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Month: May 2021

Fri. May 21, 2021 – 04212021? Sorta interesting number…

Cool and part sun, with a breeze. I’m just guessing, but that’s what the weather liars mostly do anyway, only with prettier charts… yesterday was nice. The part sun turned into mostly sunny and the temp stayed reasonable. It was pretty humid though. It was 74F and 88%RH when I went to bed.

Spent yesterday doing some more paper sorting, one pickup, and some other messing around. Had dinner as carryout from a local restaurant. One of our schools had “spirit night” where the restaurant donates 10% of the profit for the night to the school’s charity foundation. The food was ok, and the joint was jumpin’. I’m glad we got the food to go as it was a mad house. It’s actually one of the places I was thinking we might have our ham radio weekly lunch, because it has a large outdoor eating area. It’s mostly an outdoor place in fact. The food was good enough, and I’ll suggest it to the guy who coordinates our lunch meetings. I’d like to start having them in person again.

Daughter 1 is having a birthday dinner today, and we’re going out for sushi. That should be interesting. We’re going to do presents in the morning (a couple) and the rest later tonight. The number of gifts is higher than I expected,but the cost was low. I mostly bought stuff at auction and thrifts over the last year, and I got her craft and science-y stuff. When you spread out the buying, it’s easy to lose track of how many you bought…

We are trying to keep some level of ‘normal’ going for the kids. Rituals are a big part of that for us, so birthdays are a good reason to celebrate.

I’ll be doing some last minute running around to get stuff ready for tonight, I think. She wants fresh chocolate chip cookies, and not a cake, so I’ll be making those, and I don’t have to get dinner together, but fresh flowers would be nice.

Ritual, traditions, family norms. How do you transmit your culture to the next generation? You do the best you can, but your formative events/books/thoughts are not theirs. The schools are not doing it. The service organizations are not doing it. Most of the churches are not doing it. It’s up to you. For me that means sharing books I loved, and movies too. Talking. Being there. Providing a good example. Encouraging a bit of disregard for the rules, and a bit of subversiveness… Attitude first, skills and knowledge second.

And taking care of their worldly needs too, by planning and stacking. Stack it high,

nick

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Thur. May 20, 2021 – slow progress is still progress

Rained all day Wednesday, mostly light drizzle with occasional heavier and lighter moments. Today will probably be similar, with temps in the high 60s or low 70s and more rain. I have plenty to do indoors…

Which is where I spent yesterday. I got a bit more cleaning and organizing done, and sorted paper for a couple hours. I should be able to power through the tabulating and aggregating that I need to do to get the taxes done.

I spent the evening watching a bunch of auctions close, including my “industrial” guy, with several of my lots listed. I was worried about the description on the lots that I was counting on to bring in the most money, but the buyers were smarter than I thought and it was fine. Everything else brought minimal money though. I am definitely seeing lower prices in the auctions now. SOME items, notably store returns and damaged packaging, are doing well, but the normal ‘estate’ stuff and ‘surplus’ stuff is very cheap. Had a chat with one seller and he thinks more people are discovering the auctions and are buying for their own use. It was mainly resellers for a long time. Buying for yourself, you can afford to pay more than a reseller, who has to make money on the item when HE sells it.

The resellers will have to shift gears or find a new supply in order to stay in business if retail buyers keep driving up the prices. I’ve seen it before in the surplus auctions. New money comes in, prices go up, because they are still far below retail and the new money thinks they are great, but eventually the new money stops buying or learns what the price SHOULD be, ie. lower.

The exceptions to the low prices are anything gun related or precious metal related. If it’s been in short supply, the auctions are satisfying the demand with some supply, and people are willing to pay for the privilege. Although I have to say, while there is still some oddball ammo showing up, and it sells well, there isn’t as much as last month. There are VERY FEW guns of any sort coming up lately.

My feeling is, more people are moving into the ‘secondary’ economy, shopping thrifts, estate/garage/yard sales, auctions, and other non-retail options. More people are moving into the ‘secondary’ economy on the sell side too, looking for a side hustle, or as a primary income source, or as just a way to feed their addiction to shopping. I’m seeing far more street vendors around my neighborhood, and in the places I drive through too. If you’ve been in a third world city, you know the ones- cheap flashy stuff to give to a date, flowers, water and sodas or “cocas”, mysterious food hanging from sticks hawked on street corners, clothes or shoes on tables in the parking lot of a closed business… and a lot more food trucks all over town. This is in addition to the used tire shops, the corner fruit stands, and the little kiosk places to do phone unlocking, card loading, vape refills, etc. All the cheap pleasures and necessities of daily life at the lower end of the economy.

We are well on our way down the slope, and yes, there IS ‘a lot of ruin’ in a country, ours especially, but absent something out of left field (benevolent aliens?), we’re on the slope, and the pace seems to be accelerating.

Think hard about what that might really mean for you, and your dependents. Then do some prepping. And stacking. Always stacking.

nick

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Wed. May 19, 2021 – well, that was wet

Had a big storm last night, and we got 1 1/2 inch of rain in very little time. Then it all blew through. No idea what today will be like. Probably won’t be 12 inches of rain…

Got a bunch of errands run, and a bunch of pick ups done yesterday. Spotty rain all over town, but nothing very dramatic during the day.

While I was out in the country, I refilled the tank on my new truck. Initially I was getting 20 mpg, but that quickly dropped. For this first 27 gallons, the computer says ~17 mpg. Miles over gallons, it would be 15mpg, but I don’t know how full it was originally. The dealer’s “full tank of gas” might not be the same as mine, all the way up the filler neck. Or the computer might only count while the vehicle is moving. I tend to leave it running with the doors locked if I’m just jumping out for a minute or three. I always wondered how sophisticated the calculation is. Anyway, given the weight and size of the truck, and the weight and size of my foot on the accelerator, 17mpg is pretty good.

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I’ve noticed that ammo is starting to show up in some of the online stores, and it’s even a tiny bit cheaper than it was last week. If you need some, this might be a good time. Just suck it up regarding the cost. NOT having it could be much more expensive.

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Same goes for all the other needful things. I’m the king of waiting until something is on sale, leveraging coupons, buying in season, and getting lucky, but I have been re-stocking and adding to the stacks without waiting for bargains. The time to slowly build your reserves for the least outlay possible is gone. I think your focus now should be on filling gaps first, then extending the stack, and for getting stuff you’ve been putting off as ‘not really needed’ or ‘too nuts to buy that’. If body armor fits that description, AR500 Armor has some on sale and in stock.

You’re on your own for meds for your fish, but there are advertisers on Rawles site, and other places online. Aesop reminds everyone that wound care takes a LOT of supplies and they may be in short supply (see Venezuela for a current example). Think case quantity on some of the stuff. I’ll second his first hand knowledge with some of my own. I’ve mentioned it before.

Bacitracin and other antibiotic cremes are crazy cheap when you consider it’s a lifesaving tech that even kings couldn’t buy 100 years ago. I don’t think a sealed tube will degrade significantly in years, but again, VERY CHEAP at the moment. It would be crazy not to have a bunch of tubes on hand. Anti-fungals too. Think about doing a bunch of hard sweaty work, and not having access to running water. Last time I was in Cancun, that was the situation for everyone outside of the city. Athlete’s foot, jock itch, “feminine itching”, etc will seriously degrade your effectiveness.

I’m not a doctor, even of Education, but I have first hand experience with silvadine cream (silver sulfadiazine) on burns and through the skin abrasions. I would get some and have it on hand, if I was planning for a future with degraded access to medical care. Ebay and the Israelis might be your friend there.

Standard OTC meds are on the shelves in giant bottles. Get some. Aspirin and acetaminophen and ibuprofen and benadryl to start. Those are the ones that will keep you in the fight. Add the comfort meds (snivel meds) like cold and flu remedies, allergy treatments, heartburn, etc. after you’ve got the lifesaving covered.

I stocked up at the beginning of this mess, reasoning that the supply chain might break. Didn’t need much more than ordinary usage, and I don’t think supplies got particularly short, but it was nice to have.

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Don’t forget cleaning and hygiene supplies either. Food borne illness can kill you. We should all be pretty well stocked at this point, but if not, stack it up.

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Get whatever your fur babies will need too, like heartworm and flea treatments. Food for them as well, there might not BE any table scraps…

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Huh, turns out I did a real post after all. There’s plenty more on the list of stuff you need or might want, but think about what sort of things you don’t have in the cabinet, because you can just pop down to the store if you needed that. Then get some.

And stack it all high.

n

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Tues. May 18, 2021 – let’s keep the party going, comrade.

Weather system is supposed to be all over the area, but who knows? We got a nice break in the overcast and some weird yellow-green light at sunset, so I’ve got no idea what to expect out of today.

Spent yesterday doing mostly cleaning and paperwork sorting. Did a bit of organizing in the food storage shelves. Found some popped cans that I’ll look at today, I think they were pears. I still need to do a bit more organizing and get my new can storage FIFO sections assembled. It’s always something.

Today will be more of the same. Office, paperwork, cleaning, and a couple of auction pickups too. If it’s raining, that will have some challenges. If it’s nice and dry, I’ll take the pickup truck for convenience.

I still haven’t taken a load to the estate auctioneer yet. Although he and the industrial guy both have stuff that hasn’t been listed yet, so I’m not missing a cycle, it would be nice to get some more stuff out of here. I might have to do some more ebay listings.

The other daughter has a birthday on Saturday, so I need to start getting ready for that too. She’s been surly and out of sorts lately, I’m hoping it’s just temporary, and not the start of the next phase. Summer will purely suck if it doesn’t improve. I did find some girl’s boxing gloves at the Goodwill outlet, and we spent a few minutes hitting the heavy bag the other night. It’s good exercise but not great self defense training. Still fun though and hitting things usually improves people’s outlook.

I don’t see anything changing much for the better in the last few weeks, so I’m still thinking we’re gonna have a violent summer, filled with ‘incidents’. The masks are starting to come off, literally and figuratively. Time to be like Santa and make a list of who’s been naughty and nice, while trying to stay off of other peoples’ lists.

And it’s time to gather and store resources– stuff, skills, friends. Stack them up.

nick

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Mon. May 17, 2021 – let’s get this party started

Possibly rainy and wet, with some heat and humidity tossed in. At least is was fairly cool yesterday, mainly because of the rain…

Stayed in and messed around all day. Did auction stuff mostly, then played a game with the kids before bed. Played Catan again. It’s a fun little game, and we’re still learning the ins and outs, but at this point I’d say “give it a try” if you like that sort of thing.

I won a bunch of household stuff in the weekend auctions, so I’ll be picking that stuff up all week. And doing paperwork. And listing some things, and dropping some things off for sale.

I feel stiff, but most of the soreness and infirmity has worked its way out. I bought some ice/heat therapy packs, the inversion table, and even a massage mat for my office chair to try to avoid another week of treatment or pain. May come a day when easy access to the treatment and meds I used this time isn’t available. I better practice ‘self care’ before then so I can still get help or try something else if it doesn’t work.

That is the core of prepping- see a possible problem in the future, and do what you can to ameliorate the problem now. It’s not a new idea, “a stitch in time saves nine (stitches)” and “for want of a nail the kingdom was lost” and “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure” are old memes that convey the idea quite well.

Of course, there are some others that capture the human side of the equation very well like “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink” and “there’s none so deaf as those who will not hear” and even “there’s nought so queer as folks.”

Figure out what you’re missing, and stack it high.

nick

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Sun. May 16, 2021 – lots to do, little motivation, still sore

Warm and damp, chance of rain. Didn’t rain yesterday, although it felt pretty dang humid. Threatened to rain all day, with only local and occasional clearing skies. Cooler than normal for this time of year, seems like. Makes me wonder about how hot this year will be.

Did my weekend ‘home’ stuff, did my pickups, did some other small errands. Gas at Costco was $2.45/gal. It was $2.65/gal across the street at the big HEB. HEB usually has very competitive prices, so I expect they are typical or low for the area. Didn’t do paperwork. If it’s going to rain today, I’ll do it today. I didn’t want to waste any good outdoors days.

Blueberry bushes *cough* sticks *cough* are still ripening. Apple tree has leaves. Peach tree has leaves. Grape vines have died way back. Initially they were leafing out to within about 6 feet of the end, but now the old growth is all dead and the only leaves are near the roots, on new growth. Citrus in pots set a couple more fruits, and this time I put bird net over them and the fruits are still there. Citrus in the ground is dead. I had hoped, but the bark is coming off the grapefruit, and the orange is dry and brittle. The Meyer lemon wanted to come out of the ground when I bumped it with the lawnmower. Damn. Damn. Triple damn.

Wretched tomatoes are FOUNTAINING out of the ground. They’re like giant weeds, huge and spreading. The fruit sure is tasty, and Child1 was puzzled by the red color and the taste. She’s never had anything but store bought, that she can remember, and these are SO MUCH better. I admit to some jealousy at how easy my wife has had it with the tomatoes.

Given my proven (lack of) gardening skills, either she needs to take over completely or I need to keep stacking cans. Funny thing, the other night when child was asking the pointed questions about food and post-apoc survival, my wife asserted that we would plant a much bigger garden in the yard, not just the raised beds, but that the soil wouldn’t be as good so we couldn’t expect great yields. She’s been thinking about it, clearly. That was almost as shocking as anything she’s said since the lockdown started. I need more seeds. Lots more.

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I’m wondering if FedGov and local forces know something they’re not telling us. In the last week I got invitations to continuing ed classes through both my local cop volunteer group, and through the national public safety group I belong to for additional counter-IED training. The classes are in June and July so I guess the threat isn’t imminent, but still, weird timing.

I signed up for both, one local in person, and the other one a webinar. Demand was high as they filled almost immediately. Things that make you go “Hmmmm”.

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If you needed more reasons to stack it high, I hope you found them. Let us know how your garden grows… and… Keep stacking.

nick

————(((((((((((((((((PING)))))))))))))))————- DadCooks, welfare check. Drop me an email if you aren’t feeling sociable… flandrey @ aol. com

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Sat. May 15, 2021- tax day, again.

Gnu only knows what the weather will be like today. Hot and humid? Cooler and wet? All I know is that we’ll be getting some weather, whether we like it or not.

It stayed moderate yesterday, and mostly overcast, with periods of sun, mild wind, and even once a short misty spritz of drops on the windshield. That would be nice for today too.

Did some of my errands. Failed in my mission to pick up the inversion table. I’ll give that another try today. I’ve got some boots and a bike rack to pick up too. Then more work, including the paperwork I’ve been avoiding, and only doing in dribs and drabs.

My back and neck were OK throughout yesterday and should be today if I don’t re-aggravate them. One more visit to the bone cracker and I should be past this episode. I’m very grateful that we are grid up and the benefits of civilization are here for us. Skilled practitioners, pain relief drugs, and the infrastructure to provide them both will probably be with us for a while, lifetimes if we’re lucky. Getting by without them is possible, but not easy. Lot’s of things in this life that are just like that too. Possible, but not easy.

I’m not looking forward to any time when they are not. Plan for alternatives. Stack you what can…

nick

—–(((((((((((((PING))))))))))))))—— Dadcooks, welfare check. You doing OK?

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Fri. May 14, 2021 – nothing clever to say

Cool and damp, but no precip in the forecast. Got none yesterday either. It was cool and overcast all day, which made the driving around a bit nicer.

Swung by and did a pickup. Stopped at Microcenter and got my free microSD card (32gb, just for stopping in, second one this year, iirc.) Went by my secondary to unload and also unloaded the little freezer to my neighbor. He’s revealing a bit more every day we talk, and he’s a very like minded individual. The freezer will go on a stand-alone solar system and be filled with harvested meat. He started from the opposite end of the spectrum politically, but we’re pretty close on a bunch of things. Plus he’s got chickens and is working on an aquaculture scheme… I must be pretty well camouflaged, as it’s taken a really long time, and some pretty clear demonstration of LMI’d-ness on my part to crack his reticence. I think the change came when I actually brought him a box of 223 for a project he mentioned. He declined the box but has been a bit more open ever since. MEATSPACE baby! Help people when you can.

Went to the chiropractor on my way home. Good progress is being made. I’m hoping one or two more visits and I’ll be back to normal. We’ll see how I feel today whether I go in, or wait a couple of days. I bought an inversion table thing to try too, so maybe with some stretching, some chi gong and tai chi exercises, and some decompression, I can avoid feeling this way. No idea where I’ll put the inversion thing. Maybe in the yard…

Gotta get body, soul, and mind all back together. And stack some more. Daughter One is reading a book about a collapse, called “Rule of Three”. She’s much more aware now, and asked some pointed and specific questions at dinner about our prep level. “No, I didn’t have to run out and get chlorine when I heard about the coming shortage.” “We need it for prepping drinking water!” “Yeah, but I don’t have to go OUT when we’ve already got some….” “Oh.” Just to be sure though, I think I’ll pick up some more while Costco has it in stock.

And then I can keep stacking.

nick

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Thur. May 13, 2021 – Friday the thirteenth is on a Thursday this month…

Cooler, but supposed to clear up. Got some misty light drizzle yesterday, with mostly overcast all day. Today the map is showing clear. It was 64F when I went to bed last night. That’s way down from where we were just a couple of days ago.

Drove across town twice, and the first trip was a total waste. The seller reneged on the auction and wouldn’t release any items to the buyers. The estate auction company was very upset, but not as much as me when they called to give me the news as I was pulling up to the pickup location. Wasted over an hour of my life and gas. No idea what the auction company and the seller will do, they had a contract. Seller thought the prices were way too low. Very strange all around.

The other pickup was parts for my daughter’s closet organizing project, and some light bulbs (really LED replacement tubes for some 8 ft fixtures I can’t get new bulbs for.)

In other selling news, the guy who bought most of my Pokemon cards hasn’t paid yet, and the auctioneer thinks he’s not gonna. She’ll go back to the second highest bidder, but they don’t have to buy at that price. The cards may end up going back into another auction. Not super news, as I was already thinking of ways to spend the money…

I tried to get a Costco Instacart order yesterday but couldn’t make the available delivery times work. I’m expecting it this morning. Limit one on Charmin Blue, and several things on my “buy it again” list were out of stock too. No meat on this purchase, it was all too expensive. I’ve got room in the freezers, but the price hasn’t been right for a while.

Oh, and the new freezer is cold, so it’s time to work on flipping that.

Tax time too, so I have the rest of my recordkeeping to finish. Back pain makes my brain sluggish though, so I’ve only been doing low value, low complexity stuff. Maybe I’ll get more done today.

I’ve certainly got stacking to do, and I’m sure you do too. Get busy.

nick

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Wed. May 12, 2021 – still sore, still got stuff to do

Well, yesterday never did get stormy, and was partly sunny for most of the day. The 40mph wind was cool enough, when it blew, but the rest of the time it was a bit on the stifling side. Temps dropped 10+ degrees while I was cooking dinner and the wind was variable and gusting hard, but the rain held off. Today is probably going to be similar with a bit more chance of rain.

Yesterday I met with the new auctioneer’s rep and we’re good to proceed. I’ve got to get a space either cleared, or in a neighbor’s space to set up the pallets so we can get some listed. It’s back breaking work and I’m in no condition for it today.

Went to the chiropractor and got some stuff to move. Will try to get in today too.

Went through some stuff in my storage unit, getting ready to take some bins to the other auction.

Today I need to do a Costco order or run, and a couple of auction pickups. More supplies for the house, and not resale. I can fit it in my Expy if it’s raining, if not I’ll use the pickup just because it’s easier.

Then pickup child 2 from school mid-afternoon. Both kids are doing STAAR testing this week. That is the big Texas progress evaluation test. In reality the questions are whacked out. NO idea what they are trying to evaluate, other than reading comprehension. All the questions come down to that. Still, you can’t improve if you don’t measure, but it would be nice if they were measuring the right things.

Anyone waiting in line to buy gasoline because of this pipeline issue, is measuring their preparedness, and if they’re in line, they are coming up short. The general recommendation for storing gas is one full tank for your bug out vehicle, or one week of disaster usage for your generator, whichever is more. The amount is a bit arbitrary, but there are reasons and rationales for it. Too tired to list them atm, left as an exercise for the reader. Think ‘the amount of time it takes to get outside help into the area’ and ‘leapfrog the locusts’ on the way out of town. It’s also a good example of why people suggest always filling up at 1/2 tank instead of running dry (which is not something I routinely do, because I’ve got MORE than 1 full tank stored.)

In any case, you and they might have some stacking to do.

nick

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