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Month: November 2022

Thur. Nov. 10, 2022 – working at client’s house today

Cool and damp warming to warm and damp.   Yesterday was very nice, once the sun came out.   This is a great time of year in Houston.  Sometimes the humidity is still a bit high, but the days are certainly nice when it’s not actually raining.

I did a pickup yesterday, mostly stuff for the BOL, and spent several hours on paperwork.  I didn’t get to my storage unit, as the clips I needed to build more shelves were delayed until later in the afternoon.   Not an exciting day.

I did get a call that my client’s AT&T fiber was finally installed, so that is what I’m doing today.  I’ll be configuring the networking, and ubiquiti gear to work with the new fiber.  Assuming they just need to hit ‘enter’ somewhere to make it go live.  The AT&T documentation doesn’t actually list a time between requesting the new service be made live, and getting it live.  I’m not looking forward to blundering my way around the gear either.   Before I head out, I’ll be watching a couple of youtube vids about the configuration process.  I’m sure it will be very easy in the video.   I’m also fairly sure I’ll be talking with someone in India before the day is done.  I just hope we can finally get it all set up.

And by the way, did no one here think to mention the total lunar eclipse?   I saw some talk about ‘blood moons’ but nothing about it being caused by an eclipse; especially one I could have seen by getting up an hour earlier…   Oh well, there will be another in a few years.

Speaking of astronomy, I’m bidding on another 8″ dobs telescope.   This one gets good reviews, and retails for about $450.  I will bid a bit more than I normally would as my wife made some pointed remarks about her lack of a birthday ‘scope when we were talking about the eclipse.  She reminds me she wanted a ‘scope, I sit down to a new auction and there is an appropriate ‘scope.   Hopefully I win it and she’s happy and all is right with the multiverse.

But if it isn’t, I’ve got stacks and skills.  You should too.

nick

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Wed. Nov. 9, 2022 – not sure if we still have a Republic, too worn out to watch the returns

Cool and damp.  Later warm and damp.  Then cool and damp.   It is a swamp here after all.  And I soaked through my shirt yesterday without even trying.

Did my pickups.   Just a few things, some for resale at my local Hamfest, which is on the calendar!  Hooray.  Some of the items were for the BOL, and some were just in case.   I’ve got two pickups today.  Thought I’d have three, but one of my tried and true auctioneers got good prices for his stuff this week.   Good for him, not good for me.  I was sure I’d be picking up at his place.  Prices are up everywhere, even the secondary market.

I was able to order the clips I need to put more shelves together at my storage unit, and have them overnighted, for no extra cost.  In fact they were a tenth of what Grainger had them for locally, and I’d have had to wait three days for the inter-store transfer.   I don’t really know how a company can stay in business at that rate, but I’ll save the money when I can.

I voted, and hope you all did too.  Don’t know if it matters, but I want to be able to say that we tried everything, before the red tide washes away the corruption.   If it gets bad enough, there will be a red tide.

What follows that won’t be pretty.

I really hope it can be avoided.

And if not, that my preps are adequate.

I think I’ll stack some more.

n

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Tues. Nov. 8, 2022 – Vote. Make them work for it.

Not really cool, and certainly damp.   Then not really hot, and still damp, although actual cool is supposed to be coming.  Just not today, or yesterday.   It was 93F in the sun at my house in the afternoon, according to my unfortunately placed weather station.   Radio said 80F at 5pm, so I’ll take that as more accurate, but still, 80F!

Oh well.  Mostly caught up on auction stuff.   Fewer bargains as more people find the auctions and bid.   Fewer bargains at the thrift stores too.   The stores have raised prices (as they do periodically, when they get jealous of resellers), and they are FULL of resellers looking for a “come up”.  They are having the same staffing issues as the rest of the working world, and so shelves are a bit bare and the stores are disheveled.   Signs of the times.  Eventually the flow of free stuff to the thrifts will reduce or cut off, and there will be a shakeout in that industry too.   The ‘returns’ reselling space is getting very crowded with some of my long established auctioneers dipping their toes in this month.   The ‘little  guys’ might have a chance if their overhead is low, but the big guys have the capital and the staff, and can gobble up bigger lots.

As a nation, we can’t just open boxes from China, we can’t have an economy based on giving each other massages and haircuts, and we can’t just keep reselling the same cr@p to each other, ’round and ’round.   We have to make stuff, adding value to it as we do.   When I see all the stuff we used to make domestically in these estate auctions, it depresses me no end.   Clocks- we had dozens of manufacturers.  Ditto for radios, tools, household goods, textiles, white goods, appliances.  You could build your house, furnish it, park your car in it, and EVERY SINGLE THING would have been made by your neighbors and your countrymen.

It wasn’t just us.  Even Canada had a domestic industry for housewares, and even TVs.  Now we have chinese drywall, brazilian lumber, iron work imported from INDIA, clothing from vietnam, electronics from china and singapore, gasoline from Norway, and food from Chile.   We enrich the middle men, support virtual and ACTUAL slavery, while impoverishing our neighbors.   What can’t go on won’t.

Big changes coming.  Lots of people will be grist for the mill of change.

Try not to be one of them.   Live through to the other side.

Stack some stuff, then stack some more somewhere else.

nick

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Mon. Nov. 7, 2022 – well, it’s Monday again…

Not so cool, but certainly damp.   I’m guessing, but it was 77F and dripping when I went  to bed.  Absent a cold front coming through, it’s still gonna be both of those things in today.

It was nice at the BOL, with the sun staying hidden most of the day.   The brief time it was out, it burned like fire.

I got the main goal done.   The middle bedroom has a vapor barrier applied to the floor.   Getting to where I could make that statement took a bit more effort than I hoped.   And grinding concrete.  And epoxy.  And more grinding.   In any case, it should be ready to put the floor back in next weekend.

I ticked a couple of minor things off my list too, and even took an hour while the epoxy was curing to throw the lure into the lake  a few times.   No fish were biting.

Today I need to focus on home stuff.   And auction stuff of course.   If it’s not raining I’ll head to my storage unit and do more sorting.  If it is raining, I’ll do stuff here indoors.

I need some sales so I can do some more stacking.

There is always more you can do, and more you can stack.  Get busy.

nick

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Sun. Nov. 6, 2022 – Fall back. Now you get the hour the gubment stole from you back…

Cool and damp at the BOL.  It was sunny and very nice when I arrived before evening yesterday.  The night was bright with the almost full moon, and a fire on the dock was very cheering.

Got some stuff done, see yesterday’s comments for details if your interested.

Got stuff to do today.  The vapor barrier needs to be applied this visit so my wife can get the flooring back down next visit.  We are going to have Thanksgiving up here, so some work needs to be done before then.

And apparently I’m just the guy to do it!

It’s ok.   I brought some more food up and the new freezer, so I’m continuing to stack here.   We could bug out to here now and be OK for a while.  That is a Good Thing ™ when world powers seem to be just fine with the idea of using nukes on top of the ongoing economic dumpster fire.

If you don’t have somewhere to go to, try to find someone to go to.  A mutual ‘swap’ pact where either of you can head to the other if things get out of hand locally might be your best bet.  Make sure you can bring some resources with you, skills and knowledge if not stacked goods.  That will ease an already awkward and tense situation.  Food is always welcome.

Having it on hand, or having it to bring with you is a good reason to stack more.  If you needed a reason….

 

nick

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Sat. Nov. 5, 2022 – work, work, work. Lord Warfin has left the facility…

Cool and clear.  After a night of storming and rain.   Temps dropped 10F between when I got home and midnight, with the rain starting right around midnight.  The front is supposed to move through though, and leave a gorgeous Saturday behind.  We’ll see, is about all I can say so far.

Did my pickups and none of my errands yesterday.   Forgot about two of them and ran out of time.  I’ll be trying to get them in before I blow town today.  I need to pick up some liquid slab sealer/vapor barrier.  I plan to just use the same stuff we used under our hardwood here in the house.   It wasn’t cheap but it was easy to install and I’m familiar with it.  I already picked up a structural crack repair epoxy.   Might be overkill, but where I did it here we haven’t had issues.   Where I didn’t, we’ve had moisture under the floor.  Store opens at 10am and is a mile from my house, on the way toward the BOL.

That is the big goal for this weekend- get the middle bedroom floor sealed, so my wife can put the floor back next weekend.

Wife and kids are at Girl Scout camp this weekend, so I hope the weather clears.   I can work indoors if it’s raining at the lake.  I don’t want to drive up in the rain, or have the stuff in the back of the pickup truck get wet, so I REALLY hope it’s clear later.

If I can’t work on the floor, I’ll do something else.   And on the way up, I pick up the new freezer.  Getting that up there is a secondary goal all by itself.

I’ll have the dog with me this weekend, so that should be interesting.   We’ll see how he behaves without his girl along, and if I can keep him off the floor goo.

Exciting times ahead.

Stack some stuff, you know you wanna.

n

 

 

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Fri. Nov. 4, 2022 – just another, just another day ay ay ay….

Cool-ish.  Damp.  Houston is on the edge of the storm zone in the national forecast, and then in the middle of it later.  I’m not thrilled with the idea, although I acknowledge that we need the rain.

I spent yesterday doing a few things.  Not what I mostly wanted to, but I did move a couple of things to the ‘done’ column.

One was hitting up Costco.   I let the papergoods drop to low levels here at home.  I’ve got more, just not here, so it was well past time to hit the store.

Prices are up, and there are things that are missing.   My favorite microwaveable cheeseburgers were not in the freezer.   There were a couple other things too, but most of my staples were there.   They had reasonable prices on  some beef steaks, but they were higher than they used to be.   They had spiral sliced ham for the first time in one? two? years.  The listed price was more than double what it used to be, but they were doing $10 off each ham.   That brought it down to only about a third more than it was.  I will try to get back and get some more before the promotion ends.

The price for Krusteze Pancake mix has risen from $5.99 to 8.99 for the same size bag.   Oddly, australian lamb and canadian maple syrup have stayed the same price for years with only minor fluctuations.  The selection of rice and the quantity in the store were both reduced, but the price is only up 20-30%.   And lo! they had both M&M candies and M&M Peanut varieties in stock.  They’ve only had one or the other for a long time.

Charmin blue was $25 a bale.  Charmin USED to be $18 on sale.  Bounty paper towel is playing games with sheet size again.   They are now offering “longer” ‘selectasize’.   The “smaller” sheet is almost as big as a normal sheet used to be.  I’ll be back to ripping sheets in half again if this continues.

I was happy to see a lot of my normal items were on sale.   Next month it will be a different set of items, and I’ll stock up on those then.

To put all this food somewhere, I bought another freezer.  This one is an upright and will go to the BOL.  It was an estate buy, and was only $80.  Costco did have one 7cuft chest freezer in stock at $269.  Lowes had a few at a similar price, so they are available again, just not as cheap as they used to be.   Which is the story for a lot of things these days.

I originally titled today’s post “Persistence” and was going to talk about that.   It needs a bit more thought and some more work though.  Maybe later.

Today will be more of the same, some housework, some prep for a weekend at the lake, some messing around.  And in the evening, I’ll go see the hour I missed of the kids’ show.

And I’ll be stacking things.  You should be too.

n

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Thur. Nov. 3, 2022 – amateur dramatics, family fun night!

Cool and wet again, or maybe better described as ‘very damp’.  Hopefully staying dry all day.  I’ve got things to do.   Which didn’t get done yesterday.

I mostly ended up cleaning house and doing some auction stuff.  Which is really nothing to write home about.  But I do anyway!

And more of that is on the agenda for today too.  I’ll take down a few more decorations.   I’ll move a few more things around in the stacks.  And I’ll bait the danged possum trap again.  SOMETHING knocked a bunch of stuff off my shelves again.  I don’t know if it is the same possum, or if I’m on the Grand Tour somehow.   At least they are greedy or dumb enough to keep going into the trap.  Rats wouldn’t be fooled twice.  Rats are too smart.

It is time to re-bait the poison boxes for the rats though.  And to spray the outside of the house with bug spray.  It’s always time for something.

I’ve got bait and extra bait boxes.   Ordered them from amazon, and won some in an auction.  That’s a prep, for sure.  The collapse of the economy will be accompanied by a rise in vermin.  2, 4, 6 and 8 legged vermin.   Get some stuff stacked to deal with them.  Otherwise, when you need it, it might not be there.

That is the nature of prepping in a nutshell, to have what you need when you need it, no matter what is going on around you.

Stack it up, so you have it when you need it.

nick

 

(D1 and D2 have their school play tonight, so that will occupy my evening.   I won’t forget my earplugs this time.)

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Wed. Nov. 2, 2022 – keep trying, and eventually, you will succeed

Cool and damp, but hoping for clear and drying later.  I’ve got stuff to do outdoors.   So we’ll see what happens.

Didn’t get done yesterday what needed to get done, so all that remained got shifted to today.

We’ll see about today.

Super short post today, I’ll make it up to y’all.

n

Stack!

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Tues. Nov. 1, 2022 – Seems crazy that it’s November…

Cool and damp.  Hopefully clear, so I can get stuff put away.  Yesterday was nice all day.  Not a lick of wind after dusk though, until 8:30pm when a ghost of a breeze started up.  It was just on the edge of sweaty with a long sleeve khaki shirt on…

Got my stuff done, and my display up.   Looked great, just like I’d hoped.  Pulled back the overall stuff to focus on the pirate ship and it worked well.  Didn’t quite get everything I’d have liked to do done, but that’s the breaks.

Today will be cleaning up and putting away…

Followed by auction stuff all week.  I’ve been letting it slide, but I have to sell some stuff and move some stuff out of here.   Time to start thinking about Thanksgiving (we’re doing it with additional family at the lake) and even Christmas.  Probably not a bad idea to get your shopping done early, if you can.  Avoid the crowds, if there are crowds.

I’m of two minds about that.   One says “crash is coming” and this Holiday season will be a disaster for retailers.  Majors are already cancelling orders and refusing shipments, so they think it will be a poor season too.   That COULD lead to deep discounts on non-core goods, ie deflation, if you’ve got the scratch to be a buyer.  Or it could mean higher prices if demand is more than forecast and there are shortages of things to buy.  Since I don’t have a crystal ball, or Gail for that matter, I’ll do what I always do- buy early for my own reasons.   Consider the possibilities, and act if that’s where your analysis leads you.

Food prices continue to be low for some stuff, high for others, and subject to regional variation too.   If for some reason you are not involved in shopping for yourself and/or your family, it’s still a good idea to be familiar with prices and availability.   Read the weekly ads.   Walk the aisles.   Know the challenges facing whoever does do your shopping.  You can’t spot a good deal, if you don’t know what ‘normal’ is.  Good deals will be increasingly important if you want to maintain your current lifestyle…

And if you find a deal, stack it up!  ‘Cuz those shelves aren’t gonna fill themselves.

nick

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