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Category: decline and fall

Mon. June 23, 2025 – how can summer be busier than the school year?

Hot and humid, but maybe starting out cooler. We had some crazy weather yesterday, with a squall moving through, both at the BOL, and in Houston. Houston got more of a trad thunderstorm, while I got crazy, but for a short time.

I slept in, after staying up reading, and then did yardwork. That got interrupted by weather, but I was able to finish afterwards. Closed up, and headed home.

D1 is out of town with her friend. D2 has daily band camp/clinic. I’m trying to generate some momentum with the changes I’m making, and the stuff I’m trying to do. W is working. Somehow it seems busier than the school year.

I’ll figure it out. I always do.

Stack or lack.

nick

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Sun. June 22, 2025 – hah, writing this at 2:22 am… on the 22nd

Gonna be hot and humid here at the BOL today. It was pretty hot and sunny yesterday when I finally got here. Houston had been hot and humid too. It finally cooled down after sunset, and I had a nice night on the dock.

Saturday was a scramble. Met with my non-prepping hobby club, and that was nice. Poorly attended because we had to reschedule, but most of the core was there. The Board and committee meeting ran late, so I rushed to get loaded up and on my way to the BOL. Had to do 2 pickups on the way, and made the second with one minute to spare. Spent the late afternoon and evening cutting grass. It takes so much longer when I’ve let the grass get too long.

Today I’ll finish the yard work, I’ve got more string trimming and then I need to blow all the debris clear. Lots of people up here, I guess it was a three day weekend for a lot of folks, even if the Juneteenth stuff was almost absent from local media and my awareness. That DOGE spending cut at USAID must have had an effect…

Then I’ll clean up, close up, and head home. Probably late in the day. There is always a lot to do.

I’ve added some medical stuff to the stacks here, and some other small things. And of course, I’m working on improvements.

Stack. Fix. Improve.

nick

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Sat. June 21, 2025 – non-prepping hobby, then BOL

Hot and humid, unpleasantly so. I was sweating balls yesterday while I was moving my stuff out of the storage unit. It was really hot in the sun, so I took it very easy. Still soaked to the skin. Today will be the same in all likelihood.

I did some domestic bliss yesterday morning. Some auction stuff, some self care. Cut my hair. Then I took a bunch of stuff out of the house, and commenced to moving out of one of my storage units. I was about half moved out anyway, and the lock was cut most of the way through last week, so I really wanted out of it. Ironically, it was my OTHER unit that was burgled. No one cares. I have to get a police report for the insurance so I’ll probably spend a couple of hours standing around next week waiting for someone to come by.

In the mean time, I moved out of that 5 x 10. One more at the same facility, but it will take a bit more work as there are a lot more smalls in that unit. And shelves. I was under the mistaken impression that I was running a store and should have “inventory”. That was wrong. I’m flipping this stuff as fast as possible, and no one is coming to my ebay store looking to see if I have some specific thing. I’m not the “microwave replacement plate” guy. I’m the “search for it and if I have it buy from me” guy. I will have some unsold stuff, but if it is sitting on the shelf too long, I bought the wrong thing.

It’s going to take some time to realign my mindset and my physical setup. I need to try though, as I really don’t need a bunch of stuff sitting around. Getting it to one place, where I can see it, and see what I have, will help.

In the other mean time, I have my non-prepping hobby meeting today, with discussion of our upcoming convention, and then I’m loading up and heading for the BOL. My buddy called to let me know the grass was knee high. Even if all I do is cut the grass, check all the things, and head back home Sunday, I need to get up there and do it.

I’d rather keep going with the momentum I’ve built this week, but needs must.

Always be working. Always be stacking.

nick

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Fri. June 20, 2025 – not a holiday today either

But it will be hot and humid. Some things in life are fairly predictable and hot and humid weather in Houston in June is one of the things… still I could be wrong. Yesterday was hot and humid though. And sunny. It didn’t seem as brutal as Wednesday though. Small mercies.

I did sleep in a bit, and then did auction stuff. I got some stuff listed, and I’ve got more to list too. Hopefully as I do more I can build some momentum. It would be nice to actually get stuff sold as well. Sold and paid for.

Today I’m building on yesterday. Move some stuff around. List some stuff. Try to get paid for stuff. I need to get into a storage unit and get out some stuff for one of my hobby buddies. My non-prepping hobby got moved to this Saturday and I promised him I’d try to bring him some stuff. I also need to get out of one unit or pay for another month. I’ve basically got today to do that. So I’ll be out sweating in the heat and humidity.

Suffering is good for the soul, right? Well, I’m not going to suffer too much, I’ve still got air conditioned spaces to get into and cool down. Small (or big) mercies…

And I’ll be improving, if not stacking. Which is always good.

nick

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Thur. June 19, 2025 – sometime this week, about 60 years ago, my existence became possible

Hot and humid. Wet or not. But hot and humid is most likely. It was crazy humid yesterday. I was sweating in the shade, just standing still, and even with A/C, when I was working, I soaked through my T shirt. Nasty. Very glad it was late this year, and relatively moderate.

Did my stuff yesterday. Did the kid stuff, then did some pickups, then did my other thing. Took all day. Came home and made dinner. Tried a new (to me) technique for cooking steak in a stainless pan, with asparagus and corn on the cob for sides. Steak was the $10 prime NY Strip that’s been on sale this week. Nicely marbled. Pan frying took it past the very rare I’d normally like, but the flavor was really nice. Dang youtube. I learned something. Well, I learned it now that I tried it and actually DID it.

A lot of prepping is like that, you THINK you are learning it, and to some degree you are, but until you actually try DOING it, you can’t be sure. I burned the garlic bread, but the steaks were delicious. In this case, I slotted some new knowledge in alongside of some existing knowledge, ie. how to cook stuff in the kitchen, and then I pulled that out of my brain and actually tried it. The success was mainly due to it being an extension of existing skills and knowledge. The more base knowledge and experience you have, the easier it becomes to slot that new stuff into memory, and to execute when you actually have a chance to try it out.

Build a good base and you’ll have a better chance for success when you need it.

—————

I’m going to try to sleep in a bit today, then clear a bunch of stuff out of the house, and hopefully out of my storage unit. It would be good to clean one out. And I’d like for my wife to see a change in the house when she gets back.

Always be working, always be stacking…
nick

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Wed. June 18, 2025 – gah, it’s already Wednesday… and I’m still not done with stuff

And it’s still hot and humid. I will say it was a bit less of both yesterday, at least for a while. Other than H&H, I can’t really say what today will be. Might get rain, might not. I do think it is generally cooler than 4 of the last 5 years. And that’s nice.

Did a lot of my things yesterday. Didn’t get the one that I needed the minivan for done. That one slipped into today. I did get a couple of pickups, some lead remover wipes from Hoppes, and some other useful things.

I’ll be taking the kid to her volunteer thing this morning so I can do my other thing later with the minivan. That is the only thing I have to do though. Everything else is just normal list stuff.

Other child and wife are safely at their destinations.

It’s weird coming home to an empty house that won’t fill back up later in the day. Foretaste I guess, but I don’t really like it.

Change is the only constant. Stack what you can.

nick

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Tues. June 17, 2025 – lot of messing around to do today.

Hot and humid, wet and wild… It did rain yesterday which helped keep temps down. Then it cleared up. Well, that did depend on what part of town you are in, which is typical of Houston. I would like some clear sky today as I’ve got stuff to do.

I did my pickups. The medical supplies were a bust. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Drove in enough rain to wash off the truck… and got home to feed the kids. Just an ordinary day.

I’ve got to get one kid to her volunteer stuff, then the other to the airport, then do some work, then do some pickups, then get the first kid, then let her maybe get ready for a double date. Ay carumba. I’m not ready for that.

So it’ll be short shrift again today. Early to rise, and tired later…

Stack some things,

nick

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Mon. June 16, 2025 – Summer vacation! Whoohoo!

Hot and humid. Humid and hot. The rain yesterday did bring the temperature down about 10 degrees, which was nice, but I don’t think this will continue. If it’s not raining today, it’ll get hot, and all that water makes it very very moist. Which is not my favorite thing.

Spent Father’s Day mostly not doing much. Did some auction stuff. Cleaned up some stuff. Did some domestic bliss. Still not feeling great so I wasn’t super motivated, and then the rain started. That was it for productive work. Kids were great. D1 made me waffles for breakfast. D2 offered me the x box so I could play a game if I wanted to. I used to play a lot before the kids came… not so much anymore. Eventually I had a nap, and then a big pile of crawdads for dinner. Chocolate mousse cake for dessert. Yum.

Today W is headed to a conference. D1 is working with a high school program for young kids to do a STEM summer camp. D2 is getting ready to head to Florida to spend a week with grandma. I’ve got a couple of pickups to do. One is a pallet of “trauma bandages.” They are coming from one of the school districts, so I have no idea what that actually means. It looks like it might be a dozen boxes of stuff. For $15 I thought I’d take a chance. Even if I just use a few for training purposes it’ll have been worth it, other than the time picking them up. I’m hoping to get some recently expired bleeding control kits…

And I’ve got a storage unit to close out, if the weather is ok. If not, it’ll probably be more stuff at home.

Improvements. Not much stacking.

Pick something and do it!

nick

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Sun. June 15, 2025 – Father’s Day

Hot and humid, cuz summer. Yesterday started with rain but was clear after mid-morning and got into the 90sF by late afternoon. It felt HOT and was super sweaty. Today should be the same. The BOL got lots of rain but the lake outflow started to catch up and the level actually went down.

I got a bit of a late start, but I did my pickup. Turned out the place was a UHaul facility with “mini-office/warehouse” spaces. I’ve seen 4 auction companies try to work out of there and go broke. Only one is still doing auctions that I know of. Some locations are ‘death’ locations. They look ok but for whatever reason, businesses don’t thrive there.

I cleared about half of a storage unit out after my pickup… took the stuff to my buddy’s office for sorting and sale. The lock on my unit was cut almost all the way through. That would have been the second time that unit was burgled. The management wasn’t too shocked and wasn’t too interested in doing anything about it either. “You got insurance.” At this point I might make more on the insurance claim than by selling the stuff. She did agree that theft was more common, and violence was rising among the perps.

I might make another trip today, if there is a break in the festivities.* It’s very hot at the office though, and that limits the work I can safely do. I will take an A/C unit and maybe an evap cooler over there if I can get them out of the driveway.

There’s always more to do… but at least I might not have to redo all the work on the dockhouse.

I’ll use the time to do some other stacking or improving.

Happy Fathers Day to everyone here with children of their blood, or their heart.

nick

*not really gonna be any festivities. I might get waffles with bacon for breakfast. And I hinted pretty broadly that I’d like some mudbugs for dinner…

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Sat. June 14, 2025 – not your average waste of time

Hot and humid. It’s more natural this way. Some people in Houston and surrounds got rain yesterday. Depended entirely on where you were. Some had a sunny day, some not so much. With all that variability in one city and one day, how does anyone really think they can measure and record “truth” with one or two numbers?

Did my stuff. Spent half the day driving. Went up to the Woodlands, and down to League City. Swung through Laporte and Pasadena on the way home. Lots of driving. Some rain, some sun.

Then I got home, made brats for dinner, and spent the rest of the day in front of the computer. Exciting stuff.

I did get word from my neighbor at the lake that my dockhouse was dry. That meant I could sleep in Houston. The water level has gone down since, removing any urgency I felt earlier about going there to clean up. I’ll monitor and maybe get up there later in the week.

Plenty to do in town here, though. I’ve got one pickup later today, and a bunch of stuff to move, clean, fix, or otherwise mess with. Call it improving my situation.

Call it prepping. I’ll call it “life” as that’s what prepping has done. It’s moved from ‘something I do’ to ‘the way I live’. I may be prejudiced, but I think that’s a worthy goal.

Stack it all!

nick

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