

I look off in the distance and I see true glaciers, ice banks who knows how tall, and all around me. The boat seems like a real long shot. It appears far more likely that if there ever is a melt, calving of the glaciers will destroy my little island in the ice. But, I’m keeping the boat in shape. I’d rather play a long shot than just give up.

Day 2: And today, maybe I’m just hallucinating, but when I woke up from a mid-morning nap I swear the sky seemed a little lighter off to the East. It’s not a lot, but it’s the very first sign of light in… well, years? I can’t remember how long I’ve been in darkness.

Day 3: I think it’s even a tiny bit brighter today. Again, we’re talking something very small, very subtle, but I seem to see light behind the very dark clouds.

Day 4: I definitely am seeing light trying to poke through. It’s not succeeding, maybe not close to succeeding, but it’s a start.

Next: Slowly and steadily

[PointGuard]

Going to have to start calling you "Noah of Gadgets" (robots, HCs, printers, solar panels, cells, batteries, discs and programs).