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Category: WuFlu

Mon. Jan. 17, 2022 – some kind of holiday. More time for me to work.

Cold. Windy. It was pretty dang chilly yesterday but not as bad as Saturday. I brought the citrus in and it was 35F when I went to bed. So I expect today to be cold too.

I did get the back yard grass cut. Sat too long on Saturday and my back was hurting Sunday so that limited me somewhat.

There’s been a lot going on in my life and I kinda let the world go by without as much attention as I usually spend on it. That can be good in some ways but in others, losing that situational awareness can suck.

And I need to pay attention at home. I was wondering when/if oldest daughter would get around to asking for some one on one time to be scheduled, like I’ve been doing with youngest. I was HOPING she’d be interested. Yesterday she asked, so I’ll add that to my schedule. Growing up, my dad didn’t have much time to spend with us kids during the week, and if we were at home, family (lots of cousins and relations with family parties to attend) obligations came first. Most of our time was shared during family vacations, game nights, or other shared activities (like remodeling projects.) I got to spend time with him splitting wood and occasionally felling trees for neighbors without younger siblings around, but we weren’t out doing things like hobbies together. So I don’t know that it’s any sort of condemnation of the times that I feel like I have to schedule time with my kids, it’s just the way it works for me. Even with the time on the calendar, it doesn’t always happen.

Families, friends, groups, teams, whatever humans call themselves when they are together… it takes time and effort to build the bonds that pay off later, when times are tough. Stack up some of that too.

n

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Sun. Jan. 16, 2022 – another day of not rest…

Cold and windy, but probably clear. I brought my citrus trees back inside last night. It was 40F and dropping, and got to 37F at midnight. Probably wasn’t going to freeze, but the little potted trees weren’t doing well outside.

Got the Christmas decor down, and I’ll put it way today. Some of it was still a bit damp, and I want it dry before storing it.

Got a couple small things done, but sleeping to 11 kinda kills half the day, and it was really too cold and windy to do the outdoor work I was hoping to do.

So we’ll try again today.

Supply chain from China is getting bad again. Port congestion isn’t better. I’m seeing toys show up in the overstock auctions, maybe they’ve arrived too late? And the latest wave of ‘stay at home’ workers is messing up schedules everywhere.

If you need it, stack it.

nick

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Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 – tired, lots of house stuff to do, ordinary days- cherish them.

Cool and clear today. Yesterday was awesome. Blue sky. Clear. Shirtsleeves temps. I’m really hoping for more of the same.

Most of the stuff I want to do today is ‘around the house’ kind of stuff and is much easier if it’s clear.

I did get to my client’s house and closed out a couple of notes. I’ve got a couple of things left to do on this project, and then I can start the new maintenance projects.

I didn’t do anything about my storage unit yet, that’s on the list for today too.

And I need to find someone to take all my auction stuff that I thought would go with the previous guy. Or I’ll have to start having yard sales or get a table at the local flea market on the weekend.

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Out in the wider world, the authoritarian stuff is getting worse and spreading. The supply chain issues aren’t getting better, and are about to get worse again. The inflation rate continues to rise.

You know one thing you can do, keep stacking…

nick

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Fri. Jan. 14, 2022 – stuff to do, and not really psyched to do it

Cold, turning to cool, and damp of course. Whatever pressure zone moved in yesterday blew out the clouds and we had beautiful blue skies. So I spent most of the afternoon modeling my house in sketchup.

If we can’t buy a getaway place, my wife is convinced we need to remodel here. Which means moving somewhere else for a year. And a lot of other things. It’s nuts. But if anything is going to move in any direction, models will help. Oy vey, I’m not amused.

I’m headed to my client today, because yesterday got eaten by relationship maintenance.

All I can do is shake my head and try to keep moving. If you stop moving you get crushed.

Stack something. You’ll be glad you did.

n

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Thur. Jan. 13, 2022 – Friday the 13th comes on a Thursday this month…

Cool and damp again. Overcast? Maybe. Was overcast and threatening all day Wednesday. It was 45F when I went to bed, but not bad during the day. Jacket weather for sure. It’s cold enough that my fingers are cracking again.

Did my pickup, mostly stuff for my non-prepping hobby. Did my drop off and then went to meet the auctioneer where she was going through a house to get ready for an auction. I was able to help her
ID some stuff. And turned down her job offer for the week… My other auctioneer wanted to hire me too, but I’d go nuts in his shop and I doubt he could afford me. I’m always better off either looking after my client, or listing, or working on my house.

Today is household stuff in the AM, then client’s house if the weather is ok for outdoor work. Other than networking, and the next round of gear replacement, I’ve only got a few items left to complete. I can leave the net stuff as is for the time being, and we’ll straighten it out when the fiber gets installed. The new speakers should be installed though.

The other thing I did yesterday was spending some time talking to the manager at the storage company. She’s going to review the video, and if she gets anything usable, then I’ll call my constable’s deputy buddy and see if they want to investigate. I’d think that going after an organized group would be an easier sell than going after individual crooks. The Constable formed his investigative group specifically to go after the stuff HPD wouldn’t touch. It’s another data point that everyone agrees that HPD won’t do anything. They are stretched at the moment, and have been for years.

The manager is an interesting character. She spent 20 years working in city politics then walked away about the time I moved to Houston. She’s got some interesting stories and an interesting perspective. Black, single mom, three successful grown kids. Meatspace baby. Get out and TALK to people.

And stack some stuff, because that pantry ain’t gonna fill itself.

nick

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Wed. Jan. 12, 2022 – worse, not better. “There’s a lot of ruin in a country…”

Cool and damp again, maybe a little rain… we got just a few drops at the end of the day yesterday. The rest of the day was rain free if still damp-ish and overcast.

That meant I was able to take a load to the auctioneer. But. I loaded the truck about 3/4 of the way from one unit, and moved to the other unit, thinking that I’ll just grab the quick and easy stuff from both. Very strange. My lock is gone, and there is another lock on my unit. Office is closed on Tuesday but they agree to send a manager from a nearby storage facility, because storage companies ADD a lock to the unit if there is an issue. They don’t cut YOUR lock. There were some other ‘tells’ too. All of the company locks have a little blue sticker on them and this one didn’t. No issues with the unit were in the file, and I know I paid online…

In the mean time, I take my partial load to the auctioneer, and he freaks. This is all he wants this week. WTF? We had a long conversation, he was gonna take it all. Well, not so much. It’s possible the big boss objected or knew they had other stuff coming in. In either case, I don’t get to empty any storage,nor move much from the house.

On my way back to storage, the manager calls and will meet me there. I swing by home to get a new lock, and grab my battery grinder just in case.

Met the guy and we cut the lock. Ransacked. Robbed. Burgled actually. From the door I could see they went through most of the bins, tossing them around, and grabbing what they wanted. I haven’t disturbed the mess yet as I’m hoping for a police investigation, but I can see the golf clubs are gone, as well as a huge subwoofer, and every bit of electronics. They got at least $1000 in resell value, and that’s just what I can see at first look.

The facility manager is going to look at video for the last week. When she finds something, I’ll call the cops or the constable’s office, and try for an investigation. This is a pretty sophisticated operation. They have surely hit more than my unit as there were a LOT of units with the disc locks on them. They broke in, stripped out what they wanted, then put a lock on the door to disguise the entry. For most renters, I’m sure it would be weeks or months before the theft was discovered, and any video would be long gone.

This is the second time in as many months the one of my storage units has been broken into. In the other facility, a tenant cut locks in a hallway and entered a bunch of units. Caught on video. My unit had only networking and industrial stuff, so they didn’t steal anything. The management noticed the cut locks, and investigated. Then called me and let me know what happened. I met a real nice guy (and mentioned it here at the time) when I went to verify my stuff was still there.

I’ve been a storage unit renter for decades. Not all at once, but cumulatively, and I’ve had the ones here for a while. I’ve never had an issue before. Never heard of anyone having issues with theft, and certainly not a thief who hides the crime with his own lock. This is a big change.

Add in the other indicators. Supply chain issues and shortages. Inflation. Street violence. Political violence. Silencing opposing views. Increasingly ‘othering’ rhetoric and demonizing of opposing groups. Rule of law is collapsing. Social norms are fraying. Everything is getting worse. And I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.

Yeah I know, doom and gloom. The sky is falling. The end is near(er)… But tell me where I’m wrong. I’d love to be wrong.

Look to your personal security and physical security. Look to your personal supply chain. When you see it, buy it. And stack it high.

nick

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Tues. Jan. 11, 2022 – 01112022 – hah, base 3 biatchezzz (so nerdy)

Another cool and clear day today, or at least that is what I need. Yesterday was fine with some sun and no rain.

And yesterday I spent the day working on my client’s stuff. Watched some vids about ubiquiti unifi, and then went and installed some. The magic is still not auto.. but we’re closer, and it’s working from the end user’s point of view. I’m not done yet, but I’m done for a couple of days.

Today I’m moving stuff to the auctioneer and I need it to not rain. Open pickup truck, bins of stuff for sale, and p!ssing down rain don’t mix. If I can get most of the first storage unit delivered, I’ll be happy. That will let me move more out of the house and garage and patio. Wife will be happy. If I can do more than that I’ll be really happy. Then more the next day… and so on, and so on, and so on.

As I dig out more radio stuff, I’m debating whether to take it all to him and do a special ‘radio’ auction, or just wait for March and do my usual sale at the Hamfest. I really like seeing and interacting with everyone at the Hamfest, and I worry that it will all go too cheaply in an auction. I have some time to decide though.

I’m getting that “time is short” feeling again. 100# of rice is about $60-75 (instead of $50 like 2 years ago), fills a couple of buckets, and would bulk out dinner for the family for 2-3 months. $100 in canned veg wouldn’t go amiss… nor would 60 pounds of animal protein- but that bill is gonna hurt.

There are a couple of other things I really need to make some plans work, some additional meds, and some solar charge controllers being the most critical.

If stuff starts getting sporty it will get sporty pretty suddenly. Don’t delay, prep today!

Stack all the things.
nick

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Mon. Jan. 10, 2022 – another busy week ahead

Cool and clear, damp but later drying out, I hope. Yesterday was damp and overcast all day. Not much dried, and there was a lot of standing water around the house and yard. Never got particularly warm, although the house warmed up to the point I turned the A/C on. It was 55F when I went to bed, and still 84%RH.

Spent the day indoors anyway. Slept in after being up late keeping an eye on the storm. The tornado warning that I ignored resulted in a tornado in Humble, about 15 miles NE of me, and it did some damage. Went right over my head before forming up apparently.

Other than the mud where the high water mark is, you wouldn’t know there was any flooding last night.

After a leisurely brunch of sliced Spam, fried frozen hash brown patties, and for me, an egg, I spent the rest of the afternoon doing a bit of clean up, restocking the house, and I cut my hair. I’ve been giving myself haircuts since the beginning of the chinaflu lockdown. I’m getting faster at it, although I’m not sure I am better at it. The Wahl clippers have paid for themselves several times over at this point. Yep, I bought them as a prep when I considered how to stay home for months at a time.

I wanted to go back to my normal barber, but he lost his lease to gentrification and I’ve got to find him again. In the mean time, it’s faster for me to do it. Clipper cut with the numbered clipper shields makes it relatively easy, and it’s basically the same cut I was getting from the barber for years, #4 on top, #2 on the sides, blend and clean up the edges… it’s a style that suits me and it’s easy to maintain. Like a lot of simplification and cutting back, it fits with the circumstances.

I’ve got a set of hair scissors and a straight razor too. The razor is a DEEP fall back as I normally get several months of infrequent use from every disposable blade set. The scissors would work for the girls too. Deep prep. But easy to buy, store, and have if needed. Cutting the kids’ hair or gnu forbid, the wife’s, is NOT something I’m going to practice though. I’ll just accept that if things are that desperate, I can’t make them much worse even if I have to ‘learn on the job.’

Hygiene and grooming are important. People feel better when they’re clean and look good. And morale is important. Make sure you have prepped for that too.

One more pile of things to add to the stacks!

n

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Sun. Jan. 9, 2022 – better clean the house before people get home… certain people…

Cool and wet. We got hammered in my part of town yesterday. I had 4 inches of rain in a few hours at my house by the time I got to bed, and the surrounding area had the same or more. My local drainage ditch/creek was over the banks at the sensor location, not all that far from my house. ~4 inches in 2 hours will do that. I’ll look at the totals later today.

Did most of my errands yesterday before the rain hit. Got my local auctioneer to agree to take my first load of stuff Tuesday morning. Went by my secondary and dropped a couple of items there. Missed the school open house. Ate donuts instead of lunch. And smaller child lost at basketball (and lost a tooth, the third in a month.)

The rain started in the afternoon. We got hammered with some really hard downpour during the b-ball game, but gauges said only 0.33 inches. Then it cleared up for a while, but started hammering down again around 11pm. At 1am, several gauges in my area had over 5 inches in 12 hours and ~4.5 in the previous three. That’s a lot of rain, even by Houston standards. And it was VERY localized. Having access to almost real time data for the whole county, both channel levels and rainfall is a miracle of the modern age. I looked at the weather radar, looked at the rainfall gauges, looked at the channel levels (water level in creeks and bayous) and was able to make some very well informed decisions. One was to move my truck from the street to the driveway (up hill 18″.) I should have done it earlier as the street was flooded to the running boards. At least it didn’t flood to the floorboards. Still, I’ll have to look at the lube in the differential. If my diff has a breather valve and it goes underwater, water can get in, or so I’ve been told. Further down the street if there were cars on the street they got flooded.

Just a VERY local disaster for a few people, unless there will be more flooding downstream as all that water leaves the system… and no one cares about the tiny disasters except the people in them.

Watching the storm effects kept me up later than I wanted to be. So I’m sleeping in later too. Then smaller child and I better get some stuff picked up around the house. I’d like to get some more stuff put away, a couple of things tested and listed for ebay, and put some more things in the pile for Tuesday morning. And it’s always nicer if my wife comes home to a clean house…

I’m pretty sure at least a few of my neighbors went to bed without a care, and woke up to flooded cars or even homes downstream from me. Very personal and local disasters. Stacks of Mountain House won’t be much use, but stacks of $100 bills, paid up insurance, cleanup supplies, and other preps will. It’s not always TEOTWAWKI. Sometimes it’s just the end of this thing, right here and right now, and only for us that is the disaster we’re prepping for.

Stack something today.

nick

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Sat. Jan. 8, 2022 – non-prepping hobby day

Cooler, but still clear. Pretty dang cold out in the country yesterday. Had to wear a jacket outside. It was nice for my time in the attic, but pretty chilly otherwise.

Spent part of the day in my client’s attic chasing wifi issues. Had to slither on my belly a couple of times to get through some small areas. I’m really glad the insulation was the fluffy white kind and not itchy fiberglas. Found a bunch of mostly dead gear. Not surprising really, given the heat and the lightning. I know the local electronics store had replacements on the shelf last week so I should be able to have them replaced without issue, but the configuration part might give me fits.

If I think about it today or tomorrow, I’ll do an online pickup order and lock down the WAPs I need.

This morning D2 and I will attend my hobby meeting, while my wife and D1 venture to a distant city in Texas and camp overnight in cabins. They’ll be ‘showing the flag’ at a family gathering of some aunts and cousins who don’t usually get to Texas. After my meeting, we’ll go to an open house for incoming students at the middle school, then an auction pickup (stuff for her) and talk about my sale, lunch, the prep for D2’s basketball game, and then the actual game. It’s gonna be a busy day.

It’s also a lot of out and about, which is actually making me a bit nervous. Oh well. Compare and contrast with other locations. . .

I would have preferred to sleep in for a few extra hours, but meatspace baby.

Stack some things, but also refresh your spirit, you’ll need it later.

nick

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