mid 70s and humid- probably [74F and 99%RH]
I did get some stuff done Monday and Tuesday. I’ve got plenty more to do though.
It seems like the list is neverending just as a homeowner, add dad and family duties, and there isn’t much prepping time left, nor civic engagement or hobbies.
Forget about working 🙂
Still, I’m chipping away at it. Today is my ham group lunch and it’s near my house so I’m going. The bands were pretty noisy last night, even more than my local noise problem. Some shortwave was making it through. Alex Jones had a good signal, even better than Cuba and the religious nuts. Not much I was interested in hearing though.
There was some other ham news, in that the FCC ruled that the most popular prepper handie talkie could no longer be sold or advertised in the US after 10-1-19, the Baofang UV5 and it’s variants. There are technical reasons, having to do with power levels, and not blocking certain frequencies. RBT liked a more capable version, which I don’t think is affected by the ban. I didn’t mention it earlier, mainly because I didn’t expect it to be enforced, and there are alternatives. I did order a couple last week, mainly because I had projects in mind and just hadn’t gotten around to it. What has happened in the past with restrictions on radios is that the maker adds a few resistors to differentiate models for different places, and the community figures out what to change to allow more functionality anyway. We’ll see how the whole thing plays out. It does point out that it’s not just guns and ammo that are useful tools, and can be regulated out of existence. It will still be legal to own and use the radios, when used within the limits of existing law.
It makes you wonder what might be next? Body armor is almost certainly going to be regulated or banned. Grow lights are high on my banned soon list, as they are poorly made, outrageous RF radiators, and typically mislabeled. That they are used by dopers is a strike too (especially now that the state is getting into production). Water filters? Solar panel controllers? Reloading gear? (omg, he had an ammunition factory in his den!!111!!1) Small machine tools? Certain polymers? Rainwater collection hardware? Remember that they got rid of bump stocks by redefining them to be machine guns, in defiance of decades of their own precedent.
Certain medicines and chemicals are probably high on the list, and some books too. I’ve not tried looking, but I’ve been told that there is almost no written material available on the cultivation or use of poppies, despite that being widespread in the past…
Supplies can dry up in a heartbeat. If there is something you think you can’t live without, or that you’ve put off purchasing but think will make a difference, don’t wait too long.
n
(fish meds, I’ve got fish and they might get sick, and I’ve put it off for a long time. I think that time has come.)