Sun. May 4, 2025 – Star Wars Day…

By on May 4th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall

Clear and nice today. It was simply gorgeous yesterday. What a nice surprise. We got several inches of rain Friday night, but it was gone and done before I got up. Several inches of water in the back of the truck proved that we got a lot of rain. Hopefully today is nice too. National forecast says we’re in the clear.

Did my pickup in the late morning. Took a bit to get started. Still sore. Had a bit of free time so I hit the estate auction from Friday, and I found more stuff to buy. Good sale, lots of good things.

Got home and did a few domestic bliss things. Then I fell asleep in the chair. Wife and D2 got home, D2 went to bed and crashed. So the evening ended up being sleepy time and not work time.

I didn’t get as much done as I wanted, but I’m happy enough.

Today I’ll be doing a bit more home stuff. I’ve got indoor and outdoor stuff piled up.

Stacks of stuff. Still, there are things to get and stack. Figure out which are which.

nick

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Sat. May 3, 2025 – sorta busy Saturday…

By on May 3rd, 2025 in culture, decline and fall

Probably raining when I get up. Definitely still wet. Also probably a bit cool. That’s ok with me. It finally did rain yesterday after dinner time. And then it kept raining, and raining, with short pauses. Dunno what we eventually got, but the bayous will be full today.

Hit an estate sale, and spent $150. Got a LOT of good stuff. Camping cookware, water filter, ham radio stuff, art supplies, pipes, a little of everything. Guy was in my nearby neighborhood. Wish we’d have met. Then I did a couple of pickups. The main was was for two more of the 400 watt panels. I also got stuff from several auctions that had piled up at one of the guys. Then it was a flurry of kid taxi until D1 went to camp and I took D2 to her hobby meeting.

Today I have two pickups and a bunch of stuff to do. Mainly household stuff from the list, but also some other “pop up” stuff. And I need to get a bunch of stuff put away.

But first, a little bit of sleeping in.

Then stacking.

nick

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Fri. May 2, 2025 – 5022025 – lots to do today…

I’m expecting low 70sF and overcast. The national map shows weather in our part of Texas, rain and thunderstorms. We’re still a bit on the south side of the system, so we might not get it if stuff blows up from the Gulf. I’ve got stuff to do no matter what happens with the weather.

Yesterday was a nice day. Weather was good, sunny and hot. Some overcast. Maybe some rain some where in Houston, but not for me. Overcast in the evening.

I ended up rescheduling my client visit to next week. He went out of town, so wouldn’t be sending back the gear today anyway. That opened my schedule to watch the kid get “recognized” at school, and later to make some noise and smoke. That lightened my mood. Picked up the kid from school, did the kid taxi routine, and made dinner.

Fit in some other domestic bliss too.

Today I’ll be unloading the scrap I put in the back of the truck, then hitting a couple of estate sales, while doing my pickups. I’ll be making a big loop on the north side of Greater Houston. The main item is the solar panels, but the other things will go on stacks too, or in my “to be sold” pile. I’m buying less, but there are still things popping up that I can use or need.

Keep your eyes open. With the China trade war going on, the supply chains will be disrupted again. It may be the secondary economy is the only place to buy what you need.

Or shop your stacks…

nick

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Thur. May 1, 2025 – drawing a blank here…

73F and maybe some rain… or not. It’s the Gulf and my little micro climate of a neighborhood, after all. Yesterday there were pockets of light rain all over town, and some pockets of heavier rain too. Your experience of the weather was entirely dependent on your zip code. Just one more example of how ridiculous the idea of recording temperatures and drawing specific conclusions that apply globally from them really is. If you can’t even say it rained in Houston, or it didn’t, how can you claim your temperature numbers really mean anything?

I did a lot of running around Wed. One pickup in Sugar Land led to a visit to the reStore, and a visit to another auctioneer about maybe taking some consignments… then a stop at Goodwill before my pickup in Tomball for my non-prepping hobby. Home to move one kid from her school to the other kid’s school, pickup the other kid, drop her and a friend off, chiropractor visit, get some groceries, make some dinner, and then get both kids home and fed……. and I did some domestic bliss in between. Yeah, I’m exhausted from sitting in the truck most of the day.

Today I have to visit my client. ATT finally figured out that he’s not coming back to them, and they want their very expensive networking gear back. Part of me says they were happy to send out crews to install it, they should be happy to send out crews to remove it, but I know that’s not how it works. Maybe I’ll get some time to myself later in the day, before doing the kid taxi thing again, because it’s Thursday.

At least I don’t have any pickups scheduled today. I’ll be picking up another two solar panels tomorrow though. 10c/ watt is too good to pass up. I got this pair for the same price as the last pair. Now I’ve got 6 big panels, and I better get the project moving forward. It might even be overkill for where I think I might use them. The best part is that the auctioneer still has about 14 panels so I might be getting even more. Or the consignor might find someplace better to sell them…

I’ve adding to the solar stacks, building up toward a project… think about what you need to add to your stacks and what your next project should be.

nick

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Wed. April 30, 2025 – we’re like, old or something…

By on April 30th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall

Damp, overcast, cool to start, then maybe rain later according to the weather liars on the radio. We went all day yesterday without rain, but it looked like it was minutes away all day. Maybe today will be the same. Maybe. At least it’s not crazy hot.

Slept most of the morning. I fell asleep in the chair. Work up to do a pickup and then start all the kid things. I realized, I have been trying to live on 4 hours of sleep a night, for years, and it doesn’t work anymore. My body is telling me to sleep more. I will work on getting to bed earlier over the course of the next couple of weeks. Somehow my bedtime moved to almost 2am most nights, and later some. With a 6am wakeup alarm to get the kids out the door, I’m wiped out for the rest of the day.

Today I’ve got a big pickup in Sugar Land. My opening bid of $5 won me two pallets of spray sanitizer. It’s 75% ethanol. I use a lot of alcohol based cleaners, and I wanted it as a backup fuel for cooking. IDK if it will substitute for isopropanol when cleaning and curing resin prints on the 3D printer, but I’m going to try it, now that I’ve got alcohol to burn. Literally. I know it will burn in my boat stove and in a penny or hobo stove too. I didn’t really expect to win it, let alone both pallets. They had other pallets too, but they were a brand with glycerin in the sanitizer. I don’t want the gel. The stuff I got should be water thin to go through the sprayer.

After that pickup, I’ve got others. And all my home stuff on the list too. At least with this pickup, I’m adding to the stacks a bit.

Something I always like to do- stacking…

nick

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Tues. April 29, 2025 – Everyone knows the world is a disc, carried on the backs of four elephants…

By on April 29th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall

Probably another day that starts in the 70s and ends in the 80s. Like my daughter’s playlist. Might be clear this time. It was mostly overcast yesterday, but there were clear times and places. This close to the Gulf of America, sometimes it be that way.

Did auction stuff in the morning, then did my pickup. After that it was kid stuff until we were done with dinner. And dinner was indian food, late.

Delicious food. Tender goat for me. I don’t have the chance to eat goat very often, so I usually will order it if it’s on the menu.

Today should be more domestic bliss, some auction pickups, and then the T/Th kid shuffling…

There are a lot of things on the list, and I’m not moving things off it very quickly. I really need to work on that.

And stack. We’re down to one last juicebox for lunch…

nick

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Mon. April 28, 2025 – “Sunday Monday, happy days…”

By on April 28th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall

Cool to start, maybe high 60s, but likely low 70sF, and getting into the 80sF later. It was sweaty hot at the BOL yesterday afternoon. Until late in the day, it was nice in the shade. Humid, but tolerable. I was soaked later when I was out in the sun.

Kids and wife went home early on Sunday, but I stayed at the BOL to work on stuff. Mainly, I needed to figure out why the mower wasn’t running right. Many hours and skinned knuckles later, I put the old belt back on and the problem went away. The belt I got on amazon must not be correct. I’ll order another this week. I mowed my yard, and part of the HOA lot, but didn’t edge.

Noticed some dewberries along the edge of my property so I harvested about a cup. Lots of thorny defenders marked up my hands, but the berries are nice. There were lots of unripe berries so I should get more later.

More of my peaches were destroyed by whatever animal is raiding the tree. At this rate there won’t be any left to mature.

There are several food sources growing on the BOL property– persimmon, wild garlic, dewberries, peaches, and now apples. I noticed a mulberry tree next to my scrap guy’s yard, heavy with fruit. Maybe I can pick some of that too. Free food is the best food. I’ve also noticed several of my neighbors in Houston that don’t harvest their citrus trees. Hmm. Maybe I should up my foraging game.

Threw a charger on the trolling motor battery, and it’s dead. I’ll put the battery on my charger here and see if I can recover it. Otherwise I’ll explore options for replacing that as it’s not covered by the deal for the boat. Got the GPS/sonar working but the text is so small I don’t think I’ll be able to use it. I’ve got one from an auction that I can take a look at. Maybe it’s bigger and easier to read.

Did general clean up and putting away, and then headed home. Relatively easy drive, only a few crazies, and only a few cops out. I’m glad we didn’t end up farther from Houston as the current drive is about all I want to do on a regular basis.

Today I’ve got domestic bliss to do, some more moving stuff to and from storage, and I’ve got to plan my week. I have pickups, a visit to my client, and other stuff to do. Some of it will be time sensitive, so I should get done what I can to open time for the other stuff later.

And stacking– I’ve got to restack canned goods. Make sure you do your best to keep your stacks, cool, dark, and dry.

nick

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Sun. April 27, 2025 – wrapping up and out…

By on April 27th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse

Cool morning followed by hot afternoon. Summer isn’t quite here, but it’s close. It’s still chilly and damp at night, and the fire is welcome.

Spent most of Saturday doing boat related things. Got a few very small things taken care of, and cooked a special dinner for D2’s birthday celebration. The two extra kids ate, but I don’t think they were really down for eating lamb rib chops. Pity because they were really good. W did the side dishes and they were all good too.

Today the family is headed home early while I stay to wrap up. I’ll also try to diagnose and fix the drive issue with my lawn tractor. If I get it fixed, I’ll mow before heading home.

Then it’s a week of doing home stuff which I can’t put off any more.

There’s always more to do. Don’t get complacent.

Stack.

nick

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Sat. April 26, 2025 – Working at the BOL today

By on April 26th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse

Probably starting out around 70F and getting warmer, maybe into the high 80sF… and for sure it will be damp. It was 72F and condensing when I went to bed. Apparently lots of places got lots of rain yesterday. I never saw any, but I did see wet roads. My weather station here said we bot 1.75 inches in the last couple of days. Lake is a few inches above normal too.

I completed almost all of my tasks yesterday. I didn’t get to the Lowe’s on the way up, so I’m missing a couple of things that would be useful, but I’ll either manage, or do something else. I’m now a boat owner… although it’s not yet in the water. That will happen later today.

This weekend is birthday stuff for D2, so I’ll be doing some special cooking today. And it’s the annual resident “clean up the common areas” day and member meeting. We have an expired POA not an active HOA, so it’s all voluntary at this point, but there is still a male Karen who thinks he can dictate behavior. He can’t. He still tries every year. On the plus side, he pays more than his dues so that covers for some of the owners who choose not to pay. They still complain about the condition of the roads though. If you aren’t paying for the upkeep, it’s pretty arrogant to complain that the upkeep isn’t good enough…

I’ll be working to improve my situation, and I’ll be working on meatspace things too. Fitting into community takes work and time. There isn’t any shortcut either. If you expect to stay in place or to get to a BOL, you better be working the human factors now.

And stacking of course.

nick

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Fri. April 25, 2025 – Stuff to do, then more stuff to do…

By on April 25th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse

Well, it rained last night, and the temp dropped, so I really don’t know what to expect today. Map showed our part of the world as clear of rain and storms. I’m hoping that is true, as I’ve got stuff to do that will be a lot easier if it’s dry. And the weekend will be a lot more fun for the kids if it’s not raining. If it’s not dry, I’ll deal.

Got my buddy loaded up, and on the road before noon. He’s got a long trip ahead of him in a very heavy vehicle. At least it was a new truck. That should be more comfortable than some old clunker. Then I rushed to meet my wife at the boat place, and we bought the boat I’d looked at last week. Yeah, I know the joke, but if I can get a couple of years between the two happy days, it will have been worth it. Remind me if I b!tch.

Hit a couple of pickups after that,then came home to kid stuff. Oh, and snuck in a Costco stop for meat and treats for the birthday girl and my wife.

Today I’ve got to install the hitch receiver from the parts truck onto my Ranger. I’ve been putting it off, but I’ll feel better pulling the boat with a better hitch. Then it’s take a load of stuff to storage, do some pickups, and head toward the BOL. Pickup the boat on the way…

I can only hope it will be that straight forward. I expect that it will not. Rain complicates all of that and will cause some rearranging…and swearing on my part.

I’ll let you all know how it goes.

In the mean time, keep working to improve your situation. And stack.

nick

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