Chapter 29
Friday, 28 April, 2028, 05:10 CDT
Beep!Beep! Beep!Beep!
The little alarm is still doing its job but today is another wet and dreary day. Get myself dressed for chores and then get the teapot and coffee pot ready for use as I go through the kitchen, then boots and slicker from the back porch to go out to care for the animals.
Horses, pigs and cow fed; cow milked and milk inside to the fridge. Turn on the burners under the teapot and the percolator and go feed chickens and gather eggs. I'll be ready for something warm to drink when I come back in.
Only a half dozen eggs this morning so the lack of sun has slowed production. Things should improve with tomorrow's promised "mostly sunny". Pour hot water over the Earl Grey bag then get the eggs washed and in the fridge while the tea steeps.
Now to sit down and put my hands around the warm cu…
"You have coffee ready, Jack?"
"Another minute or two, love."
"Enough eggs for breakfast?"
"Six this morning but I think there were ten yesterday so we should be OK for one meal."
"We have more freeze-dried pepperoni in the basement?"
"I'm sure we do. The paper inventory inside the pantry door says six months' worth at our normal usage rate but perhaps only three months with four people now having breakfast."
"Is there an alternative?"
"Some freeze-dried sausage or some venison jerky that could be run through the food processor to get diced meat for scrambled eggs."
"Is the jerky up here?"
"One package. I'll get out the food processor and leave the jerky beside it."
"Thank you."
---
Friday, 28 April, 2028, 06:00 CDT
'WWWH-FM will be limiting our on-air time to five minutes on the even-numbered hours to conserve generator fuel. A fire has damaged the refinery in Port Arthur, Texas and the associated co-generation power plant. The rolling blackouts caused by damage to the power plant are limiting the hours that oil pipeline is operational. Locally, the price of diesel is up $2 a gallon from yesterday and several stations have no diesel left. A few stations also have "No gas" signs out.
'Statewide, Alabama Power's recovery from the massive outage is moving very slowly. Damaged equipment at several power plants will need to be replaced but the best case lead time for the custom-built transformers and switchgear is at least 90 days. However, some of that equipment was built in South Korea so the possibility of getting something built and shipped is very slim. Some things were made in North America by Westinghouse Canada but Canada is also experiencing the 2028NK pandemic and Westinghouse may not be able to manufacture the equipment in a timely manner. The Smith hydro plant is expected to be back in service at full output in about 72 hours but the Holt and Henry plants will have no more than 60% of their normal capacity until replacement parts can be built and shipped. This could extend the rolling blackouts in the state by three months or more.
'Nationally, the infection estimate is over five million and the death estimate is close to four million. These CDC estimates are rounded to the nearest 100,000. Compare the number of deaths in less than two weeks to the most recent yearly data WWWH-FM has available from the CDC - for 2017 - when "a total of 2,813,503 resident deaths were registered in the United States."* The normal full time efforts of all funeral homes and crematoriums in the US needed a full year to process 75% as many deaths as the country has experienced this month. It is possible that many of the dead may never be buried.
'Non-nuclear power plants in the most infected areas are shutting down because they don't have enough healthy workers to keep the plants running. This has caused more areas to be on rolling blackouts with shorter ON hours and longer OFF hours, ranging from six hours ON and six hours OFF to one hour ON and seven hours OFF in the worst-hit areas. This is causing problems with heat-related illnesses in the hotter areas of the country as people don't have fans, water or ice in the areas without power. The lack of power is affecting landline and cell phone communications and internet access because the local telco offices are spending more time on generator with the rolling blackouts and they are not able to get more diesel for their generators in many areas. In areas with extended blackouts, cell towers are shutting down as their generators run out of fuel and neither fuel nor workers are available to refuel the generators.
'Internationally, all air and ocean traffic has been shut down and the planes and ships directed to their home countries. Between the lack of power and the lack of people, electronic communications of all types are shutting down. Some of the long-term "always been there" shortwave broadcast stations are no longer on the air daily.
'We'll be back in two hours.'
"If they're back at all."
"That's very pessimistic, Jack."
"No, love, just practical. They just announced over a wide area that diesel is expensive everywhere and not available in some areas but they have enough diesel to be on the air for five minutes every other hour for an unspecified length of time. If you need diesel, where is it likely to be available and unguarded?"
"Poor OpSec on their part?"
"Very poor. We might hear them at 8AM but I wouldn't bet on any later than that. First I'll see if I can reach Sheriff Tucker by phone… No signal on the cell phone so the two nearest towers are out. Now CB."
'Breaker 21. Is Sheriff Tucker around?'
'I'm here, Jack.'
'Did you hear the WWWH-FM news this hour?'
'Yes. Why?'
'Is there someone in Haleyville that can protect their power?'
'Power? Oh, the generator… Took me a minute, but I understand. I still have a landline working so I'll call in a favor. Thank you for being aware of a problem.'
'In your hands. Jack out.'
'Tucker out.'
"He'll call in a favor?"
"Probably one of the big families that's been making their own whiskey for decades but Paul considers it 'for personal use' so they owe him. They'll have a couple of good ol' boys who can trim the whiskers off a fly at 200 yards watching for anyone trying to take fuel from the tanks at the transmitter. First shot is a warning. Second shot is damaging but not fatal. Most people will be gone after the second shot or they will be a future deterrent after the third shot."
"Like your idea for posts along the front fence?"
"Exactly. Nothing as convincing as the bodies of those who died trying to do wrong."
"Scary that we're not quite three weeks into this pandemic - I did notice the newscaster using that word - and things have fallen apart this badly."
"If you're not aware enough to be prepared for the events that could happen…"
"Most vehicles come with a spare tire because flats still happen."
"Correct. Even if the sheeple don't want to think or talk about anything less than perfection, the real world still intrudes."
"It's been intruding rather obviously for those addicted to cell phones and social media."
"Speaking of cell phones and the internet that social media depends on. I need to get that satellite weather receiver up and running to be able to provide the weather forecasts we won't otherwise have access to. I think I know where it is, so maybe twenty minutes to have it in place and waiting for a satellite. The sats are still up there making their regular circuits of the planet but I don't have a current schedule and I can't access noaa.gov to get that schedule so I'll just set the receiver to accept whichever sat of that group passes over. In 24 hours, it will have gotten data from all the available sats and I'll have the date/time stamp on the image and which sat it came from so I'll have their current schedule."
"As usual, you know multiple ways to find a given bit of info."
"Having more than one option for finding an answer often ensures you can find that answer."
---
"How far away do the remote controls for the gates work, Jack?"
"The manual says 'up to 200 feet' which is probably the best case event, love. I'll say about half that until I've tested them. You might get 200 feet if you're on horseback as there's no metal cage around you to affect the radio signal as there is when you're in a vehicle. Next time one of us goes somewhere, we can test the range. All the remotes are four channels. That provides open and close on each gate individually and a 'master' button which can open or close all the gates with a single button press."
"Life of the batteries in the remotes?"
"About 750 operations or an open and close on one gate daily for a year."
"Special batteries?"
"Two alkaline AA cells and NiMH rechargeables will also work. We have a lot of rechargeables."
"A couple of totes full."
"One tote of AAA, AA, C and D cells and another of lithium cells of several varieties. Just being sure we have several backups for each flashlight, radio or other device. I don't think we'll be getting batteries at Wally World in another month."
"I think that's a reasonable lack of expectation."
---
"Jack, the news had nothing about international events. Do you have an alternate source?"
"The best 'alternate source' will be the shortwave broadcasts from various countries if they are still on the air. Most convenient to use is the Kaito AM/FM/Weather/Shortwave receiver which sits in this window that gets a little sun each day. That's enough sunlight to keep the batteries charged so the radio is always ready for use. I'll clip on the outside antenna which is brought in at that window and check the list of stations on the note on the back of the radio. Looks like the BBC, Radio Moscow, Radio Beijing, Radio Caracas and the Vatican might be on at this hour but remember that the news mentioned some 'always been there' stations were no longer on the air daily. I'd have to check on several consecutive days to determine if a station was permanently off the air."
"Caracas? I've heard nothing about South America during this entire event. Should I be suspicious?"
"Possibly. Let's see what each of them has to say."
'…and more than a million deaths. Public health services are overwhelmed as are the mortuaries. As in other countries, the UK military are digging burial pits with the list of known dead posted at each pit and on 2028nk.gov.uk/burials. Internet and telephone service are limited by the rolling blackouts with all nuclear power plants shut down due to absent workers and other power plants going off-line as more of their workers become ill. The wind farms in the North Sea will remain in production until maintenance needs require that those generators be shut down.
'This is the BBC Radio Service to North America on 6150kHz. More news after the following musical interlude.'
"Musical interlude?"
"Time for the announcer to get a cup of tea so he isn't coughing on the air. The Brits are very proper about some things and it seems that continues even as stuff hits the fan."
"You are bad, Jack."
"Perhaps, but I made you smile."
"You did. What else can you get?"
"Let's try Radio Moscow. You know that everything they say is biased but they do run some of the highest power transmitters so they can be heard almost everywhere."
'…ted States trying to blame China for yet another of their own bio-weapon leakage problems. This one has affected all countries and appears to be 75% fatal. Russia and her associated countries will be in the UN asking for reparations from the United States as soon as the UN is again in session.'
"I think we've heard enough of that one. Sounds like a little kid yelling 'Gimme!' doesn't it?"
"Nice that you can be that detached, Jack."
"Not hard to do when I'm reasonably sure their military is in worse shape than ours is. They pack more people into smaller barracks areas so the infection rate will be higher than for the US military and they may not have enough people to fire their missiles. They certainly don't have the people to wage a ground, sea or air war. When have you ever heard them saying they would use the UN like that?"
"Not ever that I remember."
"Their effective military strength hasn't been this low since the 1917 Revolution."
"You read a lot into a little."
"I've been known to find a secret or two. Let's move on and see what China is saying about their latest bio-weapon leak."
'…solutely no truth in the reports from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and other countries that 2028NK originated in Wuhan which today has no telephone service due to worker absenteeism.'
"I don't believe them either. Let's try one more."
---
"There's nothing at any of the three frequencies listed for Radio Caracas. Perhaps they're part of the 'no longer on the air daily' group or perhaps South America has been hit even harder than other parts of the world. Tom did say they were researching whom the infection might have been targeted at but I never heard anything else on that. Perhaps we now know the target but that the targeting was poorly done? It seems to have already moved parts of South America back more than a century but with much collateral damage elsewhere. One more and I'll call it quits."
'…Pope Michael 24th will be laid to rest later today. The usual process for choosing a new Pope is impossible with people unable to travel internationally, so the available Cardinals will meet and choose someone who is available locally, as was done centuries ago. The announcement will be made here and on the limited working broadcast media later today as there is no television service in the country and telephone service is very limited.'
"Love, it seems even the powerful aren't immune and neither are their communications. I think these things might explain why the local news isn't covering international news - if they don't have a shortwave-capable radio, they're not hearing that news."
"No telephones and no internet severely limit the usual communications channels between countries so things really do 'fall apart' in unusual circumstances and this is only day number sixteen of what is now identified as a pandemic."
"Makes the early weeks of Covid-19 look like a picnic in the park, doesn't it? Those who said 'pandemic' then didn't understand how bad a pandemic could be."
"Even so, we're still waiting for confirmation of the first case in this county."
"True, but you know it's unavoidable. Someone will have had contact with an asymptomatic or maybe mildly symptomatic person and not thought much about it but would have been contagious within a few hours and then sharing 2028NK with everyone he/she had contact with. Someone had lunch with a friend in Birmingham or met in Memphis or Atlanta for a business deal or or took the kids to Disney or spent the weekend at the beach in Panama City and brought home what they later thought was the sniffles until they started experiencing more severe symptoms and headed for an ER - but that could be a week or more after infecting the first restaurant or bus or plane filled with people. The odds are someone has been here and dropped off 2028NK. The only questions now are when will we see it and how many people will it kill?"
"Jack, you're in pessimist mode. Is the weather making your phantom foot ache today?"
"Among other things."
"Then 2.5mg of oxycodone with 325mg of acetaminophen because I don't think you'll be using power tools or a tractor in the next four hours. Water to wash that down and I'll warm up the pot of chamomile tea. I got out a pack of the Holiday Shapes shortbread cookies to thaw last night and there's Nutella to spread on them so you have something decadent to go with your tea."
"An unquestionably decadent combination. Guaranteed to drive a diabetic's sugar level to a new and probably unsafe high. We'll have to watch things like this when Lily is here."
"At least you're aware of the 'watching' that's needed. I think you might like this kid we've never met except by video chat."
"Emphasis on the 'chat' portion, but I think she might be a keeper."
"I agree."
---
"Jack, you'll finish the wood gas generator for Bob Sanders tomorrow?"
"If I'm not fighting the rain and wind, love. I've also designed the ones for the 318 Deere and the Bobcat welder/generator. If I have everything in place, I could weld all those up in a few hours. Mounting and testing would be another day as I'll need to let Bob know when his gen is ready to be installed. First check on CB and if he doesn't answer there I can ride Silver over and drive the tractor back with Silver following me."
"Nice to have alternative ways of doing things."
"True. We'll have company at supper?"
"Probably not from the nuzzling Janet was giving Dave's neck as he carried in some wood for the Princess stove out there."
"You're thinking ten gallons of heated water for a shared shower?"
"That is one the more pleasant ways of conserving water."
"So it is."
---
*
www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db328.htm#Summary========
More exercises - and more difficult/painful motions - added in yesterday's OT session so I must be getting better ;-)
With time to warm the area, 20 reps of a dozen or so exercises and time to ice it down, my home PT is about an hour - 3 to 5 times a day. As my better half said "It's now your job" - and it's almost full time. Remember that my muse and I are stuck on Chapter 40, so this may be unfinished for a while - unless you want a 50 word final chapter...