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Post by papaof2 on Feb 5, 2015 14:23:01 GMT -6
Chapter 177 - Thursday, 3 June, afternoon
"Hey, Sam. You looking to cut some firewood here in town? You seem to have brought all the equipment."
"No, Doc. A tornado touched down almost on top of us last night so we came to check on folks here."
"Guess we were lucky. We had some hail but the wind wasn't strong enough to do any damage here. Anyone hurt out your way?"
"None that we know of. Ed and George Black were taking a wagon to check on folks on their end of the road when we left. The girls staying with Carl and Mabel had a good scare when a limb came through the roof, but the two youngest were together on the bottom bunk and the frame of the bunk beds caught the limb."
"That's good. Bill, if you have an hour or so, Harold Dennison would like to talk with you. He's at the dam. I think he's very close to getting the power up and running."
"I'll drive Bill and the others out there. It's sure easier than clearing limbs out of roofs."
~~~
"Glad you're here, Bill. I have some questions about where to start restoring power. Sam, I'd like to have the use of your truck. Arnold told me that you have a pintle hitch on it and a fifth wheel dolly available. We found a trailer of wire at one of the substations and a trailer of poles at another. The wire trailer is a 53 foot flat bed with spools of wire lashed down on it; you'll need the fifth wheel dolly for that. The pole trailer has a pintle ring, so you're equipped to move it now. I'd like to get those trailers here so we can verify how much wire we have. I can pay you in firewood to power the truck."
"I'll consider having power back on as payment enough, even if it's only a few hours a day. Having phone service again so we can check on folks and they can call for help when needed would be a bonus. You had questions for Bill?"
"Which quadrant gets power first, Bill?"
"The one with the telephone office and Doc Wilson's office. Both of those need power as soon as we can get them done. If there's a way to power just those two locations 24/7, I'd like to see it in place. The Ishams said they would drop everything else to work on the telephone office when power was back up. They'll also check and repair the phone lines while others are getting the power lines back up."
"That makes good sense. Which section next?"
"Let me see your service map. If you go counter-clockwise from the starting section, you'll get the most people served the fastest. The last section is sparsely populated."
" Don't all of you live in that last section?"
"Yes, but we're probably in better shape than most of the other people. Being where we are, we're aware that we can be isolated and without power during bad weather. We'll be fine."
"You're a good man, Bill Mason."
"No, just doing my job."
"That's right. You're the County Manager. I think we have the right person in that job."
~~~
"We're gonna get 'lectricity again, Grandpa?"
"Yes, Terry, but not for a while. The restoration area is divided into four roughly equal pieces with us in the last piece. That means three or four weeks, depending on how quickly the other sections get done and how much damage the tornado did. Abby, do you have that list of downed poles?"
"Here it is, Grandpa."
"Thank you. Harold, we found some poles and wires down on our way in today. Here's the list."
"Thanks, Bill. That will make it slower to restore around you. Sam, could you get the trailer of poles today? If y'all can drop the poles off where they're needed on your way home, it will speed up the work when we get out there. I wish we had more diesel - the bucket trucks are almost running on fumes and the tank here is close to empty."
"The ROTC people brought some diesel with them, Harold. Tell Arnold I'd like for them to fill both of your trucks."
"Will do, Bill - and thank you."
~~~
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Post by ydderf on Feb 5, 2015 17:46:07 GMT -6
Wahoo your Muse is back!
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Post by papaof2 on Feb 15, 2015 16:35:50 GMT -6
I would say it was like pulling teeth to get this next chapter together, but that's too close to the truth ;-)
Saturday a week ago, I noticed that one of my dental crowns was loose. I picked up some temporary cement at the drugstore and got the crown back on. Also left a message for my dentist. Heard back from the dentist Monday around lunch time and set up an appointment for Tuesday morning.
When she started to remove the crown, she said "Oh Lordy!" You're right, that's not good. The tooth had cracked all the way down and the crown couldn't be reattached. (Seeing $$$$ yet?)
She made a long (2 1/2 hour) appointment for me on Thursday morning. Time to prep the teeth on either side to support a bridge and time to remove the cracked tooth without it crumbling into little pieces. She spent 20 minutes just getting the tooth out - fortunately, in one piece - and sent me home with a temporary bridge (cosmetic, not functional) for the weeks until the gum heals and the impressions can be taken for the final bridge. Oh, yes - and some Tylenol w/codeine and amoxicillin because she'd been scraping the bone while getting the tooth out.
Wonder why the dentist is scheduling things instead of someone in the office? The receptionist got a new motorcycle a couple of weeks ago. You do know that are two classes of motorcyclists? Those who've had an accident and those who will have one. The 50-ish receptionist moved from the second group to the first group. I'm sure she hurts more than I do: dislocated shoulder, broken clavicle, broken ribs front and back. I don't hurt when I breathe. I know from experience that she does.
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Post by papaof2 on Feb 15, 2015 16:40:06 GMT -6
Chapter 178 - Thursday, 3 June, evening
"Grandpa, can you wake us early Saturday? You know, like we were going to school? We gotta be up early to start helping Josh."
"Abby, I will wake you early Saturday, but not to go work with Josh. You'll be baking Saturday, just as you have on previous Saturdays."
"But..."
"No buts. You made a commitment to certain people to have specific amounts of baked goods for those people on Sunday. You made some of those commitments long before Josh asked you to work."
"But couldn't they get bread from Miss Sara?"
"No, Terry. She brings the extras that the members of the Jewish community don't purchase, but she doesn't bake the quantities of bread that our family does. You have a commitment and you must be responsible in fulfilling that commitment."
"I understand that, but when do we work with Josh?"
"What are you doing Monday after your morning chores?"
"Going to school... Wait a minute! There's no school Monday. Tomorrow is the last day of school until after harvest."
"So you can help Josh Monday after your morning chores. Maybe you should tell him on the way to school tomorrow?"
"I guess."
"You also have another task for tomorrow evening and Saturday morning."
"What lasts that long?"
"You're making pizza..."
"And taking it to the dentist on Saturday. Do we hafta?"
"Abby, I see the 'Do we hafta?' on all three of your faces. Yes, you 'hafta'. It's been more than six months since any of us have seen a dentist and we all need to go. You won't be the only ones there. I spoke with your Aunt Kate while you were out learning about Sam's truck. They'll be going with us and they plan to make sausage pizzas to go with the pepperoni ones you will be making."
~~~
"Can we get two chapters tonight?"
"And why would I do that, Mike?"
"Because we agreed to go to the dentist?"
"You agreed to that before today."
"Because we did our homework?"
"You must do that to get one chapter, Terry."
"Because you love us?"
"Getting sneaky, aren't you, Abby?"
"It's the best reason I have."
"I kinda like my grandkids when they're totally honest with me. Two chapters it is."
"Thank you, Grandpa."
"You're welcome, Abby."
~~~
"Tuck us in and kiss us goodnight?"
"After you brush and floss."
"OK."
~~~
"Bill, do you think that rifle idea of Josh Bowman's will fly?"
"Yes, Gene. That lever action is one of the best pieces of gun design I've seen. It's deceptively simple and should be very reliable. I wonder if there's anyone named Browning in his family tree? The overall design fits the way many people now carry a rifle with them: a scabbard for a saddle or something similar on a wagon or buggy or in one of the very few self-propelled vehicles we have. Those holders preclude a scope so the adjustable open sights allow you to use the rifle to the limit of your ability. If you don't need to travel with the rifle immediately at hand, the scope mount can be used with several of the most popular scopes. I see it as creative engineering meets common sense."
"You think one of the gun magazines might review it if they were still publishing?"
"I think it would be the cover article: "Boy Genius Designs Rifle For The Current Environment".
"I don't think he'll ever get a better review."
~~~
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Post by ydderf on Feb 15, 2015 19:46:51 GMT -6
Thanks for the update,wonderful as always. I'm sorry to hear of your dental journey.
Pulling up shirt sleeve "Psst wanna buy some contra band dentures" :=)(-:
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Post by kaijafon on Feb 16, 2015 18:17:28 GMT -6
I shudder at the mere mention of the dreaded "D" word! hate hate hate and hate going
Now that I have insurance, and no thanks to obamacare; I need to go
<shudder>
thanks for the moar!!!
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Post by papaof2 on Feb 17, 2015 13:13:31 GMT -6
Epilog
You were probably expecting the last day of school for Abby and the others in this chapter. Sorry, but I have to turn in my year-long writing project to Miss Mabel today and I should probably explain where this story came from.
I'm Sandra, Abby and Mike's oldest daughter (there are seven of us kids, three boys, four girls). I hope you've enjoyed reading our family's history.
I found Momma's journal and got her and Daddy and Aunt Terry and Uncle Allen and Aunt Lexi and Uncle Bobby and some others to fill in what wasn't in the journal so I could make the history of our family into an interesting story (Aunt Terry was right about Bobby Trotter becoming family, just not her husband). Some of the dialog we got first-hand from people who were at the events and some we only got from others (Doyle really didn't want to talk about what happened the next time he called Momma 'trailer trash' and got 'taken to the woodshed' not by his uncle but by Daddy). Some of the dialog we pieced together from what various people remembered hearing or what they remembered of how people thought and spoke. Momma finally understood why Great Grandpa made a point of giving her time to write in her journal: when she graduated college, he let her read his journal. It's been a big help in putting some parts of our history together.
The lights did come back on the year Momma turned nine - initially two hours in the morning for them and then another two hours in the evening. Great Grandpa worked with the Ishams and they started getting the phones working again a few weeks after that.
Aunt Kate's baby was a boy (they named him William) and I'm told that Great Grandpa did just as well being a Grandpa to him and the other boys and girls that came later as he had with Momma and Aunt Terry and Aunt Lexi (and Daddy).
The herbalist was able to make the heart medicines Great Grandpa needed and he's still with us. Uncle Jack took over as County Manager when Great Grandpa retired - two years after the lights came back on and a year after he got local paper mail working again. When bigger government got going again - much smaller than before according to Daddy - Great Grandpa was also part of the group that got mail working again across the country. There's still no airmail or rural mail delivery as gasoline and other fuels are only available in limited quantities, so all the long distance mail goes by train and all the engines are steam. Daddy said most of the refineries and pipelines hadn't been shut down properly when everyone got sick and parts still aren't available to repair them. But he thinks they might be able to make some of those parts locally with the old machine shop they've gotten running again and some new machines Josh Bowman designed and built. They just need the original drawings to work from (but some of those were only on computers and they didn't get shut down properly either). Locally, people walk, ride horses or a horse-drawn wagon or buggy. A few have one of the steam or wood gas vehicles Josh Bowman designed and built. Things bought, sold or traded out of the area mostly move by train, with short distances done by horse and wagon or wood gas or steam truck.
Mister Hal was appointed Sheriff and some of the ROTC people were his deputies. Things got so peaceful in Jacksonville that other groups wanted help getting things to work that well where they were. Great Grandpa and some of the ROTC people plus some of the Chinese soldiers went many places along the railroad to help folks get their areas functional again. Of course, those folks wanted to trade what they grew and made for what others grew and made, so a Trade Day became a regular event at most places and they eventually started a big trade event once a month in Sam Green's pasture with the train station so folks could ride in and out on the train - which meant they could bring big stuff, such as baled hay or barrels of beans or potatoes and sometimes animals and farm machinery (mostly horse-drawn).
The two-room school grew to need the space at the old elementary school and eventually the high school. The languages available in high school include Spanish, French and Mandarin (the Mandarin taught initially by Mister Will and the soldier Momma had worked with - and sometimes Great Grandpa - then by those they had taught).
Momma and Aunt Terry and Aunt Lexi did complete school early, each going off to college at 15. They worked their way through graduate degrees in agriculture and engineering (with mechanical engineering requiring multiple answers - water, steam, and/or wind - for powering anything) using the money they earned from dowsing, as well as from trick riding (Rose's first foal turned out to be a very smart horse, as was Buttermilk) and trick shooting demonstrations at the rodeos that came back strong. Daddy went to college at 15 also, with money earned breeding and training horses, teaching shooting and his custom wood and leather work.
Broadcast radio has come back a little, but it's mostly local weather and news aimed at farming instead of mostly entertainment. Television is being talked about, but we haven't seen anything yet.
As trade and communications improved with the railroad and phones coming back, there was interest in government beyond the local area. Great Grandpa was first elected a State Senator, then asked to be part of the New Constitutional Congress that met at St. Louis (our new capital is closer to the center of the country and you can get there from the east and west by train and from the north and south by steamboat). Speaking of phones, Momma got to make the first long distance call out of Jacksonville - all the way to Marion - to order more propane, but there wasn't any more propane so we still cook and heat with wood part of the time (we cook and heat water with electricity when we can - power is on eight hours a day now). Momma has also made a point of teaching all her kids (girls and boys) to cook with wood. We also know how to shoot (Great Grandpa taught us) and ride horses and drive a buggy and care for a garden and all the animals.
Aunt Lexi thinks I should do more research on the other people that were part of rebuilding and expand from our family's history to a complete history of Jacksonville after the fever, covering all the things I summarized (or skipped over) and maybe expanding it to several volumes. That sounds like a lot of work and I'm not sure if it would ever be appreciated (and the history of most of the other people isn't all that interesting to me). I'll have to think about it - and I hope she doesn't mention it to Miss Alice or her daughter Miss Mabel (my English teacher) 'cause then it'd probably be assigned as my big English writing project next year (I'm 13 years old and I'll be in grades 9 and 10 - like Momma, we sometimes do two years of school in twelve months). I'd rather put my time into making a book of the stories and poems Momma wrote. They're all good - some of them are very good - and all of her kids and nieces and nephews and future grandkids should have the opportunity to read them. If I get the book of poems and stories written, I'll try to share it with as many people as possible.
School ends next week so us kids can be available to work on the farms. If I don't get stuck with doing the history of everybody when school starts back after harvest, I plan to work on Momma's stories and poems. When I finish that, I may start back where I left off telling about what Momma and the others did.
~~~
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Post by papaof2 on Feb 17, 2015 13:18:22 GMT -6
It's been a long run - more than two years (first post was Sept 2012). Thanks for all the encouragement. Hope you enjoyed it.
Yes, I have ideas for what 'Sandra' might create next. No, I don't have any of it written. When (if?) I get something down on 'paper', I'll post on this forum.
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Post by 2medicinewoman on Feb 17, 2015 14:44:19 GMT -6
Thank you for a great story. It is interesting, intense, and some danger. All good things for writers. I enjoyed it immensely.
Also, thank you for sharing with us the time and effort it takes to create wonderful tales. I, myself, really appreciate it.
2mw
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Post by ydderf on Feb 17, 2015 16:14:01 GMT -6
Though I understand I'm sorry to see the end of your epic. Thank you for sharing with us. I'm so glad you left the door open for a sequel or a 2nd part. I will miss your characters and hope you breathe life into them again.
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Post by 223shootersc on Feb 17, 2015 16:22:27 GMT -6
Thanks for the trip, loved the story
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Post by kaijafon on Feb 17, 2015 16:33:17 GMT -6
thank you for the wonderful story! wow! two years! sure did go by fast! yep I look forward to more from ya!
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Post by darkwolf on Feb 18, 2015 12:35:20 GMT -6
Thank you for this diversion from reality. I am sad that it has come to an end, but all good things must end.
Now I have to find another story to expand my mind.
Thank you again
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Post by biggkidd on Feb 19, 2015 10:18:44 GMT -6
Thank you for a truly wonderful tale. I enjoyed it immensely. If you ever put it on paper let us know I would love a copy.
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Post by millwright on Feb 20, 2015 21:18:55 GMT -6
What a fun story.
It has been the one I catch up on when doom isn't what I need.
Thanks for sharing.
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Post by crf78112 on Feb 22, 2015 17:29:51 GMT -6
I believe your audience would give a standing ovation if we were there. GREAT STORY. Thank you.
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Post by fightheat on Mar 14, 2015 14:21:07 GMT -6
Great great story and a huge THANK YOU for all the effort and time you put into this!
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Post by cutter on Mar 16, 2015 9:38:01 GMT -6
Thank you for sharing your extraordinary time, effort, and talent. My only disappointment with this story is that it is at an end. Having read the works of several gifted prep and PAW fiction authors, I have to say this story is the one I have enjoyed most. Thanks again.
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Post by papaof2 on Mar 17, 2015 12:08:23 GMT -6
Thank you - individually and collectively - for all the kind words.
A couple of people expressed interest in having a copy in book form, so I'm exploring publishing via Kindle. If I do that, I would like to use some of the positive comments as part of the listing. Nothing identifiable, just something like
Comments from readers of the online version: Wonderful! Marvelous! Superlative! Best I ever read! ;-)
If anyone would prefer that their comments not be used, please PM me.
No promisies on timeframe - neither of the people I planned to have as proofreaders panned out - so I'll be doing some careful editing and looking for someone else to proofread the completed document.
The story will make a big book (169,000 words - probably somewhere around 500 pages) but, other than making it a 6 part serial (a part for each week) or ending each segment on a cliffhanger (there aren't many of those), there doesn't seem to be a good way to break it up. I prefer one book for under $5 over six 99 cent volumes.
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Post by cutter on Mar 25, 2015 19:29:44 GMT -6
Please use my comments if you see fit. You earned it.
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Post by papaof2 on Mar 25, 2015 20:32:33 GMT -6
Thank you.
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Post by 223shootersc on Mar 28, 2015 9:44:38 GMT -6
Great stuff, very well written and thought provoking and yes use the comments
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Post by papaof2 on Mar 28, 2015 13:13:41 GMT -6
Thank you.
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Post by ydderf on Mar 31, 2015 18:12:03 GMT -6
Feel free to use any of my comments if you wish. As cutter said you earned them.
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Post by papaof2 on Jul 23, 2015 15:54:02 GMT -6
As I edit the story for possible publication, I've found a bit more inspiration - the Kindle version will have at least 3 new chapters and another wedding is being discussed by the characters ;-) There's still a lot of editing/re-writing to be done, so publication is probably some months away.
The Word document of the story is approaching 550 pages, so it may be appropriate to split it into 2 or 3 books. They'd be tied together by a common title, such as "Life After the Bio-War". Possible titles are:
Life After the Bio-War: Book 1 - An Accidental Family
Life After the Bio-War: Book 2 - The Family Grows
Life After the Bio-War: Book 3 - (if my muse returns on a more permanent basis ;-)
Comments or suggestions?
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