Category: culture

Cold and clear again, warming later. Had a beautiful sunrise yesterday. Orange, pink, blue sky… chilly willy though. Should be the same today. Mid 70sF in the afternoon, maybe a bit more. I’ll take it.

After the sunrise, coffee, and getting the kids out the door, I did auction stuff, office stuff, and fell down a rabbit hole with some genealogy stuff online. I was mildly interested, now I’m mildly informed. The biggest change is how much more stuff has been digitized and is available online. Some of it, maybe most of it, is volunteer driven too, from what I saw.

In the afternoon I did small things around the house. Several projects got minor attention and moved a tiny bit forward. I’m avoiding big stuff. One of the projects was recovering and repurposing D1’s old chromebook. It’s much more possible, and straightforward than it was a couple of years ago when I last looked. But it’s also far too much messing around when I’ve got a stack of other lappys that I can update or put new OSs on easily without jumping through flaming hoops.

It’s a shame that schools are buying stuff that has no residual value and pretty much has to go into the landfill after only a few years. The kids don’t really need more at school, but the example it sets is bad.

Today I’ll do a couple of pickups. And more small stuff from the list. I want to keep moving, even if it’s slowly and in tiny steps.

Because that’s how you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.

Always be working. And stacking.

nick

Should be mid 40sF this morning and stay cold for a while. It might be clear and warmer later. There were parts of yesterday that were nice, if chilly. Then it got cold after sunset. Today will probably be similar.

Did my non-prepping hobby [horse] meeting in the morning. That ran a bit late for several reasons, and little was resolved. When I got home the tree guys were still here, but after their lunch they finished up. I’m happy with the job and the price but the old guy running things (a real old school character) keep trying to upsell and kept crying poor. Dude, if you are really that bad at giving estimates, I doubt you’d still be in business…

Today I’ll sleep in, then work the list. Maybe I’ll just do more office and network stuff. Depends on the weather and my motivation. I did get the carburetor for the pressure washer, so if it was nice out I could mess with that. Or the generators. Or the lawn. Or the patio cleanup. Or the driveway cleanup.

It’s a big list.

But hey, someone’s gotta do it and this stuff isn’t going to stack itself. Get busy.

nick

I don’t know how last night’s storm will play out, probably it will be clear but muggy today. It was mid 70sF and a little bit warmer most of yesterday, but overcast with occasional very light mist. Then the front crossed over about 11pm and the temperature dropped to mid 60sF. The rain shouldn’t last long, and I’m hoping for no precip today.

Mainly because the big job yesterday was having a tree company do some cleanup. They remediated the damage to the big tree in the front yard from the ‘derecho’ winds last year, and were supposed to do some cleanup and prevention in the pines that were struck by lightning a couple of weeks ago. They didn’t quite get done yesterday though so they need to come back today and finish. If it’s not raining and there isn’t any lightning.

While that work was going on, I continued on my office cleanup. I made some progress and you can actually see the floor in the office, and not just in narrow tracks to get to my safe and my desk.

Today I’ll start with my non-prepping hobby meeting, and then get back to work on the office and house cleanup. If it’s not raining, I might get to make some trips to the shop, and maybe take another load out of storage. That’s the very tentative plan.

Meanwhile the world turns and lots of things are in motion that probably won’t end well. Better to be ready, and for some, better to leave early than to leave too late.

Prep, stack, get your house in order.

nick

Cool, damp, then warm and damp. High 70s to low 80sF, especially in the sun. Like most of this week. It’s nice to drive with the windows down, and get some fresh air,even if that air is thick with moisture.

Did my pickups. Did my doctor visit. No issue found, so I’ll go see two more guys. I’ll probably use up my deductible again this year. That will make only the third time in the last 17 years.

It was nice that this new doc could just call up my existing imagery and look at it in the office. That is the way electronic records are supposed to work, not just so that every patient has 27 “portals” to check for communication from their doctors.

Hit the HEB for groceries. Almost nothing on sale. 80/20 hamburger was $4.49/pound. Some pork products were on sale, but not a huge markdown. I saved $1 according to my receipt. I used to be able to average between 10-15% savings every trip. I am buying more snack stuff for the kids, and that never goes on sale, but still the difference is striking.

HEB had Charmin blue on sale, 24 pack for $26. Costco has the 36 pack on sale this week for $28. The rolls are bigger at Costco too. I would like to get two more bales at Costco. Maybe today I’ll pop in.

I’ve got some pickups to do today, and some moving stuff around between my secondary, the shop, and storage. Also some office stuff to do in the morning. I really need to do more work on my office cleanup project too, before my wife explodes because stuff is out in the rest of the house.

Part of the office cleanup is to get to my PCs. I need to clean them, and change the DVD drive for a bluray on my main machine. And I need to swap out the UPS and rearrange what’s plugged into what. Every project is fractal. And I’ve misplaced my bluray drives. I set them aside specifically for this update and now I can’t find them. I should have left them on the shelf with the other drives. But I didn’t. Got ahead of myself and now I’m hosed.

Stacks. I’ve got them. Sometimes though, I’m my own worst enemy. If you stack it, keep track of it.

nick

Cool and then warm, but should be clear and sunny. Really nice weather in general if a bit moist. I’ll take it over three feet of snow any day.

Spent the morning doing auction stuff. There’s a lot less that I am interested in coming through the auctions lately. Every seller I talk to has trouble getting good loads, so there is less good stuff being listed. That leads to competition for the good stuff, and prices being higher than I want to pay.

The afternoon was a couple of pickups, one for resale items, one for household stuff. Then I spent some time working at the shop to make room for the remainder of the stuff still in the last storage unit.

I made dinner after that, instead of working on my office some more. I don’t want to lose momentum, and all the stuff I’ve been sorting is out in the house, so I WILL be doing more on that front. Maybe today…

This morning I’ve got a few pickups, then a doctor appointment in the afternoon. That should give me some more time to poke at the office. Should.

And clearing it all up might make room for some of my other projects to move forward.

Can’t forget about stacking though. I still need a couple more bales of Charmin before this sale cycle ends. And some stuff from the grocery store to replace ‘breakage.’ Stacks take management.

But first you need the stuff. Stack it up.

nick

Another cool start to the day. Supposed to be clear, so it will warm up later and probably become a very nice day. Moist though. You could smell the damp in the air yesterday.

I didn’t do much except auction stuff in the morning yesterday, and then my appointment took all afternoon. New doctor, and I like him. He is looking at some bloodwork, and I’ll be looking at the [presumed] hypoglycemia in a couple of weeks. Real testing and diagnosis would be nice, especially as he says they have meds to smooth out the carb crash that comes with it.

Took a swing by Goodwill on my way home, and picked up a nice Orvis shirt for $6. They don’t recognize it as a premium brand. To be fair, since Orvis went offshore for manufacturing, it might not actually be a premium product, but it’s still a premium brand.

Went out to eat for dinner. Then I spent a few more hours pulling stuff out of my office and cleaning under it. Yikes there is a lot of hair and dirt. And a bunch of random tiny bolts and screws.

Today I will get up and get the kids out of the house, then do some auction stuff. I have one pickup scheduled for the afternoon, and one I need to schedule.

As I clean the office, I’m certainly finding projects that need to be finished, materials for projects, and useful things that I’d forgotten about. It’s like shopping your closet. Stacks are only useful if you can find the stuff. It’s a good idea to go through it all every so often, check the condition, and check that it’s still needed. And hey, you might find a new watch somewhere in there.

Sort your stacks, and add to them.

nick

Cooler, damper, winter? Maybe. Still supposed to be clear though, so if it’s a bit cold, then warmer, like yesterday, that will be fine.

I did a bunch of little stuff yesterday, and I’m starting to build a bit of momentum. Of course something will derail that but I’ll deal with it when it comes. Until then, slow but steady, chipping away at low priority but necessary stuff I’ve put off too long.

I am clearing piles of stuff in my office. One of the piles included receipts going back to 2018… so I did find a few things to keep. Some purchases should really be documented, since they come with other paperwork anyway. And sometimes it’s good to be reminded how much you paid for something- either as a ‘score’ or as an object lesson in what not to do.

I also got some piles of stuff sorted. At the moment I’ve got a bin of “parts or craft”, “fix this stuff”, and “working small electronics or gadgets.” Found a bunch of stuff I’d forgotten or misplaced. Nice watch. Handy talkie. Repair parts I’d ordered. I’m vacuuming as I clear parts of the floor. There is a shocking amount of hair that isn’t mine, and little bits of debris everywhere.

I like to be surrounded by ‘stuff’ but it’s getting out of hand. So I’m poking at it. We’ll see how much progress I make before getting pulled off to something else.

Today though, D2 has her school activity ‘work day’ followed by a party. W has a doctor appointment in the morning, and I have one in the afternoon. It’ll almost be like a regular school day, and I won’t have had enough sleep.

What doesn’t kill us leaves marks…

Stack something!

nick

Cooler today, at least to start. Then warmer. Still supposed to be clear for a few days. It got chilly last night. This is the time of year in Houston where we run A/C during the day and heat at night…

Did a bunch of small things yesterday, including laundry and cutting my hair. Shaved too. Spent a fair amount of time sorting paperwork and various other things into bins. I am making a little progress on cleaning and organizing my office, but it’s slow going. Stuff does tend to pile up.

Today will be a continuation of yesterday’s tasks. A bit of network change, a bit of Christmas decor coming down, a bit of sorting and organizing. Some cleaning. Some cooking too, if I get to it. We’ve been eating mostly leftovers and quick to make food. W is cleaning up her computers and fully moving into the macbook.

D2 starts up school activities on Monday, although class doesn’t start until Wednesday. I’ve got an appointment Monday afternoon, and maybe a pickup, so anything I get done today is something I don’t have to find time for on Monday.

Baby steps are still steps, right? Right.

Still gotta stack though, as the changes and instability in the world don’t seem to be decreasing.

nick