Month: January 2025

Cold again, but maybe no rain… Yesterday managed to stay dry after starting out with nightime rain. Everything was still wet when I got up, but it must have stopped sometime after 1am. It stayed overcast all day though. Wind picked up and was throwing the trash cans around. That was BONE CHILLING cold. By southern US standards anyway. Some of you are laughing as you wear shorts and flip flops to cross the crunchy snow to get more firewood for the stove…

I did get a few things done. I made progress on my big item. I got it working by moving a serial number dongle to another USB port. Something is wrong with its normal port, and it’s nothing I can see. I might reflow the solder in case it cracked or whiskered, but then again, I may just disclose the issue in the listing. 15 yo tech always has some issues.

I did my pickup, and talked to them about doing some consignment with them. I’ll talk to the boss on Monday, and maybe I can get some stuff out of the house and the storage unit next week. The deal would have to be pretty bad for me to NOT take it.

Hit the HEB for fresh veg and sundries. Picked up ground chuck at $4.05/lb, but no other meat. Got a few Knorr pasta envelops for side dishes. They were on sale. Nothing major jumped out at me other than there were a lot of “placeholder” displays like in the wuflu supply chain issue days. They don’t normally have an open top cooler end cap just filled with bagged lettuce. It’s usually filled with a featured “meal deal” combo. There were several bins in the produce section that were filled with boxes instead of fruit and some bins had a layer of filler so the items were only one layer deep. Dunno if it means anything, just making the observation.

I added the pasta and some box meals to the stacks.

Gas was $2.49 at HEB. That’s low.

Today I’ve got my monthly meeting, and then a pickup and dump run afterwards. We’re home this weekend and still trying to get the Christmas stuff put away. W will be working that if she can get her nose out of the Dungeon Crawler Carl book…

We’re already almost half way through January, and that is amazing. Don’t slack off on stacking though. Still lots of ways for this to go wrong and they all seem to be pushing them.

Head on a swivel, stacks nice and high…

nick

Cold and wet. Probably still raining. It started with a light drizzle in the afternoon, and continued all night. Temps rose a bit, then fell to mid 30s F. I don’t think we got near freezing though. I expect the suck to continue.

I had a fairly productive day yesterday for all that I didn’t get done. I did two loads of laundry and started a third. Did some cleaning and putting away, but didn’t get anywhere near done. I was in both attics stacking decor. I even got the leaf blower and blew out the whole house. It’s amazing how much hair, dust, and little bits of paper will accumulate, and how much better it looks when that mess is gone. You can’t even really see it, but you are aware it’s there.

I spent the longest part of the day doing electronic troubleshooting on the thing I want to put on ebay. I REALLY want it to work as that will double the value. I was hoping for a configuration error on my part, but my wife was able to rule that out, mostly. We did find some indication that there might actually be a hardware problem at the root of all the unrelated issues. I’ll talk to tech support today. Hopefully they can point me to the solution, and maybe I’ll even spend a bit on repairs if it’s not too much. It’s older gear but well supported. Wife has some diagnostic tools at work that she can bring home too. I normally don’t pull her into my reselling, but she’s got the experience, and it’s worth a couple thousand dollars more if it works. That kind of money is worth spending some effort…

Today will be more of the same. Clean, put away, work on getting stuff ready for ebay (and out of the living room, toy room, and kitchen). Maybe I’ll even get some other stuff done. There will likely be more domestic bliss too.

Not sure I’ll stack anything today, but I will be working on stacks. Some days that’s enough.

nick

Cold again. It gets better later in the day but it sure starts cold. Of course. it’s Winter, and that is what Winter is in the Northern Hemisphere. It did clear somewhat and warm a bit yesterday, but it was back to bone chilling cold at sunset. We have the extra special joy of a forecast that says “rain” today or maybe Friday. We’ll see what my microclimate does.

I got off to a bit of a slow start yesterday, but eventually got out and got some stuff done. Did my pickups. Stopped at the southside Goodwill outlet. Scored a bunch of Christmas and Halloween decor. Got some other stuff too.

Came home and took down some of the display stuff. Got the inflatables down, and some of the lighting. If the rain comes, at least that stuff won’t be wet, and I can put it in the attic today. Made grilled lamb chops for dinner. Heated some naan, and made some black beans as a side. Meat was from 2021. Delicious.

Today I should be at home all day, doing all the stuff I didn’t do yet. I’ve got laundry to do, and a lot of cleaning and putting away… It’s time to get the house back in order and put the holiday decor away. If I’m particularly efficient and motivated, I might even get some stuff ready for ebay. Don’t count on it though.

There is a bunch of new year IT stuff I have planned, and end of year paperwork stuff that needs to be done. I’ll start fitting that into my days soon.

And I need to talk to one of my other auction houses and see if I can get some stuff consigned with them. I need to get stuff moving. The cash would be nice too. There is a bunch of stuff to get out of the house…

I’ve got a lot to do. Not a lot of energy to do it with. We’ll see how it goes.

And I’ll still be stacking ‘cuz those preps aren’t gonna stack themselves.

nick

Another cool sunny day is on order, like yesterday. It got pretty chilly when the sun set, and it was cold when we ate on an outdoor patio for dinner. Today should be similar. It’s not onerous, just a bit cold.

Spent the day spending time with family. Played a couple of games. Ate. Watched a movie. Read for a while. A good day. I’m still making inroads on the overabundance of baked goods too.

Today will be a visit to a local flea market, and some more eating. Maybe some more reading and games too.

I’m doing what I can to make sure there are some good old days.

I hope you can too. Stack them up for later. We will probably need them.

nick

Chilly to start, warming later, then back to chilly here in the home of Florida Man. It was nice yesterday, only a bit cool at dusk. Sunny and mostly clear. I’m expecting the same today.

We mostly hung out with family and played games yesterday, then went to see some holiday lights… and finished with our Christmas gift exchange. I got mostly snack items.

We’ve been eating tons of cookies and holiday treats. My sibling has lots of guests here, who often are world travelers, and they sent lots of foreign treats. Pine flavored hard candy from Belgium is the weirdest so far… and yep, it tastes like pine.

Today we’ll hang out some more, and eat some more, and play some more games. Good times for sure.

I hope everyone else here is easing into the new year. It’s certainly not been easy for far too many people and I’m pretty sure it will continue to get weirder and more violent. Consider what that might mean for your year and your activities. Take some steps to mitigate bad things happening around you. And be aware of your surroundings and risks.

Stacks can limit your exposure to other people and potentially bad places. And they feel good. So … stack. It’s easy.

Much easier than predicting the future.

nick