Another warm and very humid day? Probably, although there was a good breeze coming north from the Gulf of America last night. It was not crazy hot yesterday, but the humidity was close to saturation again. Makes it kinda chilly when the temp does fall.

Did my pickups in the morning. Nice haul of hand tools, and a couple of other things for the house and the BOL. Tried to get a third pickup in, but he’s only open for pickup on Tues. and Wed. so I’ll get him today. Stopped by my shop to unload, and did a tiny bit of sorting. Tried to get some work done on the cart but ran out of daylight.

Today I’ll sleep in. The kids don’t have school, so I don’t have to get up before the sun to see them off. Then I’ll vote and do my pickup. Probably come home and do more on the cart. I really want to see it move under its own power. If it does, I’ll need to change the batteries.

I should put some of the Halloween decor away too, and put out the “harvest/fall/Thanksgiving” stuff. Ah, so much to do. And none of it on my critical list. Work avoidance mode levels up!

Seriously though, morally I don’t think you can complain about the government if you don’t vote, and I like to complain. No matter the cheating, the lies, the fraud, and the fact that they’re ALL b@stards, voting is a fundamental part of what we are as a nation. Go out and do it. If nothing else, the chatter in line will give you a better idea of what ‘Joe Sixpack’ is thinking.

So vote. And stack, because they’re all b@stards and are trying to break everything.

nick

At least it’s a cool November. It was 74F and slowly falling when I went to bed, so I’m wondering how cool it will be today. Yesterday was warm, but the air was saturated so I was soaked with sweat just putting out the last of the Halloween decorations. It was oppressively humid. At least that eased off last night.

Had a good Halloween. Got enough decorations out that I felt like it was a good effort. Not as crazy as previous years, but still looked good. We had a fair number of kids come by, mostly young. Couple of neighbors came by before dark with very little ones. I had a box of small plush toys (like little beanie babies, but not branded) and the little kids loved those. I’d run them through the laundry, and I washed all the little toys we offered too. I heard from some of the parents that other people in the neighborhood were offering toys as well as candy so my idea is spreading. One on the street was offering little Playdough cups.

I also found time to leave a long and detailed comment over at Commander Zero’s about food storage. He’d linked a video that was a good jumping off point for discussion, and the comments should develop into something interesting.

Today I’ll take down some of the decorations. I like to see them up, so I leave the ones that are least objectionable for a while. If there is rain and they are wet, they stay up until they can dry out.

Then I’ll be back to working on the list.

Stacking is good. So is being part of your community.

nick

And we might have nice weather for it, as we’re getting our overdue rain now… At least a little bit of rain. In different parts of Houston there were different amounts of moisture from the sky yesterday. The ground didn’t really stay wet, and my wipers didn’t get a workout, but there were some drops, and some puddles. Temps were mild but humidity was high. More today wouldn’t be bad if it meant great weather on Halloween.

Did several hours of volunteering yesterday morning. I think were finally in a place where everything should work, and I’ve already addressed the issues from their first rehearsal. I followed that up with a huge loop to do pickups, ending at my shop. Unloaded some stuff there and poked at a couple of things. Came home to an empty house. Everyone came home a bit later but I saw them for less than 5 minutes. Oh well.

Today I’ll start with audio work, then do a quick pickup, and maybe some material buying, and then back to school for the afternoon rehearsal. I expect to have some conflict with the assistant director about levels. There is only so much loud before the pain and feedback and I intend to keep it below that point. She seems to want MOR SOUND! 24 mics open on stage. Yeah. More noise and more painful screeching, and then figure in the feedback….

I’m hoping to have Friday clear. There are a couple of things I still want to get done that I haven’t had time for with the volunteering.

I did add to the stacks with some of my last round of pickups. And I’ll keep adding, but I’ll be engaging with the world around me too.

nick

Cool in the morning and at night, and mostly very pleasant during the day. Yesterday proved that the sun can still broil my brain and pink my skin. Noontime sun was brutal. Hoping for more today. We could use a bit of rain though.

Did my pickup, and the kid’s event. Did some clean up and some more Halloween decor. I can keep moving if I alternate tasks. It’s not as efficient as just knuckling down, but it helps me keep some momentum going.

Today I’ll visit my buddy’s new store and start working on a plan for cameras. I’m thinking I’ll re-use his old system for part of the building and upgrade the retail areas to 4K with good night vision and full motion, full time recording. I might even suggest a third system with only a couple of hidden cams as backup to a sophisticated attacker. We’ll see.

Then it’s back to the list and keep nibbling away at it. Gotta keep the momentum in the coming week, which will be filled with some time sensitive things like work for my client and volunteering at the middle school. All that in addition to my normal life. It’s a great life by any measure, but it can be demanding.

Stack, work, live.

nick