Saturday, August 20, 10:00 PM. Brewer.

The water ran out yesterday. It was so good while it lasted. Yesterday morning it turned brown and the flow rate dropped. By noon there was just a drip. Now you turn the faucets and they squeak on and off and give nothing.

We were starting to get used to our new way of life. In some ways it wasn’t so different from the old way. As I said the other day, inside the house, with the lights on, the air blowing, and the kids bouncing on the sofa, you could just about imagine things were as they’d always been, that outside there were cars cruising up and down the street and neighbors taking their evening stroll. Now, with the water off, the change has invaded our home. Life feels more primitive, more vulnerable.

We have plenty of water left to use from the Thompsons’ pool. It just takes more work to move and sanitize it. The days are busy with all the chores we have to do both here and at the horse ranch and the farm where the cows are. In a way they’re not nearly so busy as our normal life was, but they’re hot days and tiring.

Amy took Garrett to town today. They picked up a whole bunch of medical supplies from some of the doctors’ offices and pharmacies. This is the part of our situation I hate the most. If one of us gets really sick, we’re going to be way out of our depth. But at least now we have some medicines and stitches and gauze and plaster and so forth. We’ll probably need more eventually. They couldn’t take everything.

We had a nice game of basketball tonight on the driveway, all five of us together. It was me and Claire and Trevor versus Amy and Garrett. Our side won, thanks to a little wink-wink conspiracy from the older members of the family. Trevor got to dunk it with just a little help from me.

I’ve been putting off making a decision about whether to go out on the road until after we had looked around Dallas and spent some time with the ham making contact. We take turns manning it, scanning for signals, reaching out to any station that seems like it might be live. So far we haven’t reached anybody but it’s got to be a matter of time.

I believe there are others out there. We can’t be alone. Maybe they don’t have ham radios yet. Maybe they’ve been on when we’ve been off and vice versa. Maybe I haven’t set it up right. But we’ll figure it out and we’ll find them. Soon. I hope.

I want to give the ham a few more days. If we find someone, we’ll know they’re out there, and we can make arrangements to meet them. If we don’t find anyone…it’ll be time to make our decision.