Category: lakehouse

Maybe today will be beautiful. It was really nice at sunset last night, after a day of light drizzly rain and overcast. By dinnertime it was drying out and clearing up. By sunset, the sky was clear, and the sun was a gorgeous golden/red/orange. If the clear holds, today will be very nice.

At the BOL, they have been getting a lot of rain, and upstream in the watershed they got even more. The lake is up, and even the main road is flooded. There is an alternate route but it’s longer and less well traveled. Depending on where you need to go, having that main road closed can add quite a bit of time to get to town.

My fishing buddy called to let me know his grandson died yesterday. 22 years old, and apparently just dropped dead. Between his and his wife’s cancer treatments, adding the death of a young man in a close family is a real blow. He would appreciate your prayers.

I did get some stuff done yesterday. One pickup. Dinner into the crockpot. Kid to doc for required physicals. Kid to Costco Optical to get new eyeglasses. Two loads of domestic bliss. Dinner. Kids to the gym. Kid to her activity. Kid home from activity….

Today I’ve got pickups. All over town too. It’s gonna be a juggle to hit them all in any kind of efficient way, because the northern ones might be only in the afternoon, and the southern ones might be all day, but there will be ONE that is in the middle or doesn’t quite work with the others in the area. Still waiting to see if I won anything that I haven’t counted on yet.

I think I’m not going to the BOL this weekend. W is going to a conference next week and would have to come home early. One kid is flying to visit with grandma, the other is volunteering at the local high school in a program for kids and STEM. I’m still not feeling 100%, the jobs I want to do at the BOL are mostly outdoors and not doable with all the rain, and I’ve got a ton to do here. And there is Father’s Day to consider. I’ll do that at home and it will be easier for everyone.

I will be taking my purchases and stacking some, using others to make improvements, and putting some away for later. It’s kinda the definition of prepping.

Get yourself ready for summer and the hurricane/civil war season. It’s coming.

Stack.

nick

Hot and humid today, on the unofficial start of Summer. It was steamy all day yesterday even after the rain cleared out. Dunno if we’ll get rain today, but it would be nice to have a nice day.

Flags at half staff until noon, then raised to full, as we spend the morning remembering those who fell in the fight, and the afternoon celebrating what they fought for. Friends and family. It’s always that in the end.

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I spent yesterday chipping away at the list. Some additional items ‘spontaneously’ got added, and were dealt with. I did get the grass cut, and trimmed, and the debris blown clear. I pruned trees. I even bagged the peach tree with a giant mesh bag that is supposed to keep insects and critters from eating your fruit. We’ll see if any survive to be harvested this year. Most years the critters spoil all the fruit before it ripens.

Spent a few minutes talking to one of the neighbors here who lives in Houston and is a bit more prepper minded than most. He just installed a solar system with two Tesla Powerwalls for storage. It’s some sort of leased thing, where he pays a fixed rate, which was less than his utility bill. Don’t know the details, but it sounds like more of the financial shenanigans that most solar companies are dealing in, except that he gets the storage too. He’s just done it, and I’ll be interested in his results and happiness in a few months or a year.

I’m not sure I would want a big battery next to the house… but there is an appeal to having the system.

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Went for a short cruise around the lake with my wife. She enjoyed it, as it was nice and cool with the wind after a day working.

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Today we’ll be doing things to get ready to head home, and I still have to put solar panels somewhere, and unload my truck. It’s gonna be a move this and move that kind of a day, I think. They feel like just shuffling the deck chairs, but it is important. I found some things I’d brought up here while looking for other stuff in the garage, which drove home the need to properly put stuff away. If you can’t find it, do you really have it?

Stack stuff. Learn stuff. USE the stuff.

nick

Sure to be hot and humid today with a chance of rain. We’ll see what we really get. Rain would be good for the land and the lake, but not so much fun for us.

It took me a while to get going yesterday, after rising at a reasonable time, getting out of the house took a while. Loading up the truck took some sweat and time. If I didn’t have a deadline for a pickup, I probably would have left even later. I did make my pickup with 15 minutes to spare. And it included 5 gallons of diesel fuel when I thought I had just gotten empty cans. I will move that to a proper yellow jug today. The rest of the day is in yesterday’s comments.

I’ve got a full slate today, with “unload the truck and put stuff away”, “cut the grass”, and “investigate a slow plumbing leak” leading the list. Freaking indoor plumbing. It’s one of the miracles of the modern age, but sure can be a pain to maintain. You never know what you’ll find when you open a wall…

But I’m hoping for a nail through pex and a very slow leak.

There will need to be some organizing of sheds and a lot of stacking stuff in the shed, with a bit of swapping out winter for summer gear involved too.

There is always more to do. Always more to stack. The stacks make it easier now, they’ll make it possible later…

Get busy.

nick

Hot and humid, probably. We did get a front that came through late in the day, and some wind with a little cooling, but IDK if it will really make a difference. All the rain missed me, and it was 101F in the driveway at 5pm… I think today will be similar. Forecast for the next couple days might have some rain in it.

That would be nice if we weren’t at the BOL for the long weekend.

I did get stuff done yesterday. All my scheduled pickups went well. I managed to get the kid where she needed to be on time. Picked her up too. She went to see an R rated movie with her girlfriend and regretted it. Too much realistic gore and she was really freaked out by the audience laughing at the gruesome deaths. Yeah kid, there are sick people in the world, and they get encouraged by the mass media. Desensitized to violence for years. It’s not an accident, it’s too pervasive.

Today I’m sleeping in a bit, then I will load up. W and the Ds will head up late morning, I’ve got a pickup on the way that I can’t do before afternoon. I’m hoping the solar install stuff gets here before my departure too.

I wouldn’t mind a little rain, if it happens overnight, but I don’t want to spent the whole weekend indoors. However, it’s not up to me, so I’ll just deal with it.

And I’ll be working to improve my situation. Like always. And probably stacking something.

‘Cuz you know that’s the right thing to do, right?

nick

Cool morning followed by hot afternoon. Summer isn’t quite here, but it’s close. It’s still chilly and damp at night, and the fire is welcome.

Spent most of Saturday doing boat related things. Got a few very small things taken care of, and cooked a special dinner for D2’s birthday celebration. The two extra kids ate, but I don’t think they were really down for eating lamb rib chops. Pity because they were really good. W did the side dishes and they were all good too.

Today the family is headed home early while I stay to wrap up. I’ll also try to diagnose and fix the drive issue with my lawn tractor. If I get it fixed, I’ll mow before heading home.

Then it’s a week of doing home stuff which I can’t put off any more.

There’s always more to do. Don’t get complacent.

Stack.

nick

Probably starting out around 70F and getting warmer, maybe into the high 80sF… and for sure it will be damp. It was 72F and condensing when I went to bed. Apparently lots of places got lots of rain yesterday. I never saw any, but I did see wet roads. My weather station here said we bot 1.75 inches in the last couple of days. Lake is a few inches above normal too.

I completed almost all of my tasks yesterday. I didn’t get to the Lowe’s on the way up, so I’m missing a couple of things that would be useful, but I’ll either manage, or do something else. I’m now a boat owner… although it’s not yet in the water. That will happen later today.

This weekend is birthday stuff for D2, so I’ll be doing some special cooking today. And it’s the annual resident “clean up the common areas” day and member meeting. We have an expired POA not an active HOA, so it’s all voluntary at this point, but there is still a male Karen who thinks he can dictate behavior. He can’t. He still tries every year. On the plus side, he pays more than his dues so that covers for some of the owners who choose not to pay. They still complain about the condition of the roads though. If you aren’t paying for the upkeep, it’s pretty arrogant to complain that the upkeep isn’t good enough…

I’ll be working to improve my situation, and I’ll be working on meatspace things too. Fitting into community takes work and time. There isn’t any shortcut either. If you expect to stay in place or to get to a BOL, you better be working the human factors now.

And stacking of course.

nick

Well, it rained last night, and the temp dropped, so I really don’t know what to expect today. Map showed our part of the world as clear of rain and storms. I’m hoping that is true, as I’ve got stuff to do that will be a lot easier if it’s dry. And the weekend will be a lot more fun for the kids if it’s not raining. If it’s not dry, I’ll deal.

Got my buddy loaded up, and on the road before noon. He’s got a long trip ahead of him in a very heavy vehicle. At least it was a new truck. That should be more comfortable than some old clunker. Then I rushed to meet my wife at the boat place, and we bought the boat I’d looked at last week. Yeah, I know the joke, but if I can get a couple of years between the two happy days, it will have been worth it. Remind me if I b!tch.

Hit a couple of pickups after that,then came home to kid stuff. Oh, and snuck in a Costco stop for meat and treats for the birthday girl and my wife.

Today I’ve got to install the hitch receiver from the parts truck onto my Ranger. I’ve been putting it off, but I’ll feel better pulling the boat with a better hitch. Then it’s take a load of stuff to storage, do some pickups, and head toward the BOL. Pickup the boat on the way…

I can only hope it will be that straight forward. I expect that it will not. Rain complicates all of that and will cause some rearranging…and swearing on my part.

I’ll let you all know how it goes.

In the mean time, keep working to improve your situation. And stack.

nick