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Category: WuFlu

Fri. May 15, 2020 – another week zipped by

Warm to hot, sunny and damp.

Yesterday got pretty dang hot, 103F in the driveway. Sunny for most of the day too, when it wasn’t threatening and overcast.

My neck and shoulders were really stiff and sore, so I was moving kinda slow.

Did math with Kid2. She was so frustrated by 3 digit long multiplication, mainly because she wasn’t keeping the columns straight. She thinks long division is easy, but multiplication gets her. Other daughter had trouble with columns running off to the side too, despite gridded paper. Once we got some precision in her writing, it got better. Kid2 does a weird thing, she makes all her numbers moving the pencil backwards. She starts at the end and bottom, and draws the number upwards. They look ok, and she’s FAST, but it’s weird.

Got almost all the medical resupply I ordered. I’m good on bandaids and bandages for a while now. Still waiting for wound wash. Bandaids, tape, and vet wrap will all age out. The adhesive or non-adhesive parts will change and they’ll become much less useful than they were. I can’t recommend stocking cases under normal expectations, because you’ll just never use it. Aesop reminded me that ACE bandages can be washed and reused many times and might be a better choice than Kerlix and tape. Of course, I’ve got some ACE bandages too. The kerlix sure is more comfortable in our climate though.

Did more work in the garage. It’s like playing one of those sliding number games with 15 filled squares out of 16, and to move a number around you have to slide all the other numbers around too. I can see progress, I just can’t quite see the end. I keep finding useful things, so that’s a plus. I’m not pulling much OUT but I’m stacking it and restacking it and at least I have a fresh idea about what’s there. So much stuff that needs to get sold. One long delayed project got done. I’ve been meaning to put together a simple and basic tool kit for each vehicle, not a ‘fix it on the side of the road’ kit, but a couple of tools so you aren’t stuck with nothing if you need to turn a bolt, take the legs off something you bought, or similar. I’ve been collecting the bits, just never put them together. I built two today. A tall tin can with a lid, had Japanese bar mix snacks in it (it’s an inch or so taller than a soda can, and very sturdy tin). 6 in 1 screwdriver, basic wire strippers, small vice grip pliers, disposable knife with the ‘snap off’ blade, small adjustable wrench. Small box of strike anywhere matches, one trash bag-rolled, and six feet of duct tape wrapped around the can. Surprisingly there is still room in the can for a Powerbar or another tool, but I can’t think of much that would be good but not overkill. A small Channelok plier would be nice, but the vise grip should be sufficient. In any case, I don’t have a small Channelok to add to the cans so they’re done for now.

Dinner was frozen pork chops, fresh zucchini saute’d in butter with Parmesan cheese, and stuffing mix from a bag. Meat was from 2019, zukes from the store several weeks ago, and the stuffing was either Thanksgiving or possibly Christmas. Not much from the ‘prepper’ pantry, but you can’t eat out of rusted cans and old cartons every day…

Today I’ll be doing more of the same, and heading over to my secondary with some stuff that I CAN get out of the house and garage. I note that TX has a small uptick in cases about 2 weeks since the first easing of restrictions. I’ll be wearing PPEs if I have to interact with anyone, count on that.

Latin America is starting to show a lot of cases. Can India and Africa be far behind?

Keep working on skills and stacking. Join the other 300M of us going through closets, kids rooms, and garages… you never know what you put away and forgot about.

nick

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Thur. May 14, 2020 – same same same, same old fools….

Damp, overcast, sunny, and hot. [somewhat sunny, somewhat damp, def hot]

Yesterday was nice for a while, overcast, then gentle light rain, then nice again. High 80s, possibly into the low 90s.

Possible depression forming off the East coast next week, first of the season if so…

Spent the morning online, and shopping. Spent the afternoon cleaning, organizing, and finding stuff I’d put away literal years ago in the garage. I’m getting to the bottom layers of the stacks. At some point I tweaked something in my neck and shoulders. I’m still sore today.

Kid 1 had a “science” unit today that was all about changes to the environment. And while they kept saying that not all changes were bad, the only examples given were in fact bad. Then they used Silent Spring to justify the banning of DDT, with NO discussion of malaria, or WHY we were spraying DDT, or what the effect was on countries that still have malaria… and a whole page on acid rain. Again, no indication where the acid rain came from or why. No indication of the current conditions. Freaking old hippies with the same old chants, Silent Spring, DDT, Acid rain, draining wetlands…. and a section about deer. How they became a nuisance species- without any note that the ban on hunting contributed, or that HUNTING is how we control the population currently. Add in the poor grammar, and I’m pretty sure the science is sloppy, the editorial slant is most of the way to horizontal, and the worksheets are BS. At least with the sheet in front of me, I could go through it with the kid and talk about the parts they left out. What does the rest of the curriculum look like, I wonder?

Eventually, even a drip of water will wear away stone. The left has been all wet for decades, but they’ve managed to ooze into every nook and cranny of the world.

Dinner was sirloin steak from the last Costco instacart delivery, with boxed scalloped potatoes, and a can of Butter Beans. Scalloped potatoes were almost in date, only a month over. Most of my older ones rotted in the black crate that got damp. Easter candy for dessert.

More of the same today as yesterday…

Keep working, stacking, improving, and prepping.

nick

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Wed. May 13, 2020 – Friday the 13th falls on a Wednesday this month

Rainy and wet. [so wrong, 76F and sun is out]

Yesterday was nice, but humid. Really humid compared to the last couple of days. We got actual rain too, after dinner and sporadically all night.

I did get some stuff done, but no where near what I would have liked. I’ll keep chipping away at it though.

I did receive checks from my auction of the full face PAPR respirators. Made decent money on them. They went at slightly more than my low estimate. Also got paid for some items I couldn’t ebay. It wasn’t a ton of money, but it was money.

Dinner was elk roast. Details in last night’s comments. The central part of the roast was very similar to an eye round beef roast. The cooking, texture, and taste were very similar. Sides were the heat and eat shelf stable bread, and the root veg from the roasting pan. Dessert was Easter candy. I found a half bag of chocolate candy left over from Easter. Hooray!

I mention it in comments yesterday, but I’ll repeat it here. Wound care uses a LOT of supplies… even something as simple as a badly scraped knee. I restocked my medicine cabinet with wound wash, and kerlix from the deeper stores, but then went online to buy more. Some of what I wanted was out of stock everywhere but the arbitrageurs on ebay, and they were short. There were substitutes, but I’m taking it as a sign that things are tight. Supply chains are still disrupted, and demand might be higher than normal.

Check your stock of normal things that aren’t food. Do you have bandaids? Razor blades? Cosmetics and soaps? Gauze, nonstick pads, wrap, tape? Wound cleaning liquids? How about sewing supplies? Got needles and thread? Fusible liner? You might need to repair your high speed low drag web gear if the zombies beat you up. Is there something you usually just order when you need it? Time to check and see if it’s available.

Do you have some repair supplies in general? Crazy glue in different viscosities? Shoe Goo? 5 minute epoxy? Wood glue? Duct tape? Cellotape? Electrical tape? If we really are headed into a big downturn, repair and reuse is going to be important. How about expendables for your vehicles/mowers/garden tools like wipers, belts, air/oil/gas filters, a replacement pull rope? Oil, additives, Sta-bil?

Flints for lighters, butane, lighter fluid? Baling wire? Twine?

Further down the list but important, this home isolation looks like it will be continuing for a while yet, even if things don’t go to sh!t. Do you have playing cards, board games, dice? How about a Hoyle’s book of card games? Pens, pencils, paper? Art supplies? Software to replace something you play online? (My dad loved to play spyder solitaire on the pc, but win10 made it online only. I had to figure out how to install the games pack from win7 so he could play what he was familiar with.) Wife got out the watercolors and did some painting with the girls today for ‘art class”. We love puzzles, so I buy them at Goodwill if they are unopened. The mom’s club in the neighborhood has a puzzle swap going on for those who were not prepared. I find puzzles to be very soothing.

There’s a million things our grandparents or even parents would have kept on hand, just to save a trip to the store, if for no other reason. Think about your tool box or junk drawer, or anything you’d like to do if you had some extra time on your hands. Might want to get that stuff now, if you have the time and funds, and your “sustain life” stuff is all in order.

I’ve got to stop slacken and get back to stackin’…

nick

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Tues. May 12, 2020 – just not feeling it….

Another beautiful day? Cool and sunny? One can only hope.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. This spring has been fantastic weather. I can’t believe how long the nice weather has been lasting. Just awesome.

Drove around a bit, had some stuff to pick up, and some stuff to do at my secondary location. Traffic was medium light. Traditional freeway backups were still there, but for only a minute or two, and slowed instead of stopped. Very strange to see the mall parking lot mostly empty. Even with the reduced traffic, people were still getting flats and getting into fender benders.

Had a chat with my neighbor at my secondary location. He’s not making any money and is thinking about doing some practical metalworking (burglar bars) instead of the metal fab he usually does. If the security situation degrades, it sure seems like there’d be a market. Worth thinking about how you can leverage your skills, tools, or contacts to bring in money if your situation changes.

I’ll be home today, working on getting the little things done to finish all some of my open projects around the house. I’ve got all the shelves I can get here now, so no more excuses.

I have to say, I’ve been unmotivated and droopy the last couple of days. Not at all perky. Shirking. Slack. Not feeling 100% physically either. Just ‘blah’. Time to suck it up.

Dinner was not elk roast. Dinner was canned beef tamales (not bad, just kinda bland despite the red sauce), and chicken tacos (from kirkland canned chicken, and Lawry’s Chicken Taco pouch seasoning). Tortillas from the fridge. Everyone ate heartily, and I’m glad I used two cans of chicken. Even the mediocre tamales got eaten.

Number 1 daughter’s 11th year on the earth comes in a week or two, so I’ve been getting presents together. I scored 3 youth bows in this auction, two compound, one traditional. I had archery targets from one of the last auctions. I’ve got hunting arrows, but no youth or practice arrow, so off to Amazon… Freaking arrows cost more than the bows. I threw in a couple of arm guards while I was there. Both girls did an archery unit at GS camp, but anyone have a book or youtube they’d recommend for additional good instruction? It’s been since junior high for me…and I don’t think I’d know bad instruction from good, given that compound bows weren’t even a thing when I last shot an arrow?

And with that, I’m off-

Stay safe, keep stacking.

nick

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Mon. May 11, 2020 – again with the nice days

Very nice day in the forecast. Probably gonna be ugly. [wasn’t, was cool and sunny, then warm and sunny, great day]

Yesterday was beautiful. Started cooler, but warmed up. Nice and sunny all day.

Didn’t get much done either. In fact, got almost nothing done. Almost like I took a day off. What I really did was just play hooky from life, except to make dinner, and I initially screwed that up too. Wasted the morning though.

I did get one drawer cleaned in the kitchen fridge. Yea me!

And I spent some time talking with my mom, which is a good thing. She’s doing fine. Getting restless, which is bad, ’cause she’ll be trying to go out. Right now her intellect is winning, but it wouldn’t take much for her to just throw caution to the wind and go to bridge club. Lot’s of folks in that position, I think.

Today I’ll make up for my slacking. Probably.

Keep stacking.

n

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Sun. May 10, 2020 – Mother’s Day

Cooler. Overcast opening to nice later.

There- that almost guarantees that we’ll get rain.

Yesterday was overcast, cool, and windy most of the day. Not unpleasant. Just unusual.

Ventured over to my secondary location to move some things, and collect a couple of small items for projects here at the house. Sold a piece or two to a friend while I was at it. Then hit two other friends just to touch base. Meatspace. Still important.

Today, here, we’re having a special meal to celebrate Mother’s Day. I’ve got half that elk roast defrosting, and I’ll figure out how to cook it. I guess the sides will be similar to either lamb or beef, but I’ll know better after reviewing a couple of books. Paper books, just as an exercise.

Dinner last night was grilled over a small fire in the back yard. We used the firepit/grill I’ve mentioned before and it worked great again. Nice bed of hardwood coals from backyard tree waste. Kids had hotdogs, my wife and I had homemade sausage, half deer, half wild pig, that the neighbor gave us at our Neighbors’ Night Out a year and a half ago. It’s been vac sealed and in the freezer. I also made sliced red potatoes with butter and seasoning in foil tucked in the ashes and coals. A bed of saute’d onions went under our sausages. S’mores for dessert, natch.

WRT the coming unpleasantness, my gun store buddy told me to ‘make a list’ of anything I might want. “Lots of guys in the oil patch” are starting to consign their guns for sale. So it’s already starting. Fancy guns and hunting guns, musical instruments, “man” toys- stuff with motors, boats, etc should be first. RV’s, trucks, and tools will probably be last. You can live in an RV, you need a truck for work, and tools (especially if you use them to make your living) are always useful.

Garden is… continuing. Potato towers are going gangbusters. The bag o dirt is about 2ft high now, and I’m running out of dirt. That might be as high as I go this year. The other stuff I planted as seed is coming up, wherever the squirrels didn’t eat the seeds, and where I have metal mesh to keep it safe… I don’t have enough metal mesh, that’s clear. Either that or the seeds just didn’t germinate. My ‘window boxes’ are a big disappointment. No sprouts, and the onion starts have been disappearing at the rate of one a day. Did I mention I need more mesh?

Blueberry ‘bushes’ have fruit ripening. I planted different varieties for pollenization, and because with different maturities, we should be getting berries for a longer season. So far, 4 berries have been harvested and eaten. They are very tasty, if not exactly going to fill buckets…

Last year’s pepper plants continue to provide a bounty. Delicious sweet peppers, without a hint of heat. Cabbages look sturdy, but are all leaf and no head at this point. Broccoli is a bit spindly, but the other dark green leafy (either brusselsprouts or collards, can’t remember) are starting to grow. They stayed the same size while something eats holes in the leaves for the last couple of weeks but are finally getting bigger. The grape vine looks caterpillar free at the moment, so I think I got that in time this year. The other grape vine is staying short, having died back to within a foot of the ground. I’m not hopeful for that vine coming back. It’s just not and never was, as vigorous.

Citrus is doing well, where the tree rats leave it alone. Something stole the oranges off my potted orange tree, and can’t even eat them as they are only golf ball sized. Damn spoilers. The lime does still have one or two fruits developing. The Meyer Lemon is set to produce well, but then they do very well here in Houston. And the other orange still has at least one fruit on it, and the grapefruit tree has a bunch. Still hopeful for that one. No flowers on the peach tree, but it’s fully leafed in. Not a garden that would feed the family, that’s for sure, but it will hopefully provide at least a bit of variety and tasty nutrition.

We are in this for the long haul, here at Casa de Nick. I hope you are too.

Keep stacking, keep building skills and knowledge, and do what you can to maintain your meatspace relationships. Call your mom if you can…

nick

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Sat. May 9, 2020 – supposed to be cooler today

Cool? Windy and part sun?

Yesterday was nice, then got a bit windy. Out in the country it looked like rain coming. Later it was cool-ish and the wind died down. Smelled like rain when I went to bed.

I got much of my work done at my client’s place. Some unexpected issues, which I should have expected, but didn’t, ate into my productivity there. Got him back to where he was, and a bit further along toward where he’d like to be. Then I came home.

Dinner was crock pot stewed chicken. 10 legs from the most recent Costco order, hand full of mixed tiny heirloom potatoes from the back of the cabinet, one onion, some baby carrots and celery, and the mix. Leave alone for 6 hours and enjoy…

———————————————————————————————–

Over at Commander Zero’s place, he asked if people were having trouble maintaining a sense of urgency. Yep, I am. I’ve been letting the ducks nibble me to death almost every day.

I’ve mostly settled into this as the new normal. And I’m actually reasonably comfortable with it.

Except that hurricane season will be here soon, and we’re already starting on preps for that.

And more bad is coming, and for longer and worse than people think. Waves of desperate people will be coming up through Mexico, fleeing the collapse of their already tottering nations. Living in a border state, we’ll see the first brunt of it (if it comes) but they’ll move on through to the rest of you, same as they’ve been doing for years.

It won’t just be refugees from South of the Border.

If we’re at 30% unemployment, think what it will be like in a month, or two. When there are no buyers for your used truck, that you owe $40K on. Or your snowblower, dirt bikes, or snowmobiles, or boats, or even your guns… when even normal people are starting to really feel the crunch and have no way left to raise money.

.Gov will try the same things they always try – price controls, helicopter money, running the printing presses. And the result will be the same. Argentina. Venezuela. Brazil. Zimbabwe.

There’s a world of hurt coming to the world and this time, also to middle America.

Having food and toilet paper will make it easier.

Keep stacking.

nick

(and skills, and friends)

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Fri. May 8, 2020 – Friday so soon?

Cooler and windy. Maybe. [80F at 9am, I suck at this, worse than random guessing.]

Yesterday got to be pretty dang nice. Gorgeous even. I ended up not doing my list though. I’ll be doing that today. Couldn’t get to my client’s house in time to get any work done, so today’s the day.

I ended up doing some little things, including moving food and continuing to organize my storage shelves. I have a plan for reorganizing my back corner in the garage, where the shelves for my food storage, my big 40 gallon water storage tanks, and my work bench for gub work, and maybe my non-prepping hobby will take place. I will be moving a couple of tool boxes, and adding shelves. That should result in more stuff in the same space.

I was busy the rest of the day but for the life of me, I can’t remember what I got done.

Dinner was leftovers with some additional pasta and cheese sauce.

Today should be busy…

Money helps with staying in, staying safe, and stacking. Go get you some…

n

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Thur. May 7, 2020 – wheeeee…. week is flying by

Cool and sunny, another great day. [79F at 9am, probably another hot day]

Yesterday was another great spring day. Hot in the afternoon, but nice in the shade and a cooling breeze. I spent the afternoon working on sprinklers again. I confirmed that all the zone valves were working electrically, except the one zone I wanted to disconnect anyway. Bonus! I spent some time changing out a few heads and aiming and adjusting the remaining. I’ve STILL got a couple of things to do to get better coverage of my raised beds, and one head I can’t find. It was nice to be working with water in the shade on a beautiful day.

However, since it’s taking so long to get the freaking sprinklers done, other things have slipped. And I won’t be getting to them today, as I’ll be heading to my client’s house to install the parts I have. I want to get his security cams back up, and his bluray replaced. That will get 95% back working, and the upgrades can follow as the gear arrives. Not sure when I’ll head over, but I really want to get some of my list done over there.

I made a loaf of bread in the machine since we’re finally out of sandwich bread. I even warmed up the yeast, and added extra… but it was only about 3 inches high and with a thick crust. It tastes ok, and is soft but dense. We’ll eat it, but it was not a success. I’m blaming the yeast at this point. I’ll try again with some fresh packet yeast.

Dinner was personal sized pizzas. Not as tasty as I’d have liked. I bought the crusts as a kit and froze them months ago. I had cheese and toppings in the fridge. When I went to the case of tomato paste, I discovered they were BB date 2017. High acid foods don’t do well in cans past their date and these were no exception. All were either bulged, or had pinholes that leaked. Most of the pinholes were in about the same spot too, so there must be a defect in the cans. We don’t eat red sauce, so I never use the paste. I ended up using jarred marinara sauce (which I keep around for guests on spaghetti night) with additional seasoning. I put WAY too much oregano in the sauce. WAY TOO MUCH! Oh well, I ate it, and so did my wife. Kid 1 ate some, but kid 2 didn’t care for it at all. I was hoping for a nice treat, but it didn’t work out. Dessert was daughter’s birthday flan. Hmmmm, egg pie…..

We’re approaching the end of the school year and everyone in town wants a live, in person graduation ceremony for the High Schools. I really don’t get why, but it looks like the mayor and HISD superintendent are going to have one of some kind. Sounds like a bad idea to me.

Speaking of bad ideas, barber shops and salons will be open in Texas today… it really doesn’t get more up close and personal than a haircut, with clothes on anyway. My barber was freaked at the idea of reopening, but he will because he needs the money. Not me, I’ll be cutting my own for at least a while longer.

I guess we’ll be running the experiment whether I like it or not. In 3-4 weeks we’ll know who was right.

My plan is to continue to isolate as much as possible. Limit contacts. Avoid crowds and other people in general. Stay in, and stay safe. And keep stacking. (in my case, going through the stacks too.)

n

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Wed. May 6, 2020 – not a drinking holiday

Hot and wet?  Or just hot? [I suck at weather prediction, 73F and sunny]

Yesterday got pretty hot.  Started overcast, then cleared to sunny and steamy.  Mid 90s at least.

I worked mostly on the sprinklers yesterday.  I spent way longer than it should have taken to put a new rain sensor on the system.  I’ve had it for years, never installed it.  Finally did today.  Haven’t TESTED it yet, but it’s pretty simple.

Then I spent 3 hours getting the two zones for the front yard working.  I never have winterized the system and only replace what’s broken each year, whenever  I get to it…  which is lazy and all kinds of wrong, but then I’m not super motivated by how my yard looks.   It does make it easier to keep the veg gardens watered though, which was my primary motive this year.

So, fire up the system and see what doesn’t work…

Two zones with 4 heads each shouldn’t take three hours to touch up.  But it did.  As the mechanisms age, they wear, and the sun causes parts that are supposed to be behind a cover to break down.  Those little parts are like limit switches as the head pans back and forth.  I ended up messing with those A LOT.  I had to swap parts around from heads I’d retired in previous years (hooray <s> hoarding </s> preparedness.  Then a couple of the plastic parts needed some heat to reshape them a tiny bit… and I needed to dig out the valves because the handholes had filled  up with debris over the years.

In any case, years of slapdash maintenance and patchwork replacements caught up with me.  Still, I was able to get them all running and wetting the areas they are supposed to wet without any trips to the store or ordering parts.   Today if it’s not raining I need to confirm they work with the control system and then get the other 3 zones sorted out too.   The front yard will keep the neighbors and the HOA happy, but the other zones will all end up watering my gardens for me (and also keep the back yard nice for the kids.)

I’ll have to change out some heads and move some stuff because I’ve moved beds, and put a great big generator right in front of a head… which really shouldn’t have water sprayed into it every other day.  I’ll steal one head to water my ‘window box’ planters too.  More projects.

I’m also still ordering bits and pieces, and receiving them for the repairs and upgrades at my client’s house.   I still need some income, and that’s a good way to get it.  Not perfect as I have to leave isolation, but it pays well and keeps him happy.

Ebay sales were starting to get going again, and then the lockdown hit.  I’ve sold only a few items since.  I do have a bunch to list, and getting them sold and out of here would be a Good Thing ™.

WRT the wuflu, things are still changing.  Blood clots may be the way it actually kills you, either the first time or the next.  And it may have mutated in a way that changes its severity, as it appears we might have two main strains here, one on the west coast, one on the east.  No idea what those of us in the middle might have. The economic impacts are just starting to arrive.

Disney posted a huge loss of income, United Airlines and American both posted ~$2Billion losses, Virgin is looking for buyers, and the others will be following soon.  I was a proponent of the ‘pent up demand’ theory that the economy will come rushing back.  Now I’m not so sure.  Think about what it would take to get you on a plane, if you didn’t know you were immune?  How about a trade show or a theme park?  Cruise ship?  Gold’s Gym is filing for bankruptcy protection, can 24HourFitness be far behind?  Sitting in someone else’s @ss sweat didn’t have any appeal for me BEFORE it could kill me.  Certainly doesn’t now.  My wife is sure that pro sporting events will bounce back, because fans are crazy anyway, but I’m not so sure.  They are a huge terrorism target, and attendance has been falling with the players’ political shenanigans.  I don’t feel the need to sit in the nosebleeds, eating $15 hotdogs, just to see the ants move around in real life…

I’m pretty sure the world has changed for good, and we’ll be watching how those changes play out over the next decade.  Short term, people try to cling to what they know, until forced to change.  Things will continue on, degrading a little at a time, until they finally change.

Start planning for that.  There will be opportunities.

Dinner was ham slices, mac n cheese, and the canned carrots left over from the previous day’s curry. Dessert was frozen cookie dough, heated up and oh so good…..

Stay in, stay safe, keep stacking.

 

n

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