Raining and wet? Or we get a break and things dry out? Dunno what’s going to happen in Houston this weekend but I hope to get time to mow the lawn at the BOL. All the rain makes the grass grow like crazy.

Friday I avoided most of my obligations and list. I did one pickup. The rain made it impossible to do some of the stuff I had hoped, and malaise made the rest difficult. Some domestic bliss happened. One kid went to nursemaid her friend, the other was babysitting. Left the house kinda quiet. Wife decided she didn’t want to drive to the BOL in the rain and dark by herself. She might even stay home today as she dislikes a quick trip up and back.

I have to go though. If I can cut the grass, I have to to keep on top of it. It is twice as hard and takes twice as long if I let it go. Same goes for treating for fireants. It’s a constant battle and if you let them get a toehold they’ll have a foothold in a week. I’ve also got a bunch of stuff to take up and get out of the library/toy room.

I’m also a bit worried about my buddy and want to see him and his wife and get a feeling for how they are doing. Between the cancer treatments for both of them and the death of their grandson, I am amazed they can get out of bed. Country folk are tough, but that’s a lot of burden to carry.

Hopefully, I’ll get out of town fairly early, without getting rained on, and I can get stuff done today at the BOL. If not, there is tomorrow.

Work smart, stack.

nick

Hot and humid. It’s been getting over 100F in the afternoon for several days now. The humidity, while high, seems like it’s maybe a bit lower lately? Dunno, the sun roasting my head had me soaked in sweat in only a few minutes.

I was up early yesterday and still spent all morning at the computer. Spent almost all afternoon doing pickups too. Not quite, I was home by 3pm and did some domestic bliss, cleaning, and sorting. Still, not the most productive day. Did meet another auction buyer that I had a nice chat with about real estate and Houston neighborhoods.

Today I’ve got to do a bunch of stuff around the house. I don’t think I’ll be doing pickups but who knows for sure. There are a couple I could do, but at least one seller will wait until next week.

I made a little progress organizing and putting stuff away. Very little.

I did pick up a couple of audio book CDs. Jack Reacher short stories, and Prince Caspian. The last time I listened to the Narnia books it was the set produced by Focus on the Family – fully produced and voice acted, not ‘abridged’ as much as ‘adapted’. This version is just a single female reader and unabridged. I like it. Language in common usage sure has degraded. And so has Jolly Olde… as both boys were waiting for the train back to school, and they both have pocketknives.

I’m not going to the BOL today, D1 asked to stay home so she can babysit, and I agreed. We’ll go up Saturday morning. W and D2 will head up tonight. That’s the plan anyway. We know about plans…

I’ve got a whole load of stuff to stack at the BOL. Make sure you have stacks somewhere besides your home, if you can swing it.

nick

Still hot. Still humid. Over 100F yesterday afternoon. I got my weather station working here at the house, but not the display in my office, so I’ll have real numbers again soon. Just have to put the outdoor part back up. I’m sure today will be pretty much like yesterday. Maybe with a touch more moisture from the sky.

I did my normal morning stuff. Then I did some pickups. Got the times wrong and missed two that I’ll have to get today. Hopefully, as one of them doesn’t have pickup times for the rest of the week. Having to get the kid at 3pm put the same crimp in my schedule as a normal school day.

While I didn’t get all the pickups done, I did get to Costco. Picked up some lamb chops for dinner, and a couple of things for the BOL this weekend. W likes to have more lunch meat choices than I normally have on hand, and I also grabbed a bag of frozen mixed veg. I’ll repack the veg in single meal sizes and take most to the BOL. It’s an easy way to get something very close to fresh veg.

Dinner was lamb chops grilled on cast iron in the kitchen. I’d normally grill them outside, but it was so hot I didn’t want to fire up the BBQ. The result was very nice, using the hot pan method (crazy hot dry pan, then add oil and reduce heat to cook.) Easy clean up too. Frozen veg tossed in a saute’ pan and some garlic naan from the freezer filled out the plates. Honestly, I should be eating out of the freezers, but I didn’t plan ahead and thaw anything, so fresh from Costco was a quick choice. From prep to plate was about 15 minutes.

I picked up a small Lodge cast iron wok in an auction and I’m looking forward to giving that a try some time soon.

D1 was diagnosed with some anemia so cooking more with iron isn’t a bad thing.

———-
I decided to order a battery and back cover for my phone. Total was $34 and it’s a straightforward job. I don’t really want to spend time moving to a new phone right now. Paul’s experience and previous moves combined, and I’m thinking it’s less time to fix the old phone than get everything set up on a new on. I do have a Galaxy Note II handy, but when I started to move to it last night, I can’t find all my SIM card stuff and the Note needs an adapter to use my current smaller SIM. That was part of the motivation to just fix the old phone. One thing about using older tech, the repairs are usually cheap. And the phone still sells for ~$120-150 so I’m not spending more on parts than it’s worth.

———–
It is all distraction and time sink when I need to be more focused.

Preemptively replacing the balloon that the old battery has become, before it burns me, the SIM and memory card, or my whole house or car seems to fall under “always be working to improve your situation.”

At least it makes me feel better to think about it that way.

Throw some stuff on the stacks too…

nick

Hot and humid. Sunny and bright. It was over 101F in my driveway, even in the shade by late afternoon yesterday and today looks like it will be as hot. It’s summer in Houston.

Yesterday I did my stuff, letting the kid drive me around while I offered suggestions about things she needs to work on. Talked a bit more about some of the traffic and car tracking infrastructure that is in place. More along the theme of hidden layers of the universe. Afterwards she washed and cleaned the car.

I spent a bit of time putting some stuff away and sorting, while getting dinner on the table. I warmed up the costco heat and eat Tacos Al Pastor, and got some condiments ready to go with it. And took D2 to and from her T/Th activity. I spent too much time doing pickups. I’m starting to internalize that now. Hopefully I can turn that into not doing pickups every day.

Baby steps. I’m in a rut and my habits have morphed past useful and good to something a bit detrimental. That’s only if you consider that I have stuff I need/want to do instead of doing pickups. Which I do.

Today I’ll be challenged to get stuff done and still be at school in time to move the kid around.

There is always something that needs attention. I’m not as good at setting priorities and getting them done as I used to be. It’s a little discouraging. And a lot self centered and maudlin.

But on the other hand, time is ticking. I heard from an old friend yesterday, that a mutual friend had died. I was thinking of both of them last week and her memorial took place over the weekend. I didn’t even know she had been sick, as we’d lost touch years ago. She was a couple of years younger than me, but the big C got her. The list of people that I know personally that have crossed over to whatever is next is getting longer. I suppose that’s the way of things if you live long enough, and averages mean that someone has to go younger than me for everyone who holds on longer than me. It’s put me in a mood though.

My momentum stalled out. Time to get it moving again. Always be working. And stack.

nick

Another hot and mostly dry day, with high humidity. Yesterday was a scorcher by afternoon, and stayed hot well into the evening. It was still in the 90sF when we had a late dinner. Today should be the same. The local .gov had the highway advisory signs warning of heavy rain and possible flooding on Saturday. I expect well be seeing flood warnings with every drop of rain for the next year at least.

I mostly did auction stuff in the morning, still keeping in mind my new desire to limit pickup days. Then D1 drove me around town doing a pickup and grocery shopping in the afternoon. She’s improving but still brakes too late, and her situational awareness needs work. She doesn’t seem to be able to keep three directions or steps in mind at the same time though. Thinks like “stay on the Beltway to US 59 north, then exit at Kingwood Blvd.” IDK if that’s from the online stuff changing her brain structure, or just her nature, but it’s unsettling and I’ll be working on it. I wonder if any of her schooling has worked with algorithms and figuring out steps toward a goal?

Driving a car, or a boat, or just navigating through life takes the ability to predict the near future and react to it, taking steps to manage where you will be physically and metaphorically. Living in the moment is ok, and even necessary and desirable for some things, but humans don’t live in a constant now. Or at least we don’t normally. Or didn’t.

We did have a good conversation about the “hidden” layers around us, triggered by an outlaw biker passing us and almost getting into an altercation with another driver. (Full patch Bandido with his b!tch riding pillion in a patched vest. Not someone you want to engage with.) Fraternal organizations, secret societies, alumni groups, outlaw culture, even prepping and LMIs all got touched on, with emphasis on seeing the “flags” that people fly to identify their affiliate groups. I’m hoping it spurred some thought and will entice her to look around at the environment and actually SEE some of it. Since the kids were little we played games like “spot the cameras” and “is this a good neighborhood or not (and why?)” Hopefully I’ll get a chance to pass along more stuff about the way the world works that will help her navigate around some of the pitfalls.

Speaking of seeing what’s around us, there was a hawk in my tree this afternoon, perched on a limb and quite agitated. A squirrel was about three feet away looking at it, and then the squirrel shot by the hawk, running on the UNDERSIDE of the limb. The hawk hung around long enough for my wife to get a picture with her new iphone. We don’t see a lot of hawks in our neighborhood, despite a neighbor telling me one swooped a squirrel right out of his front yard. I do see them flying overhead occasionally.

Oh, a big fat possum ambled by me when I was out having my little fire. I made a ‘tssking’ noise and he turned around to look at me calmly before ambling on. Body as big as a basketball. I think a lot of local wildlife visits my little water feature throughout the day and night. The frogs are starting their mating calls and are quite loud about it…

The world is full of hidden mysteries all around us.

————
Today I’ll do some paperwork, move some stuff around, and then do some pickups in the afternoon. Kid starts band camp on Wednesday, so that will be me getting up early again.

I was going to write about my talent for self sabotage today, but I’ll leave that to another time. Do what you can with what you’ve got, and always be working to improve your situation. Even if that means disconnecting for a bit to look around you in wonder.

nick

(and of course, you should be stacking.)

Hot and humid again, with sunshine roasting the brain of anyone unfortunate enough to be out in it. Which is why I stayed in on Saturday. That and sloth. And a book being really good.

Didn’t get much done. I have a problem maintaining my forward momentum. That and I foolishly didn’t get enough sleep and wasn’t feeling well.

I’ll do better today. Pinky swear.

If all you can do is stack, then stack.
n

Hot and humid, again, but maybe clear instead of partly cloudy. It was mostly clear Saturday, with some clouds, and a tiny bit of water from the sky. I wouldn’t have noticed but the grass and plants were wet when I did some work in the back yard.

That work was some tree pruning. I had done a bunch in spring, so it wasn’t too bad. I mostly touched up the new growth. I did some small pruning on the apple tree too. It currently has one apple the size of a racquet ball. That’s more than any other year, but less than I was hoping for with the blossoms all over.

I alternated outdoor and indoor stuff to try to keep cool. It was crazy hot in the sun. Most of what I got accomplished was organizing and cleaning in the ‘library’ or ‘toy room’. I had a bunch of filament and printer stuff all over, and I put it away in a sideboard cabinet. I finished putting together the cabinet too. It’s still a mess in that room, but I made a lot of progress on a non-critical task, but one that has been poking me in the eye and spirit for too long.

I did a bit of reading throughout the day as I was cooling down, and spent far too long sitting outside reading last night.

It doesn’t sound like a productive day but it actually was.

If you can’t stack, be working on improving your situation.

Today I’ll continue in the same vein.
n