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Wed. Sept. 8, 2021 – mom’s birthday, among other things

Hot and humid, but the forecast calls for a lack of rain for the next three days at least. It was less hot yesterday than almost any day in the past month. Saturated humidity level though, and that was still pretty unpleasant. My wet buckets did not dry.

Took D1 to get her teeth tweeked. Did my pickups, hit the Goodwill outlet near me and the one near the airport. Got about 20 CDs and about 30 DVDs to add to the collection. I like to own media. Got some discs I really wanted too. I also picked up two laserdiscs. They are only worth about $3 on ebay, but I grabbed them for my very slapdash ‘museum of forgotten media formats’. They didn’t cost much and aren’t huge.

I got a bunch of appliance parts and accessories for ebay. Things like the water tank and cover from a Keureg coffee machine sell quickly and for good money considering their size and what they are. I need to get a bunch of stuff listed. I may work on that this morning for a bit. I need to check out the coffee makers I grabbed too, and make a decision to either list, fix, or part them out. Loading up a few more bins for auction is on the list as well.

Passed on all the items I was watching last night. It may sound like I’m buying a bunch of stuff while moaning about having too much stuff, but I’m trying to adjust the RATIO of the stuff. I want to get rid of the stuff that’s been sitting around, not selling, and replace it with either quick sellers, or stuff for the household. A box of Jeep CJ parts isn’t helping me, a couple of child gates will.

So I better get to it. Nothing is getting better in the world, clock is still ticking.

Keep stacking.

nick

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Tues. Sept. 7, 2021 – let’s get this party started…

Hot and humid again. It is starting a bit cooler in the morning but still getting hot in the afternoon, especially if the sun comes out. Yesterday was so humid water wasn’t drying outside, despite the 100F + temps.

So I hid inside. Like brave Sir Robin, I bravely ran away from my work. Jiminy Christmas it was unpleasant out. Frankly my back hurt, I had auctions closing all day, and no one in the family wanted to do anything either. Down day all around.

Which means twice as much stuff to do today.

At least I won most of the stuff I wanted in the auction. All home stuff. We gave away our ‘child gates’ and now we need them to keep the puppy out of the only carpeted room. We’ve been improvising with limited success and a whole lotta hassle, so I got a couple. And some other stuff for the house, the wife, or the children. I’m just being prepared when I say “start getting your Christmas stuff together” because price increases and supply chain disruptions could limit availability later.

I wouldn’t wait ’til the last minute for anything anymore. Even amazon isn’t shipping as quickly as before on a LOT of items. Time to deepen your shelves for everyday stuff too.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do, or do without. Oh, and a little bit of maintenance goes a long way.

Stacks o stuff. You want them. You know you do.

n

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Fri. Sept. 3, 2021 – yes I am a slacker

Hot and humid, maybe rain for me. Certainly rain for someone. Yesterday, it was hot, humid, and still. Until it wasn’t. Then the rain came.

I got very little done yesterday. My whole morning was spent as chauffeur. My afternoon got eaten by a carb induced crash (food and sleep, not cars and noise) and rain.

I’ve got to make some of that up today. So that’s the goal. And even if it rains and I can’t do what I need to do outside, there is a big pile to do inside that I need to attack. So I will try again.

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To whom it may concern,

I don’t have the mindset to be a lord or a serf, so I need all y’all to get your shite back in the bag. I feel like that is the likeliest outcome as we pass through this period of great change- a return to feudalism. The middle class will be wiped out. Some members of the upper middle will be elevated, and the lower middle and lower will be ground down into the dirt like peasants throughout history. LANDED GENTRY. Renter. Slave if things get bad enough. I suppose there will be a new church to suck up the second sons (the NGOs and .edu do it now), and some favored artisans. Court jesters won’t be included though, the new lords have no sense of humor. Skilled technicians and actual traders/importers/makers might find a niche. The merchant class in the old sense might hold on, the lords like their luxuries. “Dickensian” will be the best of the worst.

It won’t matter to most of the world, they live that way already. It’ll suck for the majority of the western world though. Not sure how to play that thought for my kids. Need more time to figure something out.

So pull it together and hold on to western civilization for a bit longer.

Sincerely,

Dad of two.

Stacks. Skills. Connections. Land. Knowledge. Go and get you some.

nick

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Wed. Sept. 1, 2021 – more water under the bridge

Hot and humid. I’m hoping for a bit cooler in the morning so I can get the grass cut. I waited too long yesterday and it did get over 100F in the sun. It was still 84F at midnight.

Spent yesterday mostly indoors. Despite having a lot to do, I ended up doing electrical work at the house. We had some outlets in the kitchen stop working. I was too busy to look into it until yesterday, although my wife ruled out breakers, and normal things, and we figured it was probably a GFCI outlet upstream of the others. Once I pulled the cover plate off, and could see into the receptacle I figured that I’d found the problem. You are not supposed to be able to see INTO the receptacle. I had spare GFCIs in the stacks, so I set about changing it.

Shortcuts are only short for the person making it originally, and probably not even then. Freaking 10 minute job took over 2 hours because the remodeler cut every corner. Loose wire nuts, wire too short (even after it had been extended) wrong hardware used, missing box extenders, it was all there. The working position was very awkward too. I got it done, redid what I could. Figured I’d also replace a tired outlet at the end of the chain while I had the power off. More cr@p work hidden behind cover plates. Money spent, 0. Time spent, 2 hours. Smoke released, 0. Swear jars filled, 3.* I had the knowledge, the parts, and the supplies stacked so I got it done.

Also modified the wire gate we’re using to keep the doggy in the kitchen. That went surprisingly well.

Cleaned up a few things.

Found a dead rat, possibly THE dead rat, in the garage. I’ll get that cleaned up today. Poison,not trap.

Cooked dinner (discounted steak from last year, frozen mixed veg from last year, canned red beans and rice.)

Played a game for family game night.

Lots of prep items involved in my day.

Hooray for stacks of things and the knowledge to use them. Keep stacking both.

nick

*not really. I was alone so the swears went unheard and if a guy swears in the kitchen but there isn’t anyone there to hear it, did he really swear?

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Tues. Aug. 31, 2021 – so. now we’re done with August.

Hot and humid. It was 85F when I went to bed, that doesn’t bode well for today. And while yesterday started cooler, it got plenty hot by afternoon. I knew I should have cut the back yard grass early. Now it’s so long, and the temps are high, and I just can’t get motivated to do it.

Plenty of stuff to do though, as usual.

Spent the day doing auction and sales stuff. Picked up D2 and did a couple of hours of together time. We spent the last part of that sorting through some thrift store bags. She likes the treasure hunt too, although she gets excited about different things. Since many of the items in the bags are things I picked up for her, or the household, she was pretty excited.

Then the other one came home and the sniping and general sororite‘ dynamic went into full effect. Joy. I understand ‘man cave’ much better now and I expect that will only strengthen. Unless they’re living in the streets taking potshots at UN blue helmets…

Freaking world does not want to settle down. Get your self set up now, while amazon delivers and things are a click away. Water collection, storage, purification, heating, and use. Electrical generation, storage, and drastically reduced use. Solar panels, charge controllers, batteries, led lights, and window air units. Fans. Shade and breeze. Food. Stored, grown, caught, processed, preserved, and eaten. Got enough salt? You can improvise a lot, but some things you need. Got books on fermentation? Any practical experience? People ALWAYS want to have a drink. What are the critical components you just can’t fake?

How does your garden grow? Seeds are small, light, available, and you need more than you think. Also, you need pesticides specific to what you are growing. Heirloom varieties, saving seed, and local knowledge. Greenhouse, seed starters, rooting compound, grow lights, heat mats, plastic sheet, depending on climate. Don’t count on it getting hotter. Don’t count on it being cooler.

What goes in must come out. Sanitation, trash disposal, pest control.

String, cord, rope. Wire. Cable. Wire rope. Chain. Webbing. Repair for all of them. Tapes and glues. Repair, reuse, recycle. Be prepared to squeeze every bit of use out of stuff.

Think about the stuff they had on the farm in 1910 and you will be close to what you need. This is my grandfather’s ax. My father replaced the handle and I replaced the head.

Doom, gloom, oh no, oh woe… and yet it fits better than cheerleading. I keep looking for reasons to be optimistic and I don’t see them. I’ve asked you guys to chime in if you see them and no one mentioned any. (SpaceX might be able to get away just in time, but they’re a long time from being a liferaft… for a while, computing applied to medicine looked poised for a huge leap, but that has cooled.) So plan to get through some bad times. I intend to.

Keep stacking.

nick

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Mon. Aug. 30, 2021 – long weekend wore me out.

Hot and humid, but maybe a BIT cooler. Did get some random rain drops yesterday, and some overcast, but mostly it was hot and humid.

The final day of my convention/meeting/swapmeet was a shorter day. The group does a couple of things to keep people there ’til the end. Most conventions or sales have much reduced attendance and fewer sellers on the last day. Our group does a drawing for sellers/exhibitors for $250 cash, but you have to be there and your booth has to be still set up. They follow that with a drawing for attendees for a $250 voucher to spend at a remaining vendor’s booth. There are still a lot of people who bail early, but there are people there until the end and there is excitement and good feelings just before calling it a day. I’ve worked a huge number of meetings/conventions/tradeshows and ours is unique in my experience with this incentive to stay the whole scheduled time.

Today I have to get all the things I put aside over the weekend done, as well as putting my leftovers away, and I have to do this week’s stuff too. I’m going to be extra busy for a while until I catch up. Like I wasn’t busy enough anyway.

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For a blog with a high degree of prepping emphasis, I said very little about the freaking CAT 4 hurricane that hit Louisiana and bordering states yesterday. I put it down to selfishness and inward focus. I will be looking outward for a while at least to cover the aftermath. If you’ve been affected by IDA, please share your experience. What worked, what didn’t, what surprised you. If you want, you can email it to me and I’ll post it whole with any anonymizing requested. Obviously it might be a bit before you’re actually done with IDA. I’ll wait, but please consider commenting or writing something.

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What little news I did see over the weekend wasn’t good. Same stuff and more of it would sum it up. It will get sporty out there, and could be very soon. Don’t wait with your prepping. Get at least some of everything that you want or need. If we have more time, you can add to that. In these times, it won’t do you as much good to have 5 buckets of white flour, but no rice, or 8 rifles and no food. Balance. That is what is needed and you might not have enough time to correct an imbalance in your current purchasing.

That said, anything is better than nothing. Get to stacking.

nick

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Sun. Aug. 29, 2021 – last day of my show…

Hot and humid with rain, just like yesterday. No direct evidence of the storm yet.

Today I’m headed to a breakfast get together, and then the closing day of the meeting/show/swapmeet.

Yesterday was the second day of our regional association meeting with sellers mart (kinda swapmeet). We ended up with a bunch of no shows on pre-purchased seller tables. I don’t know what the real number is yet, but it feels like about 1/3 to 1/2 were empty. I’m guessing wuflu delta worries, or actual sickness kept them home. People were going table to table, sales were made. Everyone was happy to be back together, but there was an undercurrent. These are mostly small business owners, mostly rural, older, and white. A lot of them have been doing this show for a long time and usually treat it as a social opportunity to get together with friends they haven’t seen in a while.

I spent most of the day talking with people either at my table or theirs.

I joined about 5 conversations about the coming troubles- either world war, civil war, or economic collapse. One guy even said “gotta get in as much normal as we can before it all falls apart.” I didn’t start any of them, but did join and spoke honestly. People aren’t sure what’s coming, but they are sure it is coming and that it will be bad. No one was talking politics, Biddn, or the losses in Afghanistan. I’m not sure they could have without tears. It’s that kind of crowd.

I’ll see if I’m over reacting today, but it felt a bit like a last hoorah, or a last good bye. A lot of people were leaving early so I’m not expecting a busy day. I’ll look around with an eye towards the mood, but it felt a bit melancholy.

My kids were great all day. It was long, 7am to 6:30pm and they were troopers. The youngest was her vibrant and precocious self, charming most of the other sellers. She got me to loan her $45 to buy stuff for herself. Oldest spent the morning building a metal model from Metal Earth, then took a nap under the table. The other folks were amazed at her focus and dexterity with tweezers. (the models are super cool, and the results are impressive.)

I sold a bunch of stuff, and hope to sell some more today. I think I can find a few fresh items to put out this morning. I have so much stuff I forgot about some of it that would have been appropriate for this venue. I’ll miss a bunch of early leavers, but all I need is one buyer for each thing after all.

A quick scan of the news shows me escalating street violence, international destabilization continuing apace, local natural disasters, and all the regular stuff, turned up a few notches.

In the words of Yoda, “save you what can”. And keep stacking.

nick

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Sat. Aug. 28, 2021 – out all day

Hot and humid to be sure, unless it’s pouring down rain…

Got the show loaded in yesterday morning with a minimum of sweat. Thanks mostly to Mr Carrier and his desire to not sweat to death.

Sold a few things right off the bat, and a couple more later in the day. I’ve had the same guy come by the table and fondle one item multiple times. I’m thinking he’s gonna be a buyer at some point.

Taking the kids with me today. Hopefully they’ll occupy themselves with a minimum of fighting.

I’m taking more stuff to sell today too that I didn’t get rounded up in time for yesterday. Wife wants to put an offer on a lakehouse, sight unseen. I need cash suddenly 🙂 (I don’t think she will, the price is too high for what’s on offer.)

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I know we talk about being on lists, and about the surveillance machine the online services have built, and how they have you profiled to the tiniest detail…. and we give some sort of shrug and move on. Think for a few minutes about the taliban having access to that same sort of information. Think really hard, because tech trickles down, and they will be the legit government in Afghanistan. Consider how MUCH some of the ‘Karens’ and lefties here profess to hate some of us for our beliefs, skin color, age, or success in life. Now think about google and facef#ck selling those detailed dossiers sorted by street address.

Think REALLY HARD about your response if they showed up at your door. Think about expanding your options before the need, like a prepper should, and a prudent person would. Suddenly your wallet, phones, computers, and vehicles are all worse than useless, and will remain so for some period of time. What ya gonna do when they come for you?

It’s much more likely that we all suffer when the SHTF. Stacks will help. Having a plan to drop it all and walk away when you see the heat coming down your street wouldn’t hurt. Lately a lot of really unlikely things have been happening. The baying crowd always wants someone to punish, and it’s a bonus if they have stuff to steal too. Just sayin’.

nick

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Thur. Aug. 26, 2021 – month is winding down

Hot and humid. Chance of rain. Almost a surety that it will rain SOMEWHERE in Houston. It got pretty hot yesterday. I think my weather station topped out at 104F in the sun. It was still over 80F at dinner time, and just 80F at midnight. I did drive through some rain during my errands too.

Did a lot of running around yesterday. Did some thrifting too, since I’ve got a guaranteed auction coming up and he’ll take the stuff to his warehouse. There were a couple of good scores.

Today I’ll be packing up stuff for my non-prepping hobby show this weekend. So far they haven’t asked me to help load a truck today, so it’s all my stuff to get ready. I really hope some or all of it sells.

Moving the stuff is the important part, getting some money is second. Hanging out with people who share an enthusiasm is pretty cool too.

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I got a funny phone call yesterday. Out of the blue, someone from the local Republican party called and asked if I wanted to be a precinct chair. It turns out the precinct is basically my neighborhood, and a couple of blocks around it. The duties seem to be trying to get out the vote, shaking hands and knocking on doors. I’m actually considering it, since I encourage all y’all to get involved with local politics. Well, if not involved exactly, at least familiar with the people and the process. IDK if I would be good at it, or want the exposure, or would be acceptable to them. Everything they said about Kavanaugh could have been said about me… only the names and places were different. The 80s were a great time to be coming of age…….. Anyway, no one’s had the position in years. This tells me that the local R’s might be trying to up their ground game.

That they think they can overcome fraud with effort is funny. And I don’t actually care about most of the R’s, since they turned out to be politicians first, deep staters or quislings second, and generally not people I’d put in charge of a Prom Committee, but they at least aren’t actively pushing socialism. We can continue to pretend things are normal for a while longer. And it might lead to some good insights… or a spot in front of a pock marked wall. That last being the important bit. Hard to be the grey man when people know you as part of a political machine.

I’ll put it in the ‘meatspace baby’ pile for now and give it some thought. I don’t see much upside to doing it, and a lot of potential downside.

We’ve still got some time, use it wisely. Stack all the things!

n

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Wed. Aug. 25, 2021 – nut cuttin’ time is getting closer

Whoooeeeee, it shore got hot in the sun yesterday. Gonna happen today too, reckon. Oh, it’ll start out slow, but I’m betting on ‘hot’ and sunny later. At least the humidity was slightly lower. It wasn’t so low I didn’t sweat through my shirt in minutes outdoors, but it was better than the last few days.

Since I spent yesterday morning and early afternoon dealing with power issues here at Casa de Nick, I didn’t get very far on my list. Most of that will have to push to today. Also, most of the prep for my non-prepping hobby convention and swapmeet needs to happen today. I’ll be doing prep for my role in things Thursday, and actually doing the things Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Posting will be as normal but commenting will be light.

On the plus side, now that my service drop is replaced, my electrician buddy should be willing to do the gennie hookup.

On the minus side, there is a smell in the garage like the rat poison worked. No ratons in the traps, so he’s somewhere else. Unlike the house, he can get into the walls in the garage. I’m really hoping that isn’t the case. I’ll know more in a day… Whether I’ll be able to do anything about it is another question.

Whether the world holds together is starting to be a good question. Portland has another ‘autonomous zone’ taken over by antifa thugs. They seem to be entirely without introspection as they’ve named the area the “SSPAZ”. Maybe the ‘kids’ are so well conditioned that they never called anyone a spaz and they just don’t get the reference. Elsewhere shootings and public violence continue to increase. An example of the unequal application of the law has the leader of the Proud Boys facing jail for stealing and burning a flag, while looters, BLM thugs, and antifa punks roam free. Oh, and he had a “high capacity” magazine with him in DC, while antifa tries to literally blind cops and gets away with it.

As well to be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.

Disruptions to supply lines continue. Disruptions to the food supply continue. Remember last year when people were saying “don’t worry about the poor crops, we’ve got plenty of grain in storage…” well, this year that grain is probably mostly gone, and it looks like we aren’t going to have bumper crops.

People are talking and advocating for vax status to determine access to and level of medical care. Think about that one for a second. Now extend it out a year or two… what else will they want to use to discriminate against you? There will be shooting when that costs someone a loved one. And honestly, I don’t think it will take a year. You will need tribe and like minded folks to get access and resources. What will you bring to that exchange?

Black market, grey market, secondary market, informal market, whatever you call it and whatever nuances there are between them, start looking. Start practicing. Swapmeets. Yard sales. Garage sales. A guy who knows a guy. You might find yourself locked out of the main economy. Yeah, things would have to be pretty bad before that could happen. Illegals already live that way though. It’s not that big a step and the legal framework went in years ago. There were articles about it, and the pretext was ‘extremism’, but they promised not just to lock you out but also anyone who would do business with you. I don’t know where such a scenario fits on a risk matrix, but it’s on there. And we are in the middle of a global pandemic, and the early stages of a civil war. Just sayin’. Planning. Some preps. Some people. Some practice. Just sayin’.

And stacks. Tall stacks.

nick

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