Warm and damp. Possibly clearing as we head into the weekend. Warmer later in the day. It’s been getting into the low 80s and I think we may get one more day of that. Then WINTER RETURNS!!1!!1!!!1!! Maybe. But for now, pleasant, if moist.

Did some stuff. Skipped some stuff. Still had kid2 home sick. Made her some soup and went out to do pickups. Got another 3D printer. It was $50. Now I really need to figure out what to do with them. Got some art supplies too. I grab them if they’re cheap. Both kids will occasionally paint something. I’d like to have time and energy to paint stuff again. I used to like doing art stuff. I don’t have much creative outlet anymore, and I’m not hanging around artistic people like I did for decades. Sometimes I miss it.

Today is a bunch of running around. D2 has an appointment in the morning to get her retainer repaired. Then it’s back to school for her. I’ve got a checkup in the afternoon, and some pickups to do. Later it’s D2’s extracurricular sport, and picking up D1 from hers… I think it will be a crock pot dinner night.

[just re-read that and it sure is brusk]

Mmmm, chicken in the crock pot…

Now I really should get busy. Don’t forget to stack something.
nick

Warmish and getting warmer. It was almost 70F yesterday morning and it got into the low 80s. The humidity was crazy high, and the short time I was working outdoors, sweat was running down my back. The sky was nice and blue with fluffy clouds… and I expect the same today.

Actually got some stuff done yesterday. Not as much as needed to be done, but more than some days. I did domestic bliss, getting a load of washing done. I made a crock pot pot roast. I got two of my cams back on line. One was a bad port on the switch, one was config issues, after I moved it 5 feet to get out from behind a tree. Thankfully I had the slack in the attic to move it. I also added a mic to the cam for the front porch, but haven’t tested or configured it yet. I have to print a different sticker for the front door to include audio recording.

In most states, audio recording is covered under wiretapping and eavesdropping laws, and can have very strong legal restrictions on use. This is why most surveillance video doesn’t include audio by default. No matter the legality, I’d rather have the audio, I just hadn’t taken down a cam to add a mic. Since I had the cam apart to troubleshoot, I added a mic.

I got some other small things done too. Fed the sick kid soup for lunch. She was feeling better at dinner time. Not sure if she’ll be back at school today or not. She’s not a shirker so I’m inclined to keep her home if she says she’s not feeling well.

Oh, and I put 50 pounds of flour into 5 gallon buckets, 25 pounds per bucket. That job has been sitting around waiting for far too long.

Today should be more of the same with an emphasis on cleaning up and putting away.

There’s always more to do, always more to stack. Stay busy.

nick

Cool and clear, should be a nice day. Yesterday warmed up well into the 70s F. It would be nice to get another nice day.

Did computer and auction stuff all day. Skipped the household stuff until it was time to cook dinner. I’d defrosted a pork roast from 2018 and needed to cook it soon. I’d also brought home a free bag of apples from a “meal deal” and they were starting to get a bit beat up. I figured I’d make some stewed apples to go with the pork roast, and kill two birds with one stone… which is a good way to get more from your food budget money.

If you have something that is aging out, build a meal around it. Nothing like making french toast in a week when you have a lot more bread left than normal… The more active version of this is building meals around what is on sale, or what you got at the farmer’s market, or what your neighbor with the green thumb gave you. Or what the food bank was giving out on Tuesday.

Times being what they are, and likely to get worse, building good habits, being thrifty, making good use of available resources, and reducing waste are essential to living your ‘best life’. Good habits now will pay off later, and they help out now too.

Take a look at other areas of your life for opportunities to save. You are probably using too much of products you use frequently. Toothpaste, soap, shampoo, shaving cream- all are effective in much smaller quantities than suggested by the manufacturer. The huge curl of toothpaste, longer than the brush head, looks good on the box, but you really only need a pea sized squeeze. That picture on the box of “how to use the product” encourages you to waste it, and then you’ll buy more. Their motivations are not your motivations…

My motivation is to get the most-est with the least-est. And to make it through whatever bad times are coming. Stretching my stacks will help with that.

Stacking more helps too…

nick

Cold today? Yesterday morning caught me off guard with how cold it was. It did end up very comfortable in the afternoon, and it was sunny which was nice. Today will hopefully be a little warmer to start, but still sunny. It really helps to dry things out, and we need to dry.

I had my non-prepping hobby yesterday, and it was a good meeting. I sold some stuff and made a couple of guys happy. I will continue as webmaster, but fortunately I won’t be taking on any additional duties. Every organization has the 80/20 rule for member involvement, or even 90/10, with a core group doing most of the work to keep the group together. Ours is no exception. I would like to say I’m not in the 20% but a bit further down. I contribute, but I’m trying to limit my commitment at the same time. There are a couple of other people with similar levels of involvement.

I came home and napped, then did auction stuff for most of the day and evening.

Which means that today I feel like I should be working EXTRA hard. We’ll see how that turns out…

Don’t let my slackitude keep you from stacking though…

nick

Cool and wet, again. Winter in Houston. No surprise there. We’re back to normal. Kid asked me what the weather would be today. I told her I rarely look at the forecast, since you can be better than 80% right just by saying it will be like yesterday. That earned me a funny look, but it’s true. It’s rare that the weather changes dramatically from day to day. Give that we live here in the swamp, I was thinking about how few are the times we have to stand in the rain waiting for the bus. Even with heavy misty drizzle counting as rain, it’s still unusual for us to need an umbrella. And that’s pretty weird.

Did my thang yesterday. Finally got to chat with the manager at the auction that stiffed me just before Christmas by not letting me pick up my item a day late. He was surprised I didn’t come in and get it. I told him I tried twice, but got no love. He refunded the total, and then looked to see if they relisted the item or stole it. They did eventually relist it. I’m feeling better about that now. We had a good chat about the business in general, and making money as resellers, and the ecosystem of their part of the secondary economy.

Wife was home sick all day so I ended up doing more kid taxi than normal. Didn’t get to the grocery store. That will have to happen at some point today. Almost out of diet Dr Pepper, and that can’t be allowed to happen…

Today I’ve got more appointments, and I need to swing by my client’s house. He has a video source not working and I need to figure out why. I’m pretty sure I know, it’s happened before. With all the high quality gear in the rack, we have these cheap nasty chinese HDMI audio extractors to pull an analog audio signal out of the HDMI stream for some sources. They don’t last. Unfortunately, there isn’t really a better solution. I’m hoping that’s the issue because I’ve got spares in the truck and it’s an easy fix. It does cause him frustration and a service call, which sux, but it’s every other year or so… so pretty spread out.

That is a general problem that is actually much better than it used to be. Some things you can’t find a good expensive solution or product, only cheap crep. Most things you have a nice range of choices though. This is a significant improvement over the 80s, for example, when it seemed like quality wasn’t available in the US for any price. I can buy high end pro level gear, or cheap chinese crep that does the job, but barely and not forever; or I can choose from a wide selection in between. In this case, the chinese ignore some standards and protections and requirements that more reputable and professional companies can’t ignore, so the cheap crep actually does something that better quality gear won’t do. It’s a tool in the box. Just not a very well built tool.

In any case, my day is full… and other than the grocery store, and making money, and checking up on my health, won’t involve preps. Oh, those are preps. Ok, I’m good!

You all should stack something.

nick