Category: decline and fall

The national weather forecast looks clear for this part of the country today, and most of the country for the next couple of days. I’m betting our temps stay in the 60s and 70s for a couple days at least. I hope so anyway. It was chilly Sunday, but hot Saturday. Cool would be nice today.

Sunday I slept late, got a leisurely start to my day, and ached everywhere. It took some serious stretching to be my back in any kind of order. Loading and unloading for Hamfest, 2x each, takes more of a toll every year. I’ll keep doing it for a while though.

After breakfast/lunch, I took the trailer back and unloaded some stuff at my secondary location. Spent some time piddling around there, making room and moving some stuff. Came home and piddled around with some stuff with the idea I’d be able to move it along afterwards. Didn’t really work out though.

W made dinner, and we ate it. She make several pounds of chicken chunks with a sou vide accessory for the Instant Pot, and froze the result. We’ve had it in a couple of meals now, and it’s been good. I’m not sure there is any real benefit to cooking chicken that way, but having some ready to heat and eat has been handy.

Today is the start of Spring Break, so both kids are home. We’re thinking about heading to the BOL for most of the week. There are some conflicts on the schedule, so I’m not sure what days we can actually go. I can stay all week if I need to, but there are kid things that overlap…

I’ll be doing a couple of pickups today, and doing stuff around the house. Getting out the Hamfest stuff sort of broke a logjam for a whole series of tasks in the driveway and garage, so I’d like to make some progress on them while I have even the tiniest bit of momentum.

THEN I’ll go work on the list at the BOL.

It’s a blessing to have stuff to do and a place to do it. It does wear on me sometimes though.

Keep stacking. Keep improving.

nick

Sunny and cool, with light overcast and a gentle breeze… not the actual forecast, but my wish for the day. Yesterday was too hot and too humid, and I got burned through the overcast… so a bit cooler would be nice.

Did my stuff yesterday. Lots of driving in a big loop, followed by a bunch of loading and digging up stuff from a variety of locations. But it’s loaded and I’m ready to go.

Today is Hamfest, so that’s where I’ll be. In the parking lot at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds, with my good stuff spread out across 4 or five parking spaces… Hopefully most of it will sell and people will find just exactly what they need.

It’s always a good time seeing people I don’t see much anymore and those I only see at the Hamfest. I really enjoy working the crowd, but it is a long day.

Busy too. Probably won’t even check in until I’m home in the evening.

If you are in the area, come on by. The indoor stuff is $15 at the door, with displays and booths from manufacturers, vendors, and presentations. There are a couple of real nice raffle prizes too. No charge to roam the swap meet in the parking lot. My truck will have a uhaul trailer attached, and I’ll be wearing a hat.

Stacking stuff and meatspace…

nick

Cool bordering on cold, and warming later. Still probably clear and sunny. Which describes yesterday, and I hope tomorrow as well. It was high 60s, or low 70s in the afternoon which was nice. Nice to have that sun too, considering it started in the 40s.

Did my stuff yesterday morning. Picked up D1 from school because she didn’t feel well. Her best friend has a respiratory infection but is still at school and doing sports. Now D1 has a sore throat and body aches. She’s going today though because of testing before spring break.

Then I did my pickups. Got most of what I had outstanding, including from the scammer auctioneer who is open again. Empty warehouse and new staff- I’m not betting on them being open for long. Then I hit my secondary and storage to start gathering Hamfest stuff. I’ll need to do a lot more of that today.

Which brings me to today. I should be getting stuff out of storage, clearing a path through my driveway to get stuff out of the garage, and getting the last of my items out of my office and the attic. I’ve got to pickup the trailer and do an auction pickup in the afternoon. It’s going to be a busy day.

Not as busy as the actual Hamfest, but still, pretty busy.

And I’ll miss my non-prepping hobby meeting Saturday, due to being at the Hamfest…

Never enough time to do all the things… but hopefully this will help me to stack some money, and make room for other things. Both are good things to do.

nick

Cool again, low 50s? and then warming a bit. Yesterday was beautiful. Sunny, cool, and not raining. I’m hoping for the same today.

I didn’t get anything at all done in the morning. After taking the kid to school, I came home and crashed out at my desk. Woke up 4 hours later. Too little sleep, and too many carbs, and I was out.

In the afternoon, I did some smaller things from pretty far down the list. I had to move some stuff that had been sitting in the foyer and living room, so I decided to just install it where it belonged. Of course that wasn’t completely straightforward… and took more time than I’d hoped. Ran out of daylight and that was that.

So today I get to finish that job (replacing a camera on the roof) and then do the other stuff on the list. With the added short list of stuff I need to do to get ready for the Hamfest. I’m really not feeling it this year, but I’ve got stuff to sell, and the Hamfest is the easiest way.

I’m even taking a look at my test bench to see if I can reduce it some more. Sold several pieces last year, and haven’t even powered on most of what’s sitting there in years. I have to wonder if I’ll ever learn enough about fixing radios to get any real use out of the radio test set… Maybe the compromise is take it, and see if I can get a good price. I don’t want to give it away just to get rid of it. On the other hand, someone else could use it to fix radios and get them back into circulation. I’m less likely to do that with every passing day.

I get ‘enthusiasms’ and then don’t have the time to pursue them at the level I was hoping to. I’m better at managing that now than I was, but I’ve got the legacy of that sitting on my bench and in my workshop. Some of you guys here give me hope that I WILL get to it at some point, but maybe I need to concentrate a bit more on actual doable stuff…

Feeling a bit introspective I guess with my 20 year wedding anniversary and 59th birthday both coming up in the next couple of months.

Anyway, I’ve stacked some stuff that I think I might never really learn to use, and that (unlike medical supplies) I’m unlikely to be able to provide to someone that could help me because I have it. Re-thinking and re-evaluating as your circumstances change is part of prepping. Maybe time for me to do some of that…

And then I can stack something useful.

nick

Cool and not so wet this morning. It rained buckets yesterday, but then the front moved in and dried everything up. Stayed just under 70F all day too. Really nice to drive around with the windows down. It was crazy gusty though. Lots of debris falling from trees, including in my yard.

I did mostly domestic bliss in the morning, since it was raining cats and dogs for part of the day. I cut my hair, did some computer work, and knocked off a few little things that had piled up until I had time to do them. I actually got stuff done. Not big stuff, but stuff. I made the appointment to pickup my rental trailer for the Hamfest too.

After that I got out of the house and did a very uneconomical pickup. Wasn’t much stuff. Wasn’t high value. Was far away. I couldn’t combine trips, and it’s an auctioneer I like so I didn’t want to blow it off or leave it for another week. Had a good chat with him, so that part was nice. And the weather was actually good for the drive. Except the wind. That sucked balls. I watched it blow a garbage truck out of his lane on the freeway. Good thing traffic was weirdly light.

Did my Tues/Thur kid taxi stuff with the extra bonus of dropping the wife’s car at the shop. “weird” crunching noises coming from the front end… I think that sounds expensive. D1 may not be getting mom’s old ride when mom upgrades. Chinese takeout for dinner.

I forgot to mention that the day before I tried a beef “shoulder roast” in the oven. I’m not sure what it’s normally cut as or sold as. It’s clearly a cheaper cut, with fairly coarse grain running all different ways, but like the sirloin, it was plenty tasty. If you pay attention slicing it, it’s not even chewy or hard to cut. It was on sale so I thought I’d give it a try. The stores are really trying to make sure people can get something close to the before times, for what money they have available. Sometimes that is a cut that isn’t normally sold that way, or sometimes it’s slicing a steak in half so you get two servings that look like a whole steak… sometimes it’s selling 70/30 hamburger instead of leaner blends (a false economy since you drain the fat away.)

My wife pointed out that I’m way behind on planting a garden. IDK about that, but I do have volunteer collards off my 3 year old plants. I cut everything back severely in the Fall, and now I have two or three healthy looking plants. I may just do a “scatter and rake” seeding and see what happens in the raised beds. Should be ok for herbs anyway.

Too much to do, to little drive to get it all done. Small victories are still victories.

Stack. Improve. Work.

nick