#Mom said it's MY turn with the irrigation system

[califactsijustmadeup]

The History Of Los Angeles: sparknotes edition

[lily-lilou]

My understanding and analysis of the magical system in The Dragon Prince. Part 2. Primal, dark, love and life magic.

So, this second post (here’s the first one) will present my theory about this: about the magical system as a whole thing (more or less), about love and life magic, I will explain why it’s two different things, what’s their place in the magical system, their role, about how they're supposed to work.

1st part. what proof, in the show, do we have about another kind of magic?

Well, take a look at this:

The two pictures are when Avizandum and Zym are attacking, with lightning. they are the exact same colors (cool, nothing exceptional, Lily, really cool...)

Yeah, but now look at this, when Zym is trying to wake up (maybe even heal?) his mom:

See all the colors, here? We have white, green, blue, purble, some kind of pink-orange-yellow...: well, every colors, as if every kind of primal magic were present. And I don't think it's just to make things pretty here.

Because it's not the only time we see this phenomenon, where “all the colors” are here. There’s two other examples:

1st look at when Viren is sucking what I suppose is Zym's life/magic's force out of our dragonling:

Once again, we can see all the colors, like with Zym's lightning to wake up his mom.

But the most impressive example is when Zym’s egg is hatching:

The egg was dead (he had turned black for several minutes) we saw some usual lightning (blue) who then changed with all colors and he literraly turned back to life:

So, from the interview linked in the post before (at 9min00 or something), we know there is that "earlier, less differenciated power", a "kind of magic that's deeper". With this statement (“less differenciated power”) and pictures above, it seems we have a magic who looks like a mix of all primal magic. I will even say it’s “life-magic”.

edit: 

I found this following pictures in “the art of the dragon prince”. Here, the colors are even more differenciable. And there is indeed, six of them (white(a little blue), yellow, green, purple, red and blue (I guess respectively sky, moon, earth, stars, sun and ocean)

2nd part. What is “life-magic”?

I said what we saw above is “life-magic” and it could make sense:

First, because of all the colors we saw (as I said, as if all kind of primal magic were here).

Second: just observe the world, how it works: the sun, the moon, the earth, the ocean, the sky (and I guess the stars too) need to work together to bring life. (Hey, what is the sun, alone, if not a giant useless fire ball? What is the earth without the sun to warm it, the ocean to irrigate it? Doesn't the ocean need the earth to contain it? et caetera...)

(still in the same interview above) we know Aaravos sutdied magic deeply, that he was interested in this "deeper, less differenciated magic" they mentionned. So, "life magic" being a mix of all others magic would makes even more sense if Aaravos is the one (from the artbook we can guess he has at least a hand in it) behind this symbol (because it would represent “life” it more or less perfectly):

Plus, you'll notice another thing when Aaravos and Viren tried to kill Zym, Viren's eyes became, while he was filling himself with Zym's “life”, just like those of Aaravos in S2:

If I'm right, Aaravos could have known there is a deeper magic and so find a way to harvest it with dark magic. It could explain why he tried to reach other arcanum, to reach that "deeper magic", that "life". (or maybe he doesn't know it's "life"? too early to say anything here, I guess)

(speaking aside, another theory of mine is that he harvested other primal creatures to gain their power and so reach others arcanum, which would also explain why every Xadian hates and fear him - which also could mean he was trying to give this to Viren, the sky arcanum, I mean... anyway, that's not the topic yet.)

BUT, stating that Life-magic is composed of all primal magic only is maybe true, but incomplete.

I just said this symbol (yes again, I love it):

Could be “life magic”. But if “life-magic” is only composed of all kind of primal magic… what does that giant rune in the middle is for?

Dark magic, you’ll said.

Dark magic? But we said earlier that dark magic is the exact opposite of “life-magic”. Because it’s “death and hate”, when the other is “life and love”.

…

Wait, love? The big rune in the middle would be “love”?

Exactly! (I promise, we’ll dig into this in the following part)

“love is magic, magic is life, so love is life”.

(PS. Again: “love is magic” is something you can find in Callum’s spellsbook several time. It’s not from me)

But in dark magic, no love, so no life. Why? Think at how dark magic works: it's killing and stealing and it hollows you from the inside (more about this in the part dedicated to dark-magic). I would even say: It's stealing life from others, so the price you have to pay is to lose your own (life-life? life-love? Viren became so hateful with time... but I'm digressing.)

So, now, look at Zym again when he's trying to save/wake up his mom.

We find all these colors, but he's not like Aaravos, he never reached any other arcanum. I mean, he can barely control his own. I think in that moment, Zym isn't using his usual lightning but, maybe without even knowing it, he's digging in that life-love magic because he loves his mom, he wants to help her, to save her. So something else, something big is happening.

And it would be wonderful if his attempt to wake her is the true reason she wakes up at the end of S3...

I would even add Aaravos’s quote before I conclued the end of this 2nd part: “Those who fail the test of love are simple animals, that deserved to be motivated by fear". It could means Aaravos know, to some extent, the existence, or maybe the importance of love in magic. And if he’s really behind the symbol above… (but I won’t digress on my theory about Aaravos and magic and the test of love, because it’s not the subject either and this post is already long enough…)

So, conclusion of this part: true "life magic" would be composed on all primal magic AND love. (That, or "true life magic" is composed of all primal magic and the way to reach it without killing others is love. I would also makes sense but we’ll see when we will talk about “love magic”)

3rd part: what is “love-magic?

I just said that the symbol of dark magic could in fact represent the magical system, and so “life magic” and the rune in the middle would be the representation of “love”.

Nice statement! Any proof? Let’s analyze this closely, then!

On the symbol, we can see two things:

1st, all the primal magic.

2nd, a big rune in the middle. Until now, we thought it was a rune representing dark magic, I just stated it wasn’t, that it could be “love”.

When I said that on Reddit, a nice fella, u/randomorph came with his own theory, here: he proposed the interesting idea that the two soulfangs we can see in the endcredits in S1 with a heart above their head (meaning "love"), just look like the symbol/rune of dark magic.

One one part, soulfangs serpent seems dark-magic related in some aspects, but on the other part, what we see here, it's love. Two serpents who are in love.

So if that dark-magic's rune above is inspired by the two soulfangs, it could really be the proof the very rune of dark magic means, is, in fact, the rune of "love". (And maybe that Aaravos doesn’t fully understand what “love” truly is... but once again, that’s another theory...)

Sidenote: another nice fella thought that the two serpents are also similar to “Caduceus”, the symbol used in the medical world, with the two serpents. I still don’t know exactly what to do with this, but the parallel is interesting. And it wouldn’t be the first similarity with the bible.

4th part: how is this love-magic supposed to work? (I'll talk about dark magic later)

Nice, we have now proof (well, more or less, it’s still a big theory who could end up being totally wrong) that we have a life-magic, composed of primal magic and love magic, with a dark magic who’s strangely not fitting in this…

But for now, what about love-magic?

I had a theory I couldn't prove a while ago and I had let it down: I thought that "love" was the kind of magic humans could really do. But I had let it down because Xadians have proven they can love too. And I also had to place Callum and his arcanum in this.

BUT! thanks to u/the_mad_ and his superb theory here, we have proof now. To summarise it partially (but go read it, it's worth it): humans have some special kind of power, they can create a magical connection with other, it's "love-magic", and dark magic is a corrupted version of it (but once again, I'll abord dark magic later). As he said it "humans can do this special form of magic because humans have (or can form) a special magical connection with each other and with other creatures and objects, in particular through love (and empathy)".

And indeed, we saw this three time, especially in the novel.

We saw this with Marcos when he made a connection with Rayla (it's the-mad interpretation since we have the scene from Rayla’s POV and I totally agree with him ^^),

Ezran made a connection with Zym while in the water, in the frozen lake.

Viren made one with Harrow in the novel, and it ended really bad for him because Harrow rejected him. (no really, I insist, go read his post).

And all these connections are more or less described in the same magical way.

u/the_mad_ also mentionned Ezran's power as a more visible, powerful manifestation of this love-magic humans can perform. I had that HC too, I never agree with the idea of our boy being earth-primal-related, because in Callum's spellsbook, it's never said earthblood elves can talk to animals. In fact, no primal-magic seems to really fit with this power.

But with love-magic, it does.

But… what about Xadians? They can also love. The moonfam is a proof of this, Janai and the dragon queen too. Well, yes, it's love, and yes everyone can love, without exception. But for Xadian it's not necesseraly magical because it's not their magic. Xadians have primal magic and humans love-magic.

So, to summarize this part: humans have a magic on their own. It's love, but not usual love**, it's something that gave them the ability to "link" themselves to others, even to link others together**, but that's another part.

5th part, how love and primal magic works? What happen when separated? What happen when reunited?

Thanks again to u/the_mad, I finally found an explanation (I could be totally wrong but let's just say I'm at least not far from the truth... hem!!)

Take a look again at what I now call the "life-magic" symbol, formerly called "dark-magic symbol" (it’s the last time you’ll see it, I promise ^^):

The important part now is the big circle (in white) in the middle, circling "love" and connecting all primal magic. The important part now, is this "connection". It's as if "love" is the link between all primal magic, as if love it's what makes them work together.

u/the_mad_ talked about love-magic connecting people, which seems to be true. But I think it's not only between individuals. If this theory is right, that connection could be applied in a much larger scale. I would even said it concernes the whole world.

So, what did I mean by "love-magic is connecting all primal magic? Well...:

In HBMP ep2, Aaron Ehasz talked about how Xadians live in their part of the world, and it appears they're not really cohabitating together. They know each other, they know about each other, but it doesn't seem to be more than that.

In HBMP ep5, we even learn that there's probably several Mooshadow village in the forest other than the Silvergrove, and they don't know where all the others are. They're not "connected", not really.

We also have a description of Ibis on the official website, where we learn that "He has long been a liaison between elves and dragons", which could mean the two species aren't that close.

And what about the "I know that sound, that's not a good sound" from Rayla when she heard the dragon roar?... that reveal a lot about relationship between elves and dragons... (plus, still in HBMPep2, Aaron teased a story who happened between Rayla, Runaan and a dragon, which would explain the quote just above (personal theory: the dragon is the reason of Runaan’s torso scar). But alas, j.Richmond stopped him before we could get more. my HC is that Runaan's scars came from here, which would add to the idea elves and dragons aren't always getting along.)

Another proof would be the dragonguard, elven warriors, running away when the dragon king died. They didn't care about Zym's fate. (Except for Lain and Tiadrin, but I'm gonna talk about this later)

I would add how the other moonshadow elves except Runaan, in the novelization, showed how... deeply attached they were to Rayla. A child they saw growing up for almost 16 years. Worst of all, Moon magic, according to Callum's spellsbook, is supposed to be love-related. If that's "love" for any lambda Moonshadow elf, don't show me what "hate" is for them, please!

(and here my... approximative localisation of elves in Xadia...)

All these points lead to this: we don't have yet a whole picture of Xadia, but it seems that Xadians are not close to each other, in a matter of relationship. It's not war or anything like that, it more looks like a huge lack of socialisation, lack of relationship.

So, no humans = no love-magic = no connection. It seems coherent. Xadians never approached humans, they studied them from afar (I had found a super analysis on Tumblr about informations each side has on the other, about how it seems elves have more accurate intel on humans than humans on Xadians - but sorry, I can't find it anymore :() they even bannished humans and look at the result: Xadians are separated from each other, barely interacting it seems. Dragons from elves, elves from elves according to their arcanum. Xadia is stagnant.

But now, what happened when Xadians get close to humans, when they work with them?

At the storm spire, one human boy (ok, it's Ezran, not any human could have done this) brought several dragons to fight alongside sunfire elves and humans to fight an army of monsters, (not sure if Ibis would have achieved this alone)

Callum started to talk through Rayla about that toxic cycle in the beginning of S1, and it touched her profundly (as we can see at the end of S2). He and his brother managed to touch her to the core and it changed her on a lot of aspects. She's more healthy now, everyone can agree on that...

Her contact with Villads changed her

And talking about their quest, they literally changed the world (... ok, it's only the beginning but the idea that 3 children, a baby and a unidentified glowing thing stopped an imminent war does talk a lot about what both sides reunited can do).

We can also see Janai changing (I wonder if she got "linked" to Amaya the way u/the_mad_ talked about in his theory about love-magic). She first wanted to kill her enemy, and she ended saving her, fighting with her (and maybe slowly falling in love with her, but that's another story)

Side note to complete this part: what's happening to humans, while separated from Xadians? Look at how humans live in their side of the border. The five kingdoms came to an alliance, but the  land is mostly deprived of primal magic, probably because there's almost no elves or dragon. it's slowly dying, physically-materially speaking. (remember that famine who would have killed hundred of thousand people 9 years ago)

Conclusion for this part :

1.     Xadians need humans to be linked, they need "love" to be and work together and not being separated from each other. Just like Humans needs Xadians to "live".

2.     Xadians and humans are currently separated from each other, and they both lost something, they're both missing something. And for them all to be complete, for them to live, they need to be together.

6th part : if Xadians have primal magic and humans love-magic, why can Callum use primal magic? Could a Xadian use Love-magic?

I've stated that Magic is life. If magic is life, then it's in everything that's alive. Which mean, everyone, Xadians and humans, have everything in them. Humans and Xadians have both love-magic and primal magic in them.

But just like Xadians are naturally born with a connection to a primal source, humans have a natural one on the 7th: love.

From this, it seems logical that a human can reach an arcanum, since it's in him too. It's just... dormant, passive. If he wants to reach this other side, he needs to forge a connection.

And so, the opposite could totally be true, a Xadian could forge a connection to love-magic.

Okay, but how does it works? Why didn't this happened earlier?

Once again, I think it's related to what I said: both sides need to work together, to learn by proximity from each other. A true relationship. Callum first started to learn about Xadians by being close to Rayla and Zym. He trusts them, loves them. I don't know everything that's necessary to reach an arcanum as a human, but I think this close proximity, this trust in the other side, incarnate in Zym and Rayla, count.

And so? Can a Xadian use love-magic?

Logically, yes, and I think we have already an example : Zym

Zym who was born amongst humans and elves. Zym who's connected to an arcanum by birth, and to love by Ezran.

It's only my HC here, once again, but the bond they're sharing is too deep to be just from Ezran. I mean, Zym can literally reach Ezran when he's afraid, the boy can see through his eyes. I think Ezran and him are so profundly connected not only because Ezran linked himself to the dragonling, but also because Zym connected himself to him because he learned that "love-magic" by being with them.

The other proof (well, once again it’s HC^^’) to that, is that Zym seems to have litterally used life-magic on his mother. (remember life-magic = love + primal magic - remember how his lightning were different when he used them on his mother than when he attacked Viren, and all) And I still have that HC that she wake up in the end because he used it.

Anyway!

What about the moonfam? (take this part as some kind of side note? It’s still incomplete and full of imprecise HC. I'm wating for S4 to see more of them)

Well, that point is tricky. The moonfam is Xadian but has "love" as a really, reeeaaaally strong thema.

- it has been officially stated than Runaan loves Rayla deeply. After some researches, we can find several interesting things about him to realise how "love" is indeed a strong thing here. Like the fact he never planned to kill Rayla (post from the lead-writer at wonderstorm), or his thoughts described in HBMP ep5 (here’s some excerpts:

" [...] And I think those are the types of things that he’s still stewing on. Like, did he overstep? Was he so eager to give her the opportunity to prove herself that he ultimately put her in a position where she could not succeed? [...] I think he took her off the mission both because he very, very much wanted to give himself and the others a chance to complete the mission, even if it meant their deaths, but it also meant that Rayla had the chance to survive. Even if it was potentially going to be misinterpreted and she’d get slapped with the Ghosting. I think he believed that her alive was better than everybody being dead. And I think he feels guilty. [...] Again, a lot of time to potentially stew on and reflect on, is that he does feel like he put her in a position that was not fully taking into account the type of person she was, and more projecting onto her the type of person he wanted her to be, and the gift he wanted to give her, of redeeming herself in the eyes of her people for her parents. And I think he’s gonna have to work through that. Poor dude"

We can also add the feelings he shows, in the novel, toward who I totally assume being Tiadrin and Lain when he saw their coins. He loves them, he still loves them even with, until now, he thought they had betrayed them (which means, for me, that his insult to Rayla in the novel, about her parents, is really an attempt to make her leave instead or staying and being killled _ pure HC again, could be wrong...

PS. thanks again @beautifulterriblequeen and @kotikala for this point :))

Ethari lost Runaan and made a mistake, but in the end he chose Rayla by (HC again, here) breaking the rules and talk to her, to understand what happened. He told her he loves her at the end of S3ep3. Him, giving her that moon opal while telling her what he said to Runaan, means the same for her "my love will be with you even when the moon is not", meaning "I still love you no matter what".

Lain and Tiadrin (thanks again for this HC @beautifulterriblequeen) know what it is to love a child, because they have Rayla. That's also why they stayed to protect Zym, not just because of their oath.

And don't make me start about Rayla and love, about how she loves Ezran, Callum and Zym, so much that she can sacrifice herself to protect the wee cutie ^^

(well, Idk if describing all of this about Runaan is as necessary on Tumblr than it can be on Reddit...)

But once again, is this magical-love or is it just a strong, normal love?

I’m still not sure of the answer. I would say it is probably "normal" (strong, but normal). But it could evolve to "love-magic" at some point, maybe even "life magic".

I guess (a huge, vague guess), that to reach "the other side" (primal magic for a human, or love-magic for a Xadian), you need to have some proximity with someone from the other side and what I would call... predisposition? Callum had definitely an affinity with primal magic from the very beginning (if not "predisposition", maybe "destiny" will fit, then? For this part, I really don't know, as I said, it's pure guess.)

But if predisposition is required, then the moonfam could totally fit to reach "love-magic" and maybe "life-magic", since there is such strong love between each of them.

And, who know (once again it’s a huuuge guess), maybe those who are related to the moon have some kind of natural predisposition?

I think this way because of my current (still have to work on this point) interpretation of the moon arcanum. We do know they’re love-related. We can see it here, in Callum’s Spellsbook:

My HC here is that “love-magic” is partly about linking, connection. And the moon arcanum, in his duality, is also about the connection between life and death, between living beings and dead ones. So, yeah, maybe they do have a predisposition...

But how would they reach that “love-magic” exactly? I dunno. Maybe Viren will capture Rayla and taunt her with the coins and they will free themselves from it, out of love for her because she's the most precious life for all her parents? (I still have that theory where Harrow will talk to Runaan in the coin to make him evolve the way he did while facing his last days)

Or maybe it will be Callum who will free them, don't know how, out of love for Rayla? Or Lain and Tiadrin would be some kind of "genius" who doesn't needs humans to reach the “love arcanum”, because they love Rayla so much, and they have the mind of a protector, and they were ready to die to protect Zym... that would fit with the "reward-theory" and "destiny"... arf! another aspect I have to study here. I really don't know. We'll see this in S4, I hope.

Anyway, that's it for the moonfam!

Now! We've established what love-magic could be and where it stands in the magical system. How it works.

But what about dark magic?

Last part: Dark magic in the magical system.

u/the_mad_, in his theory I mentionned, advanced the idea that dark magic is a perverted version of love magic.

He thinks so because these "magical moments" he mentionned, when people are magically "linked", are described in a similar way than using dark magic, which add a point to his thought about dark-magic being love-magic but corrupted.

I mostly agreed with him, but I would push his theory even further (I thought about this during the night, in fact, and I couldn't sleep and then... "ting"!):

the effects of dark magic, using it is described in a similar way that "love-magic", when a connection is made between two beings.

dark magic also uses primal magic.

I’m still hesitating about that interpretation, however. She’s pretty solid, but I’m bothered by a point: something similar to love-magic AND using primal magic? that does sound a little like what I call “life-magic”, no? So what if more than being a corrupted version of Love-magic, dark magic is a corrupted version of life-magic?

A corrupted version who gives a mimic of life magic but in the end, desecrate it. Dark magic means stealing, killing. It's death. And it's not normal death, as a part of the life-death cycle. It's something else. That could explain why Callum feels it's so "wrong". He values life, he's a lot about love.

The dream he made about dark magic is really interesting, too. Somehow, that evil version of him lied to him. (I still save a room for the idea that it wasn't him but something else disguised as him,) telling him he can't do magic, that dark magic is the only way. If you think about it, the message given by that... thing, is : "you love them, you want to protect them, you want them to live, then use dark magic because it's the only way for you".

But dark magic is a corrupted version of life, it's literally "death".

Okay, but you'll tell me that Viren and Claudia used it to save someone who was dead. Yep, but to do it they killed someone else (for Viren it's a theory a lot of us belive). I'm pretty sure "life-magic" doesn't work this way. Callum didn't kill anyone when he broke the primal stone to save Zym and then, at some point, we saw "life magic" (it's in the post I linked in the beginning). I mean, Zym was dead. The egg was black. But he came back to life.

Zubeia was dying too, but it seems, once again if I'm right, that Zym saved her with life magic. He didn't kill anyone.

I said once ("epiphany on the moon arcanum", if I remember...) Darkness is an emptiness of light, death, an emptiness of life.

So, why not? How do you kill death? with life....

An additional thought about Dark magic :

Once again, thanks to The_mad_ on Reddit, we got an interesting analysis: he noted that the seven sources are similar to the creation, in the story of Genesis. God created the world in six days:

“The only one that isn't directly mentioned is the stars. On the first day God separated day from night. (This presumably gave the stars.) On the second day God created the sky. On the third God separated the earth from the ocean. On the fourth day God created the Sun and the Moon. There is no primal source (that we know of ;) ) for the 5th day when the sea monsters were created. But then on the 6th day God created humans and gave them dominion over all of the creatures of the earth (i.e. Dark magic). On the seventh day God rested. »

So I pushed the analysis further:

On the 5th and especially 6th day God created living beings, especially humans. And when you put all of his creation together, all the days, it's "life" (Just earease one of these elements and there wouldn't be life anymore _ok, human's place in the world's ecosystem could be discussed but that’s not the topic... so let's say humans are the soul, the spirit, and the world the body... or something.)

Much later after God finished his creation, a shadow, the devil, came and infiltrate the world to make humans "fall". (Now that I'm pointing that out, it's pretty much the same in LOTR, no?... anyway). He made them fall with lies.

So now, let's suppose that these theories about a "love-magic" and a "life-magic" are accurate and that parallel between genesis and TDP’s magical system has a solid ground, that maybe "love" is indeed a source in itself, like the others (In genesis, it would correspond to the 6th day, when God created humans).

Now, I wonder. If it's this way, if the parallel between Genesis and TDP's seven sources is that strong, then, could "dark-magic" be "the shadow" who made humans fall?

I think it could be this way for two reasons:

1st. dark magic appeared, it seems, at the very least 2000 years ago with the rise of Elarion (maybe earlier, but probably not 5000 years ago, during the era of the first elves), just like the devil in Genesis did (I mean, about the fact he came later, not at the begining).

2nd, we saw the... dark-mage-Callum, that sort of... evil avatar of him, in his dream, literally lying to Callum himself about humans not able to do primal magic. (that, if it wasn't just his own belief impersonated. We still don't know yet).

And so, Dark Magic, being a person or a "thing", a concept, I don't know, would really be something else, something corrupted who perverted and disturbed the world.

Okay, this post is the last one, it’s finally over!! Thank you for those who had the courage to read it until the end!!! I hope I didn’t bothered you too much ^^

It was a little difficult to put all in one thing (all of this are in fact several post on Reddit) so I hope the continuity is coherent. I’m working on this since ... ARGH! 5 hours? Okay, I’m gonna eat something.

I hope you had fun to read this :D

Now, to the kitchen! I’m Hungry!

edit: I forgot to tag @beautifulterriblequeen​ and @kotikala​: what do you think of this? 

External POV are awlays welcomed (but don’t feel obligated to read it, I know it’s pretty long... wait, if I tag and this message is in the end... will you see it right away?)

[todaydreambelieversfic]

chapter 4

Heavenly!  That’s the way Blaine could describe the current scene.  Lounging out by the pool naked with his gorgeous boyfriend.  The soreness had faded from the waxings they had endured, and now they were relaxing after they showered and thoroughly cleaned themselves.  Blaine had to admit that the aftermath of the waxing was totally worth it if it meant that his boyfriend’s beautiful skin was even more smooth and sensitive than usual.  

He had been caressing him all morning.  He allowed his mind to take him back to this morning when he was using a loofah to cleanse his boyfriend’s back, but the sponge was quickly abandoned when Kurt slid his hands down Blaine’s wet, soapy back and firmly squeezed his ass.  Blaine immediately found Kurt’s lips with his own and then moved his own mouth down, down to Kurt’s luscious, fully erect dick, engulfing it while he looked at Kurt, his head falling back against the shower stall wall as he cried for Blaine to never stop what he was doing.  He even dared to allow his tongue to venture, first to Kurt’s ball sac and then further, further in between his boyfriend’s legs as his fingers slid in between his cheeks, teasing playfully as Kurt cried out in orgasmic bliss.  

“Well, damn.  I wanted to keep going,” Blaine boldly said with a wink.

“Thank you,” Kurt laughed playfully as he picked up the showerhead and sprayed the creamy mess from the shower walls.  “But the articles I read said you need to wait a little while after you irrigate because liquid could seep out, and it’s supposed to be really unsexy.  Besides, I like what you just did. A lot,” he said hoarsely like his voice was as wrecked as he was from what had just transpired.  

“I liked it too.  You’re perfect.  I love touching you,” Blaine said as he washed his face with his own loofah.  

“I love it too, but it’s kinda unfair,” Kurt pouted.  “Because someone is cleaning himself now before I could make him dirty, like he just did to me,” Kurt pulled the loofa from Blaine’s hands and kissed him dirtily before dropping to his knees and returning the favor.

And now, they were both lying on the lounge chairs, hair relaxed and unstyled so they could both pull and tug it as they made out under the sun when the urge struck them.  They had the whole weekend to explore and study one another and how to make each other fall apart.  The worst part about it was that Kurt was irresistible like this, and yet, he insisted that they stick to their timetable. 

They actually made a plan that the poolside was the perfect place for their explorations, as the water was right there and the whole area was surrounded by a fence and landscape that blocked any nosy neighbors from seeing what they were getting up to.  They had Katy Perry blasting from the sound system to drown out any noise from their neighbors or noise that they made.  Kurt was a screamer, although Kurt assured him that when he climaxed, all the dogs joined in with the howl that he made.  Blaine had argued that he was not that bad until Kurt recorded him and the resounding dogs in the background.  Kurt- one.  Blaine-zero.  Although, he realized that he got a hell of an orgasm out of it so they both kinda won.  

Kurt sighed happily as Blaine sat down behind him on the chair and started rubbing his bare back with sunscreen.  “You’re starting to pinken.”

“Yeah.  It’s not fair.  Some of us get a gorgeously tan and others turn into lobsters after being in the sun for two whole minutes.  We might need to rethink this.  I’d hate to get a sunburn on my ass,” Kurt chuckled.

“As would I.  Although, I promise to kiss it all better.  Besides, it couldn’t be as red as it was last night.”

Kurt sat up straight as Blaine massaged the cream into his upper back.  “I should cut you off for that.  Were you trying to torture me, or did you actually get joy from hearing me scream like that.  Your neighbors probably thought I was rehearsing to replace Linda Blair in the Exorcist.” “I normally take pleasure in making you scream, especially when you demand me not to stop and those pretty eyes of yours roll up.  I thought I’ve heard every expletive that existed after walking in on Jeff and Nick that time in our room, but you put them to shame.  My baby has a dirty,” he kissed Kurt on the neck, “dirty-” he kissed him behind the ear and then whispered, “mouth.”

“Which is exactly how you like it, as this next foray into exploration will prove.  I’d say it’s about to get A LOT dirtier,” Kurt teased, licking his lips as he swung around toward Blaine and pushed him back in the chair and straddled him, lowering his body on top of Blaine’s and kissing him messily as the music continued to play.  

“Don’t tease me, Kurt,” Blaine panted, as his hands tangled into Kurt’s already unruly hair as Kurt started grinding against him.  

“I don’t intend to tease at all,” Kurt purred, taking both of their lengths in his hand.  

“Oh hell yes,” Blaine cried out.  This night was going to be perfect, just the two of them, no distractions, no limitations, no regrets.  Just love and hot, hot sex.  

Cooper Anderson was excited.  It had been months since he had been back to Ohio, but now, he was finally free, and he had some amazing news to share. He knew that Blaine was going to be home this weekend.  His mom had told him earlier when they talked on the phone.  He knew Kurt would most likely be there as well, since his mom told him that they had practically been joined at the hip all summer.  

Kurt seemed like a great guy, at least from what he saw when he had visited Blaine back in the spring.  He had called him the most handsome man in America, and then he even listened to him and gave him advice when Blaine was angry at him.  They had even skyped a few times, the three of them, because Cooper wasn’t able to travel now with his current gig.  He had a new pilot that he had been cast for, and he needed advice.  He was supposed to play a gay life guard, and he needed to do some research.  The best way to do that was to talk to his two favorite gays and maybe even spend time in their pool, goofing around and practicing his life-saving skills.  

He let the door slam behind him as he dropped his bag on the living room floor (He could do that since his mom wasn’t home) and yelled out loud.  “Blainey?  Kurt?  You guys around here somewhere?”  He chuckled when he heard “Teenage Dream blaring from the pool house stereo system.  “He still loves his Katy.  He’ll crap his pants when he sees the autograph I got for him,” he said to no one as he grabbed a glass from the cabinet and poured a glass of lemon berry tea.  Kurt was definitely here.  Blaine had told him that it was Kurt’s favorite beverage.  Actually, he knew more about Kurt than he did his own brother because Blaine never stopped talking about him.  He was quite jealous of Blaine, really.  To be so young and already be so in love with someone.  It was sweet.  

He sat his glass in the sink and slid the glass door open and closed it behind him.  He rounded the corner and was halfway to the pool’s gate when he heard something.  A scream.

Oh god!  Was one of them hurt? Was it a pool emergency?  He could practice his life-saving skills right now.  He yanked his shirt over his head and dropped it to the ground as he dashed  to the gate and quickly unlatched it, letting it slam closed behind him.  His eyes darted around quickly as he searched the water to see if one of the boys was in danger when he froze in place.  

“Oh god, yes.  Blaine!  Yes!  Just like that!” Kurt was lying on his stomach on a chaise lounge chair, his ass elevated up higher than the rest of his body and his brother was perched on his knees, which were resting on a lounge cushion and Blaine was on the ground behind him, although he really couldn’t see him because Kurt was blocking his view. A very naked Kurt, who hadn’t seemed to notice that he and Blaine were no longer alone.  

“Blaine, what the hell are you two  doi-?  Cooper froze in mid-sentence when Blaine’s head shot up right above Kurt’s ass.  Something slipped off his tongue as he started to speak.  

“Coop, what the hell?” Blaine yelled as Kurt practically fell off the lounge chair and scrambled to get something, anything to cover his naked body with.  He attempted to grab a cushion, which Blaine’s knee was still on, and jerked it harshly, causing Blaine to lose his balance and fall forward clumsily onto the lounge chair. 

Coop quickly threw a robe that had been sitting on a chair at his brother.  “Apparently, I'm not doing anything half as exciting as you too.  I’m not even going to ask about what I think I just saw.”

“You wouldn’t have saw anything if I knew you were coming.  What are you doing in Ohio?” Blaine questioned as he straightened himself, his hand perched on his side as he did when he was thoroughly annoyed.

“Dress first, then yell at me!” Cooper demanded, alerting Blaine to the fact that he was in fact, standing there in front of his brother still stark naked.  Kurt struggled to hold the cushion in place as he reached with his other hand for his robe that was lying on the other lounge chair.  

“Cooper, a little privacy please,” Kurt squealed as he attempted to put on the robe with one hand while he tried to conceal himself with the cushion.  His attempt was unsuccessful as the cushion slipped from his hand as he fought to get his arm in the sleeve, flashing Cooper, who for some reason, was still standing there like a voyeur.  

“COOP, GEEZ!  GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE AND LET US GET DECENT!”

“Uh, yeah.  Sure thing, Squirt.  Although Kurt seemed to think what you were doing felt more than decent, judging by his banshee screams,” Cooper replied cheekily as he turned around and exited the gate.  “You two get dressed and come to the living room.  We should chat.”

This was a nightmare.  Cooper wasn’t supposed to be here this weekend.  Noone was, except him and Kurt.  They had major plans, which were now ruined.  What was worse is that his brother thought that they should talk about what he just saw them doing. What was he planning?  Blackmail?  Blabbing to his parents?  He wouldn’t put it past his brother.  He sighed heavily as he tied the belt of his robe around his waist.  “Kurt, you ok?” he called out to his boyfriend who had fled to the poolhouse.  He cracked the door open and saw Kurt hunkered down on the couch, his knees up and his head resting on them.  His body was shaking.

“Hell no, I’m not ok.  Your brother just walked in on us when your tongue was in my ass,” he replied, his head hunched down between his knees.  “I’m never coming out of here.”

“Hey, I said that same thing when I had my thirteenth birthday party here.  It was a pool party, and I just came to terms that I was gay when I saw Gregory in his tight swim trunks.  One of the other guys hollered out, “Hey Woody, where’s Buzz.”  He pointed to my own swim trunks, which were embarrassingly tented.  I ran in here and slammed the door behind me, refusing to come out.  Cooper came in here and we sat on this very couch and just talked.  I came out to him that day.  I seriously thought that memory would be the worst one I’d ever have of this place.  If only that were true,” Blaine blushed, dropping his head down and chuckling lightly.  “Although, it could be worse.”

Kurt’s head shot up and he glared at his boyfriend.  “How in the hell could this be worse?”

“At least it was Coop and not my mom or dad.  Or worse.  It could’ve been your dad.”

“Ok, that would’ve been worse,” Kurt admitted, his cheeks still blood red.  “Do you think he’d tell anybody what he saw?”

“Cooper?  Not on purpose.  But will he probably blab it out in the most embarrassing place possible.  Yep,” Blaine replied, sighing.  He took Kurt’s hand in his own and stroked it lovingly.  “Come on.  Let’s go get this over with.”

“So, are either of  you going to explain what you were doing?” Cooper grinned as he sat down across from his brother on the loveseat.  

“Actually, no.  I don’t care to in the least,” Blaine replied.  “How about you, babe.”

Kurt shook his head.  “Nope.  Not now, not ever.”

“What are you doing home?” Blaine asked as his back rested against the sofa, his knees falling apart.   

  “Squirt, you’re in a robe and I can see your hose.  Care to put it back in the truck there?” Cooper laughed as Blaine looked down in horror and realized that he flashed his brother for a second time in a matter of minutes.  Kurt laughed and crossed his legs tightly to make sure that his boyfriend’s brother didn’t see more of him than he already had earlier.  

“What are you doing here?” Blaine questioned.

“I had good news and a break from my shooting schedule.  I haven’t seen you in a while, and mom said you’d be home," Cooper explained.

“Did it occur to you that I may not be alone?”

“Actually, mom told me that Kurt would be here.  That’s why I didn’t call.  I wanted to surprise you both since Kurt is a fan of mine.”

“Well, you certainly accomplished that goal,” Kurt muttered.  “I’ve never been more surprised in my life.”

“That goes for me too, you know.  I’m not even going to ask what I interrupted,” Cooper replied.

“You already did.  You didn’t get it out of me then, and you aren’t getting it out of me now.”

“Sounds like something Kurt said to you while he was on that lounge chair,” Cooper laughed, almost doubling over on the couch arm.  

Kurt’s cheeks flamed crimson as he buried his head into his boyfriend’s shoulder.  “Used to be a fan.  Now, I’m contemplating all the places in this huge house where I could hide your body,” he muttered under his breath.

“Hide my body?  Seems that thought would be more fitting for the both of you, seeing that I saw you both naked just a few minutes ago.”

“Are you ever going to drop it?” Blaine sighed.

“Don’t need to.  Kurt already did that back by the pool.” Cooper howled with laughter.  

“All the times that you tried to explain why your brother kinda got on your nerves.  I get it now.” Kurt said to his boyfriend. 

“You said you had good news?” Blaine interrupted, trying to change the subject.

“I’m going to be on television!  Like something bigger than a commercial this time,” Cooper gushed, his hands swinging wildly in excitement.  “I got cast in a new pilot. It’s gonna be my first tv show!”

“That’s great!”  Blaine jumped up and rushed over to his big brother and gave him a big hug.  “What’s the show?’

“Squirt, the hose is swinging free again.  God, go get dressed, and then I’ll tell you all about it.”

Both Kurt and Blaine retreated to Blaine’s room and got dressed in something that didn’t lead to a wardrobe malfunction and returned to the living room.  “So tell me about this show,” Blaine coaxed, as he sat back down on the couch. 

“It’s called Guards.  I play a lifeguard.  That’s why I ran out to the pool.  I heard a scream and I figured that one of you was in trouble.  I figured I could get some real-life practice in, and you know, save my brother’s life and all, since I had to go through training and all.  I never actually got to rescue an actual person, although that dummy was fairly lifelike.  She had a nice rack.”

“Coop, so when do you start shooting?” Blaine asked.

“Next week, which is why I wanted to talk to you this weekend before filming began.  I needed to ask you guys something, you know, for research purposes.”

“Research?”  Kurt cocked his head sideways.  “How is talking to us research?”

“Cause my character has to come out in the first episode.  He’s gay and I thought it’d be great to talk to you guys because you both had to do that, even though Blaine says that you didn’t really have to because everybody already knew.”

Kurt glared at Blaine, who scooted away from his boyfriend a little. “You weren’t supposed to blurt that out either, Coop.” Blaine sighed. 

“I wasn’t supposed to see Kurt’s bare ass today either, but things happen,” Cooper chuckled. “Anyway, I need both of your help.  My character, Kip, is like, really comfortable with his gayness around everybody except his parents.  In fact, he’s so comfortable with his sexuality that he’s kinda like a ho and he’s getting buck wild with another guy in the very first episode.  Obviously, I came to the right people to talk to,” Cooper laughed.

Kurt shook his head back and forth. “Oh my god.”

“Yep, Heard you say that earlier too,” Cooper teased.  “So, the coming out part won’t be so bad.  I remember when you came out to me, buddy, and I committed it to memory just in case I ever had to use it for a scene.  But I have to do something else that I’ve never really done before,” Cooper dropped his eyes down so that he was staring at the floor.  

“Which is?”

“Ihavetorimhim,” Coop muttered.

“What?  Kurt asked, glancing at Cooper and then his boyfriend in confusion.

“Rimming!  I HAVE TO pretend to rim him!”  Cooper practically yelled.  “And I’m not really sure what that even is, although I think you two came pretty close to showing me how it was done earlier.  

Blaine bit his lip to try to stifle a laugh, but it came out as half laugh half snort. “Wait, is this porn?”

“It’s not.  It’s all simulated.  They said they won’t show much aside from his naked ass and some thrusting, but my junk will be covered,” Cooper explained.  “Anyway, I figured that you two could help me, since you are obviously experts..”

“Actually, no.  We really aren’t, since you interrupted us, and it was the only time we ever tried, and most likely, the last,” Kurt snarked.

“Wait, the last?” Blaine squeaked.  “But you didn’t even get to do it to me y-” He stopped when he saw Kurt’s bitch glare as he gestured to Cooper, reminding him that his brother was still there.

“So wait, that was the first time?  What was it like?” Cooper inquired.

“It was quite amazing UNTIL we were interrupted by you.  Is that the reason you kept leering?” Kurt questioned.

Cooper nodded. 

“You know that straight couples do it too, right?  You didn’t have to come to us.” Blaine blurted, and then sighed.  

“Well, I did.  I asked a few buddies, but they all said they never tried it.  But one of them said that the gays love that stuff, and it seems like they were right,” Cooper teased, cocking an eyebrow.   

“Well, at least it’s just simulated. Are you just giving, or are you on the receiving end too?” Kurt asked.  Blaine slapped his shoulder, as if to ask why are you asking him this.

“Um, I think I’m just giving, for this episode anyway.  Why?”

“Well, you’re kind of a hairy guy, but many gay guys, especially gay guys prefer the hairless look.  Especially in that area,” Kurt said, grinning at Blaine slyly.

“Yeah, I noticed your ass was smooth.  Blaine glared at Cooper as if to say, what the hell, man.  “Don’t look at me like that.  It was right in my line of sight, and his skin is so freakin pale, that I’d notice if it had hair or not.  Are you just naturally that way?  My own screen partner said his agent said he should schedule a waxing session for his chest and his ass. Do you think that I should get it done too?”

“Definitely!  Blaine smiled wildly.  “The fans would love it.”

“But doesn’t it hurt? I’ve dated a couple of chicks that say it hurts like hell.  Cooper looked concerned.

“Nah.  It wasn’t that bad,” Blaine said, almost biting his lip to stifle a laugh from escaping.  “Was it Kurt?”

“Nope.  Not that bad at all.  Actually, you should bring a friend along to record it.  To show how manly you are.  Blaine could go, for support and all, at least for the chest part.”

“You’d do that buddy?” Cooper asked, perching his chin on his hand.

“Of course.  No problem.  What are brothers for?” Blaine grinned.  

[wolfie-dragon-rider]

Bursts of Light, Day 24: Making up Afterward

A/N: I’m (finally) back with another one-shot in my Blindcup series. Only 6 left! I promise I will finish them all! This one takes place immediately after the previous chapter.

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"Knock knock! Astrid, are you there? Hiccup?" Kirsten called out, frowning when no one came to open the door to her daughter's house. Maybe they were enjoying each other, making full use of the honeymoon they were only halfway through? It'd make sense. Kirsten remembered her own honeymoon fondly, even if they had really been too young for married life.

Still, she didn't trust the silence in the house. The window was open, so if the newlyweds were… occupied, surely she'd hear something. She walked over, looking into the living room and preparing to glance away if they happened to be busy on the kitchen table.

Huh. No sign of them. Some dishes were left on the table, with traces of breakfast, probably from this morning. So it wasn't like they were sleeping late. Wouldn't be like Astrid anyway, the girl was always up with the sun, and right now it was almost noon. Surely they hadn't broken the tradition and sneaked out? Hiccup did like to break traditions, but no, not possible. Toothless and Stormfly were still staying with her and Tolfdir.

Kirsten sighed, debating leaving the basket full of food on their doorstep or just coming back later, when a sound reached her, coming from behind the house.

She walked around the house, eyes widening when she saw the state of the treeline. All of the trunks had deep gashes, like a great monster had swept through and sharpened its claws on them. A few trees had been felled, but not cleanly like they had been chopped for firewood. No, their leafs and branches were left intact, sticking out among the bushes were they had fallen.

An axe flew into the forest, glistening in the bright sun. It struck a battered tree, sinking deep into the ancient wood. The bark groaned, and for a moment Kirsten feared it would fall as well.

A blonde girl stomped over, grabbing the axe handle and wrenching it out with a loud cry. She then marched back to a spot where the grass was stomped and yellowed, before throwing the axe again.

Kirsten waited until she was sure her daughter didn't have a deadly weapon in her hand before announcing her presence.

"Knock knock! Is this a bad time?" she asked, walking into the 'yard', the little cleared area near their back door between the hot spring and the forest. Astrid jumped, hand straying to her leg for a second, surely to grab a dagger. Oh, her daughter was so much like her father, always prepared for attacks.

"No, I… We aren't supposed to talk, I thought. Are you here to drop off the food?" Astrid said, clearly shaken by her sudden arrival.

"Well, I was, but it looks like something's going on here. Something that warrants me bending the rules a little. Why aren't you inside with your husband? Where is Hiccup, by the way?" Kirsten asked, putting her hand on her daughter's shoulder and gently squeezing.

"He's locked himself in his workshop, I think. I don't know. Things are weird between us," Astrid slowly said with a deep sigh. Kirsten frowned, putting the basket of food down and leading her daughter to one of the fallen trees. A part near the base had no branches, so it provided a place for them to sit.

"Oh dear, what's going on? I hope you don't think that marrying was too hasty or something. You'd been stuck in the same stage for years, you two needed to move up a bit!" Kirsten said, sitting down. Astrid hesitated for a second before sitting next to her.

"I don't know! It's like… I love him, okay? I love him so much and ever since we… Ever since the wedding night it feels like that love is so much more complete. But at the same time I am just… annoyed at everything he does! We have these stupid fights about stupid nothings and yet they're not nothings and it doesn't make sense. Before this honeymoon we rarely fought, at least not over random stuff like… who should do the dishes or where to put whetstones! But now we… I don't know, we're avoiding each other? Except we're also not, we do… you-know, a lot, and then we talk, but it's not about anything, just how much we love each other. It's so confusing!" Astrid said, almost in one breath. Kirsten was sure she had been holding these things in for two weeks now, and she remembered why she hated that stupid rule about honeymoon isolation.

"Come here," she simply said, opening her arms wide. Astrid shook her head for a second, but then she all but jumped into her arms. Soft sniffs followed.

"There, there. It's okay to feel this way. I think I know what's going on, but before I explain let's just let everything out, okay? You've been cooped up for too long!" she whispered, patting Astrid's back gently as she let out all the frustrations.

"Is this what the old men mean when they complain about married life? I thought we'd just… I didn't think we'd fight so much! I'm so miserable and yet I don't want to leave him either, he makes me happy!" Astrid said, clearly trying not to cry.

"Oh, love, it's gonna be okay. It's normal. Your father and I went through this as well when we got married. You know we got married… hastily, and I was already pregnant, but still," Kirsten said, slowly pulling Astrid out of the embrace so they could look at each other.

"You see, moving in together is a really really big step. You're gonna see parts of each other that you hadn't seen before, notice habits that annoy you, have to compromise on things you did separately."

"You know how in stories, characters have good and bad qualities, perks and flaws? In reality, a quality can seem both good and bad depending on the situation. Your boyfriend might seem really spontaneous and generous, always surprising you with gifts, but then when you're married and have shared finances, that suddenly becomes an inability to handle money. Maybe you always liked how Hiccup is rebellious and doesn't limit himself with tradition, but over time that can also be a lack of structure or makes him unreliable. You like how he works hard on new inventions all day, until he starts leaving his sketches and tools all over your house that you just cleaned," Kirsten explained, and Astrid slowly nodded.

"I… I guess that makes sense. We keep fighting over things we didn't have to deal with before. Who cleans the house, where to put our shared things, when to go to sleep. And in those things we… clash. But how do I fix that? I don't want to fight like this all the time!" she said, looking away and fiddling with her skirt.

"You talk about it calmly. Tolfdir and I have a rule that we never go to bed angry with each other. We always talk things out. It doesn't have to be right when you have a fight, sometimes you just need a break to cool down and think things over, but you do have to talk before it starts to fester. And then together you figure out what caused the fight, what a solution is to whatever the fight was about, and how you stop this from causing more fights in the future. It's… not always easy, but married life isn't easy. It's hard work, especially when you're stubborn like you and Hiccup are!" Kirsten chuckled. Astrid was silent for a while, but eventually nodded.

"I… I'll try that. But what if Hiccup doesn't want to cooperate?" she asked, looking up at the house with a nervous expression.

"Oh girl, I think Hiccup wants nothing more than to make things right, but he just doesn't know how. Neither of you knew how to make the first step. That boy doesn't hold grudges, you know that. And he loves you to bits, he won't stay angry at you. I think he's just a bit scared and claustrophobic right now. He probably misses Toothless, gods know that dragon misses him, and he misses flying and smithing and all his other routine. When you're handicapped like Hiccup that routine is very important, you know. So he's a little lost now, and he probably doesn't know how to ask you for help since you are just as lost and he doesn't want to burden you."

Astrid chuckled. "How do you always know what is going on in people's heads?"

"A lot of practice at the Great Hall, dear. That's all there is to it. Practice. So now, go back in there and practice making up with your husband! Freya, your husband! I can't believe I finally get to say that. Now I need a new routine as well, can't just tell you to get married anymore! Maybe I should start asking for grandkids, but I feel like you don't need my pushing for that!" she laughed, before standing up. Astrid blushed brightly.

"Thanks, Mother," she simply said, standing up as well.

"No problem. Remember that you can always ask me for help, no matter how old you get. I'm still your mom," Kirsten said, before giving Astrid the basket of food.

"Now go in there, eat this food, and figure things out with Hiccup. And then when this is all over you'll look back on this and laugh at how stupid you were," she said, walking back to the village. Astrid didn't follow, instead grabbing her axe and going back inside the house. Kirsten chuckled to herself, knowing those kids would be just fine.

-------------------

Hiccup sat in his workshop, digging in one of the piles of designs for an old sketch for an irrigation system. For a second he considered asking Astrid for help, but then he remembered why he had shut himself in here in the first place.

Actually, he didn't really know why. It felt like none of it made sense. Just two weeks ago he had been happier than he had ever been. He was married to the most wonderful woman in the world.

And now it had all turned to crap. It was like all they could do was fight over stupid things. Just this morning they had fought over whether bread should be buttered on both sides. Astrid had expressed surprise that he smeared both sides with big sweeps. He had made a joke in reply, thinking she was kidding, but then it somehow devolved into an argument about wasting valuable food and how he didn't know how expensive butter is.

Hiccup wasn't proud of the way he handled it: by running away into his workshop and slamming the door. A few seconds later the back door slammed as well, Astrid probably going outside for axe throwing.

Maybe this wouldn't all be for nothing if he could just work. This invention would help all the farmers on Berk, it was more important than this one stupid argument. He just had to find the damn sketch among all the other plates of copper by feeling them one by one.

His fingers ran over drawings of mills and saddles, houses and ships, but then he suddenly found a sketch of a clawhammer. The moment he realized what it was he froze. The copper fell to the floor with a loud bang.

Hiccup's hands shook as he picked it back up. This was the first thing he and Astrid designed together. Just two weeks after he woke up without his leg. They developed their routine as they worked on this simple tool. His throat filled up, and he suddenly wished they could go back to that simpler time.

Where had it all gone wrong? Back then they didn't fight like this! They worked together as easy as breathing.

His free hand balled into a fist as he tried to stay strong. Why did he have to be so useless?! Normally when something was broken Astrid and him would work together to fix it, but this… This was something broken between them.

He wished he could ask somebody. Gobber, his dad, Toothless, Cami. But no, he was stuck inside this damn house for another two weeks, alone with his thoughts and the love of his life he could only make love or fight with.

Gods, his entire mind was messed up from it all. Their intimacy had only made things more complicated, making them closer than ever even as they had arguments over mundane things.

A soft sob escaped his throat despite his best efforts. More followed. Just as he tried to get it back under control there was a knock on the door. It was a gentle knock, not like Astrid's usual angry knocks.

"Hiccup? Can we talk?" Astrid's voice called through the door, soft and vulnerable. In his surprise he sniffed loudly, and he instantly knew Astrid could tell he was crying.

"Hic… I'm not angry. Not anymore, and I just… I hate this situation. I hate that we're fighting so much and I want to make it right. And I suspect you hate it just as much. So can I come in? Or do you want to come out?"

Another sob wrenched itself from his throat despite his best efforts. Oh gods, what a mess. What would Astrid think of him? But still… he trusted her. Despite the tension of the past few weeks he knew she would never laugh at him. So he stumbled to the door on unsteady legs, copper plate still in his hand. His fingers trembled as he unlocked the latch.

The door slowly swung open, the creaking the only sound apart from the soft sniffs he tried to suppress.

Hiccup didn't know what to say or do, waiting for Astrid to enter the dark room and give him clarity.

"We've both been complete idiots."

Out of all the things he imagined her saying, that was not something he had expected. His very eloquent response was "Uh-huh."

"Look, I've did a lot of thinking and… and I realized that neither of us were prepared for this change. Living together, having to figure out how to divide chores and share a house and be together literally all the time. But that doesn't mean we can't figure this out now. We're adults, we're married, we can talk about this, right? So… can we? Calmly, without getting angry?" she softly asked, voice so fragile it broke Hiccup's heart too.

"I… I want nothing more. But I don't know how," he managed to say, sitting down in his chair.

"Well, how a conversation works is that I say something, and then you say something, and then I say something again-" she deadpanned.

"Haha, very funny," he said, genuinely chuckling. Gods, it felt good to laugh with her again.

"Seriously though. Can we try, at least? How about this morning? Can we please just talk about what went wrong during that stupid fight?" Astrid slowly said, hopping on the workbench next to him.

"Okay. Alright. I'll try. I guess for me it just went so fast. At first I thought you were just joking, teasing. But then two sentences later we were shouting at each other and slamming doors and I don't understand how that happened so fast," he explained, turning away a bit.

"Thing is, I wasn't joking. And when you acted like I was it felt like you weren't taking me seriously. You know money is not an easy topic for me. I shouldn't have shouted, though. And I'm sorry I did. I should have just explained that," Astrid said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm… I suppose that makes sense. I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have run away. I just… I feel like I'm suffocating lately. And that's not you, I love you so much and I want to be with you, but I miss blacksmithing and Toothless and going to the cove and flying and so much more. And it feels like all I can do this month is design things in this workshop without my blacksmithing tools, and talk to you about dumb stuff. And that leads to arguments about dumb stuff. I'm sorry, I guess I'm just frustrated and have taken that out on you. You didn't deserve that," he slowly said, awkwardly moving his hand to grab hers, squeezing softly.

"No, I didn't, and you didn't deserve my anger either. Maybe I was also scared, scared that we got married too quickly, that we aren't ready for this yet. But as long as we can just talk about it later, before it starts to fester, we should be alright."

Hiccup nodded, squeezing her hand again. They sat in comfortable silence for a while. Oddly, it was like this was the most intimate thing they had done so far, despite all the lovemaking that had happened before.

"Was that the entire conversation? Is everything out now?" Astrid suddenly asked.

"You know, I think it was," he said, awed at how much lighter he felt. There were a few seconds of silence, and then he had to scream his thoughts: "That was so easy!"

"We are so stupid!" Astrid shouted, before doubling over with laughter. Hiccup couldn't help but laugh as well, before gently pulling her off the workbench and onto his lap so he could hug her.

"Oh, you're amazing. Let's never be this ridiculous again. Next time we talk calmly about things, okay?" he asked, sensing her nod.

"Yes, let's try that. But you know, Hiccup, there's something good that comes from dumb fights…" Astrid said, her tone teasing. He frowned, unsure of what she meant.

"We get to have make-up sex," she chuckled, grinding on his lap, and he moaned softly. Oh gods. Hiccup was sure that next time they fought things wouldn't spiral out of control anymore. He just had to survive Astrid's endless stamina.

[nitewrighter]

Could you do a Aden x Rei prompt

*whispers* I’m so proud of my weird clone son.

Okay, so here’s a meet-cute. There’s… probably going to be a part 2 where everything falls to shit, though.

—-

The crowds made Oasis hotter, safer feeling, but hotter. Mercy furrowed her brow at a conference flier as the three of them sat on a bench in the city center. The crowd itself was an odd enough bunch for them to blend in. The heat sinks in Genji’s shoulders steamed as he fanned himself with his own flier. Rei had peeled off one of her gladiator sandals and was circling her foot at the ankle, touching at the not-yet-a-blister-but-definitely-will-be forming just below her medial malleolus.

“Well with Efi’s Q&A and the Shambali panel over, I suppose the rest of the conference is fair game,” said Mercy, not really looking up from the flier, “Pharah did say Helix tends to put out a good floor show of their drones…”

“I wanted to see the gardens,” said Rei, looking up from her foot, “The tour guide on the tram said all the wintering birds would be there.”

“The gardens?” Mercy gave a glance back to the flier, “Those aren’t really a part of the conference,” she said.

“We could split up,” said Rei, “I have my comm.”

Mercy’s mouth drew to a thin line. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she said.

“Ugh,” Rei slumped against the wall behind their bench, “I’m not a baby,” she muttered.

“Neither were Rajeev and Samir,” said Mercy, “Oasis looks glamorous, Sunneschii, but—”

“But it’s dangerous,” said Rei, with a sigh, “Everything’s always dangerous and if it’s not Talon, it’s the Shimada Clan, and if it’s not the Shimada clan, it’s Vishkar, and if it’s not Vishkar, it’s Junkers and if it’s not Junkers, it’s Talon and on and on and on.”

Mercy and Genji exchanged glances.

“What’s the point of all that training if I can’t go off alone?” said Rei.

“You’re on your own plenty—” Mercy started.

“Well yeah, in Gibraltar, but everywhere else…” Rei huffed, “Let’s just get to that Helix floor show,” she said bitterly.

Genji looked at Mercy. “Well… she does have her comm…” said Genji slowly, he made eye contact with Rei, “..and training.”

Rei’s eyes lit up.

“…and it’s not like we’ll be too far,” said Genji.

“True,” Mercy said quietly, but doubt still tugged at the corner of her  mouth.

“But—” Genji added, looking at Rei, “She would have to promise that if she sees anything–if she even gets a bad feeling, she needs to get out of there and call us immediately. We’re not letting anything happen like back in Nepal,” he looked at Rei, “Do you understand?”

Rei nodded.

Mercy took a breath. “Fine,” she said, looking at Rei, “You can go to the gardens. But you have to promise.”

“Promise!” said Rei, springing to her feet, “No fighting Doomfist. No stupid stunts. No big scenes. Things get bad and I run and call you. Promise.”

With that she ran off. For a moment Mercy thought she heard Rei give a second yell of “Promise!” but it was hard to tell against the din of the crowd. She exhaled, and then felt a hand on her shoulder. She glanced over at Genji.

“She can handle herself,” Genji said with a smile, “Don’t worry.”

“I’ll try not to…” Mercy said quietly.

“Well,” Genji chuckled and shrugged, “What’s—”

“Please don’t say ‘what’s the worst that can happen,’” said Mercy.

—

A voice spoke over the speakers spread around the Abu Hassoun gardens as Rei took photos of lotuses floating around one of the irrigation creeks that ran through the gardens in a carefully planned, mathematically sound delta. The voice on the speakers would speak in Arabic, then Kurdish, then Chinese, then Spanish, then English, then Hindu, and so on. The long march through various languages led to Rei tuning it out, maybe catching the word ‘Conservation’ here in English, ‘Hydroponics’ in Japanese there, as she took a picture of a eurasian teal and her ducklings heading through the irrigation creek. There were only a few people in the gardens, what few there were were only moving through, getting to the speedrail tram or their cars, or to the shuttles back to the hotels.

Wintering birds in and of themselves were an all right excuse, but the truth was, Rei just wanted to go to where the crowds were thinned. She would have called it ‘fresh air’ but she wondered if such a thing existed in Oasis’s heat. She pulled the wide-brimmed straw hat from her head and ran her hand through her thick dark hair, doing her best to try and evenly distribute the sweat and oil she could feel gathering at the brim of her hat with her fingers. Something pale darted out of sight in the corner of her eye and instinctively she turned toward the movement, but saw only the narrow, spiky-grass-like leaves of an iris plant.

“Hm,” she shook her hair out before putting her hat back on and stepped toward the iris plant, waited for a few beats. Nothing. She turned her attention to her yellow sundress now, pinching at the back of its bodice with her thumbs and forefingers and unsticking it from her sweaty back. The sprinkler system misted overhead as she straightened the flouncy straps of her dress–then the Iris nearby rustled once again. She turned sharply towards it this time, now positive that there was something there and it wasn’t a trick of the light or heat. She reached a hand and jostled the blades of the iris plant. She craned her neck slightly and saw a white shape, then a red eye blinked at her. A nose twitched. A rabbit. Too portly to be one of the wild hares around here, and an albino at that.

“Someone must have lost you, huh?” said Rei.

The rabbit shot out from behind the plant and sprinted past her ankles.

“Hey!” Rei ran after it. While it was a devil to keep up with, its white fur made it easy to track, visually. She sprinted after it, running through garden paths, dodging through crowds, leaping over irrigation beds and bounding over garden blocks, before the rabbit made a sharp turn onto a sidewalk, then ran under a velvet rope into a building.

“Oh for—” Rei skidded to a halt in front of the velvet rope and glanced up at a sign over the building’s doorway. The sign was in Arabic, of course, but it didn’t seem particularly foreboding. After all, it was ‘velvet rope’ off-limits, not ‘barbed wire’ off-limits. She stepped over the rope and continued her pursuit of the rabbit. Just grab the rabbit, get out, get the rabbit to a shelter, easy enough. The interior of the building was considerably dimmer than outside, but Rei found it a welcome change not to be squinting in Oasis’s sun. The very floor beneath her was lit pale blue, casting the whole building, with its silver and cobalt walls, in a cool, computer-glow-like light. Any signs saying what the building was for and who was in it were in arabic, though A few steps into the building and the air conditioning hit her and seemed to fill her lungs with real air, and she took a breath before seeing movement in the corner of her eye once again and turning to see the rabbit now at the end of the hall. The rabbit was staring at her with those pink-red eyes and Rei slowed to a walk to approach it. “Okay,” she said softly.

“Moving closer,” said Rei, stepping forward.

The rabbit didn’t move.

“This is me being non-threatening,” said Rei, slowly moving closer.

The rabbit continued to not move.

“Just…moving toward you… non-threateningly,” Rei spoke gently.

The rabbit still did not move. Rei was now about an arm’s length from it.

“Okay,” said Rei, lowering herself slightly, “Okay–”

The rabbit took off in a shot again.

“Seriously!?” said Rei hurrying after it down another hall.

“Hey!” she heard a shout behind her, and noticed two security guards on her tail, bickering with each other in arabic as they ran after her.

“Don’t make a scene,” Rei muttered to herself, “Sorry, mom…” she said, as she picked up speed.

“It’s okay!” She shouted over her shoulder to them, “I’m just–I just need to grab a rabbit!”

“What?” one of them shouted after her.

The guards turned a corner of the halls after her only to find an empty hall.

“!كانت هنا فقط” said one.

“…السياح الغبيون” said the other, “.وقالت انها يجب أن اتخذت الطريق الآخر”

The two guards turned around and headed down an opposite hall. A few seconds passed before Rei silently dropped down from where she had wedged herself between wall and ceiling. “Technically not making a scene,” she thought. She rolled her shoulders, straightened out her sundress, and continued her pursuit, turning the corner to see the rabbit had apparently taken a moment to scratch an itch. Without hesitation she leapt, stumbled, scooped it up into a tight grip in her arms, and returned to a standing position. “Gotcha,” she said with a grin. The rabbit didn’t seem to fight her that much, apparently being used to being handled by humans. “All right… who do you belong to?” she said, getting a more secure and supportive grip on the rabbit. The rabbit’s head suddenly perked up, ears pricking up.

“Hey it’s okay I’m not—” Rei started but then she heard it. Singing. She couldn’t really make out the lyrics, but she glanced down to the rabbit, then walked toward the source of the music. And then the lyrics came through, fragmentary at first, but considering how little english you heard Oasis, it was unmistakeable

“I still don’t know what I was waiting forAnd my time was running wildA million dead-end streets”

Rei’s brow furrowed as she kept walking toward the source of the music.

“Every time I thought I’d got it madeIt seemed the taste was not so sweet—”

Rei pushed through the door and the song hit her full on, as she walked into a lab. It had a clean, almost home-y antiseptic smell, and the walls were full of monitors featuring models of double helixes and cells dividing over and over and over again. and she saw a narrow figure partially hidden by large panes of glass.

“So I turned myself to face meBut Iii’ve never caught a glimpse…”

 The figure stepped, or rather danced into full view from behind the glass pane, revealing himself to be a rail-thin redheaded boy in a labcoat sporting a massive pair of headphones on his head. He bobbed and strutted and pelvic-thrusted to music she could not hear, while carrying a tray of what looked to be picotiter plates. He set the tray on the lab counter before pivoting on his heel with a jerk of his hips to a beat contained to his headphones, continuing to sing.

“Of how the oth-ers must seeee the fakerI’m much too fast to take that test–”

It probably would have been a good idea to hide, but the thought didn’t really occur to Rei as she stood there, holding the rabbit. She watched as the boy, clearly in some kind of scientific rockstar fantasy world of his own making,  grabbed a micropipette from one of the lab counters and used it as an impromptu microphone for the chorus, craning his neck back and full on belting out the song at this point.

“Ch-ch-ch-changes! Turn and face the strange!Ch-ch-change–AUGH!” He twirled and caught her in the corner of his eye and his song turned to a squawk as he flinched hard, fumbling with the micropipette and only barely manage to snatch it spinning from the air as he straightened up his posture and stared at her. Rei wondered, for a beat, if this was one of the situations that called for running. 

“Who are–” the boy started awkwardly loudly, then caught himself, grabbed his music player off his hip and pressed a button on it before pulling his headphones off and speaking in a normal volume, “How did you get in here?”

“I–I um–” Rei glanced down at the rabbit.

“Wh–why do you have Creggan?” said the boy.

“What’s a ‘Creggan?’” said Rei.

“That’s my rabbit–” the boy started when the door opened behind Rei and the two security guards Rei had shaken off.

“There you are–!” said one of the guards, stepping forward and grabbing Rei’s arm, before looking up at the boy and speaking to him, “,اعتذارنا يا سيدي”

“,لا بأس” The boy blurted out and the guards gave him an odd look, “,إنها صديق” the boy assured them, “.انها خطأي، كان ينبغي أن أعطيت لها إزالة”

The guard holding Rei’s arm released it and muttered something under his breath to the other guard and they both walked off. 

“..what did you say to them?” said Rei.

“That you’re a friend,” said the boy.

Rei’s eyebrows raised.

“I mean.. not to presume just–You went through the trouble of bringing me back Creggan—”

“What kind of name is ‘Creggan?’” said Rei.

“That’s his name,” said the boy, holding his arms out towards the rabbit.

 Rei gave a wary glance to one of the monitors where one microbe seemed to be devouring another. “He’s not one of your lab animals, is he?”

“No, he’s practically family,” said the boy.

Rei gave a glance down to the rabbit, who seemed unafraid of the boy and quite relaxed, then warily handed the rabbit over.

“He’s good, most of the time,” said the boy, turning on his heel and walking over to a large hutch and securing the rabbit in it, “He has a bad habit of… exploring, where he ought not to, though.”

“Maybe your singing scared him off,” said Rei.

“Ah-heh-…uh… how much of that did you hear?” said the boy, rubbing the back of his head, his freckles nearly disappearing with his reddening face.

“Enough,” said Rei with a smile, “I’m kidding. It’s–it’s good. Really.”

“Right…You’re…” he chuckled a little, “You’re really good at sneaking up on people, aren’t you?”

“Ninja,” said Rei with a grin, doing a slight chopping motion with her hand.

“Of course you are,” said the boy, with a snicker. He stuck his hand out. “Aedan,” he said.

Rei shook his hand. “Rei,” she said. She looked around the lab, “I didn’t…mess anything up, did I?” she said, looking at the monitors.

Aedan waved his hand. “No, it’s fine. Just clearing up for the next group coming in. Most of my work is just… a lot of sequencing grunt work and running simulations.”

“So you’re a scientist?” said Rei, 

“More like an intern,” said Aedan. 

“But you’re… what, seventeen?” said Rei. 

“Yes, something along those lines,” said Aedan.

“’Something along those lines?’” repeated Rei.

Aedan shrugged and smiled.

“You’re weird,” said Rei, grinning.

“Most people don’t come to Oasis unless they like weird, just a little,” returned Aedan. He turned his attention back to the various trays on the laboratory counter. “You’re here for the conference, I take it?” he asked, organizing various trays and glassware. 

“You could say Efi’s a family friend,” said Rei.

“Friends in high places,” said Aedan, arranging several beakers just so, “You could do very well here.”

“Pfft. I doubt that,” said Rei.

“What? That little scuff with the security guards?” said Aedan, “Something tells me you’ve handled much worse trouble than that.”

“Something along those lines,” said Rei, folding her arms.

“Oh, so now you get to be weird and cryptic,” said Aedan with a grin before setting down one last tray of test tubes, “Well, my point is, maybe you could do with someone showing you the city.”

“And you’re the person to do that?” Rei arched an eyebrow.

“Something tells me you could use someone who can talk you out of trouble with security,” said Aedan, “And I happen to be just that sort of person.” His stomach growled, “…also I’ve been sequencing anemic capuchin monkey DNA for three hours straight and I could really, really go for some kibbeh,”

“Kibbeh?” said Rei.

“It’s like… this meat…” he made a lemon shape with his hands, “Thing? There’s a stand for it nearby. Are you hungry?”

“Sure,” said Rei with a shrug.

“Come on,” he said, shrugging off his labcoat and hanging it up to reveal a fitted white shirt with black stars around the neckline and faded black skinny jeans, “I’m starving.” He headed to the exit of the lab.

“Right behind you,” said Rei, moving to walk after him. She paused in front of one of the many monitors of the lab, displaying those selfsame cells endlessly doubling themselves through mitosis. She felt a nagging at the back of her head, that Ziegler-Shimada streak in her that said everything was always dangerous and nothing was ever simple, that nothing came easy and there was always something to fight. She shook her head. It couldn’t always be like that, could it? And even if it was always like that, it wasn’t like it was anything she couldn’t handle. She broke her eyes away from the screen and followed after Aedan.

[livingcorner]

Creating a Secret Garden@|how to make a secret garden@|https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fljXXNirMr_4qd9kE92bpj7px_8=/0x82:1400×815/fit-in/1200×630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19507132/secret_garden_xl.jpg@|21

Garden Paradise Made

Photo by Dale Horchner

On a corner lot in the city, with an alley running along the back, it can be quite a challenge to create private outdoor space. Holly Fliniau knows, because that’s exactly the situation she faced when she moved into this Denver home, in 1993.

She didn’t really have a plan when she started landscaping the property, but what evolved could be a textbook example of good garden design. She created a series of “rooms” that flow into one another and yet each have a distinct sense of place. Vine-covered fences and arbors shield various seating areas from the streets and the alley but don’t come across as unfriendly walls. And generous plantings on both sides of the sidewalks give neighbors plenty to enjoy as they walk by on their way to the neighborhood park.

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Shown: Salvaged and new porch posts painted with the same colors support an arch and trellises along the garden’s street side.

Help from a Mother’s Green Thumb

Photo by Dale Horchner

At first, Holly’s main goal was just to create a little privacy and an outdoor dining area. She installed brick paving along one side of the house and at the back, and built a roof over one end so that she could put a table and chairs underneath. Her next project was the picket fence alongside one sidewalk. Then she decided to have her upcoming wedding in her garden. But the leftover lawn and vegetable gardens of the previous owners didn’t quite suffice for a lovely outdoor ceremony. So Holly’s mother, Sandy, came to help put in a large perennial garden with a brick path at the rear of the side yard closest to the street.

Shown: Holly and her mother and gardening partner, Sandy Fliniau, relax on the daybed along with Holly’s Bernese mountain dog, Sophie.

One Perennial Garden Turns into Another

Photo by Dale Horchner

“One project turned into another, and I caught the gardening bug,” says Holly, who delights in the way her outdoor pastime is the polar opposite of her day job as a chemical engineer dealing with hazardous-waste cleanup. “It allows me to exercise the artistic part of my brain.” Before that first perennial garden was done, she was already dreaming about putting in another.

Shown: At the north end of the house, a grassy path meanders between perennial beds.

Secluded Beer Garden

Photo by Dale Horchner

After the wedding, she did just that, toward the front of the house. But there was more. Because her husband (now ex) was interested in home brewing, she created a little beer garden off the back alley, next to the driveway, with a bar and table seating and a vigorous hops vine that softens the walls and surrounding arbors. In the side yard, next to a fence she shares with her neighbor, she squeezed in a secret spot to take an outdoor shower. Directly opposite the breezeway, she added a pergola with a corrugated plastic roof and installed a daybed in the sheltered space underneath. “My dad teases me that I just need an outhouse, and I could live out here,” Holly says, referring to all the amenities she’s put in place.

Shown: A beer garden with a lush hops vine is tucked between the narrow alley and the garage. Holly set the door at an angle to allow easy turning into the driveway. The vine’s flowers exude a heady scent in midsummer. Porthole openings in the arched door were made with timbers salvaged from an old garage.

Dry Gardening Fit for Denver

Photo by Dale Horchner

While Holly was making headway installing her outdoor living areas, she was also tackling the planting strips between the sidewalks and the streets. These expanses, which are 10 to 15 feet wide, were just lawn, which she had to constantly irrigate, weed, and mow. “I was paying more each year to my lawn service even as I was reducing the lawn’s square footage,” she says. She discovered a solution when she visited a demonstration xeriscape, or dry garden, now promoted as the most suitable kind of landscaping for arid climates like Denver’s. The garden’s drought-tolerant plantings impressed Holly with their lush look. She decided to copy the idea at her house by putting in one approximately 10-by-15-foot xeriscape garden each year until her streetside gardens were transformed. Frustrated by having to dig up the old lawn, she started just covering it with cardboard and piling on alternating layers of leaves and soil. Adding a blanket of fine pea gravel around the plants keeps weeds down and moisture in.

Shown: In the planting strips between sidewalk and street, Holly has been gradually converting from conventional lawn to water-thrifty perennials. This new bed is also planted with colorful annual petunias and zinnias to fill in until the perennials—including yarrow, catmint, manzanita panchito, and golden storksbill—become well established. Behind the picket fence, new and old ironwork and salvaged ornaments add an artistic personality to the gardens beside the house.

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Lawn to Street Plant Fillers

Photo by Dale Horchner

There is still a bit of lawn visible from the street, but it isn’t the old thirsty kind. To separate the xeriscape beds, Holly planted strips of Bella bluegrass, a dark blue-green grass adapted to Denver’s climate that grows only 4 inches tall, so it almost never needs mowing. “Finally, after getting rid of most of my lawn and replanting what remained with the Bella bluegrass, I could let my lawn service go!” she says happily.

Shown: Orange and scarlet zinnias and purplish sage help fill one of the beds at the far end of the property, which is separated from the street and sidewalk by an arbor covered with clematis and roses. The thickly planted beds don’t require much weeding, as they leave little room for interlopers. Holly loves to sit on the bench at the back to enjoy the view and listen in as passersby comment on her garden.

Playing with Garden Displays

Photo by Dale Horchner

The rest of Holly’s yard isn’t a xeriscape, but she takes pride in how much less water it needs than people assume it does, given how verdant it looks. She switches on her sprinkler system a few times each week for about 20 minutes per irrigation zone. “My mom and I have learned that ‘shoehorning in’ plants close together reduces the need for water and weeding,” she says. Conventional advice cautions gardeners against placing plants too close, on the theory that it will lead to disease. But in Denver’s dry climate, Holly hasn’t had a problem. Close spacing also creates spectacular displays, especially when plants are arranged in drifts. “A friend of mine once said that I subscribe to the ‘big bang theory’ of gardening,” Holly says. “My mom describes it as a village of plants all holding hands in support of one another. I think both are good descriptions.”

Shown: A wood pergola shelters a daybed at one end of the brick patio that homeowner Holly Fliniau built off the breezeway to the garage. The bed backs up to a board fence that she shares with her neighbor. Colorful potted plants mark the outdoor room’s entrance and soften the structure’s beefy support posts.

No Fighting Nature

Photo by Dale Horchner

Among the other lessons Holly has learned is not to fight nature. “We are both happier for it,” she says. “If a tree wants to lean a certain way or a plant moves to a new location or won’t leave a location that I don’t want it in, or even if it dies, then that’s fine with me.” She no longer buys grafted roses, having discovered that roses growing on their own root stock recover better after harsh winters. She does, however, try to group some colors together. “That tendency probably comes from me sorting my marble collection by colors as a kid.”

Shown: Holly amassed old clay pots before she realized how fast plants dry out in small containers. So now she displays them mostly as decoration on an old potting bench she cobbled together from odds and ends she found in her garage.

Repurposed Elements

Photo by Dale Horchner

Holly has also learned to repurpose, as garden art, items that might otherwise go into the trash. She used recycled bricks for the back patio and the garden paths and put an old sewing-machine base to work as a plant stand. She salvaged iron rings from decaying whiskey barrels and gave them to her father, who turned them into a rain-chain sculpture that hangs from the back of her house. She also came to love and collect repurposed-iron art from a neighborhood gallery.

Shown: Lattice-topped brick walls offer a glimpse into Holly’s hidden world.

Patina All Around

Photo by Dale Horchner

For a gardener who started out on a mission to create private space, one of the biggest surprises was the way gardening opened up a whole new set of friendships. Holly had an artist friend ask if she could set up an easel and paint in the garden. “More came on her heels, and now an entire group of artists paints in my garden every year,” she says. “As a result, I am now an art collector. And through being on garden tours and taking gardening classes, I have made new friends of fellow gardening enthusiasts.”

Shown: A window box planted with orange and purple calibrachoas got a style boost with a metal ornament repurposed from a broken coatrack. Its rusty patina echoes the foliage of a nearby Japanese maple. An old pail is also put to use as a container for a variegated hosta.

DIY Leaf Birdbath

Photo by Dale Horchner

The garden also gives Holly’s mother a way to pass on her vast, mostly self-taught knowledge of gardening to others. Holly says, “Countless times during her visits, I hear her out in the garden answering questions from people passing by the garden on their way to the neighboring park. Some even seek her out now that they recognize her car.”

Shown: A frequent visitor, Sandy made the concrete birdbath using a giant rhubarb leaf as a mold, then painted it; the trunk of a fallen aspen tree serves as its stand.

Colorful Character

Photo by Dale Horchner

Holly says that she herself is shy, so she tends not to join the conversation. But she does love to sit on a wood bench at the very back of the yard, alongside the brick path. The sidewalk is just a few feet away, on the other side of a clematis-and-rose-covered arbor, so she can listen in as people walk by. “They can’t see me sitting there, but I can hear them talk about the garden,” she says. “They’ll say, ‘Oh, look at this,’ and ‘Can you believe that?'” Holly finds it deeply satisfying to hear how they appreciate what she’s accomplished even when they don’t need to be polite. “I’ve also discovered that there is no stopping avid gardeners,” she adds. “They won’t be deterred from coming on in—and that’s all right with me.”

Shown: Most of the dry garden beds feature broken pots buried in the soil that suggest an urn with water spilling out. Instead, drifts of brilliant perennial flowers flow from them. Here, ‘Pink Friesland’ salvia, hot-pink dianthus, and ‘Avalanche’ white sun daisy.

‘Peace’ Rose with a History

Photo by Dale Horchner

This beauty is a ‘Peace’ rose, one of the most popular roses of all time. French horticulturist Francis Meilland bred it in the late 1930s and sent cuttings to friends in several countries because he feared the German army might invade and destroy it. The rose supposedly arrived in the United States on the last plane available before the German invasion.

‘Polka’ Climbing Rose

Photo by Dale Horchner

For a climbing rose, Holly chose ‘Polka,’ a fragrant variety with peony-like blossoms about 6 inches across. It blooms in waves throughout the summer.

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Color-Enhancing Plant Combos

Photo by Dale Horchner

Holly works to create plant combinations that make individual colors stand out, such as the chartreuse leaves of ‘Frances Williams’ hosta with ‘Purple Sensation’ allium.

Hardy ‘Morden Sunrise’ Rose

Photo by Dale Horchner

Bred at the Morden Research Station, in Manitoba, Canada, this blush-colored ‘Morden Sunrise’ rose is very cold hardy, surviving down to minus 40 degrees F. The shrubs grow 2 to 3 feet high and spread about 3 feet across.

‘Robinson’s Red’ and Lavender Flowers

Photo by Dale Horchner

‘Robinson’s Red’ painted daisies grow alongside chive plants that Holly grows primarily for their lavender flowers.

Cohabitating Purples

Photo by Dale Horchner

The light-purple flowers of edible chives share a perennial bed with darker-purple cranesbill, also known as hardy geranium. The common name “cranesbill” comes from the shape of the seed capsules.

Show-Stealing Colors

Photo by Dale Horchner

Although backed by airy blue ‘Walker’s Low’ catnip (Nepeta racemes) and spikes of ‘Pink Friesland’ salvia (S. nemorosa), it’s the neon-red pinks (Dianthus) that really steal the show in this bed.

Street-Shielding ‘Alexandra’ Roses

Photo by Dale Horchner

A delicate looking but actually very hardy heirloom variety, the ‘Alexandra’ rose blooms on a trellis separating Holly’s side yard from the street.

Ferns and Hostas Backdrop

Photo by Dale Horchner

Holly uses ferns and hostas as a backdrop for colorful flowers including light-purple chives, pink ‘Robinson’s Red’ painted daisies (Tanacetum coccineum), white ‘Gourmet Popcorn’ roses, and blue perennial bachelor’s buttons (Centaurea montana).

Accidental ‘Dr. Huey’ Blossoms

Photo by Dale Horchner

This deep crimson, almost maroon climbing rose is actually an accident. Holly planted a tea rose that was grafted onto the super-hardy roots of the ‘Dr. Huey’ rambling rose. An unusually cold winter killed the graft but not the roots, so the plant sent up new shoots and now she has ‘Dr. Huey’ blossoms instead.

Blue and Pink with Grass All Around

Photo by Dale Horchner

Delicate blue wands of ‘Walker’s Low’ catnip (Nepeta racemes) contrast with bolder spikes of ‘Pink Friesland’ salvia (S. nemorosa). The ornamental grass in the front is Mexican feather grass, also known as ponytail grass (Stipa tenuissima).

Arbor-Hugging ‘Margaret Hunt’ Clematis

Photo by Dale Horchner

‘Margaret Hunt’ clematis is one of several varieties growing on an arbor that screens Holly’s backyard from the sidewalk along one side yard of her house. This clematis blooms on the current season’s growth, so pruning is simpler than with some other clematis varieties. Holly just cuts the vines back in early spring to a foot or two from the ground.

Contrasting Textures and Colors

Photo by Dale Horchner

The dusty pink flowers and chartreuse leaves of ‘Limemound’ spirea (S. japonica) contrast in both texture and color with the feathery fronds of ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris). Next to the house is a rusty-red ‘Shirazz’ Japanese maple in a container.

The Garden Plan

Illustration by Rodica Prato

At Holly Fliniau’s home, curving paths and porch-post arbors shield the house and outdoor seating areas, as do lattice walls, a breezeway, and tall perennials and shrubs. The streetside xeriscape gardens share space with several trees—ornamental plums and a pear, an oak, and maples—that also provide privacy; these are indicated here with red circles but not drawn, to make the gardens more visible. [external_footer]

source https://livingcorner.com.au/creating-a-secret-gardenhow-to-make-a-secret-gardenhttps-cdn-vox-cdn-com-thumbor-fljxxnirmr_4qd9ke92bpj7px_8-0x821400x815-fit-in-1200x630-cdn-vox-cdn-com-uploads-chorus_asset-file-1950713/

[bike42]

IAT 6/22 thru 6/26/2021

Seems like a quick turnaround as I accompanied Lynn and Kent earlier this month to make up the two days they’d missed.

We were scheduled to meet Tuesday morning at 9am at the car drop site, but because of an easy drive and long daylight, most of us arrived at 8:30am, even with a coffee stop. We redirected Dan and Tam to meet us at the start.

We continued walking the County Highway Y Connecting Route (CR) that we’d started last time. These next 100+ miles are mostly CR with a few trail segments scattered in. It’s all part of the deal, but it can be a grind.

We’d planned today so we’d walk about 10ish miles, get to the cars, then drive 3 miles to a lunch stop. We set off fast, and it was great to turn off Hwy Y onto lesser traveled country roads. We had abundant sunshine and cooler temperatures - just in the sixties, so a perfect summer day!

 It took us just over 3 hours to knock off the eleven miles. A grueling pace, but we always start off fast when we’re back together again, and there was also motivation to just “get er done” and get to lunch!

Dan had researched and found “Jen and Tonics” in a little village called Franzen on Hwy 49 - and it did not disappoint! It was a classic Wisconsin Northwoods bar with a small grill and French fry machine.  We were greeted by Jen’s mom, who got us drinks but then had to leave to go to a doctor’s appointment, leaving just Jen to tend bar and cook. About a dozen regulars came and went during our time there, and she was also preparing “to go” orders. She was busy, but not stressed or rushed. She kept up a fun banter with the regulars, telling one guy “shut up and give me your money!” She was all businesslike when taking our orders, yet even though she had an extensive menu, special orders from our vegetarian seemed to throw her for a loop! Most of us had bacon cheeseburgers and they were awesome. Unfortunately, Jen was too busy for us to ask about the “Tonic” portion of the bar’s name (we wondered if that was a partner, or just a clever play on words?).

After lunch, we went back to pick up the two vehicles from the start and drop them seven miles down the road at the Lions Camp. Our after-lunch pace was a bit slower, but the perfect day continued. We arrived back at Lions camp about 5 pm - 18.5 miles for the day and thoroughly exhausted!

Gary decided to “commute” from home for this trip - his wife Rose had a fairly major surgery two weeks ago. So, he headed home and the six of us piled into Kent’s SUV for a shuttle back to our vehicles.

We’re staying 3 nights at “Country Mission Farm” which is an old farmstead near Mosinee owned by Regan and Ann Pourchot. Ann is Tam’s sister’s ex-husband’s sister. They hiked with us for the day last October, and we found them to be likeminded adventurous souls. Their “farm” is a bit out of the way, but it was worth the extra miles to see them, and experience the operation that they’ve established! They have a Christmas Tree farm, and have renovated an old farmhouse that is just down the road from their house. They rent out the “farm” through VRBO, and are really invested in providing a great relaxing country experience for their guests. They had chickens, guinea hens, a white domestic turkey named “Lola,” and juvenile goats named “Linus and Lucy.”  They’re even working on creating a pond for swimming / paddling!

Tam and Dan made a great dinner of salad, BLTs and grilled cheese appetizers. It was nice to have Ann and Regan join us for dinner, but we missed Gary. Regan and his sons did the Northern Tier bike ride with his sons in 2011, so it was fun to rehash some of those stories.

 Wednesday morning, I awoke in time to do a little yoga session on the porch before others were awake.  We fell into our easy breakfast routine and were out the door to meet Gary at our assigned meeting point, which was today’s end point (a sand and gravel plot on Highway 161 and Trout Creek Road).  We left Gary and Kent’s car there, and all 7 of us shuttled back to the Lion’s Camp in the Knickmeier’s vehicle.  

We set off about 8:45am, roughly 5 miles of CR, 5 miles of trail, then another 5 of CR.  It was sunny, warm and humid.  Most of us agreed that we needed to take more breaks than we did yesterday, and that made the day easier on my body for sure!  The CR’s went over many small trout streams (Little Wolf River and Tomorrow River), and we found that the guard rails made great spots to sit, enjoy the river, and have a snack.

There were few cars on the small roads we were walking and we were grateful for that.  We started noticing the various types of waves we get from the drivers (and sometimes passengers) when we wave to the oncoming vehicles.  Sometimes, its just a cool nod of the head, sometimes just one finger, often all 4 fingers (like the thumb is holding the wheel), sometimes its an actual wave (hand off the steering wheel) and my favorite, was a peace sign.  All in all, the oncoming drivers were courteous and moved way over, or slowed way down when there was oncoming traffic.

Today’s segments were New Hope – Iola Ski Hill. We were so happy to be on the trail again – it felt so soft after 25 miles of pavement!!  The first piece of New Hope was short lived, then we were back on the road for about a half mile, then back on the trail, then a road detour around a piece that was reportedly flooded.  It was enough variety that it was enjoyable.

We entered the Iola Ski area and it was reminiscent of the several other cross-county ski areas we’d been through – lots of hills and trail intersections.  This one had some “trail art,” which honestly, I found it too creepy to photograph (stick people in various poses and “snakes” made out of drain tile with wooded forked tongues).  The part that made the Iola Ski Area unique was their 100+ year history as a ski club specifically for ski jumping!  We had lunch on a nice patio of the Iola Winter Sports Club, and looked at a few of the ski jumps at the base there, but we didn’t notice the massive jump until we were walking away from the area and looked back – it loomed over the trees!!

Also noteworthy was we hit the official 500-mile marker of the IAT (west to east)!  We made up words to “500 miles” and sang that for a while, but didn’t record it.

We went up and over a huge ridge, and over a few more trout streams, but the rest of the road walk was quick and we were motivated to power through.  The guys were up ahead, and the ladies lagged behind.  We saw a few deer, chatted with a guy mowing the parking for the trout stream and were greeted by a lady enjoying the solitude of the day from her porch.  We wrapped up and were back at the farm by 4pm.

Another great dinner as Kent and Lynn brought pulled pork and potatoes (their specialty, which is funny due to Lynn being a vegetarian), served with a great salad and chocolate for dessert.  Regan joined us for dinner, and shared plans to renovate the old barn into an event center – they sure are creative people!

After dinner I went outside and sat near the chicken coop to see if I could get Lola to approach me and let me pet her.  Just as Ann said, she walked over and leaned into me.  I never thought I’d be petting a turkey in my life!  Up close, she was really interesting.  She had this rope like thing hanging on her check (Ann said that’s a beard!?), and the colors and textures on her head were really beautiful. Up close, her beak and the size of her talons were a little frightening to me, but she leaned into me and closed her eyes and sort of purred.

I went into Linus and Lucy’s pen – they have a smart double door entrance via the barn so they don’t get out!  They’ve been socialized so well and are so sweet to be around – watching them play just made me so happy.  Beautiful night on the farm.

Thursday morning, a thunderstorm came through while we were having breakfast - the perfect time for rain to come! We headed out at 7:30 AM in just a light rain.  I wasn’t paying attention to the driver and we took a little detour through downtown Stevens Point, but we still made it to the rendezvous point with Gary just after 8:30 AM. We dropped two cars at the finish and Dan drove the seven of us to the start. It wasn’t raining, so we had the quandary of rain gear versus no rain gear; most of us went without. We headed up the highway and of course then the rain started so we scrambled for ponchos, rain gear and umbrellas. The rain was light and only lasted a few minutes but it made things very humid and layers were coming off as we hit the two-mile point.  We seemed to be lacking the nice breeze we’d had the previous days, but we were primarily walking on marvelous small roads winding through wooded areas.

The connecting road continued through farm area and woodlands and when it was open, we were relieved to find a breeze. Some fields were alfalfa but most were corn and beans. Despite the drought the fields looked really healthy but we also noticed that nearly every field had an irrigation system installed, and it was interesting looking at the various models of those close up.

We climbed a few hills and went past an area of cottage area around Rollofson Lake, which seemed odd after all the farms. About 5 miles in we stopped along Peterson creek one of many trout fishing creeks that we’ve crossed over the past few days. We sat on the bridge and ate our lunch and then we continued walking. The group was tired and we splintered off into pairs however Gary continued to walk ahead at a really fast pace like he always does.

We went through some really awesome beautiful wooded areas and then again came out to some farmland. We were surprised to see a dam or Peterson Creek which made a little pond right on the farm - seemed very unusual (established prior to the DNR I’m guessing!). The cows were gathered under trees seeking shade, probably knowing that it’s going to rain again. One cow stood up and did a perfect down dog which he held for a few breaths and then proceeded to do the yoga pose “cat.” I waited for her to do the cow pose but she didn’t do it.

We turned onto a busier road and Jeff and I were in the back we were surprised to see a dog come out from behind a barn barking at us and running onto the road. It was the closest a dog has come to us on the whole trail and we were a little bit frightened by it. Jeff continued to yell at the dog to go home and his deepest voice, while I reached for the mace spray in his backpack. We were all glad we didn’t have to use the mace.

About 10 miles and we finally got to the trail portion of today’s hike. Before going into the woods, we sat on the road and had another snack and the guys had a nap. It was awesome to get back into the woods although it was hot and humid with no breeze. The soil was sandy and soft to walk on. It felt so good after 10 miles of walking on the road. The spring flowers were done, and other things were just beginning to bloom. Most impressive were the ferns!

We were on the skunk and foster Lakes and Segment which actually went through past several lakes:  Skunk, Mud, Foster and Grenlie Lakes. It was a roundabout segment and soon we were back out on a little bit of CR until we entered the forest again and the Ice Age trails Farmington drumlins section. I don’t know if we saw any drumlins there but I do know we saw a massive ant hills bigger than some of the erratic rocks!

The segment skirted several farm fields but it was still better than walking on the road. Much of the second half of that segment was walking over an area that had been logged years ago but still left with a lot of scrap which was just starting to grow over and be a little bit less ugly.

I retired my old “transition” sunglasses that had been my adventure staple for the past 15 years. They got to the point where they would no longer get dark in the sun and they also had a broken piece that I would hold together with a croakie. I bought a new pair of glasses have good dark UV blocking lenses without the progressive gradients (bi and tri focals that my 60-year-old eyes need for every day functioning). I left them back in the cabin today because I thought they would be too dark for the grey day. So, I was wearing my glasses with transition and progressive lenses today.  They work fine on the road and are great when I’m reading the map or my phone, but the bi/tri-focal lenses are a little challenging for on the trail - walk you have to learn to hold your head just right or you stumble over the roots and rocks, so consequently I slowed my pace, which allowed me to absorb the beauty around me anyway!

One of the coolest parts about being in the woods alone is the sound of the birds.  I can’t identify what kind they are, but the variety of songs and calls is so soothing.  On this segment though, we were getting close to Highway 10, which made for a constant din of highway noise. Not only that, but a train track runs parallel to Highway 10 and seemed to have a lot of activity given the noise of the train whistle. You lose some of the “middle of nowhere” mojo with that kind of sound.

We walked along the edge of a farm, and past a lot of unique deer hunting shacks before we were out on the road again.  We passed a large dairy farm where the cows were in their stanchions, but one was standing on her back legs, very interested it us – it looked so funny.   We crossed the railroad track and also ran across the very busy and fast four-lane Highway 10, which is the major thorough fare between Stevens point and Appleton. Once safely across the highway, we entered the Waupaca River segment where we climbed a steep hill and found an awesome old cabin where hikers could spend the night. About another mile down wonderful packed sand trail we came along the Walpaca River and shortly after that the side trail the parking lot.  It dawned on me that one thing this group hasn’t yet done is swim in the middle of the day – that would have been a perfect spot, but our group is pretty mission focused and I’m glad just to get regular breaks – a swimming break might have pushed it too far, but it was hot and humid and that river looked like paradise.

Back to the farm, we showered relaxed and put together enough leftovers to make another awesome dinner. As we were cleaning up after dinner, Tam and I noticed that the sky to the south had turned a spectacular orange color. We went outside and watched the clouds move with spectacular pink purple orange colors.  The weather radar showed a storm traveling through a band from Stevens point to Waupaca, so it cut just south of us. Beautiful night and Reagan had already put all the animals to bed.  We went back in and Jeff and I, and Tam and Dan had a little dance party in the kitchen, practicing the West Coast Swing that we’re working on in our Friday night dance classes.  Ann came by and we chatted a bit and said our goodbyes to her. We talked about playing a game but honestly no one had the energy for it. We made a plan for tomorrow’s route and everyone drifted off to read their books and go to bed.

Friday morning, I was up at 6 AM hoping to get a little yoga in before the routine of the morning. While it felt great to stretch, by the time we were hiking at 9 AM I was still really stiff.

 Helen Reagan’s place is 40 minutes from where we’re hiking now and they had another reservation for the weekend so we packed up this morning and will stay one night at the Ramada inn in Waupaca for the segment. We had breakfast and we’re packed up and leaving the farm, with a final goodbye to Linus and Lucy before 7:30 AM. By 8:15 AM.  Lola and the chickens were still cooped up in the hen house (Regan said if they get them out too early, they still have a chance of being lost to foxes and owls).   We rendezvoused with Gary at the spot where we’ll end today. We left two cars there and then drove to the start. I had a Google maps breakdown and accidently lead us to our halfway point, so we had a longer drive than expected but got to see some of the route. Just before 9am we arrived back at the Waupaca River segment and hiked the final half mile of that before punching back out to the road for an easy CR hike to the next segment.

It was about 65° when we started, but very humid it was also a little foggy.  We were glad for the cloud cover and hoped that our breeze was going to pick up again today. We walked about 2 miles on the road and then turned into a really cool strip between two farm fields that were parallel to Highway 54.  What a relief it was to us to not have to walk on Highway 54 and to be able enjoy the farm fields from that little vantage point of the strip of land. It looked like tobacco growing on one side, and a variety of vegetables for a nearby “farm market” on the other side.   There were raspberry bushes, as we’d seen along the trail for the past few days, but these had some ripe berries and I grabbed a few as I walked along – yum.

We turned right and then crossed Highway 54 and there we found a detour sign saying the trail was closed because of water up ahead.  We’d seen the “high water” alert on the Guthook app but we didn’t really understand that the trail was going to be closed. Disappointed, we turned and walked up Highway 54 which was kind of nasty and had to do a detour around that piece of the Hartman Creek segment.  It was an unexpected 2.5-mile road walk, which also added mileage to the end of the day as we still had to hike to where we’d left the cars.  Moods were down, but Lynn and I dragged back and got lost in conversation which always makes the grind bearable.   We had a snack and restarted the Hartman Creek Segment.  While it goes through Hartman Creek State Park, we saw little of the park facilities, and didn’t see a creek! The segment ended up being through beautiful pines with an occasional oak tree, with a sandy but not too soft trail which was just a blessing on our feet.  While it was humid, it didn’t feel too hot – the shade from the trees was just right, the air felt like it had so much oxygen and the singing of the birds - once again we were walking in paradise.

About 10 miles in, we stopped at what was a “P” on the map, but was actually just a gravel forest road.  We spread out and had lunch / naps there.  Jeff and Dan propped themselves up against the bank, in what we later discovered was probably a tick hangout (they’re both tick magnets anyway).

We travelled through the Emmons Creek segment as a dispersed, quiet, tired bunch.  It continued to be beautiful primarily pine forest, with occasional openings to oak savannahs and prairies with flowers just starting to emerge.  After that, we still had three more miles to slog along the CR.  I changed into my walking shoes and stashed my sandy low hikers in my pack – that gave me a fresh feeling in my lower extremities and Tam and I powered through the last three miles, talking about books we’re reading, the time went quickly. Gary, of course, finished up first, changed into dry clean clothes, and drove back to check on us and offered to carry our packs to the finish.  We all encouraged him to leave, but he wouldn’t do that until we all arrived at the finish. Its just the kind of guy he is.

Gary left for home, we piled into Kent’s car and he shuttled us back to the start.  Then a quick 10-minute drive to the Ramada Inn in Waupaca, where we were glad to grab showers, pick a few more ticks off our packs, get a cold beer from the cooler and relax.  

We gathered at 6pm and headed to what we’d heard was the best gathering spot for dinner – Clearwater Harbor on the Waupaca chain of lakes.  We got a great table on the deck, overlooking the docked pontoon boats and watching the bar crowd.  We had a good meal, and hung around for the entertainment to start at 8pm, Brad, a one-man show.  Brad was a great cover artist and we had a nice exchange going with him from our table next to the stage.  We also had a view of the TV and watched the Brewers win in extra innings, and the Bucks get off to a great lead in their playoff game.  We could have stayed all night, with the great music and people watching, but we left about 9pm, the practical thing to do.

The forecast called for 90% chance of rain all day Saturday, so it wasn’t a disappointment to wake up to a rainy day - the kind of day where it is just going to rain all day.

The Ramada had a breakfast, but we had our bananas, Greek Gods yogurt and homemade granola so we ate that in our room while we watched the local news. The news was out of Green Bay, which was surprising, and I didn’t expect that until we got to the end of the IAT. But it must be closer than Wausau, the next biggest media market.

The hotel coffee was awful, so I took to Google to find a coffee shop in Waupaca, and found a Dunkin’ Donuts a quarter mile away … otherwise it was going to be Cafe Karuba at Kwik Trip! I took a load down to our car and did my coffee run (drive) in a steady rain. Jeff was waiting in the portico with the rest of our stuff when I returned, and our fellow adventurers were there loading their cars as well.

We drove down Highway 22 through Wild Rose and scoped out a few spots there to come back to for lunch, and met Gary at what would be the start to the Deerfield segment. The rain remained steady and we caravanned two vehicles to our starting point at County Highway AA and 15th Avenue.

We donned various rain costumes and settled in for a hike in the rain. It was a fairly steady rain, and around 70 degrees, so I struggle with being too hot which can be worse to me than being damp! I had on my low hikers and added my low gaiters (which I’d normally not wear on CR), hoping they’d keep my feet dry (they didn’t). I wore my backpacking poncho which isn’t completely waterproof, but good enough. With that and my pack cover, my pack stayed dry. I also carried an umbrella that’s normally in my car; I’d only use an umbrella on CR as I always use hiking poles on the trail, but rarely on the road. Also, on the trail, an umbrella gets hung up on trees. But with 11 miles of CR today, it was great to be able to use it. Jeff started out in rain jacket and rain pants, but got too hot with the pants so they had to come off! He was also using an umbrella, but without a poncho to deflect the water, he had water pooling inside his pack cover, which dripped down to his shorts then! However, he was the only person with dry feet at the end of the hike so he had that going for himself!

We walked about 4 hours to do the 11-mile CR. It was the longest I’d ever hiked without taking a break or having a snack, but they were buried too far in my pack under too many layers of rain protection – and it never really stopped raining, it’d just rain heavier at times.  Traffic was ok, and we walked a lot along wooded roads – some with lots for sale, but I didn’t see an attraction to the lots unless you want to live like a hermit in the woods.

My feet were wet, but it was a cushy kind of wet, not a blister forming wet.  Of course then, Jeff came up with the “walking home in soggy old shoes” line from Jim Croce’s “Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues.”  We worked hard to come up with other lines from that song, and we came up with some, but couldn’t get the melody.  As we’ve done with other adventures, we can come up with lines to other songs on his “Greatest Hits” album, but we only have the tune to “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” when we are not singing along to the actual songs with Jim.  It sure kept our minds occupied as we were slogging along (in soggy boots).

Our plan was to hike the 11 CR, drive back to Wild Rose for lunch, then hike the 3.7-mile Deerfield segment. With a high misery factor (7 on my scale), the group voted to bag it for the day. We shuttled back to get the vehicles at the start, then on to Wild Rose for lunch. I’d looked at the Pioneer Pub online and thought that looked great. However, when we got to town, that looked super busy. No waiting at the Chatterbox, but perhaps there was a reason for that? We were the only patrons in there, which should be a bad sign that one should pay attention to.  The only staff person, RC, tried hard, but he had a creep factor that I couldn’t see beyond.  We’d already ordered by the time I saw the state of the bathroom and part of the kitchen. Even though we were warm and dry, my misery factor remained high and I mainly just ate my French fries as my sandwich was horrible.

It was just over an hour back home from there. We detoured to the Dairy Queen in Wautoma on our way home (made up for the yucky lunch).  

All in all, it was a great five day stretch on the IAT. We hiked over 74 miles in 5 days, and the long days pushed us mentally and physically.  While we aren’t able to train for the altitude that we’ll encounter hiking Kilimanjaro in September, the mental toughness we’re developing on days like today is what will make us successful!

[manuelclapid]

AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019

Merry Christmas to you! This is my annual Christmas newsletter and if you're a new subscriber in the past ten days or so, trust me this is not a normal AsktheBuilder.com newsletter.

Give me a few weeks to show you how I can save you time and money with your home improvement projects.

A Special Time - Christmas

You may celebrate Christmas as we do here at my home. If not, I wish you happiness however you choose to observe the days around the winter solstice.

Over the past few months, I started a project where I'm doing a brain dump of my memories of growing up. At this point, I'm just writing stories.

I plan to record some videos as some of the tales are far more suited to that medium.

Christmas at my house growing up was celebrated on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure why it was that way as I never bothered to ask my Mom and Dad. I just knew I got my presents earlier than most of my friends on my street, so I wasn't about to complain!

Some of our gifts were put around the tree days before Christmas. We were told to leave them alone and not touch them. Hah! That's like saying to a cat, "Leave that mouse alone. Don't chase it."

I have clear visions of shaking wrapped boxes, even trying to peek under the seams of the wrapping paper. The desire to discover what was under the colored paper was stronger than the craving for ice-cold water on a blistering August day.

When I was small, our Christmas tree was decorated with the coolest ornaments that glowed and bubbled. They must have been filled with colored alcohol and the heat from an interior light bulb caused the alcohol, or some other liquid, to boil and bubble.

Then for a few years, we had this antiseptic bright silver aluminum tree - I kid you not - that was illuminated by a slowly revolving four-color disc illuminated by a flood light. The colors, I think, were green, red, yellow and blue. It was hideous thinking back on it, but my Dad sure liked it!

When I was about 19 or maybe 20, the CB radio craze was in full swing. I really wanted one of those radios! I remember a long tall thin box that had my name on it leaning against the wall. Surely it was an antenna for the radio that must have been in another box! Yay, I was going to be on the air, breaker breaker!

I couldn't wait to rip off the paper from that tall thin box! When I did, I was so disappointed. It was a 4-foot level. What? Are you kidding me, a silly level? You can't get on the air with a level!

Christmas is a time of traditions for many families. One of mine, and my son does enjoy it too, is boiled shrimp. I really look forward to eating chilled shrimp cocktail with sauce so hot that it rivals lava flowing from a volcano.

I thank my Aunt Margaret for introducing me to this succulent food. CLICK or TAP HERE to read about my first time eating the white crustaceans!

Water Christmas Tree While Away

Two days ago, I recorded a fast video for you. We had to travel for three days and there was no one to water our fresh-cut tree. I knew it would run out of water in a day, so something had to be done.

A month ago, my son helped set up some smart plugs here at the house to control grow lights down in our basement.

He said to Kathy the day before we left, "Have Dad hook up some sort of irrigation system to one of the extra smart plugs."

Bango! That's all the inspiration I needed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to watch how I kept our fresh-cut tree watered while we were 250 miles away!

Taking a Break

I started another tradition about ten years ago where I spend the week between Christmas and New Years planning what's going to happen in the next 51 weeks.

That means you get a break from me for about 12 days or so.

I'll be back in your Inbox after the New Year.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year.

Based on how my 2019 ended, I'm pretty sure 2020 is going to be one of my best years ever. I hope that's how it turns out for you too!

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com Get Super Clean - www.StainSolver.com Old Morse Man - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Is your house COLD? Brrrrrrr. Do you know why? CLICK or TAP HERE and allow me to help you get WARM!

The post AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019 appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/askthebuilder-christmas-issue-2019/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[thegregorybruce]

AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019

Merry Christmas to you! This is my annual Christmas newsletter and if you're a new subscriber in the past ten days or so, trust me this is not a normal AsktheBuilder.com newsletter.

Give me a few weeks to show you how I can save you time and money with your home improvement projects.

A Special Time - Christmas

You may celebrate Christmas as we do here at my home. If not, I wish you happiness however you choose to observe the days around the winter solstice.

Over the past few months, I started a project where I'm doing a brain dump of my memories of growing up. At this point, I'm just writing stories.

I plan to record some videos as some of the tales are far more suited to that medium.

Christmas at my house growing up was celebrated on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure why it was that way as I never bothered to ask my Mom and Dad. I just knew I got my presents earlier than most of my friends on my street, so I wasn't about to complain!

Some of our gifts were put around the tree days before Christmas. We were told to leave them alone and not touch them. Hah! That's like saying to a cat, "Leave that mouse alone. Don't chase it."

I have clear visions of shaking wrapped boxes, even trying to peek under the seams of the wrapping paper. The desire to discover what was under the colored paper was stronger than the craving for ice-cold water on a blistering August day.

When I was small, our Christmas tree was decorated with the coolest ornaments that glowed and bubbled. They must have been filled with colored alcohol and the heat from an interior light bulb caused the alcohol, or some other liquid, to boil and bubble.

Then for a few years, we had this antiseptic bright silver aluminum tree - I kid you not - that was illuminated by a slowly revolving four-color disc illuminated by a flood light. The colors, I think, were green, red, yellow and blue. It was hideous thinking back on it, but my Dad sure liked it!

When I was about 19 or maybe 20, the CB radio craze was in full swing. I really wanted one of those radios! I remember a long tall thin box that had my name on it leaning against the wall. Surely it was an antenna for the radio that must have been in another box! Yay, I was going to be on the air, breaker breaker!

I couldn't wait to rip off the paper from that tall thin box! When I did, I was so disappointed. It was a 4-foot level. What? Are you kidding me, a silly level? You can't get on the air with a level!

Christmas is a time of traditions for many families. One of mine, and my son does enjoy it too, is boiled shrimp. I really look forward to eating chilled shrimp cocktail with sauce so hot that it rivals lava flowing from a volcano.

I thank my Aunt Margaret for introducing me to this succulent food. CLICK or TAP HERE to read about my first time eating the white crustaceans!

Water Christmas Tree While Away

Two days ago, I recorded a fast video for you. We had to travel for three days and there was no one to water our fresh-cut tree. I knew it would run out of water in a day, so something had to be done.

A month ago, my son helped set up some smart plugs here at the house to control grow lights down in our basement.

He said to Kathy the day before we left, "Have Dad hook up some sort of irrigation system to one of the extra smart plugs."

Bango! That's all the inspiration I needed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to watch how I kept our fresh-cut tree watered while we were 250 miles away!

Taking a Break

I started another tradition about ten years ago where I spend the week between Christmas and New Years planning what's going to happen in the next 51 weeks.

That means you get a break from me for about 12 days or so.

I'll be back in your Inbox after the New Year.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year.

Based on how my 2019 ended, I'm pretty sure 2020 is going to be one of my best years ever. I hope that's how it turns out for you too!

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com Get Super Clean - www.StainSolver.com Old Morse Man - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Is your house COLD? Brrrrrrr. Do you know why? CLICK or TAP HERE and allow me to help you get WARM!

The post AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019 appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/askthebuilder-christmas-issue-2019/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[andrewmawby]

AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019

Merry Christmas to you! This is my annual Christmas newsletter and if you're a new subscriber in the past ten days or so, trust me this is not a normal AsktheBuilder.com newsletter.

Give me a few weeks to show you how I can save you time and money with your home improvement projects.

A Special Time - Christmas

You may celebrate Christmas as we do here at my home. If not, I wish you happiness however you choose to observe the days around the winter solstice.

Over the past few months, I started a project where I'm doing a brain dump of my memories of growing up. At this point, I'm just writing stories.

I plan to record some videos as some of the tales are far more suited to that medium.

Christmas at my house growing up was celebrated on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure why it was that way as I never bothered to ask my Mom and Dad. I just knew I got my presents earlier than most of my friends on my street, so I wasn't about to complain!

Some of our gifts were put around the tree days before Christmas. We were told to leave them alone and not touch them. Hah! That's like saying to a cat, "Leave that mouse alone. Don't chase it."

I have clear visions of shaking wrapped boxes, even trying to peek under the seams of the wrapping paper. The desire to discover what was under the colored paper was stronger than the craving for ice-cold water on a blistering August day.

When I was small, our Christmas tree was decorated with the coolest ornaments that glowed and bubbled. They must have been filled with colored alcohol and the heat from an interior light bulb caused the alcohol, or some other liquid, to boil and bubble.

Then for a few years, we had this antiseptic bright silver aluminum tree - I kid you not - that was illuminated by a slowly revolving four-color disc illuminated by a flood light. The colors, I think, were green, red, yellow and blue. It was hideous thinking back on it, but my Dad sure liked it!

When I was about 19 or maybe 20, the CB radio craze was in full swing. I really wanted one of those radios! I remember a long tall thin box that had my name on it leaning against the wall. Surely it was an antenna for the radio that must have been in another box! Yay, I was going to be on the air, breaker breaker!

I couldn't wait to rip off the paper from that tall thin box! When I did, I was so disappointed. It was a 4-foot level. What? Are you kidding me, a silly level? You can't get on the air with a level!

Christmas is a time of traditions for many families. One of mine, and my son does enjoy it too, is boiled shrimp. I really look forward to eating chilled shrimp cocktail with sauce so hot that it rivals lava flowing from a volcano.

I thank my Aunt Margaret for introducing me to this succulent food. CLICK or TAP HERE to read about my first time eating the white crustaceans!

Water Christmas Tree While Away

Two days ago, I recorded a fast video for you. We had to travel for three days and there was no one to water our fresh-cut tree. I knew it would run out of water in a day, so something had to be done.

A month ago, my son helped set up some smart plugs here at the house to control grow lights down in our basement.

He said to Kathy the day before we left, "Have Dad hook up some sort of irrigation system to one of the extra smart plugs."

Bango! That's all the inspiration I needed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to watch how I kept our fresh-cut tree watered while we were 250 miles away!

Taking a Break

I started another tradition about ten years ago where I spend the week between Christmas and New Years planning what's going to happen in the next 51 weeks.

That means you get a break from me for about 12 days or so.

I'll be back in your Inbox after the New Year.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year.

Based on how my 2019 ended, I'm pretty sure 2020 is going to be one of my best years ever. I hope that's how it turns out for you too!

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com Get Super Clean - www.StainSolver.com Old Morse Man - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Is your house COLD? Brrrrrrr. Do you know why? CLICK or TAP HERE and allow me to help you get WARM!

The post AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019 appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from builders feed https://www.askthebuilder.com/askthebuilder-christmas-issue-2019/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[williamccreynolds]

AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019

Merry Christmas to you! This is my annual Christmas newsletter and if you're a new subscriber in the past ten days or so, trust me this is not a normal AsktheBuilder.com newsletter.

Give me a few weeks to show you how I can save you time and money with your home improvement projects.

A Special Time - Christmas

You may celebrate Christmas as we do here at my home. If not, I wish you happiness however you choose to observe the days around the winter solstice.

Over the past few months, I started a project where I'm doing a brain dump of my memories of growing up. At this point, I'm just writing stories.

I plan to record some videos as some of the tales are far more suited to that medium.

Christmas at my house growing up was celebrated on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure why it was that way as I never bothered to ask my Mom and Dad. I just knew I got my presents earlier than most of my friends on my street, so I wasn't about to complain!

Some of our gifts were put around the tree days before Christmas. We were told to leave them alone and not touch them. Hah! That's like saying to a cat, "Leave that mouse alone. Don't chase it."

I have clear visions of shaking wrapped boxes, even trying to peek under the seams of the wrapping paper. The desire to discover what was under the colored paper was stronger than the craving for ice-cold water on a blistering August day.

When I was small, our Christmas tree was decorated with the coolest ornaments that glowed and bubbled. They must have been filled with colored alcohol and the heat from an interior light bulb caused the alcohol, or some other liquid, to boil and bubble.

Then for a few years, we had this antiseptic bright silver aluminum tree - I kid you not - that was illuminated by a slowly revolving four-color disc illuminated by a flood light. The colors, I think, were green, red, yellow and blue. It was hideous thinking back on it, but my Dad sure liked it!

When I was about 19 or maybe 20, the CB radio craze was in full swing. I really wanted one of those radios! I remember a long tall thin box that had my name on it leaning against the wall. Surely it was an antenna for the radio that must have been in another box! Yay, I was going to be on the air, breaker breaker!

I couldn't wait to rip off the paper from that tall thin box! When I did, I was so disappointed. It was a 4-foot level. What? Are you kidding me, a silly level? You can't get on the air with a level!

Christmas is a time of traditions for many families. One of mine, and my son does enjoy it too, is boiled shrimp. I really look forward to eating chilled shrimp cocktail with sauce so hot that it rivals lava flowing from a volcano.

I thank my Aunt Margaret for introducing me to this succulent food. CLICK or TAP HERE to read about my first time eating the white crustaceans!

Water Christmas Tree While Away

Two days ago, I recorded a fast video for you. We had to travel for three days and there was no one to water our fresh-cut tree. I knew it would run out of water in a day, so something had to be done.

A month ago, my son helped set up some smart plugs here at the house to control grow lights down in our basement.

He said to Kathy the day before we left, "Have Dad hook up some sort of irrigation system to one of the extra smart plugs."

Bango! That's all the inspiration I needed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to watch how I kept our fresh-cut tree watered while we were 250 miles away!

Taking a Break

I started another tradition about ten years ago where I spend the week between Christmas and New Years planning what's going to happen in the next 51 weeks.

That means you get a break from me for about 12 days or so.

I'll be back in your Inbox after the New Year.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year.

Based on how my 2019 ended, I'm pretty sure 2020 is going to be one of my best years ever. I hope that's how it turns out for you too!

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com Get Super Clean - www.StainSolver.com Old Morse Man - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Is your house COLD? Brrrrrrr. Do you know why? CLICK or TAP HERE and allow me to help you get WARM!

The post AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019 appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Real Estate https://www.askthebuilder.com/askthebuilder-christmas-issue-2019/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[inb4vaughn]

Saddle Up for Austin and Horseshoe Bay

From chords to courses, a fine Swing & Song golf travel tune emerges from the Hill Country of Central Texas. Before scoring some tranquil time at the renovated Horseshoe Bay Resort, just 50 miles northwest of the city proper, the sharp spur will saddle up for a few days in diverse Austin, where you’ll find a rep beyond just the state’s capital city.

Known as “The Live Music Capital of the World,” Austin proves an audial and outdoor nexus, with all manner of stimuli to sate and serve visitors, from waterfront activities to tunes playing, well, seemingly everywhere.

Home and host to the annual South by Southwest (March 13-22, 2020) and Austin City Limits (October 2-4 and 9-11, 2020) festivals, the city is one of the country’s most unique cultural canvasses. A blue stamp in a red state, Austin matches a boom of headquarted tech companies, paired with one of the nation’s annual top-10 college campus enrollments at UT-Austin.

And the town is proudly weird.

To borrow from the Bard, a night out in downtown Austin’s drink and dine-laden Sixth Street is a Moveable Beast. People are everywhere: from boozy co-eds to strolling music lovers to football fanatics to hipsters, hippies, vagrants, vacationers, cowboys and Moms and Pops just out for a good time. Known to some as “Dirty Sixth,” as the clock turns toward the a.m. hours, there’s no shortage of mayhem to be found there.

Slick Rock at Horseshoe Bay Resort

But, amid the din, newcomers need know it’s among the most unique, head-turning mayhems the country has to offer, and Austin’s sounds, strums and song around every turn need be experienced.

For those seeking a slightly more chill amble, the up-and-coming Rainey Street is within walking distance of Sixth or—as the visitor will fast note—easily-accessible by electric rental scooter, a fun, easy, and slightly maniacal mode of transport.

Sporting a pair of thorough food truck courts (with a third soon on the way), Rainey is also amply bar-lined, though with a fresher flair and character, as several of the establishments have been converted from former residential properties.

Now for the swing after the sing: A 45-minute drive through Texas hill country, gently winding through comely mesquite, rock outcroppings, bramble and tucked-away wine vineyards, the winding path to Horseshoe Bay aptly sets the senses for wind-down resort time.

Ram Rock at Horseshoe Bay

Recognized as a provenance for the region’s golf growth of the 1980s, Horseshoe’s 7,000-acre spread is home to four courses, with its most magnetic amenity being of the natural variety, as the property sits beside 21 miles of constant-level Lake LBJ.

Back in 2012, the debut of Horseshoe’s stellar, members-only Jack Nicklaus-designed Summit Rock Course raised the bar for property-wide enhancements. In late ’15, the resort set in motion a thorough renovation plan for upgrades to its trio of Robert Trent Jones, Sr. public plays.

Today, $95 million later, a full resort renovation has the property on the upswing, with all-new guest rooms, suites and superb lakeside Yacht Club serving a savory Texas Two-Step for the golfing Austin visitor.

Apple Rock at Horseshoe Bay

 “We see it a lot, with folks carving-out three or four days at Horseshoe; either capping the getaway off with a few nights in Austin, or hitting downtown on the front end of a trip,” says Anthony Holder, director of golf at Horseshoe Bay Resort. “And, up here, it’s a feeling of a slower, relaxed lifestyle; a place to enjoy time, but with all the modern comforts and amenities. With the renovation, just about every outlet, every area of the property has gotten some love and attention.”

From a play perspective, Horseshoe’s three publics received about $7.5 million of the renovation dollars, with improvements both aesthetic and tangible; most notably, segueing from the creation of Summit, all of the resort’s courses now roll with 007 bentgrass grass, a true rarity for the region.

“We certainly feel that it’s a nice marketing aspect for the property, in that you won’t find bentgrass with our main competition,” said Ken Gorzycki, director of agronomy at Horseshoe Bay. “Yeah, it’s a little more difficult and labor-intensive to maintain, but we think it’s all worth the effort for our guests and members.”

In concert with the greens, Horseshoe’s agronomy team—working with Robert Trent Jones, Jr.’s Austin-based senior project architect Mark Voss—conducted a host of enhancements, including new rock retaining walls, fresh fountains in ponds, leveled tees and upgraded irrigation systems.

The four-year project aimed to bring the plays close to the new Summit standard, while still keeping Jones, Sr.’s original design intents in-mind.

 “When they had Robert Trent Jones, Sr. come out to design the courses, they chose him, as I understand it, because his style was less disruptive to the landscape and more about encompassing natural features,” said Holder.

The property’s original course, Slick Rock, debuted in 1972, and proves the most benign—and popular—of the plays.

 “It’s the oldest of the courses, and the most traditional of the styles,” Holder says. “It’s a bit flatter, with large, protected greens. Still a challenge, with some fun holes. Slick gets the most play of any of our courses.”

Opened in 1981, Horseshoe’s Ram Rock Course proves headstrong, with elevated approach and continual, creek-lined holes.

“It’s what we call, ‘The Beast,’” laughs Holder. “Ram is considered one of the most difficult courses in the entire state; that’s the rep, even for pros. There’s some need to shape shots, and you need to be a long player to be able to take shortcuts. For the average-distance hitter, it will force you to position tee shots.”

More forgiveness is found on Apple Rock, which rounded-out the public tee sheet back in 1985.

“It’s a good combination of Slick and Ram,” Holder says of Apple. “It’s not as difficult as Ram, but it is our longest course, so if you tip-out at 7,000, it will give you a test. And, for the mid-handicapper, there are some great views to match with big greens and lots of bunkering.”

Travel tip: For the particularly driven player (say, the kind who may consider flying into Horseshoe’s own airport), it’s surely worth a word to try and get on Summit. Free of housing, sporting a gorgeous, natural flow and deserved of its lofty rankings by national and regions publications alike, the track is truly superior to its sister courses.

For those sated by the run of non-Summit plays (and, rest assured, they are quality), a Horseshoe visit in-full should pair golf days with some time on the water. Whether the trip style is of the Dudes, Couples or Family venture (the latter may be most recommended), the resort’s marina and Yacht Club scene match primo dining with a singular setting.

“With the sun going down over the lake, it’s as good as it gets,” says Holder. “It’s where I enjoy hanging out with my own family. It encapsulates that great view of the lake, with what we call ‘beach front’ properly, even though I guess it’s more lake front. We’ve got the pool with swim-up bar, and the huge hot tub.”

The on-site, 350-slip marina provides unique opportunity for golfers to couple the day’s turf time with water respite.

“We’re one of the only resorts that will let you bring your boat in when you’re staying with us,” says Zac Taylor, marina director. “It’s pretty common for a guest to come in, drop the truck and trailer with us, go check into the room, and we’ll load everything to the water for them.”

For family-style trips, Horseshoe makes it easy for Pop to go swing for a day while the youngsters enjoy some swim.

“We’ll have a lot of boat guest who go play golf,” adds Taylor, “and a lot of times, we’ll see golfers go head out and leave the kids here with us for tube rides.”

A full menu of lake experiences runs from pontoon rides to ski boats, wave runner rentals, sunset cruises, party yachts and fishing tours.

White bass and crappie prove the primary catch.

“Our fishing guide, his dad was our guide for a long time, so when you go out with our team, you’re pretty much guaranteed to come back with a whole sack of fish meat,” Taylor smiles.

From “weird” to wedge to water, this Texas tune is played in full with a two-step trip: going city mouse to country mouse flavors Austin in full, starting with the din of downtown singers and bookending the travel with Horseshoe’s ringer.

The post Saddle Up for Austin and Horseshoe Bay appeared first on Golf Tips Magazine.

from Golf Tips Magazine https://ift.tt/2suVJg3

[jasonheart1]

Arvadans question accuracy of water bills

ARVADA, Colo. – Several Arvada residents are questioning the accuracy of their water bills.

One reached out to Contact7 to see if there is an issue with the city’s billing system.

“Usually, my husband pays the water bill,” said Kylee Harrington, “but when I got it this month, we were kind of shocked.”

Harrington said that at $500, her most recent bill is triple the normal amount.

“We thought maybe it was the hot tub,” she said, “then when I did the math, our hot tub (uses) only 325 gallons, and this (bill) is (for) nearly a hundred thousand gallons of water.”

The Arvada mom questions how that’s possible.

“We cut back on the use of our sprinkler system,” she said. “We’re an average family.  We don’t do a lot of laundry, or a lot of dishes.”

Harrington checked “Arvada Neighborhoods & Friends,” and saw several people raising questions about the same thing.

One poster wrote: “Holy Crap – I thought it was just us.  We were gone the ENTIRE month of June and somehow our June/July bill INCREASED $70.”

Stopped Payment

That triggered more questions in Harrington’s mind.

“When I saw that, I actually stopped payment on my check,” she said, “until I can figure it out.”

Arvada’s communications manager, Maria Vanderkolk, said that’s not a good idea.

“We will turn off water for lack of payment,” she said, “although our policy is typically – you’ll get a warning, you’ll get a letter, and finally we’ll turn your water off.”

Vanderkolk told Denver7 that complaints about water bills are cyclical.

“This happens every couple of years or so,” she said, “particularly like this year, when we’ve had a very hot, dry summer, and people may not be aware of the amount of water that they’re using to just keep up with the lack of rainfall.”

But Vanderkolk added that on occasion, there is something wrong, like a water leak.

“It could be in your irrigation system,” she said. “It could be in your toilet.  It’s amazing how quickly a little leak can accumulate into a lot of gallons of water.”

Citywide Use

Vanderkolk said citywide, residents use 8-million gallons of water daily, during winter months, and upward of 35 million gallons of water daily during summer.

“We don’t have water restrictions this year, so we haven’t really messaged a lot about watering once every three days,” she said.  “When we are in a drought situation and people are restricted in their watering habits, it really forces them to pull back.”

Locating Common Water Leaks

According to the Utilities page on the City of Arvada website, water leaks are most often associated with a worn-out toilet flapper valve or a problem with a sprinkler system.

To check for a slow leak on a toilet flapper, add food coloring into the upper tank to see if the color appears in the bowl area. (May require a plumber’s assistance.)

To check for a leak in the irrigation system, turn off the valve to the irrigation system and leave it off for several minutes. If, when the valve is turned back on, you can feel water flow back into the system, this indicates a leak somewhere in the irrigation line. (May require a plumber’s assistance.)

Assessment

Vanderkolk said if an Arvada homeowner sees a shocking difference in their water bill and suspects a leak in their system, they should call the Utilities Department.

“We’re happy to do an assessment of your property,” she said. “We’re happy to go over, with you, the history of your water bills.”

The number to call is:  720-898-7760.

from Local News https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/several-arvada-residents-question-the-accuracy-of-their-water-bills-post-complaints-on-social-media

[threeorphanpilgrimage]

Chapter 74 - Safety

Clementine steadied the hammer in her hand and took aim at her target. She landed a single firm tap on the lowest rung of metal wiring that formed the tomato cage she was kneeling in front of. Her strike didn't seem to drive the cage's legs any further into the soft dirt, but she hit it once more for good measure before moving a few inches to repeat the process in a different spot.

Her entire morning had been methodically reinforcing the stability of tomato cages a few taps at a time, even though the tomato plants themselves still were too small to make any use out of them. Even having grown from sprouts to proper plants, the few limbs they had were too short to reach the cage, which was narrowest at the bottom. However, with the approaching weather, Sarah said they should make sure everything was secure.

There was a crashing sound in the distance and Clem looked up expecting to see a flash of lightning. The thick gray clouds hanging over the area had been seen as a good omen by everyone. Rain would not only water the crops for them, but it'd refill the tanks on their RV's and the barrels they had set out under the houses' gutters. Clem was also grateful for the comforting shade it cast over the field, sparing her another morning baking in the sun.

There was another distant crashing sound but Clem saw no lightning. Adjusting her view downward slightly, she saw the backhoe on the edge of the field, further digging out the now severely shrunken pond. Sin had wanted to work on digging a trench the lake, but seeing it was overcast this morning, decided enlarging their pond before it rained would be a better use of his time.

Watching the backhoe move back and forth, its equipment crashing loudly as it did, Clem realized there had been no thunder, yet. After settling in place, the mechanical arm started digging again and Clem went back to work herself, reasoning she had time to finish before the rain arrived. She didn't make it much further before she noticed Anthony moving towards her.

"Need a hand?" he asked with a shrug, a hammer in his hand.

"You're done with the bean poles?" Anthony nodded weakly, to which Clem made a slight gesture with her head and he knelt down by the tomato cage next to her to begin tapping the wrung nearest the cage's legs.

"Really starting to wish Sin never told us about mercury poisoning," mumbled Anthony.

"Really?" asked Clem. "But then—"

"Getting sick and maybe dying while getting fat on fish is starting to look preferable to this bullshit," mumbled Anthony. "That lake is huge. I bet I could pull in two or three pounders every day if I actually went fishing instead of just pulling in those cages. I mean, how long would you have to eat fish before that shit would actually kill you? Weren't there people before who ate fish every day and they were fine?"

"I don't know," shrugged Clem as she moved onto to the next tomato cage. "My mom sometimes made me tuna sandwiches."

"And you're okay. I mean, the old man even said he's not an expert on this stuff; we could eat a lot of fish and be fine for all he knows."

"Or we could get sick, and then none of us know what to do because none of us are doctors," retorted Clem. "I met someone once who told me they knew people who tried avoiding the land when the walkers first showed up. They stayed on a river and just ate fish, and some of them got scurvy."

"The hell is scurvy?"

"Sarah looked it up and it's a disease you get when you don't get enough vitamin C, which fish don't have," said Clem as she tapped the tomato cage with her hammer. "She said it makes you really tired and your arms and legs sore and your gums start bleeding."

"Holy shit," said Anthony in a whisper. "Couple of days before I met you guys, my gums had started bleeding."

"You should have eaten those green beans," said Clem as she stood up.

"Huh?"

"Those cans of green beans you left in front of that… weird trap you made," reminded Clem. "You should have just eaten them."

"Why's that?"

"They're full of vitamin C." Anthony looked at Clem, baffled. She just smirked at him before moving onto the next tomato cage.

"How do you know what does and doesn't have vitamin C in it?" asked Anthony as he knelt down by the next cage.

"When we first started taking care of OJ, Sarah was really worried about what we'd feed him when he stopped drinking formula and we spent like three days just looking up different vitamins and checking the labels on cans to know what had what." Clem knelt down and started working on the next tomato cage. "And nothing really has everything you need, so even if we don't have to worry about mercury, we couldn't live off just fish."

"What about deer?" asked Anthony.

"I don't think we could just eat them either, and even if we could, we haven't seen a deer since the one you shot. That's why we need this farm."

"Yeah, yeah, I figured that. It's just this farming stuff is such a hassle," said Anthony as he tapped the cage with his hammer. "Sarah said once the corn stalks get sturdy enough, we're gonna have to carefully untangle the beans' vines, then rewrap them around the corn stalks because she's afraid the bean poles might get in the way of the corn once it starts coming in."

"Sort we're gonna have to do for the beans and corn what she said we'd have to do with the cucumbers and those weird wire tent things we setup?"

"Yeah. Thank God we did those just yesterday or Sarah would be telling us to double check them too."

"She's just being careful," insisted Clem. "After our first garden—"

"I know, she told me," said Anthony as he stood up and wiped his face with his sleeve. "I just hope we're not doing all this just to repeat what happened with it."

"Yeah, me too." Having reached the end, Clem stood up and looked out over the rest of the field. There were rows of cages, wooden poles, and tall wire structures shaped like sign boards neatly lined up across the rows of dirt, while the plants they were set out for were still tiny and frail. The cucumbers were currently just a mess of short leaves, the tomato plants were dwarfed by the cages that encased them, and the beanstalks still appeared to be little more than curly weeds. The only thing that resembled a finished vegetable were the lettuce plants, which currently looked like miniature versions of the finished product.

"Hey, take a look at this." Clem turned to find Anthony's face hovering an inch away from one of the cages. "This one's actually got a tomato on it."

"Really?" Clem knelt down to look herself, and under one of the plants leaves she could see a tiny green bump hanging from a thin vine. "I wonder how long until we can eat it."

"Probably a few weeks," said Anthony. "These are early girl tomatoes, so they'll probably be the first thing that's ready. The cucumbers shouldn't be far behind them."

"How do you know that?" asked Clem.

"Sarah's out here every morning at dawn checking everything in this field, and the second she needs a hand she wakes me up," explained Anthony.

"Really?"

"Yes really, who the hell do you think carries fertilizer for her or helps get more dirt to top off the potatoes' row?" asked Anthony. "I spend so many early mornings out here with her I can't help but ask when the hell this stuff is going to be ready."

"It's just… why does she come to you?"

"She says you're always busy in the morning taking care of your baby, and Devlin is always getting picked for some kind of construction project. I was hoping he'd finally be free today to help but apparently now is when he needs to go back to Tulsa to see if anyone has visited since we left."

"He said he'd go on the first of every month, and today is April first."

"Leaving me as the lone strong back around here; happy April Fool's Day," griped Anthony as he stood up. "Speaking of indentured servitude, I'd better go fetch some water."

Clem followed after Anthony as he headed for the pond. Running along the edge of the field was a thick white plastic pipe suspended about half a foot off the ground by blocks of wood. Looking to her right, Clem could see the pipe ran towards the rainwater collector built up against the side of the barn. Anthony stepped over the pipe with ease while Clem had to be more careful not to trip over it. Anthony grabbed a couple of watering cans tucked away by the barn door and started walking towards the pond.

"Wait, it's going to rain," remembered Clem. "Sarah said we won't need to water the field today."

"The field, no," said Anthony. "That little greenhouse Devlin put together for Sarah, that still needs water."

Clem wanted to ask Anthony something else, but as they neared the pond, the sound of the backhoe's engine drowned any attempt at conversation. Looking over at the cab, Anthony held up his hand and Clem could see Sin inside nodding. The arm pivoted away from the pond, dropping off a load of dirt near a large pile beside the vehicle, then the arm retracted and the backhoe's engine went silent.

"Why don't you go check on him?" suggested Anthony as he hopped into the wide ditch the backhoe created. "Figure out if his damn irrigation system works yet or not. I'd love a break from watering tomorrow too." Anthony moved through the ditch until he reached the edge of the dried pond, then kept walking until he finally reached what remained of the water. Turning away from Anthony, Clem noticed Sin exiting the cab of the backhoe and sitting down on the step just below his seat.

"Are you okay?" asked Clem as she approached the man.

"Huh?" said Sin as he looked up, as if he just noticed her.

"I just asked if you're okay."

"I'm fine," assured a tired Sin. "It just gets hot in there, and the constant sound of the engine probably isn't good for my hearing."

"We've got some special earmuffs that stop noise," said Clem. "We took them from a gun store so whenever we practiced our aim it wouldn't bother Omid, but he always takes them off when we put them on him."

"I think I could use those," said Sin as he looked over his shoulder at the rest of the backhoe. "Just digging out the pond is taking a toll on me. It'll probably take several days to dig a trench from here to the lake, maybe a week, and longer still to solidify it with concrete." Sin looked over at the pond as Anthony carried a couple of full water cans out of it.

"He's not going to water the field today he is?"

"He's getting water for Sarah's greenhouse," explained Clem.

"I haven't even looked at that yet," said Sin.

"I haven't either," admitted Clem. "Devlin finished it yesterday I think and by then I just wanted to go to bed, and this morning Sarah wanted me to come out here after feeding Omid to make sure the tomato cages weren't going to blow away." There was a sudden flash followed a few seconds later by a distant clash of thunder.

"Seems like you finished just in time." Sin closed the door to the backhoe and moved towards Clem. "We should probably all get in before the rain starts. Besides, Jet insists I come to this party Patty wants to do for our first rainy day."

"Oh yeah, that should be fun," said Clem as she walked with Sin across the dirt, eyeing the long water pipe that spanned the short side of the field. "Although, Anthony wanted to know how this rainwater collector works," said Clem as she looked over at the large stacks of barrels connected to each other by a mess of pipes. "I would too. I saw something like this once that collected lots of rainwater, but it different. It was just a shipping container they put gutters on that emptied into barrels, then they'd use one of those little mover things to carry the full barrels away."

"I suppose now is as good a time as any to field any questions about this device," said Sin as he walked over to the stacks of barrels stacked upon other barrels. "There's no carrying these barrels away. Devlin and I went to great lengths to anchor them in place and to each other to form a single large reservoir we can use to water our crops," explained Sin as he gestured to the pipes running between all the barrels.

Looking carefully, Clem could see there were two types of plastic pipes linking the barrels together; one thick and one thin. Both sets of pipes connected every barrel to every other barrel, even extending upwards in a few places to link the top and bottom rows. The larger pipes connected to tall tubes on each side of the collector that ran up to the barn's gutters. But the thin pipes only connected the barrels to each other, barring a few short lengths of open pipe sticking straight up past the top row of barrels.

"So… what are these for?" asked Clem as she pointed at the thin open pipes that looked like tiny chimneys, complete with small plastic covers that left space for air to escape.

"Those are the vents," explained Sin.

"Vents?" asked Clem. "Why do water barrels need those?"

"So there's somewhere for the air to go as the water comes in."

"I don't understand. Why does the air have to go anywhere?"

"Because if the air in the barrels couldn't get out, then the water could never get in."

"Really? If those weren't there the water would just, what, stay in the gutters?"

"Well no, some water would get in, but…" Sin scratched his chin. "Did you ever take a glass, turn it upside down, and hold it underwater in a sink?"

"Our teacher did that in school once with a bottle," said Clem. "I thought it was weird the water wouldn't go inside."

"That's because there's air trapped inside the bottle and has nowhere to go, which means the water can't enter the container because it's filled with air, which takes up space even if we usually can't see it," explained Sin.

"But what about when you just pour water into a bottle?" asked Clem. "There's air in there then too. Why does it work then?"

"That's because liquid particles aren't as densely packed as the solid ones a bottle is made out of, and air can push through water much like how we could swim through it. When you hold a bottle underwater with the top facing up, you see as air escapes the bottle in the form of bubbles being pushed up through the water."

"Well, then why do you need the vents? Wouldn't the air in the barrels do the same thing and just go up the pipes like bubbles out of a bottle?"

"What's a faster way to collect water: using a cup or using a bottle?"

"Probably the cup."

"Why?"

"Well, because the water goes right in. If you hold a bottle underwater, it makes this glug-glug sound while the bubbles come out and it takes longer."

"Exactly," said Sin with a smirk. "The cup has a wide opening that allows water to just push air right out, whereas a bottle has a narrow top that both the air and water have to pass through, which slows both of them down."

"Oh… but the pipes for your vents are narrow," noted Clem.

"Ah, but water won't be coming in that way," said Sin as he pointed at one of the larger pipes connected to the gutter. "The water will be rushing in from that pipe and come flowing into the bottom barrels, and the air will have to go somewhere. Where do you think it will go?"

"Um, I guess up and out through your vents?"

"Why?"

"Because… it's easier than trying to go through all the water coming in the bigger pipes?" guessed Clem.

"Exactly, the air will follow the path of least resistance. Without those vents, the main pipes would be a bottleneck for the escaping air and the incoming water."

"What's a bottleneck?"

"It's a part of a machine or system where very little can pass through it at once, which is a problem because most systems are only as efficient as their weakest components. Imagine if your watering can's spout was as narrow as a drinking straw. It would take a very long time to pour out the water we need for the crops."

"So… it's like a bottle's neck?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, you said the water takes longer because the top of the bottle is narrow," reminded Clem. "So, a bottleneck is like a bottle… neck."

Clem was surprised to see Sin stifle a laugh and try to hide the fact he was smiling. "For me, that word has been synonymous with production problems for so long that I never even considered its very appropriate literal meaning."

Clem couldn't stop herself from smiling as she thought about how she had actually taught Sin something, even if it was only something trivial. "So, is that why the water pipes connect to all the other barrels? So there won't be a bottle neck?"

"Yes, by giving the water multiple paths, it'll help maintain a steady flow and hopefully keep the pipe from backing up and wasting water during a heavy rain. I had wanted to have more than two pipes connect to the gutters to help, but the barns angular roof means we had to build the collector on a short side where we could run pipes from both halves of the roof. Otherwise, we'd miss half the water we could collect."

"What about this bench thing?" asked Clem as she pointed at the simple wooden structure that supported all the barrels. "What's it for?"

"It suspends the barrels a couple of feet off the ground so gravity could allow the water to flow out easily. Like I said, I can't make water move uphill without pressurizing it."

"But, then how would the top barrels ever get filled? None of them are connected to the pipe coming from the gutter, only the bottom barrels. Wouldn't the water just stay in the bottom barrels then?"

"The weight of the water in the pipe creates a small degree of pressure, enough to raise the water level," explained Sin. "However, it can't raise the water higher than the source of the water exerting that pressure, and the rising water goes slower as it approaches the height of its source."

"Is that why water towers are so tall?" asked Clem. "So they create lots of water pressure?"

"That's right," said Sin, sounding pleased. "That much water that high up creates a significant amount of pressure just from gravity."

"But, how did the water get up there in the first place?"

"Usually it's pumped in from a treatment plant."

"Oh, so they need electricity?"

"Generally. There are other means, like—"

"A windmill?"

"Yes," said Sin, sounding surprised. "How did you know that?"

"I met someone once who said she was going to build a windmill so she could have running water again," explained Clem, trying to keep her voice from sounding too bitter. "Could you build something like that?"

"Theoretically."

"Theoretically?"

"I understand the fundamental principles of windmills and how we could connect one to a pump, but actually designing and constructing such a thing under these circumstances is a different matter," explained Sin. "I'm still yet to even properly test our irrigation system."

"What is our irrigation system?" asked Clem. "I saw that pipe near the field, but what does it do?"

"We took as many drip lines and soaker hoses as we would come from Tulsa and I installed a valve with a connector for a hose on each section of that pipe over there. In theory, we should be able to connect the hoses to the pipe, unroll them across the field for each row we're growing, then just turn the handle and let the water from the collector flow out to our plants."

"But?" asked Clem, knowing it couldn't possibly be that easy.

"I'm not sure if the collector will provide enough water pressure to cover that many hoses over that great a distance. Even if they do, we'll only be able to use it after it rains."

"That's still better than having to water the crops every day," said Clem. "What about the trench from the lake you want to make?"

"I'm still working on what would be the best way to distribute the water, assuming we can make a trench through that terrain. Currently, I'm thinking it might be best to just install a hand pump near the end of the main pipe near the pond, just pump water into it and let the hoses distribute it, but—"

There was a sudden flash followed by a clap of thunder. Even if she hadn't noticed that they were closer together than the last time, Clem could tell the storm was nearer because of how much louder the thunder was.

"We should probably go in," concluded Clem.

"I'm going to double check everything. I'd hate to think I left a valve open somewhere and our first rain of the season goes down the tubes, literally," said Sin as he moved in close to the collector. "You go ahead, unless you want to stay and help?"

"That's okay, but this was kind of fun, learning how stuff works."

"If you ever want another lesson on basic engineering, just ask."

"I might do that," said Clem, thinking that sounded fun. Sin must have thought the same thing as it looked like he was hiding another smile, easily making this the most Clem had seen him smile since meeting the man. Leaving Sin to work, Clem headed towards the house just as another clap of thunder sounded. Crossing past the fence, Clem spotted Jet hurrying into the shed in the middle of the yard. Needing to return a hammer, Clem followed in Jet's footsteps only to almost crash into him as he came racing back out.

"Whoa!" said Jet as he jumped several steps. "Where did you come from?"

"I was just bringing my hammer back," said Clem as she held up the tool.

"Oh, perfect, I was just looking for one of those."

"What for?"

"I was just going to put this up." Jet removed a thick wooden sign from under his arm and held it out for Clem to see.

"Ceres Acres?"

"Ceres was the Roman goddesses of agriculture," explained Jet as he turned the sign around. "Also the biggest asteroid in the asteroid belt is named Ceres… plus it sounds cool."

"Why'd you make this?"

"I figured this place needs a name, so when we went to Pawhuska I made sure to grab some stencils and paint and a sign from the hobby store we found," explained Jet. "I've been working on it in my room at night whenever I get a chance. Do you like it?"

Showing her the sign again, Clem could tell Jet had spent a lot of time on it. There were painted images of leaves in each corner; the top ones green and rounded, the bottom ones orange and pointed. A pair of short chains ran through a couple of holes in the top. Thick black lines ran with little swirls growing out of them ran between the corners to create a border. Near the bottom in tiny lettering it read 'EST. 2 A.O.' while in the center was 'CERES ACRES' spelled out in big, black ornate letters.

"I like it," said Clem.

"Really?" asked Jet, sounding a little surprised. "I was about to go hang it over the front porch. You want to help?"

"Sure." Clem went with Jet to the front of the house, heading up the steps into the quaint veranda. Discovering they had never collected any furniture to place on the porch, Jet hurried inside to collect something to stand on while Clem made a mental note to get a few cozy chairs next time they went into Pawhuska. Jet hammered a couple of nails into the roof of the veranda while Clem held the stool he was standing on steady. When he was done, she passed up the sign and he looped the chains around the ends of the nails.

Hopping off the chair, the pair immediately ran down the steps to admire their handy work. The sign hung neatly in front of the entrance, christening the property with its new name. It even swayed a little as the wind picked up, and Clem suddenly found herself tickled by an image of her and Sarah as old ladies in rocking chairs, just watching the sun set together from the veranda.

"Hey, I think Devlin's back."

Clem spun around in time to see a large red semi-truck turn off the driveway and pull up next to the other semi hitched to the trailer they had used to move the backhoe. Clem went with Jet as they rushed out to meet the man. Arriving at the truck, they watched as Devlin slunk out of the cab, a forlorn look on his face as he leaned up against the vehicle.

"Devlin?" greeted Clem as they inched closer.

"Did something happen in Tulsa?" asked an anxious Jet as the man turned to look at the pair.

"Nah, nothing happened," Devlin said with a half-hearted shrug. "If anyone had come since we left, they didn't touch anything we left out for them at the Sam's Club, least not that I could tell."

"Then what's wrong?" Clem's question was met with silence as Devlin looked away. "You can tell us."

"It's just… being back in that big empty city, all by myself," spoke Devlin in a quiet voice. "Brought back a lot of bad memories of living there, alone, thinking I was the last man alive on Earth."

"I'm sorry," spoke a sympathetic Clem.

"There… there were more than a few nights there I thought about pointing the line launcher at my own head," admitted Devlin in a hushed whisper. "I think the only thing stopping me was knowing since it didn't use a regular bullet, there was a good chance it wouldn't actually kill me."

"Devlin…" spoke a visibly disturbed Jet.

"Never mind, just forget—"

"Don't," said Clem as she grabbed the man's sleeve as he tried to turn to back to the cab. "Don't tell us to just forget about something like that. Talk to us."

"I'm… I'm not used to talking to people about stuff like this," admitted Devlin. "Especially not kids who got enough to worry about as it is."

"Like I told you before, talking to people isn't nearly as bad as a lot of things we have to worry about now," reminded Clem.

"And I'd worry less if you just talked to us," said Jet, almost pleading.

"If you don't want to talk about something right now because it makes you feel worse, then just tell us that, but if it's us you're worried about then you're better off telling us."

Devlin took a deep breath. "I guess I'm just terrified I'll wind up alone again," he confessed. "Been my worst fear for a long time. I never really knew my dad, and my mom died not long after I finished high school. Just had a heart attack one day… she wasn't even that old. She… she had been my whole life up until then."

"You didn't have any other family?" asked Jet.

"Like I said, I don't know where my dad is, I was an only child, no grandparents or aunts or uncles, not that I know of; losing her was like losing everything. If I hadn't already enrolled in college, I don't know where the hell I would have gone next. And once I graduated I immediately looked for something else, anything so I wouldn't be alone. I had a lot of student debt, and I didn't really feel comfortable with the regular military, so I joined the Coast Guard.

"Might sound strange, but the time I spent with Simmons and company was probably the first time I felt like I really belonged, like I had a purpose, and a family again. As hard as things were in Tulsa, I don't think I had ever felt closer to people than I did with them. When we drew straws to find out what order we'd take lingering survivors out of Tulsa in, each time I drew the short one it felt like another punch to the stomach, until I realized I'd have to be the one who stayed the longest, by myself."

"That's terrible," said Jet. "You… you just had to watch them leave one by one?"

"The Chief went before the rest of us, taking whoever was left downriver to hopefully be safe in New Orleans. A family of four came to Tulsa not long after that; John took them downriver. Next was Jorge and this brother and sister who couldn't stop arguing. For over a month it was just me and Gina, this older woman who loved to swear. We used to joke she was around when the Coast Guard was founded. She heard us once and snapped 'And the recruits get bitchier every fucking century!"

Jet had to stifle a laugh. "Yeah, it gets less funny when you spend a whole month alone with her. But still, the day some starving old man with torn up shoes came stumbling into the citadel, I was sad to see her go with him to New Orleans. Then it was just me, waiting for my chance to go home to them… but they're not there anymore."

"I know how you feel," spoke a sympathetic Clem. "After everything changed, I just wanted to find my parents again. I met a lot of people who made me feel like I belonged, and eventually we went to the city my parents were in… They were dead, and everyone else I had ever met was dead or gone by the end of that day. I walked for miles, covered in blood and guts, not knowing where I'd go or what I'd do because there was no one left."

"What did you do?" asked Jet, transfixed by Clem's story.

"I got lucky. OJ's parents survived and found me outside the city. If they hadn't, I don't know what I would have done. I was so sad that if they hadn't of said we needed to move, I might have just sat on that log forever."

"Sounds like how I felt like when I met you people," said Devlin. "After you told me New Orleans was gone I just thought 'That's it, there's nothing left'. Then you guys talked about taking back the shopping center, and I was suddenly part of something again."

"Is that the only reason you came with us?" asked Jet.

"In a way," admitted Devlin. "I was just kind lost in the moment, and you people needed an extra hand. I'm happy I'm here now, but part of me wishes I just told the Chief I wanted to stay with her when she left for New Orleans for the last time, but I never said a word."

"Why not?" asked Clem.

"I guess I felt like it was my duty, not because I was in the Coast Guard, which didn't mean much after going AWOL, but to my mother, who told me the best thing you can ever do is be there for other people. Seeing as she died raising me, I always thought the least I could do is honor her by making sure her son was there for anyone who needed it, even when it meant giving up what I wanted."

"But you can't give up on everything you want," said Jet. "If you really wanted to be with your friends again you should have gone after them."

"If I had done that, I wouldn't have been there for you people when you came to Tulsa," reasoned Devlin.

"You said you thought about killing yourself while you were waiting. If that had happened, you wouldn't have been there for us or for anyone ever again." Devlin's stoic expression cracked upon hearing that. Clem watched as his eyes shifted in place and he sat up slightly, as if Jet now had his full attention.

"Anytime I was worried about something I couldn't control or was so far away I couldn't do anything about it, my dad would tell me to do something that made me feel better instead. He said if I don't stop to help myself every now and then, then I won't be in any shape to help someone else when the time comes."

"Your dad sounds like a smart man," said Devlin with a smirk.

"He and mom are both smart… I wish they were here." Clem placed her hand on Jet's shoulder as he sighed. "But, people like you and Clem and Patty help make it okay."

"Although, if you did want to go find your friends, I'd understand," Clem told Devlin. "I told you back in Tulsa I don't think it's a good idea, but it's not fair to you say you can't go. You've done a lot for us Devlin, the least we could do is let you do what you want most."

"I… I really appreciate that, both of you," said Devlin with utter sincerity. "But the whole time I was in Tulsa today, I just wanted to be back here."

"Really?" asked Clem.

"Yeah, really. I could barely stand being back there today… I don't think I could handle seeing New Orleans the same way."

"If it's that hard on you maybe you shouldn't go to Tulsa every month," suggested Jet.

"No, I'd feel even worse if I didn't. I mean, we left out instructions and everything. Being pretty cruel leaving people to wait in false hope like that."

"Well, what if I come with you next time?" suggested Clem. "That way the trip won't be so lonely."

"I appreciate that, but—"

"It's dangerous and I could get killed and a bunch of other stuff people always say when I say I should come with them," dismissed Clem. "Just let me go with you next time. You'll have someone with you so it won't feel lonely, and it'll be safer with two people who can watch each other, and I could get time off from watering plants and double-checking tomato cages."

"Damn, you just lay it all out there," noted Devlin with a smile. "You sounded a little like the Chief just now."

"So that means I can come with you when you go back there in May." said Clem, not so much asking as assuming.

"It doesn't sound like you're going to take no for an answer," observed Devlin. "And truth be told, I really would like the company."

"Great, so it's a deal," said Clem.

"And in the mean time, you're coming to Patty's party right?" asked Jet.

"Hell yeah," said Devlin with a smile. "I didn't spend an extra hour at the Sam's Club getting everything on her list just to not come. When's the festivities begin?"

"She said as soon as the rain started, so that way we've all got something to celebrate." Just after Jet said that, there was clap of thunder followed by the gentle patter of raindrops.

"Perfect timing," said Devlin as he spun around and reached into the cab.

"Here, first, this is the stuff Sarah asked me to bring back for her new greenhouse," said Devlin as he handed a couple of heavy plastic bags to Clem. "And Jet, you and I can bring in the rest before the bottom drops out."

"Do you know where Sarah is?" Clem asked Jet as she adjusted her grip on the bags.

"I'm pretty sure she's still behind the house in that plastic tunnel thing Devlin set up," said Jet as he took a large bucket with both hands. "I was bringing her pots of dirt all morning, and she didn't even look close to finished with… whatever she was doing."

Clem started running back towards the house as she could hear drops of rain falling on the brim of her hat. Running around the corner, she found the narrow space between the side of the house and the fence had been filled with a very long tent made out of a see-through material. It looked a little like the one Shaffer's used for a greenhouse, but much shorter and narrower.

After spending a minute trying the peel back a flap while juggling two heavy bags, Clem emerged inside the tent and found herself standing in a narrow aisle between the long tables that ran down the length of both sides of the tent. Sitting on top of them was a variety of different pots and planters all full of dirt. Hearing the gentle patter of rain suddenly erupt into a crude battering compelled Clem to look up and see the torrential downpour that had broken out in the short time since she entered the tent. Thinking she should get inside soon, Clem hurried forward and discovered Sarah standing at the opposite end of the tent.

"Sarah," said Clem as she approached her. "Sarah!"

"Hmm?" Sarah looked up from the pot she was staring at. "Clem, what are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" repeated Clem. "I haven't seen you all day. I'm here because Devlin is back and said you wanted this." Clem passed the bags to Sarah, who immediately set them on the table and started digging through them.

"Finally." Sarah whipped out a large plastic bottle, hastily eyed the back label, then twisted off the cap. Clem watched as she poured tiny yellow flakes across the dirt under the table, then kept moving to do the same under the next table. Briefly eyeing the label, Clem noticed the words 'Kills Fire Ants', and checking the bags, she spotted several other containers, pouches, and aerosol cans with scary words like 'RAID' and pictures of dead insects lying on their backs.

"I guess we have a bug problem now," concluded Clem as Sarah returned to the table and set the poison down.

"Yesterday, when I was setting up the tables after Devlin finished putting up the greenhouse, I suddenly felt something stinging my legs. Stupid ants climbed all the way up my sock just to bite me," groused Sarah as she grabbed an open container already sitting on the table.

"You… you had ants in your pants," said Clem, trying not to laugh.

"Then I thought, bugs might just eat all our plants before the stuff that's supposed to get rid of them finishes growing, and how stupid it was not to bring something to deal with them," rambled Sarah. "And then I realized I haven't read up on pesticides at all, even though I really should have, so just before Devlin left for Tulsa I told him to bring—"

"Sarah!" said Clem loudly but not angrily. "Calm down."

"I'm… I'm sorry," said Sarah as she scooped a tiny bit of blue powder out of a container and started sprinkling it over the dirt in the pot.

"It's okay, you don't need to be sorry. Just, take it easy."

"It's just, I didn't even think about pesticides until those ants bit me and it's getting warmer every day, so there will be probably more than just ants before long, so I need to start figuring out which pesticides do what and how to use them," rambled Sarah as she sprinkled the powder onto the dirt.

"Is that what you're doing now?" asked Clem.

"No, this is just fertilizer, which is something else I'll need to read up on," said Sarah as she grabbed a small watering can.

"Don't you just throw stuff that rots into a big bin or something?" asked Clem. "That's what I did at a friend's house whose parents had a compost heap in their yard."

"It's more complicated than that," said Sarah as she carefully poured some water onto the pot. "For good fertilizer, you need to make sure there's twice as much carbon stuff as nitrogen stuff, and you need to mix it right, and don't throw in things that attract pests."

"Don't we have a ton of fertilizer in the trailer… like literally?"

"Yeah, so we've got time for now, but eventually I'll need to figure out how to make our own before we run out," said Sarah as she set her watering can down. "Right now, it's more important I just get this stuff to grow."

"Are these the strawberries?" asked Clem as she looked at the pot.

"About half of them. The other ones are onions, carrots, and potatoes."

"You're growing those for the seeds, right?"

"Sorta," said Sarah as she moved onto another pot and started watering it.

"Sort of?"

"Well, from what I read, you can make more potatoes by cutting up grown ones into little cubes that each have their own eye on it. If you plant those, they'll grow into full-sized potatoes."

"Really?"

"Yeah, in fact, most of the books I read said you plant parts of a potato to grow into potatoes, not seeds anymore."

"But we planted—"

"That was our only bag. I think Devlin mentioned one of the people in Tulsa was an actual farmer who brought his stuff with him and he must have had a bag for growing what are called seed potatoes, which are potatoes you grow just to use to plant more potatoes. I didn't even notice it was the only bag for potatoes until after we used up most of them in the field…" Clem watched as Sarah's hand trembled as it scooped out more fertilizer.

"So, I'm growing most of what's left in here, hopefully so I can either get more seeds out of these potatoes, or just use the ones I grow to make more. If I don't figure it out… we'll probably never be able to grow potatoes after this year… assuming the seeds we had were even good in the first place."

"I… I had no idea," confessed Clem, feeling a little anxious as she thought about what Sarah said. "Are the carrots and onions like that too?"

"Not really, they just take a long time," said Sarah. "Although, you remember how we grew carrot tops like Dr. Bostwick said? You can do something like that for onions too. If you cut off the bottoms of onions and replant them, they'll grow roots and eventually grow into a whole new onion, sort of like the potatoes, except you can only get onion since they only have one bottom." Sarah finished sprinkling fertilizer on a pot and took a step back from the table. She took a deep breath as she looked out at all the other tables. "No wonder she was so mean."

"Who?"

"Dr. Bostwick," said Sarah. "She said she grew that whole greenhouse by herself; she must have worked all day every day on it."

"That didn't make it okay for her to be an asshole to us," stated Clem.

"No, but… probably nobody at Shaffer's really knew how hard it was to grow all that stuff. I mean, I never thought about it until I saw her greenhouse, and even then I didn't really know how hard it was until after we started that garden and I made so many mistakes and—"

"We both made mistakes, not just you," insisted Clem as she approached Sarah. "And we'll do better this time. And we got a lot of help."

"Who all need to eat too."

"And that's why we planted a lot more, and it'll start making food soon."

"Hopefully."

"It will. Anthony even found our first tomato today."

"Really?" asked a surprised Sarah.

"It was just a little green thing, but it was definitely a tomato."

"I'm glad we got the cages in now then," said Sarah. "You—"

"We made sure they were good and stuck in the ground, and he made sure the bean poles were too before it started raining."

"Raining?" Sarah looked up and saw the water rushing across the top of the tent. "I didn't even know it had started already. Did Sin—"

"He said the rainwater collector was ready."

"But the pond, did—"

"He dug it out as much as he could with the backhoe. Everyone's doing what you ask them to. It's okay," assured Clem as she grasped Sarah's hand. "Devlin just got back from Tulsa, and we were all going to have a party inside while it's raining. Why don't you come in already? You've been out here all morning."

"Oh… okay."

Clem breathed a sigh of relief as Sarah tossed off her gloves and apron and headed for the end of the tent. Even rushing through the rain to the door, Clem could feel herself getting soaked as the wind was whipping at her face. Bursting through the door and hurrying into the living room, Clem found almost everyone was gathered around a roaring fire in the fireplace.

"Kem-men!" Clem looked down to see Omid rushing up to greet her. "Sah-rah!"

"Hey there Oh—Omid," corrected Clem as she scooped him off the floor.

"Did you miss us?" asked Sarah, some of the weariness melting off her face as she smiled at him.

"Chai-yo!" he cheered.

"Chai-yo," answered Clem back.

"There you guys are," said Jet as he approached the pair. "He was saying your names so much I was just about to come looking for you."

"Sorry," said Sarah. "I just wanted to finish with everything in the greenhouse before I came in."

"Ah-mah-dah-pay," babbled Omid.

"You want something?" asked Clem.

"Actually, I think he was saying he made this." Jet handed Sarah a piece of paper while Clem set Omid on the floor. Looking at the paper, Clem saw it was a messy smear of colors that collided in the center of the page to form a large brown blob.

"Patty let Omid try finger painting today," said Jet as Sarah handed Clem the paper. "She said it took him a few minutes to make that, and almost an hour to clean up everything else he touched, including himself."

"Pay! Pay!" cheered Omid as he slapped his hands across the paper in Clem's hands.

"Ah, he made his first drawing," said Clem as she handed the paper back to Sarah. "Isn't that great?"

"And I missed it," realized Sarah.

"Don't worry, Patty said he wanted to make lots more," assured Jet. "You can ask her about it as soon as she—"

"Clear a path, here comes the post-apocalyptic party ball!" Patty and Anthony burst in from the front door, the former toting a very large bucket and the latter a pair of large fire extinguishers, all of which they set on the floor.

"What happened?" asked Sarah as she approached the pair. "Was there a fire?"

"Other than in the fireplace?" clarified Clem.

"No, but we really should get some extinguishers for such an occasion," said Sin without looking away from the window he was staring out of.

"Add it to the list for my May trip," suggested Devlin as he kicked his feet up onto the couch's armrest. "Patty already tapped me out on her party supplies for this last trip."

"Which was totally worth it," said Patty as she knelt down over her bucket. "Because fire extinguishers aren't just good for putting out fires."

Peering into the bucket, Clem could see a case of beer stacked on top of another case of beer being flanked by a couple of taller bottles. There was also a simmering white fog settling in the bottom of the bucket.

"Want a cold beer partner?"

"Cold?" Clem reached into to bucket and was shocked to the find the bottles were frigid to the touch.

"Freshly cooled by yours truly," announced Anthony as he gestured to the fire extinguishers he set on the floor.

"You can cool things with those?" asked Sarah.

"If they're the type that use carbon dioxide," explained Jet.

"Sure glad you spoke up about that earlier when I told Devlin to just grab any extinguishers. I thought the people I saw do this on TV said any kind would work," said Patty as she pulled a couple of beers out of the case. "Now let's drink up while it's still cold," said Patty as she offered the beers to Sarah and Clem. "These aren't like that that cheap crap we had on New Year's, I made sure to tell Devlin to grab a couple of my favorite ales."

"Wait, you're not giving them beer?" asked Sin as he turned away from the window.

"We've had it before," assured Clem as she took the bottles. "And we've had to kill walkers, and worry about people hurting us, and learn how to take care of a baby."

"And keep this whole farm thing going," added Patty. "Pretty sure if anyone has earned a beer, it's them."

"Yeah really Granddad," said Jet. "Everything that's happened and you're still worried about us drinking beer?"

"For real man, I had my first beer when I was twelve," said Anthony as he twisted a cap off a bottle. "And I turned out okay."

"You should mellow out and have a drink yourself Sin," suggested Patty.

"I don't like beer," he said as he looked away.

"What about wine?" asked Patty as she pulled the taller bottles out of the bucket. "We got white and red."

Sin stared out the window for a second, then looked over at Patty. "What kind of white?"

"It's just some fancy for Sam's Club standards wine but I remember it being pretty good at our Christmas bash in Tulsa," explained Devlin as he sat up. "I prefer red myself but it's good if you like white wine."

"And Devlin grabbed us some wine glasses too, which we also put in the bucket, so we got chilled wine in chilled fancy glasses."

Sin turned back to the window, only to turn back to Patty. "What the hell," he said as he took one of the bottles from Patty and examined the label.

"Here." Clem offered a bottle to Sarah, who hesitated. "Come on, it's April Fool's Day."

"Do people drink on April Fool's Day?" asked Sarah.

"I don't know," shrugged Clem.

"How about we drink to finally getting a rainy day?" suggested Jet as he joined the girls' conversation. "Which means we get an afternoon off from having to haul water across the field a few cans at a time?"

"Yeah, let's drink to that." Clem watched as Sarah's expression slowly morphed from one of apprehension to a cautious smile.

"Why not?" Sarah took the bottle and twisted the cap off, prompting Clem to do the same, which took a lot more effort than she was expecting.

"Oh, we should clink glasses—or bottles I guess," suggested Sarah.

"And say cheers," added Clem.

"Or chai-yo, which is Thai for cheers," suggested Jet.

The trio thrust their bottles forward. "Chai-yo!" they said in near unison with the clinking of glass. Clem threw her head back and swallowed a few big gulps of ale. The taste was pungent, but not nearly as bad the beer she tried on New Year's. It was an odd mix of something hardy, almost wood like, with something sweeter, like bubble-gum. Clem didn't exactly like it, but she could probably stomach to drink more of it, and looking at Sarah's and Jet's faces, she suspected they felt the same.

"Bah-bah!" demanded Omid as he stretched up to take the beer.

"Tell me we're not giving a baby alcohol," pleaded Sin as he stopped pouring wine into a tall glass.

"Of course not," said Sarah as she raised her bottle out of reach.

"But I did grab something for the little guy." Devlin removed a bottle of cola from the bucket and twisted the cap off. "Patty mentioned you gave him one of these on New Year's."

"Did she mention it was almost impossible to get him to sleep after that?" asked Sarah.

"It's… like one in the afternoon," said Clem as she checked her watch. "And besides, he wants to party too."

"Bah-bah!" demanded Omid as he stretched out his hands for his treat.

"Here you go buddy, have something sweet on us." Devlin handed Omid the bottle and Clem helped him lift it up to his lips. Cola dribbled onto his shirt as he lifted his head back to drink more. Clem was afraid he was going to spill half the bottle before he finally lowered it and took a breath.

"Ah-lah-dah-ah-bree!" he said before immediately drinking more.

"All right, now that we're all getting nice and buzzed, I say we sit down, listen to some music, play some poker, eat some choice junk food I managed to dig out of our trailer, and just kick back for the rest of the day."

Patty tossed a pack of cards and a wad of worn bills on the table in front of the couch while Anthony hauled over a big box. The box had wrapped jerky, sugary candies, not-entirely stale chips, and a single pack of freeze-dried ice-cream in it. While Clem fished out something to eat, Patty turned on their CD player. Between the warm sensation brewing in her stomach and the literal warmth of the fire drying her clothes as rock music filled the air and sweet treats filled her mouth, Clem felt her worries melting away as she sat down to spend an evening with friends and family.

Everyone initially joined in the poker game while alternating between sipping their drinks, enjoying their snacks, and making small talk with each other. Sin dropped out after only a few hands, admitting he wasn't a big fan of poker, and Sarah followed not long after that for the same reason. While playing poker, Clem could overhear the two talking, and distinctly heard Sin telling Sarah his wife had been a fan of Pink Floyd too.

Omid kept moving around the room at a frantic pace, likely still deep into his sugar rush. He would shout things, climb on and off the couch, and even try to take cards from people as they played. Eventually, Devlin managed to pull the toddler into his orbit by letting him choose cards. It only took three hands for Devlin to lose all of his money, which he didn't mind. Tapped out he went to converse with Sin while Sarah played with Omid with a renewed sense of vigor.

Clem did her best to stay in the game, but her head feeling lighter with every sip of beer she took and the generally relaxed mood of the party made it hard for her to stay competitive. After gambling the rest of what little money she had left on two pair only for Jet to call her bluff, Clem left the game broke but no poorer in any way that mattered to her.

Looking around, Clem saw Omid running back and forth trying to catch a ball Sin and Devlin passed between them while Sarah was spread out on the couch. Not wanting to interrupt Omid's fun, Clem headed for the couch and very careful lied down beside Sarah. She wrapped her friend's arm around her waist and soon felt the arm tenderly squeezing her. Lying there in Sarah's grasp, listening to her soft breathing over the music while watching the others laugh and smile, Clem felt like she was finally home.

"How'd you do?" whispered Sarah.

"You weren't watching?" whispered Clem.

"I was resting my eyes."

"I lost, bad. Patty's a lot better than me, and so is Anthony, and Jet too."

"I'm sorry," said Sarah.

"It's fine, I don't really care, but I would like to know who wins." Clem sat up, prompting Sarah to as well. Clem watched as Anthony raised his bet and tossed a few more bills into the pile.

"All right, I'm out," said Patty as she lowered her cards. "I'm not throwing away any more money this hand."

"That just leaves you kid," said Anthony with a confident smirk. "You in or out?"

"I amm…" Jet deliberately drew out the word 'am' while he clearly stalled for time. What Clem found odd was he didn't actually sound unsure, as if he was just trying to keep Anthony in suspense. "All in!" Jet suddenly pushed his entire pile of money into the pot.

"Whoa, what?" said Patty as she sat up. "Mister minimum bet only must finally have a hot hand."

"Or he's bluffing," added Anthony.

"Only one way to find out," said Jet in an uncharacteristically cocky tone. "You in or out?"

"I think that beer has gone to your head kid," speculated Anthony.

"So does that mean you're in?" asked Jet, sounding no less confident while Anthony continued to stare in response.

"Guess I'm playing one on one with whoever wins this hand," noted Patty as she watched Anthony slide all his money into the center.

"I'm in," he stated with no uncertainty. "So kid, show me—"

A large crash cut through the music as everyone jumped to their feet. Patty shut off the music while Devlin rushed over to a now broken window.

"Shit, where are the guns?" Clem heard Anthony ask as she hurried over to the window for a better look.

"They're all in our vehicles," answered Sarah as Clem arrived in time to see Devlin pick up something lying amongst the broken glass.

"What is it?" she asked as she moved in for a closer look.

"I… I think this is one of our spatulas from the grill," said Devlin as he held up the utensil.

"How did—"

"Oh God." Sin's words prompted everyone else to crowd around the broken window he was looking out of. Just getting closer to it sent a chill down Clem's spine as a frigid gale blew through the broken glass. Looking past Sin and Devlin, Clem watched in terror as she saw trees violently swaying in the wind while what sounded like a massive train barreled out of control somewhere behind the black clouds that had blanketed the sky.

"Jesus," spoke an awestruck Patty. "If I didn't know better, I'd say a hurricane was coming."

"Or a tornado," announced Anthony, terror grasping his voice.

"We should go to the storm shelter," realized Sin.

"He's right," said Devlin he backed away from the window. "Let's move, now!"

Devlin's order sent everyone scrambling. Sarah grabbed Omid while Jet grabbed one of the fire extinguishers. He tried putting out the fire in the fireplace, but nothing happened, forcing him to try the other extinguisher which produced just enough of a squirt of chemicals to douse the flames. As he set the extinguisher down, Clem noticed the crestfallen look on his face.

"It'll be okay," assured Clem with as much courage as she could.

"It's… it's not that," said Jet, slurring his words slightly as he spoke. "I was going to win."

"Huh?"

"I noticed Anthony doesn't blink when he bluffs, like he's worried we know he's hiding something, and he didn't blink once when—"

"Clem, Jet, come on!" Patty's yell sent the pair racing to the backdoor. Taking a single step outside, Clem felt the wind hit her with such force she was nearly knocked backwards into the house along with the hat it blew off her head. She only made it a few steps forward before being forced to step to the side and be shoved up against the house by the unrelenting wind. The terrible rumbling she heard was even louder now while an uneven chorus of wood cracking and snapping sounded from every direction.

"Everyone!" yelled Devlin over the noise. "Head for the fence! Use it to pull yourself towards the shelter!" Clem watched as Devlin struggled against the wind for a few seconds before crossing from the house over to the fence. The man dug his hands into the gaps in the chainlink, then waved to the others. "Come on!"

Anthony crossed next and Sin struggled to follow behind him, falling to his knees as he reached the fence. Clem's heart was in her throat as she watched Patty and Sarah group together to go next. The pair locked hands, while Sarah used her free arm to keep Omid tightly grasped against her chest. Clem's heart skipped a beat as they both stumbled forward, looking ready to be bowled over by the wind at any second. It wasn't until Patty grabbed Devlin's arm did Clem finally hear someone shouting in her ear.

"Come on!"

Clem looked into Jet's eyes for a moment, then locked arms with him. She felt her stomach drop as they let go of the side of the house and the full force of the wind felt stronger with each passing step. The pair had to lean into to wind and let their weight push against it just to avoid being knocked off their feet. With the rain blinding her as she moved, Clem could only trust Jet knew where they were going as she felt him leading her arm first to what she hoped was the fence.

Clem suddenly felt herself slamming into something metal and threw out her free hand to find the stiff chainlink between her fingers. Releasing Jet and looking ahead, it felt like sharp pebbles were being tossed at Clem's head as the rain stung her face. Keeping her head down as she pulled herself along, Clem could hear that horrible rumbling sound grow even louder. Looking up, she watched as a lightning strike lit up the sky just long enough to make out the outline of a giant swirling mass of inky blackness just past the edge of the forest.

"Oh God…" The light faded and Clem found herself transfixed by the sight of the dark sky, now knowing what was out there hiding just out of sight. Forcing herself to look back down, Clem saw Devlin had reached the storm hatch buried between the guest house and the fence. Clem started pulling herself along as fast as she could, the roar of the wind becoming deafening as she caught up with the others all lined up behind Devlin as he tried to reach the hatch.

Devlin tried pulling open the hatch with one hand while clinging to the chainlink, but the wind almost immediately slammed it shut. Another, louder chorus of cracking and snapping sounded over the roar of wind as Clem spotted trees on the horizon falling over almost in sync with each other. Clem instincts drove her to move forward but she couldn't; Jet was right in front of her, who was stuck behind Patty and Sarah, who were waiting behind Sin and Anthony, who were all watching in vain as Devlin tried to juggle the impossible of opening the hatch against the wind while clinging to the distant fence for stability.

After another failed attempt, Clem watched as Sin moved past Anthony and hurried to Devlin as quickly as he could through the wind. The two men seemed to confer for a second before Devlin moved a little further along the fence and grabbed the post instead of the chainlink, then Sin moved forward and grabbed Devlin's free hand. Clem watched as the older man moved against the wind just long enough to grab hold of the storm hatch's handle, then Devlin pulled on Sin's arm, effectively using him as a human hope to pull the hatch open.

As soon as the hatch was wide enough to pass through, Anthony bolted from the fence and hurried inside. Patty followed behind him, doing her best to lead Sarah by the arm while she clung to Omid for dear life. Clem's heart was in her throat as she watched them struggle to move against the wind, terrified it would topple them at any moment or that the funnel cloud would suddenly appear on top of them and suck them away into dark sky never to be seen again.

Patty reached the hatch, then dragged Sarah far enough forward that she could reach the edge. Clem watched anxiously as Sarah threaded her legs into the hole, then disappeared underground, Patty following right behind her. Without a word, Clem felt Jet grabbing her arm and they moved in tandem as they tried to cross the short few feet from the fence to the hatch. Clem wasn't so much walking anymore as being dragged forward as it felt like the wind would pull her out of Jet's grasp any second now.

Crossing in front of the open hatch, the door blocked most of the wind and Clem almost fell forward as the sudden break from it caused her to nearly lose her balance. Edging towards the hatch, Clem briefly caught sight of Sin and Devlin and the agonized expressions on both their faces. The door to hatch shook in place as the wind tried to wrest it from Sin's aged hands. Jet let go of Clem's arm and hurried into the open hatch, Clem following right behind him, threading her legs through the opening and dropping into the dark pit without a second thought.

"Come on!" Clem didn't know who was yelling until she saw Patty move into the light and start climbing back up the ladder. "We gotta keep the door open long enough for Sin and Devlin to get in here!"

Clem felt someone brushing past her in the dark and watched as Jet climbed the ladder after Patty. Patty tried pushing against the door with one hand while clinging to the ladder with the other, but Jet climbed past her. He stuck the upper half of his body past the top of the hatch, then carefully pivoted in place on the ladder until his back was pressed against the door. Jet stretched out his hands and braced himself against the opposite edge of the opening while his back pushed on the door. Patty quickly emulated Jet's tactic, moving up a little further and turning herself around to do the same.

"Granddad!" yelled Jet at the top of his lungs. "Hurry!"

Clem watched in horror as the hatch nearly slammed shut as it knocked Patty off the ladder and nearly Jet too. Clem was about to race to Jet's aid as he strained with all his might to keep the door even cracked, but Patty scurried back up the ladder and put herself in position. Working together, they managed to push the door open just enough for someone to come tumbling in between the pair's arms.

Sin fell forward onto the ground, landing on his shoulder before crumbling onto his side with a painful yelp. Clem hurried over to the man and pulled as hard as she could to help him off the floor. Slowly rising from where he fell, Clem managed to guide Sin forward on his knees towards the nearest wall just as Devlin dropped feet first into the shelter. As soon he landed on the floor, Patty and Jet both fell off the ladder, collapsing into a mess of agonized human bodies as the hatch slammed firmly shut and the shelter was plunged into darkness.

Clem couldn't see anything but could hear voices all around her, some groaning in pain while a couple other breathed loudly while. The sound of Omid crying in a corner cut through all of them, and behind that was the roar of the storm, sounding more like an angry ocean surging above them than the wind anymore. Clem just stood there in the darkness, unsure what to do until she heard a voice call her name.

"Clementine," spoke Sin just above a whisper.

"Yeah?" she responded in the direction she thought she heard Sin speak.

"I have a flashlight… in my right hip pocket," spoke the man in-between deep breaths. "I need you to get it."

"Why me?"

"Because… I can't feel my fingers right now." The words felt like a pin had just pricked Clem's stomach. She reached out into the darkness, finding something that she tried locating the side of. "My right, your left." Clem started feeling her way down the other side of what she assumed was Sin, feeling strange as she did. Eventually, her fingers brushed past what she was fairly sure was a belt, and with a bit more work she located a pocket and the tiny light stuffed inside. Pulling it out and feeling around for the button, she suddenly found herself looking directly at Sin as he held up his hands to block out the light.

"Sorry," said Clem as she lowered the flashlight.

"It's okay." Clem noticed a series of dark bruises running across the fingers on one of Sin's hands, while there were purple and red marks around the wrist on the other.

"Speaking professionally," mumbled Sin in-between deep breaths as he did his best to rub his stiff hands together. "Whoever designed this shelter… overlooked some critical design flaws." Clem wanted to laugh, but couldn't as she watched Sin wearily try to regain feeling in his hands.

"Is everyone okay?" called a shaken Patty through the darkness. Following her voice with the light, Clem saw the woman sitting on the floor near the ladder, rubbing her shoulder. Not far from her was Jet doing the same and Devlin on the ladder fiddling with the hatch until it produced a loud click. Eventually, the light fell on Sarah sitting in the corner, a sobbing Omid still cradled in her arms.

"It's okay," Clem struggled to say as she crawled across the ground to them. "It's okay, I'm here." Clem held up the light and moved in close so Omid could see her face. "I'm right here, it's okay, we're all okay." Omid turning his head and meeting eyes with Clem seemed to settle them both; Omid stopped crying and Clem started breathing normally again.

Adjusting the light a little, Clem finally could see Sarah's face. Her eyes were bloodshot and bugged out, seemingly frozen with the rest of her face in a state of wide-awake terror. "Sarah." Clem's whisper received no answer. "Sarah," Clem said a little louder.

"Sah-rah." Omid's voice finally seemed to reach her. Sarah blinked a few times and looked around, as if she had just woken up.

"Are you okay?" whispered Clem.

"I… I think so," answered Sarah, sounding confused. She adjusted her grip on Omid, then started stroking his hair with her free hand, whenever to soothe him or herself Clem wasn't sure. "Is… is everyone—"

"Oh God!" Anthony's panicked yelp caused Clem to spin around. Her light found its way to the young man as he seemed to be pacing back and forth across the short distance between walls, almost like he was looking for a way out and couldn't accept there wasn't one. "I… I'm gonna die down here!"

"We're not going to die," refuted Clem.

"You don't know that!" Clem flinched as Anthony raised his voice, yet it was the look of absolute terror on his face that frightened her more. His eyes looked like they were ready to pop out of his head while every muscle on his face looked pulled taut. "This—this—this isn't a shelter, it's a god damn prison cell, or a coffin!"

"Anthony, calm down," urged a nervous Patty as she stood up.

"I mean, it's just four walls, there's not even any lights or—fuck, there's not even any vents! I'm gonna suffocate!" Clem found herself aiming the light up at the ceiling and was disturbed to see Anthony was right.

"No one is going to suffocate," stated Sin, raising his voice as he did.

"How would you know!"

"Because I've worked in civil engineering twice as long as you've been alive!"

"Yeah, and—and did you ever examine this death trap before we came down here today?" asked Anthony, more panic creeping into his voice with every word he said.

"There's no way they'd sell a shelter that suffocates people," argued Sin. "That'd be a liability lawsuit just waiting to happen."

"Maybe they figured they could get away with it because most people would never use this damn thing! Companies did shady shit like that all the time right? We could run out of air any minute!"

"If you don't shut up we might," suggested an irate Patty.

"We're not going to run out of air," interjected Jet. "The door isn't even air tight. I could hear this whistling sound above me after it closed so there's at least some air moving in and out of it alone."

"Oh that's great, that damn door is probably defective and the tornado will rip it right off!"

"I locked the door," announced Devlin. "Anthony, man, just relax, okay?"

"Relax!"

"Yeah, we're safe down here, and even if we needed air, which we don't, but if we did, we could risk opening the door for a second to let some in."

Devlin's words suddenly halted Anthony's pacing. He turned and stared at the man for a second, then charged right past him.

"What are you doing!"

"Leaving!" announced Anthony as he rushed up the ladder.

"Shit, stop him!" ordered Patty as she lunged forward and grabbed one of Anthony's legs.

"I'm not staying down here!" yelled Anthony as he tried to reach the door's latch. "I'm going back to the house or my truck! Anywhere but here!"

"You're gonna get yourself killed!" said Devlin as he pulled on Anthony's other leg.

"Or all of us!" added Patty.

Jet sprung forward to help and Clem was about to join him when Anthony fell off the ladder, knocking Patty to the floor with him and nearly toppling Devlin as well. Anthony sprung up in a flash and tried to reach the ladder as Devlin stepped in front of him, grabbing Anthony by the shoulder and collar of his shirt.

"Sit down!" demanded Devlin.

"Let go of me you crazy nigger, I gotta—" Devlin's fist slammed into the side of Anthony's face, knocking him to the floor. Before he could get back up again Devlin put his knee in Anthony's back while he removed his belt. Despite his flailing about, Devlin managed to loop his belt around both of Anthony's wrists and bind them with a forceful tug before tying the end of the belt, and Anthony, to the bottom rung of the ladder.

Anthony demanded to be let go as he struggled against his bonds, a demand no one was willing to entertain. After nearly a minute of cussing and fidgeting in place, Anthony finally stopped, seemingly accepting his fate as he sat there and quietly mumbled to himself. A tense hush fell over the area and everyone seemed to retreat to a different corner to sit out the storm in whatever peace they could muster. Clem left the flashlight on the floor at an angle the illuminated most of the room, then returned to Sarah and Omid.

They didn't say anything, no one did, everyone just sat in silence as they all listened to the constant rumbling above. Every so often there was a loud bang or hard thud against the door that filled Clem with dread. Every time it happened it felt like the storm was announcing its intent to invade their shelter and finish them off. Eventually, the frightening rumble became a less intimidating rushing sound, and then even that faded away as light started streaming into the shelter through the narrow cracks in the door.

Checking her watch, Clem was surprised to see it wasn't even three in the afternoon yet. With the storm seemingly subsiding, there was a long pause before anyone moved to do anything. Eventually, Patty looked at Devlin, which was enough of a signal for him to take action. He maneuvered around Anthony as he climbed up the ladder, then reached for the latch. There was a loud click as he unlocked it, then light came flooding in as he pushed the door open.

"Well?" asked Patty in a quiet voice as she looked up expectedly into the bright light.

"It… it looks clear," reported Devlin, sounding relieved before he climbed out of the shelter. Clem looked over at Sarah and Omid, the former looking exhausted while the latter was quietly whimpering.

"Come on," urged Clem in a calm voice. "Let's go."

Clem helped Sarah to her feet and the pair headed for the exit. Sin and Jet approached the ladder as Patty climbed out.

"Are you okay?" asked Jet as Sin stretched out his trembling hands.

"I… I'm all right," insisted a weary Sin as he slowly wrapped his fingers around the ladder. "My hands are just very sore… as well as my arms… and my shoulders."

"Take your time," urged a sympathetic Devlin. "We wouldn't even have made it in here if not for you."

Slowly, and only somewhat surely, Sin climbed out of the shelter, with Jet right behind him. Next Clem urged Sarah forward, who carefully scaled the ladder with one arm while cradling Omid in the other. Looking down at Anthony while Sarah climbed, she noticed his expression was oddly vacant, his head listing to one side like he was a rag doll. Looking at the red and purple bruise on his cheek, Clem could actually see the outlines of at least two of Devlin's knuckles.

Looking up, she noticed Sarah stepping off the ladder and out of sight. Clem stretched up her leg to pass over the rung Anthony was tied to and climbed up herself. Emerging from the hatch, Clem found a sudden swell of relief in breathing in the fresh cool air. She hadn't even realized how hot and stuffy it had been in the shelter until now. Looking up, the sky was clear and free now, with a bit of orange on the horizon as the sun began to set. Turning her head, Clem could see dark storm clouds to the east and reasoned that was the storm had passed far over them, hopefully.

"Clem?" Clem looked at Sarah, who's face was such a jumbled mess of mixed emotions Clem couldn't be sure what she was feeling. "Can… can you take Omid? My arm is really starting to hurt."

"Oh, sure… sorry," said Clem as she took possession of a still whimpering Omid. "You—" Sarah marched off towards the house, a sudden urgency in the way she walked. Before Clem could go after her, Devlin emerged from the hatch. He looked down at Anthony still tied to the ladder, who could only look back up in response.

"You didn't untie me." Devlin stared at Anthony in response. "Oh come on, is… is this about what I said? I… I'm from Mississippi. I've heard bumfucks say shit like that so often it just kind of gets stuck in your head and I was freaking out and—"

Devlin slammed the hatch shut.

"What are you doing?" asked Clem.

"Giving him a couple of minutes to think," said Devlin as he looked over at Clementine.

"About something he said?" Devlin only stared at the ground in response. "What did he say?" Devlin said nothing. "Was it that word? I've heard it before; nigger."

"From who?" asked Devlin, sounding almost angry. "Did Anthony say that to you before?"

"No, it was a long time ago, and by someone who said all kinds of horrible things I didn't understand," said Clem. "I asked OJ's mom about some of them, and she just told me there's a lot of bad words even adults should never say. I guess that was one of them?"

"Yeah," said Devlin in a low voice.

"What does it mean?"

"It means you’re less than a person, just because of the color of your skin."

"Your skin?"

Devlin held out his hand. "Mine." Devlin gestured to Omid. "His. Your skin. All darker than Anthony or Patty's."

"So?"

"So… some people see that and think that they know you; know that you're no good, know you're a liar, know you're lazy, know you're stupid, or a crook, or a thug, or a killer, or some dumb animal, or any number of horrible things. Just from taking one look at you and seeing your skin is darker than theirs, they know you're a god damn nigger."

"One word means all that?" asked a confused Clem.

"Yeah, it's an ugly word meant to hurt you, made worse by it having nothing to do with who you are but just because of what you look like."

"That… that doesn't make any sense," said Clem as she adjusted her grip on Omid. "I mean, how can someone look at a baby like OJ and think stuff like that about him? That's crazy."

"Yeah, well… some people are crazy," said Devlin with a sigh. "Did… did your parents ever talk to you about something like this? About… what happens when someone says something like that to you?"

"Um… my mom did, on my first day of school," recalled Clem. "Before we left the house, she told me that if any of the other kids called me any names or words I didn't understand, or picked on me because I was a girl, or because I looked different, she wanted me to tell her as soon as I got home."

"And did anyone ever call you anything?"

"Some boys said girls had cooties, and my mom said that was just boys being stupid," said Clem. "There was one boy in the first grade at my old school who always called me an idiot, and I never understood why… do you think he was calling me an idiot because of my skin?"

"I don't know," said Devlin as he shook his head. "People can be ugly to each other for a lot of reasons, and sometimes you're not even sure why. I don't know if Anthony is a racist or just blurted out something he didn't mean while panicking. I'd like to think it's the second one, but either way it's a painful reminder of no matter what I do, I'm still gonna be just a no good nigger in some people's eyes, even now."

"And… what about me? And Omid? Are there people who'd think we're no good because our skin is darker than theirs?" Devlin looked up at Clementine, a bit of sadness in his eyes betraying the sternness he was trying to keep. "Oh…"

"How old were you when the outbreak started?"

"Eight."

"Your mom was probably hoping there be a few more years before she had to tell you… I know mine said she wished I had gotten a little more time before I found out." Devlin took a deep breath. "Take some comfort in one of the few silver linings to everything going to hell is not having to worry about this shit all that much anymore; end of the world tends to rearrange most people's priorities." Devlin looked down at the storm hatch. "But not all of them."

"So, what are you going to do?" asked Clem.

"Nothing really. I'm pretty sure Anthony already knows how I feel about this, so there's nothing left to do but untie him and get back to work, of which we probably have plenty more of now."

"Even though Anthony might think terrible things about you because of the way you look… or because of the way I look?" Clem felt her already racing mind being invaded with disturbing new possibilities as she began to process everything Devlin just told her.

"I had to work around a lot of racist bullshit before the fucking Rapture happened," said Devlin as he opened the hatch. "This is just a drop in the bucket compared to that."

"Can I come up already?" Clem heard Anthony's voice echo from below. "Seriously, I gotta pee and if you leave me here much longer—"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming; I want my belt back." Devlin climbed down the hatch while Clem headed back towards the house, her mind moving from one disturbing revelation to another as she surveyed the damage.

She could see fallen trees in the distance, while large branches and what she could only guess were tiles from their roofs were scattered across the grass both in and outside the fence. Heading for the center of the yard, Clem saw the picnic table they ate at had been blown into the side of the house, one of its benches broken in half. Their grills had all been knocked over and were badly dented all over, and Sarah's greenhouse was gone now.

Looking ahead, Clem could see the entire tent and had been flipped over and was now precariously resting upside down on the far end of the fence, a hundred feet away from where it had been before the storm. Many of the legs were twisted at odd angles and the plastic top torn in numerous places where it had been bent over the fence. And where the tent used to be was Sarah, kneeling in the mud, looking at the pots, tables, and containers of pesticides strewn all across the grass.

"Sarah, I—" Patty came bursting out the back door and immediately hurried over to Clem. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing—I mean, not too much—oh, and here's your hat," babbled Patty as she handed Clem her hat back. "The vehicles are okay, and the house looks all right, except that window is still broken, and I think the roof sprung some leaks judging from the puddles I saw." Patty turned her head suddenly, and Clem looked over to see Jet and Sin approaching from the gate bordering the field. "How are the crops?"

"They're mostly all right actually," said Jet. "A lot of the bean poles blew over, and some of the cucumber and tomato cages, but the plants look okay."

"They're small, right on the ground, and probably didn't create much wind resistance," reasoned Sin as he rubbed his head.

"But something did," said Patty, noting the pessimism in Sin's voice.

"The rainwater collector," concluded a downcast Clem.

"It's… technically still there," said Jet.

"Technically?"

"It's intact… but the roof of the barn is gone," announced Sin.

"Gone?" repeated Clem.

"How's that possible?" asked Patty as she looked around. "None of the other buildings got hit that bad."

"Big open doors on both sides, angular roof… wind probably caught it just right and tore it off." Clem hurried across the yard as fast as she could while carrying Omid and looked through the fence at the barn. Sure enough, its roof was gone, and now there were just four battered and mismatched walls standing around each other. Dismayed by her discovery, Clem slowly walked back to the center of the yard where everyone else was standing.

"The actual barrels and pipes we built are all still there," reported Sin. "But without a roof to collect water for them, they're—"

Sarah started shrieking at the top of her lungs, startling everyone. Looking at her, Clem watched as Sarah started choking for air before collapsing into her own hands, crying hysterically. Just in the time it took for Clem to rush over to her, Sarah fell forward into the mud, keeping one hand on her face while pounding the wet soil with her fist.

"Sah-rah!" Omid tried kicking free from Clem's grip, forcing her to set him on the dirt. "Sah-rah!" he repeated as he hurried over to where Sarah was writhing in the mud, making pained sobs through one hand while beating the ground with other. "Muh-boo! Muh-boo Sah-rah!" cried Omid as he threw himself onto Sarah, wrapping his tiny arms as far around her body as he could. "Muh-boo!" he repeated as loud as he could. "Muh-boo-ah-ha-ha…" Omid's words collapsed into a series of loud cries as he clung to a still hysterical Sarah.

Clem knelt down close as Sarah struggled to breathe through her own sobbing. "It's okay," Clem whispered in her ear as she placed her hands on Sarah's shoulders. "It's oh—"

"Not it's not!" shrieked Sarah as she raised her head, revealing her face was racked with pain and covered in mud before immediately burying it back in the dirt as she started crying again.

"Okay, it's not," admitted Clem, fighting her every instinct to cry herself. "But… we still got each other. Okay? That's all I want right now, not a farm, me and OJ just want you to feel better. So please… please stop crying. I'll do anything for you, anything, because I love you more than anything, so please… please just stop crying…"

Clem felt herself beating back her own tears as she listened to Sarah continue to shed hers. She was just about to break down herself when she noticed Sarah's free hand had stopped beating the ground and was just laying there now. Clem reached for it, trying to wrap her fingers around Sarah's, only for Sarah to grasp Clem's hand first, squeezing it so hard it hurt.

"Come on," said Patty as she knelt down beside Sarah. "The Brave surely has plenty of water right now. Why don't you go get cleaned up, then lie down for a while? The rest of us can handle cleaning up in the mean time, and… we'll figure out how to fix this shit tomorrow morning after we've all had a good night sleep. Okay?"

Sarah finally stopped crying, although Clem couldn't be sure if it was because of what Patty said or she was finally too tired to cry. Either way, she didn't resist Patty's attempt to help her to her feet. Clem collected Omid, who clung to Sarah for as long as he could, then Patty helped Sarah stand up. She was covered in mud now and just followed quietly behind Patty and Clem as they all headed across the yard to the driveway.

Reaching the Brave, Clem was glad to see it looked intact, but stepping inside after Patty, she immediately noticed there was a massive crack on the right side of the windshield. Examining it further, the glass didn't appear in any danger of actually breaking, but the crack was yet another reminder of what was quickly becoming a terrible day. Hearing Sarah coming up the stairs behind her, Clem hurried over to her and stood between Sarah and the front, hoping she wouldn't notice the windshield. She didn't and just kept shuffling towards the bathroom as Patty came running out.

"Okay, I rigged up this little bucket over the shower head like a week ago, figuring it can collect water than I can dump out in occasional big bursts instead of that annoying ass on-and-off squirting the plumbing has been doing lately. Guess you'll be the first one to test it since this is the first time we've had water in here in a few weeks."

"Okay…" said Sarah in a barely audible whisper.

"And… I think you should take one of these." Patty opened her hand to reveal a small green pill. It wasn't a gel-capsule like the cold-medicine Clem had seen, but flat and made out of a chalky substance.

"What is it?" asked Sarah.

"It's a chill pill." Clem and Sarah just looked at Patty in confusion. "It's a Xanax, and it'll help you relax and feel better, trust me." Sarah looked at the pill with apprehension. "Look, doctors give these to people who have problems with anxiety, and if one had seen what we just saw outside, they'd tell you they'd want you to take this to feel better. I'm not going to make you take it but I honestly think it'll help right now. Not all medicine is for diseases and physical pain, there's ones like this for when you're miserable and just need some relief."

Sarah looked up at Patty, then took the pill. She popped it in her mouth, then took a swig of water from a cup Patty handed her. "Thank you… both of you," said Sarah in a barely audible whisper.

"It's fine," assured Clem, forcing some optimism into her voice for Sarah's sake.

"Just go get cleaned up and you can just lie down in the bedroom afterwards, all right?" Patty gave Sarah a gentle pat on the shoulder and a smile. Sarah headed into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. The pair stood there in silence for a few seconds, then they heard the sound of intermediately running water and let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Jesus…" mumbled Patty as she rubbed her head. "Everything is so fucked right now."

"I know," said Clem.

"We can fight off hordes of the dead but get our asses kicked by a fucking tornado," groused Patty as she dug through one of the cabinets.

"And a flood before that," added a downcast Clem. "I'm starting to think it doesn't matter if we ever get rid of the walkers or not, things are never going to get better because of all this other stuff we can't do anything about."

"Come on, don't say that," insisted Patty as she pocketed something. "We'll… we'll figure something out. Our plants looked like they survived, so we just got to fix… everything else so we can keep taking care of them."

"But how we fix this stuff?" asked Clem. "And so much of it."

"Yeah, really, I don't even know where to start," admitted Patty.

"Me neither." Adjusting her grip on Omid, Clem smelled something. "Okay, now I do. OJ needs changing."

"I'll go get your baby supplies from the house."

Patty headed out while Clem took Omid into the bedroom. She undressed him, and Patty returned with everything she needed to change him as well, something Clem found oddly relaxing in light of everything else that had happened today. After fitting him with a new diaper, Clem used a baby wipe on his face next, cleaning up his dried tears and crusty nose. Omid was strangely cooperative the entire time, which Clem found concerning.

She was about to take him out when the bedroom door slid open. Clem was surprised to see Sarah standing in the threshold, dressed in nothing but her underwear. Before Clem could say anything, Sarah immediately headed for the bed, ducked under the covers, and wormed her way up to the pillows resting at the top of the bed. Seeing Sarah so forcibly place herself in bed, Clem picked up Omid and prepared to leave when the toddler finally started to stir.

"Sah-rah… Sah-rah!" he repeated as he reached his arms out towards her.

"Just let Sarah rest, we—"

"It's okay…" Clem heard Sarah slowly say from under the covers. She moved her head and arm out from under the blanket and gestured to Omid. "Come Omid, you want to take a nap too."

"Sah-rah." Clem set Omid on the bed and he walked over to where Sarah was lying.

"You're worried about me too, aren't you?" The way Sarah spoke sounded uncharacteristically at ease, and even the way she took hold of Omid seemed different; slower and without the kind of deliberate energy she usually applied when handling Omid.

"Are you okay?" asked Clem as she walked over to the edge of the bed.

"Yeah," said Sarah as she cradled Omid against her body.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"So, that pill helped."

"Yeah," repeated Sarah. "It made me sleepy and my whole body feels… sleepy."

"That sounds kind of like when we drink too much whiskey," noted Clem.

"Sorta," mumbled Sarah. "But my head feels clear, instead of all foggy."

"What do you mean?"

"Just that, I'm not thinking about anything right now, and if I try, it just kind of fades away real quick."

"That doesn't sound good."

"No, it's really good," insisted Sarah without much authority in her voice. "Most of the time, I can't stop thinking when I go to bed."

"About what?"

"About stuff we need to do or that will go wrong. I try not to, but I'll keep thinking about it and sometimes, most of the time, I don't get much sleep."

"I… I didn't know that. Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I don't know. I guess I didn't want to worry you," mumbled Sarah. "I didn't think there was anything you could do. I didn't know Patty knew there was a pill that helps."

"Me neither." Clem watched as Sarah turned her head to look directly at her.

"I really miss it…" confessed Sarah, sounding half asleep already. "Miss what?"

"Just… not having to think about all this stuff," said Sarah as she turned away, burying her head in her pillow. "When you told me my dad was lying to me… I hated him for it."

"He—"

"He was trying to protect me," recited Sarah. "I didn't used to believe that, at least, not entirely. But now, thinking about all this stuff we have to do, how dangerous everything is, not just walkers or people, but how easily we could just lose everything…" Even in her sedated state, Clem could hear the tension rising Sarah's voice. "I… I'm starting to think I'd do the same thing." Clem noticed Sarah stroking Omid's hair when she said that.

"I know how you feel," said Clem. "I lied and told Omid the deer would be okay after Anthony shot it, and I didn't want to tell him he was eating it later. Right now, he's probably too young to even understand, but when he gets older—"

"Are we really going to tell him all this stuff?" mumbled Sarah.

"I… I don't know Sarah. Devlin just told me something I hadn't thought about before, and I think my mom tried to tell me about it once, and now I'm wondering what else she wanted to tell me but didn't get a chance to because she was waiting for me to be older and…"

"What did Devlin tell you?"

"It's… complicated. I'll tell you tomorrow," assured Clem. "And it'll be a while before Omid is old enough to understand these things, so we can worry about that later. Maybe by then, things will be a little better and there won't be as much to worry about for him… or us."

"I hope so…"

Clem looked over to see both Sarah and Omid's eyes were shut now as they breathed softly under the covers. She leaned over the bed and kissed Omid on the forehead, then did the same for Sarah. "I love you both."

"I love you too…" mumbled Sarah without opening her eyes.

Clem left the pair to rest, then headed back outside.

"How is she?" Clem turned her head to see Patty standing by the door, lit cigarette in hand.

"She's okay for now I think," said Clem. "She said the pill really helped."

"That's good," said Patty before taking a drag off her cigarette.

"She said she has trouble sleeping because she can't stop thinking about all this stuff that needs to be done," continued Clem. "And that pill cleared her mind and now she's not thinking about it."

"Yeah, Xanax are usually pretty good for mellowing people out."

"Do we have any more of them?"

"You don't want one, do you?" asked Patty.

"No, I just thought if Sarah has trouble sleeping, maybe they could help."

"If she just has trouble sleeping I can probably dig out something lighter for that. We really can't be giving her Xanax every night though."

"Why not? Will it hurt her?"

"Possibly, but probably not, other than she might feel a bit hungover in the mornings."

"Hungover? Like when you drink too much whiskey or beer?"

"No, not anywhere that bad, just a little groggy," said Patty before she took another drag off her cigarette. "It's just, we only got a couple of bottles of them, and once they're used up it'd be hard to find any more, so we should probably save them for… well situations like this. I mean, you saw that pharmacy I tried to raid back on our first outing together. They put up damn walls because one the first things people want when shit gets bad is drugs. And why not, drugs numb the pain of life, and there's no shortage of pain right now."

"Is that why you smoke?" asked Clem as she watched Patty take another drag off her cigarette. "You usually seem to do that when you're upset."

"Yeah, they help calm me down," said Patty as she took the cigarette butt out of her mouth and examined it. "Problem is when you use them so much you start to kind of need them to get by. I actually thought I had quit smoking; I haven't had a cigarette since we left Tulsa. But, I still stashed away a pack from the Sam's Club because I think I knew if I didn't have any smokes around to even me out… I might lose my shit when things got bad."

"You mean like Sarah did?" asked Clem.

"Something like that." Patty dropped the butt on the ground and stomped it out. "All right, we got a couple hours of daylight left, might as well not let them go to waste."

Patty headed for the gate and started moving towards the field, where Clem could see Jet and Devlin were standing up bean poles. Clem moved to follow Patty when she noticed something lying against the fence. It was a large piece of wood, and flipping it over she discovered it was the sign Jet had hung earlier. One of the corners was badly dented now and there was a large crack running across it. Looking over at the Brave, Clem realized the sign was likely what hit the windshield, but looking past that she noticed the front porch of the house.

Clem moved up the steps, grabbed a chair from inside, and hung the sign again. Taking a step back to examine it, she found it was less pleasant to look at now with the large crack in it, but Clem reasoned it was better than just tossing it out. She sighed, then headed towards the field and figured she could start with checking the tomato cages, just like she had done this morning.

Previous Chapter - Next Chapter - First Chapter

[thegregorybruce]

AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019

Merry Christmas to you! This is my annual Christmas newsletter and if you're a new subscriber in the past ten days or so, trust me this is not a normal AsktheBuilder.com newsletter.

Give me a few weeks to show you how I can save you time and money with your home improvement projects.

A Special Time - Christmas

You may celebrate Christmas as we do here at my home. If not, I wish you happiness however you choose to observe the days around the winter solstice.

Over the past few months, I started a project where I'm doing a brain dump of my memories of growing up. At this point, I'm just writing stories.

I plan to record some videos as some of the tales are far more suited to that medium.

Christmas at my house growing up was celebrated on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure why it was that way as I never bothered to ask my Mom and Dad. I just knew I got my presents earlier than most of my friends on my street, so I wasn't about to complain!

Some of our gifts were put around the tree days before Christmas. We were told to leave them alone and not touch them. Hah! That's like saying to a cat, "Leave that mouse alone. Don't chase it."

I have clear visions of shaking wrapped boxes, even trying to peek under the seams of the wrapping paper. The desire to discover what was under the colored paper was stronger than the craving for ice-cold water on a blistering August day.

When I was small, our Christmas tree was decorated with the coolest ornaments that glowed and bubbled. They must have been filled with colored alcohol and the heat from an interior light bulb caused the alcohol, or some other liquid, to boil and bubble.

Then for a few years, we had this antiseptic bright silver aluminum tree - I kid you not - that was illuminated by a slowly revolving four-color disc illuminated by a flood light. The colors, I think, were green, red, yellow and blue. It was hideous thinking back on it, but my Dad sure liked it!

When I was about 19 or maybe 20, the CB radio craze was in full swing. I really wanted one of those radios! I remember a long tall thin box that had my name on it leaning against the wall. Surely it was an antenna for the radio that must have been in another box! Yay, I was going to be on the air, breaker breaker!

I couldn't wait to rip off the paper from that tall thin box! When I did, I was so disappointed. It was a 4-foot level. What? Are you kidding me, a silly level? You can't get on the air with a level!

Christmas is a time of traditions for many families. One of mine, and my son does enjoy it too, is boiled shrimp. I really look forward to eating chilled shrimp cocktail with sauce so hot that it rivals lava flowing from a volcano.

I thank my Aunt Margaret for introducing me to this succulent food. CLICK or TAP HERE to read about my first time eating the white crustaceans!

Water Christmas Tree While Away

Two days ago, I recorded a fast video for you. We had to travel for three days and there was no one to water our fresh-cut tree. I knew it would run out of water in a day, so something had to be done.

A month ago, my son helped set up some smart plugs here at the house to control grow lights down in our basement.

He said to Kathy the day before we left, "Have Dad hook up some sort of irrigation system to one of the extra smart plugs."

Bango! That's all the inspiration I needed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to watch how I kept our fresh-cut tree watered while we were 250 miles away!

Taking a Break

I started another tradition about ten years ago where I spend the week between Christmas and New Years planning what's going to happen in the next 51 weeks.

That means you get a break from me for about 12 days or so.

I'll be back in your Inbox after the New Year.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year.

Based on how my 2019 ended, I'm pretty sure 2020 is going to be one of my best years ever. I hope that's how it turns out for you too!

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com Get Super Clean - www.StainSolver.com Old Morse Man - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Is your house COLD? Brrrrrrr. Do you know why? CLICK or TAP HERE and allow me to help you get WARM!

The post AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019 appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/askthebuilder-christmas-issue-2019/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[andrewmawby]

AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019

Merry Christmas to you! This is my annual Christmas newsletter and if you're a new subscriber in the past ten days or so, trust me this is not a normal AsktheBuilder.com newsletter.

Give me a few weeks to show you how I can save you time and money with your home improvement projects.

A Special Time - Christmas

You may celebrate Christmas as we do here at my home. If not, I wish you happiness however you choose to observe the days around the winter solstice.

Over the past few months, I started a project where I'm doing a brain dump of my memories of growing up. At this point, I'm just writing stories.

I plan to record some videos as some of the tales are far more suited to that medium.

Christmas at my house growing up was celebrated on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure why it was that way as I never bothered to ask my Mom and Dad. I just knew I got my presents earlier than most of my friends on my street, so I wasn't about to complain!

Some of our gifts were put around the tree days before Christmas. We were told to leave them alone and not touch them. Hah! That's like saying to a cat, "Leave that mouse alone. Don't chase it."

I have clear visions of shaking wrapped boxes, even trying to peek under the seams of the wrapping paper. The desire to discover what was under the colored paper was stronger than the craving for ice-cold water on a blistering August day.

When I was small, our Christmas tree was decorated with the coolest ornaments that glowed and bubbled. They must have been filled with colored alcohol and the heat from an interior light bulb caused the alcohol, or some other liquid, to boil and bubble.

Then for a few years, we had this antiseptic bright silver aluminum tree - I kid you not - that was illuminated by a slowly revolving four-color disc illuminated by a flood light. The colors, I think, were green, red, yellow and blue. It was hideous thinking back on it, but my Dad sure liked it!

When I was about 19 or maybe 20, the CB radio craze was in full swing. I really wanted one of those radios! I remember a long tall thin box that had my name on it leaning against the wall. Surely it was an antenna for the radio that must have been in another box! Yay, I was going to be on the air, breaker breaker!

I couldn't wait to rip off the paper from that tall thin box! When I did, I was so disappointed. It was a 4-foot level. What? Are you kidding me, a silly level? You can't get on the air with a level!

Christmas is a time of traditions for many families. One of mine, and my son does enjoy it too, is boiled shrimp. I really look forward to eating chilled shrimp cocktail with sauce so hot that it rivals lava flowing from a volcano.

I thank my Aunt Margaret for introducing me to this succulent food. CLICK or TAP HERE to read about my first time eating the white crustaceans!

Water Christmas Tree While Away

Two days ago, I recorded a fast video for you. We had to travel for three days and there was no one to water our fresh-cut tree. I knew it would run out of water in a day, so something had to be done.

A month ago, my son helped set up some smart plugs here at the house to control grow lights down in our basement.

He said to Kathy the day before we left, "Have Dad hook up some sort of irrigation system to one of the extra smart plugs."

Bango! That's all the inspiration I needed.

CLICK or TAP HERE to watch how I kept our fresh-cut tree watered while we were 250 miles away!

Taking a Break

I started another tradition about ten years ago where I spend the week between Christmas and New Years planning what's going to happen in the next 51 weeks.

That means you get a break from me for about 12 days or so.

I'll be back in your Inbox after the New Year.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year.

Based on how my 2019 ended, I'm pretty sure 2020 is going to be one of my best years ever. I hope that's how it turns out for you too!

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com Get Super Clean - www.StainSolver.com Old Morse Man - www.W3ATB.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

P.S. Is your house COLD? Brrrrrrr. Do you know why? CLICK or TAP HERE and allow me to help you get WARM!

The post AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019 appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from builders feed https://www.askthebuilder.com/askthebuilder-christmas-issue-2019/ via http://www.rssmix.com/