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Category: march to war

Sat. Sept 5, 2026 – headed to the BOL, eventually

Hot? Not as hot. Humid? Not as humid. Pretty dang close though would be my guess. The rain yesterday evening did cool things down a bit. It was 77F around 10pm. I think today will be damp and hot, if it’s not actually raining.

I spent yesterday morning doing office stuff, and afternoon doing auction pickups, with evening used for auction prep. Most of the time prepping was doing something with the movie posters I have. I’ve been buying super cheap frames for them, just really enough to keep them flat and make them easier to sell. So I took the time to put some in frames. A Harry Plopper promo poster, a Frozen lobby poster, and a Tatiana lobby poster all got some sort of frame. The Tatiana posters are actually cooler than the movie. I know people would prefer well framed posters ready to display, but that costs more money than I’m likely to make from the sales.

Goodwill and thrift stores are great for finding frames, sometimes even with mattes that work, but the lobby posters are a weird size, bigger than 24×36 in both directions. And they still cost more than I’d like to spend. Now, if I was doing them for myself, if I had a home theater, I’d do something a bit nicer. But I’m not. Hopefully it’ll be worth the time.

Today I’m loading up and heading to the BOL at some point. If it’s nice out, I may even leave before W and the kid. If not, I might delay and hope the weather clears. Either way, I’ll be there tonight.

And then start working on the list. Weather permitting.

Always something more to do… but I like fixing things. It would be nice to make progress instead of falling farther behind.

Stack what you need. Use it to improve your situation.

nick

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Fri. Sept. 4, 2026 – already Friday, and getting started on Septiembre…

Still hot and wet. Only 80F when I went to bed, but the day was pretty warm. If it hadn’t rained buckets, it would have been even hotter. My personal weather stations said 0.62″ of rain, but it sure felt like more. Even the BOL got some rain. Today should be more of the same.

Did my dentist appointment. Got a cleaning and fluoride treatment. Kid had two small soft spots we’ll be addressing in a couple of weeks. Then I came home, ate, and crashed out for a while. I’ll have to do the pickups today instead. Fortunately, all my pickups today are near each other.

Then I really should go by the shop and get another load ready for auction. If I head to the BOL for the long weekend, I’ll need stuff to be ready and waiting as the auctioneer only takes new stuff in on Tuesdays. I’ve got stuff, just not in bins ready to deliver.

And I will need to get stuff together for the BOL too. There is always stuff to take up there to facilitate whatever work I’m doing. And to upgrade the BOL.

Always be working. Or at least able to arm wave whatever you’re doing to had SOME relationship to working… and sssttttaaaacccckkkk…..

nick

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Thur. Sept. 3, 2026 – fang cleaning today

Hot, still, and overcast, without the relief of rain. Probably. It is possible we’ll get some rain and that will help. It was sticky and hot all day yesterday though.

Did some office stuff then did 2 pickups. I wanted to do 4, but left the house too late. Got the tv installed at the house. I thought it was nice not having it for a couple of weeks, but W was insistent.

Today youngest child and I have dentist appointments in the morning, so I’ll probably end up having a productive day. I’ll be up, dressed, and out, so might as well keep that momentum, right?

Always be working. Always stacking. and your health is a prep.

nick

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Wed. Sept. 2, 2026 – so not the weekend? and not a hurricane…

But still hot and humid. Even mid 80sF can wear you out. And it was hotter than that yesterday. The overcast did help, and the intermittent showers probably cooled some areas down. I didn’t see any widespread rain or even a thundershower in Houston, but I might have missed something localized. I only saw a few smatters of rain, and widely dispersed between my house and my client’s.

I did some office stuff and then went to my client’s house. Found and fixed a couple of issues, but nothing definitive. I am leaning toward corroded cables and bad connections at this point. I hit them with deOxIT and we’ll monitor the situation. I will pickup a spare and I’m installing a Ring doorbell at the gate, so that will be another paid day. After that, it felt like today was a weekend and I had to remind myself that I have kids to get to school today.

So normal day for me today. Some auction pickups, and maybe a dump run. Maybe pull my main pc and replace the DVD drive. The bluray drive got here yesterday. There’s always more to do.

And always more to stack.

nick

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Tues. Sept. 1, 2026 – soon it will be holiday season and Winter.

Still got some way to go with the weather though. Hot and humid again yesterday, although the cloud cover kept the high down a bit. Only mid 90sF. Supposedly we’re gonna get some weather today, possibly a tropical storm or even a small hurricane. Nothing to get as worked up about as the people seem to be though. Our ISD sent several emails about “monitoring the situation” and even my auctions sent emails about possible alternative pickup days if the weather is unsafe to move around in. Seems like massive overreaction to me.

I didn’t get to my client yesterday so that is my main focus today. I spent the day doing office stuff, with a little scrapping and grocery shopping at the end of the day.

Today, I’ll be driving around, and maybe even making a pickup or two if my site visit doesn’t take all day.

Earning money is a prep…

And I’m a prepper.

Stack.

nick

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Mon. Aug. 31, 2026 – another week starts as the month ends

And it’s still bloody hot. Slightly less humid, which is a blessing, and maybe a couple of degrees cooler. That might be due to the intermittent cloud cover though. Still no real rain here or at the BOL. Today is more of the same, and will be until finally Summer on the Gulf Coast ends.

Did some stuff yesterday, primarily selling one piece of specialized hobby equipment that I probably was never going to use. The guy who bought it seemed genuinely happy to have it and had plans to put it to use in his new hobby. That actually felt pretty good. Then I stayed at the shop and did some stuff that should pay dividends later. It was supposed to be a short term solution, but it’s somehow been over a year and I’m no where near getting out of there. I just have to work harder at making it pay.

Today I’ve got some stuff to do. I’ve got scrap and trash in the pickup truck, but might hold off on that and head to my client’s house. I need to start troubleshooting the latest issues, and putting that off isn’t a great idea. Plus it will give me some time to buy stuff if needed. Gear fails. Video gear tends to run very hot, and the equipment closet isn’t as cool as it should be. Plus, cheaper gear fails earlier because of the design choices made to make it cheaper. I’m looking at intermittent failures which is typical of failing gear.

Intermittent failures are the hardest to diagnose though.

If got some stack related things I’ve been putting off for too long that need attention too. Shouldn’t take long to do them, but they will be unpleasant. Failed cans of food, and the rotting that has happened because of that will be a mess to clean up and not the way I want to spend a hot day in the sun. Gotta be done though. Putting out new rat poison can’t be delayed any longer either.

Busy day ahead, hopefully I’ve recovered enough to do a good push.

Stack what you can, then keep and eye on it.

nick

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Sun. Aug. 30, 2026 – and time keeps moving along

Cooler last night, which was nice after another hot day. 90F at 9pm is pretty warm, and it was over 100F during the day. A bit less humidity made it nicer, but I still didn’t want to work outside.

I did computer stuff and read most of the day. The backache started and just got worse throughout the day. Then I made dinner. It was going to be just me and W, but the youngest ended up getting home in time.

Today I’ll be headed to the shop to sell an item that should be a nice little bump in my cash on hand. Too bad it’s not huge, but selling it will move stuff out and that’s a good thing. It was an impulse purchase for a potential hobby or expansion of a hobby along the lines of “I want to be able to make anything” but the things it would facilitate are far from normally useful. Better to have the money back, plus a good profit.

Stacks of things to sell are a good thing, if you actually sell them. I need to work on that.

Stack all the things! And work on the things that need work.

nick

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Sat. Aug. 29, 2026 – not quite the day of rest

But like the rest of the days, hot and humid. If the weather front sticks around it might be wet and a bit cooler, which would be welcome. Lots of people around Houston got rain yesterday but all I got were a few sprinkles. Barely enough to get the pavement wet. The grass is pretty crunchy and brown where the sprinklers don’t hit it.

I did some stuff on the list, but mostly computer stuff, and a lot of barely productive time was spent on our site outage. Still no idea why wordpress puked, or why it recovered. I hadn’t made any changes at all, and if it was a plug in, IDK why any issue resolved itself either. I did clean up some minor things like broken links and typos on rarely visited pages. And I always learn something when I am forced to poke around. I should spend a little time on my hobby site considering we just had our big annual event. I’ll add that to a list…

Today I’m sleeping in a bit, then I’ll do some things. What things will depend on weather, but the shop or stuff around the house will probably be top of mind.

Stack useful things.

nick

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Fri. Aug. 28, 2026 – we’ll just see what happens

Still hot. Still humid. Still summer in Houston. And boy was I feeling it yesterday. Officially, IDK if we hit 100F but at my house we did. The official humidity was <40%RH too, but I was dripping. Sweated through my pants just sitting still. Pretty gross to be out in it. Still, it won't last forever and I'll be b!tching about the cold while sitting with my not so tiny fire in just a couple of months. I did get a bunch of stuff done yesterday. Picked up auction items including preps. Trimmed the bushes and trees. (something ate my apple off the tree when it was golf ball sized) Rescued a possum the dog was trying to kill. Sorted some stuff at the shop. Even made W and D2 some ribs for dinner. I'm still on strike but I wasn't going to waste the ribs that had defrosted. Oh, and I fixed the fence at the rent house. EVEN scored a bunch of 12ft long 2x lumber off the curb, and some 1x12 boards too. Saw a little bit of the end of the eclipse. All in all, a pretty good day. So today, I'll see what happens. I'll either continue getting stuff done, or I'll be so sore I have to recover all day. It's about 60/40 in favor of 'too sore'. One of the things I might do is go see my client and try diagnosing some of his recent issues. I think it's just aging gear. Time for some part swapping. Money is a prep too. As is stacking... nick

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Thur. Aug. 27, 2026 – Work today, eclipse tonight?

More hot and humid. Can’t fool mother nature, and it’s very natural to have heat and humidity in the Houston swamp. Over 100F in the shade, and 106F in the sun… and again probably today. It was a bit cooler at midnight, only 85F with some gusting winds.

I did nothing all day. I laid on the bed, stretching and reading most of it. I can’t help feeling bad about it, while acknowledging that some part of me must have needed that. We’ll see, but I did do a whole lot of physical work with little sleep, and a whole lot of being out in public and talking to people which is taxing in its own right.

Today though, I really need to get back in the swing of doing things. I think I’ll have to get the fence repair at the rent house done, at a minimum. And since the utility guys have called for a trim crew, I should cut any stuff along my property line if I want to save any of it. And I do, because it provides shade and some isolation for the back yard.

I should also move toward getting A/C going in the office at the shop, and the portacool set up there for the warehouse area, and start digging a path through the garage to swap out the A/C in there, which is definitely not making cold…

And I’ve got cameras to install. I’m moving one drop and upgrading that cam to look at the back yard, and I need to get the cam to spy on the halfway house driveway installed. Every time I think no one is home to observe and object, someone pulls up. They seem to swap out guys at the end of the month, so I’ve got a good window coming up.

It’s gonna be another day of sweating in the heat. My ice pack cool vest should help.

Lots to do, and stacks to work from and on. If you’ve got the stuff, you should use it once in a while…

nick

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