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Month: November 2023

Fri. Nov. 10, 2023 – Stuff and nonsense…

Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day… I’ve got stuff to do, and I need to use the pickup truck to do it. Don’t want to get everything wet. Oh well, it will be what it is. I came pouring down yesterday. Started with some dark clouds on the horizon, but went to full on bucketing down. The cells were localized and moving throughout the day so I’d bet that most of Houston and surrounds got rain. My yard was squishy with too much water. Anyway, national forecast says it’ll be more of the same today.

I did my pickups, chatted with one auctioneer for a bit, then got a text from D1. She wanted to move her pickup time forward an hours, since her sportsball practice got cancelled. I decided to head over and skip some of what I had planned to do. D2 got in on the act wanting to be picked up if she stayed late. All in all, I spent an hour and a half on that nonsense. On top of that, because we got home at 430pm my day was shot. So I did some stuff around the house.

I put a new power supply in the machine I picked up a week or two ago that was a near clone of my main machine, only slightly newer. I got a thermaltake, new in box, for $15 in an auction and it went in perfectly. Learned that the 4 pin connector comes ganged with another, and one of my old psu had that set up and would have worked in the PC if I’d known. Not having the directions or even a box with “features” shown, I didn’t know what I had or how to make it work. I’ll save the psu for the next one and keep using the new thermaltake psu. I spent some time changing settings for win10 and used ninite.com to install a basic software package. Not sure what I’ll use the machine for, but I’m sure something will present itself. Meanwhile, it’s a backup for this main pc.

What did Jerry used to say? You need n+1 PCs to keep n PCs running? I’ve got n+x where x is bigger than 10 and smaller than 20, of course not all of them are actually running… I may take at least one of the older machines and send it to auction. I’ve got monitors and k/m to include and old win7 systems are still selling for $50-100. For most people, win7 era performance is more than enough. I put a lappy in the auction but it hasn’t listed yet. That will tell me if I should bother with more.

Today I’ve got to rearrange the truck, do a pickup, or possibly two, and get ready to go to the BOL Saturday. I’ve got so much stuff waiting to go, I can’t fit it all in the truck. It almost makes sense to rent a small trailer. If the weather improves maybe I will. In any case it will be a quick up and back the next day. My buddy says the grass grew 8 inches in the last two weeks, and the tree guy was supposed to come by and drop two trees and clear up the burn pile. So, I’ve got stuff to do up there, in addition to just making the delivery.

And I’m sure the kids will want to be chauffeured around too. Busy day.

Probably should get cracking.

And stacking, it all counts as stacking this weekend.

n

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Thur. Nov. 9, 2023 – still not quite right…

Cool to start, warming later, and some chance of rain. It didn’t rain on my yesterday, but there were dark clouds in various places at various times. I think today might be even more threatening.

I did do my pickups, after emptying my pickup. Got some building materials. Got some household stuff. Got some stuff for the BOL. Picked up the kid and did her stuff in the late afternoon.

Started listening to the audiobook for “Live and let Die” by Ian Fleming… It’s an interesting timecapsule. 1 ounce gold coins from pirate treasure were only $20 each. Bond rides an express train from NYC to Florida. The word “negress” is used more than once… The whole modern EMS and hospital system doesn’t exist. Q smokes a pipe, Bond smokes 3 packs of Chesterfields a day and drinks Old Grandad. I’m 2/3 of the way through the story and I’ll probably finish it while driving around today.

I’ve got some driving to do to pickup a few more things.

One thing that I’ve been noticing and thinking about is “where did all the pipe smokers go, and WHY?” Every old story has most of the men smoking pipes. I just finished listening to Ann of Green Gables, and there is mention of it. Ian Fleming mentions it in what, 1959?. The book of bohemian poetry I was reading mentions it constantly. My uncle smoked in the 70s. Many of the dads involved in scouting when I was a kid smoke pipes. You used to see signs prohibiting “pipe and cigar smoking” while allowing cigarette smoking. Almost every old advert featured a man outdoors smoking a pipe, all the entertainers did, and frequently had pipe models named after them. Pipe racks and humidor jars were common in homes.

As I learn more about pipe smoking, estate pipe buying, selling, and refurbishing, I’m struck by the number of brands and manufacturers. There were hundreds in the US alone. Where did the smokers go, and why? When and why did smoking a pipe go away while cigarette smoking flourished? I was the wrong age during the transition, so I didn’t particularly notice, but maybe some of you did and can comment.

I’ll add that there are still enough pipe smokers that my HEB has pipe tobacco and cleaners in the locked tobacco merchandise area with the rest of the smoking stuff. There are dozens of youtube channels dedicated to the pipe despite not being able to monetize them, and the youtube demographic for pipe hobbyists is definitely “younger men”. From the content and comments they clearly think it’s part of lost manhood and better days. So as an observer of culture, and being suspicious by nature, I ask “what changed?”

I’ll offer this observation- pipe smoking is relaxing and contemplative. You do it too fast, hard, or carelessly and you burn your mouth and tongue. Cigarette smoking is NOT relaxing, had a lot more nicotine, and is chemically habit forming. Cigars have a more ‘celebratory’ feel, have always been the symbol of success, and ‘fat cats’ or wealth, while pipe smoking has been the realm of the common man. The corn cob pipe is ubiquitous in US folklore and history. There was a huge cultural shift, and most people didn’t notice.

From a prepper standpoint, smoking tobacco is easiest to prep for with pipe smoking. The tobacco can remain sealed without ill effect (and with some benefit from aging) for years, maybe even longer. Pipes are simple and can be made from almost anything. Treated well, they also last for years, and can be refurbished. Pipe tobacco is much cheaper, in general, than cigars or cigarettes judged by amount of smoking time per dollar too.

Whether you approve or disapprove of smoking in general and or in particular, people have been doing it for a long time, and will likely continue. As a trade good it grew the wealth of nations and changed the course of history. Liquor, tobacco, sugar, coffee, and spice. Those were the things people wanted, were willing to risk everything for, and they are currently astonishingly cheap compared to any other time in history.

Think about it for a bit, then put that in your pipe and smoke it…

Consider your stacks of ‘trade goods’ and luxuries… and then decide if you need or want to add something, and stack it high.

nick

NB- of course Robert smoked a pipe, but I left him off the list because he didn’t stop.

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Wed. Nov. 8, 2023 – Ok, this time for sure…

Cool and clear, warming later, with a chance that we’ll be moving into some rainy days. That’s from the national forecast, which is generally useful. FWIW, if I want anything more detailed than that I use OpenWeatherMap.org I don’t usually need it, but sometimes the kids ask for something more specific. Of course, this being Houston, the weather is completely different in different parts of town and my joke is that “20% chance of rain” means that 20% of Houston will get wet…

Didn’t do much yesterday. I was feeling a bit off from the colonoscopy, and had enough “gastric distress” that I didn’t want to be far from the comforts of home… and then I fell asleep. Dunno if there is any lasting effect from the sedation, but I didn’t get much sleep while worrying about “leakage” so I was and am pretty tired.

I did get some domestic bliss stuff done. Did laundry, including folding and putting away! Voted. Made an appointment to get my Expy serviced and inspected for registration. My old guy shut down his business, and I’ve been reluctant to find a new guy. Yesterday I just said “F this, we’ll try this guy…” The office area was clean, guy was nice and told me honestly they were too busy to do the work this week. Read the code from my Check Engine light, and cleared it. Quoted for the work we know about, and we set a time for me to come back.

Spent an hour and a half getting kids from school to home. Made dinner. (Steamed the broccoli in turkey broth- since I have a bunch of broth open… it was tasty.)

All in all, the day was eaten by ducks (as JEP might have said.)

Today I’ve got the stuff I put off yesterday. I have an additional auction pickup to do that is in the same area as the others so that actually works better today than it would have yesterday. I’ll have to make some room in the pickup truck before I head out. I won’t be able to just leave the stuff for the BOL loaded like I hoped. And I’ll try to do at least a small drop off at my selling auctioneer. So, normal busy day. Oh, and get back in time to pick up D1 from school.

Beats working for a living.

And it helps with the stacking… which you should be doing too…
n

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Tues. Nov. 7, 2023 – voting day in the US, and a busy day for me…

Cool to start, warmer later, and mostly sunny. Today and yesterday. Lovely Fall weather, finally.

Spent all day yesterday getting my guts poked and prodded, videoed and violated…

So today I’ve got stuff to do. And I need to find time to vote. The important race is city of Houston Mayor, but there are proposals to vote on too.

Hopefully my guts will rearrange themselves and reacquaint themselves with food on their own. So far, there has been a lot of rumbling and “air” movement. At least I can eat normally.

I’m grumbling, but it is a miracle of the modern age to have the medical resources I’ve used in the last month available to me. I like civilization, western civilization, modern technological civilization. I like a capitalist system that causes GE to make as many CT scanners as they can, so that they are common as can be (in America you can get a CT scan for your pet they are so common). Ditto for whole surgical centers devoted to looking inside you one way or another. The only delays in my care were due to sequencing of appointments with specialists, and my preferences to spread things out a bit. I was offered appointments within a week of first identifying the need, sometimes less than a week, and usually with the exact doctor my GP wanted (although one time was with another doctor in the same practice.)

I have had a massive amount of gear and research and training available to me, with a truly unimaginable amount of the same waiting to act and treat any issues found. Houston is home to an astonishing amount of medical expertise and facilities. It is not something that can be easily replaced once it is gone. There are fools who want to burn it all down… and seem unstoppable. I hope they are not. I hope those far above my pay grade have a plan to fight back, to reclaim and rebuild. I’m not sanguine about it though.

Take care of yourself while you can. Rice doubling in price is something you can deal with. No more access to diagnostic labs, and CT scans, and nuclear medicine means stuff that could have been dealt with will have to be endured.

So many things are outside of our control, and outside of our reasonable response or responsibility. Yoda had it right, “Save you what can.” Do what you can to help save the rest. There are still Romans in Rome, and most of us will make it through whatever comes next. And who knows? A golden age may result.

In the mean time, stack.

nick

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Mon. Nov. 6, 2023 – on which our hero gets prodded and violated in unspeakable ways…

Cool and clear again, although we had some threatening clouds in the afternoon yesterday. It was well into the 80s and sweaty to be working outside. Probably more of that today.

But I won’t be working outside. I’ll be inside trying mightily to keep my insides inside me… as the evil clean out stuff does its job cleaning me out in preparation for an up close and personal inspection.

It’s something we all must endure as we get older, and it’s truly a modern miracle that we even have something like this available to us. I’m sure countless lives have been saved, or prolonged, and the quality of life improved for many. Still doesn’t make it enjoyable.

I did get a couple of things done yesterday before drinking the devil’s spit cup. Got some more of the Halloween decor put away. Got a couple more things sorted for auction or BOL. And then spent hours sitting. Gah.

I’ve got more of that to do today. 6am, second dose. Followed by lots of fluid. Eventually I’ll head to the facility. General anesthetic and cameras inserted from both ends, some indignities perpetrated against me, and I should be home for dinner…

There is always that slight risk though. It’s been on my mind. No way through but through at this point. I’m convinced of the necessity to rule out any serious issues, especially when things in the world are so unstable and no one knows what the future will hold. Hopefully, after some short period of time, I’ll know what my personal future doesn’t hold. That’s the goal anyway.

Meanwhile, fix what you can. And stack.

nick

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Sun. Nov. 5, 2023 – “low residue” diet and drugs, the horror, the horror…

Cool and clear, maybe someone in Houston gets some rain… warm later. It got into the 80s yesterday. Had to turn the house AC back on. Fall can be crazy with needing heat overnight, and AC during the day.

I did my pickup, and while I was on that side of town, hit a couple of estate sales. One was great, I spent over an hour in the garage picking tools and supplies. The other was mostly a bust, but I did grab a klein wire stripper and a pair of Channelok pliers for $2 each. The only other thing in the whole house I might have been interested in was an original Atari 2600 with accessories and games, and an enclosure with a dust cover. I’d never seen the enclosure before but it turned out they aren’t particularly rare or valuable. Sellers were unorganized, distracted, and prices were at retail… They kept saying they’d be open again next weekend. Not gonna be getting much return business would be my guess.

If you’ve got some special stuff and you want it to bring the money it’s worth or go to a good home, make the plans now. I’m a big fan of estate sale companies but they vary wildly in knowledge, skill, and focus. Some are predatory. No one loves your stuff like you do.

Today I’ll be stuck at home, close to the smallest room. I’m starting the prep for my colonoscopy on Monday. I’m led to believe it’s very unpleasant and I won’t want to be too far from the facilities. We’ll see if I can get anything done around the house. Fortunately I’m a prepper, and we didn’t use the last roll of TP in the house last night, just the last roll before opening a new bale. There was a moment though, where I doubted my memory, and I was worried about sending my wife out for TP… which would have been bad on so many levels. But the garage DID have another bale waiting for use…

Whew.

I’m working on getting all the medical stuff up to date and out of the way. Venezuela levels of collapse could make it very difficult to get care if you found out you needed it. If I can get around to it, you can too.

Get the niggling little thing checked out. And stack. Meds too.

nick

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Sat. Nov. 4, 2023 – who ya gonna call?

Cool and clear, probably mid 70s by afternoon. Like Friday. And Thursday. Which is good. I like having some Fall to enjoy.

I did my pickups. Got the stuff in the back of the truck, and would normally be running to the BOL this weekend to deliver it. That’s not happening though, so it will either sit there, or I’ll have to clear a space for it somewhere…

Had kid driving duties in the middle of the afternoon, so that cut my day short. I cleaned up around the house instead, putting away a lot of the decor I got out. Also managed to sort some stuff for auction.

Had to get D2 to and from her last night of theater performance which ate my evening too.

Today I’ve got one more pickup, down in Dickenson, which is a heck of a drive. I like to include it on a big loop with some other pickups but the timing didn’t work out this time. The savings were significant so I’m still good after making a special trip, but it’s getting closer and the time has to count for something.

D1 has a Homecoming Dance tonight, so that should fill the air with angst and beauty products. And maybe a few extra kids as they get ready. I’m going to be in my office.

As normal as possible, until it isn’t. That’s the goal.

Meanwhile, I’ll stack.

nick

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Fri. Nov. 3, 2023 – who ya gonna please with that thing?? Well, me…

Cold and clear again, warming later, again. Nice days though, a bit cool to start, but nice. Great for working outside, if you are so inclined.

Spent most of yesterday afternoon doing pickups. One interesting thing about new players entering the market is that they don’t have a lot of bidders, and you can get some great deals. Bad for them while they get established, but great for me. I scored some good tools, and more importantly, some batteries and a charger for tools I already own. Dropped by my favorite gub store, but just left them some Halloween candy. Didn’t buy anything. Had to get D1 from school.

D2’s play and other kid stuff ate the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Today I’ll be picking up some more stuff. I won a couple more solar panels and a charge controller. I really want to get something set up at the BOL, and now I’ve got around 300-400 watts of panel to use. I got some other stuff for the BOL at the same auction. That fabric that keeps weeds from growing through your landscaping is crazy expensive at the store, considering it is just some non-woven plastic. I’ve been buying rolls in the auctions for huge savings, when I get around to finishing the cosmetic stuff at the BOL. Everything comes through the auctions eventually.

I didn’t drop off anything for sale this week though. I was busy Monday and Tuesday, and they asked me to wait for a week as they were filled up. I hope I haven’t missed my chance to keep unloading stuff by breaking my streak… clearing stuff out and turning it into money is a good thing.

Lots of not good things happening in the world. Take your joy where you find it, and stack…
n

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Thur. Nov. 2, 2023 – back in the saddle again…

Cold, then warming, but sunny and clear- if we can believe the weather liars. I guess that describes yesterday pretty well, so since today is usually like yesterday, I’m going with that prediction.

I got most of my decor down and put away. I did leave some up, just because it’s easy to take down, near the house, and pretty festive and colorful. I’ll give it another day or two.

Today I need to pick up a couple of things, do some grocery shopping (D1 decided she wanted sandwich fixings) and maybe swing by my auctioneer. I don’t have anything for him this late in the week (he’s doing fulfillment on Friday and Saturday) but maybe I can get a check… Or maybe I’ll go by my storage unit and do some sorting for next week. We’ll see what the day ends up being.

I think I might try to pick up some bang bang for the pew pew too. Academy showed some in stock at the same price as everyone else. I’m getting a bit nervous as the middle east heats up. This is a period of great change and realignment in the world. That usually happens with blood and fury accompanying… so what will be the nominal catalyst? Bay of Tonkin? Some asshat riding in a car through the wrong country? Sneaky bast@rds who think they can surprise someone? Or will the mullahs finally put Netanyahu to the test? IDK but it will be something and the history books will make it seem logical and unavoidable.

I can’t imagine our personal security situation getting better if the whole world is upset. Oh, and a massive bolus of stinking humanity is headed right for me. Nevermind that we’re full up on violent third world traffickers and slavers, someone is driving the herd right toward the homestead. Pressure is building from every direction.

I don’t think people are taking the situation seriously enough. I’m having trouble with crisis fatigue and this is pretty much my full time job! Or maybe that’s the problem. Still, there was plenty of warning for WWII and most people just muddled through. Some were well positioned, and much better off than others. If you are marginal now, you’ll be really hurting soon. Get your stuff straightened out NOW.

And stack. Food security. Physical security. Friends. In whatever order you need the most work.

nick

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Wed. Nov. 1, 2023 – so much sugar…

Cold and clear. Which is pretty much how yesterday ended up. It started overcast, but by afternoon, the sun was out and the sky was blue.

I did run one pickup, the main item I wanted was a honeycomb panel for my new laser engraver, but there were a couple of other items like Halloween makeup that it made sense to get yesterday. Then I spent the rest of the day building out my display.

I was happy with the result, but there is plenty of room to build it up. Crowd was unusual. Started getting trick or treaters later than usual, and with a much higher proportion of older kids, teens. On the flip side, the kids were wearing a lot of very good costumes. Good makeup, good clothes, and mostly hand made for the older kids. I didn’t mind handing them candy at all.

We didn’t get anywhere near the ~150 we got last year. Maybe the cooler temps? or that it was a school night? Or maybe people just weren’t feeling it this year.

D2 trick or treated with her friend and had a great time. D1 helped me dress my “aladin’s cave” and then hid from everyone for a couple of hours. Wife handed out most of the candy. I did get to chat with a couple of neighbors, so that was nice.

Today will be cleaning up and putting away. Maybe I’ll get out the “Fall” decor for the house. It will match the weather and make my wife feel more like home.

I’ve got other stuff to do but it will have to wait.

And I’ll skip a day of stacking, because I’m a slacker. But you aren’t, so don’t!

nick

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