Category: march to war

And it’ll be a chilly Friday the 13th… although it is supposed to be sunny and clear for the next few days. That will be nice. I guess a couple more cool days before Spring really gets going are kinda nice.

It was nice and cool yesterday when I was working on the porch at the rent house. I got some of my list taken care of. I’ll be back there today to get the rest done. Oh, except for the termite treatment and replacing some damaged columns… I might just try to hire the replacement work. It’s deductible against any profit from rent, which should work out like a 33% discount.

Had a long chat with the sister while I was working. Someone is paying her for the legal work. Wonder if it’s Soros? That would be ironic since he’s the epitome of ‘the patriarchy.’

I also did some personal maintenance before I left the house yesterday, cutting my hair and shaving. Trimmed my eyebrows too. Freaking things are going wild. Getting old is weird.

Today I’ve got two pickups and the finishing up at the rent house to get done. I’ve got my hobby meeting this weekend so I’m not going to the BOL. W might go, but the kids have stuff at home.

I know my list is long and I won’t have any trouble finding stuff to do here.

———-
Get your stuff in one bag. Spicy time is kicking off. We have senior government officials living on military bases for security against threats to them and their families, someone stealing from army bases, and lone wolves acting out. Time to look at your own personal security and that of your home and family.

Stack what you need, keep short term stuff up to date. Avoid crowds.

nick

Moist. Wet. Humid. Muggy. All probably good adjectives today. Still some chance of rain too. Yesterday threatened all day and someone got lots, but I didn’t see any. I did see a storage facility with 6″ of standing water around the units. And the ground was so saturated that landscaping rock was under 1″ of water…

That was when I was out and about doing pickups and digging through other people’s rubbish at thrift stores… I did get a few other things done before leaving the house, but not a ton.

Today I’ll be getting my stuff together to do the work at the rent house. First, gather tools as my plumbing bucket and my electrical bucket are at the BOL. Then install the new battery in the truck. Then do one pickup near the secondary location, get some supplies from the secondary, and go to the rental. Do some work. Head home. Contrary to what I thought, W will taxi the kid around both to and fro. That leaves me to actually have a chance of getting stuff done. Goody.

There’s a list. It gets bigger and bigger. I don’t understand how people can run out of stuff to do as they get older.

Stack. Plan. Learn and do.

nick

And I might be doing it in the rain today. Forecast has us in the rain/possible T storm category for today and tomorrow. Yesterday stayed mostly overcast and muggy. I was certainly sweaty, and the garage door tech was dripping. Today will likely be the same, with more chance of precip.

I spent all afternoon and early evening at the rent house involved in fixing the garage door. I did get the two rotten trees removed, through blunt force. I used my survival saw from the truck to cut one root, but otherwise just pushed them over, worked them loose, and tore them out of the ground. And ended up sweaty for my efforts.

Today I’ve got a couple of small items to pickup, and I need to get my Ranger battery sorted. I may put the slightly smaller battery from the whole house gennie in the truck so I can drive the truck to get the new battery and then on to do the pickups. Or I guess I can use the Expy, since the items are small. Getting the pickups done and my tools and supplies together for the rest of the work I need to do at the rent house will take most of today, but will set me up to crank them out tomorrow. I’m pretty sure the universe will intervene in my plans though.

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My renter has her sister and niece in town and staying with her. The sister is an immigration lawyer from MN. She was wearing a necklace that said “Smash the patriarchy” in gold script. We had a brief chat where I was watching my p’s and q’s. She lives in a reality that is almost completely different from mine. How the heck can that work? I know that my reality and the checker at HEB’s reality only intersect in a few places, but I’m pretty sure the world we both inhabit has a high degree of congruity. I’m not at all sure of that with the sister.

She’s intelligent, articulate, passionate, and absolutely living in a different world. Her world doesn’t have Tren de Aquaa in it, or stash houses where 14 people are held captive with the women being prostituted and the men forced to work as day laborers just 2 miles from her home. It’s filled with people unfairly caught up in dragnets while just trying to live their best lives and an oppressive government that is headed by the worst human alive. All while she’s married to an engineer, and brought her daughter to Houston to ride horses on Spring Break, and owns rental property.

If she thought about it, her head would surely explode. But they don’t seem to.

Stack. Prep. Build under and around, because they are righteous holy warriors fighting against civilization as we know it, and there are a bunch of them.

nick

Warm, moist, maybe wet. Yesterday started dreary but ended with some sun. It was moist all day though. Today might be a bit less dreary if the national forecast is correct, but it’ll probably still be moist. 85F in the afternoon? Yeah, probably again.

Did finally get to my rent house yesterday to assess the situation. The garage door wasn’t opening because the torsion bar springs had broken. Both of them. That’s a pro level repair. So I have that to find a guy and get fixed. Two trees need to come down, but they are small and I can do it with a pole saw. The porch has some rotting boards that I’ll cut out and replace. I might blow out the gutters, or not. Depends on how I feel.

And the garbage disposal will be top of the list for replacement. I bought a 1/2 hp model to replace the 5/8 hp dead one. There was $150 upcharge for the extra 1/8 hp. Not in a rent house. The previous insinkerator lasted 12-17 years so I went with the same model. I’m sure it won’t last as long. Enshittification.

The LED flood light for the driveway probably won’t last the 20+ years the existing incandescent one lasted either. I’m replacing it because it’s 300w, and the clear part is yellow and almost opaque, where it’s still there. It still lights up when something moves in front of it, just not well, and it looks pretty bad. Might as well fix it on this round of repairs.

Rental property only makes money if you can collect the rent, and control the costs. Fixing stuff helps with the ‘collect the rent’ part. Doing most of the work myself helps with the ‘control the costs’.

So I’ll be working on that today, as well as my normal list. And getting a new battery for the Ranger. Costco didn’t have any at my local store, so I’ll start my day driving to another store for the pickup. 1 1/2 years for this battery. I asked the guy behind the counter if it was my imagination that the ‘new’ interstate batteries weren’t as good as they old ones. He said “nothing’s as good as it used to be.” That’s the death knell for Western technologically based society.

Stack. Skill up. Tribe up.

nick

Hopefully, no rain, and maybe even some sun. We got some light misty drizzle yesterday, and it was mostly overcast with occasional sun. We need slow rain, but didn’t get it.

Didn’t do much at all yesterday. Slept in, a lot. Then piddlefarted around the house. Read. Dammit. Didn’t want to lose momentum but there it is.

I’ll try to do better today. It’s the start of Spring Break, so the kids are home all week. That’s once they GET home. Still have youngest on a trip until late today.

I’m going to try to combine trips and do a scrap or trash run when I go to check on my rent house. I think today will just be fact finding, and I’ll get all the gear and supplies I need to hit everything at once. Or to come back with a contractor if the garage door needs anything scary done to it. Stored energy demands respect.

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With the decrease in global stability and upset to the status quo, I’m expecting disruptions and attacks. Hoping for nothing serious, but it won’t hurt to have food in the freezer and on the shelves. Ideally, having the ability to shelter in place for a few days or weeks without going out would be a good thing.

Dirty bomb in a shipping container, or VBIED attack on crowds or buildings seem to be the most likely major attacks; with self radicalized lone wolf attacks to increase.

Or they could be stealing as much money as possible and fleeing as the regime has other things occupying their time.

Prediction is hard. Better to be prepared for a broad spectrum of things.

Stack.

nick

Dunno if it will be raining today or not. National forecast has less severe weather possible for us today than yesterday. It wasn’t too bad most of Saturday but it did eventually rain a bunch. The nearest creek had a debris line about 2ft higher than normal when I took the dog for a walk last night. So we must have gotten a lot during the gully washer…

Despite my desire to sleep in, I was up at 930 and moving around. I didn’t do much productive work though. Read during the day, which is always a time sink. Did some cleanup and outdoor stuff before the rain started. Did some minor car maintenance.

I’ll do more today. I’ve got lots of pc and network stuff I can do if it’s too wet. And stuff always needs cleaning, sorting, and putting away. The list is long and growing. I’m knocking off little tasks if I can when I happen to walk by them. It’s not super efficient to watch, but it does get them done, and it feels like progress.

Baby steps.

Stack something.

nick

Warm and moist again. Unpleasant in the sun, ok in the shade. Partly cloudy to actual rain is possible if the national forecast is true. Yesterday it ended up being partly cloudy, and the clouds were low and dark. All over town it was similar, low dark clouds, no rain, and humid.

I lost most of my morning to sugar. I really need to figure out a ‘breakfast-y’ snack that I can eat instead of a donut or some other sugar. Now that I know for sure what’s happening, and I can see the graph, I’m less interested in continuing my bad habits.

In the afternoon I did my pickups and I dropped stuff off at the shop. I didn’t make it to my rent house to see why the garage door is jamming. Just as well because when I rescheduled, she told me about several other things I should take a look at. I really need to schedule a few hours there. That’s not much, since it will be the first time since the storm cleanup…

Today I’ve got a couple of pickups. One is right by the house, one, not so close. And there is an estate sale that has some stuff for my hobby that I’d like to pick up if the price is right. All this is mostly work avoidance if I’m honest with myself. Yesterday took far too long, and it felt like a couple of months ago, before I realized I was spending all my time doing pickups.

I’m bidding on less, in fewer auctions, and winning fewer items because I’m less aggressive on price. It’s a noticeable difference. Just because I’m not using the extra time effectively, doesn’t mean I don’t have more.

And I need to be better about that. Meantime, stack. It’s easy!
nick

Warm and moist again. Sunlight optional. It got into the 90s yesterday if you were somewhere sunny. It was a bit more reasonable for MARCH in the shade, or light overcast. About a decade ago, I remember being at the Rodeo, and having to recharge my cool vest about 4 times. I’ll take this mild but slightly warm weather.

What did I actually do yesterday? Couple of pickups took me to Missouri City, and to The Woodlands. It wasn’t a very eco-friendly day given the amount of driving I did. Got some stuff for the kids, the wife, the BOL, and for me though. And it was cheap enough that the gas and tolls weren’t an issue. The time used kinda sucked though.

Then I went grocery shopping. No yellow tags, no mark downs, nothing I wanted on the clearance shelves. I think it’s the first time I didn’t even save a dollar on my bill. I bought soda and fresh veg, snacks for the kid’s lunch, and that was about it. Still came to almost $200.

My lottery tickets were “not a winner” too.

Today I’m gonna do another pickup, and move stuff around. If it isn’t raining. There were some dark clouds in the overcast yesterday depending on time and where I was. No moisture from the sky hitting my windshield, but a bit of threatening…

Kids have some standardized testing today so it’s an “early release”day. They used to say “early dismissal” but now everyone slips and says “early release.” Yeah, it’s just like a prison, except the going home at the end of the day part. Our schools were originally designed to provide factory workers. Now they provide inmates.

Stack something that is a treat. You’ll be glad you did.

nick

Another beautiful day to go with yesterday’s eventual niceness. That’s my hope, that’s my dream… and if not, it’ll either be hot, moist, and windy, or cool, moist, and not as windy. It’s March and March can’t make up its mind.

I did very little yesterday morning. Too much sugar, too little caffeine. I did get the kid and get to the dentist on time. She will need a filling soon, and I need to not let so much time pass between cleanings. Whole lotta scraping goin’ on.

Between getting the kid, getting to the office, having the work done, and getting home, the afternoon was pretty much gone so I decided to spend a bit more time on dinner. I had started some meats thawing so I had chicken thighs that were mostly soft and ready, and I’d been craving some fried chicken, and I found myself with the time I needed…

Pan fried the chicken in the 10″ Wagner “Chicken Fryer” cast iron in lard and a bit of bacon fat for flavor. Quartered some heirloom baby potatoes, tossed them with oil, salt, crushed pepper, and rosemary then roasted them in the oven. Threw a loaf of shelf stable bread in the oven too, along with a peach cobbler. Same brand mix for the cobbler and the coating on the fried chicken, although different flavors. Peaches from a can. A bit of leftover corn to add some color to the plate. Delicious. Chicken was crunchy, juicy, and tasty. Potatoes were just right. Cobbler was the right mix of crunch, chew, and soft gooey. W and D2 enjoyed it too. Sometimes it’s worth it to spend a little extra time on dinner, just to prove you can.

And everything came out of long or medium term storage except the potatoes. Although it’s been weeks since I bought them, I don’t keep potatoes or apples all winter like my parents did, because we have them in the stores. And the purple potatoes don’t last as long as the red and white. They do taste like baked bread though, and that makes it worth having some go bad every once in a while.

Today I’ve got a couple of pickups to do, and I’ll likely move some stuff around at the shop and maybe at my storage unit. I’m still not out of there and another month passed. Dang.

If muzzie terror attacks at home, and hot war overseas doesn’t motivate you to put a few things back, IDK what would… stack something.

nick