Category: government

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

Well, IDK what it’s going to be like today. Real snow started at about 2am, and I went to bed. The forecasts are all suspect, so I’m going with “temps around freezing” with some precipitation. I don’t really expect there to be much accumulation when I get up today. I could be wrong. We’ll see. And I have no idea at all what to expect today and tonight, except that it’s about 90% certain to be less than what was predicted.

Spent yesterday buttoning up the BOL, driving home, and then doing a couple of small things to “get ready” for the snowpocalypse…. Mainly doing something to protect the hot water heater on the side of the house. I insulated all the lines last time it got cold. That has worked fine. I put a 100w flood light under the unit by the lines and valves, and put a metal screen over the whole thing to block some of the wind. Hopefully that will be enough. Turns out, putting the water heater outside the conditioned volume of the house is risky. I won’t be doing that again.

My doctor’s appointment for today got cancelled so I’ll probably just stay in and do some cleaning/organizing and some computer work. Maybe I’ll get the wifi changed over to ubiquiti WAPs like I’ve been planning. It would be nice to get a pi-hole set up too, although I’m not ready for that. I should really pull some backups too.

There’s always more to do. Always be working…

and stack some good stuff…

nick

Cool and dreary again. Probably. Or not, since the national forecast has us clear for a couple of days. It never did stop drizzling or “heavy misting” yesterday. Everything outdoors was thoroughly wet by the end of the day. I’d like some dry out time, and some clear weather to get the rest of the decor up…

Because I didn’t get any of it up Sunday. I did get the toy room/library/junk pile mostly cleared out. Not completely done, and didn’t get a tree yesterday, but made a lot of progress. There was a ton of stuff in there that I’d forgotten about. Right now it all looks worse, because it is scattered around the house, and sorted into other piles, but I can get that cleaned up pretty quickly. I’ve had to go through some of it as I dug it out, and that slowed things down.

Dinner was pork loin roast. I used to package it in 2 pound servings, but now I generally like a three pound roast for the family. So I had to pull two from the freezer, one from 2022, and one from 2020. Both were still tasty if a little bit too lean. I was still buying at Costco back then, before I decided their pork was too lean to cook well. We’ve got 1 pound of leftover for lunches.

Today I’ve got a full plate, ‘natch. I should get to my secondary, the rent house, and possibly an auction pickup or two, as I’ll be on the right side of town. I like to combine trips if possible.

But the Rent house will take a couple of hours if I count the shopping time, and if it all goes perfectly. If it doesn’t, could be a big project. I might push it to Tuesday, and just get the stuff I think I’ll need today. I’ll basically do what I can to move stuff along, with an emphasis on getting the house ready for Christmas, and getting my stuff done for the Christmas potluck for my non-prepping hobby. I’ll try to combine stuff to save the time of driving across town.

Of course anything can happen and the universe tends towards maximum perversity…

Which is why we prep. All kinds of extraordinary things going on in the world and the country right now. The status quo could change in a heartbeat. Or sudden lack of one. Keep stacking, keep working.

nick