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Category: WuFlu

Tues. Dec. 28, 2021 – And now, the end of the year is coming like a freight train…

Overcast, warm, damp. Not typical December weather, but ok as long as the rain holds off.

Spent all day yesterday at my computer poking around. I did a few other things, mostly minor cleanup around the house. Not super productive, but there it is.

I’m finding my self in a very weird mood. My empathy and fellow feeling is very low at the moment. Getting kinda nihilistic. Not great. No idea what’s driving it, but it’s not a good feeling. It feels a bit like pulling in and getting ready for a bunch of bad stuff. Not the feeling I want this time of year.

Added- after thinking about it for a while, it’s resignation. I feel resigned to the collapse of our civil society. I feel resigned to losing my retirement to hyperinflation. I feel resigned to the coming conflicts. And resignation and prepping don’t go together. So I feel weird, and something needs to change.

Biddn is even more of a parody than usual. kamel is reverting to form, ie. lies, whining, and avoiding any real actions/decisions/consequences. FauxXi is walking back his vax card for domestic travel and masks forever, but it’s clearly what he wants. Even the Dems and Repugs are schisming.

The breakfast sausages the kids like have been sold out every time I’ve gone to the store for the last several times. I’m down to my last package. How many is too many? Well, 10 wasn’t enough to get through to the next time. I don’t think I have enough… of anything.

Slow progress feels like treading water. Eventually you get tired and sink. I need to get a bunch of stuff out the door pretty soon or I’ll need a life ring.

Or I could win the lottery. And call 1800-got-junk.

Stack some food. Stack some money. Stack some skills. And stack some friends.

nick

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Mon. Dec. 27, 2021 – got some billing to do

Last clear and moderate day for a bit, if the forecast is correct. Yesterday was nice, warm and sunny.

Spent the day messing about with computers and looking for answers online. Didn’t find anything that I like. Seems that service providers are building their consumer level stuff to maximize their control and minimize support issues. It makes sense from their point of view, but it imposes artificial limits on people who could make the changes themselves. See some discussion of ATT and Roku and DNS in yesterday’s comments if that bit piqued your interest. It’s getting harder to avoid being involuntarily monetized. Everything you do is of value to someone in the panopticon and there is someone waiting to collect and collate that info, even when it’s incidental to their actual line of business. For that matter, whole new lines of business open up when they start collecting and selling information about you…

Not sure what I’ll do but it looks like I’ll have to mess with my internet setup, and probably install and configure my own router at a minimum. I dislike making changes to my working systems but once I get motivated enough, I’ll bite the bullet and do it. I’m WAY past the point of doing stuff like that just for fun or to learn something. I’ll share so that the effort gets amplified, but unlike JerryP, I don’t do this so you don’t have to.

Speaking of stuff I need to do, I need to bill my client for work and materials to date. I’ll invoice him in email, and he’ll use venmo to pay me electronically. It’ll be instant. I expect that instant peer to peer payments will revolutionize billing and payment, just like email and faxes did for project deliverables. Oh so long ago, you could get a couple of extra days or hours to work by promising to FedEx or messenger some intermediate work product to the client. Email and faxes changed that. The client could say “just email me what you have so far” and review it. Services like venmo are taking all the float out of payments and invoicing. I’m sure that will lead to changes in work and the way work gets financed and paid for, just like email did.

I’ve also got to talk to my other auctioneer about settlement for my two mostly failed auctions. He may not have the cash flow to pay me even the minuscule amount I’m due before the end of the year. I’m actually ok with that if need be. I can put that income in next year with no issues, and he might need it for rent…he’s out of pocket a couple grand on the auction setup. He did me a favor taking my stuff on, and I feel bad about the result. Normally, I’d be first in line with my hand out if I thought there might be payment issues, but the amount is small, and I don’t need it to eat. Better to have a good relationship, than to push hard for a couple of hundred bucks.

Meatspace baby. It’s where we live, and where we’ll die. Good relationships will hopefully make the living better, and put off the dying as long as possible. Stack up some goodwill. I think we’ll need it as much as stacks of stuff.

nick

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Sun. Dec. 26, 2021 – the stockings were hung by the chimney with care…

Cool and clear, damp though. Mid 70s if we’re lucky. Beautiful day for Christmas, with a clear blue sky and shirtsleeves weather. Beautiful Boxing Day too.

The house is a happy mess. Piles of cookies in the kitchen, piles of presents throughout the house, and the stockings scattered around, spilling their chocolate-y goodness on the couch, the chair, and the floor. Maybe we’ll get some cleaning up done. Then again, maybe not.

Taking it easy today, open to whatever comes. Maybe I’ll organize something. Maybe I’ll fix something. Maybe I’ll just watch movies. Whatever, it’ll be all good.

Treat yourselves a bit this week. Take some time amongst the hustle and bustle of year end activities. Who knows what the new year will bring. Time to smell a rose or two.

nick

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Sat. Dec. 25, 2021 – Christmas Day

Cool and damp but clear is the forecast for the next few days. Not particularly Christmas-y, but not bad.

Merry Christmas to all here. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I still wish you the joy and peace of the season, and I hope that everyone can spend time with loved ones. Even if you can’t get together physically, make the call.

If you are one who dreads this time of year, you aren’t alone. There are others who can help. Seek them out.

To my Jewish friends, I was chagrined to learn that Hanukkah was earlier this year than I thought, and is already over. No one said anything, so I missed it. My apologies and belated well wishes.

My wife and I were raised in the Catholic traditions, but now we celebrate the non-religious aspects of the major holy days. Sounds odd, but humans have a need for tradition and story, for continuity with the past, and understanding of our place in history, and we find that in our practices. We also make sure the kids understand the religious aspects, and the origins (as much as we understand them.) So we take the time to practice the virtues of the holiday, and build our own traditions and observances.

Today we’ll open a few more presents, spend some time watching a movie (not sure which one, I’ll be voting against Die Hard), and have a great dinner. I hoped to get together with friends but they had family obligations, and our families all decided months ago to forego travel this year. Turns out THAT was the right choice… So it will just be our little family at the table, but it will be our much bigger family and circle of friends in our hearts and thoughts throughout the day.

As always, light a candle or raise a glass to “Absent friends.”

Merry Christmas.

nick

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Fri. Dec. 24, 2021 – so close you can taste it…

Cool and clear, fairly nice if it all goes to plan. No chance of snow for Christmas. Don’t laugh, it’s happened before, or missed by only a day or two. Doesn’t stick, but it was here long enough to get pictures last time.

I’m ready for the night’s festivities and tomorrow. My family always opened family gifts on Christmas Eve, at night. My wife’s family opened a gift or two, but did the bulk on Christmas morning. She’s been pushing in that direction for years and I think she’s got the kids convinced it’s the right way… another tradition falls, but a new one rises. Change, I don’t like it much in my life. Which is either funny or completely understandable considering I’ve made a career being able to deal with rapid and dramatic change, and just get the job done. Live entertainment and event management is nothing but change and flexibility. So I think it’s natural I would minimize it wherever I could. Others might differ.

Of course, life is change. We can no more stop change than we can hold back the tide. Doesn’t keep some people from trying. We are living through a period where, I think, everything changes. Big changes. Like from 1916 to 1948 kinds of changes. Flexibility and preps are my strategy for getting through to the other side. I hope ‘shooting the b@stards in the face’ won’t be necessary. I guess we’ll see.

In the mean time, take it day by day, find joy where you can, and count what blessings you do have.

nick

(stack a few things too)

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Thur. Dec. 23, 2021 – closer yet, almost ready for ‘fat guy inbound…’

Cool and clear. Beautiful big moon last night and the night before. Mid 70s during the day with a really hot sun beating down.

I hung the last of what I am going to do this year. I had a few oversized plastic ornaments left after hanging a couple dozen on the eves, so I hung them in the tree in front of the house. They look nice during the day. Part of my strategy for decor is that it has to look pretty good during the day, as well as night. I think I achieved it this year.

Today is mostly getting ready for the fat man to visit and for the last of the presents to be wrapped. House needs a cleaning too.

Maybe we’ll watch some Christmas-y movies too. Well, the kids anyway. I’m sure my day will expand to fill the time available.

Meanwhile the world turns…

I’m sure there are bad guys out there that want to attack us when we are most comfortable. We might have our own ‘winter garden’ attack. It’s been a while, so they’re due. If you’re out and about, keep your awareness up. Have fun, these are the good old days, but keep one eye open too.

Take a break from stacking all the things, and live in the moment for a couple of days. You’ll be stacking up good memories to help with the hard times.

RBT would be checking the travel and load on his anti-Santa AA gun. I’ll probably be mixing up some reindeer food to sprinkle on the ground tomorrow night. It’s not legal to bait them, right?

nick

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Wed. Dec. 22, 2021 – 12-22-21 – Hah! That’s an interesting number….

Easily amused. That’s me.

Cold and clear today, if the forecast holds. It was cold and clear yesterday, and that’s the best predictor for today.

Holds true for most things, until it doesn’t.

Did my pickup in the morning yesterday, mostly shop supplies, and had a long conversation with my auctioneer. He’s ready for me to drop off a bunch of stuff come January. He’s expanding like crazy, adding storage space and staff. He’s worked his way through a huge bolus of stuff, and now he’s got some time and space again. I’m not messing around this time, I’m taking him as much stuff as I can without holding much back for ebay. As he put it, get caught up.

Then I headed out to my client’s house. Finished most of what I wanted to, but broke the system in the process. I unplugged the controller to dress up some cables, and it didn’t come back up when I put the power back. Long story short, there is a piece of gear that has a bug in the firmware so that it looks ok, until the power cycles. Then it keeps the whole system from working. With my partner checking in from the Virgin Islands where he is on vacation, and his guy who came down to work on the system, it got fixed to the point I can leave it alone until January. The ultimate solution requires the manufacture to update their firmware, so we’re probably weeks away from doing more work on it anyway.

And then I returned home to family movie night. Jungle Cruise with “The Rock”… I like him as an actor. He seems to be having fun with the roles. Movie was enjoyable but fluff, which is what I expected. Kids liked it.

D1 complained about the eggnog I brought home. WHY OH WHY did you get THIS brand???
!!!111! It’s not as good as the last one.!!!121!!1! –Global pandemic. Supply chain issues. We’re lucky there was any at all to get. It wasn’t bad, just lighter and creamier without the strong spice of good eggnog. But yeah, it was one of 4 bottles left. And did I mention I had to order solder on mono 1/8” mini plugs? None to be had in Houston after I bought the last 8 at Altex. I think I did mention that. I miss Radio Shack. There will come a time when if you don’t have it, you can’t get it, for large values of ‘it’.

The universe tried to get me to fall asleep in my office chair again. Who am I to wrestle with the power of the universe? But I did move to my bed as soon as I realized what the tricky b!tch was doing… yea! me!

Figure out what you are short of, and stack some.

n

(kinda silly there at the end, I blame the mysterious power of the universe.)h

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Tues. Dec. 21, 2021 – 12-21-21 – closer, closer, closer….

Cool and clear again, and I’ll happily take more of that. Nice sunny day yesterday but not particularly warm. Same for today if I’m lucky.

Plans changed yesterday. I decided not to try wrangling the kids at my worksite, since my wife went into the office. Spent the day getting stuff out of the house. Took a pickup load to storage. Went through some of the stuff and identified some of it.

Took ebay’s suggestions and lowered prices on several listings, which must count as ‘active on ebay’ as the algorithm kicked me a sale shortly after. I haven’t listed in a week, because I didn’t want to try to meet Christmas shipping times. That meant no sales though. Changing prices of existing listings must be nearly as good as actual new listings. The item was only $11, but it’s a sale, it’s out of the bin, and it solves a problem for someone. Now to get back to the point where I’m doing higher margin items and more of them every day…

Today I’ll be picking up from my industrial auction. I bought a bunch of supplies. Cleaners, maintenance and repair stuff, and shop supplies mostly, but all things I use when working on stuff. The pickup is right down the street from the one I couldn’t do Saturday, so I’ll grab that stuff too. I’ll also be stopping at one of the auctioneers who will take some of my stuff, and I’ll try to pin him down to WHEN I can bring stuff by.

It’s all very tedious, trying to get rid of the stuff, and still make money. I was not particularly focused and it shows with the sorts of things I’ve got to sell. Most of them are very niche items and need to find the right buyer (so they need the ebay audience) to bring real money. That is of course why I could buy them cheaply in the general auctions or estate sales, most people do not need or want them. This is also why I’m trying to shift to more widely desirable stuff. The market for golf clubs is bigger than the market for tonometers, even if the tonometer has a HUGE margin, for example.

After that, I’ll head out to my client’s and wrap up some of the stuff I can before taking a break until next year.

And at some point soon, I need to get presents dug out of their hiding spots and wrapped.

I’ve spoken to several friends and acquaintances, and many of them are like me, behind the curve and not really ready for Christmas. Most of them in fact. No idea why but I’m not alone 🙂

Make sure you stack up a few presents for the people you love. Like any other prep, it takes the pressure off, knowing you have something you can pull off the stack when needed.

nick

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Mon. Dec. 20, 2021 – getting closer

Cool and clear, but of course there is a chance of rain. It stayed cool and breezy all day Sunday.

I was outside in the cool and breeze, in shorts, long sleeve t shirt, and a zippered jacket. I like the freedom of movement when climbing ladders and moving around that I get from shorts. I added a knit hat and was comfortable all afternoon. Without it, my nose was cold and I wasn’t comfortable. If you don’t normally wear hats, and it could be cold where you are, add some to your preps. One of the things I like about getting older and giving fewer *cough* flocks… is wearing hats for fashion, and ‘cuz I like them. They also keep my head warm and the sun out of my eyes, but really it’s about looking cool…

I got enough lighting up that I’m happy with the result. There are a couple of things I could add, but I’m out of time. The tree is up, lit, and decorated. It even has some presents under it! Since we’re only a couple of days away from Christmas, that is a good thing.

Plan for today is to take some stuff to storage, buy some groceries, and head out to my client’s later in the day, or possibly delay that until tomorrow. My wife is working at the office today, leaving the kids with me. I can park them in my client’s home theatre, but it would all be easier if I can wait for my wife to be at home on Tuesday.

Sometime soon, I need to sort and wrap my own presents too. Most of them were purchased so long ago I’ve kinda forgotten what I have. Some preppers make lists, I make piles.

I should also get a plan together for Christmas dinner. I’d like to have friends over, as we haven’t seen them in a while. I’ve got a nice ham, and some beef ribeye roasts in the freezer. And maybe, I could take the time to cook the elk that has been taking up space for these last few years…last time I tried to cook it in a hurry and it wasn’t the greatest. Hmm. Cookies need baking too. And maybe I should pick up some fresh veg.

Well, that’s my next few days sorted! Plans are easy, aren’t they?

Stack some stuff. Give yourself some choices.

nick

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Sun. Dec. 19, 2021 – whew, getting chilly

Cooler to cold, damp to wet. It’s all a matter of degrees. After the rain yesterday the temperature dropped 20F and the wind picked up. 52F, damp and windy, feels pretty darn cold here in Houston. Today should be pretty cool too.

I did some pickups, mainly to meet with the auctioneers. I got a squishy commitment to take some more of my stuff to the local auction where I did very well. Then I went by my secondary, moved a couple of things around, unloaded some stuff from my truck, and came home.

Dinner was leftover crock pot carnitas, but with bread and veg, instead of tortillas and rice and beans. Worked pretty well. Pork shoulder is cheap, $1.79/pound and even less when on sale. You can prep on a budget, even putting away protein, if you shop carefully, and eat the food poor people traditionally eat.

I guess I moved enough stuff out of the house because my wife put the tree in the stand, and set it up in the “play room”/ library. There is a truckload of stuff in the foyer now, but I’ll deal with some of that today if the weather is clear. It was too wet to decorate, so we’ll do that today. Some of the other inside decor went up, and the house smells like the tree. It’s beginning to feel like Christmas to me.

Peter over at BayouRenaissanceMan has been reminding people about inflation, food shortages, and the need to build up pantries. Some commentors sound like they’re in good shape. Peter suggests people get to 30 days of food. I think that’s a great start but you better have a whole bunch more, if only to supplement whatever you can find, if things go further pear shaped. And y’all know I think they will. If the situation with fertilizer shortages causes changes in plantings, and subsequently reduces the food available next season, prices will go up further. Scarcity will increase too and this comes on the heels of the floods and reduced harvests of a couple years ago. Stockpiles are reduced already. Everyone eats, so food insecurity is a very destabilizing thing. Make sure you have options and choices. I was thinking yesterday about the government cheese of my youth. I loved that stuff and would love to have a couple of those giant bricks in my stacks. I suspect that there are a lot fewer warehouses full of .gov stockpiles than there were in the 80s…

Desperate people do desperate things. Plan ahead and prep so you don’t have to.

Stack it up.

nick

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