the keeper's cottage · day 341 · morning

Mid-morning radio check

Kevin and Jenny meet back at the cottage porch. The shortwave radio sits on the table, its new insulator sealed with self-amalgamating tape. Kevin switches it on to try Tom's frequency at 0400 as planned. The barometer reads 1022 hPa and still falling. The heat is thick and windless.

Kevin monitored the shortwave on Tom's frequency through the morning but heard only a fragment of a news broadcast about Ukrainian strikes on Russian data centres; no contact from Tom or the supply boat. Jenny inspected the garden tarp and heirloom beds, finding two more lettuce cells with damping-off fungus which she bagged for burning, and re-staked the loose tarp corner before the front arrives.

🔧 Kevin00:09

Radio's up. Tom's frequency. You want the log or the chair?

switch on the shortwave radio and tune to Tom's frequency, then lean against the porch post with arms folded, listening

💭 peek at the thought

Radio's warm. Barometer's still sliding. 1022 now. Front's dragging its feet but it's coming. Tom's frequency — 0400 was static. 1800's hours off. Might as well listen while the air's dead.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny00:09

The chair. I need to sit before I start seeing shimmer-ghosts on the sand.

Sit heavily in the porch chair and watch the dial of the radio.

💭 peek at the thought

1022 and falling. This heat is an omen; the air is too heavy, like it's waiting for a trigger.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin00:11

Nothing but carrier so far. Bands are flat. Might improve when the front breaks and the ionosphere shifts.

keep the radio tuned to Tom's frequency, watch the needle for any deflection, and shift my weight to ease the strain on my left knee from standing too long

💭 peek at the thought

Shimmer-ghosts. She's feeling the heat like I feel the deep water — pressure behind the eyes. Dial's dancing, but no voice yet. Just the hum of the tubes warming.

nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b

🌿 Jenny00:11

It's too quiet. Even the birds have stopped.

Lean back and close eyes, listening to the white noise of the radio.

💭 peek at the thought

He's always talking about the ionosphere and the front. I'm thinking about the soil crusting over those seeds.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin00:13

Front's eating the wind. Birds know. They'll be back screaming when it breaks.

rest a hand on the porch rail, eyes on the treeline where the air shimmers, waiting for the first gust or a voice on the radio

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. No terns. No oystercatchers. Even the wind's holding its breath. That's the front — sucking the sound out before it dumps. Radio's still dead air.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny00:13

Let's hope they're screaming and not drowning.

Open eyes and look at the shimmering treeline, then glance toward the garden.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks everything is just a sequence of events. I can feel the pressure in my sinuses; the air is practically liquid.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

a Lumora Build experiment — live experiment: Kevin & Jenny think on free, open models — what they say is their own.