Because I’ve got stuff to do. Yesterday was another nice day. Sunny and mild, no rain, reasonable humidity. Mid 60sF at night. There were some threatening clouds later in the day, and the national forecast has us on the edge of possible T-storms and rain today and tomorrow. Better for me if we get more nice days.

I spent yesterday doing a big loop of pickups. Some stuff for the household, some for the BOL. Mostly minor stuff, as I have the major stuff pretty well covered at this point. I wouldn’t say no to more solar, more generators, medical stuff, or noisemakers… but it has been about refining, upgrading, extending, and building depth for a while. There is a need to replace stuff due to ‘breakage’ or the passage of time, and to upgrade as better options become available. That process never ends.

Today if it’s mild and dry, I’ll get the rest of the Halloween decor put away and some more Thanksgiving/Fall themed stuff put out. I did get the inflatables changed out. I had a giant witch with a pumpkin cauldron that was new this year and now I have a 10ft tall turkey holding a sign that says “Happy Thanksgiving”… Classy, right?

I also need to continue the cart repair. And poison some rats. And ants. I’m using this on the ants, and this on the rats. Both work very well.

I’m sure some other things will pop up to fill up my day too.

Stack while you can.

nick

Cooler, and hopefully drier. The forecast showed some possible T-storms and rain just south of us, but that usually means it won’t get here. When the prevailing winds meet the Gulf air, you never really know what’s happening until it happens. 65F when I went to bed.

Spent yesterday morning on the computer buying stuff for my client and doing auction stuff. Then I headed to school for another rehearsal. It went well. Still finding hardware issues and config issues (overlapping frequency use between mics) but I feel like we have to have found them all now. Show is sounding pretty good. I was able to work on quality of sound issues and we haven’t had that luxury in the three years I’ve been helping out.

In the evening I won a couple of small things.

Which means I have pickups today after all.

I’ll do more computer stuff in the morning, and pickups in the afternoon.

I thought I’d won a Yugo noisemaker in 7.62 for $325 but someone sniped me and got it for $350. That’s half of retail or possibly even 1/3. I was frankly shocked it didn’t go for retail. If I thought it would be so close, I’d have paid attention or set a higher max bid. I set my max before election day and didn’t adjust it. Someone SCORED.

Inventory your stacks and fill any gaps.

nick

After yesterday’s rain and cold front, I hope today will be dry and mild. Not holding my breath, but one can hope. It was 66F when I went out for my tiny little fire, down from the mid 70sF during the rain. Heck, it was into the 80sF before the rain started. Dry and mild would be nice.

Slept in a bit, then did auction stuff, until I went out to do my pickup. Spent the rest of the afternoon poking at stuff at the shop. I should be able to take another load to the auctioneer next Tuesday.

Today I’ll do some stuff in the morning. I need to order some stuff for my client’s upgrades, and do some design work for my buddy’s new store cams. That should eat most of the day. In the afternoon, I’m headed to school for another rehearsal. In the late afternoon, if I’m lucky, maybe I’ll put some decorations away. We’ll see what happens.

Things look to be getting more fractious and contentious at home and abroad. All reasons to stack, in a stealthy way.

nick

Another warm and very humid day? Probably, although there was a good breeze coming north from the Gulf of America last night. It was not crazy hot yesterday, but the humidity was close to saturation again. Makes it kinda chilly when the temp does fall.

Did my pickups in the morning. Nice haul of hand tools, and a couple of other things for the house and the BOL. Tried to get a third pickup in, but he’s only open for pickup on Tues. and Wed. so I’ll get him today. Stopped by my shop to unload, and did a tiny bit of sorting. Tried to get some work done on the cart but ran out of daylight.

Today I’ll sleep in. The kids don’t have school, so I don’t have to get up before the sun to see them off. Then I’ll vote and do my pickup. Probably come home and do more on the cart. I really want to see it move under its own power. If it does, I’ll need to change the batteries.

I should put some of the Halloween decor away too, and put out the “harvest/fall/Thanksgiving” stuff. Ah, so much to do. And none of it on my critical list. Work avoidance mode levels up!

Seriously though, morally I don’t think you can complain about the government if you don’t vote, and I like to complain. No matter the cheating, the lies, the fraud, and the fact that they’re ALL b@stards, voting is a fundamental part of what we are as a nation. Go out and do it. If nothing else, the chatter in line will give you a better idea of what ‘Joe Sixpack’ is thinking.

So vote. And stack, because they’re all b@stards and are trying to break everything.

nick

At least it’s a cool November. It was 74F and slowly falling when I went to bed, so I’m wondering how cool it will be today. Yesterday was warm, but the air was saturated so I was soaked with sweat just putting out the last of the Halloween decorations. It was oppressively humid. At least that eased off last night.

Had a good Halloween. Got enough decorations out that I felt like it was a good effort. Not as crazy as previous years, but still looked good. We had a fair number of kids come by, mostly young. Couple of neighbors came by before dark with very little ones. I had a box of small plush toys (like little beanie babies, but not branded) and the little kids loved those. I’d run them through the laundry, and I washed all the little toys we offered too. I heard from some of the parents that other people in the neighborhood were offering toys as well as candy so my idea is spreading. One on the street was offering little Playdough cups.

I also found time to leave a long and detailed comment over at Commander Zero’s about food storage. He’d linked a video that was a good jumping off point for discussion, and the comments should develop into something interesting.

Today I’ll take down some of the decorations. I like to see them up, so I leave the ones that are least objectionable for a while. If there is rain and they are wet, they stay up until they can dry out.

Then I’ll be back to working on the list.

Stacking is good. So is being part of your community.

nick

And we might have nice weather for it, as we’re getting our overdue rain now… At least a little bit of rain. In different parts of Houston there were different amounts of moisture from the sky yesterday. The ground didn’t really stay wet, and my wipers didn’t get a workout, but there were some drops, and some puddles. Temps were mild but humidity was high. More today wouldn’t be bad if it meant great weather on Halloween.

Did several hours of volunteering yesterday morning. I think were finally in a place where everything should work, and I’ve already addressed the issues from their first rehearsal. I followed that up with a huge loop to do pickups, ending at my shop. Unloaded some stuff there and poked at a couple of things. Came home to an empty house. Everyone came home a bit later but I saw them for less than 5 minutes. Oh well.

Today I’ll start with audio work, then do a quick pickup, and maybe some material buying, and then back to school for the afternoon rehearsal. I expect to have some conflict with the assistant director about levels. There is only so much loud before the pain and feedback and I intend to keep it below that point. She seems to want MOR SOUND! 24 mics open on stage. Yeah. More noise and more painful screeching, and then figure in the feedback….

I’m hoping to have Friday clear. There are a couple of things I still want to get done that I haven’t had time for with the volunteering.

I did add to the stacks with some of my last round of pickups. And I’ll keep adding, but I’ll be engaging with the world around me too.

nick