Month: October 2024

Fri. Oct. 11, 2024 – no school today, whooohoooo!!! oh, right, I’m the dad…

Cooler, but warming later. Maybe not hot though. Yesterday stayed very nice even in the afternoon. Perfect shorts and t shirt weather. Clear too, so really a very nice day. I am looking forward to a couple more days like that.

Yesterday my day got off to a very weird start, and didn’t really improve until later. I spent the morning doing domestic bliss, and shuffling some stuff around the house. Set up and tested the gear I bought to resell last week in Leander. There are issues, but I think they are worth fixing rather than selling “as is for parts or repair.” Worth a quick look see anyway. Spent the late afternoon running kids around.

Wife and kids headed to the BOL for the long weekend, but I stayed behind. I’ve got my non-prepping hobby meeting this weekend, and I’ve got a maintenance issue at my rent house to address today. I’ll head up after my meeting on Saturday, and because it’s a long weekend, I’ll have an extra day to work up there…

That does mean I have the house to myself for a bit. I’ll do some more cleaning up today. Then I’ll head to my rental, my secondary location, and an auction pickup. Those three kind of clump so it makes sense to combine them. I like to combine trips and do my part to save the environment.

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I said that with a straight face! I like to save the gas money, my time, and the wear and tear on the truck… which is good for my environment.

Dunno what or how much I’ll get done here or at the BOL, but I’ll give it the old school try. And I’ll stack. Oh yes. I will.

nick

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Thur. Oct. 10, 2024 – 101020224 – not my circus, not my monkeys

Cool and clear again, then warming to hot later. Nice in other words. And a nice change from this summer’s heat. Yesterday was nice too.

I didn’t get a ton of things done. I spent a lot of time storm watching, and dealing with the idea of going on vacation in a hurricane disaster zone. ‘Cuz someone is crazy like that. But that eventually sorted itself out. While I was waiting for cooler heads to prevail, I did my pickup and drop off. Nice 50 gallon tank, now sitting in my truck, waiting to be power washed and sterilized. It’ll go to the BOL and supplement the tanks that are already there. I kinda need to fill at least one…

Putting them somewhere is the issue. I haven’t got a good spot. Even a bad spot will do for a short while, but my short term solutions tend to last a long time… so better to get it right, and “start as I intend to proceed.”

Or I could just wing it like usual. Because anything is better than nothing and perfect is the enemy of good (enough.)

Today I’ll be working my list, and most of that will be around the house. I’ve got stuff to do. Lotsa stuff.

Some of it might even be good enough.

Stack. Re-stack. Get started.

nick

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Wed. Oct. 9, 2024 – if you don’t stop that, you’ll go blind…

Cool and clear in the morning, warming later, but not getting hot hot. Just warm hot. Probably not even more than 90F… which describes yesterday too. And probably tomorrow as well.

The cool morning helped me do a couple of small things outside. I did a repair in the garage, poked around the yard. Looked for rat carcasses (and didn’t find any). Did my pickup, got the kid… did some small things around the house. But mostly I was looking at hurricane stuff, talking with mom and my sibling, and trying to figure out what will be happening this weekend.

I’m betting on a lot of wind, water, and devastation. I’m hoping the people I know and love avoid at least one of those three. It seems to unlikely that they’ll miss them all.

Today I’ve got one pickup and one dropoff. The pickup is a 55 gallon rotomolded water tank. The dropoff is a “safe” I opened and fixed for one of my auctioneers. I like opening the cheap “safes” and making them work again. It usually doesn’t take much to open them. Don’t use them to secure anything important. I consider being able to get into stuff, like “safes” or lockboxes, or vehicles, or doors, to be an important skill. Bypassing locks, brute forcing them, or “picking” them, are all fun and fascinating things to learn about and do.

Skills, I’ve got a few, and they are quite varied… stack some skills, and some stuff.

nick

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Tues. Oct. 8, 2024 – seems more important than it is.

More cool, followed by hot and humid. And a hurricane for Florida. It was pretty warm by yesterday afternoon, but cooled later. Still 84F after dark though. I’d say that we are well into Fall now, with the consecutive days starting at 72F or under. Nice.

Did stuff around the house, did my pickups, did my kid driving chores. Did some domestic bliss. Did some minor computer stuff. Didn’t work in the yard or driveway.

Today I’ve got one pickup, unless I won something I didn’t think I’d win. And I’ve got my busy day with driving D1 around all afternoon. I really need to get a few things done that will have a big visual impact and be a real change in the house. If I can get a couple of them done in the morning, I’ll be golden. If not, I’ll be a goat.

I’ll spend some time watching the weather too. Got plans that should probably change, and a couple of people in harms way. It’s difficult to change plans though, and easy to tell yourself lies.

Try not to lie, to yourself or others. One is hard, one makes life easier.

And of course, stack like your life depends on it.

nick

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Mon. Oct. 7, 2024 – a new week, what could go wrong?

Still hot and humid, but not raining… at least not in the forecast. We have had some overcast and threatening clouds, despite the clear forecast though. Might get some more. Yesterday was really humid and ended up in the mid 90s so I didn’t do much outdoors.

I ended up driving the kid around a bit, and going to the grocery store. No good meat on sale, but some indian pouch side dishes were $1 off. Picked up a dozen of them. Hamburger wasn’t over $5, so I picked up some ground chuck 80/20. I don’t have as much in the freezer as usual.

Spent some more time getting the kid from the mall later too. She is learning to delight in winding me up. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, she is my daughter after all.

Did some domestic bliss, but have plenty more to do. Moved some stuff to the “goes to the BOL pile”.

Fixed the cable on the garage door so that it closes flat to the ground. One edge was up about 3 inches which left room for the possum to get in. Maybe Mr Possum won’t be visiting so often now.

Did some computer work, cleaning and organizing. I’ve got stuff I should have done with the new year that I still need to get to. Meanwhile, I’m still ripping DVDs and CDs as I sit here.

Had a chat with my neighbor. She’s very concerned about the election, the chance they might cheat and install the Kamel, and what happens after. It’s the most frank discussion we’ve had in a couple of years. I assured her I was worried about the same things. Nice to know we’re on the same page. Most of the neighbors are so much younger than me, and they grew up with PC and newspeak, and are VERY reluctant to have any conversations where they might say something ‘not right’. They are very conflict averse so while I believe they aren’t Kamel supporters, I’m not sure. No yard signs in any case.

One thing I’m sure of is that bad times are coming. No matter who “wins” in November, it’s gonna be the sux for all the rest of us. Stacks will help.

nick

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Sun. Oct. 6, 2024 – hope I get something done today…

And hope the rain holds off. We got just a thin spatter yesterday. Not even enough to get things wet. Still had to cover the truck bed with a tarp, just in case. I use magnets to hold it in place, so it’s not difficult, just a step I dislike dealing with. The humidity would have benefited from some rain to clear the air. Temps were nice all day though.

Did my pickup, went by my secondary location to drop some stuff off. Dropped off filters for the A/C at my rent house, and stopped in to chat with my auctioneer. He’s still not ready to start selling my stuff again. I also picked up some books from him. Good stuff like animal husbandry, small engine repair, and a multi volume “best works in English” set. Hit the Goodwill bins for an hour on my way home. Got some books for me, and some for eventual resale. Of course I grabbed some DVDs too.

Did a tiny bit of cleaning up and organizing. Mainly avoided working at home though…

So hopefully today I can get caught up with SOME of the tasks.

Maybe I’ll cook something too.

I will surely stack or restack something. You should too.

nick

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Sat. Oct. 5, 2024 – home this weekend, so work will be avoided…

I suck as a weatherman… today will likely be hot and humid, because we did get some rain yesterday, just after I said we wouldn’t. Just enough to wet everything in my truck… and today will probably be similar, threatening clouds, while slightly warmer and more humid than the last week. Or not, as I said, I suck at forecasting. Of course, so do they.

I did my long round trip yesterday. Took routes I haven’t taken in a while (290 to Austin) and never took (Alt 90 back to Houston instead of I-10.) I am a firm believer in taking different routes places so you see new things.

The stuff I picked up is in pretty good shape. I’ll test the big money pieces today, but I already got a working pro level fog machine, and two older but still working moving lights. My living room was like a disco last night…

Today I’ll do some more testing, and work my list of normal stuff. I really hope I can work outside in comfort. I’ve got a lot to do out there.

There is always stuff to do.

Since I’m moving and re-stacking food preps, I’ll encourage you to do the same. I’ve had some losses, both food and water storage. Those will have to be replaced. My buckets are getting brittle from the UV of indirect sunlight, just like my Aquatainers did. And I’ve had several gamma lids fail. It’s an argument for keeping stuff in the bags it came in, inside the buckets. You won’t fit as much, but it might reduce spoilage in the event of a failure. Also, gamma lids are for buckets that are “in use” not long term storage. Make sure you have extra buckets, lids, and gamma lids.

Stack what you need.

nick

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Fri. Oct. 4, 2024 – and I’m on the road again, going places.

Warm and clear, gonna be hot later. Yesterday didn’t break 90F in the shade but in the sun it got brain boiling hot. Today will probably be the same. No rain forecast either.

I think I saved the grass in the front yard, or at least most of it. It seems to not be as brown or crunchy.

I spent yesterday moving stuff on the back patio. I swapped an open shelf for a close cabinet, that is also in the same color as our house siding. It will look a lot neater back there now. I ran out of daylight, so I’ll be reorganizing and putting stuff away for a couple of days.

I’d do it today, but I have to go pick up my lots in Leander… that is about 6 hours of driving and some time to load up. Then later I’ll have to sort and store it. Should be a good quick flip though that is worth all the driving.

I’ll try to check in during the day, but you should talk amongst yourselves…

And stack.

nick

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Thur. Oct. 3, 2024 – Thursday again. Well who knew?

Still warm in the late afternoon. OK, hot in the late afternoon. Morning temps are around 70F which is nice, and the RH is down with the lower temps. BUT while it’s finally Fall, we aren’t into sweater weather yet. Still hitting 90F most days.

WELL, yesterday was a big fat bust. Didn’t get much sleep the night before and was in no condition to drive 3 hours each way to pick up my items. No way, no how. I fight to stay awake while driving in the best of conditions. Running on only a couple of hours of broken sleep was not going to help. So I rescheduled my pickup to tomorrow. I’ll get to bed early tonight, and make an early start.

I did manage to do a couple of small projects before getting to all the kid stuff and dinner.

Today is more of the same. Whatever I can do in the morning, and then late afternoon occupied by kid chores. D2 has an activity from 630-830 which really breaks up the evening too. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are not my own.

It would be nice to get some cabinets and shelves moved around today. W1 is definitely getting agitated by the lack of progress in the back yard and the driveway. I’m hoping for a cool morning and a strong back today.

So much to do, and so long not really being productive. I need to break out of this funk and get back to making progress. Being well rested is probably desirable to make that happen, as is eating less sugar. I’m going to make an extra effort now. There is a ton of stuff happening on the family calendar, with very little unallocated time between now and the new year. We’re about to start the headlong rush to the Christmas and I’m not ready.

Time seems to be flying by.

Get your life organized, your stacks topped up, and your friends on speed dial…

nick

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Wed, Oct. 2, 2024 – driving all day, my hands wet on the wheel…

Cool to start, then warming. And maybe getting all the way to “hot”. Dry, only in the sense of no precip, it’s still humid and muggy. But, it is a little bit less of everything, which is moving in the right direction after a long hot summer.

Yesterday I did my big circle of pickups. Skipped one that I had already made arrangements to ship my small items, but ended up wishing I’d gone by. They missed my instructions, and ended up nagging me to pick up my items. I will still have them shipped…

Spent some time getting the front yard sprinklers to run. Grass is crunchy. I’ve got to replace at least one head. I’ve got spares, but no time.

So I’m taking today to drive out past Austin for a pickup. WTH? The payoff is potentially massive though, and one of the lots consists of expired proprietary filament for my commercial 3D printer. It’s pretty hard to find the consumables for that printer, so I was a bidder on that stuff. As long as I was making the trip, I might as well make money flipping something. And, if I’m honest, I started bidding thinking this school district was in Rosenburg, only an hour away, not three… I’m happy to have won, and happy to have the stuff for the printer, and have the stuff to flip, but I could have skipped the whole thing and my life would be the same. I am looking at it as the universe giving me a gift…

One I have to spend a day getting.

So while I’m hopefully adding to my stack of stuff for making stuff, and adding to my stack of money, I’m also losing time, which I probably should have spent in a different way. I’m conflicted, obviously. Feel free to discount any whining about not having enough time to do stuff for a few days at least…

And while I’m doing my thing, do some stacking of your own.

Because who had “union shuts down shipping” on their card for October?

Stacks are a good thing.

nick

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