Category: medical

Mon. Sept. 15, 2025 – here we go again.

Still more of the same. It got perilously close to raining late yesterday, so we might get some today, but otherwise, cool to start, warming to hot. Humidity seemed higher yesterday too.

So of course I worked outside in the afternoon. Sometimes I think my momma did raise at least one fool… But, I did get some stuff done. The walkway to the front door of the house has been a tripping hazard for a while, and really needed repair. I’d bought the mortar some time ago, and the bags were sitting on the porch waiting.

I finally got the kid to pressure wash the flagstones and the mortar joints, and I did some filling last month. I did a bunch more yesterday. There is still some to do, but I have to see if the remaining bag is mortar or cement or concrete. I used up the open bag and called it quits for now.

There are many things on the list, and fixing some of the holes in the walk has been far down the list for a year or more, but things have come together to move it to the “just get it done and move on to the next thing” part of the list. The bucket was there, the mortar was there, the walkway was there. And now it’s about 90% repaired.

Today I’ve got pickups to do. I’ve been bidding on less, and not really trying to win most things- just putting in a “you stole it” bid, since prices are low at the moment. I still managed to win some stuff that falls in the ‘preps’ category, as well as some day to day household stuff. I’m working on spending less time driving around to do pickups, as I finally realized that was where all my time was going. I know, sometimes I am not really ready to face the obvious truth.

Never the less, I will have some pickups this week, and some today. Unfortunately, today’s is one of the farthest away, and not really combine-able with any other pickups. I’ve been trying to not bid much with that auction house, but sometimes the deal is too good to pass up, and they often have really low prices. It’s easier to not bid in auctions that always seem to sell stuff for too much money. Not so easy when they almost give stuff away.

I’m still stacking stuff, although most of it isn’t food anymore. And most of it is tweaks and refinements of what I’ve already got stacked. For example, I’m bidding on the 220v combiner kit for my two honda es3000i generators. That would be a nice addition, especially if it was cheap. I don’t need it, but it would expand my capabilities. There are a lot of things like that. Especially things related to infrastructure.

Power generation, storage, and conversion. Drinking water preparation and storage. Waste handling. Comms. Infrastructure. And for here, not just at the BOL. Medical stuff is high on my list for stacking too. In the last few weeks a bunch of syringes, needles, bandages, and useful books have been added to the stacks. It’s a deep prep, and definitely in the ‘I never want to have to use this stuff’ pile. But it’s cheap now, precious in the right situation, and impossible to improvise. Exactly the stuff to stack after your basic needs are met.

So keep an eye open for stuff that you might need, and can’t readily get. Stack it when you can.

nick

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Thur. Feb. 27, 2025 – more grid up get it while you can visits…

Cool and clear. Temps around 70F. Blue skies. That was yesterday and I’m hoping for the same today. It’s been a really nice couple of days after the wet gloominess.

Yesterday was mostly spent at the doctor’s in the morning. I fell asleep for a couple hours in the afternoon when I got home and ate. Then it was kid stuff and family stuff for the rest of the day. A normal day for most people, but kind of abnormal for me.

Today I’ve got another visit in the morning, echo cardiogram, all just routine at this point and mainly driven by age and family history. Nice to have access to this sort of thing. I’ll miss civilization when it crumbles completely but maybe something better will come after. That’s the usual pattern.

There are still Romans living in Rome. And maybe it won’t be that dire. We might be able to pull back from the brink. Wouldn’t take much to pitch us over though. A single bullet might be enough. Everything I see is still telling me we’re living in one of those times when everything changes…

So I’ll be stacking, and working. It’s all little ol’ me can do.

nick

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Wed. Feb. 26, 2025 – filling my day with fun activities…

Cool and clearing later. Yesterday was lovely, once the fog burned off. Sunny and blue sky with moderate temps, around 70F most of the day. If today is the same, I’ll be a happy boy.

Did my pickups. Spent time bidding on some stuff for D2’s school, but ultimately quit bidding. What price to put on philanthropy? Less than $1000. Less than $300 this time too. There was some gear in one of the surplus auctions that they could have used, but they don’t have a mechanism to buy it outside channels. The amount we’re willing to just donate fluctuates, but yesterday, for this particular stuff, we hit our limit before the other bidder did. Oh well, I’m sure to have another chance. Everything comes through the auctions, although the timing for this one was perfect.

Today I have a doctor’s appointment in the morning. I’m of an age where my primary care doc thinks I should have a stress test (cardiac thing, not anxiety thing). I’m having the nuclear version, and a mask and breathing hose is not supposed to be part of it, although walking on a treadmill is. The main issue for me is the amount of water I’m supposed to drink both before and during. It’s a LOT. I hope there is built in time to pee. And I might have already screwed up the “no caffeine rule.” It’s too late to do anything about it, but hope the 24 hours is a bit overkill, and that half a can of Dr Pepper yesterday afternoon won’t mess it up too badly.

Modern science is a miracle, and since we’re grid up, might as well take advantage and know for sure if there are problems.

The test and recover is supposed to take 3-4 hours of time, and IDK what I’ll feel like after, other than like peeing… So I might not get much done today.

I guess checking up on my health is a prep. I might find out I need to stack some new stuff… if there is stuff you need, be sure you are stacking it.

nick

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Sat. Jun. 8, 2024 – at the BOL, working… and a bit of relaxing

Hot but not Houston hot, and there is a lake right there… It was hot and sunny in Houston yesterday, but not as hot as I expected. The breeze helped. The BOL had nice weather that my wife enjoyed while working from ‘home’.

I got my truck issues resolved, getting through inspection and smog with the Ranger. Had the third brake light out, and didn’t know it. Had enough miles and start cycles that all but one buffer was good to go, and it passed with that one issue. The Tax office was comfortable in the waiting area, and dealt with my fairly unusual circumstance pretty well. In any case, I’ve got registrations and plates are on the way.

The drive up was uneventful until I was almost here, then the a/c stopped working. We’ll see if that was some sort of temporary issue, or if all the messing around under the hood did something bad to it. I’ll be back at the shop on Monday. Disturbing stuff that has been in place for 20 years often causes issues.

Today I’ve got a variety of work to choose from. Some indoors, some out, some on the main house, some on the dock house. I will get one more disinfection/anti-mold spray down in. The previous ones are working but I’d like one more before we start putting furniture back. I’ll leave the walls open to continue drying though.

There was a lot of dew on the grass, so it might be too wet to mow, we’ll see. I can wait for that until Sunday if need be.

The cell booster antenna needs to go back up, and there are tree limbs that need attention. Still. There is plenty to do…

And my buddy has a birthday on Sunday too. I got him an IFAK and a bag to put it in. I was surprised to learn that he doesn’t have a good first aid kit for gunshots or other trauma. He spends a lot of time hunting and fishing, so I figured I could close that gap. Heck, the life it saves might be my own at some point. You can’t have too many prepared friends.

Stack your network like you stack food.

nick

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Sat. Apr. 6, 2024 – stayed up too late, slept in, now I’m gonna be behind the 8 ball…

Cool and clear again, warming later. Yesterday was nice again. Crazy to get so many nice days in a row, and not be out rolling around in a meadow celebrating… or something. Today should be similar.

Which will be nice if I end up doing any of the outdoor stuff on my plate.

Friday I did my pickups, crisscrossing town, and burning time and gas. Got good stuff but still, it took longer than it should have when I missed a pickup on my big loop and had to backtrack. That cost an hour and 50 miles. I try to make a loop or to ‘clump’ errands to minimize time and gas expense. Blew it this time.

Today I’ve got a couple pickups that I couldn’t do yesterday, and one that was only available today. I am picking up several AEDs. They’ll need new batteries and pads, but that is a lot cheaper than buying the whole thing new. If you’re 20-40 minutes from help, and think you might be in line for a cardiac event, wouldn’t it be worth $1200 so your survivors could at least know they had every opportunity to help you? Or to actually help? If you have the medical history, your insurance might even foot the bill… Other than tourniquets, I can’t think of any medical prep that gives you the same bang for the buck and is so suited to its use. If you need an AED, you NEED it. It’s cheaper than a moderately nice rifle and some range ammo, and more likely to save a life.

A lot of what we do as preppers is pretty basic, and I’ll admit that having an AED in the house or car SOUNDS pretty advanced, but so did seat belts and fire extinguishers back in the day. Think seriously about getting one or more, and learn to spot them when you are out and about. I used to have the kids count fire extinguishers and AEDs when we moved through public spaces like airports or hotels. You’ll learn where they usually are, and you’ll know where one is if you need it. It’s also a good exercise in awareness. (spotting cameras and exits is good fun too.)

Stack some awareness, and some good habits. And stack some more medical preps. Everything degrades, public services lead the way. The extra minutes might make all the difference in your world…

nick

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Tues. Nov. 7, 2023 – voting day in the US, and a busy day for me…

Cool to start, warmer later, and mostly sunny. Today and yesterday. Lovely Fall weather, finally.

Spent all day yesterday getting my guts poked and prodded, videoed and violated…

So today I’ve got stuff to do. And I need to find time to vote. The important race is city of Houston Mayor, but there are proposals to vote on too.

Hopefully my guts will rearrange themselves and reacquaint themselves with food on their own. So far, there has been a lot of rumbling and “air” movement. At least I can eat normally.

I’m grumbling, but it is a miracle of the modern age to have the medical resources I’ve used in the last month available to me. I like civilization, western civilization, modern technological civilization. I like a capitalist system that causes GE to make as many CT scanners as they can, so that they are common as can be (in America you can get a CT scan for your pet they are so common). Ditto for whole surgical centers devoted to looking inside you one way or another. The only delays in my care were due to sequencing of appointments with specialists, and my preferences to spread things out a bit. I was offered appointments within a week of first identifying the need, sometimes less than a week, and usually with the exact doctor my GP wanted (although one time was with another doctor in the same practice.)

I have had a massive amount of gear and research and training available to me, with a truly unimaginable amount of the same waiting to act and treat any issues found. Houston is home to an astonishing amount of medical expertise and facilities. It is not something that can be easily replaced once it is gone. There are fools who want to burn it all down… and seem unstoppable. I hope they are not. I hope those far above my pay grade have a plan to fight back, to reclaim and rebuild. I’m not sanguine about it though.

Take care of yourself while you can. Rice doubling in price is something you can deal with. No more access to diagnostic labs, and CT scans, and nuclear medicine means stuff that could have been dealt with will have to be endured.

So many things are outside of our control, and outside of our reasonable response or responsibility. Yoda had it right, “Save you what can.” Do what you can to help save the rest. There are still Romans in Rome, and most of us will make it through whatever comes next. And who knows? A golden age may result.

In the mean time, stack.

nick

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Mon. Nov. 6, 2023 – on which our hero gets prodded and violated in unspeakable ways…

Cool and clear again, although we had some threatening clouds in the afternoon yesterday. It was well into the 80s and sweaty to be working outside. Probably more of that today.

But I won’t be working outside. I’ll be inside trying mightily to keep my insides inside me… as the evil clean out stuff does its job cleaning me out in preparation for an up close and personal inspection.

It’s something we all must endure as we get older, and it’s truly a modern miracle that we even have something like this available to us. I’m sure countless lives have been saved, or prolonged, and the quality of life improved for many. Still doesn’t make it enjoyable.

I did get a couple of things done yesterday before drinking the devil’s spit cup. Got some more of the Halloween decor put away. Got a couple more things sorted for auction or BOL. And then spent hours sitting. Gah.

I’ve got more of that to do today. 6am, second dose. Followed by lots of fluid. Eventually I’ll head to the facility. General anesthetic and cameras inserted from both ends, some indignities perpetrated against me, and I should be home for dinner…

There is always that slight risk though. It’s been on my mind. No way through but through at this point. I’m convinced of the necessity to rule out any serious issues, especially when things in the world are so unstable and no one knows what the future will hold. Hopefully, after some short period of time, I’ll know what my personal future doesn’t hold. That’s the goal anyway.

Meanwhile, fix what you can. And stack.

nick

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Sun. Nov. 5, 2023 – “low residue” diet and drugs, the horror, the horror…

Cool and clear, maybe someone in Houston gets some rain… warm later. It got into the 80s yesterday. Had to turn the house AC back on. Fall can be crazy with needing heat overnight, and AC during the day.

I did my pickup, and while I was on that side of town, hit a couple of estate sales. One was great, I spent over an hour in the garage picking tools and supplies. The other was mostly a bust, but I did grab a klein wire stripper and a pair of Channelok pliers for $2 each. The only other thing in the whole house I might have been interested in was an original Atari 2600 with accessories and games, and an enclosure with a dust cover. I’d never seen the enclosure before but it turned out they aren’t particularly rare or valuable. Sellers were unorganized, distracted, and prices were at retail… They kept saying they’d be open again next weekend. Not gonna be getting much return business would be my guess.

If you’ve got some special stuff and you want it to bring the money it’s worth or go to a good home, make the plans now. I’m a big fan of estate sale companies but they vary wildly in knowledge, skill, and focus. Some are predatory. No one loves your stuff like you do.

Today I’ll be stuck at home, close to the smallest room. I’m starting the prep for my colonoscopy on Monday. I’m led to believe it’s very unpleasant and I won’t want to be too far from the facilities. We’ll see if I can get anything done around the house. Fortunately I’m a prepper, and we didn’t use the last roll of TP in the house last night, just the last roll before opening a new bale. There was a moment though, where I doubted my memory, and I was worried about sending my wife out for TP… which would have been bad on so many levels. But the garage DID have another bale waiting for use…

Whew.

I’m working on getting all the medical stuff up to date and out of the way. Venezuela levels of collapse could make it very difficult to get care if you found out you needed it. If I can get around to it, you can too.

Get the niggling little thing checked out. And stack. Meds too.

nick

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Wed. July 26, 2023 – wow stuff got expensive…

Hot and humid and more of each. Highest I saw yesterday was 94F in the shade, but it was hotter in the sun. Since it happened away from my thermometer, I’m ignoring it. Hah. Just like the rain. I only personally saw a very light spatter of rain. I know it rained heavily in some parts of town, because I saw the puddles and I asked people. But I’m ignoring that too. I can definitively state, from my own lived experience, that yesterday was hot at 94F but cooler than it has been, and that it only rained a tiny amount. That this is wrong is of no concern. Please fully fund my climate change study grant. I’m your kind of people.

Spent most of the day filling the back of my pickup with auction items. Then I dumped most of them at my secondary location. Took the rest home. Did a bit of troubleshooting on some items that didn’t immediately work, and got some results.

Cooked a couple of several-years-old steaks for dinner. Couldn’t tell them apart, despite being frozen for 2 and 4 years respectively. And they were delicious. Served them with canned corn from 2014, frozen naan bread, and pasta from a couple years ago. Those were all normal looking and delicious too.

Spent the evening looking at prices online to find cheap decking material for my temporary deck at the BOL. That led to the post title. There isn’t anything “cheap”. Sheets of OSB, plywood, and rigid foam are all 1-1/2 to 2 times more than they were. Prices have come down from their highs of a year ago, but they are still high. Even furring strips are expensive. More redneck engineering is going to be needed…

Today I’ve got a couple more pickups, and more domestic bliss. So I’ll be busy, and yet not feel like I’m getting stuff done. And compared to some, I’m a piker. Talked to someone in my circle of acquaintances that is slowly revealing more of their preps. Their family group is about 35 people, and they’ve got a shared ranch as a BOL. With a full surgical suite set up. That was the bit he shared yesterday. His pockets are deep, and his group is committed. He has access to a wide range of stuff.

He urged me to stack salt. We talked about the novel Alas Babylon, where the little town is coping well with their end of the world situation, except for the lack of dietary salt. THAT is killing people. I took that message to heart when I read it, and stacked salt some time ago. Not sure what I have in total, but I’ve got 5 gallons (30-40 pounds) of pink himilayan salt, and at least one other bucket of normal salt, as well as boxes of canning and pickling salt. I’ve got a smaller amount of iodized salt for the table too. Salt can be used for cleaning, and for preserving food as well as for eating. We also talked briefly about my “bread kit” buckets – one bucket with flour, salt, yeast packets, and a bottle or two of oil, and storing and using fat to “pot” or preserve meat.

The discussion was a nice validation of my own preps, with a good reminder of a basic prep item for long term survival, and some more exotic thinking about things getting worse than most people might consider. There are others out there doing what we do. They are planning, and executing. You are not alone, and there are serious people who are taking it farther than you…

So stack a few things. Consider your gaps, and fill them. Know that others are too.

nick

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Fri. Jan. 6, 2023 – pickups, deliveries, lots of driving…

Cool and damp again.  Hopefully clear, as that will make all my driving nicer… It was 50F when I went to bed.  National forecast is for more of yesterday, so I should be ok.

Didn’t get much done.   It’s mostly mental, but I’m still not 100%.  I feel better, but tired, and weary.

Plan for today is pick up rental trailer, use it to pick up two pallets of stone, and some geotextile, then pick up my pallet jack, and whatever else I can get on the trailer and head to the BOL.

If everything goes well, and I’m lucky, maybe I’ll get there in enough time to meet the gas guy and maybe we can work out some temporary reprieve so we can at least have hot water while I get the line replaced.

Which is sub-optimal but may be unavoidable.

Family will join me later today if there is hot water and heat….

I’ll be bringing up a few bins of stuff including about half of my OTC meds.   I went through and divided up the stuff I stocked up on 2 years ago, and I might end up with it all at the BOL, because I have normal stuff here already, but for now, I’ll just send half.    I need to split up the first aid and wound care stuff too.  To be an actual BOL, it needs to be stocked as if we weren’t coming back to Houston.  Yet, I need enough stuff stacked here to stay if we can’t or won’t leave….   It’s an interesting balancing act.   One consideration is that we won’t USE the stuff up there at anywhere near the rate we use it here, and so turnover will be a lot slower.  More spoilage, more waste.   Oh well, we’ll figure it out as we go.   Or we’ll get caught short.  But I hope to get  it at least 80% right.

One solution would just be stacking all the same stuff in the same quantities, starting from scratch so it’s not already aging out…   and I’m trying to take the newer stuff up there, not the oldest, but I can’t afford to simply double everything at this point.   As I said, interesting balance…

One thing for sure, keep stacking.

 

nick

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