Category: WuFlu

Hot and humid, cooler in the shade.  And I’ve really got to figure out why my weather station isn’t working.  I changed the batteries for fresh, but I guess I got one in backwards or something.

Yesterday was about as nice weather-wise as Houston gets in the summer.  Blue sky, cooling breeze and not stifling.  Still hot as blazes in the sun though.  We’re supposed to have a couple more days without rain, which will be nice.

I hope I have the issues with my garage fridge sorted, but it’s not actually getting cold as quickly as I’d hoped.  The freezer is still solid, but the fridge is only 45F.  I fit all the important stuff into the kitchen fridge but it’s packed solid now.  I need the garage fridge to be working.  I’ll check it again, and if there isn’t any change I’ll try to figure out why.

Instacart came promptly with my resupply drop.  Only a couple of things went out of stock between my starting to order and when he started picking.  Soda for the kids and cheap bacon showed in stock, but weren’t.  Turkey legs got substituted with turkey thighs.   The thighs aren’t  as much fun to eat, but the guy made a good choice.  If you’re as picky about shopping as I am, instacart isn’t a great choice, but given the times, I’m being more flexible.  There are definite limits to what’s available and I don’t know if they are service related or if the items are truly not in the store.  If they’re not in the store, then disruptions in supply chain are more widespread than they look.   There are a lot of items that Instacart doesn’t even list as available.  If I had the time and inclination, I could compare to the HEB app, or walk the store myself, and I might just so you don’t have to…

Speaking of food, we are eligible for the P-EBT summer school lunch card.  It would be about $700 bucks between the two kids.  It’s based on your school, not your particular family need.  My wife does not want to get it.  She feels that we don’t need it and shouldn’t use it.   I’m reluctant for the same reason, but am practically considering that $700 buys a lot of food.  Food that might be in short supply later in the year.  It raises a moral question for me, as I don’t believe that giving everyone the money is a good thing or a proper use of tax dollars.  On the other hand, they are giving the money out no matter what I think, and it would be nice to get some of our tax money back.  I don’t think I’ll be working too hard to convince her we should apply.

Looking at the shelves and the pantry, it hardly looks like we’ve even dented the stacks.  We’ve been able to resupply and eat most of the stuff we would normally eat anyway.  On sale meat is the exception to that.  There was only so much freezer space, and we went into this full up.  We are depleting my stores of frozen meat.  Costco and HEB both had it, but the prices were high.  The real question is, are the high prices the new normal, and in 6 months I’ll wish I bought every scrap I could at that price, or will prices come back down?  Anyone have anything more than a gut feeling?  I’ve been wrong about the direction of the price for food on just about every previous occasion.  Crude oil too, for that matter.

Outside of stocking the freezer, I’ve got so many projects that it’s starting to get fractal.  I need to seriously get some done to make way for the others.  I’m working on that today.

Dinner last night was a Costco pre-cooked meal, hawaiian chicken with pineapple specifically.  5 minute rice as a side, using up the last of my minute rice.  I was stocking minute rice as part of my ‘intermediate’ preps on the theory that it takes a lot less energy and time to prepare, and energy might be scarce in a post-disaster situation.  It was worth the small cost premium to save the coleman fuel required to cook rice for 30 minutes.  It’s still convenient, but I have so much regular rice that I really need to work on using that.  For quick rice, I have pouches for the microwave.

Take a good look at your pantry.  No one ever said, I have too much food, or too much money, or too much ammo when times get tough.  Keep stacking.

nick

Less hot, but still hot.  Humid too, most likely.

Yesterday was hot again, although there was wind to provide some cooling.  It wasn’t HOT HOT HOT, but in the sun my skin was pulling tight.  Even very light work at dusk broke a sweat.

All I really did was move all the bikes out into the driveway (a major goal) and spray the grapevines for caterpillars again.   I’m still not done in the driveway, but I have made real progress.  There is a 10ft x 12 ft area on the back patio that is clear of bikes.  That’s major.

I tested my ‘new to me’ benchtop power supply and it’s working.  I need to find a way to fit it into the ‘stack o gear’  on my bench now.  It’s not small or light.  It’s 3RU tall, 18 inches deep and wide, and weighs about 40 pounds or more.  It’s a beast.  At 10% of ebay pricing, I couldn’t say no, especially since I’ve been looking for a DC power supply for a year or more.

I chipped away at my office cleanup a bit too.  I’ve got too many projects started and need to put the effort into finishing a couple.   80/20 or 90/10 rule applies, I got most of the result in the first bit of effort, and now I am having trouble finishing.  And the week is almost gone.

The world continues to careen around like a drunk in a carnival house of mirrors.  Worse, the crazy people insist that we acknowledge and celebrate their insanity.   It’s going to end in violence.  Lots of violence.

I’m afraid we ain’t seen nothing yet.

Dinner was carryout from our favorite Greek place.  My wife was doing curbside pickup at Home Depot for some pool supplies, and some other stuff, and what’s one more curbside pickup at that point?  Delicious. But even I’m breaking down.  Just in time for the second wave…

Kids are tired of not normal.  They’d like to spend time with friends, going out, doing things.  Last summer they were in camps most weeks, doing nature camp, science camp, art camp, and keep these kids out of my hair camp.  They had a short but very busy swim team season.  This year they’re playing some online game with the school friends they haven’t seen in 3 months.  They’ve been real troupers, but they’re starting to show signs of stress too.

So I get it.  EVERYONE wants out of the house and a return to normal.  It just isn’t a good idea, and ‘normal’ isn’t coming back anytime soon.  Even leaving aside the wuflu, the job loss, the rioting, the massive disruption to the economy are all upsetting factors, and you CAN’T ignore the wuflu, because the rest of the world is getting it.  That’s gonna leave a mark on a lot of countries that either sell us stuff or buy our stuff.  Some of those countries are going to experience a change in leadership.  Ours might.  In some cases that will help, in others, the crazy will be in charge and the people will suffer.  None of this is getting us back to ‘normal’.

Flexibility and acceptance and then action are going to be words that help us get through this and on to whatever becomes ‘normal’.  I’d like that to be something other than a decade of burning cities and the collapse of western civilization.

Stacks will help no matter what, so keep stacking.  And since they can’t take your knowledge and skill, keep leveling those up too.

nick