Open thread. Continue reading →
Read the comments: 72 Comments
Open thread. Continue reading →
Hot and humid, but it did get below 80F last night, so there is that. My neighborhood got hammered by rain in the afternoon, over an inch in places, but the rest of Houston got little. I was out driving and could see the thunderstorm cell in the distance, and figured it was near my house. It was. Some of the local water level monitoring stations alerted due to how much rain fell so quickly. One consequence is that I couldn’t cut the (wet) grass Monday or Tuesday. Not getting “Yard of the Month” any time soon.
Did some of my errands. Dumped the debris I brought home from the BOL. Checked out some stuff I saw in the dumpster when I picked up some auction items a couple of days ago. It looked like cedar lumber, from a pergola or outdoor shelter kit. I have a need for some cedar lumber for repairs at the BOL dockhouse, so I went back for a closer look. Unfortunately not cedar. Lots of interesting stuff in the dumpster, from a big auction house that does mostly larger store returns. I don’t need any projects, but I might need materials for projects I’ve already got. Keep a flexible mind when it comes to sourcing during the upcoming unpleasantness. “Scrounger” was a necessary team member in some very “resource constrained” environments. On a more general note, knowing where to get stuff, when stuff is hard to get, is very useful.
I’m thinking about some stuff, how it goes together, and how to teach or pass it on. Currently I’m at Reuse, Repair, Repurpose.
And of course, stack it high.
nick
Hot and humid. But are we finally getting past summer? Nope. Houston hot and swamp humid. It even got to 101F in the shade before I left the BOL.
I slept late, was half crippled when I did get up, and did plumbing and cleanup for the rest of the day. Then headed home, with one stop for an auction pickup- for kitty litter for my emergency toilet. I hope the 40 pound box lasts the rest of my life. I had a box here in Houston, but I’m building up our preps up north too. Hence the need for more litter. The clumping kind makes handling the plastic bag lining the bucket easier, and less likely to be messy.
Got an estimate for the first phase of the electrical work. Seems reasonable, and if he can stick to the schedule we talked about last week, I may have a celebratory slap up next week when it’s all in. Fingers crossed, because if that happens on time, then the septic can go in on time, and that would be all three majors on the calendar…
Today will be more of the usual… some pickups, some driving, some kidstuff, some home stuff. Or maybe 3 of 4.
Or maybe just 2 out of three ain’t bad.
Stack it up.
n
Of course it’s hot and humid. Less so than Houston, but still…
Lake level continues to drop. Down about 24 inches from normal. It really would be nice to get some rain, but NOT a hurricane.
Spent yesterday working on the master bath. Made progress. It’s nice when I can focus on a task for a few hours even if that task is back breaking and tedious.
Today I’ll keep working on getting the toilet install finished. If I can do that and a couple of smaller things I’ll feel pretty good. Then it’s home to dump a load of trash and do all the normal things, plus we’re starting ‘back to school’ stuff. Hard to believe we’re almost done with summer.
Time flies when you’re having fun. Or something.
I realized I don’t have any sewing supplies up here. One more thing to add to the list.
Keep stacking. And figure out where your gaps are. Then work on filling them.
nick
Hot and humid too. Still. Because summertime, and the livin’s easy. Or not.
Spent the day working. Hard work. First in the hot garage, then in the cool bathroom. Managed to get a bunch done though.
I’ll continue that bathroom work today. Depending on how it goes, I might stay over until Monday. We will have to play it by ear.
Or I may just hurt so bad, and be so crippled up, that there isn’t any point in me staying. Hours of sitting hunched on the floor of the bathroom chiselling off old linoleum took a pretty good toll on my back even before I laid in bed for hours. Those muscles that hurt are not “daily drivers” and I might be paying the price for pushing through with all the work.
The spirit is willing, and the flesh is willing but weak…
Stack up some greenbacks, and hire someone to do the hard stuff. Sometimes, just ‘cuz you can, there might be good reasons not to.
n
Another hot and humid day. It was much cooler here than Houston last night and the breeze was nice too. 79F when I went to bed.
Spent yesterday running around. Did some pickups but not all. Solving the issues at the rent house cost me a couple of hours and a gallon of sweat. Then the plumber arrived and did the rest. I’m a great believer in rental income as a hedge against inflation, as long as you can trust the .gov to not steal from you. If I lived somewhere else, I’m not sure I’d want to roll the dice It isn’t easy money though by any means.
Today should be plumbing, in one form or another. I’d love to have someone else do it, but there isn’t anyone available here, and the cost would be far higher than I have budgeted.
Handyman skills seem to be in increasing demand. Truly skilled tradesmen are not available, or are priced out of the market, leaving a big opening for someone who can do the smaller jobs and make money at it. I have no interest in doing it for money at the moment, but if it changes, I know I could. Every one of these DIY projects builds skill and confidence.
In a down economy, any sort of repair job should do well as people try to get more out of what they have rather than buy new. The biggest problem with that is they don’t have money in a down economy 🙂 So acting as your own repair/ handyman is a good choice.
Brush up on some skills. Practice fixing things. Take on a DIY project. Save some money in the process, and stack up useful knowledge.
Chances are you or someone you know will need it.
n
Hot, hot, hot. Parts of town got rain yesterday but I didn’t here at the house. Some threatening weather, but no delivery. Today will be similar I think. Someone will get rain, but not most.
I did my errands. Got interrupted by plumbing issues at my rent house, and did some more errands. Tires look good on the Ranger. The take offs were bad enough I didn’t even want to save any of them. Did some of the pickups I’d delayed. Chatted with a new seller. I got some smoking deals. They were a bit less excited about the prices. Most of it was stuff for the BOL.
Today I’ll be meeting a plumber, picking up some auction stuff and taking it to my buddy. Cheap freezers for all! Didn’t get to see my barber yesterday and probably won’t today either. Which sucks. I was looking forward to getting a real cut instead of my (admittedly not too bad) home effort. At least the front doesn’t look bad…
Then at some point, I’ll head up to Conroe to pick up some stuff, pretty much all for the BOL, and some of it for the dock up there. After that, onward!
There is work to be done at the lake. And I’m the being to do it. I guess.
Stack up some good will this week. Help someone out.
nick
Hot and humid because, well, because Houston in the summertime. Even a couple hours north it was butt sweaty hot yesterday. It was 104F in the shade at my BOL. Fortunately it was cooler than that here by the time I got home, but it was still 85F at 11pm. Same for today I think… although it keeps threatening rain. It would be nice to get some rain, but maybe AFTER I’m done running errands.
Spent the day at the BOL with contractors. We’ve got a tentative plan to spend a bunch of money and do a bunch of work. It’s not happening instantly but to have it finally happening at all is a good thing. We really must be in a recession as people are beginning to work again… or be available for work (although the guys I talked to this time all seem busy and hard at work.) Something about if you want something done, get a busy man to do it, mumble mumble…
Today, I’m the busy man. Or that is the plan anyway. Tires for the truck, pickups, a drop off, and the normal shenanigans should keep me occupied all day. And if not, I’m sure something will jump up and demand attention.
Prepping advice for today, check your tires. Check your spare and jack. While you’re at it, look at your brakes, and your fluids. Check your stock of expendable maintenance stuff, like wipers, headlights, tire repair, and fluids. I was able to find some tires that suited me, but many others have reported some difficulty getting what they wanted. Tires will ‘age out’ so stockpiling them might not be indicated, but if you are close to needing them, you might want to go ahead and replace them. You can even keep the take offs if they have any life left in them, just in case. If you plan to drive around in an area affected by a hurricane or tornado, you will want mounted spares, probably a full set, and a repair kit with a compressor. Roofing nails go everywhere.
Stack up some spares, for all your important things. Take a systems approach, not just a ‘things’ approach. And commonality and redundancy are Good Things ™.
n
Hot and humid but still nicer than Houston. Even though I don’t think Houston hit 100F at my house, it was still nicer up here.
Did some stuff at home in the morning, including seeing my tire guy. The tires on the Ranger need to be replaced. They are approaching the wear bars, and were pretty slick on wet roads last month. I didn’t fix my own flat- ran out of time, so I had my local guy fix it, just so I’d have a spare for this trip.
He had 4 new Goodyear tires in my size in the shop, with a heavy duty load rating, so I’ll go with those. $540 for 4 installed (and should be all the fees included too.) I’ll get that done on Thursday morning.
Then I loaded up the truck and headed to the country. Unloaded by myself here. I hate moving matresses, especially by myself. Rope and dragging was involved. Good thing it had a protective cover on it. Note to self, if it takes two people to load, it probably should have two people to UNload too.
Met with the new electrical company. He didn’t run screaming… so I’m hopeful. He did say it would be the 18th at the earliest to start work, and that he wouldn’t have any supply issues with what I need. That’s really only a couple of weeks away so I hope his bid is reasonable.
After that I cut the grass and moved some landscaping rock. I have been moving it from one flower bed to another, a couple of shovels full at a time. Because of where it is I really only want to be running the shovel and rake after the sun sets. And since shovelling hurts, I only want to do it for short periods. No rush on this project anyway, but I can chip away at it every time I’m up here.
Some things I can “slow and steady” and some need to be dogpiled.
I’m meeting the new foundation guy today, then the septic guy again. Hopefully the septic guy can help me with grading, demo, and site prep. And hopefully now that I have a tentative electrician and schedule, he’ll order the tanks.
I need the foundation guy to say “yes, we have what you need to do this job, and we want to do it.” THAT will really start things moving in the right direction.
So fingers crossed…..
Stacking up bills today. I’ll stack stuff again tomorrow.
n
Hot and humid, but yesterday was cooler than the last few weeks. I don’t think it got to be over 100F. There was overcast, cloudiness, and a little bit less sun as a result. I spent the day in the office anyway.
But today I’ll be heading up to the BOL to meet with contractors. Hopefully we can find a way to move forward and begin the major changes needed. It’s been difficult enough that I hope that I can actually meet the guys. One already rescheduled for tonight rather than tomorrow. So much to do, and a short time to do it.
Which of course is true all the time, and also not really true all the time too.
So I stack when I can, do what I can, learn what I can, and make some progress occasionally. At the end of the day, when trouble comes I hope to be ready, but I might not be. Certainly I won’t be as ready as I could have been or as ready as I would be if trouble came a year later.
Very difficult to predict the future, it is.
So stack what you can, prepare what you can, and then do the best you can with what you’ve got.
nick