Category: march to war

And it’s still hot and humid. Really, I know! Hard to believe. But that’s the facts Jack.

Fortunately for our load in and set up, the hotel had the air on in the ballroom/convention space. Because it was hella hot.

Did my volunteer obligations then got my stuff set up. I brought a LOT of stuff, and hope to sell more. I haven’t sold much though, and the best stuff went cheaper than I’d have liked. Sold is good though. I’ve covered the cost of my tables and rental trailer. I hope to make some actual money today.

I’ve got an early start today. I need to restock my coolers with drinks and ice. There is a very convenient ice maker stand on the way, and it only adds a couple of minutes to my trip, so it’s not a burden and I get a lot of gratitude and recognition. Then we’ll open the doors at 8 and we’re off to the races. I hope. It was slow and kinda dull yesterday.

The best part of the show is talking to the other attendees and exhibitors. There is a pretty broad cross section of the US, but skewing heavily toward small business owners of course. I don’t hear a lot of pro Democrat chatter, and I do hear a fair amount of pro Trump. That could be because of Texas, or because any progressives or liberals might self censor in the face of real or imaginary persecution. It is hard to be a small business owner without a grasp of economics and an understanding of .gov and .gov regulation…

I better get moving. I need to turn some inventory back into cash, and use the money for other things…

Like stacking !

nick

And it’s another scorcher. All my delaying tactics have failed, and I’ll be digging in storage units in the heat after all. LOTS OF HEAT. And lots of humidity.

Spent yesterday doing domestic bliss, and trying to get my truck diagnosed. I did get two pickups in, and gathered some more stuff for my non-prepping hobby sale. Not enough though.

So today I’ll be trying to pickup a trailer, fixing or diagnosing my renter’s A/C issues, hitting three storage places looking for stuff I put away last year or the year before, and gathering it all to the house. THEN I’ll start loading the trailer, make sure the powerpoint lappy goes online and updates, and gather the last of the stuff. Oh, and I’ll be buying drinks and ice for the setup crew. Ice will be Friday, but I need the gatoraid, water, and Dr Pepper, and I’ll need to clean a couple of coolers.

Suddenly lots to do. Lots on top of the stuff I already knew about. Gah. I should have hit the gathering harder when I had the truck available. Just bad luck to break down now.

You can prep, but bad luck can still make it harder. In this case, having money for the truck repairs, and having the alternative truck and a rental trailer available will save the day.

I hope.

stack-a while you can, monkey boy.

nick

Hot and humid, no break from the weather today. Crazy hot with the high humidity.

Did some stuff yesterday. One pickup. Ran the kid around where she needed to go. Had to blow off 2 pickups that will have to happen today. Did a minimum of cleanup and sorting.

So today I have to catch up with where I should be to get ready for my show. I’ve got storage units to go through and stuff to find. I’ve been stashing stuff all over, so now I need to bring it together. And it will be hot and sweaty work.

I’m not looking forward to the work, but I would like to sell some of the stuff and get it out of the way. Money is nice too. More money is extra nice.

So I’m doing my bit in the secondary economy by moving stuff from people who want to get rid of it to people who want to have it, and getting my middleman fee when I can.

It’s a hobby, not a side hustle, but it plays off my reselling anyway. It’s not an income, but it funds my hobby leaving the other money for life and preps.

I treat my ham radio stuff the same way. It has to be self funding… otherwise it feels selfish.

And I get to meet and talk with people from all over the country while I’m trying to sell, which is also very nice. I’m sure to learn something I can use elsewhere.

All of which is to say, get out and do some things. Join a club, take up a hobby, take a class, get a table at your local swapmeet… and then talk to people. It takes practice, and it pays dividends.

And stack, don’t forget to stack.
nick

More hot, more humid. It was over 100F yesterday. It’ll probably be the same today. The humidity has been so high that it’s far more miserable than it should be.

Didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. Had to get the kid from school, and had other domestic bliss to deal with. I cut my hair and shaved… since I was looking like a wild man. Cough. Sorta.

Mostly did smaller things, sorting and stacking. I’m not doing enough to get ready for my show. I think I’m letting the clock run out to put pressure on myself to break the inertia, but it’s not really working. I do work better with deadlines, but I’ve got one already. Show starts Friday. I really shouldn’t need more motivation. It’s just so crazy hot, and the thought of digging through my storage or my secondary in this heat is debilitating.

It needs to be done though. Get ready, do the show, then get back to normal school life.

Yep, that’s the ticket. Get through this, then continue as normal.

Stack it up fellas. The ride is gonna be rough.

n

Hot and humid. The summer continues. We had a nice Spring, with summer actually being fairly mild compared to a couple of recent years. We haven’t had the string of 100+ degree days that we had before. But the humidity is at saturation and it’s oppressive. You really can’t cool down at all, even sitting still will bake your brains after a while.

I spent the day pecking at things. I am trying to keep moving forward, but the lure of an un-scheduled day beckoned. And the heat was discouraging. I did the minimum to partly unload my truck and I re-did the tarp over the remainder of stuff in the bed. It was threatening to rain in the evening. Never did though.

Today I’ll probably do the same, little things to keep moving, but nothing major. It’s the doldrums. I am fighting the inertia. It doesn’t help that my neck has been hurting either, but that’s an excuse.

It’s hard to keep your motivation up sometimes. The best I can offer is keep doing something, even if it’s little things. They do add up over time.

And keep stacking.

nick

Hot and humid. Of course. Like yesterday and every day for the last month. And for the rest of this month. And yet, there are “professionals” who get paid to tell us what they think it will be tomorrow, next week, and in 50 years. “Professionals” who are never punished when they are wrong, who never suffer for their mistakes, and who never seem to grow or get better. I guess it’s a good gig if you can get it.

Spent most of yesterday not doing stuff on my list. Then I did stuff for the kid, and fell asleep. Not a shining example…

Today I’ll try to avoid a repeat of that, although I have kid stuff in the afternoon, just like yesterday.

There is so much going on, so much to do, and suddenly the summer is mostly over. Crazy how that works. Someone with more willpower than me might be able to triumph, but I’m not. I will keep plugging away. That’s what I do.

Some things are just going to fall by the wayside. Picking the right things will be the trick…

Stacking will continue.

nick

HOt and humid. Some clouds possible. But certainly hot and humid. Like yesterday. I could see in the distance that someone to the west of Houston did get rain, but I didn’t.

I could see it while I was driving around doing pickups. I spent the morning doing auction stuff, and domestic bliss, then headed out. Traffic was light, and I made good time. I still got to my last stop 40 minutes too late. I didn’t realize they closed at 4pm. Oh well, they will hold my items until I can come back next week. Hit the goodwill bins store on that side of town, but other than a small limoges trinket box for resale, basically came up empty. That rarely happens. Then on the way out, I noticed a smaller coleman lantern, with the bubble glass shade, and LO! it was also a kerosene fuel type! $3, and I couldn’t get the money out fast enough. I am collecting a full set of kerosene fueled appliances for the BOL, since I’ve got kerosene up there for supplemental heat.

I picked up a couple more gallons of 80% alcohol hand sanitizer for $2 each at the Habitat reStore on Thursday. It’s alcohol, a little hydrogen peroxide, and water, no glycerin or fragrance. I don’t know if I’ll keep them here as cleaners, or fuel, or take them to the BOL. I might even try to sell them as cleaners at my regional show… I sold several gallons of naptha and alcohol last year. It will burn, and $2/ gallon is crazy cheap. I am even thinking about buying more…

There are lots of preps out there, you just have to look.

And then add the stuff to your stacks.

Today I’ve got my meeting, then I have to load the truck and head north. I’ve got a pickup on the way- a basic clothes washing machine. The samsung that came with the house at the BOL is a broken POS. The display is NFG and there aren’t replacements available. It runs, you just don’t know for sure what cycle it’s running. Plus it’s got tons of sensors and other stuff to go wrong, and takes forever to run a cycle. The basic Kenmore, GE, or Maytag from 20 years ago is usually still going strong, can be repaired, and is quick and does a good job. We’ve wanted to replace the samsung since we bought the place… and I finally got one at the right price.

More stuff to stack, and improvements to make… but worth it.

Do both, while you can.

nick