Category: Random Stuff

Cooler, still damp.

We got a little bit of misty rain early yesterday, but then it was just a bright overcast for the rest of the day.

I did my volunteer science class in the morning, ham meetup in the afternoon, and went and picked up auction lots that were mostly PPEs and cleaners. Traffic was insanely bad getting back across town.

Today I have a pretty similar schedule without the nice lunch.

Corvid 19 continues to spread. China has brought in industrial cremation furnaces “for livestock.” That ain’t good, no matter how you look at it.

The cruise ship evacuees continue to get sick here, anyone want to make book on them getting sick wherever they’ve dispersed to now that over 500 have been release in Japan?

Keep stacking.

N

Cooler and rainy.

The rain held off all day yesterday, but I still didn’t get anything done outside. I did get some prep stuff, shipping, and some ebay stuff done during the day.

Today I have my 4th grade volunteer day. We’ll be doing centripetal and centrifugal forces, why the moon doesn’t crash to earth or fly away, and why the earth isn’t round…. I hope my activities work out. We’ll see.

My weekly ham radio lunch is local to me today so I’ll be able to get there even with my morning class. Meatspace baby.

Then afternoon stuff, auction pickups mainly. I know I wasn’t going to buy more, but they had a bunch of PPEs. Tyvek, gloves, booties, AB soaps and cleaners, all good and welcome stuff. Some masks but I passed when the prices got too high.

I fully expect to see lots of new infections in Japan since they’ve started to disperse the plague ship passengers even though some tested positive just yesterday. I expect them wherever home is for those poor folks too. And hey, way to go State, now we’ve got double the patients, and we’re putting the BL-4 treatment center to use. Good show.

Stack it high. Meet some locals. Start planning to pull in your shell.

n

Warmish and damp. Probably. [71F and 99%RH with moisture condensing on the ground]

I did get some things done yesterday but no work outside. Didn’t think I could leave the sisters un-supervised. Especially after the slapping each other nonsense… School’s back today, so Hurrah!

This is a crazy week for me though, short because of the holiday, then two mornings of volunteer work, and then it’s basically over again. Jeez.

But enough of that. I’ve got stuff to do before the plague gets here. One case in Beaumont confirmed. 7 transited through on their way to BL-4 in Omaha… Anyone else notice that the one single cruise ship now has more cases than the whole rest of the world ex-china? Wait for Africa and India to start checking in with what MUST already be there. Then central and south america- there’s no shortage of chinese there either.

Lots to do, but only if the rain holds off. If we get rain today and tomorrow, I’ll have to shift gears.

Keep stacking folks.

n

Cool and a bit drier. [got that wrong, 63F and saturated, with haze and low fog]

Yesterday stayed damp and overcast. It was ok for work in the yard and driveway though.

I did make some small progress on stuff in the driveway and on general clean up. Some yard (pond fountain) stuff too.

I’m digging out some powered respirators I bought after Ebola 1, but never sold or got running. Big pile o stuff. That’s me. Smaug. Without the temper, and stuff- not gold. So I guess not really at all…

I’ve been busy in the comments over at Aesop’s for the last couple of days. Same stuff as here, mostly. But then we got us a troll. Actually the troll showed up previously but wasn’t so obvious. Man, what a difference this place is. And what a treasure. One troll p!ssing all over everything just has an outsized impact on use and enjoyment. Any time I think about “driving more traffic” here, I think about guys like that troll and stop that nonsense.

Oh, one other thing I did today was pull a piece of test gear out of my “shack” and install the two other pieces of gear that have been sitting on the floor in my office. The piece I pulled is 60 pounds if it’s an ounce. I’m hoping to sell it at next month’s Hamfest, and with the decent weather, it made sense. I have to pull it through my window, from outside to get it out. And to power everything up, I have to stand out there and reach in through the windows… My test gear is all stacked on a sort of bumped out window thing, like a bay window, with my desk in front of it. No way I could clear the desk enough to move 60 pounds into the room. So out the window it went. Tomorrow, if it’s still dry, I’ll be doing something similar through the other window, putting an AV receiver behind my monitor and setting up some decent speakers. It will get it off my floor, which is a plus, and I’m listening to more music lately at higher volumes when no one is home.

All that will take place in between working in the garage on food and medical storage, in the driveway, and working on ebay stuff–all while watching the kinder. Because they’ll be home from school all day, but my wife will be working.

Maybe I’ll get the grapevines trimmed somewhere in there too.

And try to keep tabs on the KungFlu.

Keep stacking.

n

Cool and crisp, still wet. [39F and 99%RH, see your breath weather]

Yesterday stayed cool but got very clear. The drive to Austin and back was very windy too.

It was a lot of driving for one lot, even if it was a good lot, so I hit the Goodwill Outlet hoping for a big score. No sluch ruck…. no vintage audio, no single good piece. I still got 50 pounds of stuff, but it’ll be grinding to make the trip worthwhile.

I hope everyone with a sweetie takes a few moments to let them know you love them. None of us know how short our time is, and it makes a difference to say it out loud.

In bat soup crazy land, both SiG and Aesop spell out why it’s a bad idea to keep all the people on the cruise ship/plague boat, and why someone might be doing it will full malice aforethought… Fairly closed experiment and all that.

https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/

https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/

One takeaway from the quarantine reporting, and CDC’s non-working test, DON’T GET ON THE BUS. They are bumblers and they are getting people infected. Their goals are NOT your goals. No one is coming to help.

Xi laid the groundwork for the return to the fixed numbers when he said it would be a long grim war. Watch for him to do something similar again. This is not going away.

And I’ve got lots of stuff to do, including backstopping the wife on her travel arrangements for the next two trips I don’t particularly want to take. So I’m off….

n

Cooler and wet. [45F and 96%RH]

I spent yesterday scrambling most of the day. Meatspace. Takes a lot of time.

Did get some more food, and put up another “bread kit” bucket. And a bucket of pasta. And some more cans.

Ended up more frustrated with the ISD management the more I ask them questions and the more I learn. They are all politicians. Their first instinct is to pat themselves on the back and lie. Or simply obfuscate. Very frustrating.

NB, financial info takes a while to ponder, understand, and question. When someone just hammers you with charts, figures, and graphs, while skipping around, conflating, and making false equivalences, then you can be pretty sure they’re lying about something. Or if not outright lying, then omitting and mis-directing to shape the narrative.

NB the second, having kids in class does not “generate revenue”. That is my money, taken from me under threat of punishment, skimmed and filtered, and then returned to my community to provide me a service. At no point does that school “generate” anything. The fact that they think so and use those concepts tells me a lot about the system.

Gah.

Today I’m headed to Austin. Quick pickup, short stop at the Goodwill outlet, and back home in time to get daughter to piano. I’ll try to post a comment if I have any free time while there. Everyone here should have my email by now…. I’ll try to remember to check it.

Now, time to start this day.

nick

Chilly. Wet. [57F and misty drizzle]

We did finally get some rain yesterday. Mostly it was light or misty, but there were localized showers that were heavier.

It may be that my ebay sales are finally recovering. Touch wood. Or maybe I’m finally listing stuff people want? I guess if the old listings sell then it wasn’t me.

I’ve got some travel arrangements to make for spring break. I think I’ll do something I haven’t done in a long time- buy the trip insurance. No telling what the world will look like in a couple of months.

My school district class tonight is covering School Finance. This should be interesting. I haven’t had my follow up meeting with the head of Safety and Security yet, so I’m trying to fit that in today too.

And the doggy is overdue for some meds so I’m off to the Vet this morning, on top of everything else.

DIDN’T get my costco run in either so that pushes to today or Friday….

No rest for the weary…but at least I’m not running a crematorium in Wuhan.

n

Cold, damp, windy.

Did some ebay listings, and shipping yesterday. Took the kids to the gun store to sell some GS cookies. Shout out to my favorite merchant of death for his support of our troop.

More ebay to do today, more listing and more shipping. Also more local auction stuff and remote tech support for my mom, and on top of that, flights for two upcoming family trips. No wonder I feel like I don’t have any time.

WRT the WuFlu- I don’t think it’s going anywhere folks, but everywhere. Time to review the CDC site on pandemic flu and think hard about what it would mean to you. Kids at home, no work (or no workers if you are a business), severely restricted travel and gathering. Shortages. Lots of unprepared people acting badly.

Safest is to not be there. Barring that though, low profile and stay in avoiding everyone possible is probably best. How long? Who knows? But you can bet it will be longer than 72 hours. Take a long look at the rows of beds in the arenas in china. Is that where you want to end up? Now consider being there with the people from down the street and around the corner… I’m pretty sure we don’t have anything like the chinese mobile plague hospitals, but we do have cots on the arena floor.

But don’t take my word for it. Wargame it out yourself. Best case, worst case, most likely case. Just be sure you can defend your assumptions for each with something more than “I don’t want to believe it could ever be like that.”

Keep in mind a possible 2008 style collapse of the financial system too, and any knock on from the collapsing trade with china.

It’s normal prepping for the apocalypse, but with the added urgency of seeing legit paths there, and not just hypotheticals. And a timeline. A short one, measured in weeks and months.

Keep stacking.

nick