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Category: decline and fall

Thur. Dec. 7, 2023 – A date which will live in infamy…

Cool and clear again. Cold even as anything less that 50F feels pretty cold to me. It did warm up over the course of the day. Flaming nuclear fire in the sky helps with that.

Spent the day driving back and forth. First to do my pickups, then Costco, then D2 pickup from school, deliver to appointment, rush to pickup D1 from school, return to D2’s appointment, then gas fillup and home… Running from 1130 to 530 without a break. Mostly stuck in heavy traffic too. Yuck. 1 star, cannot recommend.

Costco was odd. Prices have come down on some stuff, but remain high on other things. Pork was cheap and they had the standing rib roast cut I love, which they only carry for Christmas and Easter. Bought two big ones that I’ll cut in half and vac seal for the freezer. The imported Australian lamb was LESS than it has been in a while, and that’s saying something because the price has remained pretty steady for years.

Rice and flour were still higher than they were, and selection was limited. My favorite shelf stable take and bake loaves of bread were damaged. Many of the packages showed mold in the packaging, on the loaves. They were well within sell by too. Weird that staff didn’t pull the bad packages, and weird that it was usually one loaf of the three in the box. They still haven’t gotten the frozen cheeseburgers I like back in stock. Prices for paper goods were high. No sales this month on paper. List price for Charmin blue is now double what it was pre-wuflu.

There was also more chinese prepared food from china than there has been in the past. Dunno if that’s significant but I’m not a fan of food prepared in china for safety reasons.

I’ve stopped buying vegetables and milk products at Costco and I was a bit rushed so I didn’t even stick my head in to check stock levels. I’ve also decided to not buy more of the Kirkland bacon, even though the price is now competitive with HEB. The Kirkland bacon leaves a hard crusty black film in the bottom of the pan. I think it’s burned sugar. It needs to be scraped off the teflon, and it’s bitter so I can’t reuse the fat either. The bacon tastes fine, but the other things are too negative.

And hey, they had both the socks I like and the underwear so that was a score. Set for a year or two now. Stacks…

It wasn’t a cheap trip, but then my average ticket had increased 50-100% even though I’m not buying bulk to stack anymore. I’m not going as often either. In fact I’m shorter than I’d like to be on TP again, and I kept kicking myself and wondering why this has happened again… and I think it’s because I only buy it when it’s on sale, and it hasn’t been on sale as often, so my two bales run out before the next sale. Girls might be using more too, but the frequency of purchase definitely contributes. I need to run to my secondary (for a number of things) but I’ll also be grabbing an extra bale of TP out of deep storage.

Our usage patterns for a lot of things have shifted with time and changes in our lives. I’m not making the kids’ lunches anymore, so I haven’t bought peanut butter in a long time. Same for white bread. D2 is making her own ramen so I’m not making soup for her. Kraft mac and cheese consumption is way down… take a look at your assumptions and see if they still are a good match for your real usage. Adjust as needed.

Today I’ll be doing some more domestic bliss, and household errands, as well as picking up TP and dropping stuff off at my secondary location. Got kid pickup duties in the afternoon too. Might hit the HEB and see if there is any meat on sale, and get D2 some eggnog. Normal stuff. Auction stuff will happen too, and I’ve got a few things I still need to get for my party this weekend. Busy day.

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Whilst in the midst of your ordinary everyday stuff today, take a minute to consider this day in 1941. People all over the world went to bed with the world in one condition in their minds. They woke up and everything had changed. Plenty of people saw US involvement in the war coming. Plenty of people from individuals to companies to the government worked for or against our seemingly inevitable involvement. Almost universally I bet they thought they would have more time. Despite all the time they’d already had.

It’s my contention that we are living through one of those times in the world where everything changes. Not all at once, and not in obvious ways, but the world of 1950 was completely different from the world that rang in the century. Most of that change happened in a very short time, from ~1911 to ~1946. And you could argue that the big chunk happened in an even shorter period between those years. We know change is coming. We think it’s probably gonna be bad change for a while, but we hope it will get better. It’s likely to be very disruptive to the way things have been for all of our lives.

Do what you can to ease your way through this coming disruption. That’s what I’m prepping for now, the local or regional disaster will happen but they will have to be considered against the bigger picture of the complete realignment of the world order. Be flexible, be cautious, be wary, and be as prepared as you can think of ways to be.

And stack. It’s easy and likely won’t hurt.

nick

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Wed. Dec. 6, 2023 – on this day not much special happened.

Cool and clear, again, and still. Nice in other words. This is winter in Houston. Some rain coming though, just not sure when. Long range forecast has us clear through Thursday or Friday at least.

Spent yesterday doing errands and work. Did my kid chauffeuring in the morning and afternoon. Got to my client’s and swapped some gear. The switch I picked doesn’t seem to work in the application. The goal is to get internet and internal net to the remote driveway gate. I used a pair of ubiquiti AC5’s in “cable replacement mode” for the wireless link between the house and the gate, but I need to provide PoE for the AC5 and I need a small rugged switch there to connect the AC5 and the gate company’s hardware, and provide a future upgrade port for a camera, also PoE. I was using a NanoSwitch, which is 4 ports of PoE passthru. The one I was using had a dead port from a lightning strike so I wanted to replace it.

Enter the Flex mini… a 5 port switch, powered by PoE and providing 4 ports of PoE… Seems perfect, and it is smaller and cheaper than the Nano, and part of the unified management system. (ubiquiti has two main management systems, UISP and UniFi, no idea why, but most of the deployed gear at this site is UniFi and it is automagic… and simplifies deployment and management – when it works.) So the Flex looks like a good fit. Except it isn’t. UniFi gear has to be “adopted” by the management console (another piece of gear running EdgeOS and uses a browser as a GUI) before it’s anything but a lump. In other words, the AC5 provides the connection back to the network, but the switch isn’t a switch until AFTER it sees and joins the network…

When I figured that out, I took the switch inside, connected it to the network, adopted it, made sure it was configured to have PoE on every port, took it back out to the gate, hooked it all up and >>>>> Nothing. AC5 still not powered. The f-ing switch is too dumb (by being too smart) to turn on the PoE and enabling the gear that provides its network backhaul. So I add a PoE injector to power the AC5, and connect it to the switch, and NOW everything is fine. But it feels kludge-y and the additional injector is another point of failure in the enclosure, and it’s an example of someone being too clever by half.

At some point, I’ll go back to a new NanoSwitch, even if I can’t manage it with the same tool. It’s a cleaner solution. It occurs to me that I might not have the issues if I actually was trained on the gear choices but as my career winds down, that is less and less likely.

Someone asked yesterday about extending their wifi a little bit, and this is clearly overkill for that. I am happy with a netgear wifi extender at home. It plugs into a wall outlet for power, and it works to extend my wifi into the back bedroom with a good signal. It needs to be rebooted every couple of months, but other than that, once configured it just keeps working. It also has an ethernet port to provide a wired connection to the wifi for older hardware. Using APs with mesh linking and backhaul is another more involved option.

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Today I’ll do a couple of auction pickups and some shopping for us and for my party duties. With collecting the kids from school, that will eat my day.

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Btw, anyone else have an ulcer/cold sore/fever blister/painful crack on their lip that is unusual for them, along with cold or flu symptoms? My client’s wife has the same symptoms I’ve been having this week, right down to the sore lip. IDK if this is related, something new going around, or just coincidence, so I’m asking the group.

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Take this time as the gift it is, and keep preparing. Stacking is preparing…and it’s easy.

nick

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Tues. Dec. 5, 2023 – and I’m off…

Cool and clear today. Should be a nice day. It was very nice yesterday but I’m not feeling like doing anything outdoors when my head is draining through my nose. Today I’ve got no choice.

Spent most of yesterday doing auction things. I really wanted to get a bunch of stuff in an auction before Christmas. I also spent some time fixing some stuff. I did get to my auctioneer and dropped off about 6 tubs of stuff. A drop in the bucket, but the mightiest river is nothing but drops, right??

Made some slow cooker carnitas for dinner, portioned and vac sealed the other 6 pounds of pork shoulder for later, did a load of laundry, picked up both kids from school, and cleaned parts of the house. I’m a regular domestic terror…

Today I’ve got to get D2 to her orthodontist, then I’m headed to my client’s house to do some minor stuff. I’m hoping to get out of there before the end of the day and get some shopping in. I’ve still got stuff to get together for the non-prepping hobby Christmas party I’m co-hosting this weekend. Don’t want to leave that to the last minute.

At some point I need to figure out a Christmas gift for my wife too.

… don’t falter…

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The question for the day is “how do you dress?” Not in the traditional tailor way, but in the “what do you wear when you leave the house way”.

I’d bet money that most of the people here are wearing the same stuff, sometimes literally, they’ve been wearing for the last 20 or more years. I’d bet that you are pretty set in your routines, have a closet full of clothes, and mostly wear the same few outfits. You might have “work” vs “home” vs “dressed up” but I bet the range is pretty narrow.

I realized I don’t have any blue jeans. NO jeans in any color in fact. I might have mentioned that here recently because I picked up a couple of pairs at the Goodwill. Why would I do that if I haven’t worn any in over 20 years? Well, I’ve been giving it some thought lately.

For a long time I’ve treated clothes as a uniform, or more accurately as a costume to be worn to match what I was doing. Working in a corporate environment? Tan or black Dockers, logo’d golf shirt. Doing construction work in that environment? Cargo pants, collared shirt over t-shirt. Corporate training or live event outdoors? Tan shorts, logo’d golf shirt… No t shirts. “We do not wear T shirts, because we are not T shirt guys, and don’t want to be paid like T shirt guys.” That was a lesson from one of the first bosses I had doing all sorts of temporary labor in the entertainment field. It’s a variation of “dress for the job you want,not the job you have.” It served me well over the years.

Since I no longer run in the rat race, I dress only for me. And yet… I dress pretty consistently. Cargo shorts or pants, so I can carry a bunch of stuff. T shirt under a casual collared shirt to hide my EDC. Shirt must have a collar and a pocket for my glasses… which give an excuse for the shirt, which is really there as a “cover garment” as the trainers say. Clip knife front pocket strong hand side, FLASHLIGHT rear pocket weak hand side, decent shoes, sturdy watch…

The main difference between what I’m wearing and the tacktical tommy is I’m wearing Wrangler cargo pants and not high speed tactical pants, my watch is simpler, and my beard isn’t as glorious… but I still have the look. Less so now that my mustache is growing, and my beard (goatee really) isn’t very ‘operator’, and definitely less so when I’ve got my old man hat on, but still, the ‘tells’ are there. My bearing is also noticeable, not as twitchy as a cop or operator, but still pretty alert compared to most people. Head up and looking around, certainly. I tell myself this is by design, to be open to meeting other like minded individuals, and to fit in with that culture, but it’s really because I’m comfortable dressing this way.

Given all that, I’ve been advocating that people might want to build out their wardrobe a bit. And I have over time.

You might want some oversized clothes. They will disguise your relative health and robustness when you go to the .gov food line for your handouts. They can cover a vest, or a second layer of clothing, or some contraband if things get really sporty… they can disguise the gender of your loved ones, who will be particularly vulnerable as rule of law, and social norms collapse.

You might want some clothes in patterns that will work as camo without being actual camo. There are usually a TON of suitable shirts at my local Goodwill store. It’s more about a pattern and combination of colors than WHAT the pattern is composed of. You might even want a set or two of clothes that are smaller than your normal size if you expect to get lean when the lean times come- although I’d guess that most of us already have clothes we no longer fit, but could again after a certain amount of ‘austerity.’

You will want your clothes to look well worn, but you might have occasion to dress up or down. Looking shabby can help you fit in better in some places, while the khakis and golf shirt are like a ghillie suit in other environments. Fitting in and NOT drawing attention are your normal goals. Grey man isn’t about the color, it’s about not standing out. Some places that will mean camo, and lots of it. Not .mil or surplus anymore, but faded realtree is pretty common outside of big cities. Carhart jackets, ball caps from different companies (I’d avoid teams unless you are really a fan, and the local gangs don’t use the colors or logos), and maybe even T shirts might be the uniform of the day in other places.

Depending on your goals and plans, you might want to take it even further. There are many costumes available in thrift stores. Most of the time, all you need are tan or black pants, and the right logo’d golf shirt. Delivery companies, local utilities, counter and wait staff for local and national food chains or retail stores, all have signature looks and they all end up on the racks at the thrifts… don’t forget footwear, most of the time black sneakers will work. People tend to see the uniform and not the person, which can certainly be a plus in some circumstances. You might just want styles or colors you don’t normally wear, for those occasions that you don’t want to wear something that will go back into your closet when you are done doing whatever you do… I’m sure there are people who went to a rally or event and wish they’d worn some clothes that they don’t normally wear, and maybe a hat and a face mask…

You might want a high visibility safety vest and a hard hat. Don’t forget your clipboard, gloves clipped to your belt, and even better, a walkie talkie… that outfit will let you walk into almost anywhere…

And for a pro level tip, sometimes you WANT to stand out with a clothing choice. When I’m working an event, I often wear a distinctive hat or shirt. People that need to find me can be told to “look for the guy in the bright yellow shirt” or “the guy wearing the hat with bunny ears” (this was a community Easter egg hunt)… or conversely you might want to get people to focus on and remember an easily changed item of clothing, so that someone else might be looking for “the guy in the Cubs hat and white hoodie”, long after you’ve left them in the trash. Current security cameras and VMS or Video Management Systems recognize and tag images so that it’s possible to find all the video around the office building of “a man wearing a red hat” so use the strategy best suited for your activity.

It all comes down to having two goals when thinking of your wardrobe as a costume. You want to fit in with the other people around you most of the time. That takes observation, and mimicry. Other times you might want to project a certain image, looking like someone you are not. That is mostly having the right visual cues, and an appropriate demeanor. Both goals take a bit of preparation and observation, and I’d say a certain amount of practice too. This is a great time to start, when the stakes are not as high as they might be later. But even if things don’t get worse, not standing out can save you from becoming a victim of crime, can easy your way through life, and can even save you money and time.

So, why did I buy some jeans? Because I realized I didn’t have any pants that weren’t “me”. I didn’t have anything that was out of character for my everyday persona, that people are familiar with and recognize. I thought it might be prudent and useful to have something that didn’t say “that looks like Nick”. And I bought jeans because they are versatile, common, and ordinary– unlike parachute pants, or tweed dress slacks…

Take a look at your closet. If your circumstances changed, if the world changes, if you had to shop in different places, walk through different areas, ride a bike or a bus, could you dress in a way that didn’t draw attention, that didn’t mark you as an outsider, or a potential victim? If you wanted to be out and about but still remain (relatively) anonymous, could you? If not, get busy. You have some shopping to do.

nick

(and stacking)

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Mon. Dec. 4, 2023 – Got some catching up to do, and still feel snotty…

Cool and damp, mid 60s to low 70s, and overcast. Yesterday was cool enough that I switched to heat in the house. It was clear most of the day though.

I spent the day cleaning the house at half speed. Not really feeling up to anything demanding, but I can clean and put away and sort. So that’s what I did. D2 made some Tollhouse cookies, and I ate them, but that was later.

Today I’m hoping to get a load dropped off at my auctioneer. I’ve got about 5 bins sitting in the foyer, and a couple more in my storage unit that are ready to go. I keep finding stuff as I move and organize. There is a LOT of inventory kicking around. I’m hoping I have time to do about 6 ebay listings too. I’ve got that many pairs of men’s dress shoes ready for sale, and getting them out of my bedroom will make everyone happy. There are a lot of other things to list too, but most need to be tested, or cleaned before listing, and that is just more than I want to do today.

This cold is slowing me down. Lots of running nose, some sneezing and the occasional cough, coupled with the achy “sick” feeling, and I’d prefer to sleep all day. Can’t. Got too much to do, but I’m not busting azz either.

Fortunately nothing is especially pressing today. Tomorrow I’ve got a site visit planned at my client’s house to replace a switch and PoE injector, and do some housekeeping with the system. I’m not pulling cable and hanging new cams, not this visit. Like my own houses, there is always something that needs doing…

Do what you can when you can. Try to keep up. And stack.

nick

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Sun. Dec. 3, 2023 – feeling poorly. Not a lot of work will be getting done.

Cool and supposed to be clear for the next couple of days. It did get pretty overcast with some very heavy mist – almost drizzle yesterday.

Did my main errand yesterday which was mailing an ebay sale. That led to an interesting and very unusual for me encounter which I noted in comments yesterday.

I hit a couple of yard sales on the way home, but other than two 1TB Western Digital external drives, $4 each, didn’t find much. It’s the season, even if the weather was bad for it.

Watched a couple of auctions closing as I was “brain barely turning over” for most of the afternoon and evening. I have the luxury of being sick and sorta letting that take over.

I did do a little auction sorting. Very little.

Today will likely be very similar, with some more activity but only close to home. Low intensity, low thought activity, with a Kleenex box handy. I hate being sick.

Well, I had grand plans. But it’s always something. I think it’s better to recover than to push through and extend the period of low performance, if one has the time to do so. And I mostly do.

Stack something this week, even if it’s just rest and recuperation.

nick

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Sat. Dec. 2, 2023 – hmm, should I mess around, or do work?

Cool, but forecast says no rain, so that is a plus. And cool means mid-60s or a bit more. It was actually warmer than that yesterday, but the rain made it seem colder. Cool drizzle on your head and neck just seems cooler for some reason.

I ended up taking the Expedition and doing my pickups. It wasn’t ideal for some of the items, but they fit, and didn’t mess it up. I’m glad I did because the rain started about half way across town. It also means I didn’t get to drop off anything at my auctioneer. I did stack up several bins of stuff near the door, so at least it’s ready to go when I finally get the word.

One of my stops was an auctioneer who has sold a bunch of stuff for me in the past who told me to check back with him in a couple weeks to see if he could take a couple of pallets of more “industrial” stuff. Well, he said he’s too busy still. Bankruptcy business is picking up. He’s jammed. Good for him, less good for me. Sh!tty for the businesses.

Speaking of, I saw a couple more places closed up, James Coney Island (hot dogs and fast food) and another Jack in the Box. The news is full of bank branch closings but I haven’t noticed any in our area. We have some storefronts that are vacant, and some ‘one off’ restaurants that can’t seem to get open, or stay open, but I’m not seeing widespread commercial vacancy nearby. Yet. LOTS of multifamily housing still going up though, and storage facilities.

Today I have a local pickup to do, some stuff to move around, and continued auction prep activities. If it is dry and I’m home and I have time, I might add some Christmas decoration. Between the dreary weather, and the monochrome color scheme in the neighborhood, I’m suddenly feeling like adding some color. Maybe not what I did last year, but something. We’ll see. Lots of real work to do.

First though, I’m sleeping in. Sniffly with some sneezing and I’d like to get a jump on it with some extra sleep.

Trying to keep my health up with the weather and everything that is going through the schools and workplaces at this time of year is proving to be more difficult.

Stacking stuff, as long as it’s not new purchases from stores, is getting easier. Seize the opportunity if it presents itself. Otherwise, proceed with caution. But do stack…

nick

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Fri. Dec. 1, 2023 – countdown to Christmas starts now!

Cool and wet. It rained all day yesterday pretty much without a break. It varied between light misty drizzle and heavy drizzle. Late afternoon temps got into the high 60s and maybe the low 70s for a bit. I’m hoping today will be a bit drier.

I was feeling … odd. And since my plans were altered by the rain, and since I felt unwell, I went back to sleep for a bit. I hadn’t slept well, and I was really tired. Woke later, and had stuff to do, of course. So I got started on that.

Mostly did auction stuff, getting stuff out of the attic for the auction, and I even shipped an item I sold on ebay. I thought I’d killed all my listings, but apparently not. I’m $5 richer! I also managed to get a couple of “if I can” jobs done. I like to have some projects sitting around, ready to work on so I can do it if I have time or inclination. Yesterday I grabbed one.

I picked up an aircleaner/ionizer at goodwill for a few bucks, mainly because it was filthy. I tested it there and smelled the characteristic ozone smell, so I knew it worked. Similar models on amazon are $150-180. I took a little time and disassembled it, cleaned it thoroughly, and put it back together. It runs well, and from the smell, is working perfectly. It will deodorize a big room if needed, claiming up to 3500 square feet. In any case, it went into the attic until needed. That got it fixed, and out of the foyer where it was sitting and waiting for attention. I love little jobs like that that I can use as fill in for my day.

I also spent some time sorting and building out Elenco Snap Circuit kits. I buy them and pick up the parts at the Goodwill bins whenever I see them. At the bins the parts are essentially free, but even buying the missing parts on ebay or through the manufacturer site, they aren’t expensive, for the common parts anyway. I did order some things from their site, mainly fans and motor cogs, as the fans are always missing, and the drive cog on the motor is often broken. I put about a dozen kits together and will put them in the auction. They sell pretty well, especially around Christmas, even as used sets. I’ve got a half dozen more without boxes that are just waiting for the fans. They probably won’t go in the auction this season. I like putting the kits together. It satisfies my desire to save stuff from the crusher, helps a kid learn electronics, saves someone some money, and makes me good money for the effort and time involved. Doing a dozen at once is fairly efficient.

I wouldn’t call it a side hustle, because I only do the work twice a year, but it is something I know and know will pay off. The percentage ROI is big, even if the absolute money involved isn’t huge. Do enough of that and it adds up.

That is true of a lot of things, and a lot of preps too. Do a little bit of this, and a bit of that, look for places you can add value easily and effectively, and keep doing it. It will add up over time.

And your stacks will grow, as will your skills and knowledge.

And that is a good thing.

nick

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Thur. Nov. 30, 2023 – The best time to plant x is 5/10/15 years ago…

Cool to cold, grey, with a chance of rain. Avoided rain yesterday, which was nice, but I don’t know if we can avoid it today. I’m still hoping so as I’ve still got things to do with the pickup truck’s open bed.

I was able to do my pickups yesterday but no drop off. I’ve now got a ton of stuff to go to the BOL, and no way to do so this weekend without a lot of “messing around.” Wife will be out of town, so I have the kids with me, so I can’t go up in the pickup. Her Honda is WAY overdue for a timing belt replacement, we both suddenly have bad feelings about driving it on a 300+ mile trip, way out in the country and far from home… the service is scheduled, and she’ll drive it as needed locally until then. Just don’t want to take the chance of blowing up the motor out in the woods. That leaves taking the Expy and a trailer. Which I will consider for the next day or two.

Today will be me moving stuff around and getting ready for the weekend, whatever that ends up bringing. I will try again to get at least a few things dropped off, and if I can’t, I’ll stack them with several other bins, ready for next week.

It’s not like I don’t have stuff to do at home this weekend if I don’t get up to the BOL. I’ve got plenty, including stuff that got pushed from previous weekends. Outdoor stuff, indoor stuff, ‘skull sweat’ stuff… maybe even fun stuff.

And there is the stuff the post title alludes to. It’s a joke, but also a truism, and SteveF reminded me of it this week. At it’s base, it’s an admonition to DO THE THING that needs doing. And to KEEP DOING THE THING that needs doing. Do it NOW and you will find in the future that you DID it 5 years ago, or 10 years ago. Planting a tree is an incredibly optimistic thing. It’s a statement that you spend some of your limited time and resources on something you may never benefit from. It’s the embodiment of your belief that there WILL BE a future.

Get out there and plant a tree. Start the training course. Take something apart and figure out how to fix it. Not all the planting is literal… Some day in the future, you will be glad you did.

nick

(oh, and stack. Always.)

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Wed. Nov. 29, 2023 – more stuff, more stuff to do

Cool again, some chance of rain. I’m hoping not in my neighborhood, as there is stuff in the back of my truck I’d like to keep dry. We’ll see what happens. Cool seems pretty certain. It stayed cool yesterday, even in the sun, which was playing hide and seek depending on what part of town I was in.

And once again I found myself in far too much of town. Not quite as much as Monday, but more than I’d like. Over a hundred miles of driving in any case. And now the bed of my pickup is full with stuff that should go to the BOL, but since I’m not going for a while, I have to stash it somewhere. Or maybe I SHOULD go up this weekend…

Today I’ve got one pickup that I couldn’t do yesterday. I waited an hour plus, and never got the stuff. Today I’ve got an appointment, so we’ll see if it goes any better. My guess is not much. This seller doesn’t seem to care about the customers at all. And there are other sketchy things about them, but nothing you can point to with any certainty. Someone said they thought about 75% of small businesses were really money laundry operations, and the auction reseller business is pretty well suited to it, if that’s your thing. It’s funny that when I was describing my experience to another auctioneer, the first thing they said was “money laundry”…

So I’ll do a pickup, a drop off if I can, and I’ll find someplace to unload my truck for a few days.

Daughter has an appointment in the late afternoon anyway, so that’s a hard end to my day.

Hope I get the things I need to do, done.

I hope you do too. Including stacking…

nick

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Tues. Nov. 28, 2023 – my brain, my poor little brain…

Cold, but warming. No rain today but it’s on the way. I don’t think yesterday got above 65F as the sun got hidden behind some overcast before noon, and never made it back out. Today might be the same.

I spent Monday driving all over town doing pickups. Did a big circle, mostly just outside the Beltway, which is the second ring road around Houston. 99, or the Grand Parkway is the third and isn’t complete yet, but where it is done, it is living up to author Joel Garreau’s prediction/theory/observation. In his book Edge Cities, which I recommend as a very well written look at how and why things ACTUALLY get built, he observes that modern mini-cities develop at the intersection of a ring and spoke road outside of a traditional big city. You can see it happening here in Houston, in almost real time.

Anyway, I did a big circle around Houston, only cutting through town on the east side instead of following the circle- mainly because there is water and garbage dump on that side, so the outer ring isn’t being built. It’s also massively built out with petrochemical processing plants, and they aren’t going anywhere.

I’ve got some more pickups to do today, but not in such a smooth circle. I’ll be out west in Katy, then south east in Dickinson. Then I’ll head home. It’s more of a diagonal line, that will combine several stops, but still seems like a lot of wasteful travel. I just couldn’t get my Dickinson pickup into my schedule yesterday so I will be retracing some of my steps. Also what I didn’t count on yesterday was about $30 in tolls. It’s easy to forget you are being charged with the autopay and open road tolling. I’ll try to take that into account today and save a couple of bucks if I can.

These pickups are some spare parts, some Christmas stuff, some domestic home use stuff, and a few items for the BOL.

In between yesterday’s running around I got some domestic bliss in. Laundry, picking up the kitchen, folding clothes. All the un-glamorous stuff that makes the household run.

Wife is still feeling poorly, and D1 is starting to complain she doesn’t feel well either. I’ve been overdue to change the HVAC filters and I think that might contribute. I feel it when I come home. Someone stopped the amazon subscription for the filters that would remind me to change them. Someone. Not naming any names, but IDK why they stopped, or why they won’t start them up again. There are mysteries in the everyday…. I have purchased some in the auctions in the mean time, and will be picking them up today. I’ve seen how nasty the current filters are, and I think it can’t hurt anyone’s health to get them changed ASAP. The red shirts don’t just die on away parties, they keep the dang ship running… when they’re doing the job. Dang red tunic looks terrible on me.

Filters. Wiper blades. Lubricants. Cleaners. All sorts of expendables. Do you have enough stacked?

If not, why not? Stack them up…

nick

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