Month: September 2018

75F and wet. Yuck.

Had a weird coughing fit last night. Woke me up and got me out of bed for an hour or more. I feel like I’ve been beaten with sticks this am.

Some meatspace obligations today, that would be better without rain. Don’t know yet if I’ll just have to suck it up, maybe it will dry out like yesterday.

Oh well, kids need breakfast. The demands of others are the rhythm of my life.

n

75F and threatening to rain.

Of course we have a soccer game this morning!

I’m doing a deep clean on my office and all my work areas as part of a deal with my wife. I get this mess cleaned up, and she doesn’t throw it all out…

Part of what I’m finding (and the part relevant to prepping) is all the books I’ve been picking up for my PA library. I’m putting them in subject piles in the hallway, and will put them on shelves when I figure out how… because I’ve got about 15 ft of shelf in my office, and 30 ft of books. I’ve managed a really good attempt at the ‘bucket list’ of after the collapse books – https://zerogov.com/rekindling-the-flame-after-the-collapse-by-bill-buppert/

I don’t want to bury mine in buckets, I want it out where I can get to it.

My subjects-
woodworking
metalworking
construction
surveying
math (emphasis on workshop math)
health and medical
sailing (also ropework)
radio and electronics
outdoors (camping, survival, scouting, outdoor living)
food (cooking and preserving)

And separately I have a pretty good collection of the classics of western literature and thought, and a huge sci fi book collection.

I’m a bit heavy on some (6 ft of metalworking, and 3ft stacks of woodworking, outdoors, electronics, construction, and radio) and very light on others like animal husbandry, law, modern lit.

Surprising how much I found and bought for $1-2 each. SERIOUS textbook styles of book too, most vintage except in the medical and woodworking areas.

Overkill? Craziness? Or just an excuse to indulge a love of books?

nick

What what what??? I look at my thermometer and it says 69F! Still 91%RH, but FINALLY below 70F. Fall MUST be here. That means I’m late with the garden.

Interesting comment tossed off yesterday, that the 90’s would be weirder than the 60’s and mentions the destructive power of media, MTV in particular.

LOTS of food for thought there, including the rise of Rap and Hip Hop culture, Beavis and Butthead, Mike Judge and the Sick and Twisted Film Festival, latch key kids, cocaine/crack and AIDS, and the movie Wall Street. As a child of the 80’s I can say that it was a very strange time.

As part of the cultural, political, and sociological shifts we are currently living through, the concepts of the swinging pendulum and the turning wheel are very useful. I see the pendulum of history/fate starting to swing back everywhere I look. (Crudely, but since the porn industry is often a leader of culture and tech, even the Daily Mail noted that female grooming habits are shifting toward a more natural look [for an adult].) As porn gets more violent, extreme, and de-humanizing, there is also a swing counter to it, with a new prudishness and delays in sexual activity starting.

Vehicle colors are shifting again. New colors are coming out that aren’t red, black, white, or silver.

We’ve had plenty of discussion here about the political changes going on.

The problem is, as one era ends, it often engenders/indulges in an orgy of excess. Manias sweep the culture. Bizarre becomes commonplace. Fringe acts as if it was center. And then suddenly, everything changes.

Where will you and yours end up after the change? Will you be winners or losers? Victims or survivors?

What did you do to prep this week? How in particular will your FINANCES get through the coming seismic shift?

nick

A cool 70F and drippy this am…

And it’s already Thursday again. Jeez. And I got new stuff added to my list. Dishwasher needs replacement at the rent house. It’s probably 20 years old and a latch has failed. Seems a shame to not to just fix the latch, but it’s 20 years old and not a particularly good one anyway. Depending on the actual latch, it could be 1/4 the cost of replacing the whole unit. Le sigh…

https://www.zerohedge.com/ is full of doom this morning, and confirmation bias…..

Well, this list ain’t gonna check box itself….

n

Woke to the sound of rain…

Currently 76F and light drizzle. Forecast calls for more. I hope we get a break as I have a riding mower to sell today.

More work, more listings, more cleanup.

I will say that I can see progress in areas, but it’s still just moving stuff around. The real change will come when some of this stuff leaves the house.

Time to get a gennie install company out here to look at connecting the gennie and transfer switch…

And I’m going ahead with some of the security upgrades. Even if these two guys weren’t doing home invasions, it was a wake up call for the wife and neighbors.

Better get going…

n

Currently 73F and not quite saturated. Close though.

Wife has moved along the closet remodel by coming home with a van load of modular closet system. It hangs from the wall and so doesn’t rely on a finished floor. It looks good, but cheap to my eyes. Better than wire shelves.

I’ve got to get the network changeover (note how it wasn’t even on my list, but suddenly kills two days) done so I can get back to the list.

Hah, tech content. Who knew?

n

71F and wet.

Woke to chirping. The CO monitor wants a new battery, and it won’t let you say “later”. Unfortunately, it’s REALLY not clear how to open the damned thing. Another few chirps, or if they’d come an hour earlier and I’d be using a HAMMER to get it open.

Meeting with ATT this am for gigabit fiber install here at the house. We’ll see when he gets here and where we end up. Historically Comcast says we use less than 300Gb of data a month, so we might have signed up for a lesser plan with a data cap… I don’t know. More later.

The problem with witchhunts, is you don’t stop hunting until you find a witch…

The current process is not in the interest of good government or the will of the people.

n

70F and saturated at 8am. I’m sure that will get better if the sun comes out.

This month is dragging by, and yet the days and even weeks seem too short. Weird.

Found 4 dead rats in the attic yesterday. 3 little ones, in various stages, and one big one well aged…

I wasn’t checking the traps since they didn’t get anything for months. Glue pads got them all. I’m going to move the attic cam to an area that shows a path. It will be easier to see in this area too. I’ve got a cam for the garage too, but well, you know… long list.

I’m letting the kids sleep in. We were playing a game and stayed up too late. I woke up after dreaming of my dad. I’d like to go back to sleep, but that won’t happen.

Time is short and the list is long.

n

added- Florence flooding continues with another confirmed death. 2 hospitals that were open yesterday are closed today. And we have a new TS Kirk in the Atlantic… (from my FEMA brief)

89F at 8am and 93%RH.

Got some rain here yesterday, but the south east part of Houston got CLOBBERED. I haven’t looked at totals yet, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t get 4-6″ in no time flat. Couldn’t see my hood driving in it.

Lots to do today. I’m hoping to get some range time in at the place near Mr Lynn. And all the normal and overdue stuff is still piled up.

We’ll see what we can get to…

n

79F and wet. I hope it’s slightly cooler today, I need to process in all my solar panels.

And that’s what I did to prep. I bought a pickup bed full of little panels. Getting them to work is a project, and I might sell some off to pay for it.

No garden (although I trimmed the citrus trees and the grapevines). No shooting. No stacking. TOTALLY SLACK this week.

So I hope you guys picked up my slack….

n