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Category: WuFlu

Sun. Nov. 7, 2021 – fall back. In more ways than one.

Cold. Or at least chilly. Damp. Then less of both until it’s sunny and warm-ish. Because most days are like yesterday. Except when they’re not.

Did my running around. Spent a few hours at my storage unit going through stuff and loading bins. I’ve got some good stuff in there.

That will be my plan for today too, although I may start here. Family returns in the early afternoon. They’ve been having a blast so far.

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Last night you should have “fallen back” by turning your clock back one hour, in most places in the US anyway. I don’t mind it although I do have a bit of trouble with sleep. It was much worse traveling across time zones when I was working and I survived that. The 12 hour offset to the middle East was about the worst. I always had the most trouble when I came home by traveling west. East, not a problem. West, messed me up. I was usually in a location for long enough to adjust, and then had to adjust back. LIVING in Central time had lots of advantages while working with both coasts. I could work productively many extra hours in the day! Hooray!

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The other part of ‘falling back’ is about culture. Civilization. Mores, manners, trust. We’re falling back in those areas pretty quickly. Rule of law and a high trust society were essential for building the culture of Western Civilization. The more Rule by Law, and the less by Men, the more the west prospered and western people with it.

In the US, Rule of Law (ROL) has been under attack for some time. Recent events suggest that on a macro level, we’re already WROL, but still have Rule by Men. On a micro, or local, or day to day, level we still have some ROL, in most places. We still ape the traditions, mouth the words, for now. This won’t last. As the big picture, so too the small.

The left politically is doing everything they can to reduce ROL. They crave Rule of Man, because they think they will be the ones Ruling… they are puppets on a string. History shows us that once the revolution is complete, they’ll be on the chopping block just like those they led to it. The true Rulers will emerge to benefit from all their hard work.

For some ordinary folks, not much will change. If you live a life of dependence and meanness, it will probably continue. But if you don’t, you will be ‘falling back’. All of the progress you’ve made in your career, your financial life, your health, will be taken from you. Little by little or all at once, they will try to break you.

Plan for how you can fall back on your terms, gracefully if you can manage it. Everything around us will be falling back too. Healthcare. Available food. Jobs. Service. Culture. Performers celebrated for singing about their W.A.P. fete’d for bragging about choking on … something, and the rise of rap music is just one indicator. Rising crime, failing systems and infrastructure, fewer choices in the stores- more indicators. Weirder crimes, more explosive violence, and decreased tolerance of anything someone doesn’t like- more indicators. Extremism in all its forms- another indicator.

I don’t know how far back we’ll fall, but I know that once you damage something, it will never be the same, and it’s easier to break than repair… so give it some hard thought, and prep.

Stack some things.

nick

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Sat. Nov. 6, 2021 – alone again, naturally….

Cold, warming slightly, clear and breezy. Which is how yesterday played out. Chilly in the shade, not bad in the sun. 46F when I went to bed, mid 40s when I got up.

Did my pickups yesterday. Lots of driving. Some radio stuff, some home stuff. Dropped off at my local auctioneer, and he’s getting stuff listed and out of bins. I grabbed six bins to refill. He’s seen a bunch of it and wants more. I’ll bring him more.

Some excitement on the scanner last night, which I detailed in yesterday’s late night comments. If you get a scanner, and listen to it (I just leave mine running all the time in my office) you will learn stuff. It’ll be stuff that doesn’t hit the news. With actual news becoming harder to get, having the scanner can help establish some baselines, and alert you when activity is high. Like all things, you need to practice with it.

The goal for today, while the mice are away, this cat won’t play. I’ll WORK instead. Only me and the dog to worry about, so I can get out of the house for longer periods. I’ve got plenty to do here, but I really need to get out and to my secondary and to my storage units.

Hit a sale, order something for deliver, add to your stacks.

nick

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Fri. Nov. 5, 2021 – why bother? Because I like it and it adds to my life, and hopefully the lives of others.

Cool, damp, possibility of rain. The light misty drizzle continued into the morning yesterday, but then died out. It stayed pretty cool though. I wore a long sleeve shirt for the first time since spring. I had a jacket on too for part of the day. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise for November. Forecast for today has rain possible. I hope not, as I’ve got some driving to do, and a piece of furniture to pick up.

My wife and kids will be headed to Girl Scout camp this evening, and gone through Sunday. I should be able to get some stuff done, if my body holds up. Knees, back, hands, shoulders, if things get sporty and the amount of manual labor that needs to be done increases, well that’s gonna purely suck.

I don’t know what the end game is for off grid or homestead living. In the old days, you dropped dead ‘in the harness’ so to speak, or your kids took over and you could retire in place. A modern husband/wife team can’t really expect to do the same. That was what happened at the big property I looked at. They were living off the land, but husband died, and then there was just too much to do for her to do it alone. Something to consider if your plans include high maintenance property or animals…

I’ve got pickups all over today. Total money spent will be minimal, but time, well, maybe not the best use of my time at this moment. I’ve cut way back but I still sometimes win with my opening ‘placeholder’ bid and have to pick something up that I really don’t need at the moment. Of course, the way my life works, some of those things paid off hugely later. Some I’m still waiting for the payoff.

That is life in general though. You plant some seeds, set some things in motion, and then hope for a good result later.

Get some seeds planted against the coming trouble. And stack some stuff.

nick

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Thur. Nov. 4, 2021 – still no revolution, still no hot war…

We’re on the edge of the thunderstorm area on the national forecast map, so today I’m going with cool, clear, still quite damp, but occasional sun. It would be nice if the rain only lasted one day.

I spent the day doing some small tasks. Pack and ship one item. Pickup from a household auction. Then I realized I was far from home and running low on gas so I paid $3.09 / gallon for 87 octane. I only bought 5 gallons. It was up by the airport at a station just off the freeway but DANG. I think Costco still has it for $2.69/gallon. That’s a big enough difference to make the effort. I was in the Ranger, not the Expy, but still, not filling the tank if I can save 40c/gallon.

Picked two ripe tomatoes off the leftover bushes. Both had been nibbled by something, but there are other tomatoes ripening. That is just crazy, considering that most years the bushes don’t last through the summer, and they certainly don’t fruit in the Fall. Collards look good too, other than the leaves being a little smaller than normal. I’ve got 4 grapefruits on the potted tree that survived the freeze that just started turning yellow from green. They’re a good size, and I’m hoping they are nice and tasty. Herb garden is mostly dead, although the rosemary bush looks like it might have survived the freeze after all. Only about half the plant is dead. I don’t know why but I can’t keep a rosemary bush alive more than a couple of years. I use it a lot in cooking, so I like having it in the garden. Heck, I can and do kill MINT, and it’s invasive, so I’m far from a successful gardener. All the more reason to stack cans.

Plan your garden now, and get what you need for seeds, fertilizer, and pest control early.

Stack some extra in case you’re like me and can’t seem to grow anything. Consider that it might continue to get colder for a decade, look at ways to extend your growing season. Some plastic sheeting and plastic pipe for a greenhouse tunnel won’t cost much or take up much storage space.

Today should be a repeat of yesterday but without having to do a parent teacher conference at dinner time. I do get to pick up D2 early and spend an extra couple of hours with her. Maybe we’ll get some sewing projects done. That was the plan for Monday, before it got changed. I’ve got a number of projects backed up that involve sewing, maybe, just maybe, I can get one or two off the list. They’ve been on the list a long time and aren’t high priority, but my wife got the machine out, and I can jump in before putting it away again. Sometimes I get – squirrel! What was I saying? Targets of opportunity, that must have been it. Tasks or tree rats.

Anyway, think about expanding your garden, and stack what you need.

nick

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Wed. Nov. 3, 2021 – readership dropped by 2/3rds… or did it?

Cool, humid, and possibility of rain today. We got most of that, except the rain, yesterday. I did see a tiny bit of mist on the windshield while driving, and there were some dark clouds in the blue sky, but it stayed dry.

Which let me take down some of the Halloween decorations. I remembered last time having to leave stuff up too long because it was wet. I don’t have it all put away, but it’s mostly down. The HOA can’t complain about it at this point. It didn’t all get set up in one day, it won’t all go away in a day.

Spent the afternoon at the bank, then the other bank, then the Post Office, then picking up kid 2, then home for more decoration removal. In the process I bounced back and forth across town several times. I hate doing that. I’m no green weenie, but I do like saving money, so I usually try to keep my trips efficient. I like to either cluster stops, or do a big circle, or a simple out and back. I hate zig zags and retracing my route.

My wife did our volunteer hours for D1’s theater class yesterday too. I’m actually very happy to have missed that, it’s a bit of a busman’s holiday and I have a really hard time doing less than the best I can or dumbing down my work to match the capability and expectation of the ‘customer’. And they didn’t need a scenic carpenter, they needed people to sand boxes and position stuff. I would have been driven nuts. Hooray for my partner and helpmate for stepping up. Of course, she didn’t sand boxes either, she did stuff with the lighting system because that’s where her expertise and experience lie.

Yeah, meatspace. Still had other things to do.

The post title refers to the google stats for this site. I have no idea what they are basing it on, how the analytics work, or how accurate they are (not very is my suspicion), but the google says readership is down 63% iirc without checking… That’s month over month. If I trust that number, I gotta wonder why. Too much of the same stuff? Doom and gloom, my boring life, doom, inside Hollywood, doom. Or just burnout? No FLASHLIGHT talk? Glock vs 1911? Old Style vs Bud? Or was last month extra high for some reason?

I’ll take a closer look at the charts when I get time, and on the pc instead of tiny, tiny, tiny on the phone. One thing they say is that readership is 45% female, and 55% male. That’s a bit of a shocker. All you lurkers, consider this an invite to participate in any discussion or start your own! I really do want some diversity of viewpoints, experience, and knowledge.

Or should I start doing gear reviews, posting pics of my shelves and dog, or picking fights with other bloggers? Always keeping in mind, and in all seriousness, I like hanging out with all y’all, and don’t really want the issues in comments that other bloggers are having this year.

In the mean time, part of the reason for doing this is to keep all the old stuff on the site alive, so click on one of the keywords on the right once in a while and re-read (or ‘read’) some of the older posts and comments. There is some really good stuff there.

And, keep stacking.

nick

Read the comments: 99 Comments

Tues. Nov. 2, 2021 – 110221 – hurtling into the future… one day at a time

Cool to start, warming gradually, then maybe hot, reverse and repeat until dark. Mid 80s high in the sun. 60F when I went to bed, mid 50s when I woke up. REALLY nice weather.

Boxed up a couple of sales, and dealt with a complaint. I’ll be re-shipping that today, along with a couple of low dollar items. Good margin, just low gross. Still, stuff is actually selling. One sale, Ebay recommended an auction for a PS3 game, new and sealed, and recommended a starting price. I got 3 offers below the open price, and then one of them bid and won with essentially the open. I haven’t done an auction in a long time, because buy it now generally brings more money. I can’t recall anyone making lowball offers before the auction completed. Not sure if this is a ‘game’ thing, or if the nature of auctions has changed. I’ll be sticking with buy it now, for now.

Put away a bunch (but not all) of the Halloween decor.

Then the rest of my day got eaten by ducks and I got not much done.

Besides frustrations with banking, and chauffeuring children, and delivering takeout, I’m fighting a stupid apple file format issue. One of the extra curricular programs sent out a .doc file with instructions to their big event. My wife sees it as a .doc attachment to an email, but when she forwards it to me, it’s a .pages attachment. Which of course windows knows nothing about. Turns out it’s a zip file, with a thumbnail image, and (ONLY SOMETIMES) an actual pdf file in a folder structure. WTAF? So much fail. In my case, I can see the map, as the thumbnail, but all the instructions are hidden inside some other file in the folders, in a format I can’t read. pdf is what? 30 years old? And people are still sending out docs? and Apple takes it on themselves to mung that up? Jeez.

I’m looking at a couple of area credit unions to move my business account. The first free one has only one branch but lists all the branches of another CU and ATMs, including inside costco, so if I can do all my business online or at an ATM, that should work. Even if I chose to use the affiliated CU directly, their requirements for business checking are not onerous. I’ve been over IBC for years but inertia is a thing.

That won’t be the first business that made me work just a little too hard. If I’m going to work that hard, I might as well look at other options too. And since I spent the time on the other options, I might as well pick one…

With hard times coming, it’s probably worth taking a look at the things you’ve taken for granted, or have been allowing to just ‘coast’. You might have too much or too little insurance, the wrong phone plan, cable tv or other subs you don’t use (F YOU Freedom Pop), TiVO, streaming services, etc. Your habits or lifestyle may have changed enough that you are stocking the wrong foods, or your burn rate may have changed so your amounts are wrong. Is it time for a new mattress? Shoes? Winter coat? Do some things need repair? Well, if I’ve got a big list, so should you. No rest for the wicked…

And probably, you should be stacking something…

nick

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Mon. Nov. 1, 2021 – officially on the way to winter, and 2022

Middling warm, but sunny and nice. OR not. No one really knows. Probably like yesterday which was very nice and even cool in the later part of the evening. 57F when I went to bed.

Got my Halloween stuff set up, added a couple of tweaks, one of which didn’t really work, but generally built off the success of last year. Got a bunch of complements. I accomplished my goals. Do something creative. Share it with people. Meet some new neighbors. Reassure the old neighbors that I’m a harmless and fun guy, not a creepy guy with a stockpile, spying on them…. that sort of thing.

Sold a couple of items on ebay over the weekend that I have to ship today. Have a TON of stuff to list, including some big money items that need a bit of extra attention. And it’s the day I spend some extra time with D2 after school. PLUS I’ve got to put all the Halloween stuff away, get down the “fall” or Thanksgiving stuff, and go do some volunteer work at D1’s school helping with the set for their fall theatrical production.

All very normal ‘life’ stuff. What I want to be doing involves a lot of stacking, mods to existing stuff, and fixing some stuff I let slide. Add on the really sudden feeling that it’s the end of the year that starting November triggers, and I feel 2x farther behind than I felt last week.

Ah the joys of too much to do. No matter what I do or don’t do, I’ll fall behind on something.

It’s past time to pull my head out and start cutting through some of the blockages.

THAT’s the goal for today. Start that process.

All the rest of you, keep stacking. Time is getting short. No one wants to mess up Christmas, but after that, it’s on.

nick

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Sun. Oct. 31, 2021 – Halloween. My favorite!

Cool and fairly dry warming up later. Yesterday was very nice. It got to 85F in the sun, while still being 65F in the shade. A great day for working outside.

Which I did, at least a little, while getting my display set up. Since the universe so kindly gave me the pieces I needed to complete my new skeleton pirate vignette, that’s what I did. Two pirates, on broken chairs, sprawled next to a crate covered with cloth, with an open jewel box (coffer) and various spilled jewelry and shiny metal plates and cups. A few metal candelabras and I’ve got a pirate celebration on my lawn.

I got a few of my older decor pieces out of the attic too, but I’m not going as crazy as some years just throwing everything out on the lawn. (I usually set up ‘areas’ that are more themed, but the whole yard doesn’t have a theme.) There will be “old standby” pieces that won’t get out this year.

While I was adjusting the lighting, one of our Deputy Constables drove by, slowing to admire the display. She turned around and stopped to tell me she liked it, so I asked her to keep an eye on it overnight. That saves me some time that I thought I’d spend putting the pirate stuff away overnight just to be sure it would still be there for tonight. I saw her drive by again at 1:14AM before I went to bed. Couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t get snatched, but it made me feel better leaving it out.

One of the best parts of our neighborhood is the 24/7 Constable patrol.

Today will be getting the rest of the display stuff set up, getting all the small toys and candy ready, and maybe getting something together for me as a costume. I’ll probably just paint myself with UV paint again though. It’s easy and looks dramatic.

Then at some point the kids will start coming by. First a trickle,then a flood. We usually get between 100 and 150, mostly younger than about 15. A couple of older kids always show up around 9pm, but they’re usually the last. A few more of my neighbors will be home this year to hand out candy too. I hope my candy holds out. There might be some pent up demand after last year’s COVID related restrictions.

I enjoy today a lot. I get a nice outlet for my theatrical skills, and I get to see the neighbors, and make kids happy. What’s not to like?

Take a break once in a while, especially if it’s something that cements your ties to your community. Meatspace baby!

nick

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Sat. Oct. 30, 2021 – stuff needs doin’, and I need to do it…

Cool and windy again. Not supposed to be any chance of rain.

Had a pretty strong wind most of yesterday. Headwind all the way to Austin, when it wasn’t a cross wind knocking me from lane to lane. I used half a tank of gas pulling the empty trailer there, and only a quarter pulling the loaded trailer home.

And load the trailer I did. The pickup was at some type of testing company. They had a bunch of vehicles or cabs from vehicles, and they were doing something non-destructive with turning them upside down or something. In any case, the Ranger was basically sitting in the lot for the last 6 years. Lots of mold and mildew on the outside but the inside was pretty good, considering. We got it loaded up with ‘man-draulics’ and a little help from a couple of other guys doing their own pick ups. It is going to suit me fine as a parts vehicle.

There certainly seemed to be a lot of new construction going on outside the eastern side of Austin, along 290. Giddings looked like it was doing ok, and Brennam was better than the last time I was through there. Still a lot of vacant buildings along the route. LOTS of billboards with no ads on them except their own begging to rent them. I think there must be some data point for the state of the economy there.

Got home later than I wanted, power washed the new and old trucks. I’ll return the trailer today. The uhaul car hauler is very easy to use and well thought out. It’s also VERY WIDE. You need to pay constant attention to where you are in the lane. It worked a treat for me.

Today I’ll be doing stuff around the house. Mostly Halloween decor stuff if I’m lucky 🙂 but I’ll also be doing stuff in the driveway and patio to clean up after all the wind. It tossed LADDERS around. It blew down an acquaintance’s fence, right across the street from D1’s school. Lots of bigger branches and smaller trees were damaged too. I think it was more wind than I’ve seen here outside of a hurricane.

My antennas seem to have come through ok, and that’s a plus.

Time to get to work on meatspace stuff, and clear the decks for more stacking.

n

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Fri. Oct. 29, 2021 – what I desire is man’s red fire…

Cooler with this front that blew in. Then slightly warmer, and I’m hoping for normal wind. Yesterday it was really windy with swirling gusts. There are lots of small and mid sized branches down all through the neighborhood, and I had some too. One small ornamental tree twisted off at 5 feet above the ground. One smaller branch off the oak tree. Bushels of twigs and leaf clusters. Crazy the way the wind was blowing.

Didn’t get as much done as I wanted to, of course. Wife called and asked me to get D2 after I picked up my car trailer. And I didn’t start the day with “pick up windblown debris for a while” on the list either. But there it is.

Today I have a few things to get together, then I’m off to Austin (north side, taking 290) to pick up the Ranger ‘parts truck’ I won. Got the whole thing for the cost of a tailgate. It’s white and my truck is blue, but all the sheet metal looks straight. It’s got the steering wheel control clusters that I need too. Airbag alone is worth $100- 200 for both. And there seems to be a big @ss speaker in the back, so I’ll be rocking that. Or not.

Once I leave the house I should be radio silent for a few hours. Try not to burn the place down 😉

And stack some stuff.

n

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