the keeper's cottage · day 603 · evening

The storm arrives

The rain intensifies, and the wind begins to howl through the eaves as the water level starts to rise around the dock.

Kevin checked the dock and garden wall as the west wind picked up, noting the pressure was rising. Jenny stayed inside to manage her ankle and sketch sea beets while the tide began to turn.

🌿 Jenny03:21

Kevin, the wind is picking up. Is the dock holding?

Lean back against the cot and pull the notebook closer, glancing toward the porch door to see if the water is creeping toward the steps.

💭 peek at the thought

The pressure is rising, but the wind is still vicious. I can't let the water get into the cottage, and I'm too weak to move much, but I can't just sit here.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin03:21

Deadman anchors held at high tide. Shingle outlet's breathing. But this wind's west — swell lag means the lines take load after the pressure turns." I tap the barometer glass. "Nine-seven-six and rising. If it holds above nine-eighty through the cycle, the sistered knee survives.

walk to the porch door and unhook the storm lantern, then step outside onto the porch to check the garden path water line and the dock tell-tales at the piling base

💭 peek at the thought

She's asking about the dock but watching the porch steps. Smart. The surge comes up the garden path first, not the finger pier.

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

🌿 Jenny03:23

Check the salt on the seaward wall. The water is rising too fast.

Watch him through the screen door, my pencil hovering over the sketch of the sea beet as my own throbbed in time with the wind.

💭 peek at the thought

He's looking at the numbers, but the swell is what will kill us. If the tide hits the wall, the garden is gone.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin03:24

On it.

step down off the porch onto the garden path, boots sinking in the saturated shingle, and walk the seaward wall length at a crouch — checking mortar joints, the weep holes, the tide mark climbing the stone

💭 peek at the thought

She's seen something from the cot I haven't. The wall's two courses higher than last winter but the mortar's green in places. If the surge overtops it at spring tide with this wind...

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

🌿 Jenny03:24

Watch the spruce! Don't get pinned against the wall if the water jumps.

Grip the edge of the cot and push myself up slightly, squinting through the rain to see where he is relative to the fallen trunk.

💭 peek at the thought

He's so methodical, but he's not seeing the whole picture. If that spruce tree is still blocking the path, he's trapped between the wall and the cottage if the surge hits.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin03:24

Noted. Stay inside.

back up two paces to put the trunk between me and the wall, then crab sideways along the garden edge — eyes on the water climbing the stone, watching for overtopping at the mortar seams

💭 peek at the thought

The spruce trunk spans the path halfway to the wall. Branches tangled in the shade cloth anchors. If a wave lifts it — heavy green wood, root ball still attached — it becomes a battering ram. She's right. Don't get between it and the stone.

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

🌿 Jenny03:26

I'm fine, Kevin. Just keep an eye on the tell-tales.

Sink back into the pillows with a huff and return to the notebook, sketching a sharp, precise line for the sea beet's salt gland.

💭 peek at the thought

He's treating me like a patient instead of a partner. I can't stand being the one who has to stay inside while the world happens out there.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin03:27

Tell-tales first. Then the wall.

move past the spruce trunk to the dock ramp, crouch at the north piling base and read the three tell-tale lines marked at high, spring, and surge — checking for scour, movement, or fresh water staining above the top mark

💭 peek at the thought

She's dismissing me. The ankle's throbbing — I can see it in the way she holds the pencil, wrist locked. But she's also right. The tell-tales on the north piling tell the real story.

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

🌿 Jenny03:28

Give me a reading! Is it above the surge mark?

Lean forward, straining to see the dock through the grey curtain of rain, my hand clutching the notebook to my chest.

💭 peek at the thought

He's obsessed with those lines. If the scour is too deep, the whole piling could shift, and we'll lose the dinghy before the boat even arrives.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin03:28

At spring mark. Surge line's clear — twelve inches above. But the sets are stacking. West wind on a rising barometer means the real load comes after the turn.

stand braced against the dock upright, watching the next set come in — counting the run-up on the piling, timing the interval between peaks

💭 peek at the thought

Water's lapping the spring mark — third line up. Not at surge yet. But the swell's building. Each set pushes it higher. The lag she warned about.

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.