Month: March 2019

67F and a bit grey. Never did rain yesterday, here anyway. Got hot and muggy though.

Had several dreams last night that woke me up. One of them was a good subject for today’s post. If only I could remember what it was… I remember it being great 🙂

WRT education, healthcare, government, or big business, as they grow there is more room for non-productive people. They then use burdensome regulation to keep out leaner newcomers, and ultimately shift the cost of the nonproductive to other payers, like the .gov or taxpayers. It eventually comes down to very few producers supporting a giant pile of unproductive people in makework positions. This is only sustainable as long as money that is unrelated to the core of what the organization does keeps coming in (ie. cheap loans, financial engineering games, subsidies, etc)

With companies, the market and bankruptcy proceedings used to reset the organization to a more productive state. With governments, tax revolts or everyone moving away would do the trick. Our federal .gov has grown without limit, and few can escape it physically. Eventually there will be a tax revolt. Cultural shifts and market forces are unlikely (private industry paying better than .gov, or .gov becoming too uncool for people to enter it.)

Some plants you need to prune to keep them productive, and organizations are much the same.

n

71F and saturated this morning. Forecast calls for rain.

Woke up dreaming of a bomb attack on a theatre. Not the most pleasant way to wake up.

Slept in a bit, but the time change makes it look later. Kids are home from school for Spring Break this week. My wife decided to take the week off too, so I’m not alone with the miscreants. I will be able to get out of the house and do some things. I’ll think of it as a working vacation. Yeah, that’s it.

n

73F and 87%RH

Slept late. Looks later due to time change and that this blog runs on Eastern time.

While the DST change is inconvenient, and might not make sense everywhere, it does make sense in most places. I lived in Arizona where we didn’t change and it was a bit of a pain.

Time ZONES are an interesting story, mostly the fault/effort of one man. When you look at the jagged and strange edges of the zones they don’t make sense. But when you know that they encompassed the end point for one of the different railroads, suddenly it does make sense. Just one of the ways infrastructure and forgotten decisions continue to influence us decades later.

n

(agreed that animals don’t understand time changes. I was gonna lead with that observation, but it got covered yesterday…)

Writing this Friday night, and I’m guessing it will still be warm tomorrow (today.) Forecast calls for rain too.

Today I have my non-prepping monthly hobby meeting, to be cut short so I can attend a training class for Active Shooter response. The class is accredited and taught by an accredited deputy. Free, with a light lunch, courtesy of the same Constable’s office that did the CPA program I attended. This is the same training they provide to any group, church, or business in their service area, for free.

No kiddie sportsball this weekend, as we’re headed into Spring Break week. I’m not going anywhere this year. Well, we’ll go to the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show one day. I’m not gonna be risking my neck on the ski slope though.

So, early start and busy until mid afternoon. Try not to burn the place down while I’m away….

n

70F and sopping wet. At least that’s what the station says. Yikes.

Well, it’s Friday again, and despite the title the week flew by. Feels like it should be Tuesday or Wednesday.

The world political and social order continues to unravel. What are you doing about it?

I’m stacking skills, gear, and people.

In the garden the pruned grape vines are leafing out. Small but there. The Meyer Lemon has a heavy flower load, which should mean a bumper crop. The potted citrus is also developing flowers. The orange and grapefruit trees seem to have survived the cold. Another couple of weeks will tell us for sure. The peach is budding, as are the apples. This weeks freeze should be the last, so it’s time to get some stuff in the ground.

Added to the food storage pile. Added to the water storage capability. Still have to clean and sterilize my new small tank though. Haven’t seen any evidence of rats in a while, maybe I’ve finally caught a break.

Time to rotate and refresh my main medical bags, and to organize my deep stocks. I think everything is fine, except the tape and vet wrap. The adhesive gets weird as they age.

I’ve got a Response to Active Shooter class this weekend, and the city PD program will continue for 9 weeks. Both of these fall into the ‘meeting people’ category.

I’ve had lunch with a ham group now two weeks running. Very diverse group with lots of expertise in different areas. Nice folks too. That will overflow into skills as well as people. There is a bit of crossover with my non-prepping hobby as well.

I got a check for some maintenance work and I have more work scheduled, so at least some money is coming in. Ebay continues to be weak but may be picking up.

No one I talk to is optimistic about economic or social issues. This has the potential to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is Not Good ™.

So what have you done? And since winter happened, what did you do that worked? Success stories are great, even for minor triumphs….

n

55F and not quite saturated, if the station can be believed this morning…. [added- sure enough, it’s 55F outside]

Woke up thinking about the hypocrisy of the left, especially as it has to do with culture and art. Someone is offended by male genitalia on display, carved in marble, and they are a religious nutter, and should be mocked and driven from the public sphere. But if someone objects to a word used in a book 150 years ago, they are filled with totally understandable fury on behalf of the downtrodden and oppressed and we must ‘burn all the things!’ And burn anyone who would defend that as art.

Spielberg and Lucas want their movies to be considered art, but they will change and revise them to meet the ever-changing morality of the left (Greedo shoots first.)

2LiveCrew’s obscenity is protected artistic expression, but Mark Twain’s clever words are unacceptable and must be expurgated, lest someone be crushed by the oppressive weight of western culture.

Children are fully formed adults, with ideas worthy of serious consideration, but the long form of a word they use themselves is something they should never see. They can make their own decisions about particular types of surgery, but can’t be exposed to ideas that haven’t been sanitized.

Women can only be free sexually when they are willing to engage freely in the most demeaning acts WITH MEN.

The list goes on and on. The hypocrisy and double standard getting more and more egregious every day. Somewhere there is a breaking point, a point where the whole culture is repudiated, and we’re getting closer…

n

35F and 45%RH? Possible. But the furnace is running like crazy. [added- actual! and sunny with clear blue sky too]

Well, my CPA class kicked off last night and it was a lot of fun. Very diverse group of ~100 people, ~50 in the Tuesday class, and the same in the Thursday class. Naturally, there were a lot of retirees. Retirees tend to dominate any of the civic things I’ve been involved in. More time on their hands, and interest in the community I guess. Quite a few people heard about the class thru social media or a news report and said, “Oh, that sounds neat!” Wide spectrum of occupations from grad student to trucker, to police hopefuls, and family of cops.

For the pursuit driving, we just got to ride in the vehicles while the instructors went through the course. The other program, we actually drove with an instructor coaching. Still pretty impressive. The city standardized on Ford Explorers with the police package. They handle shockingly well. Very agile, very fast, very sticky. You can do a J turn with them, which I’d never attempt in my Expedition. I asked and they are pursuit rated. The evaluation team liked them for their roomy interior vs. cars.

The defensive tactics part was a bit of a disappointment, but did demonstrate the difficulty of choosing appropriate force level for response to differing threats. There was some discussion of lawful use of force, force escalation, and why tasers aren’t the panacea people think. No one got tased though.

Interesting night, and I’m looking forward to the next class.

Oh, I also learned the DEA, FBI, and another national 3 letter agency run CPA programs in Houston… I’ve got some googling to do 🙂

n

30F and 70%RH. Frost.

I trusted wu and didn’t cover my citrus. Because I’m lazy. And it was cold. And the cold hurts me. And I’m lazy. Damn.

Woke up this morning dreaming I’d become some sort of politician. I was stumping at far right militia training camps. Promised if they’d join me, they wouldn’t have to lose their souls. Weird, huh. The way politicians always lie.

I have my CPA class tonight, so I’ll be occupied from late afternoon until about 8:30.

Until then, have at it.

n

37F’ing degrees. Wow. And damp.

Sleepy family needs to get up and ready,

more later.

—————————————————————————————–

ok, it’s later.

Still sore from my dancing exploits. Limbo contest at almost 53 years of age is a bit more than I was ready for. It does point out how we [I] tend to lie to ourselves about our physical conditioning…

This is why we prep–

23 people killed by tornadoes that ripped through Alabama and Georgia, destroyed homes and left over 40,000 without power

At least 23 people were killed when tornadoes struck eastern Alabama and Georgia on Sunday afternoon
Search for the missing continues into the night as rescuers comb through ‘catastrophic’ damage
Local media outlet reports that one of the fatalities was an eight-year-old girl in Beauregard, Alabama
Around 40,000 people have been left without power in Alabama and Georgia

Disaster can strike at any time. If it misses you, you can still be a help to your neighbors and community.

Tornadoes [fires, floods] and their destruction, are also why you should have some preps outside your home. Ideally separated from you by some distance, but at least in a shed or garage.

n

53F and damp. Overcast.

Slept late today. I don’t think I’ve slept that late in years. Still feel tired. And sore all over from dancing. I’m not in the shape I thought.

Time for breakfast.

n