Saturday, 13 February 2016

By on February 13th, 2016 in personal, technology, weekly prepping

07:18 – We’re still plugging away on getting things unboxed and organized. We periodically find an Easter egg. Yesterday, Barbara shouted up that she’d just found a 1,400-round bucket of .22 LR ammo, which she’d just put on the ammo shelves. She’s uncovered lots of stuff that I’d forgotten I had or thought I’d lost.

My new Kindle showed up yesterday. I have to say that I hate the new OS. The OS on Barbara’s and my old reading Kindles isn’t great by any means, but at least it stays out of one’s way while one is reading. The new version is very much in-your-face, as usual pushing for users to buy Amazon products. Good luck with that, since this one won’t be connected to the Internet. Oh, and I got my notebook disconnected and moved upstairs, which I needed to do before I can get the new desktop system set up.

We managed to get a bit of prepping stuff done this week:

  • We got two sets of floor-to-ceiling steel shelving set up in my office downstairs. We loaded and organized the 5×2-foot unit with LTS food, which we also inventoried, and the 4×2-foot unit with general emergency supplies.
  • I read another bunch of PA novels. As usual, most of them sucked.
  • I got the Isuzu Trooper checked out. It should be good to go for now, although one of these days it’s probably going to drop dead. It is, after all, almost 23 years old.

So, what precisely did you do to prepare this week? Tell me about it in the comments.


32 Comments and discussion on "Saturday, 13 February 2016"

  1. Miles_Teg says:

    23 years? Congratulations.

    My first car lasted 13.5 years, 247,000 km.

    My second car lasted 18.5 years, only 150,000 km or so. Very annoying that it was falling apart to such an extent that I was forced to get a new one (Subaru Forester.)

  2. nick says:

    Heading out for my weekly forage…..

    nick

  3. OFD says:

    Not much; mainly reorganized books and re-prioritized online course materials; finished modding a couple of firearms; revisited household/family budget issues; pulled a hamstring and twisted a knee doing some PT; and made a substantial effort and progress toward bringing in some more revenue here, which is badly needed, not only for prepping but also bills and taxes and stuff that needs to get done on the house and vehicles.

    We are down to single digits and below zero at night, which is normal for this time of year, finally, but little to no wind, thankfully. And Mrs. OFD is on her way back from Kalifornia where it’s been in the mid-70s. I gotta go get her at the airport around 5 or so and then see if GG’s car starts and bring that up here, too.

    I expect her to spend a couple or three evenings with the horse at the huge barn complex 18 miles northwest of here, within sight and walking distance of the Quebec border. I’ll tag along to keep an eye on her while she’s riding, and I’ll tote along a couple of the radios to fiddle with up there.

    Probably a waste-of-time phone interview Tuesday for another RHEL drone gig, and Thursday I’m having “coffee” with one of the kids who worked at that last miserable six-week job I had a year-and-a-half ago. He’s wicked sharp and just got his RHCSA and is taking CS classes at one of the college sites across the street from where my vets group meets. Networking…

    Could be a busy week, and I actually hope that if we see at least one of the now-overdue-again pay checks, I can get caught up on bills and taxes and also do some more stocking up here.

  4. Miles_Teg says:

    Did the kid keep the job or was he shafted too?

    Got a new grand-nephew a few hours ago. I was hoping he’d be named Hagar, after the comic strip character (his mum is Norweigan) but they named him Leon, after his maternal grandfather.

  5. OFD says:

    This particular kid left of his own accord to move on to college; then he left the college and started working a couple of jobs, and he’s now back taking classes. The second kid also left of his own accord and went into the Air Force, but had to drop out due to medical issues with his heart. Last I knew, he’s back at that dump running around doing Winblows help desk chit all day. The third kid, who they hired to help me out, got canned along with me on the same day; the general manager and production manager did me while one of the hatchet fembats from HR did the kid behind my back. Then the head HR fembat stayed with me while I packed up my chit and walked me out to my car, the usual fired-drone perp walk. As of that afternoon I could still see my work email but they got that taken care of within hours. The main concern seemed to be them getting back their cell phone. Good riddance.

  6. MrAtoz says:

    I never got fired in the Army. I try to get fired from my drone accounting duties, but MrsAtoz won’t let me go. Slave labor.

    Prep this week: taught my weiner dog to go down the stairs by himself. Kept working on my health and fitness. Not on any scripts (yet). I’m surprised my joints are fine with my Mom’s arthritis. She has two fake knees and those scrunched up fingers. Plus about 10 scripts for BP, afib, cancer, diabetes and, of course, the drugs to counter all the side effects of the others. Thinking about how to eventually survive the Zombie Stripper Apocalypse from a Vegas hi-rise condo. The storage area is about 9×9 and is big enough to hold a lot of prep stuff. Enough to keep us going for a short term ZSA. The storage is on the same floor as the condo, so I can pull my truck up and cart bug out supplies and head to Kansas. Or, I could hit the bingo hall for one last session and just expire there.

  7. OFD says:

    “I never got fired in the Army.”

    Ditto, in either the AF or the Army Reserve. Tried, but failed.

    “I try to get fired from my drone accounting duties, but MrsAtoz won’t let me go. Slave labor.”

    Ditto again. I walk point for the IRS Gestapo stuff and do all but one of the bills. Tried to get fired here, too, but no dice. Something about ‘for better or worse’ and some other stuff about ’till death do you part.’

    “…so I can pull my truck up and cart bug out supplies and head to Kansas.”

    If you end up having to do that, are there any other folks who could tag along with youse and form up a small caravan? Are wife and daughters up to speed on defensive measures? Might wanna start making sure the truck is 100% copacetic, too, and have a baseline of stuff already in it. It likely won’t be pleasant to have to get by mobs of Lost Wages revenants milling about in the streets below and out on the highways.

  8. MrAtoz says:

    ? Are wife and daughters up to speed on defensive measures?

    lol!

  9. dkreck says:

    Antonin Scalia found dead. Well Obuma unstoppable now.

  10. DadCooks says:

    WRT Antonin Scalia found dead: we’re fucked now.

    IMHO this is a death of convenience and aided by unnatural causes (Obuttwad is taking a cue from the Clintons). Who will be the next one to unexpectedly drop? And I would like to know how they are keeping that witch/bitch Ruth Bader Ginsberg animated, she has been dead for years.

    Adjusting my tin foil hat. Locked and loaded and yes my powder is dry.

  11. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    What’s that old saying? You kill one of ours, we kill seven of yours.

  12. MrAtoz says:

    Maybe Ofukstik will nominate himself for SCOTUS. Then he won’t have to wait for Cankles, plus, he doesn’t do anything anyway.

    Gonna be Moxie and pretzels for the show. I can’t wait to see who he nominates.

  13. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    I just emailed him to say that I would take the job, albeit reluctantly.

  14. DadCooks says:

    @RBT, many people do not know that to be a member of the Supreme Court you do not have to be a lawyer or a judge. So you have a chance.

  15. MrAtoz says:

    Yay! I just got my Intel Edison experimenters kit from Sparkfun. I can’t wait to make an a LED blink!

  16. medium wave says:

    … we’re fucked now.

    Not necessarily.

  17. DadCooks says:

    WRT Not necessarily

    One can only hope, but you never know who is suddenly going to drop dead. Time to start the body count leading up to the election/coronation.

    BTW, I don’t trust McConnell.

  18. Ray Thompson says:

    I like Pournelle’s term for the self-anointed one. “Barrack the Magic Negro”. Best I have heard in a long time. But can you really say that in public without being arrested on the charge of white privilege?

  19. ech says:

    There is precedent for not appointing a new justice in the run up to a new election, in 1968.

  20. nick says:

    Well, bad news about Scalia. What does it say about me and the times that my first thought was that he was poisoned, even before I heard the details of his demise.

    Got a couple of good things today.

    Got a full length 108″ whip antenna for a cb.

    Got a nice antique hatchet head that needs cleanup and a new handle.

    Got a box of medical stuff, mainly gauze pads.

    Got some other stuff for around the house including a Belgium enameled cast iron fry pan for $10.

    Today was my day for the deal. As in, you can have all that for $1. or $5 gets you the whole pile.

    Nice.

    nick

  21. OFD says:

    RIP, Justice Scalia; my first wife, in law skool at the time, went with me to hear him speak many years ago at Holy Cross College down in Woostah; he was not only a brilliant conservative and Constitutional jurist, he was a nice guy, too, with a great sense of humor. Good way to go; shoot quail on your last day and die in your sleep. RIP, Tony.

    Moxie and pretzels for this little SCOTUS sideshow now.

    And here’s the latest genuine bumf on the Cankles email server and how dangerous it was to us all:

    https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/a-sap-synopsis/#comments

    Just got wife from the airport; it is currently 18 below zero with a chill factor due to wind of 40-below. Probably the coldest night of the year; she’s just back from 74-degree northern Kalifornia.

  22. rick says:

    In one of my prior lives, I took criminal law from Scalia in 1981. He was an excellent teacher.

    Rick in Portland

  23. Miles_Teg says:

    Perhaps Obola will nominate Cankles for the SC vacancy…

  24. brad says:

    I hadn’t read Pournelle’s site in a long while, because his “View” has come to contain too many personal issues and reminiscences. Fresh content comes mainly from his correspondents, but he just pastes their contributions in, without adding much himself. I suppose he has lots of trouble typing due to his stroke, but I wish he would spend his keystrokes on thoughtful analysis, rather than telling us about his broken tooth. Guess I’m a curmudgeon myself…

  25. nick says:

    Well, whadda ya know.

    One of the other things I got for a dollar is a pair of Howard Leight noise cancelling and amplifying ear muffs. Cleaned up the battery compartment, and they work! I don’t know how I’ll like them on the range, but they are like super hearing in the house 🙂

    nick

    Spent the rest of the day on relationship maintenance with my wife 😉 It IS valentines day after all….

  26. OFD says:

    SAINT Valentine’s Day.

  27. SteveF says:

    You mean that made-up holiday designed to guilt people into buying stuff?

    If there’s anything that makes me doubt the social value of capitalism, it’s not visions of barefoot children working in factories. It’s the vision of fucking Hallmark lobbyists paying off enough congresscretins to get Mothers’ Day made an official holiday, and the candy company lobbyists getting the switch to Standard Time moved to the weekend after Halloween.

  28. OFD says:

    It was originally a Christian day, like All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, etc., etc. and they’ve all been commandeered by the corporate oligarchy since those days, to the point that no one remembers the origins anymore. Mother’s Day is a joke, esp. nowadays, and Father’s Day is totally ignored anyway. I’m told that Halloween is now bigger than Christmas, and the people doing said telling mean it in terms of billions spent, by the Murkan derp consumer morons. Keeping those Chicom factories humming.

    As for kidz working in factories; let’s get that going again, shall we? I can think of a dozen offhand from just this ‘hood who would benefit themselves and their families by suchlike.

    We don’t do all the holiday craziness here; we go to whatever designated masses and have quiet family dinners, period. Which is stuff we do anyway. But married siblings and our son and DIL think nothing of filling rooms with toyz at Xmas and birthdays and going all-out for that nonsense.

    Light snow in our forecast after midnight and next couple of days, with temps rising.

  29. Chuck W. says:

    The snow we just got is moving unexpectedly south and will blow out to sea south of Philly. I do not see anything up your way.

    Best info I have found is to get your forecast from weather.gov, then click on the link for “text discussion” or something with ‘discussion’ in there. They will actually admit there when they don’t know what is going to happen. A little hard to decipher, because they write it, then keep appending to it in different places, so you have to search for the latest changes. It also has info on pilot’s forecasts, which are very revealing, too.

  30. nick says:

    @OFD, ha, I left off the ‘saint’ on purpose! I knew someone would like to add it back. I’m a giver!

    (Technically, I decided not to put it in when I realized I’d skipped it.)

    Some days Ill type some thing about they’re mistakes with there over their. Told you, Im a giver!

    I’m surprised a bit by the international response to St Val’s day. I thought it was just a Hallmark holiday in the US, but you got those mullahs denouncing it, so it must be big.

    Worth a fatwa or two big….

    We celebrate the secular versions of the holidays here. We generally explain to the kids the Christian significance of the day, but since they’re so contaminated with other religious traditions, and so commercialized, the Christian part is just one part of many.

    Kids’l be home from school tomorrow. We’ll see if I can sneak any lessons in… or maybe they can just watch princess shows all day while I get stuff done around the house.

    Teh FaceThing is already filling up with lefty scolds chiding congress to ‘do the right thing and confirm the next justice.’ You know, ’cause the left never held up an appointment or anything….

    Man’s body is barely cold. I didn’t even look at any links to the torrent of vileness that his death unleashed online. Really don’t need more in my head.

    Anyway, bedtime.

    ‘nite all.

    nick

  31. ech says:

    I’m told that Halloween is now bigger than Christmas, and the people doing said telling mean it in terms of billions spent, by the Murkan derp consumer morons.

    In terms of sales, Christmas ($630 billion) is about 100x that of Halloween ($6.8 billion).

  32. OFD says:

    OK, I sit corrected; I seem to have seen more than one claim that Halloween had gotten bigger than Xmas; maybe they meant MSM attention?

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