09:48 – It was 39.3F (4C) when I took Colin out at 0645 this morning, sunny and with a stiff breeze. We have the air conditioning on, so the house temperature overnight had fallen to 67F (19.5C), which is a bit cool for me. We won’t bother to turn the heat on, since the house will warm up during the day. With spring temperatures as they are, we won’t bother running heat or air until things warm up enough to make it worth running AC.
We got a bunch of chemical bottles filled yesterday, with a bunch more to do today and the rest of this coming week. For now, we’re building stock of shelf-stable chemicals in preparation for the busy time in late summer and early fall. For example, Barbara just finished filling 240 bottles of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) tablets, which are shelf-stable for years. We keep much smaller quantities of the less stable chemicals on hand, making them up only as need to build kits on the fly.
We also have a fair amount of bulk food that needs to be repackaged. Last week, Barbara brought home 50-pound (22.7 kilo) bags of white rice, white sugar, and white bread flour from Costco. Until now, we’ve been repackaging that kind of stuff in PET bottles with oxygen absorbers, but I think we’ll do this batch in one-gallon 7-mil LDS foil-laminate Mylar bags, again with oxygen absorbers. Packed that way, the rice and sugar will remain good indefinitely, and the white bread flour for at least 10 years and probably 20.
I’m kind of following the French election. AP would be amusing if they weren’t so evil. They consistently describe Macron, who’s ultra-left, as a mainstream “centrist” candidate, and Le Pen, who’s moderate left, as “hard right”. They wouldn’t know a right-winger if he bit them in the ass, which may very well happen, and a lot sooner than they’d believe possible.