Cold.\u00a0 Low 30s.\u00a0 Damp.\u00a0 Dreary.\u00a0 Winter.<\/p>\n
It was cold all day yesterday too, staying pretty consistently 35F all day long.\u00a0 It was 35F when I went to sleep.<\/p>\n
Ran my errands, then headed over to pick up kid 2.\u00a0 Very un-usually and disconcertingly, my truck died several times during the trip.\u00a0 I first thought it might be low oil, but now I am wondering if the battery is dead from the cold.\u00a0\u00a0 It had a really hard time cranking, and I don’t know if the truck will run without a functional battery.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ll be dropping it off at my mechanic’s place as soon as I can.\u00a0\u00a0 Truck repair was not on my radar.\u00a0\u00a0 But hey, prepping wise, I had an extra quart of oil to add when it said it was low.\u00a0\u00a0 That got me going again for a while.<\/p>\n
In the mean time, I’ll drive the Ranger to do my pickups today, after my non-prepping hobby meeting.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yep, I’m going.\u00a0\u00a0 I have stuff to sell, need to renew my membership, and it’s time to re-elect the The wuflu restrictions make it much harder to meet and build networks in meatspace, and I don’t think that’s accidental.\u00a0 Especially as this goes on, the political aspects are outpacing the medical ones.\u00a0 Given TPTB’s other actions, it’s not hard to see the sinister in everything they do.<\/p>\n Almost every day I thank God I live in Texas, where we’ve been spared the most egregious of the nonsense.<\/p>\n Did an instacart order from Costco in the late afternoon.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s very convenient to place the order and then go on doing other stuff on your list until it arrives.<\/p>\n While I was waiting I got all three of my mature citrus trees covered, and the other potted trees and plants either under cover or indoors.\u00a0\u00a0 The citrus got heavy black poly sheet over them, secured like a big balloon, with a 50 or 60 watt incandescent bulb in the center to provide some heat.\u00a0 I’m as ready as I can be garden-wise.\u00a0\u00a0 I am going to try to get some more gas cans filled just in case.\u00a0 After hurricane season, I usually draw down my gasoline at home.\u00a0 If we end up running a gennie, I want to be ready.\u00a0 I’m kicking myself once again for continuing to put off the connection of the whole house gennie.\u00a0 Money, time, and access- they all need to be there together, and I haven’t made it a priority.\u00a0\u00a0 That is a prepper fail.<\/p>\n I’m actually much more concerned about the plumbing at my rent house.\u00a0 It’s pier and beam construction with no insulation, and the pipes are under the house.\u00a0\u00a0 We’ve had pipes crack from freezing there before. \u00a0 I’ll be confirming with the tenants that they understand about leaving taps running and cranking the heat.\u00a0 I may put poly over the screen that blocks the airspace under the house.\u00a0\u00a0 Normally you want the air to blow freely, but I think stopping the air would help keep the temps up.<\/p>\n The school district has already cancelled all in person learning for Tuesday.\u00a0\u00a0 They’re off Monday anyway, and the infrastructure is all in place for ‘learn from home’, so I guess it’s prudent.\u00a0 It feels like a huge over-reaction.<\/p>\n It’s hard to believe that it could be as bad as predicted.\u00a0 Like always, I guess we’ll see.<\/p>\n It may be we’re already sliding down the slope to civil war and economic collapse, but that doesn’t stop Mother Nature from putting the boot in.\u00a0 Get your short term house in order, top up your supplies, and get ready for winter…<\/p>\n And keep stacking.\u00a0 You don’t want to be one of the\u00a0 ‘french toast people’ do you?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n FTP- the ones that rush out before every weather event and buy milk, eggs, and bread.\u00a0\u00a0 Like they’re gonna live off of french toast alone…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cold.\u00a0 Low 30s.\u00a0 Damp.\u00a0 Dreary.\u00a0 Winter.<\/p>\n It was cold all day yesterday too, staying pretty consistently 35F all day long.\u00a0 It was 35F when I went to sleep.<\/p>\n Ran my errands, then headed over to pick up kid 2.\u00a0 Very un-usually and disconcertingly, my truck died several times during the trip.\u00a0 I first thought it might be low oil, but now I am wondering if the battery is dead from the cold.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nsuckers<\/del> I mean Board Members who make it all work.\u00a0 Plus there is some crossover with my ham lunch guys, who I haven’t seen in months.\u00a0\u00a0 I can touch base with two of my meatspace groups at the same time.\u00a0 If that’s not efficient use of time I don’t know what is…. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n