“Aug 15 Jimmy and Jackie, Agnes and Curt, were married today in a beautiful double ceremony. The Throxtons have the Baxter house temporarily and the Pulvermachers have the Kennedy’s doll house while we partition the cave into two sets of married quarters and a storeroom.
“Sep 1 the roots I dug up didn’t poison me, so I served a mess of them tonight. The shield from power pack of that Thunderbolt gun we salvaged Johann’s, it must have been made a big enough boiler to cook a little helping for everybody. The taste was odd, maybe because Agnes had been making soap in it it wasn’t very good soap, either. I’m going to call these things yams because they look like yams although they taste more like parsnips. There are a lot of them around. Tomorrow I m going to try boiling them with greens, a strip of side ineat, and plenty of salt. Yum, yum! I’m going to bake them in ashes, too.
“Sep 16 Chad Ames and Dick Burke showed up with their tails tucked in; Hizzoner got softhearted and let em stay. They say Jock McGowan is crazy. I can believe it.
“Sep 28 Philip Schneider died today, hunting. Roy carried him in, but he was badly clawed and lost a lot of blood and was D.O.A. Roy resigned as boss hunter and Hizzoner appointed Cliff. Roy is broken up about it but nobody blames him. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
“Oct 7 I’ve decided to marry M.
“Oct 10 seems I was mistaken M. is going to marry Margery Chung. Well, they are nice kids and if we ever get out of this I’ll be glad I’m single since I want to buck for a commission in the Amazons. Note: be a little more standoffish, Caroline. Well, try!
“Oct 20 Carmen????
“Oct 21 Yes.
“Nov 1 well Glory be! I’m the new City Manager. Little Carol, the girl with two left feet Just a couple of weeks, temporary and acting while Roddie is away, but say ‘sir’ when you speak to me. Hizzoner finally let Roddie make the downriver survey he has been yipping about, accompanying it with a slough of advice and injunctions that Roddie will pay no attention to once he is out of sigh tif I know Roddie. It’s a two-man team and Roddie picked Roy as his teamer. They left this morning.
“Nov 5 being City Manager is not all marshmallow sundae. I wish Roddie would get back.
“Nov 11 Hizzoner wants me to copy off in here the ‘report of the artifacts committee’! Mick Mahmud has been keeping it in his head which strikes me as a good place. But Hizzoner has been very jumpy since Roddie and Roy left, so I guess I will humor him here it is:
“12 spare knives (besides one each for everybody)
“53 firearms and guns of other sorts but only about half of them with even one charge left.
“6 Testaments
“2 Peace of the Flame
“1 Koran
“1 Book of Mormon
“1 Oxford Book of English Verse, Centennial Edition
“1 steel bow and 3 hunting arrows
“1 boiler made from a wave shield and quite a bit of metal and plastic junk (worth its weight in uranium, I admit) from the Thunderbolt Jackie salvaged.
“1 stew pan (Carmen’s)
“1 pack playing cards with the nine of hearts missing
“13 matches, any number of pocket flamers no longer working, and 27 burning glasses
“1 small hand ax
“565 meters climbing line, some of it chopped up for other uses
“91 fishhooks (and no fish fit to eat!)
“61 pocket compasses, some of them broken
“19 watches that still run (4 of them adjusted to our day)
“2 bars of scented soap that Theo has been hoarding
“2 boxes KwikKure and part of a box of TanFast
“Several kilos of oddments that I suppose we will find a use for but I won’t list. Mick has a mind like a pack rat.
“Lots of things we have made and can make more of pots, bows and arrows, hide scrapers, a stoneage mortar & pestle we can grind seeds on if you don’t mind grit in your teeth, etc. Hizzoner says the Oxford Verse is the most valuable thing we have and I agree, but not for his reasons. He wants me to cover all the margins with shorthand, recording all special knowledge that any of us have everything from math to pigraising. Cliff says go ahead as long as we don’t deface the verses. I don’t see when I’m going to find time. I’ve hardly been out of the settlement since Roddie left and sleep is something I just hear about.