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Category: prepping

Fri. April 30, 2021 – might have the family home this weekend after all

Warm and humid, possibility of rain, and flooding. Yesterday was part sun, part overcast, no real rain but some spatters. Today could be bad, depending on where you are.

Which is why my wife might cancel her Girl Scout camping weekend. We have one kid sick with sore throat, cough, and sniffles (but no covid), and the counties between here an camp are under flash flood warnings, with a weekend of rain in the forecast. I don’t think any one of those things would be enough, but all of them might make for a no fun, higher risk, weekend. They are supposed to be doing canoeing, and stargazing, and night hiking. Not likely during thunderstorms.

So I might be home, I might be working, I might be nursemaid. I’ll just be flexible and see.

Electrician is supposed to come by Saturday, and I’ve got some prep work to do, but not if it’s pouring down rain.

Yesterday I ran a couple of errands, and refilled some 1 pound propane bottles. That was interesting. I got much better results than the first time I tried it. We had a dozen empties after the big freeze, and my wife wanted to take a couple camping, so I got out the hose and got to work. I’ve got a hose/regulator/valve from amazon, which I’ve linked before. The chinese ones come and go, and brands are kinda ‘fluid’ so it’s hard to make a recommendation. There are lots of videos on youtube with techniques. I found that turning the BBQ bottle up side down, and holding the 1 pound bottle upside down worked the best. I could hear and feel when the propane stopped flowing. You just make the connection, turn on the valve, and after the flow stops, close the valve and remove the hose. Move on to the next bottle. Then, you need to release gas pressure from the bottles (you could use a propane torch with a valve, DON’T LIGHT IT, or just use a chopstick or other device to open the valve in the bottle. I let out a bit of gas, and then when you reconnect, more propane will flow into the bottle. I used a kitchen scale to weigh the bottles and monitor both how much I release, and how much got added. Starting with an empty bottle at 14 oz, I got about 3 oz fill each time, while letting off gas pressure reduced the weight 1/8 to 1/2 an oz. Do this a few times and the bottle will be at 1 pound 10 oz or more. That’s where I stopped, because a bit of that spattering rain started.

Now, messing about with propane is dangerous. I’m not suggesting anyone do it, and all my comments are for ‘entertainment’ and not instruction. Do whatever you do at your own risk. It’s NOT recommended to refill those 1 pound bottles. I definitely do recommend adding the brass screw caps to any bottle you’ve refilled or to any bottle that is partially used and removed from a device. Check them for leaks with soapy water (bubbles or foam mean it’s leaking.) Don’t store them inside or in enclosed spaces.

It’s also undeniable that refilling the bottles seems a whole lot less wasteful than just disposing of them, and cheaper too. Do what YOU are comfortable doing. I will refill the bottles at least one time, and more if the valve seal continues to close reliably. Keep in mind you’re venting propane gas as part of the process. Do it outside on a mildly breezy day, away from any potential ignition sources. Don’t breath the propane. Having watched the big bottle refill process many times, and seeing how much propane is released by that process, I’m not worried about what little gets released when you mount and dismount the little bottles.

I’ve got a bunch of the BBQ bottles. For a while I was buying them at estate sales whenever I saw them. They store indefinitely, as long as the valves are good. I’ve got conversion hoses and fuel filters for my Mr Heaters, the refill setup, and I think I’ll get a propane conversion kit for my Honda eu3000i gennie too, as that would give me another option for fuel. In addition to the BBQ bottles, the little bottles are very handy for stoves and lanterns and heaters (and hoses are available to adapt the BBQ bottles to Coleman stoves and lanterns if desired). Whether you refill them or just buy new, they are very handy to have around, and even handier if you can refill them. Add them to your stack!

One of the beauties of “camping” is that it lets you ‘stealth’ prep. I’ve got a bunch of camping supplies, and a family of Scouts, what’s suspicious about that? And because camping gear is all designed to sustain life away from your home, it’s great preps…( and it has deniability if needed – “oh that? We used to camp but we haven’t used it in ages…”) Like the old CB radio and the fishing gear on the shelf, it just looks like typical garage stuff at first glance. And that might become more important as time goes by.

So keep stacking, or you’ll find yourself lacking…

nick

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Mon. April 19, 2021 – a fresh new week, hoo boy, let’s get to work

Cool and damp, probably no rain, but it was scattered spatters of rain most of yesterday, and the forecast was for dry…

I got a bunch done yesterday. All little things, but several that were much easier in 60F weather than 90F.

I cleaned and seasoned 3 cast iron pots with lids. Those will go to the auction. They were Goodwill Outlet, so $1.20/ pound. I’ll make decent money on them and I like saving things like cast iron. Didn’t take long with the angle grinder and wire wheel, followed up with oil and a good bake. One piece is modern, the other two are vintage.

I hung another IR illuminator for my cams. This one points in the same direction as my latest camera and should light up half the street. I didn’t get the power hooked up yet. I got side tracked while going through a bin of wall warts, and ended up powering up several other things that have been kicking around waiting for power supplies. I’ll get to the illuminator soon, and in the mean time, the other things can either be put into service or put away, or sold.

Did a little bit of work in my attic. I moved all the light bulb holders to be above my head level. Since I store stuff up there, I’m moving around at least a few times a month, and I’m always afraid I’ll hit one of the bare bulbs with my head, slashing my face open. It didn’t take long and has been on the list for quite some time. I also put the Easter decor away and checked the rat traps- no rats.

Put another bin of auction items together.

Did some cleaning, poking around, and arranging in the garage too. And I wired the attic fan to a plug. I was going to put a receptacle in the attic for it and a work light, but didn’t have the right j-box, so for now it’s just a cord plugged into an existing outlet. I’m really hoping it will help keep the temps in the garage down. I need a Home Depot run to do some replenishing of plumbing supplies and any veg seedlings, so I might as well get a couple of j-boxes too.

The tomato plants are lush. There isn’t any other word for them. My wife is crowing about her success (I get one or two tomatoes from 3 or 4 plants every year, not a strong suit.) I’m claiming it’s the used coffee grounds I’ve been adding to the beds 🙂 The grape vine continues to leaf out, as does the peach tree. The frozen citrus is still not showing any signs of life. I’m starting to believe it was all killed, which is very disappointing.

I tried something new for dinner. I sautéed frozen shrimp with minced onion and bacon crumbles, and then used a can of Campbell’s Cream of Shrimp soup as a sauce, serving the whole thing over rice. Tasted good to my wife and to me, and the kids loved it. Quick, easy, low fuel cost, and a real change of pace.

Today if the rain holds off, I’ll be taking a pickup load to my industrial auction. I will have no trouble filling the truck. Then I’ll swing by Lowe’s and pick up the fridge for my rent house. Maybe I’ll even get that installed if I hustle. We’ll see.

And out there in the world, we’ll see how soon it all falls apart. The recent spate of shootings, the lawlessness in MN, OR, and NYC, a Congresswoman inciting riotous crowds that then shoot up an NG unit, lions and tigers and bears… oh my. It seems like the violence is accelerating and escalating.

Keep improving your position, and keep stacking…

nick

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Mon. April 12, 2021 – a whole new week, a new beginning … [music plays]

Cool, damp, and breezy. Or warm, dry and breezy. We had both yesterday at different times, but it was generally a beautiful day. Not too many more of those before summer starts to kick our butts.

And then it will be hurricane season, which is predicted to be heavy. I bet they’d be a lot more cautious in their predictions if they were publicly flogged when they were wrong. Just sayin’.

I did get a bunch of small tasks done yesterday so it wasn’t totally unproductive. It wasn’t as much work as I thought I might get done though. I’m still having periods where I just don’t feel good. No idea why, but it’s frustrating. Call them hot flashes. Don’t really feel like exerting myself during them. If it doesn’t clear up in a week, I’ll make an appointment, but it’s not really like anything I’ve experienced before.

Today I’ll be doing more cleanup. I’ve started making visible progress and that helps motivate me, and convince my wife stuff is happening. Twofer!

Maybe I’ll get enough done to spend a few minutes on another project, getting some air guns ready for my girls. I’ve got a bunch of old pump .177 BB and pellet guns, and they need cleaning and paint or they need to be sent back to the auction. I need to move them from where they’re stacked anyway, so maybe… Sometimes having a bunch of little tasks I can peck away at makes sense, and sometimes it would be nice to focus on one thing for 8 hours. I worry sometimes that I’ve lost the ability to do that, and I used to be good at it. It’s been a while since I just cranked away at the same thing all day.

There are some things that need to be done in the garage too. I have gotten rid of some stuff to make more room for other stuff… and that needs to continue. Before it gets too hot, I need to get my A/C unit outlet wired, and the exhaust fan. I had the roofers install the fan, but haven’t had a chance to run the circuit and hook it up. Most nights are cool, but the garage holds the day’s heat, so it will help keep the temp down if I can just exhaust the hot air and draw in some cool air at the end of the day. Once all that’s done, THEN I can move some of the food shelves to the garage. There is always something to do before I can do the other thing…

So I should get the kids off to school and quit playing around on the intarwebs and get busy…

(and get busy stacking)

n

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Fri. April 9, 2021 – and now we’re one step closer to CWII, thanks Joe!

Warm and sunny, with a small chance of rain, or hot and sunny, I’m reasonably sure it will be one or the other. It was sunny and warm yesterday, but so humid that puddles in the driveway wouldn’t dry. I was soaked with sweat pretty quickly after going outside. Sunny and beautiful, but not pleasant.

Spent a couple of hours napping. I just felt really wrung out, and was falling asleep in my office chair. Since that hurts my neck, I just went back to bed. I’ve done that more in the last couple of months than in the last couple of years. That is not necessarily a good thing.

The rest of the day was eaten up with small tasks. I got a mounting arm for my last camera cobbled together. I put the mount for the mount in place on the chimney. And I got the camera configured, along with the NVR software. Even though the cam is sitting in my office, I am looking at image from it on my NVR. Since getting that camera in place and working moved to pretty near the top of my list, it felt like a good day.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was devoted to cooking our belated Easter dinner. I was able to use mint and rosemary from the garden to season the lamb. I also used some instant potato packets from 2014. They were a bit orange, as the butter flavor coloring changed with time, but after adding some cream, butter, and bacon crumbles, the mashed potatoes were perfectly fine as an accompaniment to the lamb. I had one box of envelopes that tasted “old” and then this box that is well within acceptable range for taste. Same age, but one got more heat than the other. Heat is the killer of stored food.

I have decided to increase my stored bulk rice and flour beyond where it is now. It’s relatively cheap, and things aren’t looking better world wide, in fact our pResident seems to be actively working to make them worse. (And of course I don’t believe it’s him at all, but whoever is pulling the strings. It’s convenient to blame him, after all he’s sitting in the big chair, and that way I don’t need to type all this every time.) I think when I did the math, if we were eating it every day, one bucket of rice would last one month, and 50 pounds fits in a bucket. I’ll double check later today and update. So, 10-12 buckets of rice at $25-$40/bucket for the year. I haven’t priced bulk rice in a year, and it varies by grade, producer, and availability. If someone here is using rice every day (roughly) please add your usage observations.

Flour is much harder to judge because I do almost nothing with bulk flour. I’m going to guess at 10-12 buckets per year for that too, because it’s cheap, so why not.

I’ll need to add a few gallons of vitamin E stabilized peanut cooking oil too. That will actually be the most expensive part.

Those three things, and some salt, comprise most of the traditional ‘poor people’ food the world over, time without end. Some type of powdered flour, some rice, some cooking oil, some water and salt, and you have basic calories that can be added to with whatever is available. RBT called them “iron rations” and it never seemed very appealing to me. I plan to have lots to add to them, but they are the base load. It’s time to build up the canned storage too.

We’re currently eating canned corn, beans, peas, and a few other things that I panic bought during ebola-14, and the vast majority is as good as when I bought it. There are exceptions. High acid foods don’t survive as long in cans. Pineapple, tomato products, some other fruit, they have swelled up and/or popped. Dry mixes with a high fat content also tend to taste “old” once past their best by date. In our climate, dried food in boxes picks up an “old” taste too soon too– Kraft mac n cheese I’m looking at you.

The way I’m looking at it, maybe we WON’T need enough stuff to stay home for 6 months to a year because of a pandemic…. and maybe we won’t need to supplement our shopping with stored food for a year or two, while the economy and security situation stabilize. But what if we do? Food security is cheap insurance.

So stack it high.

nick

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Wed. April 7, 2021 – I did get a couple things done

Warmish, humid, possibly raining, and generally yucky weather. Or not. ’cause Houston!

Yesterday was pretty nice, if a bit humid. I did indoors stuff, and then spent the afternoon running around. School, bank, Post office… Daughter2’s STAAR test was fine, but a whole lot of students got to sit around for a day when the huge centralized testing program went offline. Millions of wasted learning hours…

Had to go to the bank. Hmm. Still need a mask. Felt like I was robbing the train or something. Oh, and if the bank was serious about reducing COVID risk, they’d put more than one teller in the glass box in the afternoon. We had 10 or eleven customers standing in line for half an hour, and 3 or four bank employees, all waiting on ONE teller in a not particularly large space. I was the only white person in the bank. Wypeepo don’t go into the bank anymore?

Got my cashier’s check, then it was off to the Post Office… fortunately our branch lets people just leave Priority mail on the counter and not stand in line. The lobby was full of people and the line is very slow moving at the best of times. From the beginning of this whole thing, the PO has been dirty and crowded. Still dirty, slow, and crowded. If a global pandemic won’t get them to change, who can expect anything to change them?

Everywhere I look I see people ready for the whole thing to be over. That is great if it is, and I think there is some evidence to support the idea we’re over the hump. I think far more people have had it than the numbers would suggest and we are therefore closer to ‘herd’ immunity than the fearmongers would have us believe. On the other hand, we’ve seen that every time large groups get together, cases and all the other metrics go up. I HOPE we’re at the point where that won’t happen in any big way. Like so many other times, I find myself saying “we’ll see”. *

Today should be more of the same. One of my auctions went live yesterday, so I need to work on filling bins for the next one (and driving myself mad watching the bids). I’ve certainly got plenty of stuff. I’m a bit concerned that demand for other people’s stuff is falling off. It will at some point outside of “grail” objects, it’s bound to be hard to sell collectables to people who are short on money for food. JerryP used to say he was after peoples’ beer money, not their ‘eating’ money. Almost everything I have in inventory is fully in the realm of discretionary spending. When money gets tight, that spending dries up. If you’ve been thinking about selling off some crap, I mean precious memories, do it now.

As an aside, it’s been so long since I was in the bank or used the ATM that I didn’t realize my card had expired. Took a while to figure out that the replacement was buried under stuff on my desk. LOTS of stuff expired on my birthday and I need to get on top of that. Passport, debit card, ARRL membership, non-prepping hobby org membership, and I’m sure some other stuff too. Take a second to look through your stuff and see if you will need to renew anything, and get a jump on it. Everything is taking longer these days, and you wouldn’t want to be without your CHL or ham license, or any professional memberships or licenses.

There’s always something more to consider or do. That’s why you need to get a good base in place to cover, well, the basics. Then you have time to consider the less obvious things, and build real depth in your preps.

And have stacks of stuff. Always stacks of stuff.

nick

*some translators of the story behind the link use “we’ll see” instead of the farmer’s “who knows” or “maybe”…

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Thur. April 1, 2021 – can’t even parody or satirize our current state, reality would trump every attempt…

Cooler, damp, although no rain in the forecast. We did get sprinkles and some wetness late in the day yesterday. The temps dropped from the high 70s to the high 60s and then even to 59F before bedtime. The first drop happened right on schedule according to openweathermap.org I don’t think that anyone needed a jacket though.

I spent the afternoon in meatspace. Spent over an hour with my buddy and his wife in the store talking. Inventory was down to almost nothing. There were a few consignment items, but they weren’t moving. Ammo? No. He’s hoping to get some inventory in soon. Most of the local stores are in the same condition. You can’t sell what you don’t have. Transfer fees are all that’s keeping the lights on and yesterday was slow while I was there. As a sign of the times, they had a almost attack by a lone wolf last week. They get scoped out fairly often, but the bad guys see the cams and the setup and decide to try elsewhere. THIS guy was gonna go for it, and only changed his mind when an extra gun showed up. People are getting more desperate. Take a look at your threat assessment with this in mind. Take a good look at your physical security too, I’m sure there is some way to improve it for little cost.

Again, things are unlikely to start getting better tomorrow. They are much more likely to continue getting worse. Start acting on that idea. Start by making yourself and your stuff less attractive as a target. Get rid of the bling. Consider that to a third world migrant, any jewelry is worth money and marks you as ‘rich’. Consider carrying some “throw down” money. I keep cash in a money clip in my pocket with the specific intention of giving that up. “throwing it down” and running, if possible. You might want a fat envelope of small bills in the desk drawer to satisfy the guy who is rifling through your house so he hopefully grabs it and bails. I don’t know if any one strategy will work or not, so I’m layering, just like I approach prepping. It’s very common to wear a silicon rubber band in place of a wedding band now, for sporting or work reasons. Think about that, and what your watch or phone says to a thief. You might want a case for your phone that makes it look a lot less attractive or expensive. Back in the day, in certain areas, white earphones were a great way to advertise that you were carrying an apple product… their design is iconic to catch the eye of customers, and it works on thieves too.

Right now the simplest things will likely pay the most dividends. Visible cameras. No visible high theft items. Don’t leave a bag, coat, or valuables visible in a vehicle. Don’t leave guns in vehicles. Get a consolevault or equivalent if you must. Lock your doors, all the time. Car doors should always be locked. House doors should be closed and locked. I put keypad locks on our doors. If you go through the door, you pull it shut behind you. It’s easy enough to code the door open. There are times when we don’t but it’s usually when we are working in front of the door. Absolutely don’t leave the front door open and then go out and work in the back. The doorknob rattlers are out every day looking for open doors and making lists of what they see. I’ve got that from our Constable’s loss prevention specialist. They bust these guys with notebooks full of info on their potential targets.

Consider getting an alarm system. At a minimum, get door chimes, or set the alarm to chime when the doors open and get different tones for the front and back door. When the kids were little, we had different bells and noise makers on every door in the house. You could track the little ninjas just by sound. Get a driveway alert system. If you’ve got a remote gate, put a chime on that.

This is just the easy and cheap stuff you can do with little impact on your ‘normal’ life. Think about what you’d do AFTER a home robbery, and save yourself the trauma by doing some or all of it BEFORE you need it.

Home and personal security is a huge topic and there are lots of resources. Your insurance or local PD might offer ‘security audits’ for free. Take advantage of that and get a fresh set of eyes as well as some experience applied to the issue. We’ve discussed various aspects of it here, and although there isn’t a particular keyword, some searching should bring up good info. Resolve to take some concrete action to improve your position…

and keep stacking.

nick

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Tues. Mar. 30, 2021- not a completely lost day…

Cool and sunny, chance of rain. Yesterday started cold and wet but ended up very nice. Some threatening skies to the south, but nice at my house! Huge full moon glowing low in the sky at 7am when I took child one to the bus.

I didn’t enjoy the day much though. Felt “off” and went back to sleep after getting the kids out the door. Woke up a couple hours later, so dizzy I could barely walk or stand. Thankfully that passed and I just felt tired, slightly dizzy, and a little nauseous. More ‘achy’ than the day of the shot too. We’ll see how today shapes up. By all accounts, I should be over most of my symptoms soon.

Spent what was left of the day ripping DVDs to disk, poking at my linux box, and getting paperwork in order for tax preparation. I actually got things done in all three areas. The NVR is finally back. It looks like someone put the required packages back where they were, and everything installed and started running. It took a bit of google and poking at it to get my settings to look right, and get the stupid thing saving video in the right place. It looks like it’s working, and without the previous issues.

I got some of the huge pile of paper I need to go through organized too. Today I’ll do more with that. Maybe I’ll do my mileage too. That will help get us ready to file our taxes. I’ll have to actually pay my TX business taxes before we can file the Federal income taxes. No state income tax in Texas though. and some years we get a deduction for the sales tax we paid. Still a huge pain in the backside to do all the required filing and recordkeeping.

There is stuff going on in the world of finance that could be the beginning of the great unwinding, or could be just one more signpost on the way. Better minds than mine will have to decide, but it’s time to look around and pay attention to it. Decide for yourself it it’s a stumble or a fall. I’m no financial genius, and this isn’t advice, but consider taking profits if you have them. I was chatting with a young woman in the checkout lane at the Goodwill Outlet and she showed my how she uses an app called Cash App for her finances. She bought $10 of Tesla while we were standing there, with cash she got from reselling thrift store items. She gets ‘loyalty’ money from the app in bitcoin… which is also available inside the app. I didn’t have a chance to ask her if she ever sells, and what kind of reporting the app gives her for tax purposes, but consider that there are likely 10s of thousands of people just like her poking away at the market, and crypto, and that they likely have very little understanding of what’s really going on. It felt VERY much like talking to a virgin house flipper in 2008…. Be warned.

My stacking lately has been limited to items that are expensive and difficult to find locally. I feel like I’ve got a good base of the basics, and if opportunity knocks with specialty items I should answer the door. That said, waiting just 3 weeks to rotate my gasoline before hurricane season is going to hurt my wallet. My delay in replacing my truck will cost me more than if I’d bought two weeks ago. Inflation? or simple supply and demand? Who can be sure, but prices are going up around here.

If it is inflation, turning money into goods is generally a good strategy. If it goes hyper, you can’t do it fast enough. Can’t happen here? I’m sure the others who have experienced it thought the same thing.

No matter the current reason, I think it’s almost always a good idea to keep stacking (durable things, long lasting things, things you absolutely need, or things that are very easy to convert to other things). You know the drill…

nick

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Sat. Mar. 27, 2021 – the weekend is just two more days to work…

Cool but dry, clear, and sunny. I hope. Yesterday was that way and it was great.

I managed to load the truck, but not to drop off anything at the auctioneer’s. She got called away for some other thing that came up. I’ll drop off today, after I get the J&J&j shot. I’m scheduled for 11am. Not really looking forward to that, but ‘a happy wife is a happy life…’ and all that.

After my dropoff, I need to spend some time at my secondary getting stuff thrown out, and getting stuff ready to take to the other ‘industrial’ auction.

Meanwhile, the world turns.

Ebola is back in the news, with a group being watched in Oregon after travel to an area with an outbreak. The chances are slim for a problem with this group but there will be others. If it gets here, some people are gonna die. And we’ll be lining up for the shot…’cuz that stuff ain’t no joke.

Street violence seems to be way up with publicized attacks on asians and elderly. Hell, kids too, with the guy who stabbed the 12yo kid in the neck. That can be taken as an indicator that we’re on the downhill slope. Prepare yourself mentally and physically.

There are more supply chain problems and shortages coming too. My buddy in OK reports that his Home Depot is limiting purchases of drywall and drywall mud and believes both will be in short supply for a while. Lumber prices are way up, but I think that’s due to strong demand more than any disruption.

About 10% of my grocery order was out of stock between when I ordered and when it got shopped, and there was a long list of items I’d bought before that weren’t available when I shopped. Things are very much still not normal.

In a situation with intermittent availability, you need to buy it when you see it, and buy some for later. I’m fully restocked on paper goods, and will keep adding to the pile. I’ve got meat in the freezer, and bulk buckets of starch, sugar, and carbs. I’m trying to build up some meds. I’m still buying ammo if I can and the price is OK. I thought about putting some steel cased 9mm in the auction, but I’m reluctant. I don’t want to shoot it, but it beats having nothing… the real question is what I would do with the money, and does THAT make it worth doing. With Executive Orders coming, I’d recommend sucking it up and paying what you have to if you are still short in the bang department, assuming you can get what you need at any price.

In other words, stack it. And keep stacking it.

And keep your head on a swivel if you venture forth.

nick

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Sat. Mar. 20, 2021 – no rest for the wicked

Sunny, clear, and cool again.  Boy it was nice yesterday, if a bit on the cool side.  50s and 60s and even 70s are great with the clear sky and sun.

I did my pickups then hurried home to meet with the electrician.   He took a look at what I had and he’ll be getting back to us with a price for the install.   One unfortunate discovery, I misread the data plate all those years ago.   The capacity of the gennie is 1/2 of what I thought, so while it is more than my portables, and runs on natgas, and is liquid cooled, it won’t run as much of the house as I’d like.  It will do, and we’ll continue with the install, but it was disappointing.   (in almost every case, when a plate says 240v and 100A, that is 100A for each leg of the 240v.  Not in this case.   They are calling out 100A ACROSS both legs, or 50A per leg.  It’s a beast of a machine to only have that capacity.  Very strange. )

Today I’ve got to do my pickups, then head over to my secondary and do some more cleaning and throwing out.  It’s past time that I was able to move a bunch of stuff there, and I need to get back onto that task.

On the national scene, President Biden stumbled and fell three times while climbing the stairs to Airforce One.  The video looks bad.  I know Presidents have stumbled on the steps before.   There is very little you can do to make it look good.  But holy cow it looked bad.   Add that to some sort of shenanigans involving digital additions to footage, and it hasn’t been a great week for Biden the weak.  Also consider last week or the week before when his strongest allies, and the people who presumably know him best, moved to take away his ability to make war, and he seemed ok with that.

Watch the videos, what few there are, and note that he’s got a ‘minder’ just a few steps away in every shot.  It’s his VP in far more shots than any other President I can recall.  Usually, the VP was a compromise and the POTUS keeps them much further than arm’s length away.  It’s all very strange.

I might have to try and retcon my prediction that he wouldn’t make it TO March into ‘he wouldn’t make it THROUGH March’…

He’s famous for his gaffes (and what a qualification for POTUS!) but still… he’s referred to his VP as “President” Harris at least twice on camera.  He even tossed off the comment that if they disagreed on policy, he’d ‘fake an illness and retire’.  I watched that video with my own eyes.

Now he’s picking a fight with Putin?  Putin, who issued some VERY specific and odd statements about Biden’s health, and who challenged Biden to a live debate, but it had to be ‘live with no delays and soon’.

Things are getting weird folks, seriously weird.  When I don’t know what’s going on, I tend toward an over abundance of caution.   And in this case that makes me want to double my food storage.  And buy guns.  Lots of guns and ammo.  Repair kits.  Spare parts.  Accessories.  Water treatment and filters.  Meds.  Wound care supplies.   Canning jars and seeds.  Boots.  All sorts of things.

Stack all the things!

Stay frosty.

nick

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Fri. Mar. 19, 2021 – Friday already? Week zipped by…

Cool to cold, clear, sunny.  Yesterday was blue sky, sunny, and yet cool and windy.  A great day to dry things out.  I’m hoping for more of the same and that is what the national forecast calls for.   It’d be nice if they were right.

Yesterday was another low achievement day.  Household stuff.   Groceries.   Messing around in the office.   Kids were home and wife was at the office, so I was parent in charge.  That means poking them to eat, dress, go outside, etc. instead of just playing Minecraft.   I thought about it today, and thought, if that’s really how they want to spend Spring Break, then let them enjoy the time.  They have other days when they knock off a whole book, or spend several hours playing with toys in their rooms.

Another reason for me to take it easy is I tweaked something in my knee.  I felt it tear, and it hurts for certain motions.  I’m going to be really careful for the next  few days.  I don’t think it was very bad, there isn’t any bruising or constant pain, but I know I did something.   This getting older is a b!tch.  Although, truth be told, I’ve been tearing up my knees most of my life.  This is  nothing new.

I didn’t buy any red meat or pork this grocery order.   The only thing reasonable was sirloin and I’m full up on that.  When I’m ordering I have costco open in one tab, and HEB in another, and I compare between them.   Costco was REALLY cheaper on a bunch of items this week.   Kings Hawaiian rolls, english muffins, choice ribeye steaks, all almost 25% lower than HEB and HEB has the lowest prices of our major groceries.  The bread was almost 40% lower at Costco.  HEB was cheaper for chicken drums and thighs, but only by pennies and I like the Costco vac pack better than repacking it myself, so Costco won on chicken too.  Prices on meat have been all over the place for the last year.  I don’t know if that means anything other than supply issues, but it’s been difficult to budget.  The freezers let me buy in bulk when it’s cheap and wait out the higher prices though, saving me money in the long run.

I’ve got an electrician coming by this afternoon to look at hooking up the whole house gennie.   Turns out he’s a guy I know, one of the dads  from the pool.  I think of him as a solar power guy, so I didn’t even consider calling him about the gennie.   Good thing I’ve got a smart wife 😉  I don’t know if he’ll be up for the job, he usually works for other companies, but he can answer some questions for me, and give me a better idea of the scope and cost involved.

It would be great to get it installed and running.  I have a feeling that if things proceed as they have in the past, we can expect services to degrade in quality.  Water, electricity, trash collection, policing, and general public works like graffiti removal and debris pickup should all decline.  I believe I’m already seeing more illegal dumping, more graffiti, and more roadside infrastructure damage than before.  It’s taking longer to fix issues, and the fixes are often just to remove the broken stuff without replacing it.  I’m seeing more vacant commercial and retail real estate too.

Before I meet with the electrician,  I’ve got errands to run and pickups to do.   At one auction I got a couple of nice high dollar items to resell, that should move quickly, the other was stuff for the house and eventual lake house.   I realized that I’m buying more and more of my total outlay in the secondary market.  I’m not spending any significant money in stores or with the big online sellers (other than food and grocery store items.)  We didn’t do any real back to school shopping either, nor have we done clothes shopping for the girls.   My wife isn’t buying clothes, haircuts, or shoes because she hasn’t been in to the office much.  If even a fraction of other households are like ours, it doesn’t bode well for an economy built on consumer spending.

That said, I’m still spending money.  Just not as much as I might, and not in the places other people do.

Consider what it might mean if other households are making the same changes you are making.  We are rarely so smart, prescient, or unique as we think, others will be doing whatever we are doing.   If it becomes a trend, what will that affect in the bigger world?

With that in mind, what do you need to be stacking?  Get you some of that, and stack it high.

nick

 

 

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