Cool and clear, I hope. National map has us on the edge of a rainy area. Usually the edge misses us. I would like to get stuff done without getting rained on.
I spent some more time at my secondary location doing clean up and throwing out stuff. One of the things I un-buried was a shelving unit for my nearby storage unit. I’ll be setting that up today if the rain holds off. That will get some of my ebay stuff out of the house, without it being very far away. Farther than I’d prefer, but keeping it here is not an option at this time. Room needs to be made for GS cookies.
Yep, cookie season is almost here. We thought it would be fully online this year, but I guess not. Soon I’ll have hundreds of boxes of cookies in my foyer and living room. Few of them for me, though.
My auction pickup yesterday was two ham radios. Early 80s, solid units. One was bringing crazy money on ebay. I’ve got some work to do cleaning them up a bit and hopefully doing a little bit of testing. Even as just a ‘parts’ machine, it should bring >$1100, which is nuts. I am selling it, and not keeping it. Need the money, have radios… In fact, I’m toying with the idea of doing an auction in March of all the stuff I’d normally take to the hamfest. I’ll talk to my local auctioneer and see what he thinks.
I’ve got a pickup in Conroe today, it’s stuff for building antennas. I’m hoping to leverage some collapsible flagpoles into decent antennas. They are always in that particular auction and go relatively cheaply.
There has been some discussion in various places regarding alternate comms and news sources. Alex Jones led the way by having his show on shortwave for years. Say what you will about him, a few of his darts have hit the board, and he was deplatformed before it was even a word. He’s still around though. I’m sure his shortwave show contributes to that. In general, I thought the standard prepper recommendation to own a shortwave radio was not particularly useful. The main broadcasters are religious based or state propaganda organs. That said, many of the church people do news and talk too, and it’s possible to learn stuff from propaganda. Given the crackdown on free speech in the US, I’m moving shortwave radio up the list a couple of notches. Lots of good info about shortwave radios and listening on youtube. (yes, evil youtube. support the content creators that are making a living or living their dream on the platform. Use patreon or whatever the creators like, and run adblockers to starve the beast.)
Compromise (or at least the appearance of ‘going along to get along’) is going to be the word-o-the day for a long time. We need to maintain our ability to act, to support those that need support, and we need to get THROUGH this and out the other side, to wherever that may be. There are times when that is not going to look very pretty. I’m sure my tolerance for the necessary levels of compromise will vary and there may come a point where I can’t do it. But given what that would cost me, the current plan is pull back, pull in, and abide. You may evaluate the situation and come to a different conclusion. I may come to a different conclusion at some point too. But I intend to survive this as intact as possible, and I’m PLANNING and provisioning to do that.
Stack it high. Stack it in a bunch of small piles scattered all over. Stack it wherever you can. But STACK up some resources, friends, and knowledge.
nick