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Mon. July 13, 2026 – more work, probably

By on July 13th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse

If the weather continues to be something I can work with, I’ll keep working. It was 76F when I went to bed. Really nice. And it never got crazy hot except while the sun was shining. If we get more mixed clouds and overcast, with a breeze, it will be perfect for working on the chimney.

Speaking of which, I made good progress, tearing it down to the roof flashing. I will switch to working on a scaffold today which is shakier than working from the roof. I will continue to use my fall protection. I also got the mower running again, changed the oil, but didn’t have a filter. I dumped the dirty oil and reinstalled the filter, and will replace it when the correct filter comes in. I also ordered the gasket I need to replace on the old carb, so I’ll have a spare after that comes in. Three trailers of brick debris got hauled to my “piles of stuff” area. Then I even got to float on the water for a while at dusk.

Dinner was canned peas and a pork chop from 2023. Still delicious.

Today I’ll continue on the chimney if it’s not raining. I burned a tiny bit through my t shirt yesterday, so I’ll be more careful today. If it’s raining, there is a long list I can work on inside. There’s always more to do.

W is doing a bunch of household maintenance for her folks. The kids are sleeping. Teens.

Always be working to improve your situation, and stack what you might need.

nick

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Sun. July 12, 2026 – great big basket of joy

By on July 12th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, personal

Hot and humid, although maybe a bit less than Houston. It was only 80F last night up here. I’m hoping for overcast as I’m working on a white metal roof…

Did my stuff yesterday. Meeting had some stress and strain. Everyone that said something liked the new venue. Then I went home to deal with the dead A/C. W arranged an uber to get to the airport so I could stay and wait for the repair guy. He showed up and identified the problem and we came up with a treatment plan and schedule. It was going to be three days so I decided NOT to cancel my BOL work week.

Headed up, got here, had the mower die. I’ll have to deal with that if I want to move the bricks I’m demo’ing unless I want to use the wheelbarrow, and I don’t.

Plan for the day is get set up for the demolition. See what the sun does. Do demo or work on mower or other projects if the sun is overhead. Flexibility, not indecision…

And stacking.

nick
(I’m working! / end Ralph Wiggins voice

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Sat. July 11, 2026 – non-prepping hobby today, then a trip to the BOL

By on July 11th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse

Hot and humid, some sun, and hotter when it’s shining. We did get some very light showers yesterday and they were VERY localized. Like it was a blue sky but somehow we were still getting wet, but 1000 ft later it was gone, localized. Just another day in the Bayou City.

I did my pickups, and shopping yesterday, but it definitely was a grind. Lowes is almost useless for real stuff. They had 20 ft of battery powered LED lighting. 20 ft of china plastic crap LED lighting, but not a single metal spotlight or flood fixture to replace the old incan floods on my dock. 20 ft of low voltage landscape lighting too. It’s all crap, cheap plastic crap.

Amazon isn’t much better. I had two choices for spot lights and two choices for flood light, and they were different brightnesses, so really only one choice each (120v LED fixture, to replace the existing and mount on existing boxes. Used to be you could easily do that with lampholders and R40 bulbs.) But they will be here today, hopefully before I leave.

Everywhere in the store the choices were either very restricted, the item was missing, or only cheap china crap was available. But they had aisles full of household stuff like shelves, blinds, decor, cleaners, and storage bins.

Today is my (supposed to be fun) hobby meeting in our new space. Then we’ll have a board meeting about why stuff isn’t getting done. MY STUFF is done. My ‘gimme’ tchotchke came in yesterday, all 225 of them. I even spent far too long doing half @ssed edits to a flyer that one of the other guys did using AI. Looks good but the dates are wrong, the QR code was wrong, and the location of the event is missing… and there isn’t an easy way to edit the result.

Then I’ve got an hour round trip to do an auction pickup. It was worth it, but the timing is unfortunate. Follow that up with taking the family to the airport, coming home to swap trucks, loading the pickup with the rest of the stuff for the BOL, and then heading back out of town past the airport…

It’s gonna be a busy day. Expect comments from me to be few and far between.

Use the time to work on improving something, or stacking!

nick

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Fri. July 10, 2026 – lots of project stuff to do today

By on July 10th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war

So, is it gonna be hot and humid? Almost certainly. And sunny too. Like yesterday. We did get the tiniest bit of moisture from the sky as I was driving around, barely more than you’d get if the guy in front of you used his windshield wipers… but it was cooler after dark. And that was nice.

Spent the morning doing auction stuff, and office stuff, then headed out to do pickups, a trash run, get some stuff from my secondary location, and swing by Habitat to see if they had what I need for my big project at the BOL next week. They did. There are several big picture windows and today I’ll find one that is the exact size I need. Well, I should say a size I can work with as I’ll be making the opening to fit the window.

I’ve also got shopping to do at Lowes for materials, and I should hit HEB for some frozen dinners. I really don’t have the energy to do much cooking when I’m alone at the BOL and working hard. I think the hardest part of what I’ll be doing will be just working outside. Some of the day, the chimney I’m taking down will be in the sun, I just don’t know for sure what part of the day. And I’ll be using fall protection for this project which adds a level of additional work.

The fractal nature of this project comes from using the chimney as a support for the cell booster antenna. I’ll have to finally get that moved. I have a plan, made the bracket a long time ago, and have the cable I need, but it’s a project all on its own. There is always more to do to do the job…

So I better get the shopping stacking part done today.

Stack, work, and build your network.

nick

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Thur. July 9, 2026 – already most of the week is gone

By on July 9th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse

Hot and humid is the uniform of the day. Dress it up any way you want but Houston in Summer is pretty much the same. Rain, or no rain, it’s still hot and humid. We did get a smattering of drops yesterday while I was out but I think they were very localized. Some black sky threatened from the south, but nothing ever happened.

I did my pickups. Took longer than I hoped so I didn’t get to the Habitat reStore. I’ll go there today. Came home and did auction stuff for a couple hours. Didn’t cook any dinner. I’ll have some stuff to take with me to the BOL next week.

Today I’ll see if the reStore has any windows that will work for my project at the BOL. If not, it will change how much I want to get done, and might change my priorities up there. If yes, it will commit me to this next big project until we’re weathertight again. Oh well, nothing I’m not already familiar with. Go big or go home.

I’ve been stacking, now I guess I’ll be working…

nick

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Wed. July 8, 2026 – over the top, under the bottom

By on July 8th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse

Hot and wet. Not the good kind. The Houston kind. Got to 100F yesterday, and the air was saturated. Then it rained. And then it got hot again. And then it rained. We did get some blue sky so that was nice. More of the same today is my guess.

Did some things in the morning. Then did some things in the afternoon. Not enough things. Not super productive things. Just things.

Now today I have structure. I have a couple of pickups to do so I have to meet another person’s schedule. I’m not winning. And I really should be making a list of stuff to take up with me for my projects at the BOL… so I can buy that stuff and raid the stacks for the other stuff…

But I am not motivated.

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming…

And stack, if you feel like it.
n

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Tues. July 7, 2026 – lots of stuff, lots to do

By on July 7th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war

And I’ll be doing it in heat and humidity. Yesterday did cool off after the downpour but it was plenty hot before then. And it’ll be hot today.

I spent the day doing computer stuff, auction stuff, and non-prepping hobby stuff. Had to order the tchotchke item for our registration bags. Took a while but I found a seller who could get me over 200 at a price we could afford. It won’t be inscribed or imprinted, but we can add a label easily enough, or maybe I can use one of my laser engravers to add the org name and event. Stickers will be easier…

Today I’ll get out of the house if only to go to Lowes. W ordered more of the flooring we’re using at the BOL before it goes out of stock, and the last bit came in. I also need ant poison and something else that slips my mind at the moment, so I’ll combine trips.

I will also have to go to Habitat for Humanity’s reStore to see if they have any suitable windows in stock. The next big project at the BOL won’t be stabilizing the hill, fixing the retaining walls, or repairs to the dock, it’ll be removing a fireplace and installing a window in its place. Of course that’s a fractal task, with ceiling and roof involved, as well as wall, brick, siding, etc. The kitchen and living room repairs/remodel/improvement can’t proceed until that fireplace is gone so it got bumped up my list by an executive authority…

Or possibly there could be a shed build. The current shed for the mower is pretty dilapidated. It would be nice to have more room and to have some bulk water storage and treatment where the shed currently is. Not on the boss’s radar though.

I guess we’ll see what happens.

Always be working on improving your situation. And stacks. Build them up.

nick

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Mon. July 6, 2026 – home for a week

By on July 6th, 2026 in culture, march to war

Steamy. REALLY steamy. That’s my guess for today. It got very wet last night, and I’m sure the ball o fire in the sky is still going to be there. That combo equals “steamy”. It was pretty dang hot yesterday too, until late in the day. Then it was almost nice.

Spent the morning doing all the “leaving the BOL” chores, and then part of the afternoon too. But I did get out before dark, and got home shortly after dark. Then the rains came…

Today I will sleep in, in my own comfortable bed. Then I’ll try to figure out what I can get done in the next few days before I head back to the BOL. I’ll spend a week doing something major without everyone else there. Or maybe two minor things. But it’ll be just me for a week. So I better have everything here in order.

Plans. I got ’em. We’ll see how that works out.

Stacking is cool though….

nick

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Sun. July 5, 2026 – still got stuff to do

By on July 5th, 2026 in culture, lakehouse, personal

Hot and humid again. It will probably top 100F today with humidity about the same, although yesterday my weather station said it was only 49%RH. It was cool with a breeze in the shade, if you were soaking wet with sweat, and the portacool felt cool… Still, hot and humid, and in the sun it’s broiling.

Spent the morning doing small stuff. After I finished the LED tape lighting for the deck, I did some tree trimming and pruning. Did some other minor stuff too, and eventually spent an hour floating in the lake with a drink in hand. The lake is very warm, but does have cooler currents moving through it. Relaxing felt good.

Then it was a monster fireworks show, and time reading under the stars.

A good day all in all.

Today I’ll be taking the decorations down and doing “leaving the BOL” stuff. I’ll be back before too long when W takes the kids to spend time with her parents. I’ll have a big project to do the week they’re gone. Not sure yet which it will be, but I’m sure it will be a lot of work.

Always be working, amiright? I think so. and stacking.

nick

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Sat. July 4, 2026 – Happy Independence Day

By on July 4th, 2026 in culture, lakehouse

It’ll be hot and humid with some brain roasting sun, if we’re lucky. There is a small chance of rain, but hopefully it will hold off until after midnight. It was certainly hot and humid yesterday, although in the shade, with a breeze is was comfortable if you were just sitting there.

Of course I was not. I was in the sun on the dock putting up bunting and additional flags. And installing cleats, bumpers, and LED tape lighting to outline the boat lift parts of the dock. LOTS of bunting… LOTS of flags.

I did some on the front of the house on the road side too. It looks very nice and patriotic. I would have thought there would be more stuff planned for the 250th anniversary, but I’m not totally surprised there isn’t. Patriotism is out of style. F that. I love this country.

Today we’ll do some more small jobs, maybe take the boat out, cook hamburgers, and then we are supposed to have the neighborhood fireworks show. That is always a good time and unlike big public shows, I don’t have to be nervous and watching the crowd. I can relax and enjoy the spectacle.

I hope everyone has a chance to celebrate at least a little. There’s more to love than hate, and it’s good to remember that.

Happy Independence Day everyone.

nick

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