Category: personal

Warmer. Damper. Maybe wetter. We’ll see. It was 71F and very damp when I went to sleep. During the day it was very nice. Some clouds, but no rain. Hoping for more of the same today.

I did some stuff. Went to my client’s house to pick up my check and look at something else for him. Solved a tech issue while I was there. The Christmas light guys had left some connections in the mud and they tripped a GFCI that took out my wireless link from the gate back to the house. The first question when troubleshooting should always be “what changed”. Of course if you are really coming in blind, the first question should be “did it work before?” THEN you ask what changed.

I followed that up with three pickups in the southwest of Houston, and then home. Leftovers for dinner and kid taxi service took up most of the rest of the evening.

I did sit out for a tiny little fire and a book, and the possum came along the same route as before to get a drink from the ‘pond’. Then he departed without ever looking at me. The pond must be on his patrol route for every night. I’d bet there are some humans (probably walking dogs) that have a patrol route ever night too. I might have to enable some of the AI features on my newest camera and see if I get a log of any pedestrian traffic.

And maybe I should look at some of my commercial WAPs to see if there is a ‘presence’ log that captures passing wifi or blutooth traffic. I’ve had building something to do that on my low priority list for a long time. Two instances have already happened, the teens stealing from cars, and the mail thief, where it might have been useful to see what their car or phones are named…

So many things. So little time and motivation.

Today I’m helping my wife at the middle school theater. I’ll do some of the sound notes from last year, and help her with installing some other donated equipment. Should be able to get done by late morning. Might have to follow up another day. I’ve got pickups in the afternoon, and moving another load from storage to the shop on my calendar. We’ll see if that happens.

Meatspace and community involvement is important. The appearance of being normal folks, and being helpful to others is a good thing to have on your side, no matter who you are. It probably won’t save you if things go horribly wrong, but it might smooth out some smaller issues. Can’t hurt, and feels good. Win-win.

Always be working to improve your situation. Sometimes that is relationships. Sometimes it great big heaping stacks…

nick

Cold-ish to start, getting mildly nice later, and cool again in the evening… like yesterday. Hopefully without a lot of wind. Yesterday was very nice, if a bit chilly after dark.

I did get my pickups done, but basically resigned myself to not doing a crazy display this year. We had weather, I got a late start, and I just wasn’t feeling it this year. Usually I love Halloween, not for any occult or religious reason, but because I can decorate and make props letting a bit of my theater background out. This year, it will be some of my classic decor but not much new. And usually I have a bunch of it out for weeks before the day. Not this time, which is a little disappointing and sad if I’m honest with myself. NEXT year…

I will have to spend some time getting stuff out of the attic and getting a few things in place. Foam headstones and some lighting, animated witch figures, some skeletons (maybe wrapped like mummies as I’ve decided on that for next year.) Certainly the fog machine and the video projection of Sauron’s Eye. It should still be fun, even if not as much stuff as usual.

I’ve got other stuff from the list to do too, but that will have to wait until Saturday and Sunday. We’re here for kid stuff anyway.

Enjoy the secular version of the holiday, pass out candy and treats to the little beggars, and maybe chat with your neighbors. Building community is a prep.

So is stacking, but you knew that.
nick

Cool, soon to be cold. Probably low 60sF to start then warmer later. Not too warm though, I don’t think it even hit 75F yesterday. Clear skies and more wind is probably in the forecast again. It was 55F when I went to bed.

I actually got some stuff done today. I received my IKEA delivery (and later assembled the drawers and doors.) Paid the lawn guy. His industrial strength backpack blower could barely move all the acorns off the walk and into the grass. The concrete is stained with the tannin from where they got crushed and wet. Did four pickups and the thrift store next door to one.

I even made dinner and did a load of laundry. Oh, and there was more domestic bliss in the morning too. I even found a little time to read. All in all a productive day.

Today I’m hoping to do more of the same. I still have shelves to mount in the laundry room, and to replace everything we moved out to paint and reconfigure… and I have more cleaning and organizing to do, as well as more decorating. I might hit a thrift store on my way home from the two pickups I need to do and see if more stuff for my tentative theme jumps out at me. If not, this might be a fairly low key year.

Most of this work is to improve my current situation. Shore up some things, so to speak. I’ve still got a lot of generator work to do, including installing the wheel kit I got yesterday… among other things. The list is long, the time is short, and the motivation is lacking.

Don’t stop stacking.

nick

Cool. Even cooler than before since a front blew in yesterday. We got two bouts of heavy rain, but they didn’t last long. Soaked everything twice though. Today is supposed to be clear, and it’s still getting hot in the afternoon. We’ll see.

I didn’t get much of anything done. I did order the doors and a set of shelves for the laundry room/pantry project. IKEA’s website sux the ded bunnies. And they’re not cheap. But it will be delivered today, sometime before noon. That’s better than if I went to the store myself, especially since they only had the stuff in a store in Round Rock. I’m not making a 5 hour round trip to save $30 in delivery fees. Clearly there are some weird logistics and fulfillment issues when it’s quicker to get a delivery to my door than pick stuff up at my local store, or even the nearest ‘in stock’ store. Part of teh sux is that their site showed all the items in stock at my local store. But I can’t pick them up there.

Anyway, I felt really weird most of yesterday to the point I went and had a lie down for a while. I think I’m allergic to D2’s Homecoming flowers. When I’m in the kitchen, my head feels very strange, full, buzzy, lightheaded and dizzy but not really?? And I feel better when I’m away from the bouquet. I don’t want to throw out the kid’s flowers, but I’m pretty sure they are making me ill.

I did get a little cleaning done, and read for a while.

Today though, I’ve got stuff to do while waiting for the delivery, then a couple of pickups. I should do more decorating too. Hopefully the rain is done.

Being part of the community is a prep. And making things fun for the kids is too. These are the good old times.

But I won’t forget stacking either.

nick

Cool-ish, then warmer, maybe all the way to hot. It was very nice yesterday, with some clouds but no rain. Forecast has us in the clear for a couple more days. I did some flood watering of the front yard yesterday, and I have to check the sprinklers today.

I got a few things done yesterday. Not finished, but steps on the path toward finished. I put another coat of drywall mud on my laundry room repairs. I watered the yard. Cleaned the water feature and got the pump reconnected to the little waterfall thing. I think I’ll add some goldfish this week as there were little tiny worms in the filter material. The sound of the water is nice.

I also did some minor rearranging in my office, adding some mini wire shelves to stack some of the radio and test gear a little more neatly, which gave me some more room to put stuff away. It also got the shelves out of the kitchen where they were [temporarily] stored. A couple of other small jobs got done too. It was more productive than just sitting around, but while it was progress it wasn’t huge. I did keep me moving toward the goal.

Since the tasks are big, even small steps are helpful.

Today I’ll do some more and hopefully several ‘in process’ tasks will complete to make some real progress. There is so much to do it’s a bit overwhelming and disheartening. It’s taken a while to overcome the inertia so I want to keep making progress.

I’ll also be getting some of the Halloween stuff out. I’ve got a reputation to uphold, after all. Being part of the neighborhood and community is important.

D1 is sick again. Swollen neck glands, and a constricted throat. Doc in the box prescribed antibiotics because the flu test is only about 70% accurate. If she responds well, we’ll know it was an infection, not a virus. She is confused and unhappy because she never really got sick as a little kid and she doesn’t like it.

By the time I was her age, I’d had the real flu with all the puking, serious fevers, a couple dozen stitches, nose bleeds, a black eye, strep, mono, and chicken pox. I’d had an infection of my optic nerve, and various other things, including serious burns, and before I left high school, a few car accidents, and some traumatic brain injuries, and dozens of hangovers. Oh, and severe allergies and chronic bronchitis. I tore something in my shoulder wrestling, and was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, although we went with physical therapy and not surgery. I knew the receptionist at the local hospital by name and even tried to date her later on.

Oh, and a full series of rabies shots.

FWIW, it didn’t get any better over the next few years either. My list of injuries just grew from there.

My siblings had much the same. My cousins too, and worse.

I’m glad my kids haven’t had all that, but hearing her cry last night because a cockroach landed on her makes me wonder how she’s going to cope when Real Life ™ gets around to kicking her in the teeth. It’s especially worrisome because of what I believe is coming for us all.

But that’s a different sort of prep, one that isn’t really solvable by stacking. Stacks will make everything else better though. Get to it.

nick