Category: decline and fall

Maybe today will be a bit more Fall than Summer. It’ll still be hot and humid, just maybe a little bit less of both. Spring and Fall in Houston are not what I grew up with in the 4 season midwest, but they are nice.

Slept in yesterday, then finally got moving. Did a bit of hack body work on the truck, really more of an exploration of seeing what I could do with some really basic tools. I’m happy to keep poking at it a bit. Then I did a pickup and headed to the shop for more scrap breakdown. It nets me some cash and clears up space in the shop, so it’s a decent use of time. Pays better than minimum wage…

Got home, ate, read, had a tiny little fire. And watched some new aviation. Drones. Quad copter style movements but clearly not hobbyist stuff. It’s hard to tell size but they made more of a jet sound than anything else. Curious. Two in the sky at the same time, same flight path until they got over the Beltway, then the follower took a more northern station. Saw one hovering and moving back and forth in the distance later too. Very strange. I’m not comfortable with big drones moving overhead. Too many ways that can be bad.

Today, I’ll keep working on stuff. I hope my scrap guy is open so I can empty the truck bed and move the big printer out of my office. If not, I can still move stuff around and get ready to do it Monday or Tuesday. I still need to pull my main PC out from under the desk and install the new bluray drive. I’ll do that if I can’t do anything else, since it will disrupt my office too.

And I’ll be taking a minute to remember OFD, who left this world on this day 8 years ago. I can’t really believe it’s been that long. Poke around in some of the comments here from before then and re-read some of the voices that have gone quiet since then. Gone but not forgotten.

nick

Still hot and humid, but noticeably less so yesterday and hopefully today. Lows at night are the lowest since Summer started. I guess Fall is sneaking in. It’s time.

Did some office stuff yesterday. W was work from home, so my nap ate a bunch of the morning. Some poking around in the driveway and messing with my truck ate the rest of the day.

Today I’ve got stuff to do. I need to break down stuff at the shop and do a scrap run. I need a trash run too. Then I can move the giant uPrint 3D printer from my office to the shop. I made a place for it and a path. That will let me move and organize some of the mess in my office. I think I’ll put all the supplies and stuff for that printer on craigslist and see if I can move it along. I’d rather have a couple of smaller ones, and the new ones have more capability anyway. It would make a nice enclosure for a modern printer, it would just need a new driver board and build platform. As it sits, it’s locked to the manufacturer’s CAD software and proprietary filament.

I’ve also got to find a rear axle assembly for the Ranger, and decide if I want to just buy new shocks and leaf springs, or try to get them used as part of the assembly. It makes more sense to replace them with new, even if it’s a few hundred bucks more. Since I spent the money on the front end, I should spend the money on the rear as well, and just finish the project. There are nice axles in Austin listed online, but the 4 hits I get in Houston all say “call” for pricing. I don’t really want to do the drive if I can avoid it.

And there are the other things on the list. Hopefully I’ll have the energy and momentum to get stuff done this weekend.

Always be working… and stacking… and don’t falter.

nick

Hot and humid. Yes, it is monotonous. It’s also typical Houston. It’s even been a bit of a dry year, and no hurricanes with few named storms. I’m sure it’s gonna kill us all because Mother Ghaiah has a sad. More of the same today.

Did my kid duties. It’s D2 who I haven’t declared a strike against. She still gets the backlash at [lack of] dinner time, and having to manage her own TP supply.

Tried to get some makeup sleep. Worked, mostly. Didn’t feel up to anything challenging so I finished the assembly of the gantry. It went together pretty well. There were only a couple of bolts missing, which is a miracle given that they were all in a ball of stretch wrap, loose in the torn open packaging. Seems like it will be a big help for getting stuff in and out of the truck. I’m dreading taking it apart and moving it to the shop, where it will eventually live.

Today I’ll try to sleep a bit, then see what I can get done. I still have some stuff to break down for scrap a the shop, and the piles still need organizing. We’re home this weekend, so maybe I’ll tackle some of the bigger stuff in the driveway or on the patio.

There’s always something that needs doing. And stuff won’t stack itself.

nick

And it will be hot while I do it. It got plenty sweaty during the day Tuesday, and stayed in the 80sF all night. I think we’ll get more of that today.

Did my pickup in the afternoon, then took the stuff to my shop and unloaded it. I’ve got some steel scrap to drop off today. No money really but it will be out of the shop. I’ll throw some batteries and some bits of other non-ferrous on the pile too.

Spent the evening assembling my new gantry. I’ll finish up with that today, I think. I’ve got to pick up the second load of stuff from the auction too. Three COWs (computer on wheels) from one of the local hospitals. I’ll scrap them, and see what kind of laptops they left in them. Might be decent, might be old.

The ipad I picked up yesterday was a 9th generation. The dang thing has a pin lock, even though the auction pictures showed the settings screen. I hope the auction can tell me the code, as I’d like to use it if possible. The kids’ old middle school uses one to control their sound system and the district IT staff was going to take their ipad away. If I can unlock and reset it, I’ll give it to the theater department. Apple makes it hard or impossible to repurpose their itoys if they haven’t been released by the previous owner, unlike windows and PC based stuff. I guess that’s good if you are worried about theft. Makes it hard to get money for old gear, or to keep it working.

So that is the plan for today, second round of pickups, maybe unlock the ipad, and finish putting the gantry together. I’m sure something will be added to my list as well.

Always be working. Even if each task is fractal. And stack, it’s easy!

nick

Hot, but maybe the front will make it just a bit not as hot? It was certainly hot yesterday before the rain came with the front. Lots of thunder, lots of local lightning strikes. Much drama. Not much rain though. We’ll see how today shapes up.

Did my pickup. The gantry crane will be useful for my truck repairs. The cameras turned out to be analog and nothing I want to spend time messing with. Did my normal returns auction pickup too. Didn’t do much else.

Today I’ve got another surplus pickup to do. I got a bunch more of the roll around laptop cart things from the hospital, so I’ll break those down for scrap, inverters, and batteries. I also got a bunch of open frame telcom racks sold as scrap that I’ll bring to the next hamfest. Racks usually sell well for me. And if not, they are aluminum C channel, and could be re-purposed or scrapped. IDK if I can get everything in one trip, but I’ll know after I try today! I’ve still got tomorrow if I have to make a second trip.

And in order to make room for this stuff, I have to continue my organization and clean out of my shop. Which will be sweaty and tedious. But hey, they call it ‘work’ not ‘playing around’.

Always be working… and stacking.

nick