Category: Random Stuff

Cool, humid.

Yesterday ended up warmer than it started, but still nice. My auction pickup was on the other side of town, and I had some other errands to run, so that ate my afternoon. I did sell and ship one ebay lot. Yea me! I got a few more listings done, and a couple more items up on Craigslist. Still nothing from my other listings though.

Just as a PSA, my gun store buddy thinks prices will be rising dramatically as the election gets nearer. Might want to take advantage of prices as they are right now. Especially if you believe CWII is on the horizon.

With that cheery thought, you might want to look into body armor and some threaded barrels… because you def won’t want to attract attention if you do need to get kinetic.

Whoever let loose last night woke up half our neighborhood. Constables couldn’t find anything, but looking at FB group reports, it must have been in or near the open power line right of way that cuts through our neighborhood. There are a couple of nuisance properties in that area too. One neighbor on my street got an audio recording from his doorbell cam. You can hear at least 2 other shots. So it was an exchange of gunfire.

I might step up my moving plan a notch. I love this house, but too much stuff is starting to happen around us. There seems to be an increase in vibrance lately too. I am not amused.

n

Not so cool, and quite humid. [66F and 98%RH]

Spent yesterday cleaning up part of the garage, digging out some lab gear and electronics I’d meant to sell on ebay. Took the lot to the auction. Treated the concrete slab with mold killer. Today I’ll look at putting bulk buckets where that stuff was stored. Also on the list, getting the metal shelves cleaned, re-arranged, and move my storage food back to the shelves. That will get 2 pallets out of the driveway. I know I’ll have some losses in the pile.

I’ve also got a pickup to do. Black 6 mil poly and stuff to sell online. The rolls of poly have a myriad of day to day, and post-apoc uses. The other stuff seems to be selling well on ebay for a 10x markup from where I bought it. I need something to start selling…. nothing sells between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I also picked up another self inflating life vest for the truck kit. I’ve got one in there already, for high water emergencies. It will be nice to have another for any potential victim.

In international news, they are starting to burn cops in Chile…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7649219/Thousands-march-Chile-govt-says-protests-hit-growth.html

A pretty high percentage of the riot cops seem to be women. Wonder how they’re liking that?

Now, off to do stuff….

n

Cold and damp. [53F and 99%RH]

I hope no one got tripped up by the “fall back” end of DST in the US yesterday. It’s traditionally a time to check/change the batteries in your smoke detectors, and I’d add any ready flashlights too. Also a good time to check your vehicle kit has your winter items in it.

I did manage to get all the Halloween decor in and put away yesterday. The indoor stuff is my wife and kids’ responsibility. NOT putting up Christmas stuff yet. Fall first, then winter- according to my wife. I”ll get some ‘fall’ and ‘Thanksgiving’ stuff out next week.

We are definitely skidding toward the end of the year now. Three more holidays and that’s another one for the record books. I REALLY need to get stuff to auction this week and next as no one buys between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I still have to get the new seedlings into the ground too, if I want them to do anything. So much to do.

I might as well get started.

n

Middling cool, and less than saturated. I hope. [nope, 40F and 99%RH at 8am]

I’m trying to sleep in today. I’ve been borderline sick the last three or four days, and sleep will help. I’ve been drinking Airborne ™ which I find does decrease the severity and length of a cold. I don’t really care what the mechanism is, it works for me.

Lotta unrest in the world as things shake up and change. Lotta unhappy people. This is not the time to be picking curtains for the cabins on the Titanic, or arguing over who gets to rearrange the deck chairs. The right side of the blogosphere is suddenly focused on minutia and seems to be losing sight of the big picture.

This is a time of great change. When it’s done, the world is likely to look as different as it did after WWII. I can’t make a prediction about who will be ascendant, but it looks like we’ll be the remnants of the British Empire. Still not a bad place to live, but not the place it once was. We could pull our heads out and have a second renaissance, but it would take some seriously bad stuff happening, and a LOT of deadwood clearing to make way for that. Not something any of us are particularly likely to live through individually. Without a new frontier as a safety valve for the malcontents, that energy gets turned inward and destroys rather than builds.

Something to think about, what does 10 years from now look like, without a cataclysm? Compare our 3 biggest cities of today with 10 years ago. Or 20. Now accelerate all the trends, because things are speeding up. Not a pretty picture. Do the same for Venezuela, Chile, Germany, France, or London. Do it for Iran, before and after the rise of the Ayatollahs. All of those places had sudden violent and dramatic change. What makes us immune?

Stack it high.

nick

Cold and slightly less damp, if I’m lucky. [44F and 99%RH at 630]

Loaded up the truck with stuff to sell at my mini swapmeet. It’s a bit like the old joke- Two antique dealers are the only humans stranded on a desert island, and they both have thriving stores.

I’m hoping to swap some stuff for cash…

I’ll have the younger child with me, fully charged up with the power of the cute. Can’t hurt when the average age of my club members is 65+… Older child is doing a girl scout engineering day at the park. My contribution was some rope, twine, and some REALLY heavy duty double walled cardboard. The parent guide said cardboard was king, and nothing exceeds like excess….

So I’m off to sell, and NOT to buy, hoping to empty the truck at least.

n

Cold and a bit less damp. That’s my hope anyway. [39F and 44%RH at 6am, according to my weather station- I need new batteries. It’s ‘see your breath’ out and there was a layer of frost on my wife’s windshield.]

It was pretty chilly yesterday. I got my winter shirts and sweatshirts out of the closet and into the dresser. I hated long sleeve T shirts for years, but I found I really like the ones in a modern fabric. I like how they fit and don’t hang on my arms. And they’re breathable. That lets me layer, which is good in a place where you might run the heat at night, and the AC during the day.

Hmm, so maybe Epstein didn’t hang himself….who’d a thunk it? Besides literally EVERYONE, that is.

The attempted coup continues.

Trump moved out of NY for Fl… not the first high net worth individual to flee NY, won’t be the last.

And Cali is still burning, and dark for some folks. Preps people. You need them.

Lots of auction pickups today. I have my non-prepping hobby quarterly “swapmeet” on Saturday, so I’ve got stuff to get together to sell, and some of the stuff I bought this week, I’m hoping to flip on Saturday. Lots of driving, so checking in will be limited once I leave the house.

Talk amongst yourselves….

n

Probably cool and wet. [WOW, my weather station says 39F and 87%RH] Hopefully warmer and dry later.

I like Halloween. Don’t care about any of the overt meanings or undertones. I like decorating and it gives me a chance to use some of my theater fag skills. Last year was rainy, and this year is rainy, so I’m a lot behind on decorating, from where I’d like to be. I had ideas for 3 new additions to my display this year, and I don’t think I’ll get any of them done. One of my rules is that it can’t take time away from other things, so they have to be pretty down and dirty, and quick. With all the other things I’ve had going on, I just didn’t find the time. Oh well, there is next year. Part of me is already planning the changes to my Christmas display…

Of course, with the rain and cold comes the aches and pains. It’s been about 13 years since I had the cartilage in my knees cleaned up, and they are starting to ache again. Joy. Hands hurt, knees hurt, neck hurts, hips hurt, oh my it’s a total whine fest this morning… still, a burden shared, and all that…

I better get my grumpy kids and sick wife out of the house. I do hope the weather gets nice for the trick or treaters.

n

68F and wet. At a guess. [66F and drizzling at 6am, 0.07in of rain since midnight]

Yesterday started at 68F and got a bit warmer. It got a whole lot wetter. It was still misty and occasional drizzle when I went to bed.

I didn’t get much of my list done yesterday, what with several hours of phone and remote pc support for my mom in Florida smack in the middle of the day. The one saving grace was how easy it is to use Teamviewer (despite my frustrations with the constant updating). Installing that should be a no brainer for anyone doing remote support for friends or family. I’ve used gotomypc, and various versions of VNC, but Teamviewer is the easiest I’ve used. (I still install VNC on all machines when I set them up, but I realized a week or so ago that I haven’t used it in years. At least TightVNC doesn’t nag you for updates, it just sits there waiting….

One of my issues with supporting mom’s pc is that I set it up for dad, and his use was very limited. I used one of the little ‘appliance’ win10 machines that cost about $120 and that includes the windows license. The little thing only has 32G of ramdisk for C: (which I figured would be plenty for windows and a couple of games- wrong!), and I added a 64G SD card for everything else. The little thing would play 4 simultaneous youtube streams before choking, so it is actually pretty powerful, for what it is. But, limited. I had to talk her through adding a USB hub so that she could use a thumbdrive. The new printer connects with wifi. Any new software has to be installed on the D: drive, which is a complication for someone who is “not a computer person”.

The biggest frustration for an older person attempting to use a pc for anything is the constant updating. Every time she tries to do something, it forces updates to the program. The OS nags you to update (seems that win OSs now expire and have to be updated, even though the major release version will remain the same? WTF?) She just wants to do x, and can’t because 3 other things must happen first. AND the OS coughs up scary warnings about making changes when she does click on OK. Sometimes the update window doesn’t come to the foreground and the pc looks like it’s locked up. All in all, not a good experience for the casual or inexperienced user.

To finish up, I’ll need to find space on C:, probably by cleaning up WinSxS, update, and then work with my wife and mom to get her iPad and iPhone printing to the new printer. (My wife is the apple person in our family.)

By the time this is done, MS will owe me for about 5 hours of support. I don’t think I’ll get it.

Meanwhile, Halloween approaches! Mr Lynn needs to stock up on Kandy Korn while he can, 30 or 40 pounds should be enough, no? Think of the children!

I need to get the rest of my decor set up, and get the candy and toys ready. I always threaten to hand out cigarettes, and my sweet wife always talks me out of it. Probably better that way. Cheaper too. Dang cigarettes are expensive. Lawyers too.

n

High 50s? Damp for certain. [68F at 6am, I didn’t want to believe my weather station.]

Didn’t get as much done yesterday as I should have. Computers, procrastination, and the need to go to the bank for a deposit all messed up my plans.

This time for sure.

On the bright side, I’m not fleeing from the most powerful armed forces on earth…

I’m just fleeing from my own list of ToDo’s…

n

Low 50s and damp. [actually, 60F and 99%RH]

Beautiful day yesterday. Started cool and overcast but turned into a picture postcard day. Chamber of Commerce weather.

My calendar for today is completely clear. All the things I need to do are MY things. I better get some done. No excuses today. Groceries are in. Kids are at school. No pickups or sales. Just fix stuff to list, fix stuff to use, list stuff, and maybe take a load to auction.

Hopefully the news cycle will leave me alone so I can work on stuff.

Late last night in yesterday’s comments I posted a link to a zerohedge article about the fedgov takeover of broadcasting. 1934. Funny how that year crops up in other places that seriously curtail another amendment to the constitution. Almost as if there was a change in the character of our government…. Anyway, if even half the stuff he writes about is accurate, and his interpretation is correct, it explains a lot about how we got to here.

Some other things to think about are real ebola and pig ebola. One is still going on in africa, the other in China. I should have a list of things I’ve gotten wrong. Price movements for food would appear several times on the list… almonds got a couple of bucks more, then went back down. Ham got expensive, then went back down. Maple syrup is down almost 3 or 4 dollars from its high. Stock market didn’t crash (yet). Oil came down from $100/bbl. So maybe I’m not the best predictor of market prices, but if china has killed or lost almost twice the number of pigs in the whole US, and this pig ebola is now spreading outside of China, it might be time to stack some bacon and chops in the freezer. Just sayin’. You can always eat them later, and they are inexplicably cheap atm (unless it’s because of impending feed shortages, and farmers are selling off herds before they get sick, especially with high demand). In any case, if it’s cheap, and might get dear, putting some away makes sense.

If you thought you might like to raise some chickens, this would be the time to start climbing that learning curve.

The same goes for shooting supplies.

80% lowers are no good without at LEAST having barrels (same for stripped lowers). And complete uppers can be had cheaply ATM. Heck, PSA has complete AR kits, minus the lower receiver, for very good prices. (I’ve posted links previously.) My gun store buddy can’t compete and doesn’t see how they can do it for long. Ammo, mags, and parts kits, as well as web gear, could all become very dear literally overnight. Personal armor could vanish with the stroke of a pen, just like bump stocks.

When things get bad, they usually do it very quickly and it catches people by surprise. SOME people though see it coming. Do you see any path at all that has things getting better before they get worse? If not, what are you doing to get ready?

nick