Day Twenty-Five

Day three of the power outage. This sucks. It wouldn't be so bad if this had happened in October or November but in August it is like a freaking sauna. Even the pool water feels like warm soup. No matter where you go you can't escape. Its all too easy to lose your temper in this heat and humidity.

Everyone scrambled to be first in the shower this morning. Chores were done in record time so they could get in line. Even the plants went out faster than ever before. I could have used a shower first thing this morning myself but I needed to get breakfast going first.

I knew even before the radio was turned on that things must have deteriorated overnight. Three humvees per hour was as often as they had patrolled during the last round of rioting in this area; this morning I counted four. There had been another NRS zombie incident near Ybor City. This one was pretty bad from the sound of things. It had sparked some additional violence between several families which then sparked some racial incidences as people started taking sides in the original argument. It didn't take long before a full blown riot developed. The violence is now spreading through out the county as people give vent to their pent up fear and anger.

Scott had been on the fence about going out, waiting to see how David felt. But, with things the way they are everyone unanimously voted for them to stay home. It's not like they don't have work they can do around here and several things that happened today made me even more glad to have them close.

Breakfast: I made Bacon and cheese breakfast bread by mixing together Garlic and Cheese Bisquick mix and some real bacon bits. It's a family favorite. Because the pan was sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, clean up is easy with some sudsy water and a dip in rinse water that has been doctored with bleach. We continued to eat outside as it is marginally cooler and adds to the easy clean up aspect that I am trying to maintain.

After breakfast, I set dinner to cook in the solar oven since it worked so well yesterday. I was anxious to see if it worked as well with pasta. I set some water to heat in the water pasteurizer as well.

While I was cleaning up I had a "being watched" feeling right before Bekah asked why the boy was on that roof looking at us. It was a bit of a non sequitur and I had to look where she was pointing before I understood what she was asking. Sure enough on the roof of the two-story house to the rear of us, there was a teenage boy laying down watching what I was doing. When he noticed I had seen him all he did was shoot me a bird and raise a pair of binoculars to his eyes. I sent Bekah in to tell Scott to come here and bring David and James with him. Scott must have been concerned because all three of the guys were carrying a rifle. When they stepped outside the boy got the point and shrugged then started nonchalantly watching another house. Yeah, that freaked me a bit. It also hacked me off. You can't even feel safe in your own yard these days because someone is always in your business.

That boy stayed on that roof for another hour or so before being replaced by a teenage girl. I noticed that during the hottest part of the day no one was on the roof but towards the end of the day a man climbed on to the roof and was the one that stayed up there the longest.

I debated what I could do to get us more privacy and for now all I've been able to come up with was to hang sheets across one end of the lanai to at least block the view of our meals.

No sooner had I finished hanging the sheets and the rest of my morning chores that it became time to fix lunch.

I had James dig me a cooking trench. While he did that I made a large stack of tortillas with a piece of waxed paper between them to keep the dough from sticking together. I also have the girls made up a large batch of doughnut batter using nearly all the remaining bread starter.

Lunch: I made Fiesta Soup with tortilla chips. I set a skillet on the fire grate to heat. I then threw all of the soup ingredients together into a soup pot and set it on the grate to heat through. After the skillet was hot enough and I fried the tortillas until they were crisp, rather than pliable, but not burned.

While everyone ate their soup and chips, I placed a Dutch oven into the coals of the fire. Into the Dutch oven I poured cooking oil. After I finished my lunch the oil had gotten hot and I made drop doughnuts while the others took their turns doing the dishes.

After the doughnuts come out of the hot grease, they are drained and rolled in sugar and then put into paper bags. These, except for three the guys snitched, were tonight's dessert. There wasn't a whole lot of oil left over, but I still saved for tomorrow's use.

After going nonstop since first light, I stopped and had myself the cup of tea I promised myself yesterday. It was nice to be off my feet for a few minutes.

James managed to cobble together a pretty decent shower area inside the pool cage using his younger sisters' hula-hoops, some scrap PVC, and a couple of plastic shower curtains. Nothing fancy, but at least we have some privacy now. I know we could hang the shower bags inside, but its too dark and stuff for that right now. I feel better that the girls can clean up without having to deal with the friendly neighborhood voyeur.

The guys have also managed to finish the second false wall. I'll be more than a little relieved to be able to tuck the rest of the food away that is sitting around the house.

After I brought everyone's sheets in from airing out and remade the beds it was time to get dinner on the table. The guys put away the solar panels and generally cleaned up their work areas and checked to make sure all the locks were still fastened. I had the girls set the table while I got the food.

Dinner: Last meal of the day was Fettuccine of the Sea. The solar oven worked well but it doesn't do pasta as well as it does rice. The pasta was a little chewy but no one complained. We were too hungry after dealing with all of the extra work caused by the power being off and all of our minor construction projects. The doughnuts were a huge success and it took a great deal of will power to save half of them for tomorrow's dessert.

After dinner we hit on a great new dishwashing technique. The black shower bags that we keep filled with water get really hot during the day; almost too hot for a comfortable shower. Scott hung one above the kitchen sink and we now have "hot water on demand" again. Those on dish duty were suitably grateful.

The radio is going and every one is enjoying a cup of French Vanilla Hot Cocoa before making an early night of it. I know just passed dark is a little early…..

OMG! We heard a sharp crack and some breaking glass coming from right outside. Scott and David slowly rolled up the rear door to check to see what it was and someone shot at us! The bullet came through one of the sheets I had up on the lanai and shattered the glass top of my patio table. There's only one place the shot could have come from. Scott and David have decided to slip out the carport and try and see if they plan anything else. I've got to go keep watch.