Hot and muggy, getting hotter throughout the day…\u00a0\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0\u00a0 Wednesday was like that.\u00a0\u00a0 102F in the shade.\u00a0 Not much breeze and plenty of water suspended in the air.<\/p>\n
I did get out of the house for a while.\u00a0\u00a0 Went to meet with the neighbor at the rent house.\u00a0\u00a0 My renter gave me a heads up that the guy wanted to see me about the overhanging trees.\u00a0\u00a0 OK.\u00a0\u00a0 Well, he’s cut them back to the lot line.\u00a0\u00a0 Not much for me to do at this point.\u00a0\u00a0 He keeps repeating himself and acting oddly.\u00a0\u00a0 I have my pole saw and volunteer to cut what few branches remain on his side of the fence but now he doesn’t want me to.\u00a0 And he wants to put pickets on his side of my rotten fence.\u00a0\u00a0 So I’m confused, because he seems to want something and I’m not giving it.\u00a0\u00a0 He’s been living in Vietnam for 30 years so maybe there is a cultural thing I’m missing.\u00a0\u00a0 In any case, I get out of\u00a0 there with minutes to spare picking up D1 at her camp gig.\u00a0 Weird.\u00a0 And a couple of hours out of my\u00a0 life.<\/p>\n
Didn’t get to my secondary so I have to go there today and get the stuff I promised to bring to the meet tonight.<\/p>\n
Since my day was shot, and I had the saw, I took some time and trimmed up my big live oak.\u00a0\u00a0 Every year or two I cut about 6-8ft off everything I can reach.\u00a0\u00a0 That really lightens the branches, and gets it away from the roof of the house.\u00a0\u00a0 There’s a big pile of small branches now waiting for heavy trash day.\u00a0 Did I mention it was hot?\u00a0\u00a0 I was soaked to the skin and starting to feel the heat.<\/p>\n
Roofs, saws, and feeling overheated don’t mix.\u00a0\u00a0 The tree has been trimmed as much as it will be this year…<\/p>\n
And more stuff gets pushed to a later time.<\/p>\n
I took a few minutes after dinner to make cables for the swim timing system.\u00a0\u00a0 Simple coax with BNC ends, and a barrel to join with the existing cables.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I made a 6ft and a 30ft extension.\u00a0\u00a0 Now if they work, the timer will be able to reset the deck clock himself if they don’t have someone to do it after every race.\u00a0 That’s what I’ve been doing as my volunteer job, standing next to the clock to push the reset button.\u00a0\u00a0 And you have to stand, because the cable is only 2ft long.\u00a0\u00a0 Tonight I’ll be able to sit… or move more than a foot from the machine.\u00a0 Assuming the proprietary system isn’t doing something funny to force you to buy their cable.\u00a0\u00a0 Just nuts that all that seems to be needed is $5 in cable and a joining barrel.\u00a0 I hate vendor lock-in by custom connectors or other foolishness.\u00a0 I’ve mentioned my sewer camera before, obsolete because they used a niche video display with custom connectors.\u00a0 It’s the opposite of ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’.<\/p>\n
Sustainable and repairable are very important to the prepper, and lots of other people benefit from them too.\u00a0 It’s not just a declining society that can make getting replacements difficult- location, supply chain issues, suppliers going out of business, all are arguments to be able to fix things locally with commodity and common parts.<\/p>\n
If you have a choice between two mostly identical items but one uses common parts and is easier to repair, that is the one you should get.\u00a0 Oh, and avoid the soft plastic overmold that seems to be on everything nowadays.\u00a0\u00a0 When it fails, and it will, you are left with a sticky mess.\u00a0 Think hard about multi-purpose items too.\u00a0 If you are actually using it in multiple modes, you lose all the functions if you lose the use of the item.\u00a0 If it’s critical, it should do that one job well, and not be used for anything else.\u00a0\u00a0 And you should have spares.<\/p>\n
So stack up some spares, stack some tools,\u00a0 stack some know how, and chose simplicity over complexity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
nick<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hot and muggy, getting hotter throughout the day…\u00a0\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0\u00a0 Wednesday was like that.\u00a0\u00a0 102F in the shade.\u00a0 Not much breeze and plenty of water suspended in the air.<\/p>\n
I did get out of the house for a while.\u00a0\u00a0 Went to meet with the neighbor at the rent house.\u00a0\u00a0 My renter gave me a heads up that the guy wanted to see me about the overhanging trees.\u00a0\u00a0 OK.\u00a0\u00a0 Well, he’s cut them back to the lot line.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n