Chapter 10 Cabinetry and the Rain

They had produced about fifty of the cabinets when the rainy season arrived. The four of them were at the small lake site when it started to rain, the clouds had become darker and then rain came down. Before the workday up at the lake had finished, the rain was quite heavy and their rain gear which they had stashed there was needed to even go from one cave room to the neighboring one. And when the satellite delivered its beam to the third cave's making, the sound of the rainwater in the air suddenly being superheated and blasted out of the way was an enormous roar, so Geodon stopped the process of digging out that cave for now. It had gotten back only about three meters into the lava wall; the space could be used for temporary shelter of storage, he decided; just so as it all was moved away before the cave-making process resumed in better weather.

Time to head back to town, the rain was pouring heavily; so all they took were the empty buckets, the cabinets they had made were too much to handle in the downpour. They made it to the pylon and climbed into the transfer pod, set the controls to be picked up on the next swing, and soon they were on their way back home, the rain pelting the windows of the pod as they went. The transfer pod took the place of a water-carrier pod, which would be picked up on the pylon when the gap appeared as things made a full loop once again.

The two hour trip back to town showed how regional the stormy rain was, because by the time they got back, the clouds had all but vanished and there was no rain at all. As far as they knew, the town had never known rain; but did know high winds at times. The winds had brought in the sand grains, blowing around and then caught in the depression here, to form the fairly flat sand area that enables the agriculture industry on which this little town thrives.

The orders for more cabinets continued to increase; but there was no way they could fill the demand, even if the winter weather were not interfering with the bringing back of cabinets from the lake facility. So they rented a small vacant store in town, and began to assemble the materials and tools for building the cabinets there, starting with one of the two sets of molds and ultrasonic generators from Geodon's extra bedroom now being used as a workshop. Jockly and Juisette began to make cabinets there, while Geodon and Nansella would continue to make cabinets in Geodon's spare room.

The four of them decided to go get two of the molds that were up at the lake cave room location, so they got their rain gear, several pails of black sand, and headed off to the lake facility, including rain gear carried in another empty bucket, as the people in town would find it strange to see someone wearing raincoats. Their transfer pod swung from pylon to pylon, and about a half hour into the trip, rain began to splatter on the pod's windows. By the time they arrived at the lake's pylon, the rain was coming down as a torrent. The pod was placed as usual on the embarkation deck, but they just sat there, the rain pouring on the pod was so hard they could not see out the windows; and the noise of the rain against the pod's shell was a roar. Geodon decided to go by himself to see what it was like, so he headed out wearing his rain gear, not even carrying a bucket of sand this venture.

Shutting the pod's door, he was stunned at the fury of the rain battering him, and became aware of how cold it was, too. He headed down the pylon's elevator, and set out toward the pathway he had built to the small lake. The sand part of the path was packed hard and the raw basalt parts were providing good traction for his shoes, but several places where sand had not completely filled in a depression in the lava ripples, water had filled in making small ponds. Finally reaching the cave area, he discovered that the lake had increased in height and had partly inundated part of the little agricultural area he had created. The cave entrances were several feet higher than the lake's surface, even so. Going into his cave room and turning on the lights in there, shutting the door, it seemed quite habitable; the sound of the rain almost nonexistent in there. After resting a few minutes in there, he attempted to pick up one of the cabinet molds and carry it by himself, but it was far easier to be done by two people than by one, so he left it there, and headed back out into the storm again.

Arriving back at the transfer pod, he opened it and received some wide eyed looks from the others in there, wanting to know what it was like out there. Encouraged by his return and description of the experience, they all decided to make the trip too, also bringing the buckets of black sand, and they all headed out of the transfer pod into the deluge pouring down upon them. Following Geodon along the pathway, not so easily followed with the rain obscuring everything, the two couples went to their respective cave homes.

Nansella got out the lunch she had brought, after resting a few minutes. The place was chilly, not quite as cold as it was outside; the electric power's energy storage was not enough to provide significant warmth of electric heat, so they stayed bundled up while they enjoyed the tasty and energizing lunch Nansella had prepared for them.

Refreshed, Geodon went over to the door of the other couple's cave room, knocked on the door, resolving to run an intercom between the two places when he had the time to do that, would save such a trip, short as it was, it clearly also showed him that the storm's fury had now increased the rain volume and was driven by an icy wind. When the other couple invited him in for a minute, they too were aghast at the sight of the fury out there, and they said they would rather stay in there until the storm let up.

Returning to his own cave room, he appreciated that advise; and so he and Nansella prepared to spend the night there, snuggled for warmth. Geodon used the chisel and hammer to continue the long term project of converting the rough walls to smoother and squarer ones, while Nansella prepared a cooked meal from their stored provisions, to save their second set of picnic goodies for a busier time. In the cave room, life seemed almost normal again, lit by the electric lights and enough electric energy to quickly cook a meal in the microwave oven; it would be a long time before their solar oven would cook anything for them again, they decided, looking at it sitting over by the back area of their cave home.

The next morning, opening the door and checking the level of the little lake, it did not seem to have increased in elevation significantly, despite the downpour that was continuing. There must be a pathway to pour out elsewhere, somewhere down the further reaches of the little lake; but he was not interested in going exploring to find out where, at this point. He quickly returned to his cave room, took off his rain gear, and filled in Nansella with the findings. "The lake does not seem to have risen much more, but the rain is still pouring, and worse, it seems to be getting a lot colder" he reported. "I have never felt it so cold anywhere; it seems colder than the inside of a refrigerator!" She had to go peek outside, then quickly shut the door. "Something strange is happening outside" she exclaimed. Geodon opened the door and saw the rain was now quieter but was falling as white flakes. "Snow!" he exclaimed. "I remember snow from when I was a child back on old Earth. It is cold and worse, it can pile up. It makes things slippery too. Maybe we ought to head back as soon as possible." She looked a bit unhappy at that dismal prospect of a walk out there in colder and even slippery terrain. He headed back out, knocking on the neighbor door, and advised them of the situation; they both looked out with astonishment at the snow falling down outside. He pointed out the footprints he was making even in the brief amount of snow there; he described how it could even pile up high so it was not possible to travel anywhere on foot anymore. They agreed to get ready in a hurry, turn the lights out, meet them at the other cave's door. Back in his own cave room, he and Nansella quickly gathered their rain gear, turned the electric power off, leaving the empty buckets there along with the molds they had come to get, and met Jockly and Juisette at the door, and Geodon cautiously led the way through the snow.

The world already looked even more different, much of it white now in contrast to the black of the lava folds. The pathway too was not as obvious as it had always been before; he had to stop and examine the surroundings several times, to make the best guess as to which way the path went. Then suddenly they were at the base of the pylon. Up the elevator they went, and into the transfer pod, they put in a request for it to be stated on their journey back to the town. Warmed by the electric power that provided environmental control of the pod, it still was a ways into the journey back before they felt warm enough to start removing their rain gear. The world was white outside; they could see nothing out there except the vague swirl of snowflakes. Half an hour into the trip, the snow changed into rain; and another half an hour later, the rain stopped and was an overcast terrain out there, familiar ruggedness. And by the time the transfer pod was deposited at the town's pylon, it was blue sky out there, although it was quite windy; few people were outside in the cold wind, so the four left their rain gear on as they returned to their homes, relieved to be back in the comfort of home, with houses supplied with abundant electric power delivered by the sun and by satellite solar power stations orbiting overhead.

The next day, Geodon took his other cabinet mold over to the new shop in town, and with Nansella they put together a couple of cabinets. Later that day, Jockly and Juisette also came over, and began using the two molds in the new shop; so Geodon and Nansella returned to his house, with an idea in mind to design a different kind of cabinet and make a mold for it; so that cabinets could be put in different places. This design would be made so as to either be mounted on walls, or be able to solidly stack together to form floor sited cabinets stacked to varying heights. While he was in the mold making mood, he also began to create one to make a module that would stack with the new mold-made cabinets, but would have a pull-out drawer, for an option in the stack of cabinet layers. For the dimensions of these new cabinet sections, he carefully measured the areas of his house so that such cabinets could fit snugly end to end across a wall for efficient wall use; his was a typical pre-designed house, and so, hopefully, the cabinets would also fit in many other houses too. At least he would have a way to store them efficiently in his house, he told himself.