Category: mainstream media

Warmish and moist. Real moist. The national map has us on the edge of an area of possible T storms. That’s gonna depend on who wins the Gulf vs continental weather pattern war. It is probably why it’s so hard to predict our weather. Move that edge 10-20 miles and you hit us or miss us. Mid 70sF at least, and probably hotter. And moist.

Did some auction stuff in the morning yesterday and some domestic bliss but not much of either. Then I went out and did my pickups.

Two of my auctioneers are going through some changes. One, with 12 years in the resale business, sent out email this week calling it quits. She’s not even doing one last auction. She’ll be “focusing on other things”. The other is based in The Woodlands, and had opened a second office closer to me. They are closing that office and no longer doing auctions there. They will wholesale pallets of product out of that warehouse, but they cut all but one employee. I can’t remember when they opened the office, sometime in the last year.

Small players come and go, but the bigger boys have been a more constant presence. Looks like going for some geographical diversity hasn’t worked out. This will make three in the last few months that closed their second office, and I think one of them is shaky even at their first location.

As an auction reseller, you make your money when you buy the items. If you don’t buy the right items, and at the right (cheapest) price, you will not survive no matter how many you sell. Getting the good stuff cheap is harder than it looks, and it’s very easy to lie to yourself and overspend.

I want choices and lots to bid on, so I can add to my stacks cheaply. It’s been a great way to buy tons of stuff from generators to fuel cans, solar panels to inverters, food, tools, woodburning stoves, cleaning supplies, medical supplies and equipment, pretty much anything a prepper might need.

I’ll keep stacking, but it might cost more….

Today I definitely need to do some office stuff. And the office clean up continues. Found a computer. Found some laptops. Found some test equipment. Found more sewing supplies than I thought I had. It’s way overdue and I hate doing it, but there are rewards.

Stack while you can. But also manage your stacks.

nick

Cool again. Clear too. Maybe warmer later? It was gorgeous yesterday. Loving this weather. Windows down, stereo cranked… National map has us in the clear for at least a couple of days more. Weehaa…

Did a bunch of stuff yesterday. Internet and truck stuff in the morning, then kid stuff in the afternoon, with hobby stuff in between. There are some details in yesterday’s comments.

Today I’ve got a couple of pickups, and some other stuff to do, as well as the normal kid taxi duties. It’ll be a busy day. They are all shaping up to be busy for the next few weeks as school ends and summer begins. I have a feeling that the next four years of High School and college will be a flurry of activity. Hopefully there will be time in there for some contemplation and remembrance.

Hopefully, the world won’t implode.

If it does, stacks will help.

nick

Still cool and wet. Damp at least. This time of year is monotonous and tedious if you like sun. That’s probably true of winter everywhere but Southern California and the desert… We had overcast and misty drizzle most of the day yesterday and I don’t think I saw the sun.

It was a pretty non-stop day. Kids and wife in the morning, doctor visit, client visit, kid taxi, dinner, more kid taxi… just a bit more non-negotiable tasks than usual. Never made it to the grocery store. That’ll be today.

Today should have a bit more flexibility. I have pickups to do, so I’ll be out and about. That helps with grabbing a quick visit to the grocery store. It also helps with stuff like getting gas, and other everyday sort of tasks. I usually try to combine trips and tasks as a way to save time and money. My kid taxi duties are reduced on Mon, Wed, and Fri, so that helps, and D1’s new choice for after-school activity moves her pickup to 5pm from 3pm. That helps a lot by not shortening my afternoon “me” time.

Super compelling content, I know…

The first week of the new administration is just freaking insane. More real change, or attempted change, in one week than in a couple of decades. My only feeling is that it won’t last. It won’t hold up. Too much inertia, too many rice bowls getting slapped out of peoples’ hands. Too much change too fast. On the other hand… lot’s of pent up demand might mean it really does change. For a while anyway. It will revert to the mean. Everything does. Maybe though, the new mean will be lower than the old one. Any thing will be an improvement.

Not a reason to stop stacking though. Stuff is going to be massively disrupted. Preps will help, as they will in any disaster. Disasters are just REALLY quick and massive change after all…

nick

Cool and clear. Maybe cold and clear to start. No clouds to hold the day’s heat in… And there was a little bit of heat in the afternoon. I took my jacket off. Long sleeve shirt over a T was fine, even in the sun, but adding the windbreaker/rainshell made me a bit sweaty.

Did my errands. Went by my secondary to drop stuff off. Did pickups on the way. Went to Lowes and got a faucet (which was on sale, hooray!), and eventually made it to my rent house to replace the leaky faucet. That took an extra half hour due to me misplacing a rubber washer, and some corrosion on a nut. It was straightforward, but I was still laying on my back under the sink with my hands above me.

I don’t know how I ever got anything done without a headlamp. Since I started working at the BOL, I’ve been using a headlamp whenever I work. The extra illumination can make the difference between squinting and reading comfortably, and it makes so much work so much easier. Whether it’s working under the cabinet or just casting my own shadow on the electrical outlet, the light makes it better. I don’t have a specific recommendation, but the new ones are small and the batteries last a long time. Get something that uses normal AAA batteries, so you can change them and keep working without waiting for a recharge.

In the evening, D1 went with a friend to a basketball game in another district, and I had to pick her up at 9pm. That blew the chance of decorating the tree. That has now slipped to today. This is the latest we’ve ever been with getting a tree set up. Maybe because we did the one at the BOL it took the urgency away. Dunno, but I like a natural tree and colored lights in the house and it will be great to get this one ready.

Today I’ve got a nearby pickup. It’s a present for W, and some stuff for my hobby, and some preps. I’ve got to go to the store and get one of the things W asked for, and I might get something off D1’s list too. D2 has a big pile already. Then I just need to wrap presents, and I’ll be good to go. If I get there, it will feel nice. I’m usually wrapping on Christmas Eve…

I’m still adding to the stacks. The pace has slowed, as the stacks piled up, but there have been some great opportunities lately, and I’m taking advantage. Keep your eyes open, and someone else’s misfortune might be your gain. And then you can stack it up…

nick

(the pattern started with the date, then the first group of digits and the last group doubled while the middle two groups incremented by 1 each. That made the missing digit the 6 in 256.) (all those base 12 doublings were irresistible.)

Cold. Clear. And damp. Some combination of those three seems to be the most likely… like yesterday. We started at 44F, got to high 60s with sun, which was very comfortable outdoors, and then back down when the sun set. I don’t know what the temps have been at the BOL, but I’m guessing lower. Time to winterize.

Did very little yesterday. One pickup. No, two pickups. Some kid taxi service. A tiny bit of poking at computers. Funny how little bitty tasks can suck up a whole day.

Won’t be able to do that today. I’ve got one pickup on the other side of town, then I need to get ready to head to the BOL. My plan was to go Friday afternoon, but now I think I might have to do stuff here on Saturday. I’ll know later today. In the mean time, I’ve got stuff to load and unload in the truck, shopping to do, and other preps that need to happen. At least I probably won’t be going to my client’s house. My sometimes business partner forgot to send the part I need to install.

I’ve got enough to do without spending a couple of hours on install and commissioning some new tech.

————–
And not to get all doomer, but the Ukes shot US and UK missiles into Russia, and Putin responded with either an ICBM or a new mid range missile that it seems we didn’t really know about.

War is coming. Think hard about what it might mean to you. External, and internal wars are on the horizon. The elephants are getting ready to dance. We wee mice need to scamper…

and stack, because war ALWAYS leads to privation and hardship.

nick

Cool, damp, but clear. And then more of the same. Warming to high 70s, low 80s, and maybe some wind to help dry things out.

I started Wednesday with a pickup on the way to my client’s house. That went well, so I got to work only a little bit behind my best guess at arrival. After confirming his issues, I found the piece of gear common to all 4 TVs, and it was failed. Stuck in a boot sequence. Not recoverable. It’s the second one of two to fail in the same way. Just locked up. Talked to my business partner for this client, and he’s ordering a new one to be delivered today or Friday. I asked him to go with the hard wired version this time, as this wifi version was only used because we couldn’t source the hard wired version when we did the initial upgrade and install of the parts. It’s available now, and 1/3 the cost as a bonus.

I’m always going to chose simpler, and hard wired, over wireless if I have that option. There’s a lot less to go wrong with wired ethernet.

On the plus side, while looking at the ubiquiti logs to be sure a new IP address was available, I noted that most of the infrastructure devices on the net had uptimes of ~750 days. Considering the power/lightning situation in the countryside, and the age of some of the gear, and that before all the upgrades and money spent to fix stuff we’d go down every month, that is awesome. FWIW, the biggest factor for reliability was probably re-dressing the rack with sensible layout, new cabling, and cable ties for management. Lots of cable ties and management. An AV rack has a lot of connectors that don’t latch or get captured, so any cable movement risks pulling out connectors. Tie that stuff in place. And label everything.

Today should be me doing stuff at home to get ready for a trip to the BOL for the holiday. Dunno if the universe will allow that- it’s been pretty insistent that I do other things. I don’t mind getting interrupted to go earn money… my client pays me very well to take good care of him. Plus, I invoiced for the year, and that money will come in handy (and it will go right back out of my hand-y too.) BUT, I have stuff I really need to do here.

Guess I should get started.

The stacking will take care of itself, the maintaining won’t. Do some of both this week. Winter is coming. . .

nick

Cool, or even cold this morning. It was 55F yesterday, but got into the 80s by afternoon. It also cleared up and was a beautiful sunny day. I’m hoping for more of that. National forecast shows clear sky, but my wife says the local forecast is for lower temps. We’ll see what happens when it happens.

I did get some stuff done yesterday. Did about 4 pickups in mostly the same area. Hit the grocery store for early Thanksgiving shopping, and I was out of Dr Pepper. Lots of instore sale items this time. I saved $55 buying sales items with coupons, but still spent $350. There weren’t many turkeys left, but they were on sale. I found a 10 pounder, and added two drumsticks. I am thinking about smoking the beast at the BOL…

Most of the sale items weren’t staples, but they were holiday items, which will help people.

Speaking of inflation, I stopped to get D2 some Jack in the Box after her evening activity. Tried to get a Buttery Jack cheeseburger, not the meal deal. The menu board said the meal was ~$9.50 and the “burger only” was ~$6.25. After a comedy of errors involving me thinking the order taker got it wrong because she kept saying the charge would be ~$9.89, and insisting I only wanted the burger, to her limited english skills… finally another worker got involved and the price in the cash register for just the burger was $9+ and the meal was ~$13+. That’s 150% above the posted drive thru menu. I told D2 that she better savor that burger as it was the last one I was buying for a long time. $10 for a fast food burger. Criminy.

Today I’ve got a morning pickup, then I’ll head to my client’s place. He’s having control issues with his system and the normal phone troubleshooting didn’t work. Sometimes you just have to see the problem first hand. It also gives me a chance to invoice him for the year. Unfortunately it will suck up several hours from a day that I already had planned to use all the hours. I just don’t seem to be able to get ahead.

The check will be nice though.

No plan survives contact with the enemy.

Which is why we plan to have the plan fail. And we stack stuff, so we have choices and resources.

nick