6

As most mornings have since we got here, the morning started out calm and clear - but this time, due to assiduous attention to a weather app, we knew a storm was coming.  Also because Aaron kept announcing "Checkawedder.  Storm is coming.  Joey, you checkawedder.  Mom, you checkawedder.  Storm is coming."

There was clearly some possibility that the wedder/weather was going to be perhaps different depending on who checked it.  

I walked down to the general store for a little quiet time and a beautiful $2 coffee.  "Can I just bring my own cup?" I asked Ms Denise.  "I'm starting to feel bad about the disposable cups."

"Yep, of course you can," she said.  Boss Lady is definitely going in my next book.  Perhaps as some magical dryad in Between that makes a sanity potion.  

I drank my coffee about as fast as magma will allow you to drink it, and headed back to camp.

I saw one of my neighbor's homes did not survive last night's storm.

Hopefully this was just a vacation home.

I inflated Aaron's bed and asked him as he rose, "What are you, Die In-Fledermaus?"

"What you doing?" he asks.  "Hit him with shoes?"

Joey had beef jerky for brunch.  Aaron had nothin' sandwiches, as we call it, or just bread. 

"Tomorrow I want peanut butter charlie," Aaron said.  "Not today."  He said it with the tone of an old farmer talking about coming weather.  He munched his bread thoughtfully.  

I suppose at least it's enriched.

I had a much healthier bread and butter pickle sandwich.  Usually I have butter on those, but butter doesn't store well in the wilderness, at least outside of my little imaginary cabin where I have a cool dairy room.

Also at least one goat and dairy cow, at my imaginary cabin.  Because I'd need butter and cheese.

We made a repair to our tent in the face of an oncoming storm.

so that's actually an airbed patch on each side of the tent.

Either Spaghetti did that while burying the tent as she tries to do every day, or we did that with one of Aaron's wheelchair wheels.

Spaghetti is not answering questions.

It's a-me, Spaghetti! and then she punched a brick and turned into a cat.

We had a pretty quiet indoor kind of day.  Our tent is the size of a small living room, so it was pretty doable, and honestly since COVID, we've all been mostly indoor only cats.  We went nowhere, we lived in our little house and just tried to exist in the absence of all the services we lost to the pandemic, that never really returned in any reliable fashion.

In some way, I suppose, we are at least more social and more outdoors right now.  But we got very used to it being just the three of us and Stan, visiting from his tiny-house style cottage on the same lot as us.  

Our house got messier and messier as I tried to keep house and caregive with the fatigue - the gawd awful, hellish, bone deep fatigue - that came with the long COVID.  I fell apart bit by bit.  My most important job is the caregiving, so in the absence of the professional supports the kids (and I) are eligible for, the house went to heck and my kids lived.

One plus of tent living is there is much less upkeep because of the size of it.  I still have to prioritize housekeeping tasks - what is a made bed, precious?!  And it's not worth not having a home.

Every day Aaron asks me about a house.

"You getting me real house, roof over me?" he asks.  

"Yes, darlin'," I tell him.

"You getting me house, bathtub?"

"I'm trying!"

"You getting me house, mac and cheese in kitchen?"

"I promise, bud."

And he'll chirp and rock in his chair and I will NOT CRY.

Most of the day was fairly comfortable.  Warm enough that the cats lay on the floor, stretched out, to be cool, but not so warm I felt compelled to drag us all out into the well-where-is-it storm.

Not me getting sunburned inside my house

I did go out and set up the screen tent a kind soul sent the cats so they could have more outdoor space to move around.  After I got the roof assembled, the wind took it like a giant kite and I struggled for a moment.

"Joey, come out, please, Orgalorg is trying to escape!"

goddammit, Gunter

Joey was having a rough day, physically.  I'm pretty sure, though he hasn't been diagnosed like I was, that he has long COVID too.  His symptoms are pretty identical to mine.  Maybe it's POTS.  But he's also agoraphobic, so it may be a bit before he gets the diagnosis he needs.  

He came out and sat in a camp chair, holding guylines while I set Orgalorg up and moved the cat crate in there because he was worried the cats could escape the screen tent, which, fair, there's no floor.  However, I do have extra stakes, and will stake that bastart down every couple feet if need be.  And with the recent weather, perhaps it may need to be.

We put the camp chairs in there too, and then went inside the tent we're now calling Turtle Princess, since if Orgalorg is going to have an Adventure Time name, so should the tent.  And Orgalorg does eventually marry the Turtle Princess, iirc.

the oncoming storm

The wind part of the storm hit, as we realized when the side of tent started patting my head with enthusiasm.  I discovered a new skillset.

I am the additional pylon

The winds were impressive, but the rain was infrequent.  Aside from being smacked by tent walls, it was a peaceful evening.  Joey drew, Aaron played switch, I read, cats lounged and occasionally hid from the wind under things.  Aaron sits high enough he can see out our front window, so I kept asking him how Orgalorg was doing out there.

"He trying fly away," Aaron would announce.  "Oh, he fly away.  Nope, he there."

We had mashed potatoes and mac and cheese for dinner.  Not... not in the same pan.  But you understand.

We did another bathroom run, trying not to tear our tent, and tucked in for the night at around 9.

It was fairly early for a family that used to frequently stay up until 2 am, until I was begging the kids to just go to bed so I could sleep, considering my bed was in our living room.

As it still is!

bonus picture of Ser Pounce-a-Lot stealing my sleeping bag.

Just because someone called Cat gave us these comfy sleeping bags doesn't mean they are FOR cats, Pounce.