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Category: Random Stuff

Thur. Dec. 23, 2021 – closer yet, almost ready for ‘fat guy inbound…’

Cool and clear. Beautiful big moon last night and the night before. Mid 70s during the day with a really hot sun beating down.

I hung the last of what I am going to do this year. I had a few oversized plastic ornaments left after hanging a couple dozen on the eves, so I hung them in the tree in front of the house. They look nice during the day. Part of my strategy for decor is that it has to look pretty good during the day, as well as night. I think I achieved it this year.

Today is mostly getting ready for the fat man to visit and for the last of the presents to be wrapped. House needs a cleaning too.

Maybe we’ll watch some Christmas-y movies too. Well, the kids anyway. I’m sure my day will expand to fill the time available.

Meanwhile the world turns…

I’m sure there are bad guys out there that want to attack us when we are most comfortable. We might have our own ‘winter garden’ attack. It’s been a while, so they’re due. If you’re out and about, keep your awareness up. Have fun, these are the good old days, but keep one eye open too.

Take a break from stacking all the things, and live in the moment for a couple of days. You’ll be stacking up good memories to help with the hard times.

RBT would be checking the travel and load on his anti-Santa AA gun. I’ll probably be mixing up some reindeer food to sprinkle on the ground tomorrow night. It’s not legal to bait them, right?

nick

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Wed. Dec. 22, 2021 – 12-22-21 – Hah! That’s an interesting number….

Easily amused. That’s me.

Cold and clear today, if the forecast holds. It was cold and clear yesterday, and that’s the best predictor for today.

Holds true for most things, until it doesn’t.

Did my pickup in the morning yesterday, mostly shop supplies, and had a long conversation with my auctioneer. He’s ready for me to drop off a bunch of stuff come January. He’s expanding like crazy, adding storage space and staff. He’s worked his way through a huge bolus of stuff, and now he’s got some time and space again. I’m not messing around this time, I’m taking him as much stuff as I can without holding much back for ebay. As he put it, get caught up.

Then I headed out to my client’s house. Finished most of what I wanted to, but broke the system in the process. I unplugged the controller to dress up some cables, and it didn’t come back up when I put the power back. Long story short, there is a piece of gear that has a bug in the firmware so that it looks ok, until the power cycles. Then it keeps the whole system from working. With my partner checking in from the Virgin Islands where he is on vacation, and his guy who came down to work on the system, it got fixed to the point I can leave it alone until January. The ultimate solution requires the manufacture to update their firmware, so we’re probably weeks away from doing more work on it anyway.

And then I returned home to family movie night. Jungle Cruise with “The Rock”… I like him as an actor. He seems to be having fun with the roles. Movie was enjoyable but fluff, which is what I expected. Kids liked it.

D1 complained about the eggnog I brought home. WHY OH WHY did you get THIS brand???
!!!111! It’s not as good as the last one.!!!121!!1! –Global pandemic. Supply chain issues. We’re lucky there was any at all to get. It wasn’t bad, just lighter and creamier without the strong spice of good eggnog. But yeah, it was one of 4 bottles left. And did I mention I had to order solder on mono 1/8” mini plugs? None to be had in Houston after I bought the last 8 at Altex. I think I did mention that. I miss Radio Shack. There will come a time when if you don’t have it, you can’t get it, for large values of ‘it’.

The universe tried to get me to fall asleep in my office chair again. Who am I to wrestle with the power of the universe? But I did move to my bed as soon as I realized what the tricky b!tch was doing… yea! me!

Figure out what you are short of, and stack some.

n

(kinda silly there at the end, I blame the mysterious power of the universe.)h

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Wed. Dec. 15, 2021 – the dreams are pretty good

But I really need to stop falling asleep in my chair at my desk.

Warm and damp. Maybe rain. Blah all day.

More work at my client’s. His patience is wearing thin, but I am not getting the brunt of it. My cams work remotely. I can get in through the port forwarding. The problem has to be with his stuff.

So short shrift, both on this, and all day.

Decide what needs stacking, and do it.

nick

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Wed. Dec. 8, 2021 – progress made, finally

Cool and breezy, easy peasy, lemon squeezy…Very cool yesterday after the sun went down. Moderate temps before that. As I drove around there was sun, and there was overcast.

Today should be more of the same on all fronts.

Be careful out there, y’all.

n

(turns out, I can sleep for 4 hours in my office chair.)

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Mon. Dec. 6, 2021 – I can feel it in the air tonight…

Damp and cool. Possibly sunny, possibly rainy. Possibly both. Although not necessarily in the same place. Weather. Witchdoctors have better prediction skills.

Got some of my stuff done. It was overcast and damp most of the afternoon and evening. I put up a few more decorations but got side tracked looking for one. I hate not being able to find stuff. I was thinking it was in a bin, but after talking through the problem with my passing neighbor, I realized it was in a bucket. And after looking around, I believe I might have taken the bucket to my secondary thinking it was food.

Oh well. Plans. I got ’em. Just don’t get to do them.

Today I’m headed back to my client’s house. I’ve got a buddy joining me to hang the TVs and projector that I don’t like to do alone. If I have time I’ll poke at the networking some more. Otherwise, it’s a short day so I can pick up D2. Maybe we’ll put up some more Christmas decorations together.

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There are some people in the blogosphere that see glimmers of hope for sensible and freedom loving people. I think it doesn’t matter. There is too much momentum built up and this will need to play out. Some small push back here and there isn’t going to ‘right the ship of state.’ The thieves are still in control of government and culture. And the world is bigger than America. Lots of indications that the rest of the world is still going authoritarian and jackboot.

All that will mean even more violence, even more disruption, even more extremism. It’ll be a good time to hunker down for a while, pull in, and save what you can. Put the ‘conserve’ in ‘conservative.’

And stack it. Stack it high and deep. (and don’t forget the rat poison.)

nick

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Fri. Nov. 26, 2021 – Black Friday, if they’re lucky.

Sunny and clear, some chance of rain. No bomb cyclone.

Yesterday went fine.

We leave for the airport around noon, and if everything goes to plan, I’ll be sleeping in my own bed tonight.

I wonder how the retailers will do today, if they’ll end in the black. Either way I’m sure it will be seen as a portent of things to come.

Some stuff is just going to have to play itself out.

Meanwhile, you know what to do….

Nick

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Thurs. Nov. 25, 2021 – Happy Thanksgiving Day. ( US )

Chilly and clear, should warm up and get sunny later.

Spent yesterday hanging out and eating with one branch of my wife’s family, and we’ll spend today with the other.

And we’ll be ” giving thanks”. Scare quotes because who exactly are we giving them to? If a benevolent deity, why? Why would He need to receive them? OFD could probably lay it out for me. In the absence of that, I’m thankful anyway. It gives us a chance to pause, a chance to evaluate, and a chance to appreciate what we’ve got, who we know, what we’ve done.

I’m thankful for the people who come by and share a bit of my life here, those who comment, and those who just stop in and read a little. I’m thankful for the opportunity and the privilege to continue doing so.

I’m thankful for the time and ability to prepare for whatever is coming, whether the ordinary trials of life, or something extraordinary.

I’m thankful for my family and for my continued existence on this mortal plane.

I’m thankful for the good times, and also for the bad as they shaped me into who I am.

Take a few moments today, and think about what you have to be thankful for.

Find joy wherever you can.

And stack it high.

Nick

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Wed. Nov.24, 2021 – Turkey day looms… baking has commenced

Another clear and chilly day here near the Eastern Seaboard. There are still some vivid red leaves on some few trees, but most of the leaves have turned and fallen. It’s as grey and depressing as I remember.

Spent most of yesterday asleep in a recliner. Sugar overload and sore back conspired against me. Did get out for a while to the bookstore. D2 wanted the whole place but only conned grandpa into buying a few things. She spent $28 of her own money too. Kid is like me, likes to own books. I just like to buy them cheaply. She likes them crisp and unread.

Lots of baking on the agenda for today, followed by a visit to relatives. Cousins for the childers to spend some time with. Family. Well, relatives in any case.

Local newspaper is interesting. So many half truths, appeals to authority, and all the rhetorical tricks for any story outside of this little town. Editorial imported from the Chicago Tribune, that flat out lies about the Rittenhouse case. One letter to the editor mocking a pro- Bidn piece. Small town news. Newspapers aren’t dead everywhere but they are headed that way. This one seems to have taken the advice to focus on the hyper local to heart, and it worked so far. They are still around.

We’ll see if I can avoid politics for the next two days. Seems unlikely. Funny that FIL who is a Kennedy lefty, anti Bush, anti Trump, has Fox News saved to a preset on his car radio. I don’t know anyone on the right who listens or watches much anymore, but the left does…

Speaking of FIL, they’ve got a small chest freezer now and have a few more things stocked… not anywhere near enough for even small interuptions though. JIT at work in the home.

Makes me nervous as heII. Stack some stuff. Seriously.

nick

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Tues. Nov. 23, 2021 – Alive in MA

Cool and clear is the forecast here south of Boston.

Flight was a bit bumpy, but otherwise uneventful. As usual, security is much easier with a small child in tow, not even a suggestion that you should go through the naked scanner.

Plan for the day includes a bookstore visit and possibly cooking. And relatives visiting. It’s what we are here for. Stacking up good memories.

Stack something every day,

Nick

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Thur. Nov. 11, 2021 – Veteran’s Day.

Thank you to all who have served, and for the sacrifices you and your family made.

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Cool and very damp. Today someone will be getting some rain in the Houston area. Hopefully it won’t be me.

Yesterday I dropped off 6 bins at the auctioneer. Picked up 11 empty bins. He’s still willing to take more, so I’ll keep giving him stuff.

Of course that was after I had a bit of dizziness in the morning. None of us is immortal or invincible, and I’m getting that loud and clear. I’ll be trying to get in and seen by a doctor asap.

Lots of people have pointed out that your best prep before everything goes pear shaped is to get your physical self in order. So I’ll do a little work on that.

In the mean time, I’ve got ebay stuff to list, one sale to pack and ship, and house to clean. D1 has opening night for her school play tonight, so that will eat late afternoon and then the rest of the day.

Short shrift today.

Get to stacking.
n

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