Category: culture

Sun. Oct. 13, 2024 – nice day at the BOL

Cool start, warming over the day, and cool in the evening… really nice. That was yesterday and I hope today as well. It’s still a little too hot to be in the attic, but it’s getting there.

Did my hobby meeting. Nice to see the guys. Glad that one of them was still with us.

Loaded the truck and headed up. Listening to the audiobook of The Golden Compass. It’s pretty engrossing. I’m three hours in.

Today I’ll unload the truck and start installing insulation and paneling. Or maybe pull wire to the speakers. OR maybe try for both. I’m sure I’ll find something to do. I don’t think I’ll cut the grass. It’s pretty dry. I might string trim around the front of the house as I didn’t do that when I mowed last. There is always something.

And maybe I’ll organize the shed so I can fit more stacks… I’ve got to clean and place and fill the new water tank too. Yeah, always something.

Get started, keep moving. Stack.

nick

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Sat. Oct. 12, 2024 – 10.12.20.24 – non-prepping hobby day, or get out of the house and make friends with people day

Cool and clear. Really nice Fall weather, although the grass is crunchy from lack of rain. Still, really nice for working outside. And I do have outside work to do…

Yesterday I didn’t do too much of it. I did get to my rent house and solve the plumbing issue. I dropped off one of the 4 things I meant to take to my secondary location, the other three were left sitting in my foyer. Doh. Did one pickup of a rat trap, and then hit Home Depot for insulation and paneling to repair the flood damaged walls in my dock house at the BOL. Also got some spray foam, and a few treated 2x4s for the dock, and the bill was over $500. Yikes.

I spent too much time commenting on other peoples’ blogs too. The perennial “what radios should I get” and “you don’t need a ham license, TEOTWAWKI won’t have no FCC” discussion came up over at Cmdr Zero’s place. He’s also asked for opinions about fuels and power for BOL, so I spent some time on that. It’s not like I don’t have this place that could use some content… or something.

Today I will do my meatspace networking and interacting with actual humans. When that’s done, I’ll change trucks and head to the BOL. Lots to do up there. W has stripped the ‘popcorn’ off the hall bath ceiling, so I’ll get shanghai’d into doing the spray and knockdown texture so she can paint it later. That wasn’t on my list AT ALL. On the plus side, I probably won’t have to cut the grass… it is crunchy according to her. Grass doesn’t grow without water.

There are other projects in the dock house that I can do too, like finishing up the speaker install, and maybe working on the rotted window sill. Or hanging a TV and getting the wii set up there. Or hanging the IR heater strips on the dock so I can be warmer this winter while having my tiny little fire and radio time.

Plus there are “winter is coming” things to do…

At least the rent house plumbing wasn’t a big issue.

Stacking is EASY compared to maintaining multiple properties. So do some! It’s the easy way out…

nick

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Fri. Oct. 11, 2024 – no school today, whooohoooo!!! oh, right, I’m the dad…

Cooler, but warming later. Maybe not hot though. Yesterday stayed very nice even in the afternoon. Perfect shorts and t shirt weather. Clear too, so really a very nice day. I am looking forward to a couple more days like that.

Yesterday my day got off to a very weird start, and didn’t really improve until later. I spent the morning doing domestic bliss, and shuffling some stuff around the house. Set up and tested the gear I bought to resell last week in Leander. There are issues, but I think they are worth fixing rather than selling “as is for parts or repair.” Worth a quick look see anyway. Spent the late afternoon running kids around.

Wife and kids headed to the BOL for the long weekend, but I stayed behind. I’ve got my non-prepping hobby meeting this weekend, and I’ve got a maintenance issue at my rent house to address today. I’ll head up after my meeting on Saturday, and because it’s a long weekend, I’ll have an extra day to work up there…

That does mean I have the house to myself for a bit. I’ll do some more cleaning up today. Then I’ll head to my rental, my secondary location, and an auction pickup. Those three kind of clump so it makes sense to combine them. I like to combine trips and do my part to save the environment.

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I said that with a straight face! I like to save the gas money, my time, and the wear and tear on the truck… which is good for my environment.

Dunno what or how much I’ll get done here or at the BOL, but I’ll give it the old school try. And I’ll stack. Oh yes. I will.

nick

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Thur. Oct. 10, 2024 – 101020224 – not my circus, not my monkeys

Cool and clear again, then warming to hot later. Nice in other words. And a nice change from this summer’s heat. Yesterday was nice too.

I didn’t get a ton of things done. I spent a lot of time storm watching, and dealing with the idea of going on vacation in a hurricane disaster zone. ‘Cuz someone is crazy like that. But that eventually sorted itself out. While I was waiting for cooler heads to prevail, I did my pickup and drop off. Nice 50 gallon tank, now sitting in my truck, waiting to be power washed and sterilized. It’ll go to the BOL and supplement the tanks that are already there. I kinda need to fill at least one…

Putting them somewhere is the issue. I haven’t got a good spot. Even a bad spot will do for a short while, but my short term solutions tend to last a long time… so better to get it right, and “start as I intend to proceed.”

Or I could just wing it like usual. Because anything is better than nothing and perfect is the enemy of good (enough.)

Today I’ll be working my list, and most of that will be around the house. I’ve got stuff to do. Lotsa stuff.

Some of it might even be good enough.

Stack. Re-stack. Get started.

nick

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Wed. Oct. 9, 2024 – if you don’t stop that, you’ll go blind…

Cool and clear in the morning, warming later, but not getting hot hot. Just warm hot. Probably not even more than 90F… which describes yesterday too. And probably tomorrow as well.

The cool morning helped me do a couple of small things outside. I did a repair in the garage, poked around the yard. Looked for rat carcasses (and didn’t find any). Did my pickup, got the kid… did some small things around the house. But mostly I was looking at hurricane stuff, talking with mom and my sibling, and trying to figure out what will be happening this weekend.

I’m betting on a lot of wind, water, and devastation. I’m hoping the people I know and love avoid at least one of those three. It seems to unlikely that they’ll miss them all.

Today I’ve got one pickup and one dropoff. The pickup is a 55 gallon rotomolded water tank. The dropoff is a “safe” I opened and fixed for one of my auctioneers. I like opening the cheap “safes” and making them work again. It usually doesn’t take much to open them. Don’t use them to secure anything important. I consider being able to get into stuff, like “safes” or lockboxes, or vehicles, or doors, to be an important skill. Bypassing locks, brute forcing them, or “picking” them, are all fun and fascinating things to learn about and do.

Skills, I’ve got a few, and they are quite varied… stack some skills, and some stuff.

nick

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Tues. Oct. 8, 2024 – seems more important than it is.

More cool, followed by hot and humid. And a hurricane for Florida. It was pretty warm by yesterday afternoon, but cooled later. Still 84F after dark though. I’d say that we are well into Fall now, with the consecutive days starting at 72F or under. Nice.

Did stuff around the house, did my pickups, did my kid driving chores. Did some domestic bliss. Did some minor computer stuff. Didn’t work in the yard or driveway.

Today I’ve got one pickup, unless I won something I didn’t think I’d win. And I’ve got my busy day with driving D1 around all afternoon. I really need to get a few things done that will have a big visual impact and be a real change in the house. If I can get a couple of them done in the morning, I’ll be golden. If not, I’ll be a goat.

I’ll spend some time watching the weather too. Got plans that should probably change, and a couple of people in harms way. It’s difficult to change plans though, and easy to tell yourself lies.

Try not to lie, to yourself or others. One is hard, one makes life easier.

And of course, stack like your life depends on it.

nick

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Mon. Oct. 7, 2024 – a new week, what could go wrong?

Still hot and humid, but not raining… at least not in the forecast. We have had some overcast and threatening clouds, despite the clear forecast though. Might get some more. Yesterday was really humid and ended up in the mid 90s so I didn’t do much outdoors.

I ended up driving the kid around a bit, and going to the grocery store. No good meat on sale, but some indian pouch side dishes were $1 off. Picked up a dozen of them. Hamburger wasn’t over $5, so I picked up some ground chuck 80/20. I don’t have as much in the freezer as usual.

Spent some more time getting the kid from the mall later too. She is learning to delight in winding me up. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, she is my daughter after all.

Did some domestic bliss, but have plenty more to do. Moved some stuff to the “goes to the BOL pile”.

Fixed the cable on the garage door so that it closes flat to the ground. One edge was up about 3 inches which left room for the possum to get in. Maybe Mr Possum won’t be visiting so often now.

Did some computer work, cleaning and organizing. I’ve got stuff I should have done with the new year that I still need to get to. Meanwhile, I’m still ripping DVDs and CDs as I sit here.

Had a chat with my neighbor. She’s very concerned about the election, the chance they might cheat and install the Kamel, and what happens after. It’s the most frank discussion we’ve had in a couple of years. I assured her I was worried about the same things. Nice to know we’re on the same page. Most of the neighbors are so much younger than me, and they grew up with PC and newspeak, and are VERY reluctant to have any conversations where they might say something ‘not right’. They are very conflict averse so while I believe they aren’t Kamel supporters, I’m not sure. No yard signs in any case.

One thing I’m sure of is that bad times are coming. No matter who “wins” in November, it’s gonna be the sux for all the rest of us. Stacks will help.

nick

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Sun. Oct. 6, 2024 – hope I get something done today…

And hope the rain holds off. We got just a thin spatter yesterday. Not even enough to get things wet. Still had to cover the truck bed with a tarp, just in case. I use magnets to hold it in place, so it’s not difficult, just a step I dislike dealing with. The humidity would have benefited from some rain to clear the air. Temps were nice all day though.

Did my pickup, went by my secondary location to drop some stuff off. Dropped off filters for the A/C at my rent house, and stopped in to chat with my auctioneer. He’s still not ready to start selling my stuff again. I also picked up some books from him. Good stuff like animal husbandry, small engine repair, and a multi volume “best works in English” set. Hit the Goodwill bins for an hour on my way home. Got some books for me, and some for eventual resale. Of course I grabbed some DVDs too.

Did a tiny bit of cleaning up and organizing. Mainly avoided working at home though…

So hopefully today I can get caught up with SOME of the tasks.

Maybe I’ll cook something too.

I will surely stack or restack something. You should too.

nick

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Sat. Oct. 5, 2024 – home this weekend, so work will be avoided…

I suck as a weatherman… today will likely be hot and humid, because we did get some rain yesterday, just after I said we wouldn’t. Just enough to wet everything in my truck… and today will probably be similar, threatening clouds, while slightly warmer and more humid than the last week. Or not, as I said, I suck at forecasting. Of course, so do they.

I did my long round trip yesterday. Took routes I haven’t taken in a while (290 to Austin) and never took (Alt 90 back to Houston instead of I-10.) I am a firm believer in taking different routes places so you see new things.

The stuff I picked up is in pretty good shape. I’ll test the big money pieces today, but I already got a working pro level fog machine, and two older but still working moving lights. My living room was like a disco last night…

Today I’ll do some more testing, and work my list of normal stuff. I really hope I can work outside in comfort. I’ve got a lot to do out there.

There is always stuff to do.

Since I’m moving and re-stacking food preps, I’ll encourage you to do the same. I’ve had some losses, both food and water storage. Those will have to be replaced. My buckets are getting brittle from the UV of indirect sunlight, just like my Aquatainers did. And I’ve had several gamma lids fail. It’s an argument for keeping stuff in the bags it came in, inside the buckets. You won’t fit as much, but it might reduce spoilage in the event of a failure. Also, gamma lids are for buckets that are “in use” not long term storage. Make sure you have extra buckets, lids, and gamma lids.

Stack what you need.

nick

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Fri. Oct. 4, 2024 – and I’m on the road again, going places.

Warm and clear, gonna be hot later. Yesterday didn’t break 90F in the shade but in the sun it got brain boiling hot. Today will probably be the same. No rain forecast either.

I think I saved the grass in the front yard, or at least most of it. It seems to not be as brown or crunchy.

I spent yesterday moving stuff on the back patio. I swapped an open shelf for a close cabinet, that is also in the same color as our house siding. It will look a lot neater back there now. I ran out of daylight, so I’ll be reorganizing and putting stuff away for a couple of days.

I’d do it today, but I have to go pick up my lots in Leander… that is about 6 hours of driving and some time to load up. Then later I’ll have to sort and store it. Should be a good quick flip though that is worth all the driving.

I’ll try to check in during the day, but you should talk amongst yourselves…

And stack.

nick

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