Category: lakehouse

Cool and damp. Later, warm and damp. Maybe warm and slightly drier. It’s been really nice actually. Windows down, wind in your hair nice. I’m hoping for more of the same today.

Tuesday went pretty much to plan. Went to the volunteer work session at D2’s school in the morning, and only stayed a couple of hours extra… during which time I cleaned and tuned up both followspots. One is the school’s, one is a very cheap rental, and both needed attention. Now they look and function like they should.

I left school and did my two pickups, then picked up D1 from school. Dropped her at home, grabbed some refreshment, and headed to rehearsal. That went pretty well. It sounds ok. At this point it’s down to riding levels during the performance, and maybe tuning the individual mic EQs. With only 4 performances, there isn’t much time to do that, so there are some small issues with the ‘quality’ of the vocal sound, but you can hear the lines, hear the lyrics, and it only sounds a bit “mic’d” or un-natural. That is a vast improvement as far as I’m concerned. If someone comments on the ‘quality’ of the sound, I’ll use it as a conversation starter to suck THEM into supporting the shows.

So far, I’ve donated my time, a pair of powered monitor speakers, some mic cables, and adapters. I’ve cleaned and fixed two followspots, installed two new wireless mic receivers, and repaired some mic cables. There is also a powered Mackie monitor ‘on loan’ from me for the Music Director, and an 8 Gig thumbdrive to backup the settings in the board. I’ll be following up with some of the firmware updates and settings after the show is over, and probably trying to improve some of their other “pain points” as the corporate weenies say…

I probably should have done it years ago, when D1 was at the school. I knew it would be a huge time sink though, and I was trying to avoid Imperial entanglements. My thinking about community and local meatspace involvement has “evolved” over time.

——————————————————————————-

Preps have suffered while I did other things. That’s ok, because we’re already prepped, and the other stuff is important to me, and the kid. I have managed to put a bit more food in the freezer, so that’s a plus. My fisherman buddy’s son harvested two deer and a hog this past week, so some of that might come my way too. Speaking of which, if you are the praying sort, he could use some for health and strength this week.

———————————————————————————

Today I am hoping to take down my Halloween decor, if it’s dry. Then I’ve got lots of stuff on the list, before turning into a taxi service…

It would be nice to do a bit of work on the food storage cleanup and organizing. Oh, and I’ve got to remove the dead rats from the traps, clean them, and re-set them. The new tunnel traps have worked, with 3 rats meeting their demise so far. Bait was blonde Oreos…

Bait your traps, stack some poison, and get your house in order. Bad things are still headed our way.

nick

Cool but damp. Warming later. Weather yesterday at the BOL was hot in the sun, drippy with humidity, but cool breezes. Today, back in Houston, I just want a couple of dry days so I can take down and put away the Halloween decor…

I got a leisurely start to the day yesterday, but then did a bunch of work. After getting the truck unloaded and the bed set up, I did a whole bunch of yard work. I’d skipped the detail work the last couple of times I was up, and it showed. Time to get the string trimmer and blower out. Plus, tons of leaves on the ground and caught in all the underbrush, all of which needed blowing out so they don’t hold moisture and mold.

I followed that with mowing, and then string trimming and blowing again. It was getting pretty dark at that point, so I called it a day and put everything away.

Lots of stuff that didn’t get done, but it looked lived in and cared for when I finished the yard stuff. And for a place you don’t live in, that’s important.

————–
Today I’ll be returning the trailer, and doing all the other normal things I fail to do on a regular basis. Well, I’ll be trying to do some of them. Maybe.

I’ve got stacks to sort, move, and store. I’ve got auction stuff to get ready. I’ve got kid taxi duties and pickups around town too. A busy day, like most of them.

So get to stackin’. Don’t get caught lackin’.

nick

Low 70s today with a lot of damp. Lake is high, with soggy ground everywhere. Yesterday got pretty hot in Houston in the afternoon, to the point where I was soaked to the skin loading my trailer with my new bed.

I started my Saturday with my non-prepping hobby. It was good to see everyone, and we had a nice meeting. I sold some stuff, which is always good. Followed that up with a pickup in the Woodlands (the bed and some vintage pipes) and then on to the BOL. Had a nice dinner, which D1 and friend grilled. Radio was wide open later that night. I really need to get a radio and antenna set up here.

Today I’ll get the bed set up, and work on some other small things. I forgot/didn’t have time to get the electrical stuff I needed to do the work in the dockhouse, so I’ll probably just do the speakers and sound stuff, and whatever other small things I can get off the list. Can’t do much major as I’ll be heading home tonight.

I did bring up 4 gallons of the lamp oil, a Coleman propane stove, and a couple of bottles of propane. I brought a few more books for the library up here too. Some prepping is happening…

Oh, and D1’s friend caught a fish off our dock. The kids are making a big deal about it since I’ve only managed to catch one fish in 2 years of trying. Clearly it’s possible. The problem must lie with me. 🙂

Do some stacking of your own, and work to improve your situation, whatever it is.

nick

Probably damp and cool, but maybe raining… It was really humid yesterday, and got up into the low 80s in the afternoon, but after the morning showers, the rain held off until after midnight. Mostly. Today I’m doing stuff that I would prefer didn’t get wet.

I started yesterday with volunteer work at the kid’s middle school. Then I headed south to do a pickup. On the way I stopped at Northern Tool and bought two small furniture dollies and a drywall dolly. I want to cover my bases for moving the mattresses and bed frames today. Stopped at Habitat reStore on my way home, but they didn’t have anything I needed. Seems like they are getting fewer donations…

Did kid taxi stuff in the late afternoon. Got my trailer and stuff from storage for my non-prepping hobby swapmeet this morning. Put stuff in the truck… Basically got ready to do my things today.

Hobby, pickup bed for BOL, head to BOL… I should be moving non-stop for most of the day.

Not much choice in the matter now either.

Fortunately we have choices when it comes to prepping. I choose to stack!

nick

Hot and humid, although it will start cooler. Yesterday was a mix of sunny and hot, crashing downpours, high winds, and gentle rain. What kind of weather? Yes. Today shouldn’t have rain, but we’ll see. Still very wet out so the humidity will likely be high. Joy.

I did indoor things yesterday. Fixed some cables for the school, and for me. Did some troubleshooting on other tech that’s been stacked up waiting to be fixed. Nothing complete, but some small progress made.

Did a bunch of auction stuff. Won a very nice new bed for the BOL. The mattress we’ve been using is small (queen vs the cal king we have at home) and not very comfortable. I won a split king Tempur Pedic. Picking it up and moving it will be the hardest part. Everything about the Tempur Pedic is heavy. At least it’s 2 mattresses. Moving the cal king was almost too much for me and the wife. Being able to sleep for more than a couple of days without causing crippling neck and back pain will be nice. I’ll probably rent a trailer and a drywall dolly. That’s about the easiest way I can think to handle it.

Today I’m starting back at the kid’s school. I hope to get a couple more problems resolved so the kids can start actually working during the rehearsals. They have two weeks (a bit less actually) before opening night. Then I’ll be getting some auction dropoff stuff together, even if I don’t hear back from my auctioneer. I want it ready to go and all in one place. Well, I can dream, right?

Then there will be kid taxi service in the afternoon, and the rest of the domestic bliss…

Dunno when I’ll stack anything, but I’ll try. After all, we have an extra hour in the day, right?? ;-P

Stack while you can.

nick

Muggy, maybe rainy, and warmer today, although yesterday had those things too. Just enough rain to wet stuff, and not enough to matter to the plants. And humid too.

So I went in to volunteer some more time… and instead of getting out in two hours and doing the stuff I really needed to do, I was there 6 hours, and then kid taxi service, and all the rest of the day killed my todo list.

So TODAY I’m trying to salvage some of that.

But first I’ve got pickups to do.

And the usual list of domestic bliss, with the addition of cleanup from Halloween.

Busy, that is me. Just a busy bee…

Anyone here ever keep bees? I bought a starter kit, and I’ve bought some other bee keeping stuff as it came up cheap in auctions, and I’ve got a bee hive in a hollow tree at the BOL. The tree needs to be cut down, and I thought this might be the perfect time to use some of the stuff I picked up… but other than a vague idea, I got no clue about bees… I’m pretty sure this is the starter kit I have…

It’ll bee at least a week or two before I get up to the BOL again, so I have time to get a clue.

And I’m thinking that a beehive is a pretty good stack, if it doesn’t just turn out to be food or home for wasps.

Gotta stack something…

nick

Bonus points to anyone who names the inspiration for today’s post title.

Cool, but still warming later, all the way to hot, depending on where you are. At the BOL, it was tolerable, except in the sun. In Sugar Land, 99F. Today will likely be similar… and no lake breezes for me.

I got a late start Monday and eased into the day… but I did get stuff done. Not finished, of course, but made progress. Ran the sprinklers all afternoon again, and now most of the back yard isn’t crunchy. Still have dead grass and crunchy weeds in the front, because the sprinklers really don’t work well there. Yet. Maybe some day.

Continued insulating and putting up paneling to fix the walls I had to open up after the flood. I realized it’s money and time I didn’t expect to spend. The time is the worst part… did some other small chores around the place too. W was painting all weekend, then cleaning. If you aren’t there, it’s surprising how dusty it gets and how many spiderwebs the place will sprout in just a couple of weeks. Cleaning is a never ending chore, and we don’t even have a sandy beach.

Today I’ll be working the list at home. And doing all the normal things. Plus the extra things. Lots of kid stuff on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and that kills my afternoon. It’s good for the kids though.

I’m stacking time with them, and that’s good, even if I sometimes get frustrated by all their demands on my time. Being the stay at home means doing the delivery and taxi runs…

Stack some time with loved ones, the memory will help when times are tougher. And stack some food, because everything is better on a full belly.

nick

Cool to start, warming later. Another clear day. It’s pretty hot in the sun, despite the thermometer saying mid to high 70s. It’s nice with the breeze and in the shade.

Didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. Dang sprinklers ate more of my time. If I run an aux pump on the input side of the jet pump, I can get the big pump to run the sprinklers. I’ll run them again today. It’s probably too little too late, but it can’t hurt to put some water on the crunchy grass.

I’ll do what I can to continue closing up walls in the dockhouse. And I will probably pull in the speaker wires. I put the pull lines in the conduit yesterday. I need W or one of the kids to feed the wire while I pull though, which is why I didn’t just do it yesterday.

It’s a big list, and it ain’t getting shorter…

Meanwhile, things continue to deteriorate, and get weirder. Stack what you can, because time seems to be getting short.

nick

Cool and clear. Really nice Fall weather, although the grass is crunchy from lack of rain. Still, really nice for working outside. And I do have outside work to do…

Yesterday I didn’t do too much of it. I did get to my rent house and solve the plumbing issue. I dropped off one of the 4 things I meant to take to my secondary location, the other three were left sitting in my foyer. Doh. Did one pickup of a rat trap, and then hit Home Depot for insulation and paneling to repair the flood damaged walls in my dock house at the BOL. Also got some spray foam, and a few treated 2x4s for the dock, and the bill was over $500. Yikes.

I spent too much time commenting on other peoples’ blogs too. The perennial “what radios should I get” and “you don’t need a ham license, TEOTWAWKI won’t have no FCC” discussion came up over at Cmdr Zero’s place. He’s also asked for opinions about fuels and power for BOL, so I spent some time on that. It’s not like I don’t have this place that could use some content… or something.

Today I will do my meatspace networking and interacting with actual humans. When that’s done, I’ll change trucks and head to the BOL. Lots to do up there. W has stripped the ‘popcorn’ off the hall bath ceiling, so I’ll get shanghai’d into doing the spray and knockdown texture so she can paint it later. That wasn’t on my list AT ALL. On the plus side, I probably won’t have to cut the grass… it is crunchy according to her. Grass doesn’t grow without water.

There are other projects in the dock house that I can do too, like finishing up the speaker install, and maybe working on the rotted window sill. Or hanging a TV and getting the wii set up there. Or hanging the IR heater strips on the dock so I can be warmer this winter while having my tiny little fire and radio time.

Plus there are “winter is coming” things to do…

At least the rent house plumbing wasn’t a big issue.

Stacking is EASY compared to maintaining multiple properties. So do some! It’s the easy way out…

nick