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Month: December 2022

Sun. Dec. 11, 2022 – stuff to do, maybe

Wet and pretty warm.   Should be drizzling and in the 60s, but we’ll see when I actually get up.   It did rain in Houston while I was at my lunch, but I was able to get some stuff done.

I put out some more lights, and a little bit of decor.   Then had a very convivial couple of hours with friendly people who share one of my enthusiasms.    Great food, fun times.

Swapped trucks, and headed to the BOL.   Drove through a bunch of rain.   Crazy people in pickups passing me at 90mph in driving rain on the freeway.   Nuts.

Today I’ve got stuff to do up here, but I won an antenna tower in an auction and I probably have to pick it up before 2pm.   That means leaving here at noon.   Not a lot of stuff can get done before noon.   I don’t want to drive down, back up here, and then later back down, even if the Rohn tower needs to be up here.   The most efficient thing would be picking it up on my way home, then bringing it back up here when I come back up next weekend.  The only downside is leaving here early today, and having the truss on my truck for a week.  I’m going to call and see about a later pickup.

Funny thing is I was also bidding on ANOTHER tower in a different auction that closes in a week.   It’s a much better tower, taller, stronger, and never installed.  But at $4000 retail, minimum,  I think  people will bid it up past where I’m comfortable.   I’m glad I got this smaller one as back up.  No towers in the auctions in years, then two in the same 2 weeks.  That’s how my life works.   I won’t chase the other tower as hard, since I have one now, but I won’t let someone steal it either.

There’s always something more in the ham radio hobby, and in prepping.

A nice self contained water treatment plant would make my day….

 

Stack the good times along with the stuff.   And if these are bad times for you, reach out.

Stack it up!

nick

 

Read the comments: 41 Comments

Sat. Dec. 10, 2022 – 12102022 – hope it’s not raining…

Should be warm, and damp, and there  is some chance of rain.  I just don’t want it to happen today.  Yesterday alternated between part sun and light overcast, but we didn’t get any rain.

I got a few things done.  Got the plumbing parts I needed to send with my wife, to get the master bath sink drain finished.   Tried to take back a bunch of plumbing parts to Lowe’s but shockingly  it’s been more than 90 days.   Freaking time flew by.   I guess I’ll use them eventually.   Probably here when I re-pipe this house.  Or maybe the rent house…  but it sucks because I was planning to take back what I didn’t need, and it’s hundreds of dollars.

I did take a bit of time and put out some Christmas decorations.  I’m pulling back this year, but I definitely want stuff out.   I want to take some lights to the BOL and dress up the dock too.   In fact, I’d like to start a tradition of dressing up the docks for Christmas, with judging and prizes.  I’m  a bit surprised that they aren’t already doing it, as it seems like a naturally fun thing to do.

I also did some more auction sorting.  I’ve been picking up partial sets of the elinco “snap circuits” electronic learning sets, and they sell really well at this time of year, even used.   But I have to go through them and make sure all the parts are included, which is a bit of mix and match from all the random bits I’ve collected over the year.  Still, got about 4 full sets, and I have the big 750 project set ready to go, missing only ONE piece.   I’ll have to order the piece though, as it is very uncommon.  I should have done that last month.   I think I’ll end up keeping that one set for me, and working around the missing piece until I can get it.    It’s funny that I’ve got three more sets almost complete, but a very common part is missing from all of them, yet I’ve got extras of some uncommon parts that only go in a few sets.  Luck of the draw I guess.

Feels like I did more productive stuff, but I can’t remember any of it.

Oh well.  Today is my non-prepping hobby potluck Christmas dinner at 1pm.  I’ll have some time to work on getting more lights up in the yard, finding some to take to the BOL, and wrapping a ‘white elephant’ gift for our gift exchange, before heading out.  I’ll swing back by the house before heading to the BOL to load the truck and get the frozen food into a cooler.    Then it’s off to the lake for a day.   If I’ve got stuff to do, I might stay through Monday.   Kids, wife, and in-laws will be coming home Sunday night.   I’ll play that by ear.

There is a great cast iron wood burning kitchen stove in one of the auctions and I expect it to go cheap.  It’s complete, not in horrible shape, and a nice size.  If I had a cabin, I’d be all over it.  No way I can justify it to the wife though.  It’s an awesome prep…

But you can’t stack EVERYTHING, or cover every base, so you have to do what you can.   Being cast back to a point where we’re burning wood to cook daily is pretty far down the list of stuff I’m expecting, but not completely outside the realm of possibility.  Concentrate on stacking to cover your most likely needs, then head off into the sticks.   But definitely, keep stacking.

nick

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Fri. Dec. 9, 2022 – busy day, and in-laws…

Warm and moist, but supposed to be clear today and then possible T-storms on Sat.  It was nice all day on Thursday.

I did get a few small things done, but having kid appointments and taxi service in the morning and evening limited me a lot.  I sorted auction items, cleaned the house, and hit the grocery store for allergy meds.

And since they had meat on sale, I bought the limit.  Vac pack pork loin back below $2/lb.  Prime sirloin steaks, $6.99/lb.  Chicken and hamburger were back up from last week.  The chicken especially has been inching up.   Someone in comments elsewhere mentioned their eggs were $8/dozen, so I looked.   Even our free range brown eggs weren’t more than $6.   The store branded 18 pack I buy was ~$4.50.   I’m out of freezer space at the house, and not going to the BOL until Saturday evening.   Whoops.   I crammed the steaks in, and will find room for the pork later today, even if I have to take bread out of the freezer.   Better to store meat than bread.  Also portioned and vac sealed the cooked hamburger and sent it to freezer camp.

I ordered RBT’s Astronomy Hacks for my wife’s Christmas gift (thanks for the reminder), and printed the manual for the telescope.

As part of my house cleaning, I finally assembled and installed a ladder rack for my pickup.  It’s kinda cheap, and generic, but it’s easy to mount and dismount the support, and will be a great option when I have something long to move.   I’ll probably leave the support at the cab end of the bed in place but remove the tailgate one,  depending on the wind noise.   I might have to mod the attachment system too as the j-hook doesn’t look particularly sturdy, but for now, it’s better on the truck than in the box in the foyer.  It was less than $10 at auction due to the box being trashed, and a poor picture on the listing.

I’ve got all the stuff that pushed thru the week to do today, if I can, and possibly cooking a dish for the potluck.  My wife will  be home with the in-laws getting ready for the weekend with guests at the BOL.   Then they will head up after school, while I stay home.

All life is suffering – according to the Buddha, but I’m not buying it.   There are days though that do try our patience.  Then I remember that these are the good old days, and things have been and will be, orders of magnitude worse.

Every day above ground is a good day.

Stack some things on this fine day.

nick

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Thur. Dec. 8, 2022 – … and sometimes the bear gets you.

Kinda grey start to the day, with improvement later… which is what happened yesterday, and we all know that today has a very high probability of being a lot like yesterday.   And yesterday did get to be pretty nice by the end of the day.

I did some pickups.   I did some shopping.   I might have purchased a Christmas present for someone.   But the list of things I didn’t do is long…

We ate the slow cooker barbacao and it was good.   It’s a nice break from ground  beef or chicken tacos or fajitas.  I still have to vac pack the cooked ground beef today and freeze it.

Someone that isn’t me has to plan a couple of meals for the in-laws too, who arrive later today.  My wife and kids will be taking them to the BOL Friday afternoon, and I’ll join them Saturday evening.  I have my non-prepping hobby potluck Christmas dinner Saturday afternoon and I don’t have any interest in missing it.

So I’ll be working my list today, and probably letting things slide.   Kids need to be back at school, having had dinner, by 5pm so they can help with a concert and dance show.  I will probably drop them off.  Or I might try a different pair of active hearing protectors.  I’ve got a set of in ear Axils to try, and a set of passive Surefire in ear “Ear Defenders”.

The Axils are very transparent when just sitting around the house.  I can set them to just amplify enough that it is like I don’t have them in.   I haven’t tested them against loud sounds yet though.   Nor have I tested the bluetooth linking ability.  They have a stiff wire that goes over your ear to provide stability, and they are linked by a wire and electronics modules that passes behind your head.   They are pretty comfortable though.

None of the earbuds I’ve mentioned are ‘noise cancelling’ but instead actively amplified hearing protection that cuts out the amplification when there is a loud sound, which allows the tight fitting earpiece to attenuate the sound and protect your ears.   I’ve got a pair of Walker electronic ‘over the ear’ style protectors too.   Most of the time, I  just wear actual hearing protectors, either foam or finned, and I’m used to them from my  years in noisy work environments.  It would be nice to have something that would protect but not hinder, especially in social environments, like school plays or recitals…just sayin’….

Other projects might be making progress, there are antenna towers in two different auctions this month.   I’ve got 30ft of aluminum truss that I could use as a tower at the BOL, but I’d prefer something that was actually designed as an antenna tower if I can get it cheap.

Still lots to do at the BOL, so some things are back burnered, but I still have my eyes open.

I hope you are also working to constantly improve you situation.    Coming up, that might be enough to keep you even…

Stack it up my friends.

nick

 

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Wed. Dec. 7, 2022 – “a date which will live in infamy”

Warm-ish but certainly damp.  And probably overcast for half the day.   Tuesday shaped up nicely by mid-afternoon.  It would be nice if today was clear from the start…

I didn’t get what I wanted to do done.   Had to pick up the kids from school in the afternoon, and that put the whole day’s tasks off.   Most of them will happen today.

Kid’s bus driver will be changing the route again, to pick up my kids earlier.   They won’t dig that, as I can barely get them out the door for the later bus.  Oh well.  It builds character, right?

School year is winding down, and the teachers are already starting to coast to the finish line.  D1’s spanish class is watching movies instead of starting more work.   They have finals next week and the teacher obviously didn’t stretch enough to get the timing just right.  Without books or a syllabus, it’s pretty hard to know what they should be doing anyway, which is the point, I think.

I did get some sorting done, and some stuff ready for Christmas presents.  I think I’ve got most everyone covered, I just have to actually get the stuff out and tagged.  I should do that while there is still time to correct any deficiencies.

Anyone have an opinion about me getting my wife a subscription to Astronomy magazine?    I found a couple of years of recent back issues at Goodwill to give her, but it would be nice to continue with a subscription if it would be helpful to a complete novice, who mostly wants to look at stuff in the sky, not white dots in a particular arrangement… or maybe recommend something very beginner, like how to align your scope to make viewing easier, what sort of things to look at, etc.  It should be something that would excite an interest.

So much to do before the end of the year.  So little motivation.   It’s a grind.  But it needs to be done.

Keep stacking, keep the faith.

nick

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Tues. Dec. 6, 2022 – sometimes you get the bear…

Warm and damp, because Houston.   It was cool and misty at the BOL, but cleared later into another beautiful day.  Which I mostly missed.    At some point there will be more beautiful days and less plumbing.

The extra day helped me get the projects actually finished, or that close to being finished.   Still have to actually install the dishwasher, but everything except electrical is in place.   Still have to actually connect the drain line for the master bath sink, but the rest is good to go.  $4 part is a showstopper,  if it air gaps a drain line… and my box-o-parts came a cropper…

So not quite ready for the in-laws next weekend.

Also need to order a propane delivery.  Tank is at 40%.  The service is supposed to be coming by and topping up, but they haven’t ever come by to my knowledge.  We’ve never been billed anyway.

So much to do, and only two weeks until Christmas.

I have to get some more decorations out.    LOTS of lights in the neighborhood this year and I am feeling underdressed.

I’m also supposed to take a couple of bins to auction today, if I can get them together.  If I actually get to my unit and organize it, that wouldn’t be hard.  Limiting the number of bins is the hard part.

And coming up on a potluck dinner for my Constable’s volunteer group, and my non-prepping hobby with white elephant gift exchange, and probably at least one other social occasion that isn’t on my radar yet.  So I’ll be busy.  Oh, and need to get the house in a more Christmas-y mood.

Have to build and participate in our shared cultural traditions.

And find time to stack some things…

 

nick

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Mon. Dec. 5, 2022 – ho ho ho, who wouldn’t go…

Sunny and cool, warming later.  I hope.  That describes Sunday pretty well, with highs in the 70s.  To bad I was inside all day.

I did get a bunch done.  Had the water off for 8 hours.  Never could have done that if the kids were here.   I summarized what I got done in comments yesterday.  Despite the late start, and late finish, I feel good about it.

Today should get me that much further along, and maybe I’ll have time to do some cleanup so the bride doesn’t walk into a mess with her folks next weekend.   Working kitchen and bath, oh my.  I’ll give it the old school try…

The sense of urgency hasn’t left me.   I noticed that I haven’t been posting much in the way of prepping.   I think it’s because we’ve been living in the slow motion disaster that was chinkyflu for the last (almost) 3 years.  We were prepping for that, and prepping for it to get worse.   Then we got into a sort of holding pattern where we were just glad it was getting better.  With no clear end, it wasn’t like a storm that passed and now we can cleanly move on.   So it drags.

Meanwhile, I’ve been focused on my personal life, getting the BOL up to speed mainly.   This year flew by.  It’s pretty clear though that we are in an economic downturn (at best) or the beginning stages of an economic collapse, (bad), or the early part of a world changing war (worst).   There is plenty of prepping still to be done for any of those scenarios or all of them.   It just looks different than prepping for a specific event.

Conserve your money and resources.   Accumulate everything you think might be in short supply, including friends.  Plan for a long period of badness, with varying intensity.   Think about WWII on the homefront, the Great Depression, the Carter malaise… all those things were survivable, and most people did.  Some didn’t.  Some people did very well.   Some lives were changed completely.  The WORLD changed, and it will again.

Will some new place become ascendant as the US did after WWII?   We survived with our manufacturing intact, greatly expanded in fact.   And we absolutely killed it in a time when making stuff was the basis of prosperity.   I don’t know what comes next, but I’m pretty sure it will be different, and very few people will see it coming.

Plan to get through what is coming.  Vow to not just survive, but to THRIVE in what comes next.   To my mind, that’s a lot more inspiring than just enduring.   But.  If all you can do is endure, then do that.  Do it better than most, and make it through.   That is key.  Be here for the boom that follows.

Stacks will help.

nick

 

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Sun. Dec. 4, 2022 – look upon my works ye mighty and despair…

Cool and clear at the BOL.  Houston, eh, no idea.  It was about 10 degrees cooler up here yesterday and a lot less damp.

Since my sleep was so messed up Friday night I got up later than I wanted too, and almost missed my pickup on the way to the BOL.

I thought that the pickup was starting at 1pm, but around 11am I re-read the invoice that it ended at 1pm.  Oops.  Mad scramble to get out of the house, get the truck loaded, and get to my pickup ensued.   Got there at 1:01 and made it.   Didn’t forget to bring anything major…

Met the guy and got rid of an unwanted piano.  Unloaded the truck.  Moved one trailer load of dirt to fill the big hole in front of my front door… and ran out of daylight.  Not the most productive day, but two items off the list.  And the guy that got the piano is a handyman and is local.  Meatspace!

Today is all about plumbing.   I am debating whether I should start the dishwasher install and all the plumbing under the kitchen sink to make my wife happy, or finish the master bathroom plumbing and make my wife happy.   I’m leaning toward the bathroom, despite the sudden addition of dishwasher to my list.  I do not like to have too many open projects in the same category.  And, it’s been torn up for a while.  I’m also pretty sure I have everything I need to finish* actually here.  I’m not certain of that for the kitchen.

We’ll see how I feel after breakfast.

I did bring up some meat and a little bit more food.   Still need to do a big push, but I was out of time and truck space.

I am trying mightily to stack all the thing!  Do what you can too.

nick

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Fri. Dec. 2, 2022 – just when I’m getting used to typing 2022 …

Cool and damp again, hopefully the clear will hold for another day or two.  We are in the rain zone in the national forecast today and tomorrow, but that will suck for driving to the BOL with a loaded truck. It was clear most of the day yesterday but a front came in very dramatically and it got dark early… no rain but SOLID cloud bank.

I did my errands, and a few other things.  Like starting to put out some decorations.  I got some more of the Halloween stuff put back in the attic too.   Didn’t make sense to put it away in front of the Christmas stuff.

Then in the evening I had a prepper fail.   Wife and kids will be at Girl Scout camp this weekend so she told me to fill up a couple of 1 pound propane bottles.  No problem.   Except that I have one full BBQ tank and 4 empties at the moment.   I’ve been moving tanks to the BOL, and only taking a couple at a time to get refilled.  And I got behind.   Compounding the issue, the full tank leaks when I put the transfer hose on it.  So that was a no-go.   The tank in the grill was almost out and didn’t have enough left to fill even one small bottle.  10 empty small bottles, two part full, no way to refill.   Yeah, I moved about a dozen to the BOL, but I should  have seen that I was leaving home short.

So I need to fill the BBQ bottles I have here.  Then determine if the refill hose is faulty.   Then fill or replace a bunch of 1 pound bottles so we can fuel the stoves and Mr Heater Lil Buddy heaters if needed.   And all in a hurry because I lost track of it.   In my defense, it seems that my wife used the hose to refill some small bottles at some point in the past, without letting me know.  I don’t know if the hose leaked at that point or if something  failed or is missing as a result of it being used.  I’m not happy about the whole mess.  I should probably bite the bullet and buy a case of 1 pounders just to be sure we have some.

Cut my hair and trimmed the beard.   That wahl trimmer kit has paid for itself in money, time, and convenience many times over.   It helps that I wear a crew cut and am comfortable with that.  It’s a straightforward clipper cut.  My barber is asking $20 per cut now.  He was $12 when I started with him in ’03.

All my running around is complicated by the freezer and dishwasher in the back of my  truck.  I might have to just run around town with them loaded to get everything done before heading up.

It’s always something.  Need to get some groceries too.  On the plus side, Costco had gas for $2.49/gal.  Filled the Expedition.  THAT ain’t cheap.

And since we’re on the topic of fuel, I need to start rotating my stored gasoline and cleaning up any that has gotten contaminated with water over the summer.   More joy.  I did pick up a new 5 gallon jug for storage.   The 5 gal. plastic Blitz cans have a definite lifespan.  The welded seam at the top of the handle always seems to fail eventually, so I need to start replacing cans too.  Commander Zero likes the nato style metal cans, but they are a bit spendy for my taste.  I’ll make due with plastic, and just replace them when they  fail.

I better get the kids out the door and get started on something.

Stack what you need.   Check your stacks.   Replace what has failed.

 

nick

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