Month: February 2025

Sat. Feb. 8, 2025 – People are strange, when you’re a stranger, faces look ugly when you’re alone…

STILL not freezing cold. I’m beginning to think the whole “winter returns” was ‘overblown’…. I expect today to be better than yesterday, ie. clearer, and about the same temperatures. I think it hit 82F in my driveway. Sun came out late in the day too.

I did a bunch of cleaning and putting away. Wellllll, putting somewhere else… in the morning. Then I did a pretty big round trip to pick up a bunch of auction items. The most notable from a prepping perspective included several dozen first aid kit reloads of single serving antibiotic cream packets. I put them in my altoids tin first aid kit, and altoids tin “everyday” survival kit. Of course I also put them in normal first aid kits too. I think it would be hard to have too much antibiotic cream.

The other interesting lot was several boxes of lumber crayons. I got boxes of black and of white. I put the lumber crayons in my bigger kits, in my vehicle kits, and just loose in the truck. They will write on just about any surface and if you have black and white, you can mark on dark or light surfaces. You can use them to leave notes for others in your party who are following you, blaze a trail, or to do the FEMA cross on buildings in a disaster… and they don’t dry out. Yeah, pretty extreme use case, but they are small, cheap, and durable. Low cost and low effort but might save a life later…

Speaking of blazing a trail, I also keep a couple of rolls of flagging tape in bright colors in my truck. It can be used for trail marking, but most often I use it for flagging lumber or pipe when it overhangs the back of my truck… or for marking guy wires for temp antennas. I’ve also used it as streamer to stabilize kites when I have big kites in the air at the beach. Florescent orange is the brightest and one I use most often. Cheap, small, and useful.

Today I’ll buy the rest of the electrical parts I need for my project at the BOL, and I’ll head up later in the day. I should be able to crank out the work, but may need to stay Monday as well. We’ll see, as always. And I’m sure there is something on the list that could be done too.

Whatever small steps you take, whatever small job you get done, that’s one more thing you’ve done to help yourself and the ones you love. Big steps are important, but little things are too.

Stack.

nick

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Fri. Feb. 7, 2025 – I’m the urban spaceman baby, I can fly, I’m a supersonic guy…

Still warm. Getting clearer. The forecast is for clearing over the weekend. There was also talk of more winter. Didn’t see it yesterday. It got to 82F despite the overcast. Only cleared around dusk and only on the north side of town. Perhaps today will be nicer.

Spent all day either running errands or napping. Every half hour of down time had me sleeping. I was simply up too late reading, and paid the price. The rest of the day was moving from appointment to appointment.

Crock pot dinner was easy enough and delicious- chicken drumsticks and veg in the Crockpot stewed chicken flavor mix.

Today I’ve got a couple of pickups to do. Unfortunately they are all over town, so I’ll have more driving than I’d like. Then I’ve got to get the house ready for extra kids. D2 is having a couple friends over to get ready for a school dance. D1 is volunteering to chaperone a Girl Scout function. W1 wants a lot less of my stuff out and stacked when we have people over.

I’ve been working on it. Really I need to get sale stuff out of the house. And not bring more in.

And edit some of the other stuff piling up.

Maybe next week.

Stack!

nick

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Thur. Feb. 6, 2025 – I’m a lumberjack and I’m ok…

Warm and damp. Possibly clearing as we head into the weekend. Warmer later in the day. It’s been getting into the low 80s and I think we may get one more day of that. Then WINTER RETURNS!!1!!1!!!1!! Maybe. But for now, pleasant, if moist.

Did some stuff. Skipped some stuff. Still had kid2 home sick. Made her some soup and went out to do pickups. Got another 3D printer. It was $50. Now I really need to figure out what to do with them. Got some art supplies too. I grab them if they’re cheap. Both kids will occasionally paint something. I’d like to have time and energy to paint stuff again. I used to like doing art stuff. I don’t have much creative outlet anymore, and I’m not hanging around artistic people like I did for decades. Sometimes I miss it.

Today is a bunch of running around. D2 has an appointment in the morning to get her retainer repaired. Then it’s back to school for her. I’ve got a checkup in the afternoon, and some pickups to do. Later it’s D2’s extracurricular sport, and picking up D1 from hers… I think it will be a crock pot dinner night.

[just re-read that and it sure is brusk]

Mmmm, chicken in the crock pot…

Now I really should get busy. Don’t forget to stack something.
nick

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Wed. Feb. 5, 2025 – 02052025 – fire them all, rehire as needed…

Warmish and getting warmer. It was almost 70F yesterday morning and it got into the low 80s. The humidity was crazy high, and the short time I was working outdoors, sweat was running down my back. The sky was nice and blue with fluffy clouds… and I expect the same today.

Actually got some stuff done yesterday. Not as much as needed to be done, but more than some days. I did domestic bliss, getting a load of washing done. I made a crock pot pot roast. I got two of my cams back on line. One was a bad port on the switch, one was config issues, after I moved it 5 feet to get out from behind a tree. Thankfully I had the slack in the attic to move it. I also added a mic to the cam for the front porch, but haven’t tested or configured it yet. I have to print a different sticker for the front door to include audio recording.

In most states, audio recording is covered under wiretapping and eavesdropping laws, and can have very strong legal restrictions on use. This is why most surveillance video doesn’t include audio by default. No matter the legality, I’d rather have the audio, I just hadn’t taken down a cam to add a mic. Since I had the cam apart to troubleshoot, I added a mic.

I got some other small things done too. Fed the sick kid soup for lunch. She was feeling better at dinner time. Not sure if she’ll be back at school today or not. She’s not a shirker so I’m inclined to keep her home if she says she’s not feeling well.

Oh, and I put 50 pounds of flour into 5 gallon buckets, 25 pounds per bucket. That job has been sitting around waiting for far too long.

Today should be more of the same with an emphasis on cleaning up and putting away.

There’s always more to do, always more to stack. Stay busy.

nick

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Tues. Feb. 4, 2025 – sometimes when the pendulum swings, it’s a Damoclean Sword…

Dunno what the weather will be today. Forecast shows ‘clear’ and I’m going with “starts cool, but warms to low or mid 80s”… because that was yesterday. Except for the “clear” part. We’re in the south Texas “run the A/C and the heat in the same day” season.

I got a couple of pickups done yesterday. Mainly stuff for the BOL (driveway crack sealer, amongst other things), but a couple of household things too. Picked up the kid from her practice, and made tacos for my Ben… Sorry, tacos for dinner. Tried a new flavor packet, and it was pretty much like the other flavor packets.

Today I have one, possibly two, pickups. And I have some auction stuff to clear up. I’m also thinking it might be a good day to get some electrical stuff for the BOL, so I can find alternative sources if needed. Wife has relatives coming to visit us there, and they will need a hookup for their RV. I will need to install that hookup before hand… and I need to get the wire and the breaker. I’ve got outlets. Then I actually have to install it.

Sun up to sun down a farmer‘s husband’s work is never done…

Neither is a prepper’s. Get to stacking!

nick

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Mon. Feb. 3, 2025 – back to life, back to reality

Cool and clear, should be a nice day. Yesterday warmed up well into the 70s F. It would be nice to get another nice day.

Did computer and auction stuff all day. Skipped the household stuff until it was time to cook dinner. I’d defrosted a pork roast from 2018 and needed to cook it soon. I’d also brought home a free bag of apples from a “meal deal” and they were starting to get a bit beat up. I figured I’d make some stewed apples to go with the pork roast, and kill two birds with one stone… which is a good way to get more from your food budget money.

If you have something that is aging out, build a meal around it. Nothing like making french toast in a week when you have a lot more bread left than normal… The more active version of this is building meals around what is on sale, or what you got at the farmer’s market, or what your neighbor with the green thumb gave you. Or what the food bank was giving out on Tuesday.

Times being what they are, and likely to get worse, building good habits, being thrifty, making good use of available resources, and reducing waste are essential to living your ‘best life’. Good habits now will pay off later, and they help out now too.

Take a look at other areas of your life for opportunities to save. You are probably using too much of products you use frequently. Toothpaste, soap, shampoo, shaving cream- all are effective in much smaller quantities than suggested by the manufacturer. The huge curl of toothpaste, longer than the brush head, looks good on the box, but you really only need a pea sized squeeze. That picture on the box of “how to use the product” encourages you to waste it, and then you’ll buy more. Their motivations are not your motivations…

My motivation is to get the most-est with the least-est. And to make it through whatever bad times are coming. Stretching my stacks will help with that.

Stacking more helps too…

nick

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Sun. Feb. 2, 2025 – working the list…

Cold today? Yesterday morning caught me off guard with how cold it was. It did end up very comfortable in the afternoon, and it was sunny which was nice. Today will hopefully be a little warmer to start, but still sunny. It really helps to dry things out, and we need to dry.

I had my non-prepping hobby yesterday, and it was a good meeting. I sold some stuff and made a couple of guys happy. I will continue as webmaster, but fortunately I won’t be taking on any additional duties. Every organization has the 80/20 rule for member involvement, or even 90/10, with a core group doing most of the work to keep the group together. Ours is no exception. I would like to say I’m not in the 20% but a bit further down. I contribute, but I’m trying to limit my commitment at the same time. There are a couple of other people with similar levels of involvement.

I came home and napped, then did auction stuff for most of the day and evening.

Which means that today I feel like I should be working EXTRA hard. We’ll see how that turns out…

Don’t let my slackitude keep you from stacking though…

nick

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Sat. Feb. 1, 2025 – non-prepping hobby day, or meatspace baby!!

Cool again, and supposed to be clear. That will be nice. It was clear on Friday and crazy bright. Nice temps too. I was back in shorts.

Did a whole bunch of pickups yesterday. I made a big loop, west side to Alvin, to Pasadena, to Kingwood, to The Woodlands, to The Heights, and then home… Didn’t look at the mileage, but it was a lot. I hit two estate sales along the way, since I didn’t have a lot of actual stuff to pickup. Got some good books. Almost bought another telescope, a Meade LS200, but the drive was NFG and it wasn’t priced with that in mind.

I almost didn’t bother stopping at the sale, as the seller was a guy I thought had really high prices, but the title of the sale said “Priced to sell”. And the estate had ham stuff, astronomy stuff, woodworking stuff, and vintage vinyl with age appropriate hardware. It was a bust though. Prices were NOT good. I don’t understand estate sellers that won’t believe ebay sold listings for what an item is worth. There were a LOT of people attending, but no one was leaving with purchases. That is what is called “a clue”.

Did stop at the seller I used to use to move my stuff. He’s just about ready to start taking consignments again. Oh, and the first pickup seller will take some golf stuff on consignment for me as his next auction is featuring golf stuff.

Maybe I’ll sell some stuff at today’s swapfest… it’s our quarterly members sale and general meeting. I am hoping to avoid a board position… webmaster is taxing enough. But that is one of the risks and benefits of getting out there in meatspace, getting sucked into the groups you participate in.

After this morning’s meeting, I’m doing house stuff all day.

Working to improve my position. That’s me…

Somehow the stacking takes care of itself.

nick

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