Month: December 2018

33F and wet according to my sometimes working station.

I really hope it didn’t freeze. I looked at the forecast last night to see if things needed to be covered and it looked like 37F at the lowest all week. Bugger.

Does anyone think that the french mob, having tasted blood, will now fade away? Or will they keep attacking until Macron is done? Did you see some of the stuff he rolled back? Like the increased tax on low income pensioners? The list is nuts.

What do you suppose the british people will do if their only choice is get sold out by their politicians, and essentially remain in the EU? Do they care enough to riot?

What about us? What will finally get us out in the streets?

Lots to think about this week….

n

37F and wet. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

Here we are, one third of the way through December, with Christmas, and the New Year rushing toward us. Even the rhythm of daily posts and elementary school doesn’t help me with my sense of the days speeding by. I can’t help but feel that time is running out, and I’m falling behind.

Maybe it is the deaths of friends this year, coupled with getting older, and the normal end of year introspection. In any case, I think I’ll be happier when the New Year resets my expectations. I hope so anyway.

n

45f and wet this am, but supposed to get some sun later.

Stayed up late last night reading. Finished the 3rd book in Frank Horton’s Borrowed World series. It’s taken the characters a long time (3 books) to get to the point where they are really starting to deal with their situation. Lots of deadly mistakes have been made, but people are toughening up. Good books so far, only a bit of the prepper book ‘info dump’ and a little of the overly specific gear descriptions. It is a prepper manual after all, so that’s really the style. I read and liked his Locker Nine books too. His writing improves with every book. There was even a line of foreshadowing in this last one. Anyway, I only meant to read a little bit and fall asleep, but I spent over an hour and finished the book. I will be reading the rest.

Now it’s time to feed the kids and start my day.

n

47F and dripping wet this am.

We got a BUNCH of rain last night. Official county stations show high 4″s to mid 5″ rainfalls all over the county. Most of it was Northwest, with the least falling in the southeast. Several streams/creeks/bayou feeders have overtopped their banks in outlying areas. That pig is going to be working its way thru the python for a while.

State of the preps this week- dismal.

I bought some plastic bins to use for canned and boxed food on the storage shelves. I have to get back to stacking no matter what the rat situation. I decided the bins were needed because of the spoilage caused by rat urine on the cans. Boxes and pouches will benefit even more. The bins are light weight, and clear-ish. They were still about $10 each. We’ll see how they work.

I harvested 2 oranges from the tree, and one meyer lemon. Not a huge crop.

I bought some rolling shelving carts to help organize all the bins of ebay stuff I have waiting to sell. Wife isn’t happy, but the bins are out of my office and the hallway.

Ebay sales were essentially nothing. I went from a couple thousand or more per month to selling one or two items. This seems to be common to a lot of resellers at the moment. I did sell one item yesterday and one today, but at $20 ea. profit, that won’t pay the bills. Not sure what to do except keep plugging away.

Office cleanup and organizing continues. Christmas prepping continues. Activities are stacking up. Today I have my non-prepping hobby meeting and an end of season soccer party, tomorrow, 2 Christmas parties and a piano recital all overlap. Meatspace is great and all, but it will suck up your time.

So, anyone get any preps done? Anyone feel ready for the holidays?

n

Posting this the night before, but I’m pretty sure it’s warmer and wet.

No idea whether the attack was a sneak attack and one of the most dastardly treacheries of modern time, or a cynical manipulation of American sentiment to get a result the state wanted desperately. I WANT to believe the first, and hope that no one would trade those lives for the emotional appeal. And I want to believe the same on 9-11, decades later. But I get older, and more cynical as time goes by. So I’ll at least allow the possibility that there was more to the story than we were told at the time.

If we can’t know the truth about events that only happened a handful of decades ago, how can we ever hope to know what happened even longer ago than that? (I posit that time must past for the truth to come out, and we have no hope of knowing the truth of anything within our lifetimes. The players have too much vested in the narrative.) the truth may not even be knowable as we all have limited frames of reference. We all ACT like we know it though…

I do know one truth, change is coming.

n

Less cold, a bit drier. 53F this morning.

Scanner already has traffic related to the visitation? Lying in state? Whatever will be going on w/ Former President Bush… I’m not moved. I can’t think of a much fuller life or more appropriate time to leave. I hate the cult of personality and the idea of dynastic families. It’s a good reminder for the proles that there are ‘hidden hands’ moving the pieces.

Time to make the donuts….

n

My neighbors show 40F and 80%RH. That feels really cold to Texans… I know you guys are laughing, but my kids need to wear JACKETS to school! The horror!

Got some stuff done yesterday and the end of the project is finally in sight.

Got a new project getting started, but it should be short and sweet. Should be…

Got Christmas coming like a freight train. Kids have already wrapped a few presents. I’ve been picking up things throughout the year (prepper remember?) but still have stuff to buy and do.

Year end is coming up too, with the built in opportunity for reflection and change.

Do some of that thinking ahead of time too!

n

Cold and wet this am. Still no new battery for my weather station. I feel like some pre-scientific peasant. “Ugg, cold.” On the other hand, weatherunderground shows several of my neighbors reporting 44F and 45F. From sensors in the yard via radio to the house, then uploaded to the internet, then combined onto a zoom-able map in real time, for me to see on my computer after a round trip of hundreds if not thousands of miles…. all pretty near instantaneously. AND NOT provided, provisioned, or purveyed by the government. SF writers got that wrong.

Plenty to do today.

The world continues to hurtle toward the brink…

but my kids need breakfast, clean clothes, and hugs, so I better get busy.

n

Cool and wet today. Still haven’t changed the batteries in my weather station…

I did get some of the Christmas lights up yesterday, some of the yard work done, and the tiniest bit of cleanup done.

I still maintain we are in a period of worldwide rearrangement. I don’t think the EU will survive the stresses on it. The influx of invaders has sealed its fate. South and central american socialist paradises that were paid for by oil have started crumbling. China has expanded until it can’t keep up. The skin of the bubble no longer has anything behind it. Russia…well, who is next in line after Putin, and what do they want? All the countries that were either trying to align with NATO or the EU must be rethinking that… The UK has already voted their desire…

This is the kind of massive change the historically leaves 100 Million dead or dying from sickness, starvation, and war.

Gloomy? Oh heck yes. Look how they treated Churchil. But he was right.

n

57F, only 77%RH, and sunny.

Maybe I’ll get the rest of the Christmas decor up today.

And do some of the cleanup in the driveway, yard, and patio.

Or not.

n