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Tues. Dec. 3, 2024 – yeah, about that …

By on December 3rd, 2024 in culture, decline and fall

Cold and clear this morning, getting nicer later. At least I hope so. Yesterday ended in “shirt sleeve” weather, so it could happen.

Of course, yesterday my wants and needs were bigger than my does and deeds.

I got a couple of small things done. Looking at the two tvs that were stacked in the toy room was a good thing. Moving a couple things out of that room was good. Moving some stuff to the attic was good. Spent some time doing auction things too.

Picked up the kid and her friend from school. Kids are winding me up.

Made dinner and did more auction stuff. Then youtube shorts got me for a couple hours. It’s like crack cocaine. Or popcorn with a never ending bucket, and an expandable waistline.

Today I’ve got a lot of driving to do. Kid to orthodontist, then school, then some auction stuff, and some rent house stuff… and then kid stuff again.

Not much time to mess around. Or stack.

But I’ll do what I can. You should too.

nick

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Mon. Dec. 2, 2024 – counting down the days

By on December 2nd, 2024 in culture, decline and fall

Cool, and maybe not clear. National forecast has the whole country clear, but not Houston and this part of the South. I guess we’ll see what happens. It ended up being a nice day Sunday, with moderate temps in the 60s.

Not that I took advantage of the nice weather. I did take down the “Fall” decor and hang a couple of Christmas wreathes. That didn’t take too long, and happened late in the day. I mostly read, and puttered around inside, alternating with watching some half dozen auctions close. Nothing I really needed, and nothing I had to have, although I did pick up a couple of things at giveaway prices.

Dinner was turkey leftovers and they were delicious. This week feels like Christmas break, and I’m reluctant to have it end. Real Christmas break is coming and there will be a lot of activity and “stuff” going on for a while. Not much time for relaxing and messing around.

And that doesn’t even count the stuff happening in the wider world.

Things are starting to break loose and move in unfamiliar ways. Stay sharp out there, and get your ducks in a row.

There will be a lot of stuff going on. Being able to stay home and avoid trouble might come in right handy… so check your stacks, and top them off.

And always keep working.

nick

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Sun. Dec. 1, 2024 – racing toward the end of the year…

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

Cool and clear, warming later. I hope. It was cold as a witch’s bits at the BOL and warmer back in Houston. Warmer is better right now…

I got up and got ready to leave the BOL. Left the wife and kids to do the departure stuff. I had an auction pickup to get to. I made it and hit a couple of thrift stores on the way home.

Got home, unloaded, and ate leftovers while watching “Alone” with the family. Not a bad day at all.

Today, if the weather cooperates I’ll hang some lights and put up some decorations here. I got some colored lights and some yard decor set up at the BOL, and it felt nice. The tree looked good too. I’ve got to clean out the room where we set up the tree here, and that will take some effort. I’ve been piling BOL stuff, hobby stuff, and sale stuff in that room for months. And the dog has been in there when it is raining outside… despite cleanup and enzyme sprays, it still needs additional deep cleaning.

After a brief respite, it will be full speed ahead toward Christmas and the New Year. It’s coming fast…

So stack! Always stack. And USE some of the stacks just to be sure.

nick

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Sat. Nov. 30, 2024 – headed home

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

COLD. Crisp is too generous. It was 34F when I went to bed at 2am. Winter is here, at least at the BOL. It will warm up, but hoooboy, it’s chilly.

Didn’t spend a lot of time outside Friday. Did some small things in the house. Mainly I got down the Christmas decorations and lights and put them up. Later we put up the tree and decorated. Ate leftovers that were just as good or better than yesterday, and stayed inside where it was warm.

Watched “Alone” until early morning hours, then went to bed.

Today will be wrapping up and heading home. I have a pickup about 2 hours away that has to happen before 2pm, so I’m out of here before noon. W and the girls will follow a bit later. I’d like to stay, but it didn’t work out this trip.

Lessons learned this trip were that I have a lot of rice in buckets up here. I need a bit more of everything else…

Now to get busy, so I can get home, and adjust the stacks there.

Take stock, make adjustments, stack what’s needed.

nick

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Fri. Nov. 29, 2024 – Slightly less red Friday

By on November 29th, 2024 in cooking with LTS food, cooking/baking, culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, personal

Cold but clear. Warming later but IDK how much. Funny thing is that at the beginning of the week the forecast was for warming. Cooling happened. Oh well, that’s why I no longer pay much attention.

Thursday was a lot of cooking, some great smells and even better tastes, sitting around watching tv, and the smallest bit of work… and only because it enabled cooking.

I made bread in the machine. Had to hit one of my “bread kit” buckets for sugar. The buckets have 10 pounds of flour, 5 pounds sugar, yeast packets, and a liter of peanut oil. I realized I should add some salt to them too. Add water and there are several variations on bread that can be made from the bucket. I’ve got buckets of the bulk ingredients and salt, oil, and yeast in other places, but the “kit” bucket puts them conveniently together. Oh, there is a pound of corn meal in there too, for variety. Yeast was from 2022 but worked fine.

All the milk for cooking was LaLa UHT full fat milk in shelf stable half liter cartons. I keep them in the fridge for even better life. They are a great choice to have milk on hand in places where you don’t use enough to keep fresh around, or don’t have fresh. I have the single serving box milks too, but they tend to age out before we use them. They won’t kill you, but the taste changes and they get chunky like tapioca if you let them get more than a few months past ‘best by’.

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Plan for today is to put up the Christmas lights and some decorations, and then maybe do some of the other stuff on the list. The attic work gets pushed to another day.

We’re headed home on Saturday, without much time to do more than pack up and secure the house. I don’t think I’ll get into the bigger projects in the attic without an extra day of wiggle room. I’d love to stay until late Sunday like normal, but wife and kids have stuff to do in Houston, and I have an auction pickup Saturday afternoon- ham radio stuff for me and for my swapmeet in March.

“Plans are worthless, but planning is invaluable” or something very close to that was said by a very successful General. I’m going to go with it.

Do some planning. Use some preps. And do some stacking. Maybe there will be a sale!

nick

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Thur. Nov. 28, 2024 – Thanksgiving Day

By on November 28th, 2024 in cooking/baking, culture, lakehouse, personal

Cool and damp with a small chance of rain today. We’ll see. Most of the local weather goes around us here. Yesterday turned out very nice, with moderate temps and not too much sun.

It was a good day for working and I did get stuff done. I spent some of the afternoon doing meatspace things, building relationships. Getting a feel for people. Trying to become an insider, rather than an interloper. This is not an easy process. It takes a lot of time. And a lot of work.

Speaking of work, I think I’ll try to not do to much of it today. This is a great time to be mindful of what we have to be thankful for. And there is a lot. Time together, and time to get our stuff together.

Thank you all for continuing to come around and participate in this shared endeavor. Thank you Barbara for your continued support. Thank you Rick for all you do.

Count your blessings today, and give thanks.

nick

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Wed. Nov. 27, 2024 – progress is being made, albeit slowly

By on November 27th, 2024 in cooking/baking, culture, decline and fall, lakehouse

Cool, even cold this morning, warming later, then cold again. Another beautiful day, if a bit on the chilly side.

Got the walls in the dockhouse buttoned up. Still need to buy and install the trim, but at least the walls are closed.

For every new receptacle I put in two duplex outlets. I flip one upside down so that no matter how the flat plug is built, you should be able to plug in and have the cord point down. I do quad boxes because if you need a receptacle, you probably need more than one…and I’m doing the work anyway…

Today I’ll clean up my mess, put the room mostly back together, and move onto the next thing on the list. Not sure what that will be, but I’ll do something.

I should probably start brining the turkey, if we’re going to brine it…

Time to do the ten thousand things.

And stacking. Can’t forget about that.

nick

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Tues. Nov. 26, 2024 – more “vacation” work to do…

By on November 26th, 2024 in computing, culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war

Cool and clear, but supposed to be warmer than the last couple of days later on. It was another beautiful day. Sun was warm, and there was a nice breeze.

I mostly worked on getting the dockhouse back together. More insulation and wainscotting was installed. More electrical was replaced. I did change a couple of things, and added an outlet to the wall that didn’t have one. We’re not quite code compliant, but we’re closer than we were. One more day and I should be done with the work I can do until I get the base board and chair rail molding.

If I finish, I’ll switch to networking, or the vent fans for the baths, and kitchen. Wife is working from home, and Starlink is mostly adequate. The latency messes with her VPN and the servers/databases at her office. Plus it’s not as fast as the fiber at home, so her expectation needs a bit of calibration…

Dinner was bambi burgers courtesy of my fishing buddy. He got a nice buck this week so there might be more coming my way soon. Kids love it. He mixes beef brisket into the ground venison for burgers and chili. It’s very tasty.

I’m making progress on my list, but the pace is still slow. Hopefully I have enough time.

And enough stacked.

nick

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Mon. Nov. 25, 2024 – a week off… sorta

By on November 25th, 2024 in cooking/baking, culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war

Should be cool and clear again today. Other than the crazy wind, yesterday was very nice, staying in the 70s most of the day. The sun was very hot, but the wind kept me cool. Today is supposed to be a little warmer, and without the wind.

I slept in,but not as late as some times when we’re up here. I was up and productive anyway. Although daytime reading is like daytime drinking… once you start, you won’t get much else done.

I got the speakers hooked up on the dock, did more of the electrical work, and started on finishing closing up the walls in the dockhouse. Then I ran out of daylight.

Had a nice fire and chat on the patio instead of my usual time alone on the dock with my radio and tiny fire.

Today I’ll keep working on getting the dockhouse back together from the flood damage. After that we’ll see about some networking or some other stuff on the list. There’s plenty on the list, but if it’s nice out, I might shift stuff around a bit to take advantage of the weather.

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The turkey is defrosting in the fridge, and we’re debating whether to brine it and bake, or brine and smoke… or maybe some other technique will jump out at us. Dunno, brining seems to be a common denominator, so maybe I’ll start with that. I generally cook at home, and my wife does most of the cooking when we’re up here. Thanksgiving will take both of us though. And maybe the kids will get involved with something other than just the baking. Maybe.

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Meanwhile the world continues to race headlong towards global conflict. Make your preparations. Learn what you need to know. Meet the people around you. Stack.

nick

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Sun. Nov. 24, 2024 – 11242024 – Maybe I’ll get some work done today…

By on November 24th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war

Cool and clear, warming later. I’m hoping for another gorgeous Fall day. Saturday was a fantastic day, weatherwise. Today should be too.

Did my stuff at home, then headed to the BOL. Had D1 riding with me, so we did an hour of her required “watching someone else drive” time for her learner’s permit. W is teaching her the rules, I’m teaching her to survive. Defensive and offensive skills. She was p!ssy an grumping when I made her put her phone away. The time only counts if she’s paying attention.

And it’s a good thing she was because the universe punctuated my lessons with a wheelbarrow in the middle of the toll road, and then later a basketball net post and base. Fun times.

It was so nice when we got here that I just hung out with the wife and later the kids.

Today I’ll get some work done, honest injun!

There is plenty to do, and I’m the man to not do it 🙂

Seriously though, I should be able to crank through some stuff since we’re here all week.

Always be working to improve your situation. Always be stacking…

nick

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