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Month: June 2024

Mon. Jun. 10, 2024 – it’s probably rats

Hot today. Back in Houston, so back in the swamp. Not many cool breezes wafting around. Of course it was 113F yesterday afternoon according to the thermometer that gets hit by late afternoon sun. Felt like it too.

When I stopped sweating, I drank more electrolyte replacement…

I did get some stuff done despite the heat. It just took longer, and involved more drinking of water with stuff in it.

I got the cell booster back together. I was able to figure out the spectrum analyzer and got the antenna aimed. Pretty much where I aimed it by eye and cell phone originally. I still don’t have LTE which I did have until one of the power outages. Dunno if the problem is me or ATT although I have it a mile away where I get good signal without a booster, so the tower and site is probably ok. I may poke at it more next visit. I’ve got other antennas to try both indoors and out, but I didn’t have the right adapters.

I mowed. I stacked more downed branches. I fixed the chimney “cap” to be better at keeping the rain out. It’s now plywood and black plastic, instead of just black plastic. Wife and D2 put most of the furniture back in the dockhouse. The walls will stay open for a while, but we still need to use the space, especially with guests coming for the 4th.

I didn’t get to the generator maintenance. It was too hot, and by the time I got ladders cleaned up and put away, and all the tools back in the garage, I didn’t have time. I did do a little sorting and putting away, as part of looking for stuff that I needed. Like goes with like…

Which is how I organize the stacks. It works for me, and I can find stuff I haven’t used in years, if I haven’t moved it too much. Cleaning and organizing always has some risks for me as I might remember the old place it lived for years, but forget the new “better” place it’s only been for a few months. Stacks are most useful when you can find the thing you stacked.

Even if you have to look for it, stacks are good.

Today will be finding the cause of the dead rat odor in the house (probably a dead rat) and doing some of the stuff that has been back-burnered by disaster recovery. I’ve got a lot of repair to do, auction stuff, pickups, kid “enrichment” activities, all the usual stuff.

And I feel the need to . . .

Stack!

nick

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Sun. Jun. 9, 2024 – still got stuff to do…

Hot and humid, but less than Houston. Yesterday was clear, sunny, and although it started moderately it got pretty hot by later in the day. Ended up with a nice night.

I got a few things done. I did one last thorough vacuum and then spray down of all the parts of the dockhouse that got flooded. I scrubbed the 2x4s and the floor as well. W mopped and cleaned up all the muddy residue. It dried out pretty quickly with just the disinfection stuff sprayed on surfaces. I’ll still leave the walls open for a few weeks longer to be sure they are really dry.

I added back one electrical outlet, deleted one, and added a dusk to dawn uplight for the flagpole. The light is too bright and too wide, so I’ll have to do some sort of masking, maybe I can just lay a big washer on the top of the spotlight… it lights up the pole, rope, and the trees in the distance. Way too much spill light.

Had a nice dark sky but didn’t see anything too dramatic, I was mostly interested in the radio, with great DX on 20M.

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Today I’ll do maintenance like mowing the lawn, putting the cell booster antenna back up, and general cleanup. I might do another outlet in the dockhouse, if I can find the right box. I am moving all the outlets to about a foot above the high water line. Anything that got wet will be replaced too.

My buddy brought me the first 2 quarts of peas from our garden. There will be a bunch more over the next few weeks. And whatever was eating all my peaches last year has left me a few this year, so I might actually get a peach or two. There are a couple that are almost ripe, and good sized. I might grab them before I leave and ripen them at home. Better than letting them fall…

Next time we’re up will be the 4th of July weekend and we’ll have guests so I will want to leave the place ready for that.

I might get a chance to try the irrigation pump. It was under water, but I’m hoping that since it’s a pump, and rated for exposure, that it might be ok. If not, I’m seeing them in the auctions and I’ll bid a bit more aggressively. I’ve got two spares, but they are both smaller than the current pump, and it was barely getting the job done. I could go bigger, but I really don’t want to go smaller.

When you are providing most of your own infrastructure, and building backups for the rest, there is always more to do.

Of course, there’s always more to do anyway…

like stacking!

nick

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Sat. Jun. 8, 2024 – at the BOL, working… and a bit of relaxing

Hot but not Houston hot, and there is a lake right there… It was hot and sunny in Houston yesterday, but not as hot as I expected. The breeze helped. The BOL had nice weather that my wife enjoyed while working from ‘home’.

I got my truck issues resolved, getting through inspection and smog with the Ranger. Had the third brake light out, and didn’t know it. Had enough miles and start cycles that all but one buffer was good to go, and it passed with that one issue. The Tax office was comfortable in the waiting area, and dealt with my fairly unusual circumstance pretty well. In any case, I’ve got registrations and plates are on the way.

The drive up was uneventful until I was almost here, then the a/c stopped working. We’ll see if that was some sort of temporary issue, or if all the messing around under the hood did something bad to it. I’ll be back at the shop on Monday. Disturbing stuff that has been in place for 20 years often causes issues.

Today I’ve got a variety of work to choose from. Some indoors, some out, some on the main house, some on the dock house. I will get one more disinfection/anti-mold spray down in. The previous ones are working but I’d like one more before we start putting furniture back. I’ll leave the walls open to continue drying though.

There was a lot of dew on the grass, so it might be too wet to mow, we’ll see. I can wait for that until Sunday if need be.

The cell booster antenna needs to go back up, and there are tree limbs that need attention. Still. There is plenty to do…

And my buddy has a birthday on Sunday too. I got him an IFAK and a bag to put it in. I was surprised to learn that he doesn’t have a good first aid kit for gunshots or other trauma. He spends a lot of time hunting and fishing, so I figured I could close that gap. Heck, the life it saves might be my own at some point. You can’t have too many prepared friends.

Stack your network like you stack food.

nick

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Fri. Jun. 7, 2024 – having another go at the truck stuff…

Cool to start but warming to “yep it’s Houston hot”. Probably. It certainly has been the pattern for the last few day, storm front not withstanding. IDK about any fronts today, so I’m going with “pretty much like yesterday.”

And yesterday it did get hot. Started the day with D2 getting contact lenses. She’s going through the whole “touching my eyes is hard” stage. I remember it even if it was 40 something years ago… and the tech looks the same but must be quite different. She’s getting one day disposables with astigmatism correction. Which is a lot of tech in something that small and clear. Civilization is awesome and I’m sure going to miss it. Damn dirty apes.

Then I did a couple of pickups. One thing for the house, a new gas can, and a tactical belt… not much in the way of stuff but I haven’t really been bidding much due to being out of town and in disaster recovery mode.

Today I’m going to try to get all my truck stuff sorted out. I might do an auction pickup too, if it works out. Then I’ll head to the BOL to join the rest of the pack. Wife says last night was beautiful, relatively cool, and clear with a nice sky. I’m hoping for a nice weekend.

We’ll go back up for Independence Day, but that is a crazy busy weekend. This should be nice and relaxing.

Other than the work.

but there is always work, so that’s kinda baseline.

There should be some stacks to look at and organize too. Maybe a portable A/C unit to bring up. I should have grabbed one from my secondary location yesterday when I was disposing of the construction debris… but maybe it will be easier to get one out of the attic here. Yeah, probably a lot easier and hopefully I won’t regret it during the busiest hurricane season EVAH!

You can’t have too much stuff stacked. As long as it is the RIGHT stuff. Do your best to stack useful things.

nick

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Thur. Jun. 6, 2024 – D Day.

Cool to start but warming rapidly to “hot”. Because Texas and summer. And if I’m wrong? Well that’s ok too. It stayed cool all day yesterday, but then it rained buckets too. Low 70s cool, which was very nice.

So I mostly stayed in. I did swap vehicles at the repair shop. Eventually the Expy got smogged and inspected and passed. That’s one out of the way. The Ranger still needs some driving around before smog, so I’ll be driving it today. And probably this weekend to the BOL.

The rest of my day was taken up with driving the kids to their various things. Didn’t get my own stuff done because it broke up my afternoon. Some days are like that. It’s the “stay at home dad” thing, and it means I don’t get to do whatever I want all day. Compromises, I’ll make ’em.

The stacks did pay off with a new turn signal bulb. It saved me a trip to the store yesterday anyway. I’ll try to remember to stop and get new ones when I’m out and about, so I have one when this one fails, or it’s opposite number fails. Doesn’t sound like much, but in a day full of other stuff it saved the trip and about an hour. I’ll put it in the ‘win’ column.

Today will be a couple of pickups, and getting ready to head to the BOL. My non-prepping hobby meeting got moved to next weekend, so we might just head up early and make a long weekend of it. I’m sure there are things for me to do…

And I’m sure there are things for you to do too. I’ve learned the hard way this month that I shouldn’t have procrastinated about the vehicle inspections, renewals, generator maintenance, and auto repairs…

It’s easy to stack, harder to do the stuff needed to stay ready. Pick something you’ve been putting off and do it.

n

(added, and on this anniversary of one of the biggest things humans have ever tried to do, think about history repeating… the horns of war are blowing. Do what you can to be ready.)

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Wed. Jun. 5, 2024 – ah the life of Riley…

Hot and humid again/still/etc. It got over 100F in my driveway yesterday. That’s hot. Especially when it is humid enough that mildew grows on the moist windows, and condensate drips from A/C vents…indoors. Probably gonna be like this forever now, ‘cuz of the global warming. Or at least until Fall.

Did some stuff yesterday, although not the stuff I started the day thinking I’d do. My truck wasn’t finished, for one thing, so I didn’t spend any time on that. And I stepped through the ceiling in the kitchen, which led to fixing drywall there, and in the bathroom.

I did get a random camera to boot, and figured out how to access its stream without installing any of the chinese malware disguised as an app. It’s a new one built very cheaply, but loaded with ‘features’ and sold for incredibly low prices. I’m not totally comfortable about having it on my network, but it’s better than having the app running on my phone, or in a browser. Slightly better. If even I will put a chinese IOT device on my network, the average joe doesn’t stand a chance of maintaining security. I’ve got it in the attic watching one of the major rat traffic paths. Oddly, I haven’t seen any today.

I also vac sealed and froze a bunch of meat, and did some small tasks for auction and sales stuff.

Today should be more of the same, with some drywall mudding, some auction stuff, some car stuff, and some cleaning and organizing and fixing…

The stacks have been neglected for a while, and they need attention.

Stack what you can, but also maintain what you have.

nick

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Tues. Jun. 4, 2024 – probably should take better care…

Hot and humid, sunny. But if you are in the shade, it’s manageable. That describes yesterday afternoon too, although it was mid 90s or higher…

I walked home from the car repair place, took about 1/2 hour, and I was pretty warm by the time I got home.

Speaking of car repair… I do some maintenance. I check oil, fluids, tire pressure… I take care of tires and run a good spare. I monitor my gas mileage and pay attention to noises… that said, I have a tendency to let things go and then fix them after they break. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that my truck needs a bunch of stuff when I do take it in for service. In this case it needs front brakes, some heater hoses (21 years old), gaskets, and a lot of bits and pieces. It’s not getting the bits and pieces. Crumbling and rotten hoses? Oh hell yes. That leaves you stranded on the side of the road. Brakes? Yes. I’m hard on brakes, and you need to be able to stop. Noise in the power steering pump? Not a concern at this time…

They are supposed to be done later today. We’ll see. It should be around $2000 for everything. I said no to about $1200 in additional work that is either not critical, or can be done later. It’s not a restoration, it’s about having a reliable vehicle. And I can buy a lot of motor oil for the $900 a new oil pan gasket costs to install. Yeah, I looked several places and that’s not out of line. Apparently there is a lot of stuff in the way and the book says 6.5 hours… F you Ford. Oil pan that takes 6 hours??

I’ll swap the Expy for the Ranger and get it smogged, then I can proceed to get legal again. Although technically my parts truck needs to be registered as ‘non-op’ to be fully legal… and I don’t think that’s happening. If I’m not driving it, why should it be registered?

Didn’t get a lot done yesterday. Wasn’t feeling great most of the afternoon, then D1 needed chauffeuring around. Still not feeling 100%, but need to actually suck it up and do some stuff today.

Entropy increases. The fight against it never ends.

Stack the good stuff.

n

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Mon. Jun. 3, 2024 – in which our hero does work over again, because he’s a procrastinator

Hot and humid. Houston summer. Probably. Like yesterday.

Spent yesterday NOT doing the work I needed to do. Maybe that was for the best, but probably not. I did find a spot on the laundry room ceiling (where the critter sometimes made noise) that has moisture bleeding through from the attic, staining the drywall. There is what looks like mold around the edges of the temporary patch too… Something either died up there, or there is a leak in the plumbing work that we had the ceiling open for originally. Either way, it was an unpleasant discovery and will be getting worse when I open it up to deal with it. Honestly might not happen today. It’s a full PPE and clear everything soft out of the room kinda thing, and I don’t have time.

Because I’ll be dealing with truck issues, trying to get registration taken care of. First I need to get inspected again. Both trucks. Then I need to actually do the standing in line and begging forgiveness, while paying the penalties. No, I don’t like it. I really get bothered when I am forced to interact with the machinery of “state” this way. They just keep glomming on and glomming on to more authority, and increasing the severity of not acknowledging their power grab, and it angers me on a very deep level. It’s a reminder that we aren’t free. That we don’t own our own property. And that they can and will use force to MAKE us do what they want. They start by requiring a yearly fee and a marker tag to use your own property, and they end telling you how to worship your God. Eventually they will insist you worship theirs under penalty of death.

Nothing is ever “enough” for the fanatic, and the fanatics are the ones who rise to power.

Avoid coming to their notice.

n

(and stack)

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Sun. Jun. 2, 2024 – in the summertime, the livin’s easy…

Hot and humid. Possibility of rain. Possibility of scorching sun. It was nice yesterday at the BOL, with a cool breeze in the shade, and brain boiling heat in the sun… while Houston got some cooling rain.

I did get a bunch of work done at the BOL. Cleaned up almost all the remaining downed branches, cut up logs, and other debris. Now I have 3 burn piles as tall as me… Cleaned up the demo debris from the dockhouse. Reset the A/C in the dockhouse after the power failure. I’m running it 24/7 to help dry out the wood. Mowed the grass. Put most of the patio furniture back after moving it out of the way for the tree guy. Put away all the solar stuff I’d brought to Houston, and did some general cleaning up and putting away.

It was enough to fill the day.

Today I’m home in Houston and will be doing storm recovery stuff. I need to make repairs to our driveway gate, back fence, and some other things. I’ve got to get stuff back where it belongs, and sort some stuff out. I should do something about the rat situation, and my general pile of stuff that needs attention…

After resting and getting a slow start… if it’s hot.

Stacks. I got ’em. You should too.
n

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Sat. Jun. 1, 2024 – Saturday, in the dark, I think it was a month to July….

Cool to start but surely getting hot later. Unless it’s pouring down rain. Which is apparently a possibility. ‘cuz that’s what we need today. More rain.

The ground is getting saturated, and the trees are falling over whenever the wind blows.

I started yesterday with the best of intentions, got thwarted by my own procrastination, and ended up just doing auction stuff anyway after wasting the whole morning. Then I did some grocery shopping and loaded the truck for the BOL.

Now I’m up here, and my day will be dependent on the weather. I’ll either clean up debris, and load the truck for a dump run, or I’ll hang out indoors while it rains. I’m tempted to stick around if it’s storming, in case the power goes out again. Locals say the number of outages and the length of the outages are unprecedented. I say it’s probably the new normal for one reason or another. Some sort of automatic failover to a backup power supply is nearly at the top of the list now…

Infrastructure is awesome when it is intact. Lots of ways to break it, and only so many ways to fix it. Plan for losses.

Stack what you need to be 80% or more of what you are now. You’ll be better off than almost anyone else, and the 80/20 rule of thumb says you will be maximizing your result vs effort and resources.

Or choose a different path, but I think our choices now will be the major factor in how we live 1,2,5,and 10 years from now.

Stack.

nick

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