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Category: polemic

Tues. Nov. 5, 2024 – a day that will live in infamy…

And it will be a damp, dreary day. Maybe. Depending on where you are. Yesterday the forecast called for rain, and we got it on the west side of town. On the east side it was sunny and warm. Until it rained out of the clear blue sky. That happened to me several times as I drove all over town. And most of the rain was fairly light squalls. Some places got plenty and pretty steady, but the high winds kept the weather moving around for most of Houston. I kinda expect today to be similar.

Started the day with my volunteering at the kid’s school. That ate a couple of hours but real progress has been made and I think they have a good starting point to work from. I’ll end up back there a couple more times I’m sure, but I’m not doing much until after they get through this performance.

Did a couple of pickups, but the rain kept me from doing my dropoff. Maybe today if it’s clear. Then it was kid taxi service and leftovers for dinner.

I’m getting tired of writing about not getting my stuff accomplished, I’m sure you guys are getting tired of hearing about it. I’m rationalizing it as a counter to the other prepper blogs where they are always trying a new recipe, doing a gear review, or reporting on homestead life… yeah, that’s it, I’m a counter balance…

I will be voting today. I encourage everyone to vote, no matter their politics. If you are undecided or don’t care, vote for Trump. He’s the only non-politician to run in decades, with a real chance, and that alone should get your vote. Will he be effective? Will he be able or allowed to do the things he’s promised? Dunno. Most of them don’t deliver on any promises (first 100 days to solve the “healthcare crisis” anyone??) but he delivered Supreme Court justices that have a Constitutional orientation and that has a chance to shape the USofA for decades. It’s a needed swing of the pendulum. The body politic has swung too far to the left, and has to swing back toward the middle, or things WILL come apart.

I think they’ll come apart anyway, but maybe this way it won’t be as ugly.

That said, my prediction is the deep state abandons kamel, because someone realizes the cheat will have to be too big, and they can just wait 4 years… and Trump wins. Then the economy gets crashed. Don’t think that’s possible? What if the Federal Reserve, which is NOT a government agency, raises interest rates 2, 3, or even just 4 points? They blame Trump for the resulting problems, blame the right for the Left’s violence, and run a Jesus candidate in ’28. I can make an arguement either way at all of the inflection points in any scenario I can come up with.

Maybe they don’t CARE if everyone knows the fix was in. They didn’t seem to last time. So the cheat is massive, undeniable, and their stance is “suck it, btiches”. — Civil war, cold or hot, results.

Maybe there are enough big money people to keep any financial shenanigans in line, and the economy gets a Trump boost. The left won’t allow that to go unpunished so expect violence. Civil war- or just constant terrorism and insurgency. Bombings, fires, riots. Infrastructure destruction… BLM and antifa were training actions. They are funded and organized, they have training cadre with experience.

I don’t see any scenario where things are better after the election, no matter who “wins”. Heck maybe Kamel is their fall guy, so they can go back to white men when they’re done blaming her for the economic collapse and sectarian violence that erupts. That would be an outcome I don’t think many people have considered…

There will be violence. There will be disruption. There will likely be death and privation. People on both sides have been gearing up and have been drawing lines in the sand. People on both sides are radicalized. All that energy is crying for a release.

And don’t forget that our enemies will work for their own benefit- while US attention turns inward, all hell could break loose internationally, which WILL affect us as supply chain issues… and foreign entanglements. Lots of money to be made in war, and war is a traditional way to reset your currency and repudiate your debts.

Could be I’m just a doomer and it will all be fine. Good luck with that. I’m working to make sure we get through this coming time and emerge safe and sound, and maybe even better. I’ve been encouraging all of you to take whatever steps you think are prudent, and I hope you have. There are still Romans in Rome. Mongols in China. And Brits in the UK. We’ll still be here when it is all in the past. Some of us anyway.

The ship of State doesn’t turn on a dime, and this great country has “a lot of ruin in it”. Timing the collapse is as hard as timing the markets.

Be ready for tomorrow, and one year from now, and 5 years from now, and the rest of your life…

And stack, because that is one thing you can control…

nick

Read the comments: 72 Comments

Thur. Jun. 20, 2024 – why?

Hot and wet. Or cool and wet. But certainly wet. It rained all day yesterday with varying intensity in varying places throughout the Houston metro area… and it was cooler, mid 70s for the most part. I think today will be similar, but maybe less rain.

I did my auction pickups in the afternoon. Dropped a tool by my buddy’s house. Drove all over town. Then did auction bidding in the evening. W has me on the hunt for stuff and I’m trying…

Today I’ll be monitoring the garage fridge, and dealing with that if needed. First step would be clearing a path to the third freezer and seeing if there is room in it… Next would be cooking, or looking to score another freezer… I very much hope that won’t be necessary.

——————-
Some discussion yesterday led me down a path that I think has some interest.

Why? Why have the BOL? What’s the plan, and why do I think it will work? Why will it be needed? Why make the choices I’ve made?

Well, my first rule for my prepping is that it can’t be irrevocable, or hurt my family. No moving to Idaho and going off grid to slowly starve until my kids leave. No selling everything or raiding the retirement accounts. I plan with the idea everything will continue as it is in my lifetime, while at the same time, planning for severe disruptions, both short and long term, both local and much larger. Funnily enough, both things can be true.

I plan for local or regional disasters, and for larger events with bigger impacts, and longer timelines. Hurricanes, floods, crime, civil unrest, those are disasters but are limited in scope and affect. I also plan for civil war, general world war, global pandemic, and economic collapse (probably brought about by inflation, maybe triggered or exacerbated by one of the other bad things.)

I think these things are the most likely, and we have had several since I started prepping. Got through them without too much trouble too. (I have considered stuff like an alien revelation, but I think it unlikely, and if it happens it will likely trigger all the stuff I’m prepping for anyway.) Unfortunately hard times will make all the other stuff harder too. War leads to privation, destruction, death, and disruption to the world socially and economically. Fortunately prepping for one goes a long way toward covering you for the others.

Humans have a tendency to think things will continue pretty much as they are. We evolved in a world where that was pretty true. Think of the building of the cathedrals in the west, or the ancient civilizations in the east. But. History shows that every so often, everything changes. Where are Ozymandias’ might works? Where is the Great Library? Or the Byzantine Empire? The sun never set on the British empire until it did. All roads lead to Rome… until they didn’t. And yet there are still Brits (now mostly naming their sons Mohammed) and there are still Romans in Rome.

I think we’re headed into one of those periods where everything changes. The world will look very different in 5, 10, or 20 years. I intend to do everything I can to get through this period of change and destruction and position my family to prosper during the next phase.

So I prep. I prep for the obvious local natural and man made disasters. But I also prep for the bigger, and maybe less obvious risks too. And I do that mainly by preparing to live in a resource constrained environment. There will be less of everything. Everything will be harder to do and take longer. Everything will be grosser and meaner in every meaning of those words. Safety nets will be non-existent or dramatically reduced. No one will be coming to rescue you.

I’m doing what I can to make my family independent of the systems that are failing. I’m taking responsibility for more aspects of our lives. I am hoping that my preps allow us to degrade gracefully rather than catastrophically. I’m hoping to preserve something for after, but at a minimum I’m ready to persevere.

Part of that is finding a community that I think is more resilient, more suited to living in a poorer and rougher world. It’s very difficult as an outsider to enter a community like that. They’ve been circling the wagons, us against them, for a LONG time. I’ll note that I chose a rural community. Other people will choose a more urban community, like a neighborhood, or a ghetto. There have been articles about welfare families being moved out of their projects and into the suburbs where they no longer have the community support they had. It’s a different world, and one I wouldn’t want to live in, but for the people who live there it’s home and they miss it when it’s gone.

All of prepping should be about creating options. You don’t need to rob and steal if you have food. You don’t need to risk food or waterborne illness if you have hygiene and cooking supplies. You can fit in with a crowd if you have the right clothes and the right attitudes. You don’t need to be raped or murdered if you have the tools to defend yourself. You don’t need to get on the FEMA bus. You don’t need to become a refugee.

The BOL gives me options. I can leave the metro area if it becomes necessary. I have resources stacked there if I lose access to my resources here. I have at least one friend, and several acquaintances… there are people who are happy to see me.

I’m learning as I go too, as having a BOL was entirely theoretical until we bought it. Now I’m discovering the unknown unknowns, as well as the known unknowns…

There is a LOT to learn. There is a lot to do. I’m getting older and slower, and weaker, but I’m on a mission. I’ve got plans, goals, ideas, not too many dreams, but enough to keep me busy for the rest of my life…

And it all starts with stacking.

nick

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Mon. Jun. 3, 2024 – in which our hero does work over again, because he’s a procrastinator

Hot and humid. Houston summer. Probably. Like yesterday.

Spent yesterday NOT doing the work I needed to do. Maybe that was for the best, but probably not. I did find a spot on the laundry room ceiling (where the critter sometimes made noise) that has moisture bleeding through from the attic, staining the drywall. There is what looks like mold around the edges of the temporary patch too… Something either died up there, or there is a leak in the plumbing work that we had the ceiling open for originally. Either way, it was an unpleasant discovery and will be getting worse when I open it up to deal with it. Honestly might not happen today. It’s a full PPE and clear everything soft out of the room kinda thing, and I don’t have time.

Because I’ll be dealing with truck issues, trying to get registration taken care of. First I need to get inspected again. Both trucks. Then I need to actually do the standing in line and begging forgiveness, while paying the penalties. No, I don’t like it. I really get bothered when I am forced to interact with the machinery of “state” this way. They just keep glomming on and glomming on to more authority, and increasing the severity of not acknowledging their power grab, and it angers me on a very deep level. It’s a reminder that we aren’t free. That we don’t own our own property. And that they can and will use force to MAKE us do what they want. They start by requiring a yearly fee and a marker tag to use your own property, and they end telling you how to worship your God. Eventually they will insist you worship theirs under penalty of death.

Nothing is ever “enough” for the fanatic, and the fanatics are the ones who rise to power.

Avoid coming to their notice.

n

(and stack)

Read the comments: 86 Comments

Wed. Apr. 10, 2024 – My name is Bond, Municipal Bond, and I’m here to indenture your children…

Wet and dreary today, with warm thrown in… it’s almost like we have to pay for all the beautiful days we had recently… or just that there is variation in the weather. Naw, it’s a conspiracy. Stonecutters or Illuminated probably. In any case a little rain started last night and continues…

[yes, I know the ellipse isn’t used in a grammatically correct way in the paragraph above. I use it as a conversational gimmick, to suggest the ‘trailing off’ of a thought, or as a longer than normal pause in the narrative flow. I’m cool like that.]

Anyway…

Did my pickups yesterday. Chatted with one of the auctioneers who I’ve been dropping verbal hints on for a few weeks. I know he’s politically conservative, most small business owners are. Now I know he’s a doomer and a prepper too. He’s working on his BOL. I won a knock off version of the Big Berkey (sp?) filter and that was the opening he needed. He asked me if I meant to use it or flip it, and to share with him how it worked if I used it. That led to a chat about securing drinking water supplies, and other personal infrastructure. He had intended to go full off grid solar, but ended up with a diesel generator solution because in his words, “he doesn’t care about the noise because he’s way the F out in the middle of no where.” I was surprised he didn’t know about the solar company bankruptcy auction that morning, but he’s an auctioneer on the platform, not a buyer. He did think about keeping the filter for himself. This makes three of my auctioneers that are active preppers or getting started increasing their level of preparedness (that I know of.) He also mentioned that he was prepared to defend what is his from those who might want to take it.

I know that this place has a preponderance of “like minded” people especially wrt certain ideas and topics. That’s to be expected given the focus of my life and the blog. I like to think that there are others who visit, that we don’t hear from too often (but of whom I was reminded while going through some old posts and old comments yesterday) that may have differing views or rate the hazards of life differently. And that is great. Right now, I want to encourage EVERYONE who comes here, and through them, everyone they influence, to consider the cost of prepping vs. the cost of NOT prepping, if the future plays out the way I, and many many others, expect it to. Consider that it’s not just those few of us here, or a few other corners of the intarwebs that think bad things are coming, and indeed have already started arriving. Ordinary people from all walks of life and all situations are taking a look around and deciding to make changes to their lives to better prepare for what they have decided might be coming.

Think hard about what you can stack, actually and metaphorically, and then take action. It’s a bit of ‘preaching to the choir’ I know… but I’m specifically preaching to the others not already in the choir today. No matter what happens, even (especially) the normal trials and tribulations of life, stacks and preps will make it better. There are plenty of stories shared here of the minor, and even potentially major, problems overcome more easily and with more style due to having prepared for problems. Come and join us on the journey.

Stack.

nick

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Tues. Feb. 20, 2024 – 02202024 – not meaningless, but certainly not full of hidden meaning…

Cool and clear, again. Hooray. I can use a few more cool and clear days. Like yesterday, and tomorrow. Nice weather lately, if a bit on the cool side in the morning and at night. Great for working outdoors or in an attic.

Which means I should be doing some of the attic work I’ve been putting off for the past year. I’ve got cleanup and organizing to do, insulation to install, and new pex to put in, in place of the rotten galvanized piping that is bound to fail at the least convenient time. Not to mention the bathroom reno that is now in its 13th year… or the outdoor work I’ve been putting off.

Instead, I’ll be kludging the tub back together. If I can get the fitting to work with the sewer connection, I’m going to epoxy the ‘pinhole’ and install the new drain parts. I don’t want to rip out the tub/shower until I have all the stuff ready to go for the rest of the reno. If I can get a functioning shower for a while longer, it’s worth the effort. Maybe we can even get a real contractor in to do the shower.

And because of the holiday, I’ve got one fewer day to do my pickups. Lots of stuff for the BOL and general living stuff too this week. Soap, cleaners, some stuff for the kids.

I’m looking at the pile, and thinking I might have to do a speed run to the BOL to take a load up, and empty my truck. I can bring back all my pex fittings and tools too, so that I can do some of the work here when I have the chance. I’m getting a really strong feeling I should have the plumbing stuff here… and I’ve learned that I ignore the little voice in my head at my peril.

Plans. I had ’em. Now I’ve got new ones. Flexibility is a virtue right?

——————-

Out in the world things are getting more strained. If the trucker boycott of NYC turns into something real, expect the feds and .gov to get really ugly. Trucking is federally regulated and that will be the first avenue of attack- threats. Seizures and replacement will surely follow.

The news says “gangs have formed” among the illegals in NYFC, but of course the gangs were always there. To admit the “immigrants” are really cartel ‘bangers is impossible, so they must have formed spontaneously in NYFC… and they are doing the same things they did at home. Don’t think it will be confined to NYFC, it will be true in every city by the end of the summer. The cartels, the chinese, the balkan mobs, and islamic invaders will be fighting over the corpse of American prosperity, with some real mobsters and some good ole boys getting into it too. Oh, don’t forget the africans. They have a long history of brutality against each other and their enemies. They don’t need guns either. Eritrean migrant gangs are tearing things up in the Netherlands and elsewhere, even North Carolina.

What we are about to see is the real world version of the ‘lily pads in the pond’ doubling thought experiment. We’re on about day 46, when 1/4 of the pond is covered. People are noticing that there are a lot of changes recently, and there seem to be a lot of young hispanic men around. Tomorrow (metaphorically) the pond will be half covered, and people will start to get concerned and maybe even freak out. Too late, because the next day, the pond is covered and we are a third world sh!tehole, and the illegals are everywhere and doing everything.

Yeah, we have a lot of guns. So do they. And no compunction about using them. Or machetes. They fill pits with severed heads and run slavery rings for fun and profit. How many of our people are willing to shoot on sight? Or burn down their clubhouses and homes? Add the disruptions of another covid, a crooked election, failing currency, worsening political situation overseas, and you don’t have enough stacked. Not enough of anything. So we can hope and pray it doesn’t get that bad, but you have to ask yourself, “why won’t it?” Feel free to share your thoughts if you come up with anything plausible.

As for me, I’m stacking what I can.

nick

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Thur. Dec. 7, 2023 – A date which will live in infamy…

Cool and clear again. Cold even as anything less that 50F feels pretty cold to me. It did warm up over the course of the day. Flaming nuclear fire in the sky helps with that.

Spent the day driving back and forth. First to do my pickups, then Costco, then D2 pickup from school, deliver to appointment, rush to pickup D1 from school, return to D2’s appointment, then gas fillup and home… Running from 1130 to 530 without a break. Mostly stuck in heavy traffic too. Yuck. 1 star, cannot recommend.

Costco was odd. Prices have come down on some stuff, but remain high on other things. Pork was cheap and they had the standing rib roast cut I love, which they only carry for Christmas and Easter. Bought two big ones that I’ll cut in half and vac seal for the freezer. The imported Australian lamb was LESS than it has been in a while, and that’s saying something because the price has remained pretty steady for years.

Rice and flour were still higher than they were, and selection was limited. My favorite shelf stable take and bake loaves of bread were damaged. Many of the packages showed mold in the packaging, on the loaves. They were well within sell by too. Weird that staff didn’t pull the bad packages, and weird that it was usually one loaf of the three in the box. They still haven’t gotten the frozen cheeseburgers I like back in stock. Prices for paper goods were high. No sales this month on paper. List price for Charmin blue is now double what it was pre-wuflu.

There was also more chinese prepared food from china than there has been in the past. Dunno if that’s significant but I’m not a fan of food prepared in china for safety reasons.

I’ve stopped buying vegetables and milk products at Costco and I was a bit rushed so I didn’t even stick my head in to check stock levels. I’ve also decided to not buy more of the Kirkland bacon, even though the price is now competitive with HEB. The Kirkland bacon leaves a hard crusty black film in the bottom of the pan. I think it’s burned sugar. It needs to be scraped off the teflon, and it’s bitter so I can’t reuse the fat either. The bacon tastes fine, but the other things are too negative.

And hey, they had both the socks I like and the underwear so that was a score. Set for a year or two now. Stacks…

It wasn’t a cheap trip, but then my average ticket had increased 50-100% even though I’m not buying bulk to stack anymore. I’m not going as often either. In fact I’m shorter than I’d like to be on TP again, and I kept kicking myself and wondering why this has happened again… and I think it’s because I only buy it when it’s on sale, and it hasn’t been on sale as often, so my two bales run out before the next sale. Girls might be using more too, but the frequency of purchase definitely contributes. I need to run to my secondary (for a number of things) but I’ll also be grabbing an extra bale of TP out of deep storage.

Our usage patterns for a lot of things have shifted with time and changes in our lives. I’m not making the kids’ lunches anymore, so I haven’t bought peanut butter in a long time. Same for white bread. D2 is making her own ramen so I’m not making soup for her. Kraft mac and cheese consumption is way down… take a look at your assumptions and see if they still are a good match for your real usage. Adjust as needed.

Today I’ll be doing some more domestic bliss, and household errands, as well as picking up TP and dropping stuff off at my secondary location. Got kid pickup duties in the afternoon too. Might hit the HEB and see if there is any meat on sale, and get D2 some eggnog. Normal stuff. Auction stuff will happen too, and I’ve got a few things I still need to get for my party this weekend. Busy day.

—————————–

Whilst in the midst of your ordinary everyday stuff today, take a minute to consider this day in 1941. People all over the world went to bed with the world in one condition in their minds. They woke up and everything had changed. Plenty of people saw US involvement in the war coming. Plenty of people from individuals to companies to the government worked for or against our seemingly inevitable involvement. Almost universally I bet they thought they would have more time. Despite all the time they’d already had.

It’s my contention that we are living through one of those times in the world where everything changes. Not all at once, and not in obvious ways, but the world of 1950 was completely different from the world that rang in the century. Most of that change happened in a very short time, from ~1911 to ~1946. And you could argue that the big chunk happened in an even shorter period between those years. We know change is coming. We think it’s probably gonna be bad change for a while, but we hope it will get better. It’s likely to be very disruptive to the way things have been for all of our lives.

Do what you can to ease your way through this coming disruption. That’s what I’m prepping for now, the local or regional disaster will happen but they will have to be considered against the bigger picture of the complete realignment of the world order. Be flexible, be cautious, be wary, and be as prepared as you can think of ways to be.

And stack. It’s easy and likely won’t hurt.

nick

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Thur. Nov. 16, 2023 – and now we’re half way thru November. Yikes.

Cool and clear, maybe even sunny and warming later. Yesterday turned out quite nice. Sun stayed out, and it warmed up, but not so much that you started sweating. Having today the same would be great. Also great if I could enjoy it, instead of just moving through it.

Did a bunch of stuff yesterday, only some of it actually on my list. Laundry, dishes, vacuuming, meeting with the tiger mom who is buying our piano, picking up the place–domestic bliss in other words. Then I did an auction pickup, went by the car repair and tried to get my Expy in for service. Nope, missed my chance, too busy. I guess I could try another place, but in my mind this guy has replaced my long time service place that shut down. Unfortunately he’s short staffed, which makes everything harder. Lotta that going around btw.

Went to a school thing later, a banquet for student athletes. BBQ was pretty good. More white coaches than there were white students in the room… My 5′ 8″ blondie gets a lot of attention from the short and dark student body. I’m getting the impression they think she’s “exotic” but not “wife material”. That’s fine with me. We’ve been invaded. It will only get worse from here.

I spent some time talking with my cleaning lady. She’s legal, but an immigrant. She told me that all her customers think really bad times are coming and they are getting ready. She is too. We’ve talked before about vac sealing and freezing meat, and she’s not dumb, she sees the stacks. She asked me what I thought, so I told her. Violence. Shortages. Upheaval. Massive inflation. Economic collapse. (something that is FAR from unthinkable for anyone from south of the border, btw. It’s the normal state of affairs they’ve lived with their whole lives. They have no reluctance to consider it as a possibility.) She said she is trying to sell one of her trucks, the one she considers a “personal” vehicle. “It’s just sitting there, not earning anything.” And she is thinking about taking her money and going back to Mexico, to one of the American expat communities. If she does, it will likely work out better for her than the expats, when the S hits the Fan. It’s easier to be poor in your home town, near family and friends.

Without considering any moral arguments, think about that.

And make plans. Because some of the invaders will be STRONGLY incentivized to stay, even if some do leave. Native born citizens are sorting themselves geographically, and a reverse dust bowl pattern is already emerging. I’ve talked to and seen other people who are moving back to family and familiar places. S is getting real, yo… (to use a meme.)

Who you are with, and where you are, is likely to make a huge difference in your life for the next 2, 5, or 10 years.

And what you’ve stacked, of course.

nick

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Wed. Oct. 11, 2023 – auctions and pickups and imaging oh my

Cool and cloudy, chance of rain. It rained off and on all day yesterday, albeit only in some spots and very lightly. I had the truck windshield get wet several times as I went through my day.

Did my kid duties in the morning, went to earn my daily bread in the afternoon.

Solved most of my client’s current problems over the course of the afternoon and evening. Got home around 8pm.

Which means there are a couple of things I should have done yesterday that will now push to today and tomorrow. I’m supposed to fast this morning, get my imaging done at 330pm and so I have to fit the rest of my day around that. I’ll be doing two pickups in the morning. I’d rather be sleeping late, and moping around the house waiting for my appointment. But I don’t get to make all the choices.

Speaking of choices…

Everyone has a choice to make. Take some responsibility for your life, or don’t. If you DO, you need to make plans for the future, to the best of your ability. Some of those plans should be for bad things happening.

The people of Israel had a bad thing happen this week. Their lives will always have a dividing line- before the day and after the day.

JFK’s assassination. The 9-11 terror attacks. The moon landing. Those are some of the shared “lines” in the USofA. There WILL be more “lines” – some will be universal, some will be very personal. Some will be good, some bad. The bad ones tend to have a bigger impact on the world and groups of people than the good ones do.

I expect there will be a bunch more bad days and bad dividing lines. So I prep. I accept that there will be bad things that happen and I do what I can to minimize the effect they will have on me and the people I love. I know there will be things that happen that I didn’t think about, that I didn’t consider could or would happen to me. I prep generally for those things and hope it will be enough.

I have taken responsibility for my life, and my future, and I’ve acted in a way that I think will lead to the best possible outcomes. I continue to evaluate, to plan, to consider, and yes, to STACK the things I know I’ll need and the things I think I’ll need, and even the things I might need.

I could be struck down tomorrow and it will have been for nought, say some. But I say, no. It’s ALREADY made my life better. It’s ALREADY led to better outcomes. It’s ALREADY paid off, and even if I’m not here, it will continue to pay off for my family, my friends, and the people who have taken responsibility for themselves and their loved ones because of my influence, however small it might be.

I’m feeling a bit poetic and dramatic because I’m facing my own very personal dividing line. Today’s testing is a part of that. A follow up appointment next Thursday will likely be the day, if there is to be one. Until then I will be watching and preparing for other, bigger events, as I have been for years.

The world is changing, as it constantly is, but the rate of change, and the magnitude of the change isn’t constant. They both seem to be getting bigger at this point in time. Bigger changes, happening faster. Be as ready as you can.

Stack.

n

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Tues. Oct. 3, 2023 – slouching toward the future…

Slight coolness to the breeze in the morning, not quite as high temps in the afternoon, it must be Fall, finally. 90F+ is still plenty hot, and I don’t want to be in the attic yet, but I can tell the day is coming. I will end up doing all those things I’ve put off.

I spent the day Monday doing paperwork. Tax stuff. Billing. Bill paying. Nothing at all interesting, other than the observation that round trips to the BOL pretty much doubled the miles I drive in a year. My wife is doing about the same number of trips in her Honda too. So we’ve increased our mileage expense dramatically, especially when gas was at the peak.

The other observation is that I haven’t been keeping up my rate with my remaining client. I bumped it up for this invoice, and I’ll be bumping it again on the next one. I need to get at least a thirty percent increase just to stay even, and I’m not close yet. Raising rates is hard, even with good, long term clients. It might be harder actually, as you can more easily raise rates on strangers than someone you’ve been working with for a decade. He’ll understand, and he’s not pinching pennies, but he didn’t get to where he is by writing a bunch of checks. I think my position is pretty secure as I know more about what’s going on there than anyone, but I also don’t want him to put off calling when there is an issue. It’s tough, and it’s going to be tougher.

Today I’ve got to do the stuff I blew off yesterday, and I’ve got to finish before 4pm. I’ve got a doctor appointment for more prodding this afternoon. There was a week without anything, but now I’m busy again. Still, better to get any issues identified and treated before things get really bad.

And make no mistake they are getting bad. Lawlessness in our major cities, feral youth running wild, imported criminal cartels busy getting set up and established, and a flood of illegal dependents pushing aside citizens will continue to worsen our standard of living and cause anger and resentment in a way that hasn’t been seen in decades. You need to start asking yourself, what are you willing to put up with? What are you willing to do? Would you join a lynch mob? Chase down and beat a thief? Burn down a nuisance property? Report your neighbors who you think might be doing those things? Will you join a neighborhood watch? or an armed militia? Will you become a police auxiliary, or volunteer with the Sheriff? Time to start thinking about lines in the sand.

And stacking. Always improving.

And for your sake, get out of big cities…

nick

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Sun. Aug. 13, 2023 – Serendipity

Of course it’s hot and humid today. It’s summer. It’s a bit hotter than usual, but not hotter than EVAH!11!1! And it looks like it will continue to be hot here for a while…

Did my thing yesterday. Met with people and shared our common interests. We’re counting down the days until our regional tradeshow/swapmeet/convention, and our pre-registration numbers are stronger than last year. There was talk about people still coming out of their covid ‘shell’…which is frankly amazing to me. We’ve been back to “normal” for long enough I find it hard to remember when we weren’t. I’m not sure what I feel for the people who are still living under the cloud of the chinese bioweapon, sadness? Pity? Both mixed together with a dash of disbelief? I hope they come to Texas and see how they could be living again.

After that I loaded up the truck and headed to the BOL. And when I got here it was HOT. The wind was blowing and it felt like leaning into an oven. I was going to mow, but decided to take the dog for a walk and see my friend the fisherman, and take a look at the work he’s been doing on his house. We ended up sitting in the air conditioning and chatting for a couple hours. I’ll mow today. Meatspace.

Made my dinner and went down to the dock. It was still in the low 90s and the lake wasn’t feeling cool, but sitting still in the gentle breeze wasn’t too bad. The sky was a bit hazy, but the Milky Way was out, and there was the tail end of this week’s meteor shower to look for. I saw a couple dozen shooting stars, about half were dim and short, but almost a dozen were really bright and long ones. One I could see go from white streak to orange red as it broke up. Really pretty nice.

That kept me down there past my cigar, listening to the radio and watching the sky. WRMI Legends, playing all the hits of rock and roll from the last several decades. They even do “instant requests” playing stuff the audience picks from their song library through the website. Shortwave radio on 9.455Mhz. Their playlist is very eclectic. The DJ was in a mellow mood last night, but where else can you hear “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”, “Cat’s in the Cradle”, “the Tracks of my Tears”, “Rag Doll”, and dozens of others in the same hour? Fleetwood Mac to Bobby Darin? I love the serendipity of radio. After 50 plus years of listening to popular music, there was very little I couldn’t sing along to, and very few songs that I wasn’t happy to hear.

Serendipity plays a big part in my life. I need something and it shows up in the auctions. I need a job, and someone who knows someone I know gives me a call… I get back in touch with a girl I knew because of an email address on a fund raising appeal that was cc’d to me and I end up married to her… Stuff that pushes the bounds of probability happens to me all the time. Serendipity and synchronicity. It’s a charmed life now, but it wasn’t always. I can appreciate it now, knowing how it used to be.

And I want it to continue, to see where it all leads, but there are people and forces who want to bring it all down. We don’t get to choose when we live, or what happens in the world, but we do get to choose how we respond. I choose to get through whatever is coming, and to see what the next era looks like. My grandmother saw the birth of manned flight, and men landing on the Moon. I can’t predict what my kids will see but I want it to be more than flickering shadows on the walls of our ruined civilization. So I prep, to give them the best start in whatever comes next.

You can too. Stack it up.

nick

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