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Sat. May 4th, 2024 – Star Wars Day (unofficial)

By on May 4th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall

Cool and damp, becoming warm and damp. Yesterday was another wet and dreary day that got nice by the end of the day. Today, it would be great to skip right to the “nice” part. Probably isn’t going to happen though.

Did my pickup after working with my buddy for a while. We’re tearing down a giant 3D printer, original cost about $300K, and it’s a beast. Solid steel plates 3/4″ thick. Solid aluminum 1″ thick. A framework made from doubled 80/20 aluminum extrusion, with additional steel bracketry. Every component is top of the line and heavy duty. A beast. They don’t make them like that anymore.

Lots of things aren’t made well anymore. The chinese disregard for intellectual property rights, safety, and quality, along with other factors, has driven a real race for the bottom. Some of it was driven by financial “engineering” in the US and EU, offshoring, cheap labor elsewhere, lax standards, and a willingness to base every decision on “cost”. But without a supplier willing to provide the cr@p, you wouldn’t have the result we have today, where it’s difficult to find good, when bad drives it from the marketplace. Thankfully, the chinese have not taken over the world yet, and we still have alternatives.

Consider quality in your preps. Longevity, repairability, durability. A chinese red dot sight might give you some extra capability for a while, but it’ll be nothing but an inert lump when you need it most. Cheap tools that break are a similar false economy. If you must buy cr@p, upgrade it as soon as you can. Or you’ll regret it later.

Stack some quality today. There are ways to get it at cr@p prices. (used mainly, but also in the ‘secondary’ economy I’ve been writing about for years.) You won’t regret having solid stuff when you are relying on it.

nick

(sorry this is late, I fell asleep in the chair at my desk and didn’t get it up until this morning.)

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Fri. May 3, 2024 – not quite star wars day, maybe star police action day?

By on May 3rd, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war

Cool and damp, with rain possible later. We certainly got a bunch of weather yesterday. Thunder, lightning, wind, rain, more wind, and some places got a LOT of rain. The result when it cleared later in the day was a very pleasant cool sunny evening. With squishy ground.

I did a bit of auction stuff in the morning then headed over to help my buddy. We ended up working by skylight and headlamp after the storm knocked out power for about 4-5 hours. We did make progress on the task at hand. I’m headed back today to do some more.

Later in the day I’ve got a pickup to do, and the kids will need their after school chauffeur. Normal domestic life.

One interesting thing from the storm is that the main road to my BOL was under water for a while. I don’t know yet how long, but it was completely shut down. There are other paths there, especially if you knew ahead of time about the closure, but everything else is pretty far out of the way. The road network ‘mesh’ in rural Texas has nodes that are about 15 minutes apart at 75MPH. Any indirect path adds 20 minutes or more to the trip, and backtracking to go around adds a lot more than that. Of course, floating your vehicle or hydrolocking your engine takes a bit longer still….

It feels weird to not be part of the worst of what’s going on. If you’re affected, let us know how you are making out and any lessons learned.

——————-

I continue to be convinced that things are objectively worse now than they were a year ago, two years ago, or four. I don’t see them getting better. At the risk of wearing out everyone’s patience with the repetitive banging of the drum– get yourself prepared for some hard times coming. There will be medical, social, and economic issues and problems. There will be war, either limited and elsewhere or here. If that sounds extreme, it is, but all the signs from history point to it.

Stack up stuff you need. Having is always better than not having, and you can always give it away later if I’m wrong. If I’m right, then no matter what you have it’s not likely to be enough,but it will help and it will give you options.

Options are good. Stack.

nick

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Thur. May 2, 2024 – what, no comments about the workers of the world and commie day?

By on May 2nd, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, march to war, personal

Warmish, and overcast, with storming later. IF it didn’t rain all night. I went to bed late and the promised rain hadn’t started, so IDK what to expect today. Yesterday ended up relatively nice, with periods of pretty nice. No rain for me, other than a few spattered drops.

Went to my client’s house and did some poking around. Found a problem with a cable. Swapped an extender pair anyway just in case the extender was failing.

Left the site to head to my buddy’s shop, but he waved me off, which left me at loose ends. Hit the Goodwill outlet. Meanwhile, D1 has been having an “interesting” day. One male vs male fight in the hall, and two female vs female fights, one right in front of her. The video is vicious. No posturing and fake fighting like the girls did when I was in school. Congrats ladies, you are violent sl#ts, just like the men. What progress! #feminismrules

This was followed by a phoned in bomb threat that resulted in a brief lockdown. Not credible. Thankfully.

Da fuq is the world coming to?

The official communication from the school should be interesting. So far there’s been none. I will assume then that this is common throughout the district, and we just haven’t been told about any of the other violence either. Time, maybe long past time, to look at alternatives.

“Teach your children well”. Well… they’ve been taught, and we’re going to reap the whirlwind.

Stack. Look hard at your personal security. Stack some more.

nick

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Wed. May 1, 2024 – well, I switched it around…

By on May 1st, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Cool and clear but raining later, if the liars aren’t lying. Yesterday was very nice and I’d like a bit more spring, if you please. It was mid 80s by afternoon, even a bit hot when the breeze wasn’t blowing. Sunny and clear too.

So I looked at the weekly forecast and decided to do my pickups and drop off yesterday, and see my client today. I needed the clear weather for the pickup truck load, but I’ll be using the Expy for my site visit. I figured I’d better make-a hay while the sun, she is a-shining. That way, my stuff doesn’t get wet.

Worked out.

Today I am headed to my client’s house to do some troubleshooting and swapping of gear. Hopefully it will either resolve the issue, or point to the problem. Some things you can’t do remotely. Poking around in the rack and wiggling cables is one of those things.

In the afternoon, I should be headed over to my buddy’s shop to see what I can do to help him get ready to move.

Those are the plans, but what really happens is subject to change. Always.

Kinda like prepping and disasters. You can plan, but you need flexibility too. Sometimes your plan needs to be discarded and a new plan developed. Sometimes things change or your needs change. It’s worth looking at your assumptions and plans to see if they are still appropriate and serving you well.

You might have to adjust what you’re stacking, where it’s stacked, or who you are stacking for. Grandbabies are a lot different than adult children. Having aging parents, or aging self calls for different approaches than when you were a young buck and could just power through. Besides, you’re smarter now, right?

So stack. Reconsider. And stack some more.

nick

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Tues. Apr. 30, 2024 – well, that didn’t really happen as planned…

By on April 30th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war

Warmer, but still wet. Might be clear. The national forecast was weirdly specific about leaving a bit of clear on our part of the map. Yesterday turned into a fairly nice day by late afternoon. Still damp, but nice.

And I really didn’t get much done beyond catching up on auction stuff. I did look at what it’s going to take to block off the breezeway, and I’m really not looking forward to it. I’d much rather waste time on the internet with my friends. I did get to the HEB to pick up a few things. The extra kids ate a bunch and I needed to top up some lunch snacks and drinks for D2’s school lunch. Swung by the meat dept., but nothing I needed was on sale. They had chuck shoulder roast (select grade) for $3.50 which isn’t bad, but isn’t great and the individual cuts were not great. Eye round roast at $4 wasn’t tempting, and the brisket at $3.50 didn’t move me. I am FULL in the freezer department, so unless I buy another one, it’ll have to be a great bargain before I can buy…

Today I’m supposed to head to my client’s house to poke at some stuff. There is an intermittent issue with signal dropout, that I think is connector related. I’ll lube and clean with Deoxit Gold and see if that helps. If not, I’ve got some failing gear to replace. Depending on that work and any updates or networking stuff I do, I might or might not have time to do a pickup later in the day. I can push the pickup to Wednesday, but I’m already giving up days I promised to my buddy working on my stuff at his shop… Time. Ask me for anything but more time.

And yet, my prepping plan depends on having more time to get ready for whatever is coming. Looks like war to me. It’s a historical cure for a poor economy, and a proven political distraction. It’s also a great way to pass money and power to people. I don’t know the timeline, and we could be in full on economic collapse with all the difficulty that entails before the dogs of war are loosed… or we could just muddle on, with everything getting worse and worse by degrees… However it plays out, time to prepare, and resources to stack are both probably in limited supply.

Stack some for you, and I’ll stack some for me…

nick

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Mon. Apr. 29, 2024 – home again, still got stuff to do…

By on April 29th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war, personal, rats

Wet and warm. Whether it’s still raining, or just the soggy aftermath, it’s gonna be wet today. It was raining when I went to bed, and had been for hours. Not crazy hard, but steadily enough.

Spent Sunday wrapping up at the BOL. The forecast was for bad storms, so wife and kids bailed early to beat the rain. I stayed to do a few things I didn’t get done. After a brief light rain, it cleared up and was a nice day for most of the afternoon. I got several things done, and made progress on a couple more. Then the rain started again, and it was time to head home. LOTS of rain on the way home. Several tornado warnings, and local flooding… lots of people had a bad day, but I dodged most of it.

Today I need to make some progress on my lists here. First off, the rat problem didn’t solve itself. I am going to have to block some more access, mainly through the soffits and the breezeway that links the house attic to the garage attic. My neighbor paid a pest control company $1200 to do the same blocking I’m thinking about. It’s a huge pain in the butt, which is why I’ve put off doing it. But the rats aren’t going for the traps or poison, so I need to step up a bit. It won’t get done today, but maybe I can do some exploration.

I’ve got other paperwork stuff to do, and this week will be busy with stuff too. I should visit my client for a new issue and get him back up. And I’ve got a friend moving away that has been storing some tools for me, that I have to sort out. One of them is a laser sintering 3D printer, which is about 7ft x 5ft x 7ft, and includes a dozen barrels of powder, and a sifting and cleaning station that is 4ft x 4ft x 7ft. I don’t have anywhere to PUT the stuff, which is why it was at his place. Time to sell the powder and break down the printer. We should end up with parts for a 30w engraver. Getting the powder sinter machine to work ended up being too big a job, given where we had to do it. We couldn’t meet the power requirements, or the need for nitrogen gas to fill the build chamber. And neither of us had the time available that we thought we would.

All the normal stuff will be happening this week too, so it should be a busy and full week.

It’s a great life if you don’t falter, right?

So don’t falter. Stack.

nick

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Sun. Apr. 28th, 2024 – so much more to do…

By on April 28th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, gardening, lakehouse, march to war

Warm and damp, maybe rain, maybe storms… low 80s yesterday with a lot of wind, but sunny enough to turn the kids pink.

Long day but the kids had fun. The one dad who came to take a kid home, was driving an EV. Had a charger scheduled in a nearby town, only 20 minutes out of his way, for 40 minutes, so he could get home.

The 120v charger is 3 miles of range per hour of charge, the 220v is 30 miles per hour.

I’ve been thinking about buying a charger for here just in case we had a visitor, since they are cheap in the auctions at the moment. Then I had such a visitor. I will look a bit closer this week.

———–

The bottom blew out of my lawn tractor engine just as I finished the lawn… I hit something bad then the motor started clattering. Wasn’t too long until there was some energetic disassembly. Smoke and a lot of oil dumped out the bottom. Dang it. I do not need a project but I have to figure something out, I’ll need to mow next time I come up. I can rebuild the deck for the mower my buddy gave me, or try to fit the bigger one I just rebuilt to it. Or buy something new… at least I got most of the lawn cut first.

————-

Kids swam and played in the water most of the day. They have a lot of energy and still like to just play. It was great to see.

—————

Weeded our garden with a mini roto tiller attachment for the string trimmer motor. It worked pretty well, and while it takes some manhandling, I think it’s still easier than hoeing. The peas are doing well. I test dug around the potatoes and there were golf ball sized taters. I harvested two radishes and they were nice. The turnips are not thriving. Something is turning the leaves to lace, and the roots are only thumb sized, and are more like horseradish at this point. I also took about a dozen blueberries off one bush, and then covered them with bird netting. They were just a day or two short of perfectly sweet.

I think it’s time for round two of radishes and turnips. The pumpkin and squashes haven’t died yet, so that’s a plus. Peppers all have buds, and the tomatoes have both flowers and fruit.

All in all, I’m pleasantly surprised at how well the garden is doing. We have gotten a bunch of rain, so there is that.

——-

Speaking of rain, the sprinkler pump work will happen today, if it’s not raining. There are various storms forecast for the area, but I’m not worried. It will storm or it won’t. The lake and local geography often keep us from getting the worst of any storms in the area.

———-

Our home owners group met for our annual ‘clean up’ day. I chatted with several people and made an appearance at the meeting later. Community is important. You definitely want to be “in” the group if push comes to shove, and not part of the “them” group. I’m doing what I can to be a part of this group.

Climbing the curve to be “local”. Climbing the curve to grow food. Climbing the curve to harvest protein from the lake and surrounding area. They are all pretty steep so you need to get started…

And stack, because crops fail, and the people with food will have many more options.

nick

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Sat. Apr. 27, 2024 – living the life of Reilly

By on April 27th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, gardening, lakehouse, march to war

Warm and damp with overcast and weather in the distance. Possibly weather up close later on. It was 73F with a breeze when I went to bed, and had been for hours.

I spent Friday getting ready to come up here for the weekend. I did a couple of pickups, and took care of some things around the house. I hit Costco for gas, and Home Depot for plumbing supplies. Then I loaded up the truck and headed to the country.

All that messing around meant a late start, so today I’ll be mowing and getting stuff ready for guests. D2 is having some friends up for her birthday. It’s going to be loud. And I’ll probably do more host stuff than working on the place. I know there are a lot of burgers to be cooked at some point, and corn on the cob too.

I will be taking another shot at the irrigation intake line. I got a couple of flexible fittings and intend to get the inlet up out of the muck, and hopefully keep it out this time. Best case would be some sort of floating contraption, but Home Depot was out of the hose I need to make that work. We’ve been getting a lot of rain, so it’s not critical to have the irrigation working yet, but every time I mess with it without solving the issue there is something else that doesn’t get done. I’d like to be done with it for a while.

Had a nice little fire last night, and WRMI was booming in from Miami, loud as broadcast, until it just stopped around 1 am. Conditions changed somewhere between here and there, and that was the end of my listening for the night. Radio is fickle, which is why it takes practice, even for just listening. Tomorrow I hope to do some side by side testing with my faithful Radio Shack radio, and the two new Eton radios. Hopefully they will sound good and pull in the stations.

It all takes practice, and practical knowledge. It takes redundancy in gear and technique. You have to actually DO stuff to know what you don’t know. So get out and do. It will show you places you need to improve.

And stack of course, don’t miss out on that.

nick

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Fri. Apr. 26, 2024 – wow, this week blazed by…

By on April 26th, 2024 in cooking/baking, culture, decline and fall, gardening, lakehouse, march to war, politics

Warm and humid, overcast, possibly clearing later, or possibly raining. No one knows. We did get a little dusting of moisture from the sky yesterday afternoon. Just an occasional spot hitting my face as I walked across the parking lot, or unloaded stuff at home. The national forecast has us possibly getting rain today and this weekend.

I’m really hoping for no rain at the BOL, as we’ll be there and so will 5 of D2’s friends. It’ll be pretty crowded and intense if we’re all in the house all weekend…The forecast looks like the BOL is right on the edge of the weather, and at home that almost always means we don’t get the bad stuff.

Yesterday I mostly did domestic bliss in the morning, and shopped and cooked in the afternoon and evening… which was fine as dinner was a success, with everything coming out as planned. Even got to use my cast iron to sear the seafood, and if my “winging it” sauce was a little bit salty, it still tasted nice and worked well with the scallops.

I ended up getting my wife an OLED nintendo Switch. I went for an “amazon renewed” version in white as I saved $60 which is a significant percentage… I hope I don’t live to regret that, but it looks great so far.

Now that the anniversary stuff is out of the way, I can do a couple of pickups today, then load up for the BOL. Me, D1, and the dog are headed up today to make sure everything is ready for D2 and her friends. We’ll do her birthday when we get back, with just family. I need to giftwrap her presents today, so they’re ready.

I should also hit Lowes while I’m out and get a few more plumbing things for the irrigation system, which might not be working again. This time I’m going to change the angle of the intake pipe, and try to make it float, so the end can’t get stuck down in the silty lakebed. Some McGivering might be in order.

All in all, my day looks pretty ordinary. You’d never know I was a subversive threat to the nation, just because I want honest government, and more self reliance, while opposing immigration, and decrying the increase in crime and criminality. Why I’ve even started a garden without registering it.

The world is getting crazier by the day, and the violence is already getting started for the summer. BLM had some good ol’ new fashioned whitey hate, and race rioting, this summer seems to be going with the old standby of Jew hatred, along with two-faced P-islam…shouting that they’re the religion of peace and if you don’t believe them, they’ll kill you. Coming soon to a city near you.

Get your stacks built. Learn some skills. Meet with likeminded people. It’ll be getting a lot worse before it starts getting better.

n

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Thur. Apr. 25, 2024 – 19 years. 15 of them sober. Ay carumba.

By on April 25th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war, personal

Cool and clear, warming later. It was basically a beautiful day yesterday and I’m expecting the same today.

Did my big loop of pickups yesterday. Went without issues. Got stuff for home, BOL, and everyday living. Some is deep backup, some is more “shallow”, like the solar panel. My feeling is that you can’t use something you don’t have, so better to have it.

Today will be mostly taken up with me shopping for and then cooking a special dinner for my wife, and the kids will benefit too. D2’s birthday, our weekend trip to the BOL, and other factors combined to make today the day, no matter if it actually matches the calendar or not. I’m thinking surf and turf, but we’ll see what we can find fresh. Of course there is plenty in the freezer, if it came to that, but I’d like to keep benefiting from western civilization as long as we can.

I spent a bit of time trying to come up with another paragraph about the fall, but I went to bed instead. It’s falling, locally and globally. Internalize that idea, and figure out how you’ll live with it.

And stack, for Pete’s sake, and your own…

n

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