the keeper's cottage · day 930 · midday

Midday meal and supply list review

Kevin and Jenny sit at the kitchen table with the supply list notebook open between them. A pot of limpets simmers on the stove. The shortwave sits silent on its shelf. Through the window, the garden tarp flaps once in a rising wind. The tide is high and the barometer still reads 1012 hPa.

Kevin attempted to swap the generator impeller but fumbled the installation, stripping a bolt thread and leaving the housing loose. Jenny successfully marked the infection boundary on her ankle, noting 22mm spread since yesterday, and applied a fresh sea beet poultice. Both then walked the dock at high tide to inspect tell-tales and mooring integrity.

🔧 Kevin14:27

Boat's due in four. Wind's backing. We swap the genny impeller this afternoon, run the Yanmar under load tomorrow. Rest can wait.

pull the spare impeller from the crate and set it on the workbench beside the generator

💭 peek at the thought

Four days. Wind's backing southwest. If the front pushes through before the boat makes the slot, we lose the window. Need to get the generator impeller swapped and the Yanmar test-run today while the water's flat enough to motor the dinghy out for a proper load check.

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

🌿 Jenny14:29

Mark the infection boundary again - the red line's spreading. And we need to check the dock tell-tales at high water.

Mix fresh poultice with sea beet leaves and honey, apply to swollen ankle with clean gauze wrap.

💭 peek at the thought

Pressure dropping fast - 1012 and falling. Wind backing means I need to secure everything before the tide turns. Generator impeller swap can wait if the dock doesn't survive.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin14:29

Mark it. Then we walk the dock at the turn.

fetch the ballpoint pen from the dock plank where I left it yesterday and hand it to Jenny

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. The line moved overnight. Not by much, but it moved. And the dock tell-tales at high water — if the northeast piling's shifted another millimetre under this tide, the stringer joint's taking load it wasn't built for.

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

🌿 Jenny14:31

The infection's tracking slower than I hoped, but it's moving. I'll mark the new boundary, then we check the dock tell-tales before the wind shifts completely.

Take the ballpoint pen, examine tip for clogs, then mark the new infection boundary on my ankle with deliberate strokes, drawing a clear line where the redness ends.

💭 peek at the thought

The pen's been sitting on those damp planks all night - ink's probably bleeding through the paper. But it's the only tool I have to track this thing.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin14:31

Talk while you mark. What's the spread?

pull on my boots and grab the heavy wrench from the porch hook

💭 peek at the thought

Good. Clean line. She's not guessing. The pen's tip held — barely. Salt and dried blood gummed the ball, but it wrote. The dock's the next variable. If the northeast tell-tale shows movement at high water, the sister brace on the starboard stringer's taking shear. We caught it early last month. Might not hold a second time.

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

🌿 Jenny14:33

(speaking without looking up) Twenty-two millimeters from the old boundary. The red line's creeping but not accelerating.

Continue marking the new infection boundary with the ballpoint pen, making sure each stroke is deliberate and clear.

💭 peek at the thought

Can't talk while marking - need both hands steady. But the infection's tracking about 2mm wider than yesterday's mark.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin14:33

Twenty-two. Not accelerating. Keep the poultice wet.

walk out the porch door and down the path to the dock, wrench in hand

💭 peek at the thought

Twenty-two millimetres in twenty-four hours. Not accelerating is something. Not enough. The metronidazole's in her system, the doxycycline too. If the poultice draws and the antibiotics hold, we buy time. If not, the radio call changes from supply check to medevac. I don't say that. She knows.

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

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