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Category: prepping

Mon. June 8, 2020 – another week starting

Hot, humid, chance of storming…

Yesterday it was hot and fairly humid all day, although water in the driveway did dry and the Portacool evaporative cooler worked, so it couldn’t have been as humid as it felt.  I’ve seen days in a row where puddles didn’t dry because it was so humid.

I did get some work done in the driveway in late afternoon.  I moved a pallet of stuff onto shelves.  It makes a taller stack, but decreases the foot print.  I was alternating with stuff that had me indoors to cool off.  I was able to condense some stuff too, gaining a little bit of space.  And it’s clear to me I should be going through all my stuff more regularly, to sort, sell, or dump.

We’ve got a storm in the Gulf so I don’t know what today’s weather will bring. I might head over to my secondary or I might just stay here and do other things.    At least I didn’t add to my sunburn yesterday.

I’m sure something will come up to derail my efforts.

Like a global pandemic messed with me getting stuff cleaned out and taken to auction just when I was starting to make progress.  After all, it’s all about me…

Speaking of, it seems to have passed the point in Brazil and India where the true extent can be hidden.   Probably still going into the rapid doubling phase in India, WELL into it in Brazil.   Africa is a big black hole info-wise and so are a lot of other places.   If this was the zombie apocalypse it wouldn’t be long before we stopped getting news out of them entirely.  Since it’s Just The Flu ™, I’m sure places that have dealt with infectious diseases in the past will have no trouble at all.

Really though, it’s still out there, still killing about 1000 people a day in the US, and it’s becoming clear that even if you get over it, you might have lasting and possibly life changing damage.  Don’t get it.    Don’t get complacent or distracted.

It’s just a tiny bit suspicious that when it appeared we might be getting a handle on it, we get a giant virus swapfest, happening daily.  There are some real pros at work.  Did anyone else look carefully at how WELL the slogans were painted in the streets of DC?  The lines were straight, the edges crisp, the letters all well formed.  It takes a lot of effort to even lay out the guidelines for something like that, let alone actually execute it so well, and with really minimal guidemarks.  It almost looked unreal to me.  In any case, if it wasn’t photoshopped, it took work and experienced people and planning and discipline.  Not what you want to see in the enemies of freedom and rule of law.

One way or another, spicy time is coming.  LOTS of people seem to be doing prudent things, far more than I expected.  Shortages of seeds and freezers speak volumes to me.  Canning jars and lids seem to be available at the moment, but that’s another thing I would expect to sell out.  Unless all the people who would can already have what they need… like guns and ammo, you can always use more.

Speaking of which, you always think you have enough guns until the zombies come…

Getting training is harder and has more risks now, but if you need it, find a way to get it.  Several of our local ranges are offering classes, despite the restrictions.   LOTS of people are arming up.  Even my wife suggested it was time to get the girls going on the pellet guns.   I guess that living in the middle of a global pandemic makes it possible to see that some of the other scenarios might not be so far fetched after all.

Keep learning, keep stacking.

 

nick

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Sun. June 7, 2020 – not a million man march

Hot, hot, and more hot.  I think I could put that in the template for the site.

Yesterday was hot.  Humid.  Sunny, cloudy, and then we got a nice shower in the afternoon.  Sunny and STEAMY after that.  78F when I went to bed.

Looks like the million idiot march in DC had pretty much the same result as the last one.  And the fires, looting, and destruction continue elsewhere.

Meanwhile, one of the greatest accomplishments of the last millennium, and one of the most momentous for Europe slips by with little notice.

I enjoyed my time in our pool yesterday.  Since we were in the privacy of our back yard, I thought I might get in without a T shirt on… It’s probably been 20 years since my belly saw sunlight (other than my brief exposure last week.)  I was in the shade.  It was overcast.  I stayed under the water.  And I’m still itchy and sunburned on my belly and back.   Not even bad enough to see, but it’s enough to feel like wearing a wool sweater with nothing under it.

Other than finally getting in the pool and the yardwork, I really didn’t get much done.  I’ll try again today.

Dinner was lamb chops, delivered fresh from Costco by Instacart, finally.  Sides were cheese and bacon scalloped potatoes from a box, only a month out of date, steamed broccoli from the last delivery, and dinner rolls.  Dessert was sugar cookies from a pouch, just add a stick of butter and an egg.  Pouch was best by 2017, and the kids raved about how good the cookies were.  How could they have been anything but good with that much butter in them?  They were, in fact, REALLY GOOD.  I ate 7.

If we don’t have a big spike in cases before July 4th, I’ll accept that we can relax our covid response a bit, and move further toward normal.  I don’t think we’ll be doing that, or that we’ll get back to ‘normal’ ever again.  My wife and I don’t think the kids will be back in a school building in the fall.  She actually joined a FB group for homeschoolers to start figuring out what is available out there.  I had no idea, but I’m glad.  Doesn’t hurt to spend some time planning ahead or considering options.  That’s what preppers (and all prudent people) do.

Consider also- truck guns, body armor, fire extinguisher sized pepper spray, a house in the country, and some good hedges against inflation.  Another income stream might be a good idea too.

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Plan for the day is do as much as possible without getting heat stroke, and get some projects finished.  I guess we’ll see….

Keep stacking, keep thinking, keep your mind and eyes open.

 

nick

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Fri. June 5, 2020 – Busy day

Hot and humid.  Maybe more rain?

It was certainly hot and humid yesterday.  Stifling when there was no breeze.  It did rain like crazy late in the day, which cooled things down a lot, but that was pretty late…

I got a few things done.  I moved some stuff and cleared some stuff at my secondary location, in preparation for throwing a lot of stuff into the dumpster.  I’ve got a literal truckload (53ft trailer) of stuff to sort, save, recycle, and trash.  That is just the trade show booth, but it will make a lot of room for other stuff.  No one is buying any tradeshow stuff in the next year or two.  Certainly not a booth that has been reworked a couple of times already.   About half of the volume is trash now, with some saveable pieces, and some of the shipping containers for reuse.  I could scrap out the rest, keeping just the containers to sell at some point, but I might keep some stuff like generic walls and towers.  All the lighting is too old and doesn’t meet current requirements, the chairs were more stylish than comfortable, all the messaging and signage is for a company that hasn’t existed for years…  I had hoped to rework it one more time and resell it again, but, I don’t see tradeshows being a thing again for a long time, and I need the space.

That is part of what I hope to do today, start moving that cr@p toward the dumpster.

I’ve also got some auction pickups to do.  I intend to put shelves in the space I open up so I scored some Metro racks on wheels.  This is taking priority because I need somewhere to put the racks… and some of it has to happen today, some tomorrow.  When you are buying in the ‘secondary’ market, you get it when you see it, not when it’s convenient.

All this will certainly make my homelife better, should make my selling of stuff easier, will make it possible for me to do some of the stuff I like doing, and has needed to be done for a long time.  Not really how I expected to be spending a worldwide pandemic.  Damn strange zombie apocalypse.  Although now we have our roaming bands…. can’t shoot them in the head yet though.

Toured the garden yesterday.  Some more blueberries are ready, must be at least 5  🙂  The citrus is doing well.  One of the cabbages has formed a firm center to the head.  It’s the one in the best sunlight, go figure.  Sunlight is important for success at gardening.  Who knew?  Broccoli is still growing.  Asparagus went leggy right away and looks like ferns now.  I’ve gotten one stalk off it in how many years?  I am just keeping it alive until I can transplant it somewhere new  at this point.  Corn and melons continue to grow.  Potato plants continue to die.  No idea what that is, the soil is clean bagged potting soil, so shouldn’t have any grubs or root destroyers in it.  It started out so well too.  Apple and peach trees have leaves, and look like trees, but no flowers and no fruit.  Peppers are still good though.  All in all, likely to be a disappointment.  Good learning though.

In the world and locally, covid is increasing in places that had people getting together.  That bodes ill for the rioters and protesters.  We said a couple of weeks ago that we’d know if easing restrictions led to more cases, and it looks like it did.  We’re starting to see some of the earliest cases, and should see more soon.  3-5 days from exposure to symptoms for most people, one to two weeks of sickness before either getting better, or worse.  So about 2-3 weeks from exposure to hospital admittance…on average.  I’m no fan of NY pols, but whichever one said that all the protesters should consider themselves potentially infected and self isolate got it right this time.  Chances of the public actually doing that??? Zero.

So keep working, keep your awareness up, and keep stacking.

 

n

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Thur. May 28, 2020 – more storms

Wet and windy.

Yesterday was a mix of rain and storms with nice sunny blue sky and cool breezes. Lot of rain and wind though.

And the trunk I left open to dry out after I left it open through a storm?? Yep. Left it open through a storm again. I hope it will be dry at some point today.

Didn’t get much done on the bigger projects but I did do some more work on a couple of smaller things. Didn’t end up going to my client’s house yesterday but will be out there later today.

My wife decided that we needed to proceed with some sort of above the ground temporary pool. Only problem is, they are sold out everywhere. EXCEPT— in my auctions. Amazon returns and damaged in shipping auctions had several of the Intex pools. I ended up buying one, 15ft x 42″ high. After fees and taxes it was slightly more than list price- for an open box I didn’t inspect. I figure I can MacGiver around any issues. One other pool went for $100 more than mine, and the last one went for $200 more than mine. It is a seller’s market for above ground pools at the moment. Funny thing is, I picked up a pump/filter a couple of auctions ago thinking it could be a gross filter for my “water tank” inflatable kiddie pool, and I got 3 filters for it too. So even if the filter part of the set is missing, I’ve got it covered.

I’ll be doing pickups at four auctions today before heading over to my client’s house. They had another power outage, and half the stuff is offline, plus AT&T should be there to fix the DSL. The auctions were for some tactical accessories and camping stuff, toilet paper (don’t need it, but figured if I could restock with a good brand, I might as well), the pool, and a weird mix of photography LED lighting and backdrops and a couple of antennas.

The ‘weird mix’ auction seller is new to me. They are perhaps the second worst at it I’ve ever come across. Their pictures suck, what few there are, and their descriptions are all the same- general merchandise. By looking at all the listings, I could tell what some of the unidentified items were despite the bad pix and no description. If the stuff is actually there in the lots, I might have done really well. 20 lots for $109 is great pricing. The two antennas would have been most of that, and I got a bunch of other useful stuff, including practice arrows! The photography stuff should help me get better pix for my new listings. Turns out there is a whole slew of photo lighting and backdrop stuff aimed directly at youtubers. You wouldn’t think that would be a big enough market, but you’d be wrong. It is super cheap cr@p but should be fine for the limited use I’m putting it to.

One of the items in with all the tactical stuff was a marine rescue rope in a throw bag. We were talking about swimming the other day. I didn’t mention that I have self inflating life vests in my truck, and now I’ll have a rescue throw rope too. I’m not a strong swimmer, so I prep…

Dinner was frozen hamburger patties from 2017, and a couple of skewers of frozen shrimp. I opened a jar of sweet peppers I ‘cold canned’ a few years ago. They’ve been un-opened in the fridge this whole time. They are crunchy and delicious. The commercial jar of pickled beets from a couple of years ago is starting to fade, and the beets are maybe a little softer than originally, but they are still tasty and good eating.

I found two more buckets of bulk in the garage, one 25# bucket of salt, and one 25# bucket of flour from 2017. The salt is fine for sure, and I don’t want to break the seal on the flour, so I’m just putting it back on the shelf. That HAS to be all the food in the garage at this point. I don’t have that much more area to go through.

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In the wider world, China is pushing India AND Hong Kong. And, at the same time, locking down new cities because of new wuflu outbreaks. There are so many ways this can go wrong.

Russia is getting frisky in the air with our pilots.

There seem to be some riots going on from the usual crew, for the usual reasons in MN and LA. If it spreads like it did a few summers ago, things will be getting sporty soon. Avoid crowds. Make sure you can get out of one if you get caught up.

And people all over the US have lost their dang minds. For now, I’m going to let someone else poke their finger into the flame to see if flames are still hot. I’m holding steady (although I admit to looking at auctions again, and doing the pickups – curbside.) We should know in just a couple of weeks what effect the changes in restrictions will have, if any. I’ll reassess my stance then.

Nothing I see is changing my mind that things are going to get a lot worse before they start to get better. Keep stacking. Don’t let fatigue make you lower your guard.

nick

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Tues. May 19, 2020 – just hot

Hot today.

Hot yesterday. REAL hot in the later half of the day. 106F in my driveway in the sun. I was pretty sweaty in the garage.

I’m making slow progress on a couple of areas in the garage. Too hot to work in the driveway yesterday.

Kids are interested in some mods to their play structure. They’re both getting older and I took down the spiral slide last year. Never replaced the slide. I am thinking about a climbing wall, maybe a crack machine. I picked up a bucket of climbing holds at some point, so I just need to figure out structure and how to make it work with what’s already there. Wife is talking about setting up my apocalypse water collector (ie. kiddie pool) and taking down the play structure completely. I think it’s a bit too early to do that. The pool, on the other hand, might need to kill some grass in the shade of the tree. Grass looks so nice I hesitate… we did get word from our swim team and Rec association pool. No swim meets this year, some training for team, while maintaining distancing. Not sure how that’ll work. Pool will open next week with cleaning and distancing rules in place. Sounds sketchy to me. So a wading pool might be necessary, or just wanted. As an aside, the mom’s club FB pages are full of people trying to get an above ground, or fiberglas in ground pool put in pronto. They aren’t gonna be swapping spit at the local rec association pool…

So that’s a long term effect. It might kill some neighborhood pools that were struggling with membership issues or damage from Harvey.

I really don’t see what the endgame and way out of this is, unless it dies out naturally, there is immunity and a reliable test, or a vaccine.

And Hey! Hurricane season is coming! I really need to find my motivation and get busy. I’ve got lots to do still.

And I bet you can think of some stuff to do too.

So get busy, learning, stacking, sorting, and figuring out how to get ahead in this new world.

nick

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Mon. May 18, 2020 – another week, home school, home work, home sweet home

Nice, sunny and cool.

Yesterday was cool to start, without much sun, then got hot and sunny, but turned into a picture postcard evening. Comfortable and a pretty pink sunset, with breezes for cooling. Nice.

I got a couple of things done moving toward having a work area in the back corner of the garage. Moved some stuff out of the way (20+ coleman lanterns of all fuels and vintages), and added some plywood to the back of a shelf. The plywood will be a tool board eventually. It’s all a bit fussy and low criticality, but that’s about all I’m feeling up to at the moment.

I did cut the grass, and was soaked through when finished. Looked at the gardens a bit, but don’t have the weekly report until tomorrow.

Breakfast was instant hash browns with a BB date in 2016, seasoned and served under fried eggs… yum. Also chocolate chip muffins from mix. Dinner was one of the ready to eat main courses from Costco. We eat a lot of the lamb shanks, but this time it was mexican grilled chicken thighs. Added half a can of corn, a can of beans, and some tortillas for a nice and low effort dinner. I freeze the main courses so it takes a bit longer than 7 minutes in the microwave, but they last much longer that way.

The news that several sailors tested positive for Covid-19 after having previously tested negative more than once, and returning to duty, is alarming to say the least. We’ve had other reports of similar cases, but there was always a way to deny it. They are arm-waving that the tests may not be good, etc. but it looks like pretty strong evidence you CAN get this a second time, or that it doesn’t go away but just goes dormant for a while. This is very bad if that is the case. Think about what will happen if it becomes undeniable that we WON’T get immunity, and that the second time can be worse (as we see in Korea and China). Pretty much everyone’s plan for getting back to normal involves immunity in one form or another. We don’t currently have a lot of time with the people who have recovered to see what long term or even medium term consequences might be. We might be in for some more unpleasant surprises in the coming months.

Which means, keep prepping. Lots more bad stuff can be coming down the pike. This is a pretty good rehearsal and test of our systems. While the trucks are still rolling, and the system is still mostly intact, restock, stock up, and keep stacking.

nick

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Sat. 5/16, 2020 – more than a quarter, less than a half

Cooler, with rain later?

Yesterday was hot and muggy until the thunderstorms, then it cooled off. Not sure how much rain we got at home. I was at my secondary location cleaning and organizing. We got hammered there so bad it shook dust from the ceiling. There was a LOT of water in the bayous I drove past on the way home.

Home looked pretty wet too.

So I did get some cleaning and organizing done, just not much. I also picked up a couple of auction items. I let a lot more go, that I probably would have bid more aggressively if it weren’t for the CV issues- like no one has money for cr@p on ebay.

I’ve been spending money on ebay. Amazon too. I’m possessed with the urge to buy some small things, but they add up. In the last week I’ve bought some leather working tools. I’ve been collecting leather working and cobbler stuff for a year or more. I didn’t have any of the hand stitching stuff that you need for heavier things. You can also use the heavier needles and holders for stitching web gear, or similar things. I hope to do craft projects, not shoe repair for the foreseeable future. But that’s the problem isn’t it? It isn’t really foreseeable, and what I can see doesn’t look good.

I also bought a bunch of machine and hand sewing needles. I’ve got a couple of sewing machines, including a serger and an embroidery machine. I have had some training in the fabric arts, including making my own trenchcoat from scratch as my Costume Shop practicum while at university. It’s been a while, and I don’t have much experience with making patterns, but I can run the tools.

I don’t knit, crochet, cross stitch, or weave, but the kids are interested in all those. I might have to learn. In the mean time, I bought 6 new pairs of merino wool socks. I wear thin wool socks exclusively and it makes a real difference in foot health and comfort. I have worn my heals and Achilles tendon area threadbare on most of my current pairs. I like the Kirkland Hikers but have to buy them on ebay when they aren’t in the Costco, or if I don’t really want to go into the plague factory… Fortunately, I’m not the only one who likes to buy this seasonal item out of season, and there are a lot of retail arbitrageurs to make it easy for us. (yea interwebs and ebay)

It’s all part of my desire to have repair stuff at hand for all the sorts of things I might want to repair. Oh, I’m going to use the embroidery machine to work with the kids on computer skills, robots, etc. and the sewing machines for realizing their paper designs into physical clothes for their dolls, but I have them to fix things. (and so that my personal makerspace – mad scientist workshop – would be complete.)

Speaking of fixing things, I finally thought of a useful item to print on my filament printer- the cover caps for my lawn sprinklers. They are mostly flat and round, but have enough detail in them with reliefs, holes, and a beveled edge, that printing makes more sense than reductive machining. It also makes sense to create the missing pieces because the $40 heads will last longer with the covers in place. Whether I ever get to actually making them, that’s up for grabs, but it probably won’t be soon.

Today should be more cleaning and organizing, with a few tiny projects thrown in. Forecast calls for more T-storms in the area. That will keep me inside. My freaking neck and shoulders are keeping me in too. I’m moving at half speed because of the pain, which is better than a day ago, but still not recovered. FFS, I’m taking tylenol, and I almost never add anything to my normal daily regimen. I stocked pain meds and OTC snivel meds DEEP. Because pain control is one of the modern marvels.

Dinner was frozen battered tilapia. Yeah, I know it’s the pool skimmer for the catfish tanks. Wife likes it, I like it, kids will eat it if they scrape off the seasoned batter. Canned corn, and leftover mac n cheese rounded out the meal (with sliced avocado for green color) and fresh from the oven frozen cookie dough chocolate chips were dessert. Not many of those bad boys left on the cooling rack before bedtime…

If you’re prepped up, fill in some gaps. If you aren’t, fill in some shelves. Keep stacking.

nick

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Fri. May 15, 2020 – another week zipped by

Warm to hot, sunny and damp.

Yesterday got pretty dang hot, 103F in the driveway. Sunny for most of the day too, when it wasn’t threatening and overcast.

My neck and shoulders were really stiff and sore, so I was moving kinda slow.

Did math with Kid2. She was so frustrated by 3 digit long multiplication, mainly because she wasn’t keeping the columns straight. She thinks long division is easy, but multiplication gets her. Other daughter had trouble with columns running off to the side too, despite gridded paper. Once we got some precision in her writing, it got better. Kid2 does a weird thing, she makes all her numbers moving the pencil backwards. She starts at the end and bottom, and draws the number upwards. They look ok, and she’s FAST, but it’s weird.

Got almost all the medical resupply I ordered. I’m good on bandaids and bandages for a while now. Still waiting for wound wash. Bandaids, tape, and vet wrap will all age out. The adhesive or non-adhesive parts will change and they’ll become much less useful than they were. I can’t recommend stocking cases under normal expectations, because you’ll just never use it. Aesop reminded me that ACE bandages can be washed and reused many times and might be a better choice than Kerlix and tape. Of course, I’ve got some ACE bandages too. The kerlix sure is more comfortable in our climate though.

Did more work in the garage. It’s like playing one of those sliding number games with 15 filled squares out of 16, and to move a number around you have to slide all the other numbers around too. I can see progress, I just can’t quite see the end. I keep finding useful things, so that’s a plus. I’m not pulling much OUT but I’m stacking it and restacking it and at least I have a fresh idea about what’s there. So much stuff that needs to get sold. One long delayed project got done. I’ve been meaning to put together a simple and basic tool kit for each vehicle, not a ‘fix it on the side of the road’ kit, but a couple of tools so you aren’t stuck with nothing if you need to turn a bolt, take the legs off something you bought, or similar. I’ve been collecting the bits, just never put them together. I built two today. A tall tin can with a lid, had Japanese bar mix snacks in it (it’s an inch or so taller than a soda can, and very sturdy tin). 6 in 1 screwdriver, basic wire strippers, small vice grip pliers, disposable knife with the ‘snap off’ blade, small adjustable wrench. Small box of strike anywhere matches, one trash bag-rolled, and six feet of duct tape wrapped around the can. Surprisingly there is still room in the can for a Powerbar or another tool, but I can’t think of much that would be good but not overkill. A small Channelok plier would be nice, but the vise grip should be sufficient. In any case, I don’t have a small Channelok to add to the cans so they’re done for now.

Dinner was frozen pork chops, fresh zucchini saute’d in butter with Parmesan cheese, and stuffing mix from a bag. Meat was from 2019, zukes from the store several weeks ago, and the stuffing was either Thanksgiving or possibly Christmas. Not much from the ‘prepper’ pantry, but you can’t eat out of rusted cans and old cartons every day…

Today I’ll be doing more of the same, and heading over to my secondary with some stuff that I CAN get out of the house and garage. I note that TX has a small uptick in cases about 2 weeks since the first easing of restrictions. I’ll be wearing PPEs if I have to interact with anyone, count on that.

Latin America is starting to show a lot of cases. Can India and Africa be far behind?

Keep working on skills and stacking. Join the other 300M of us going through closets, kids rooms, and garages… you never know what you put away and forgot about.

nick

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Wed. May 13, 2020 – Friday the 13th falls on a Wednesday this month

Rainy and wet. [so wrong, 76F and sun is out]

Yesterday was nice, but humid. Really humid compared to the last couple of days. We got actual rain too, after dinner and sporadically all night.

I did get some stuff done, but no where near what I would have liked. I’ll keep chipping away at it though.

I did receive checks from my auction of the full face PAPR respirators. Made decent money on them. They went at slightly more than my low estimate. Also got paid for some items I couldn’t ebay. It wasn’t a ton of money, but it was money.

Dinner was elk roast. Details in last night’s comments. The central part of the roast was very similar to an eye round beef roast. The cooking, texture, and taste were very similar. Sides were the heat and eat shelf stable bread, and the root veg from the roasting pan. Dessert was Easter candy. I found a half bag of chocolate candy left over from Easter. Hooray!

I mention it in comments yesterday, but I’ll repeat it here. Wound care uses a LOT of supplies… even something as simple as a badly scraped knee. I restocked my medicine cabinet with wound wash, and kerlix from the deeper stores, but then went online to buy more. Some of what I wanted was out of stock everywhere but the arbitrageurs on ebay, and they were short. There were substitutes, but I’m taking it as a sign that things are tight. Supply chains are still disrupted, and demand might be higher than normal.

Check your stock of normal things that aren’t food. Do you have bandaids? Razor blades? Cosmetics and soaps? Gauze, nonstick pads, wrap, tape? Wound cleaning liquids? How about sewing supplies? Got needles and thread? Fusible liner? You might need to repair your high speed low drag web gear if the zombies beat you up. Is there something you usually just order when you need it? Time to check and see if it’s available.

Do you have some repair supplies in general? Crazy glue in different viscosities? Shoe Goo? 5 minute epoxy? Wood glue? Duct tape? Cellotape? Electrical tape? If we really are headed into a big downturn, repair and reuse is going to be important. How about expendables for your vehicles/mowers/garden tools like wipers, belts, air/oil/gas filters, a replacement pull rope? Oil, additives, Sta-bil?

Flints for lighters, butane, lighter fluid? Baling wire? Twine?

Further down the list but important, this home isolation looks like it will be continuing for a while yet, even if things don’t go to sh!t. Do you have playing cards, board games, dice? How about a Hoyle’s book of card games? Pens, pencils, paper? Art supplies? Software to replace something you play online? (My dad loved to play spyder solitaire on the pc, but win10 made it online only. I had to figure out how to install the games pack from win7 so he could play what he was familiar with.) Wife got out the watercolors and did some painting with the girls today for ‘art class”. We love puzzles, so I buy them at Goodwill if they are unopened. The mom’s club in the neighborhood has a puzzle swap going on for those who were not prepared. I find puzzles to be very soothing.

There’s a million things our grandparents or even parents would have kept on hand, just to save a trip to the store, if for no other reason. Think about your tool box or junk drawer, or anything you’d like to do if you had some extra time on your hands. Might want to get that stuff now, if you have the time and funds, and your “sustain life” stuff is all in order.

I’ve got to stop slacken and get back to stackin’…

nick

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Thur. April 30, 2020 – Month’s gone, and we’re still here

Cool and nice, let’s hope.  [62F and sunny at 9am]

Yesterday finally got nice in the afternoon.  Sun came out and it was very pleasant.  Best part was low humidity and a breeze so things actually dried.

Since it was nice and rain is forecast, I did some outdoor work.  I did some sprinkler work in the front yard, some work on my ‘window box’ planters, and some driveway cleanup.

Slowly but surely there is some progress being made.

I’m a bit surprised by how slowly some of my stuff is progressing.  From casual comments on other blogs, some other people are finding the same thing.  It must be a side effect of the ongoing disaster.  I’m finding it hard to get motivated.

That despite the fact we now have over 61K deaths and over a million ‘confirmed’ cases.  I’m willing to accept the case diagnosis in a clinical setting, so I don’t need tests for every case to be counted. YMMV of course.

With summer getting closer, and weather nice, and the mostly invisible nature of this disaster, it’s hard to stay focused.  Make no mistake though, the knock on effects have started, and they will continue to get worse for some time.  Weeks, months, or forever, I’ve got no idea.  But some things have changed.  For example, what would it take before you felt comfortable in a ballroom full of sweaty strangers?  Or even a movie theater, or a restaurant? 855K active cases in the US that need to resolve before this is over, with more cases added every day.  18K are listed as ‘critical’.

It’s pretty safe to say there will be disruptions in the food supply.  Pretty safe to say that imports from countries that are just now starting to have cases explode up the curve, are going to be affected.   Actual shipping on ships will be affected.   Bankruptcies in industry, retail, and personal are bound to increase.   I’ve been a proponent of income streams for retirement vs saving cash in the bank, but a rent strike will hurt landlords big and small.  I’m not leveraged but people that are, or who depend on that income for current expenses  are going to be in a world of hurt if renters stop paying.  And who the heck can provide a valuation for anything in the current climate?  House, car, job, case of Mountain House, who really can say what it will be worth in a month or 3.

All that uncertainty tells me to keep prepping.  Stack what you can, while the brown truck and amazon are still running.  Focus on stuff you’ll need to get by in the next six months.  Any maintenance or repairs coming up?  Projects you’ve been putting off?  Or things that could improve your safety or livability?  Start thinking about what you’ll need and if you need to get it now to be sure you’ll have it later.

Stay in, stay safe,

n

(dinner was baked chicken legs, from the freezer, at least 4 years old.  Tandoori seasoning, bed of onion, bake in BBQ grill at 500F+ for 25 minutes, rice from the bucket, 2014 BB date, birthday cake for dessert.)

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