Tuesday, August 16, 10:30 PM. Brewer.

I went out again today, this time alone. No one was thrilled at the thought of sitting in a car with me for eight hours driving in circles around empty cities. To be honest I was looking forward to some time to myself, time to think.

I went in a broad circle all the way out to Forney and Rockwall, as far down as DeSoto and Red Oak, as far up as McKinney. I saw nothing but steel and concrete: empty roads and vacant buildings.

So I cut across west and took a spin around Fort Worth. I found no one there either.

But I did find something, something of value—possibly great value.

As I was going I kept noticing tall masts in the yards of certain houses. I guess I’ve seen these my whole life but had never really thought about them. It suddenly occurred to me they had to be radio antennas. And a large antenna on a private house could only mean one thing: ham radio. I don’t know much about ham radio, but I know they can communicate long distances. That could be just what we need.

I broke into a house and sure enough it was full of complicated equipment. I found some masking tape, labeled all the cables as best I could, unplugged everything, and loaded it up. I’m afraid I may have damaged the antenna while I was taking it down; what I thought were guy-wires look like they were actually the business end of the contraption.

I got back late. Amy was beside herself. I really can’t do that to her again. Road safety has a whole new meaning when there are no cell phones, passersby, hospitals, or doctors. And no life insurance if things really go south. The little walkie-talkies we have are only good for a few miles.

I’m not going to tell her this but I’ll confess here that I nearly had a wipeout. I was going 110 mph on I-20 in the dark when a family of deer was suddenly right in front of me. Their little red eyes were like fireflies racing toward me. I swerved to avoid them only to find myself heading for a dark car abandoned in the rightmost lane. It felt like the beam of my headlights was two feet wide. I threw back to the left and missed the car by what must’ve been an inch or two.

I need to be more careful.

I got back too late to set up the radio. I’ll try tomorrow. It’s going to be fiddly. It’s not like a friendly consumer box with a couple of buttons and a manual. More like something from the Air Force, four or five devices with wires and buttons and knobs sticking out in every direction. I’ll probably have to find another antenna. I don’t have any books on ham radio and I don’t think I saw any at the library. But I’ve got to make it work.