Category: lakehouse

Possibly cooler today with a chance of rain? It was only 75F when I went to bed, after another hot and humid day. I was still a little dehydrated after dinner so I stayed up until I got caught up with my intake.

I got a bunch of stuff done. Small things but they should make a difference. Got the utility closet in the garage framed in and sheathed. Cut out the last of the copper pipe from behind the water heater and insulated that wall. Made some adjustments to the garage door so it would close completely. It was leaving a 2″ gap at the top, which let in a lot of hot air and made it hard for the A/C units to cool the room. They should have a chance now. We’ll see how it goes.

Re-mowed the lawn to break up all the rows of cut grass. It was drying out but not blowing away and I don’t want the grass to die in stripes.

I got a late start, but it feels good to get some things off the list, even if they weren’t high priority.

Today I’m going to do some more stuff, and then I’ll head home later. Wife and kids are back home from their trip to see the grandparents.

I’m looking forward to having the pack back together.

I didn’t get to meet with the foundation guys this trip, so I’ll have to find a time to do that, but otherwise I feel pretty good about what I did get done.

Stacking the jobs, and stacking some small achievements.

Always be working. And stacking.

nick

Another hot humid day. More reason to find indoor stuff to do. I managed some outdoor stuff, and some mostly indoor stuff yesterday but still managed to get a bit dehydrated.

I tried for balance, and for cool down periods. I didn’t go in the sun at all. Still sweated more than I realized. I was working in the covered carport, and in the garage. I’ve got the airconditioners running in the garage, but they can’t get it down below about 81F when it is 100F out. You’d think that was good enough, but it’s still sweat dripping off your eyelashes if you do any real work.

Still, despite my complaints I did get real stuff done yesterday. And I managed to do a load of laundry in between other things. Domestic bliss, even here.

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Lots of doom pron in the Daily Mail about the stock market downturn yesterday. Dunno if it’s real, but it feels too early for the really big hit. 2008 played out over the weekend so it’s possible for big things to happen very suddenly… Keep your eyes open, and some cash on hand…

Having said that, I raided my ready precious for $800 to buy 4×4 posts for my dock project yesterday. I hope I don’t come to regret not having the cash.

Can’t time everything right, and the universe tends towards maximum perversity. It would suck to have the financial apocalypse this weekend. We’ve made preparations, but there is always more you can do, and you always want more time to do it.

With that in mind, stack some extra. Consider this weekend a wake up call that things are coming apart. They do that periodically. Don’t get caught lackin, get to stackin’…

nick

Hot and humid at the BOL today, although slightly less than Houston, if I get lucky. It was hot yesterday in Houston, and dripping wet. Just standing around outside had my shirt soaked with sweat. The humidity just makes it miserable. We’ll get more too, before the summer is done.

I spent the day doing pickups, and running errands before heading to the BOL to do some work. I had to hit Lowes for some lumber and plywood, and grabbed some closeout plumbing supplies too. I always check the clearance aisle and yesterday I hit paydirt. They had a bunch of sharkbite fittings marked down to 1/4 or 1/3 of retail. Since I’ll eventually need to finish my master bath remodel, I picked up a bunch of stuff.

Also swung by the chiropractor, and the HEB for some groceries. Nothing really good on sale at the HEB this visit.

I also dropped the dog off at a friend’s house for the week, and loaded up the truck. By the time I got all that done, and did the minimum housecleaning that would keep me alive when my wife gets back, it was after 10pm. Kinda late to be heading up, but I figured at least I’d be here in the morning.

And I’ve got a bunch of work to do. The grass is knee high. It’s gonna be slow going bushwhacking that. Then I’ll start looking at the list, with heavy weight given to tasks in the shade or in the house. I do not want to hurt myself in the heat.

Maybe I’ll find some time to write and AAR for the past two months. I did learn a few things.

Always be learning new things. And stacking the knowledge as well as the stuff.

nick

Cooler to start, but plenty hot later. Forecast says we’ll be in the clear after all the rain we’ve gotten, and I’m sure that will make the air hotten… or something like that. Rained gently off and on all day Sunday, so I stayed indoors and puttered.

I spent some time looking at laptops to find something to use at our upcoming convention for power point. I have a stack of lappys but one won’t boot, one has a black screen, one battery doesn’t charge… one is an atom based wimpy POS, and the others are win7 with ppt 2007 installed. I might have to use my new toughbook…

I did some more cleaning and organizing. I can now mostly walk in an L shape in my office… I pulled out two 3 foot stacks of books to take to the BOL and put on the shelf there. I’ve got another 6 foot to take there next trip too. I have a huge pile of stuff to take up there this week. I probably won’t be able to fit it all in the truck, but I’m going to try. It’s also been almost two months since I took anything to auction, so there is a bit of a pileup of that stuff too. I’ll get to it eventually.

Today I have some hobby stuff to do, then pickups, then send the females off to the east coast for a family visit. I’ll eventually head to the BOL but I have stuff that has to get done first.

There is always something that has to get done first…

Oh, and I have to hit the Lowes for materials before heading up too.

It’s a great life…

Stack some projects so you can keep yourself busy. And stack the stuff you need to do the projects. You’ll be glad you did 🙂

nick

Maybe a bit cooler? The national map shows chance of thunder storms for the next couple of days. We had several around Houston yesterday afternoon, but nothing at the microclimate my house is in… Had to water the plants.

Did a pickup, and drove around some to check on things. My secondary location is near my propane guy. My rent house isn’t too far from either. Checked on a friend’s house and shop. Got gas and LP gas. Cash money for the LP Gas, and only $12 per bottle. The swap a bottle was up to $29 if you needed to use a card, and most of them were probably sold out.

Pick up extra propane bottles when you see them. Yard and estate sales are where I got mine. If the bottle is out of date or in bad shape, everyone says the same thing, take it to HD or Lowes and swap it for a new one. It works. They have staff to refurb the bottles, if they are saveable and it’s cheaper than buying new.

One advantage of LP gas over gasoline is that it stores well. One disadvantage is there is less energy in it and it can cost more than gasoline. Life is full of tradeoffs, and both have a place in your preps. Lots of things use propane too.

We’ll see what today brings. I didn’t do any work on the trucks because of the sprinkles and threat of rain. Maybe I’ll get to that today. I don’t think I’ll be plumbing my gennie into my gas line unless it will run on a 1/2″ line. Anything bigger would mean taking my service apart and changing out pipes to add a bigger tap. Not sure I’m up for that. There is already a valved tap for 1/2″ pipe. I think it was probably for a patio grill. If I can find the manual for my gennie, I’ll see what it calls for for supply.

Always more to do.

Always something to stack.

nick