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Category: WuFlu

Sat. Dec. 18, 2021 – one week to go ’til a fat man reverse burgles you….

Warmish and damp. That’s about guaranteed for Houston anyway. Maybe damp turns to rain.

On Friday I headed out to my client’s house, did some things there and moved the project along. Some extra challenges on Friday… but got through them. I’m not done out there, but I see the path to being done. NOTHING is every as simple as it seems, especially when it’s new, and the person telling you how simple it is won’t be doing the work. and hasn’t done a bunch of work to make sure it’s simple for you. Thankfully the second tech support guy recognized the issue and figured out how to fix it.

Today, more house cleaning, and more decorating. I’ll be cutting my hair, and doing more domestic stuff besides.

Finished listening to the audio book of Orson Scott Card’s “Speaker for the Dead”, second book in the Ender Wiggins saga. It was well produced, although the audio was low, with three voice actors and occasional music. 12 CDs. I really don’t understand the voice casting, nor do I get the voice direction that gives voice to the piggies as vaguely Brooklyn accented cartoon kids. The female actor’s voice was so passive, dropping at the end of every sentence, that I thought she’d been drinking cough syrup on the rocks. Still better than the Jack Reacher POS. It kept me awake for the 40 minute drive each way to my client’s house so it did the job I wanted it to do.

Find the tools that work for you, for whatever job you’re doing.

And stack a few extra…

n

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Fri. Dec. 17, 2021 – getting close to Christmas, dangerously close…

Another weird day, maybe sunny and humid, maybe rainy and humid, maybe just overcast and humid. Had all of those yesterday…

Got some real progress on my install yesterday and hope to get the bulk finished today. There are a couple of things I haven’t even considered getting started on with the other issues. Those can wait though for next year.

I feel the approaching holiday coming like a freight train. We still don’t have a tree up and we still don’t have all the lights I want to hang up. And like Epstein, those danged lights don’t hang themselves… I am in a very weird mental place as a result.

The kids are getting weirded out by it too. Not good.

I really like the Christmas season, and it’s strange to not be feeling it this year.

Maybe after this weekend…

n

{stack all the things}

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Thur. Dec. 16, 2021 – more human than humans…

Warmish, or cool, but definitely some chance of rain. Damp too. Hands are like paddles in the cold and damp weather. So I’ve got that to look forward to.

Spent the first part of yesterday testing speakers for ebay. I was supposed to take a load to storage, but ended up running out of time. Then I got to spend the rest of the day wrestling with IP configs, and messing with hardware trying to get it to do something, anything, that it was supposed to. Kinda failed.

Today will be more of the same, and may include soldering. Joy. And the week is almost over.

I went to bed early for a change. My brain was not working at full capacity due to tiredness, so you’ll have to find something to talk about. Maybe the world economy collapsing under the weight of hyperinflation? Or another plague? On the other hand, Christmas is coming…

Stack something.
n

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Wed. Dec. 15, 2021 – the dreams are pretty good

But I really need to stop falling asleep in my chair at my desk.

Warm and damp. Maybe rain. Blah all day.

More work at my client’s. His patience is wearing thin, but I am not getting the brunt of it. My cams work remotely. I can get in through the port forwarding. The problem has to be with his stuff.

So short shrift, both on this, and all day.

Decide what needs stacking, and do it.

nick

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Tues. Dec. 14, 2021 – Busy like a beaver, busy like a bee…

Warm again, and wet. Very light misty rain all day yesterday, depending on where I was, had me driving the Expedition on my errands, when the Ranger would have been a better choice. Forecast for today looks like even more likelihood of real rain. Well, we shall see.

Did my errands in the morning and early afternoon. Picked up D2, and spent some time making erasers out of some sort of clay like material… Little tiny erasers shaped like fruit, pie, and animals. It was fun to play with the clay and make stuff.

Today I’ll head out to my client’s house. Port forwarding is still not working correctly. Some of them are probably being blocked by ATT, but normally the non-standard control ports should get through. The cams’ app used to get through without issues. I hate chasing issues like this, where I’m just poking around in the dark.

And then home to more family stuff. There is so much end of year stuff at my wife’s work, and with the kids’ school semester wrapping up, that we’ve got multiple things happening every day, and worse from my point of view, every night. I already missed one of my favorite things, our visit to the school district’s FFA Christmas event. Photos with Santa, hay ride, baby animals, and show animals the kids have raised, and lots of people from school and the neighborhood. It’s a real community event and a fun way to spend a few hours. The kids in the culinary program at the alternative school sell food- cookies, frito pie, etc, and that is ALWAYS worth spending a few bucks. Local local local…

Stack up some local community. They’ll be the ones helping you, or turning you in, or shooting you for your preps. You need a good idea of what the people around you think and feel.

And of course, stack the preps.

nick

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Mon. Dec. 13, 2021 – work-life balance, I can haz it?

Still cool and clear for one more day, according to the national forecast. I’ll take it. It feels much more like the season at 50F than 80F. Sunday was bright and clear, with light breezes here.

I got some stuff done. Moved a whole pickup load to storage, and you can barely tell. Mostly because I moved other stuff back into the area I moved stuff out of. There is camping stuff all over too, after the return of the pack, and their packs. 😉

I got some lights up in the yard too, just before dusk. And really a bit after dusk too, because I spent some time chatting with my new neighbors across the street. Young couple, seem very nice. Very excited to be in their new home.

Plan for today is drop of TV at auctioneer, take some stuff to my secondary location, move more stuff out of the house, pickup daughter and do some more decorating outside and in. Probably won’t get to my client’s house today. The round trip time would eat too much of the day.

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The devastation from the tornadoes in Kentucky, Illinois, etc. is dramatic. Disaster can hit anywhere and anytime. It was the tornadoes in Oklahoma a number of years ago that demonstrated to me the need to establish some preps off site. This disaster just further confirms it. Some hazards can really only be dealt with after the fact. If you are in a tornado or wild fire or mudslide area, or any other sudden but localized threat area, think about the difference a couple of bins with clean clothes, duplicate records, and some easy to prepare food and drink would make in the event your home was destroyed.

Sometimes it won’t be the stacks, but where you’ve stacked them.

nick

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Sun. Dec. 12, 2021 – 12122021 – the return of the wanderers

Cold and damp, no rain though. That’s my best guess for today. It really got colder last night. Daytime temps were cool, but it dropped below 50F before I went to bed. My knees and hands hurt when it gets cold and damp.

Had a great time at my non-prepping hobby Christmas party. The food was awesome. Club provided meats, members brought dishes. I brought peach cobbler and sweet corn bread wedges. The corn bread didn’t rise, so fail there, but the cobbler got complements. Both from long term stores. For desserts there was a whole table of sweets, including two different pecan pies– both were deliciously sweet, the way they should be. I had two different sliced hams, smoked turkey, bbq meatballs, and some other pork. Then we did a ‘white elephant’ gift exchange. The ‘white elephant’ part is that the gift is silly, something you didn’t really want, and ideally humorous. It was also supposed to relate to the hobby. 43 people participated and for added fun, you could choose to ‘steal’ someone else’s gift instead of opening one. Then the deprived person gets to pick a new wrapped gift. Items could only be ‘stolen’ twice. Lots of fun and good-natured ribbing involved. Very normal feeling and great to see so many members.

Plan for the day is get stuff out of the house. Then finish outdoor decor. The kids and my wife should be home before I’m done with either of those. Puppy Zeus is supposed to get his incision looked at in the late afternoon, and maybe we’ll have time to get a tree. IF I get all the stuff cleared out.

Just another day in the life really. Stack up the good times as well as the good stuff.

nick

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Sat. Dec. 11, 2021 – ahhh, the sweet relaxing weekend is here…

Cool and damp. Maybe rain. Maybe not. Maybe for some people. It certainly threatened all day yesterday, and even got misty in various places for short periods. But it didn’t rain on my parade. Today should be more of the same.

I did a bunch of my stuff yesterday. Made some more slow progress at my client’s house. I was working well, and briskly, but didn’t have enough time on site to finish. My fault as I did other stuff before heading out there.

I think I finally got the port forwarding sorted out so my business partner can do the programming remotely. He sent me a list, I did it. We’ll see if he gets anything done this weekend.

I intend to attend a Christmas party. My non-prepping hobby would normally meet this morning, but we’re getting together at 1pm for our Christmas party instead. We’re having a potluck at the church we’ve been using for meetings as no one really wanted to host the event in their home this year. Given that the membership is also mostly in the prime ‘killed by covid’ demographic, a certain prudence is called for. On the other hand, we’ve been meeting monthly (albeit in a large space) mostly maskless since Feb? and had a regional meeting/swapmeet/tradeshow without incident. LARGE venue though, not shouting in each other’s faces. I think I’ll bring mango cobbler.

I’m on my own as D2 is away on a sleepover weekend, and D1 is with my wife at GS camp doing a backpacking overnight. Weather permitting I’ll get the rest of my holiday decor set up, and the rest of the auction stuff out of the foyer and library, then we can get a tree up and the inside decor set up and it will finally feel like Christmas is coming. I need to pack and send family gifts out too, and inventory what we have for the kids. If there are still any gaps, we don’t have a lot of time to fill them, and my wife told me she hasn’t purchased any big gifts for the girls yet. OH MY. I hope that doesn’t bite us on the @ss. We’ve got gifts, I just don’t know if the balance is good.

‘Cuz I’ve been stacking gifts all year. And I forget what I have. And gifts don’t go on a spreadsheet or out on shelves where I can see them. So it would be a good idea to get them all in one place and see what’s really there. Kinda like my canned goods. Or vac sealed meat. I’ve probably got both more and less of things than I think. And I know I’ve got stuff squirreled away.

Stack all the things. Really. But do a better job of managing the stacks than me.

nick

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Fri. Dec. 10, 2021 – finally Friday! for about the 48th time this year.

Warm. Damp and warm. Who knew? No rain but some very low clouds. Or heavy mist. Well, that was yesterday so I expect today will be like that. Unless it isn’t.

Had a busy day. Got myself and the kids to the dentist. Teeth all cleaned, treated, and apparently rubberized. The last to decrease sensitivity? It sure felt rubbery.

Picked up two lots at different auctions, one of leather crafts stuff, one of needful things.

Went by my local auctioneer, dropped off a couple of things. Talked about the poor sales. He’s going to recycle the unsold stuff one more time. And he doesn’t want any more stuff until he sees if it sells. It could be that his audience just doesn’t want estate stuff, but new and open box stuff. In which case, I’m screwed because I was counting on moving a bunch more stuff through his auction. He did agree to take the TVs from my client’s upgrade.

Went out to my client’s and did the port forwarding. Don’t know yet if it worked, or was correct. Did some more install and working in the rack. Removed some more of the old TVs.

And today will look pretty similar to that. I’ve got a visit to the gub store planned, drop off the TVs, and head out to my client’s.

All the while, hoping that the chinese real estate ponzi doesn’t burn up like a paper tiger soaked in lighter fluid, and bring the rest crashing down. SOMETHING has to be the trigger. China distracting its people from their paper wealth vanishing by getting all nationalistic and militaristic isn’t unthinkable. And real economic woes could easily spread worldwide. It’s always something.

So I stack. And I think you should too.

nick

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Thur. Dec. 9, 2021 – a totally not infamous day.

Cool and humid, but less chance of rain according to the national forecast. Was 64F when I went to bed. Wednesday was mostly overcast, except for a bit in the NW Houston area.

Did some stuff in the morning, sorting ebay, local auction, and stocking stuffers, then headed out. Stopped by my buddy’s store to drop off something he needed. Several people in buying, one actually looking at long gubs on the rack. Then headed out to my client’s house.

Got everything on the network, finally. Found one bad connection and a couple of mis-labeled cat cables. When you’ve got a six foot air gap, it’s safe to say that run isn’t ever going to work…

Partner’s remote access mostly works, but I’ve got to add a couple more ports to the forwarding. That will be later today.

Early today, I’ve got the annual fang polishing. Hopefully no new holes in my head. One tooth is more sensitive than usual, and it’s been an ‘almost an issue’ for a long time. Might be that it’s moved into the ‘has a problem that needs fixing’ category.

Naturally this is the one day in the semester that D1 has to be physically present at school in the morning for a standardized test. (normally mornings at her school are all ‘electives’ and aren’t really classes, so it doesn’t matter if you are absent.) I’ll be shuttling back and forth, but she’ll have to deal with me and my appointments before getting back.

One of my morning stops is my local auctioneer. Time to do some settling up, and talk about the next one. Hope he’s still willing. I don’t think it will be until the new year though. The leftovers and pieces my other auctioneer is running this week are starting to get bids. The vintage lindsey matchbox cars are doing well so far. The pokemon cards (that were never paid for last time) are getting bids too.

It’s mostly smalls, but every bit helps.

So I’m off, gotta see the ‘tooth doctor for kids’* and to make way for stacking all the things.

n

*yes, actual sign on a building by my secondary. How far we’ve fallen, but plenty left to go, after all, we still HAVE pediatric dentists.

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