Clear water poured through the test outlet into a waiting container.

I had spent my adult life trying to bring water out of difficult ground.

It occurred to me that the important work was rarely glamorous.

You drilled, tested, fixed the mistakes, and kept going until something good could flow.

PART 24

That evening Valerie and I sat in the backyard as the sky turned lavender over the mountains.

She had brought her old telescope home from college.

One of the legs was crooked, and she insisted she could fix it without my help.