Cool here in Houston, tornado recovery mode in the city near my new BOL. Our local weather has been crazy variable this past week, so I’ve no idea what today will be like. USUALLY, I’d say cool and clear, warming later in the day. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. 50F when I went to bed.
Spent the day at home doing not as much as I’d like to have done. Even fell asleep, despite getting a whole 5 hours of sleep at night. I’m beginning to suspect I need more sleep than I’m getting 😉
Today I’m driving up to the BOL to check on things, meet with the septic service, and possibly meet with the slab repair guy. I want to meet the slab guy, but he hasn’t committed to a time yet. Hence my waffling on staying up there overnight. If I have to I will, so that I can meet the guy on Friday. I’m sure I’ll find plenty to do to fill my time. Painting, tree trimming, measuring and drawing, or yard work all come to mind for diversion and fun…
On the way up, I’ll stop and do two auction pickups. One is a huge trove of scanners and some related parts, the other is just a light fixture for the new place. I’m saving only $20 on the fixture, but I’ll be going right by the pickup anyway, and every bit helps.
I went to Home Depot and Lowes last night and was blown away by the increase in prices. I was specifically looking for fencing, an antenna support pole (more fencing), and gutters. OMFG. Fencing and plumbing parts are priced through the roof. And 8 ft 2×4 lumber was over $8 a stick. I don’t know how anyone is doing building or remodeling with prices like that. I guess with all the free money, if you’re financing anyway, a couple extra hundred on your monthly payment is doable… until it isn’t. I’ll be checking out a couple of the secondary building material stores around me looking for bargains for the new place. More secondary economy. And I’ll be hitting the old faithfuls- habitat for humanity reStores.
I think you’ll need to be a bit of a scrounger to keep moving forward in the coming downturn. Knowing how to do it yourself, or fix it yourself will be important too, and knowing someone ELSE who could do those things won’t hurt. Being that someone else might be a good place to be…
Stack up some skills. Stack up what you need to practice those skills. Stack up nodes in your network.
Stack.
nick