Month: September 2021

Hot and humid although less so than the peak of summer. We did get a sprinkle or two of rain during the day yesterday, but it didn’t really cool things off, instead it just made the day more humid.

I got a couple of things on my list accomplished. I slept in. And I got some organizing and stacking done at my secondary. Spent a few hours there moving stuff around and even throwing a bit of stuff out. Mostly just shifted the piles though to make room for auction stuff. I did get pics for the first three lots in my industrial auction. I need to get another 5 or six pallets set up then I can get that all in motion.

It is taking so long, but forward progress is being made.

I really need to stay home today and get the house ready for ‘the Return’…

Wife’s birthday is this week too, so I need to get that sorted.

Made one ebay sale yesterday, a book that I bought for $5 and sold for $32 and shipping. Baby steps. Rebuilding my ebay sales will apparently take a while but frequent listing and changing my product mix is having some early good results. I’m going to continue with this and see if it helps longer term.

Soon it will be fall garden planting time. I have to think about that too.

So much to do, so little motivation.

Needs must when the devil drives the cart…

Keep stacking.

nick

Cooler and humid, forecast calls for rain. Yesterday was cooler but pretty wet, with high humidity and occasional misty drizzle.

I got the yard raked up and all the small debris in a pile. We didn’t have any real ill effects, and most of the people we know were the same. We do have school friends that were without power, and two schools in the district will stay home today because they are still dark too, but we were fine.

After the cleanup, I did stuff in the house. Too dreary and humid outside. I put up two of the new child safety gates I got at auction. We have one room in the house that still has carpet, the sunken formal living room. We left the carpet for the kids when they were small and we use the room as a “play” room and library. The dog decided he likes pooping on carpet. So the child gates went back up until we can break what became a habit very quickly. I also gave up and got a “potty pad” of fake grass. We put it in a spot he’s picked to defile, and the plan is to move it outdoors gradually. I don’t think it’s gonna work, and I didn’t want to do anything that encourages or allows ‘going’ in the house, but I got overruled. I just buy the stuff.

I was also able to list some ebay stuff, and fix an electronic gadget that’s been on my list for a while. It was sitting on the freezer, and I need to clear off the freezer, and I thought I knew what the problem was, so I decided that today was the day. The main problem turned out to be corrosion on the power input jack, but I was able to reflow some sketchy looking solder joints, and clean up some moisture damage on the board. In any case I got it working and now I have a Logitech Squeezebox Boom to sell or more likely, use to listen to internet radio and streaming. It was the kind of project I like. It sat on my list for a long time, it got me something I wanted, and it moved from where it was just piled up, toward someplace useful. Three birds killed with one stone. Of course, it was a low priority thing that jumped the list but sometimes I just need to do that.

I also had one of the weird coincidences that seem to define my life happen. I picked up a big LG monitor for $2 because “it won’t stay on”. It would light up with the “nothing connected, going to sleep” message, but as soon as you connected a source to it, it shut off. Google said the wall wart psu was aging, and ailing, and replacing it should solve the issue. The connector is strange, so I didn’t have one in my bins. 19v, and has a center pin in the plug. The weird part is that Monday I stopped in Goodwill, looked in the box of power supplies, and FOUND ONE. $2 and it worked. Monitor now displays source material just fine. Wife will use it in her work from home station to make sure it keeps working, and then I may move it somewhere, put it with a system for sale, or just sell it. Weird that I got exactly the thing I needed, but that is how my life works.

I also looked at the UPSs and couldn’t find any reason why one PC would stay on while the other shut off. Both are in the ‘battery’ side of the box. And in the bedroom, everything is in the battery side as well, so I think it just wasn’t turned on. I did some cable cleanup and pulled my other old TiVO out of the bedroom. Put a new keyboard on the KODI box and got it back online. The youtube ‘add on’ is still fubar’d and I didn’t mess with it. I’ll just keep using the TiVO bolt for now. I’ve got an apple tv, and two roku boxes I could use, or one of several of the Kodi based streamers from china. I just need to mess with it and I don’t think it’s that important yet.

So I got some stuff done, but all stuff from down the list, and not critical stuff. My back felt better, so I really didn’t want to do a lot of physical activity. Today I’ll have to do better. Auction stuff, ebay stuff, and prep stuff. Joy.

I better get to it, ‘cuz those things aren’t gonna stack themselves…

nick

Slightly cooler, and less humid, with sun and little chance of rain. REALLY nice in the shade with a breeze. Anyway, that was yesterday and what I’m hoping for today.

Got my plumbing repair done. For the record, yes. You do need to shut off the water before removing the screws holding the shower mixing valve in place. You really do. Took about half an hour start to finish and was very straightforward. The youtube video called out the only tricky part (not getting the old O rings out, or not getting the new ones in place) so it was easy to do.

Got some more stuff into bins for the local auctioneer, and got several bins dropped off.

Went back to storage and sorted through even more stuff.

Put a few items up on ebay, as a test. I never used my phone to list, but a youtuber I really like watching says he does all his listing from the phone. His product mix is different from mine, but for common items that have upc codes or are otherwise easy to find on ebay, the phone app works pretty well. It saves a couple of steps involving picture handling, and it fills more of the listing form for you. It isn’t great for entering a lot of text if your description is long. So far, I’ve just used it for a couple of books, games, and DVDs. I’ve already got 2 lowball offers on one of the game disks*, so it works.

You never know what you’ll find at the Goodwill Outlet stores. Two days ago I grabbed 10 pounds of costume jewelry for $15. I’ll make that back easy with the bakelite bracelets and still have a pile of stuff for my Halloween pirates’ booty. Yesterday I grabbed a B & W powered subwoofer that originally sold for $1400 and people are still asking $500-700 online for used ones. It’s a heavy SOB so I paid up for it. Still, should be a nice score. In the last week I found a $1500 coffee maker, nike watch, vintage sportswear, and tons of books for the kids. Gub accessories and reference books too.

Now I need to get it sold. I’ve already listed some, and taken a bunch to the auction. Some recent scores will bulk out the bins of other stuff that I’m selling that way. BTW, the auctioneer is still happy to get more from me, including some of the industrial stuff. He’s the first of them that actually meant it when he said “bring it all.”

Non-prepping hobby meeting today, so I’ll be offline until noon-ish. Mostly I think we’ll be doing ‘show and tell’ for stuff we swapped around at our show last weekend. Should be fun.

I really hope the islamic terrorists are content to carve up Afghanistan for a while and don’t have anything planned for today. It’s a big day for them too, so if you’re out and about, keep your awareness up. Self radicalized ‘lone wolves’, or an organized plan, an attack is overdue. Never forget. Never forgive.

Go to the store and buy some stuff. Stack it high.

nick

*sold it for listing price while I was writing this post. Now if I could do that for some big ticket items…