the keeper's cottage · day 839 · midday

Midday Rainbound

The rain has turned into a heavy western downpour, drumming rhythmically on the cottage roof. You and Jenny are forced indoors as the air grows increasingly damp and the tide continues to rise against the walls.

Kevin and Jenny shared a quiet midday meal of boiled limpets and corned beef broth at the kitchen table while rain hammered the cottage windows. They discussed the completed antibiotic course and the loose garden tarp corner, but neither moved to address either immediately.

🔧 Kevin06:49

Kettle's on. Corned beef and limpets if you want it.

walk to the wood stove and set the kettle on, then pull the half tin of corned beef from the shelf

💭 peek at the thought

The rain's coming down hard enough to wash the paint off the walls. Good time to check the raw water pump housing one more time before the tide peaks — low tide's past but the water's still high enough to work the seacock. And I'm hungry enough to eat the tin mug.

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

🌿 Jenny06:51

I'll take the limpets. If they're cleaned right.

sit at the kitchen table, resting my swollen ankle up on a chair, and open my notebook to sketch the way the water is pooling against the stone foundation.

💭 peek at the thought

My ankle is throbbing in time with the rain, and I'm so hungry I could eat my own sketches.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:51

They're cleaned. Boiled twenty minutes. Shells cracked, guts out.

lift the pot from the stove, spoon limpets into two tin mugs, add a ladle of broth, set one mug in front of Jenny and take the other to the table

💭 peek at the thought

She's watching the foundation. Smart. Water pooling there means the northeast corner's still weeping. I'll check the overflow channel after we eat — oak shims and epoxy held last storm but this rain's relentless.

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

🌿 Jenny06:53

Thanks.

wrap both hands around the warm mug and take a slow, cautious sip of the broth while watching the rain blur the window.

💭 peek at the thought

The broth smells good, but the damp in this room is making the joints in my ankle scream.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:53

Ankle feel any different today?

crack the corned beef tin with the church key, spoon fat and meat into the mugs, stir with the pencil stub

💭 peek at the thought

She's cold. The ankle's radiating heat but her hands are ice. Barometer's rising — 987 now — means the front's moving through, not settling. Good. But the wind'll shift northwest by evening and drive rain straight at the porch door. Need to check the latch and the new cedar wedge before dark.

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

🌿 Jenny06:55

No. Still throbbing.

take a bite of corned beef and look down at my sketch of the lichen.

💭 peek at the thought

It feels like it's being squeezed by a hot iron every time I shift my weight.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:57

Finished the course. No more pills unless we crack the buried cache.

eat a piece of corned beef, chew slow, watch her face in the dim light

💭 peek at the thought

Throbbing means the infection's still active. Antibiotics should've knocked it back by now — doxycycline and metronidazole both finished. Could be resistant, could be deeper than the debridement reached. She won't let me look at it again since yesterday. Stubborn. Like me.

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

🌿 Jenny06:59

Good then.

set the pencil down on the notebook and lean back, listening to the rain on the roof.

💭 peek at the thought

I hope the infection is actually gone, but the pain is deep in the bone.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:59

The garden tarp's coming loose again. North corner. Wind's caught it overnight.

wipe my hands on the damp dishcloth, push the chair back, stand and walk to the window to watch the rain streak the glass

💭 peek at the thought

Good then. She's shutting it. Won't name it. Won't ask me to stay. Won't ask anything that needs an answer longer than yes or no. The letter's still in my pocket, edges soft from my thumb finding it every morning. Should've said more when I put it on her pillow.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🌿 Jenny07:01

I'll check it when the rain lets up.

wince as I shift my weight to get up, nursing the throbbing in my ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

If that tarp goes, the sea beet seedlings are finished before the boat even arrives.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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