Hot and humid. Record hot? Maybe. Maybe not. Pretty dang hot though. Yesterday was well into the 100s, even in the shade.
I got part way through cutting the grass in the back yard, ran out of battery. That is the downside to electrics, not being able to refuel and continue with minimal interruption. You either need to wait, or exchange the battery. On the other hand, if I’d paid attention, I’d have pulled the battery and put it on the charger at the end of the last use. It’s more than enough to do the back and the front most weeks.
While waiting for the battery to charge or some sense to break into my skull, I fixed a couple of the gas string trimmers I’ve had sitting around. I usually use the electric one, but that is broken at the moment, and I wanted to finally take a good look at some that I’d gotten cheap, but just put to the side for later. Well, at 100F, later decided to come. Air, spark, fuel. Which aren’t you getting? Solve that and the thing will run. On the small gas yard tool engines, it is usually the air filter is so clogged the thing can’t get air, or the gas lines have fallen off or rotted in the tank, or the primer bulb has failed. I had one with a bad primer bulb AND rotted hoses. I had one with rotted hoses. And I have one with a bad spark plug wire. I replaced hoses and filters, and swapped stuff around until I had two that ran. Popped on the trimmer head, and… it was fubar’d. So I didn’t get the yard trimmed. Oh well, maybe today. I did feel pretty good about getting two of them running. Even if the attachment was broken.
I took a break from working in the heat and did pickups.
Picked up a bunch of building materials for the BOL and the attic here. Chatted with the auctioneer, mentioned I was looking to make some crawdad traps, and he said he had one on the shelf I could have. Sweet! Now I’ve got a real one to use as a model for my DIY effort, and I think I’ll buy a couple more as they are only ~$10 with free delivery. I’ll let you know if I successfully sample nature’s bounty…
Scored another chest freezer (actually two) in last night’s auction. Half off isn’t bad. New in box too. They are only 7 cu ft, but that is a good size for the BOL, to run on battery backup or solar, and I’m unlikely to lose both at the same time, so I wouldn’t lose all my frozen food to a mechanical issue, like I might with one big freezer.
Still didn’t get to lowes or Costco. Today for sure. I need PEX and fittings and a variety of hardware for the BOL, and I need to do my normal Costco buys. I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time getting to the store.
In the wider world, political violence seems to be increasing. Our own situation is getting more precarious. Groups are now soliciting the murder of Supreme Court justices. No other way to look at the offer of “bounties” for real time location info on them. They’ll claim it was just to harass them and ‘protest’ but it will get someone killed. They’ve already tried once.
Food insecurity and price inflation is on everyone’s lips this week. There are people saying it will get better later this year, and better after that. But there are plenty saying it will be longer than that and far worse. I’m stacking food. But then you all know that by now.
I’m looking at supply chain for construction and maintenance stuff and I’m stacking that too.
I am even buying new underwear. I bought a lot of it at the same time, and so I have a lot of it that is all wearing out at the same time too. Time to do something about that. That is one risk with one-time, or bulk purchases. The stuff will either expire, or wear out at about the same time, and you have a bigger whack to replace it. Better to spread purchases out in time and replace them on a staggered schedule too. Real Life ™ doesn’t always work out that way though, and better to have it than not.
Clothing is not something that has been hard to get, since our current run of prosperity started decades ago. But specific items might be out of stock or unavailable in the future. If it’s been a while since you bought basics, you might want to evaluate the condition of your drawers. 😉
And if called for, stack it up.
nick