21

 After Aaron's rough night, I woke up to find him like this:

That's Scruntie's pillow now.

He is a pretty gentle, if incredibly stubborn, soul, so he generally just lets the cats hog his bed.  

It was sunny for a bit, but the rain started soon enough.  Just drizzle, no storm, but off and on all day, and expected through Sunday.  Sunday, we'll go swimming again.

So we spent most of the day in our little tent.  I started reading a pretty terrible book.  I'm grateful my kindle keeps a library at my fingertips.

At some point I heard someone in our yard tentatively calling "knock knock!", so I answered our door.  There was a woman there with wounded eyes, asking if we needed anything.

I wanted to smile and tell her no, thank you, though.  But the kids were looking so longingly at me.

"I'm just running to the store," she said.  "Can I grab you something?"

"We could use bread and strawberry jam," I said.  "I have a five dollar bill, let me grab it."

"No, I'll just get that.  We'll be back soon!"

And she indeed was back in a little while with two loaves of bread and some jam.

"Are you guys homeless?" she whispered.

I paused.  "Yes," I said at last.  "And I just didn't think an encampment would be safe for him." I gestured slightly to Aaron, rocking in his chair, pleased with his bread and jam loot.

"No," she said, though I probably didn't need to justify renting a space here like a real people.

She told me to come find them if we needed anything else.

I went back inside, zipped the door, fed everyone blessed PB and J.  Our pantry box had the cover blown off and was flooded in the Big Scary Storm, so we lost almost everything in there.

Including our bread.

"Well, I guess I'm visibly homeless," I said.

Me but I have more cats

"Or she saw me digging that floor out of the trash yesterday."

"Or she just overheard us talking about it," Joey said.  "We live in a tent and we talk a lot."  

"I suppose," I said.  But I don't like it being obvious.

By evening it cleared for a bit, so I used the last of the firewood to make a fire so the kids could have hot food.  My bullion cubes survived the storm so I had beef broth.  The kids had the surviving ramen, cups of mac and cheese that seemed ok, and I baked more potatoes.

I borrowed Aaron's crocs because mine are caked with mud.

I watched the sunset from my spot.

Maybe that's Kind Lady back there with the truck.

Also, I look older, I think, but the sunburn is better after all this gloom.

I need a shower, but I did not get that done today.  I will try again tomorrow.