Category: march to war

Still the same weather. Chased all over town by thunderstorm cells. Some people got none, some people got the paint washed off their cars. More of the same today, tomorrow, and maybe Thursday too. It’ll be a soggy 4th if we don’t get a break.

So I did some auction stuff in the morning. Then I rousted D1 and got her to drive the minivan all over Houston to do my pickups. I got to do more Driver’s Ed with her, specifically what it feels like when you spin out the back end (impressive in a front wheel drive car) and what it feels like when the anti-lock brakes engage. Lots of wrecks on the highways, but fortunately none were us. Luck was with us.

I did get most of my pickups done, but we did miss a couple as the day got pretty long. 5 hours of freeway driving, some in pouring rain, but she either doesn’t recognize how tiring it is, or won’t admit it. I can see when she starts making dumb mistakes though. I’ll get the last two pickups today. Or maybe the last 5.

D1 is going to drive D2 to her band thing and let me do my thing.

Did I mention that this sh!t is HARD? If you know, you know. That’s how the cool kids are saying it.

Meanwhile the world turns, the elephants dance, and the mice are rightly nervous.

Stack some mouse food so you can stay in your den…
nick

And another day of mixed sun and rain, while being a bit cooler if the rain actually happens. It did get hotter throughout the day, but after the rain it was cooler, and only 78F when I went to bed. I see more of that coming for today.

I spent most of the day in my office at my computer, doing auction stuff. I did some other office things too, but mostly the day was spent on my @ss. Not the productive day I was shooting for. I did learn a lot about WWII rationing and a couple of ersatz recipes. And although the channel creator didn’t emphasize it, it was clear that people knew that both war and rationing were coming. The rationing board in the US was set up some time before the Japanese attack, and promptly sprang into action. Which consisted of mostly following the British model.

Some other things are clear too. Once rationing starts, it gets worse. As time goes by, more items are added to the restricted list. It also won’t work without price controls, and a black market WILL arise to fulfill peoples’ wants and needs. In Italy, the rulers didn’t even pretend to suffer under the same restrictions as the people, but in the US and Britain they did. The black markets in the US and Britain were subsequently smaller due to social pressure and a sense of shared suffering. There may be the Italians’ relationship to law and order at play there too.

Anything imported is easily controlled and will be in short supply if your supply lines or overseas sources are disrupted. For us that is pretty much all the technology we use, and a good deal of the food, especially the luxury food like fruit and veg out of season. And by technology I mean everything, as everything is now touched or incorporates stupid levels of technology, to where the toaster has sensors and a computer inside, and even our lighting is dependent on foreign chip and component makers. Switching power supplies are in everything, and lithium batteries are too.

In the same way I can now recognize that TPTB knew war was coming, I can see them taking steps now. Re-shoring of electronic manufacturing and reopening of mines are pretty big clues. They’ll be putting infrastructure in place too, to restrict access to information, to disseminate the official truths, to look for spies and foreign agents. They can ration power in most areas. They’ve already passed the laws they’ll use to restrict access to money, and to monitor its flow. Restriction of movement will happen too. Real ID was widely feared to be a national id program, which we are adamantly against mainly BECAUSE of WWII…

Nothing I see has changed my mind that war is coming, or that major changes in the way the world is organized will happen in our lifetime, probably sooner rather than later. Secret preps in addition to your public or known preps will be needed. Lots of people remembered how bad WWI got, but few of them took steps to make the inevitable WWII more tolerable.

What will you do? Stack, I hope.

nick

More cool and sunny with scattered rain storms, probably. Saturday had storm cells dumping inches on limited areas while adjacent neighborhoods got nothing. There were flash ‘floods’ in some of the bayous (floods in quotes because it’s all designed to work like that.) I think we’re still in the same weather system, so today will be similar.

I got several pickups done. Even though the first one was quite a drive, and for little reward, I think I was there to meet the guy and invite him to come to my next non-prepping hobby meeting. He’s an enthusiast too, but didn’t know we get together every month. It’ll be nice to bring in a new member.

After that, I got a couple more pickups done. One for the hobby, and one was a couple of blacksmith tools. I would like to have a forge and bang on some metal at some point. Maybe at the BOL I’ll have a chance. I’m collecting the tools so I’ll be ready.

When I got home, after getting soaked by a cell, I took a load out of the house. It was dry, and the storm was moving away, so I could load up the truck. After that, since I still had some daylight and time before dinner, I attacked the back yard. I let it get too tall for the mower again, so I put the weed cutter on the string trimmer and knocked it down. I’ll run the mower over it today or tomorrow to mulch the stems.

I’m debating getting another goldfish for the water feature. The old one ended up about a foot long, but made his escape during a torrential downpour that flooded the whole yard. Seems like it would help keep down the frog and mosquito population…and it’s pretty low maintenance as far as pets go. It would be nice to have a fish in the pond again. The cost and effort is minimal, but I have to spend the time and effort to get the fish. Super low priority, but it’s taking up brain space.

The other stuff for today will depend on if we get rain or not, but will likely involve sleeping in, a big breakfast, and a bunch of work around the house. Oh, and migrating to my new phone. That’s always a joy.

Stack something useful.

nick

Cool last night, and I’m hoping for more of that. It was so nice when I went to pick up the kid from an extra night of her solo activity, that I had the windows down and sat out for a couple hours reading. This year seems to have been much cooler than average. Maybe that will continue today. I expect more of the geographically dispersed storm cells too.

I did my pickups yesterday, filled the back of the truck. Let storm cells chase me all over the north side of metro Houston and only got caught in one. It seemed like it would wash the paint off the truck it was coming down so hard, but after only a few minutes I was through it and back into sun.

Today I have a couple of hobby things to pick up, and a lot of cleaning, moving, sorting, and stacking to do. Lots of neglected jobs around the house will be calling me. I don’t know how many I’ll answer, but it will be some.

Since there are always more things to do than time and energy to do them, I’m sure the list won’t get much shorter. I do still have to try.

On a completely different note, the cut on the back of my finger has healed into a nice scar. It still has some strong sensations when I bump it or press on it, but I think it’s as healed as it will get. Took longer than I thought it would but it still healed. As I’m getting older, I’m realizing that healing well isn’t a given any more. Over the course of my life, I’ve had a lot of injuries but I’ve always healed. At some point, I know I won’t be able to count on that anymore, and that’s a sobering realization.

Medical stacks made the difference this time. Decent physical condition helped. Time to start planning for the future wrt my body and abilities too. I can’t stockpile good health, but I can benefit from a lifetime of good nutrition and good genes. I can prep so my kids have those benefits too.

Hmm, what to stack? I’m not sure, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out and stack what I can.

nick

More of the same today as yesterday. Slightly cooler than normal, due to overcast and rain, and overcast, with occasional rain…

Youngest got a reprieve from the broiling sun yesterday, as it was overcast all morning. She really needed the break, as she’s pretty burned and more sun wasn’t going to help. She was feeling bad enough that she agreed to wear a hat, even though it wasn’t cute. They got a little cooling rain too, which helped.

I got my rain in the afternoon as I was driving around doing pickups. More driving than I like, for less stuff, but sometimes it works out that way. The big storm chased my from Webster to Pasadena, from south to about the mid line of Houston on the east side. I took a different route than I usually do, stayed off the Interstate, and saw what the neighborhoods are like. Not good, btw. I think it’s important to vary your route so you see what’s only a block or two from your normal route. If for some reason you HAD to deviate, you are at least a bit familiar with the area, and know what to expect. Some places it is much worse off the normal path, some places it gets a lot better. Knowledge is good. Scouting alternate routes is good.

Today I’ll do some domestic bliss, maybe some shopping, and possibly one pickup that is out of the way for the pickups I’ll have on Friday. I might take a load of stuff out of the house too, or do some organizing at the shop with the idea of moving out of another storage unit. Kid’s band practice will be extra long today with tomorrow off. I’ll either use the time well, or waste it. We’ll see which.

Time does keep on passing by…

Use your time to stack… and make improvements to your situation.

nick

Still supposed to be a little cooler today, with a chance of rain. Well, someone in the Houston area will probably get rained on. Might not be me. Or I could spend the day driving around in a downpour, since I made some bad choices.

Didn’t get much done yesterday. After I got D2 from band, I had lunch and fell asleep. Woke up to make dinner. Yeah, that was dumb. Stuff is piling up and I’m napping.

Hopefully today will be a better use of my time. I’ve got a couple of pickups, where I won the item I least wanted or needed, with a single opening bid, but didn’t win anything else. I WAS going to stop doing that- using the opening bid as a placeholder. I must have been on autopilot and reverted to my bad habit. I may even abandon a winning lot as it’s in the wrong direction for easy pickup. I need to be more mindful of what I’m actually bidding on when it’s not an auctioneer that is close by.

And I need to get some other stuff done, but it seems like I can only do stuff in bursts lately instead of just working steadily. That’s a me problem and I need to figure it out. When I mention momentum, it’s the burst of activity getting going. Something always seems to cut it short though, turning it into a short burst instead of a continuing effort.

IDK if this is just my reality now, or if I can go back to my old way of working on stuff. I feel like I should try though.

It’s easy to stack. Easy to do a thing or two. Harder to keep it up day after day after day for years.

nick

Somewhat less hot today, at least to start. Supposedly whatever mixed stormy weather blew through yesterday will bring us more of the same, and a bit of a cool down. That’s ok with me. It’s been a pretty wet year so far though. Yesterday was one of those weather days when your experience depended entirely on where in town you were. Some people didn’t get anything but blue sky and sun, while Hobby Airport had enough storm to cause delays. I rearranged my pickups to avoid the massive storm cell over Pasadena and the south and east sides of town. I let the storm chase me north and west, and while I got a little wet, I completely missed the torrential downpour some places got.

After taking the kid to band clinic in the morning, and getting her back after noon, I went out to do pickups. Boat stuff, BOL household stuff, and some stuff for the house here, but nothing too interesting.

Today will be more of the same with the possibility of dropping stuff off at the auctioneer, if it’s not raining. I may do some ebay listings in the morning too. And I’ve got some office stuff to do. Basic life day.

Doesn’t mean YOU can slack. FFS, the whole world order is changing right in front of us. If you aren’t nervous, I want to know why.

Stack, work, or build relationships. Any and all will help, no matter what happens, or doesn’t.

nick