Category: Random Stuff

Warm and wet. [72F and 99%RH]

Finally did get some lights up yesterday. I had no problem with the stuff going back into the same place as last year. I put some of the moving effects in different places this year and I’ve got a couple more things to do today. I have changed the display nightly in the past, but I’ll just be adding to mine this year.

There is a bunch of discussion around the blogs about Virginia, gun grabbers, and the shot (to be) heard round the world. People are making a good case for it happening soon. Since history is rarely that neat, I’m gonna say that it won’t be there. Could be though. Pay attention, and keep stacking. Priority to defensive tools.

I don’t like the idea of being away from home for a week, but at least it’s not the east coast this time. I intend to rotate and supplement the basic food and gear stockpile I have started there. There are worse places to be stuck if the balloon goes up than small town Michigan, while waiting to see how things shake out. Worst case, we can drive home from there.

Closer to home, I added to the cans stored here. I bought a ton of cold weather preps this week at auction and some minor medical stuff that doesn’t usually come up for sale. Some bits and pieces of add on gear and parts for defensive tools fell into the box too.

Dinner tonight was rotating a beef roast out of the freezer, roasted new potatoes, canned peas (which I prefer to almost any other peas), and shelf stable bread. Dessert was mini pumpkin pies, tiny crusts from the fridge, filling and condensed milk from storage cans, whipped cream fresh from the store. Bits and pieces, bits and pieces. Tried some canned kale at dinner last week. Shop the ethnic aisle for some variety in your stored food. It wasn’t terrible, but a little bland. Nothing bacon wouldn’t fix…

Busy week ahead. Wed. I have my fourth grade science class. Thur. and Friday are half days at school and we travel Friday after school. I’ve got to get back out to my customer’s house during the week too. What did Jerry say? It’s a great life if you don’t falter….

n

Moderately cool, and damp.

I’m sleeping in today, as much as my bladder, back, and kids will let me.

I don’t have anything on my calendar and nothing specific except the ToDo list, starting with Christmas lights. I do have to hang them every year. The HOA sends out nastygrams if you leave them up. And I do something different every year, so even the common elements probably wouldn’t be common for more than a couple of years.

In the mean time, here are a few interesting links to eat up some of your free time.

https://www.usgs.gov/news/landslide-risks-highlighted-new-online-tool

https://www.domesticpreparedness.com/site/assets/files/11020/navy_yard_book_9_12_19_final.pdf

https://archive.defense.gov/pubs/Navy-Investigation-into-the-WNY-Shooting_final-report.pdf

n

Cool and wet.

Nice day yesterday, with a nice community event in the evening. Meatspace baby. Get to know your local pols.

Runoff election today, so I will be voting again. Local local local…

And all the stuff that has been piling up needs to get done this weekend. I’m not optimistic.

So, off to work I go.

n

Cool and damp. [55F and 98%RH]

Well, I got through my volunteer day yesterday. The guy who normally leads the fifth grade sessions no showed. I stepped up and did a Geology class. I had the ppt from the previous year so I had some good pictures of land and rocks to riff off of, and the school has a set of nice rock sample kits. I also brought my personal collection of rocks, minerals, and fossils. I brought my rock hammer too. It went pretty well considering I was winging it with no prep at all. I’m pretty sure picking up interesting rocks is universal with kids. I’ve got some cool examples of quartz, petrified wood, amethyst, coral and other fossils that the kids liked, and the school has a quartz crystal as big as the kids’ heads. I really like working with the kids, and the little girl who asked me to write down “geologist” last year was there asking me questions again this year. Lots of the kids answered my questions, not many ASKED questions.

It’s still not dissection, which it looks like we are caving in and skipping at least this year. PETA and activists suck.

I made it out to my customer’s house and solved a couple of issues. I’ll be headed out there today to hopefully solve the remaining issues or at least identify a path forward.

Not much prepping happened this week. It’s been really busy IRL…

And I STILL don’t have my Christmas lights up.

n

Cold and wet.

I got a couple of things done yesterday but spent the whole afternoon driving around town. Traffic was horrible with accidents and road closures all over.

Today I’m actually doing my volunteer day with the fifth grade science class. I’m just a helper monkey for this class as I learn it for next year. I have no idea what old boy plans to do, and I’d bet money he doesn’t either.

After that. I need to do onside service for my last remaining customer. He’s got a list of stuff to address, so I expect I’ll be back out there tomorrow or Monday too. And here I was thinking that it must be going ok if I hadn’t heard from him…

Not much time this AM to get the kids and myself ready, so I’m off like a prom dress….

n

Cold and wet. [44F and 99%RH]

It was 48f last night when I went to bed, with ongoing occasional drizzle. Temps during the day were high 50s to mid 40s depending on time and location. Drizzle was a constant though it varied in intensity.

I ended up driving my Expedition when I’d have preferred the pickup. For a couple of days, I’ve been aware that the windshield washer fluid pump wasn’t working. And when I didn’t take the time to see what was wrong, I knew I’d pay later. So of COURSE I didn’t fix it when it was sunny and warm. Now, I was faced with fixing it in cold drizzle. I wimped out. I put the hitch mounted cargo carrier on the Expy and drove that. I really recommend a hitch mounted carrier if you have a receiver type hitch. It is very handy for extra capacity. I’ve used it on the wife’s Honda minivan for bins full of camping supplies. I’ve used it to carry bins full of tools and books from my dad’s stuff. I use it for the EZup and coolers for swim meets. And I’ve used it to carry a couple of generators now… It keeps mess and fumes out of the cargo area, and it’s a lot easier to load than the roof rack. Mine will fold up across the back of the truck to get out of the way when not in use. Again, recommended.

I also recommend taking care of vehicle maintenance issues as they arise.

On a separate note, I made some grilled chicken legs for dinner Monday night. The legs were frozen in Q1 2017 and were just the same as when they went into the deep freeze. They were in the manufacturer’s heavy vac pack, but could have used the extra protection of a seal-a-meal vac bag, if I’d realized how long they’d be in there. That would have protected them during all the handling and shifting around over the years.

The prepared naan bread was probably only in the freezer for a year.

A ready in 90 second pouch with some sort of bulgar wheat in tomato sauce that was at least a year old rounded out the menu. Tasted pretty good, for something I’ve never tried before. Even the wife thought it was an ok change of pace.

I love the freezer and vac bags, and on sale bulk food. That’s a winning combination. Yes, during TEOTWAWKI I’ll need to keep the freezer powered. There’s a plan for that. A tested and vetted plan. With some redundancy. Eventually, I’ll stop powering it, or we’ll eat all the contents. In any case, it’s a real force multiplier, and very convenient. Also, not super expensive and lets you save on food by buying in bulk. Frozen is part of my plan and works well for everything less than total collapse.

Now to get the kids and wife fed and out the door….

n

Warm and wet. [54F and steady drizzle]

Storm in the Gulf with up to 13 foot waves possible offshore for tonight and tomorrow. I’m glad I’m not out in gale force winds, but I can’t imagine we won’t get some kind of badness inland…

In economic news, Celadon trucking went belly up. They had some fraud issues in the past but if the industry was booming, it seems like they’d be able to recover. Instead they are winding down their global operations. 3200 drivers affected. My bet is a whole lot of that freight doesn’t get delivered on time, or at all. I see their trucks everywhere.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/largest-truckload-carrier-bankrupted-leaving-3000-truckers-jobless-many-stranded-highways

I’ve got a couple of pickups today, the Honda 3000 inverter gennie, and some other small things. I’ll be driving all morning. I should not have thrown out a bid on the other auction. I didn’t look at when the pickup time is, assuming it would be in a couple of days, like normal. Nope, tomorrow only. On the plus, one of the items will make a nice Christmas present for my wife.

Number one daughter is not feeling well, and neither is her dad. Sore throat and just blah for the last week with some coughing. Just enough to be a pain. I’m sure some extra sleep would be helpful. Too bad I won’t be getting any.

And with that, I better get going.

n

Cool and damp. [68F and wet]

Well I did get some things done yesterday, but not what I wanted to. I even got up early. But between the return of the campers, and getting ready for the recital, there wasn’t much contiguous time to really get going.

Campers had a great weekend.

I’ll have to do better today. Of course, some time this week I have to get to College Station for an auction pickup.

And my volunteer day is Wednesday or Thursday. If Wed. I need to get a lesson and lab together for geology. We’ve got plenty of cool rocks and minerals, I’m just not sure how to get ‘hands on’ with them… probably sorting and identifying, like last year if I can’t figure out something more fun. I’m thinking of maybe identifying 3 white powders- salt, talc, sand/quartz, or maybe borax or calcium carbonate or chalk… I’ll have to do some looking online. Maybe react them with water, vinegar, touch them, etc. At least I have a day or two to figure something out.

In the wider world, more rumblings in the world’s economies. More banks cutting back, hedge funds shutting down or stopping people from withdrawing. More anti-government violence in Iran, France, Chile, Hong Kong, etc. Not much news from Venezuela, but I’m thinking things aren’t getting better or we’d be hearing about it.

Closer to home, more attacks on the second amendment, free speech, and privacy.

I’m telling ya, it’s getting worse. I do see people pushing back though. I see the 2A sanctuary city thing happening. I see people pushing back against pc and progtalk. I saw that a huge number of firearms were sold on Black Friday. Those are hopeful signs. Maybe it’s just getting started, or maybe it’s too little too late, but I guess we’ll see one way or the other. Plan for one, temper the plans with the other.

nick

Cool and damp. Probably

Did a lot of my running around yesterday. Might have made some good scores. Definitely got some good things personally. That won’t pay the bills though.

Females of the household are due back late morning, and then we have a piano recital for the little one in the afternoon. She’s really progressing nicely. It sounds like music when she practices.

Still got plenty to do this morning before everyone gets home, and plenty this afternoon. Whole week is gone in an eyeblink, and the weekend vanished just like that.

Gotta be strong….

n

Not so cool, but plenty damp. [wrong monkey boy 50F and 89%RH]

Whatever else happened, and the why of it, Japan woke the sleeping giant. The parallels to today should be self-evident. In the long run, fortunately for them, they seem to have won, except for the weird psychosis’s. However they won without us losing, which I don’t think will happen again, and it took a couple of generations.

Lots of ‘out and about’ today. Females are all away at camp so it’ll be wild women and parties for me and the dog- gotta keep up the traditions.

I’ll check in periodically. Try not to light anything on fire…..

n