Sat. Feb. 7, 2026 – up early for the kinder…

I guess I’ll see how cold it is at 7am. Probably 50F. Then warming throughout the day, much like Friday. In fact, Friday afternoon was really nice. Warm, sunny, clear… really nice. And I’m hoping for some more of that today.

I did office stuff in the morning, then did a pickup in the afternoon. Stopped and got a propane bottle filled, went by the secondary location, stopped at the shop and spent a couple of hours sorting and organizing. Didn’t get to storage, but did make progress so there might be room for it when it does come over.

Today I’m up early to get youngest and two of her friends to a school thing, then get them back home after. Then I need to get her to school for another thing that will go all afternoon and evening, with an afterparty…

W and D1 are headed to look at a college, with W continuing on to the BOL. She’ll stay the night and then pick up the kid on her way home. Kid will be staying with a friend. I’ll be home shuffling D2 around and working on the list.

It’s hard to complain. I will anyway. But by any metric I’m a blessed man. Gotta remember that.

Stack something. Count your blessings.

nick

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Fri. Feb. 6, 2026 – 02062026 – jenny don’t change your number…

By on February 6th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Cold again, and probably nice later. Which is what yesterday turned into. I was in shirtsleeves by the middle of the day. Since today is supposed to be clear and sunny, I’m betting on the same weather striking twice.

Did my pickup in the morning. It was a bargain*, but it was also 2 hours of driving. Then I met with a neighbor about a place for my non-prepping hobby to meet. I’m hoping that works out as it’s closer to my house.

Didn’t get to my storage unit or my shop. Kid was supposed to need a ride at a specific time, and that just wouldn’t work with shop time, so I went home and waited. I did get a good nap, which mollified me slightly when I found out 2 hours later that she didn’t need the ride.

Everyone but me had stuff to do last night, so I ate leftovers and fell asleep from the carbs.

Today, well, I’ll try once again to make some progress. Sisyphus. Some days I’m Spartacus, but most days I’m Sisyphus. NOT syphilis. Sisyphus… Or maybe liver-pecked dood. Dood is good food**. Now I won’t be able to convince anyone that my brain isn’t rotten from syphilis.

Stack! There you go, classic me.
nick

*bargain is a weird way to spell that word, and just looking at the letters, it doesn’t even seem like a real word. Do I need a tag for silliness? Or Sisyphus? Or syphilis? and really, who decides when it’s a y and when it’s an i? or an -is or an -us?

**three different sounds for the same ‘oo’ WTF?

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Thur. Feb. 5, 2026 – two wongs make a white

By on February 5th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Cool, but maybe warmer later? The national forecast says Houston, and most of the country, will be clear for the next several days. Could be all the heat rises and it’s cold but clear. Could be something else. I’m going for cold and clear. Maybe mid 60s? We’ll see.

Yesterday was a mess. Didn’t get any sleep, so had to nap most of the morning. Then other stuff got in my way. I did get a couple of small things done, and made dinner, so there was that.

Today I’ve got plans to do a pickup and a venue visit, so I need to get moving this morning. After that, maybe the load from storage that didn’t happen yesterday? We’ll see.

In any case, SOMETHING will get started, worked on, or, if the universe is feeling kindly, finished.

I just can’t predict what.

So stack as that’s easiest, and get stuck in.

nick

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Wed. Feb. 4, 2026 – too many good post titles…

By on February 4th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Warm and wet. It’s like winter never happened all of a sudden. I’ve got to run the defroster in the truck to see because it’s so damp. That’s pretty unusual for Houston. We had rain yesterday, depending on the time of day and where you were, and I’m pretty sure some people had a sunny day, while others got gloom and rain. I got some of each because I was driving all over the north side of town.

And there were lots of cops and not a few accidents. I did get my pickup done. Mostly it was things for the BOL. I took them and staged them at the shop, then spent a while sorting and organizing there.

Today I’ve got another pickup, on the far south side of town this time. Nothing to combine it with either. Oh well, it was a great deal on a machine for my hobbies. I’m also going to see a potential new meeting space for my non-prepping hobby. Both things should be done in the morning though. If it’s not raining, or threatening rain, I’ll probably try for another load from storage. I just got charged another month’s rent and it stings.

I need to get rid of the “inventory” I’ve built up by buying stuff to sell, but then not selling it because I’m too busy. Buying is more fun, and less work. Let that be an example to everyone. You aren’t running a store, you don’t need inventory. Buy it, then SELL it. It’s called ‘flipping’ for a reason. And I forgot that.

It’s not stacking when it’s stuff you didn’t intend to keep in the first place.

Do some real stacking. Clear the decks for it.

nick

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Tues. Feb. 3, 2026 – hot diggity dog diggity oh what it does to me…

By on February 3rd, 2026 in culture, decline and fall

Maybe not so cold today. It did get into the 70sF yesterday, and it was 60F at 10pm, the last time I looked. Overcast and kinda dreary for much of the day though. Hmm, today, mid 70sF, overcast, threat of rain. That’s my guess.

I didn’t get a lot done yesterday, but I did get another load from the storage unit to the shop. Spent some time talking to a friend on the phone. Did some non-prepping hobby tasks. I’d been putting them off for a while so it was good to get a few done.

One thing that ate far more time than it should have was that I filled up the internal storage on my phone. I thought both my internal and SD card were being backed up to my google account online, so I weeded and deleted a bunch of stuff. Didn’t matter. Even after I dealt with “unresolved conflicts”, I hadn’t cleared any pics off my internal storage. Couldn’t move them to the SD either, because no working space… no messaging, no opening the camera to tell it to use the SD, lot’s of stuff broke when the internal storage filled up.

So I tried connecting to the pc by USB cable to move files. Nope. Tried a half dozen cables, none did anything but charge. I think the USB-C port on the phone must be buggered. Lots of time spent and I couldn’t text my wife, so I found and deleted all the pix the ebay app stored when I used the visual search function. I wanted to keep them, because it was every album and pokemon I’ve looked up, and a nice record of purchases, but with the USB not working, I was kinda stuck.

Anyway, deleting the ebay photos cleared enough space I could use the phone again. But it does have a lesson. The camera was storing to internal for some stuff, and that stuff isn’t being backed up. And I haven’t backed up the phone itself or connected by USB in a LONG time. I’ll spend some more time dealing with that later.

Today, I might do a pickup in The Woodlands. I’ve got a couple of other errands to run too, like picking up an Rx and dropping off a check. If it’s not raining, I am hoping to get another load to the shop.

It doesn’t sound like much when I lay it out, but it is keeping a couple of things moving forward, and it’s picking up some things that have been back-burnered for too long.

Maybe when I pickup the Rx, I’ll check the meat cooler and finally be able to stack some more meat. Hope springs eternal… Stack!

n

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Mon. Feb. 2, 2026 – for the band on the run…

By on February 2nd, 2026 in culture, decline and fall

Cold again. And damp. And there is a chance that it won’t be clear. Clear and sunny really helps. It helped yesterday. I had a few hours of nice enough weather to do some outside work.

I was able to cut the grass in the back yard. I’ve been slowly cleaning up the patio so I can get back to using the shelves and cabinets to store food and supplies. I did a bit more of that before the sun went down. That was followed by some computer time. Not a lot of stuff got done, but I had some gastric issues and didn’t want to be far from home.

Sometimes it be that way.

Today though, I need to get some stuff done. Even if I’m only poking at little things, I have been making slow progress. I just need to keep moving.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

Just keep stacking, just keep stacking… but … remember the reasons why.
nick

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Sun. Feb. 1, 2026 – second month already

By on February 1st, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Cold and cold. Hopefully clear so that it gets a little warmer later. Yesterday didn’t get much warmer. It was 40s and 50sF all day and the breeze was bone chilling.

I did get a couple of things done. Got up at a reasonable time, for me, for a weekend. Did some cleanup. I cleaned a felt hat for me that I picked up a while ago. It’s been in my storage unit since then. Now I’m wearing it. It’s a soft felt packable fedora, with a wider brim than my other ones. Took some work to get the spots off of it but it looks good now. And I cleaned a pair of shoes for resale. Nice Prada driving moccasins. They’re too small for me but look nice after cleaning, reshaping, and conditioning.

Did some other home stuff then did my pickup. It was just down the road so it wasn’t a big commitment. I got three new galvanized steel buckets. Buckets are an important but undervalued prep, and plastic ones will break or degrade and then break. Long term prepping says “you better have some buckets that will last.”

Took a load from storage to the shop too. I’ve still got a lot of stuff in the unit. I made some more room in the shop with some more sorting and condensing, so maybe today I’ll get another load or two taken over. I should do some work on the patio or the driveway here too, but the cold makes it very painful to work outdoors.

No matter what else I do, I’ll find something on the list to chip away at.

Stack something. Learn something. Stay busy.
nick

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Sat. Jan. 31, 2026 – getting cold again..

By on January 31st, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Still cold, and headed colder. Supposed to get a hard freeze this weekend. Yesterday never warmed up much, staying overcast and mid 50sF for most of the day. I expect we’ll start cold and get colder today.

I had a eye doctor appointment in the morning yesterday, early enough that I was fighting my wife for shower access, and yet late enough to fill most of the morning. I did come home and mess around before going out to do pickups. They were not an efficient use of my time or gas as they were widely spaced, and the stuff wasn’t super valuable. Sometimes all your unlucky stacks.

Today the kids are busy, but at least nominally I am not. In fact, I’ll be working the list. Once I get up.

There will be some weather related stuff to do too, I’m sure. Maybe I’ll put a space heater out in the garage. It’s getting pretty cold out there and a freeze might have unfortunate consequences for some of the stuff stored there.

I’m sure I’ll also continue sorting and stacking both at home and the shop.

Stuff isn’t gonna stack itself…

nick

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Fri. Jan. 30, 2026 – Not gonna do it, wouldn’t be prudent…

By on January 30th, 2026 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Cold. Then warmer later. It started mid 30sF yesterday but got all the way to mid 70sF and I expect that today too. It’s really pretty nice by afternoon. The sun and clear sky feels nice.

I didn’t do much in the morning. Some auction and pc stuff, and a bit of housework, but nothing on the list. By the afternoon though, I did get some stuff done. Took some stuff to the shop and then spent a couple of hours sorting and organizing. I’ve started to clear out some of the stuff I just threw down anywhere and make room for the last of the stuff from storage.

I’m sorting stuff for my local consignment auction, and for ebay. I’ve got far too much stuff that will only sell on ebay. I also have some stuff to sell locally by myself. Past time to actually sell some of this stuff.

I’d like to get some money for the stuff so I can STACK!

It’s a conundrum.

nick

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Thur. Jan. 29, 2026 – yada yada yada…

Cold again. Or still. But it did get into at least the mid 50sF yesterday. I took my jacket off but kept my long sleeve shirt on for a while in the afternoon. It would be nice if today got even a little bit warmer, as long as it stays clear. Soon I’ll be wishing I had more cold days to work in the attic…

I spent the morning at the doctor’s office. Details are in yesterday’s comments, but the short story is- more testing. At least with testing we aren’t guessing. Much. Spent the afternoon doing auction stuff. Pickup, sorting, etc. Found a couple of things I didn’t realize I’d moved. Good thing I was too lazy busy to need them during that time.

Dinner was a pork loin roast frozen in 2022. It was tasty, but like most modern pork, too lean. I was careful to get it just barely cooked enough, but it was still a bit dry without the pan juices.

Oh, I captured a mouse in the kitchen too. Saw the little bastage on the counter, trapped him, and got him in a box. Took him outside to meet Mr. Shovel, but he escaped. So I set an electronic trap. I’ve got to do a deep clean now and I still haven’t figured out how he’s getting up to the counter or where he goes. I don’t want vermin in the attic or on the patio or in the garage, but I can’t abide them in the actual house with us. Time to refill all the bait boxes too.

There is always a new thing that needs doing. And I’m the man to do it.

Stack all the things.

nick

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