Category: Random Stuff

Still feels too humid. [68F and 86%RH]

Trees were starting to turn just south of Boston, and the air was cool and dry. Hot and humid here in Houston. Wife is pining for cool weather. Houston better start cooling off soon…

Gonna be some grumpy tired kids this morning, and their mother and father too. School is going to be a misery. I’ve got to turn my ebay stuff back on, get stuff listed that’s sitting here waiting, and get the house cleaned up.

But first, get the family up and out the door.

n

Cold here. 68F indoors, much colder outside.

Eventually we’ll be home. Evening flight, so some more in law time today.

Saw lots of the wife’s relatives yesterday. Avoided most of the dancing. Ate too much. Chatted. Even found one cousin’s spouse who might be a bit right of center… Even in Boston. Who knew?

Maybe sanity could break out…. Naw.

N

Much cooler here!

Not a bad flight. Made it without drama. TSA wasn’t bad. I recommend traveling with a small child to avoid TSA hassles.

I haven’t seen any news, so I got nothing new… But I’m confident political drama continues.

Keep stacking, it isn’t getting better until out gets a lot worse.

N

mid 70s and damp…

Got hot yesterday. And super sweaty. No sir, I don’t like it.

Dropped the dog off with friends, cleaned up around the yard, emptied the back of the pickup… maybe I’ll cut the grass.

That’s right, another trip. Just a party on Saturday, the back home Sunday. Lots of the wife’s family, most of them in fact, will be there. It will be strange to see both sides in the same visit. Flying to BOS this afternoon, home late Sunday.

So I’ll be getting groped, unless the power of the small child protects me, and putting my family and myself at the mercy of strangers. Nope, don’t like it.

It looks like it will be a taste of fall, as it’s MUCH cooler than Houston.

The worst thing for me is losing 3 days of getting stuff done.

Oh well, can’t be helped, as I wasn’t going to let them go without me.

I’m taking my tablet and phone, so there might be typos and poor spelling (more than normal) and terse commenting, but I’ll be back home late Sunday.

If I don’t get a post up by 9am Central time, perhaps Rick will open the door and start the day.

n

mid 70s still, and damp [74F, 99%RH at 6am]

Yesterday was sunny and a bit cooler, but so humid. Even just unloading stuff from my pickup slowly and carefully in the driveway in the shade left me soaked in sweat.

Did my ham group lunch meeting. Had some interesting chats. The group is definitely a bit right leaning.

Need to spend part of today getting ready for our weekend trip. I have no desire to go, but 50th wedding anniversaries don’t come every year and family is family. It’s an expensive trip, but thankfully short.

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Ol’ commie Bernie can play down his medical issue, but it sounds like a duck, walks like a duck and it’s a F’ing duck. Heart attack should be the end of his presidential aspirations.

Ol’ murderin’ Hilarity is about to throw in her hat, and that should be interesting to see. Cat fight at 11!

None of it’s good for us common folk. The elephants are dancing and us mice better look lively or we’ll be looking deathly soon enough.

I guess I better get crackin’.

n

mid 70s and humid- probably [74F and 99%RH]

I did get some stuff done Monday and Tuesday. I’ve got plenty more to do though.

It seems like the list is neverending just as a homeowner, add dad and family duties, and there isn’t much prepping time left, nor civic engagement or hobbies.

Forget about working 🙂

Still, I’m chipping away at it. Today is my ham group lunch and it’s near my house so I’m going. The bands were pretty noisy last night, even more than my local noise problem. Some shortwave was making it through. Alex Jones had a good signal, even better than Cuba and the religious nuts. Not much I was interested in hearing though.

There was some other ham news, in that the FCC ruled that the most popular prepper handie talkie could no longer be sold or advertised in the US after 10-1-19, the Baofang UV5 and it’s variants. There are technical reasons, having to do with power levels, and not blocking certain frequencies. RBT liked a more capable version, which I don’t think is affected by the ban. I didn’t mention it earlier, mainly because I didn’t expect it to be enforced, and there are alternatives. I did order a couple last week, mainly because I had projects in mind and just hadn’t gotten around to it. What has happened in the past with restrictions on radios is that the maker adds a few resistors to differentiate models for different places, and the community figures out what to change to allow more functionality anyway. We’ll see how the whole thing plays out. It does point out that it’s not just guns and ammo that are useful tools, and can be regulated out of existence. It will still be legal to own and use the radios, when used within the limits of existing law.

It makes you wonder what might be next? Body armor is almost certainly going to be regulated or banned. Grow lights are high on my banned soon list, as they are poorly made, outrageous RF radiators, and typically mislabeled. That they are used by dopers is a strike too (especially now that the state is getting into production). Water filters? Solar panel controllers? Reloading gear? (omg, he had an ammunition factory in his den!!111!!1) Small machine tools? Certain polymers? Rainwater collection hardware? Remember that they got rid of bump stocks by redefining them to be machine guns, in defiance of decades of their own precedent.

Certain medicines and chemicals are probably high on the list, and some books too. I’ve not tried looking, but I’ve been told that there is almost no written material available on the cultivation or use of poppies, despite that being widespread in the past…

Supplies can dry up in a heartbeat. If there is something you think you can’t live without, or that you’ve put off purchasing but think will make a difference, don’t wait too long.

n

(fish meds, I’ve got fish and they might get sick, and I’ve put it off for a long time. I think that time has come.)

mid-70s and wet…. [75F and 99%RH at 6am]

But definitely Fall. We may still get a couple of really hot days, but we’re over the hump. I hope.

Some errands to run around town today.

Paid the state for my truck registration online last night. If you gotta do it, being able to do it online, with automatic confirmation of your insured and inspected state is very convenient. Quite a lot of state sponsored data sharing and oversight. But convenient, and they thanked me and reminded me that I’m supporting a number of good and helpful programs with my registration money. Very pleasant. Of course, all that linked data sharing is in service of catching cheats and increasing compliance, but it’s still convenient.

If you’re gonna institute a surveillance state, at least use the data collected to make things easier for your subjects.

nick

Mid 70s and wet? Sure, probably…. [ugg, 78F and saturated]

Remember when only a few places used the phrase ‘deep state’? Pretty common now, as it describes something most people recognized but perhaps couldn’t name.

Remember when some people first started talking about a second civil war? Now the President is tweeting comments about what might trigger one. The concept is becoming widespread, if most would still deny it’s likelihood.

Ever consider that some words can’t be unspoken, like ‘divorce’ in a marriage?

Think REALLY hard about what a civil war would look like here, with no clear battle lines, a 40 year history of insurgencies and unconventional warfare, and terrorism domestic and foreign being a mature concept. Think about the enemies of civilization that we’ve imported into our midst, and the hordes of people who would be perfectly happy to be just one step up from tarpaper shacks built from pallets and tarps. Plenty of people that would be willing to take advantage of any strife and ‘stir the pot’. Think about how fragile our Just In Time manufacturing and distribution system is.

Does anyone think it won’t get worse before it gets better?

What can you do to mitigate the effects of such a hateful and bile filled conflict on your own life and the lives of your loved ones? There isn’t enough countryside to hide in, although that will help…

Surely having some items put away, just in case, is a good idea?

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I’ve got to get my truck through smog and registered today. I rented a drain machine and need to do the annual drain cleaning today. My Mom needs remote computer support. I’ve got a ton of ‘inventory’ stacked everywhere that I still haven’t moved. Winter is coming, and it would be nice to have a garden in. Projects are getting stacked up even more than usual, with a one day family trip to Boston coming, and all the Fall holidays starting to hit the calendar too. (Halloween, one of my favorites, is starting to be very prolonged because all the organizations we belong to have “Trunk or Treat” events before the actual day. Wife wants to squeeze a trip to Chicago or Michigan in there too, preferably when there is snow on the ground so the kids can have a bit of winter….

And on top of all that, we’re racing toward a civil F’ing war.

Jimminy Christmas, it’s gonna get intense.

n

mid 70s and humid [75F at 8am and all the windows are covered in condensation.]

I’ve got an extra child for a couple hours. Oldest has a friend over. Much squealing ensues.

I’ve got the youngest most of the day while the oldest and my wife attend some Girl Scout event. That’s gonna put a kink in my plans…

Listened to a bit of shortwave last night. Alex Jones looks like a visionary. He’s been up on radio for years, and now that the gulag has deplatformed him, it’s paying off. He still has an outlet, and his fans know where to reach him. If .gov ever tries to shut him down by attacking his US based transmitters, I suppose Cuba wouldn’t mind hosting him. (he doesn’t own the stations, some religious broadcasters do, and fringe religious broadcasters know a bit about the value of independent channels.)

Author Larry Correia and others are starting to finally move off Faceboook, to WeMe. Lots of patriot and freedom supporters moved from Twit to Gab, but Gab then had issues with hosting too. I don’t know their current status. What I do know is that the heady freedom of the interwebs is over for a while. Start considering where you’ll be getting your news, when every page view is sanitized and slanted as it’s being delivered and all the alt media have been shut down. A voice on the radio might be all that is left. (and slow scan TV, and maybe digital formats for textual info.)

Might want to move some radio stuff up your list…

n