I’m taking a Blogging break. Right now I’m thinking of resuming after the US election. Frankly, my preps are going to change depending on the outcome.
If sometime major inspires me before then I might post, but don’t expect anything new for a few weeks.
Be chill everyone.
-Sixbears
Power is still out for many thousands of people in the wake of two hurricanes. People are suffering. It’s my belief that surviving without electricity is harder in the south that here up north. Fresh food goes bad rapidly in the heat. Fortunately there are many foods that can be stored long term without refrigeration.
The lack of air conditioning can be more of a hazard to life. Staying the shade and drinking lots of water helps. If you are young and healthy surviving without AC, while uncomfortable, is generally doable. The very young, the sick, and the elderly may need AC to survive.
For that you need electricity, and not just a few watts either. You aren’t going to get by with a couple of solar panels and a solar generator. A gas, propane, or diesel generator will do the job -until the fuel runs out. For a lot of people in the affected areas getting more fuel is a real issue. Storing fuel in large volumes requires serious safety precautions.
There are ways to make your fuel go longer. For example rather than trying to cool the whole house limit AC use to one room. Running one smallish AC unit will provide a safe place for the vulnerable. It might be crowded and lack privacy but your fuel supply will last longer.
Where I live in New Hampshire AC is not an issue. My house doesn’t even have AC. A few fans suffice. Losing power is a winter issue. On the plus side, refrigeration is easy. All of outdoors is a freezer. Staying warm is the real problem.
Fortunately a woodstove doesn’t consume any electricity. Fire is primitive, one of first technologies, but it still does the job. In my case, living in the woods is a bonus. Firewood actually does grow on trees.
-Sixbears
It’s hunting season and I’ve been enjoying some bird hunting. However, I’m pretty much staying out of the woods on the weekends. The exception to that is the woods right behind my house as few people hunt there. That’s mostly due to people like me who don’t allow people to cross their land. Once past the small private land holdings there’s a good section of land open to the public -if they can get access.
There’s an old saying that it’s bad form to shoot the dog. Every now and then some over zealous hunter will get excited and pepper his own dog with shot. That’s bad. What’s worse is when someone shoots their hunting partner. A guy was telling me how a relative of his shot his nephew. That was awful but the injuries were not life threatening. What was really scary is that the shot just barely went over the head of the guy’s grandson.
Be safe out there.
-Sixbears
A friend of mine asked me to check out some land he’s interested in. It has a decent gravel driveway and a cleared level area where a trailer is currently parked. My friend does not want the trailer so that would be the first thing to go.
His real estate guy told him it would cost a minimum of $20,000 to connect to the grid. I’m assuming that the electric company doesn’t want new rural customers. Either that or they think that people are stuck and will pay whatever they ask.
For $20,000 my friend could install a pretty decent off-grid electrical system. The site gets good sun and has excellent wind potential. Actually, he could probably get up and running for a lot less than that.
Since it would be all new construction minimizing electrical usage could be built in. For example it could be heated using methods that don’t consume electricity. He’s thinking of putting in a woodstove anyway. There are propane heaters that don’t use electricity and could provide decent backup power.
Oh yeah, the property comes with a pretty decent shooting range so that’s a plus.
-Sixbears
My lovely wife and I sailed most of Florida’s Gulf Coast. We used to know that region well. Seeing it on the news these days is disturbing. My nautical charts are probably grossly inaccurate right now. Nothing like a couple of hurricanes to mess up a coast line.
We sailed past Siesta Key numerous times over the years and it’s the very place where Hurricane Milton came ashore. Directly south of Siesta Key the damage is probably worse but I haven’t seen much footage out of there yet.
There used to be a sizable community of hobo sailors anchored at Bradenton Beach. I can’t help but wonder what happened to those people. Many of those boats weren’t in great shape and probably couldn’t get out of harm’s way in time. Hopefully the people evacuated.
The last time I sailed in Florida was in early 2020. We all know what happened that year. I cut our travels short. We we were in the Clearwater area when the disease news got disturbing. Rather than sail down the coast we loaded up the Oday 19 on the trailer and headed north. We haven’t been to Florida since.
We certainly aren’t going down there this coming winter. Our favorite places are currently ruined. It’s heartbreaking. Our friends in the Venice area evacuated and I’m glad they did. Right now I’m waiting to hear about the people we know across the state where it was still a Cat 1. Are you doing okay Spud? Some of our friends live a couple hundred feet from the coast at about a 3 foot elevation. We haven’t heard from them either.
So while we aren’t going back this winter I must admit to wanting to sail Florida waters again. However, I’d do it in a tough boat with a lift keel that can handle shallow water.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that it could be just as bad next year. We live in interesting times.
-Sixbears
My lovely wife was working on her computer a couple days ago. She told me she was on the phone with tech support. Okay, stuff happens. Her computer was bricked with an ominous flashing warning on the screen.
I guess tech support sounded legit -in the beginning anyway. Then it sounded more and more sketchy. Let’s just say it’s a good thing that she is in the habit of refusing to give out financial info out over the phone. She hung up with them and we called our Internet provider. They were able to check that our address and system were perfectly fine. The “tech support” had said otherwise. Turns out that tech support number was bogus. I know, big surprise.
In the mean time we had a useless computer and my lovely wife had stuff to do. We hopped in the car and went computer shopping. That turned into a 100+ mile trip. Such is life when you live in the middle of nowhere. We picked up a new a new laptop.
While setting that up I went ahead and tried to fix my wife’s old computer. After some computer magic, maybe involving burning sage and a goat sacrifice, I got it running again. Then, since it was all set up the way my lovely wife wanted it, she wanted to stick with her old computer.
That was fine as the new one went to me. I’ve been getting by with a cheap Chromebook. It was okay but pretty small and underpowered. Then there’s the fact I’m not a big fan of the Chrome operating system.
Turns out I’m also not a big fan of Windows 11. Is it my imagination or has Microsoft gotten more and more intrusive with each version of Windows? I do not like it. It was used just long enough to download the latest version of Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu has made steady upgrades over the years and the newest version is good. Open source is the way to go. Windows made me feel like I was renting my computer. Linux gives me a lot more control and I feel like I own the computer.
Currently it’s about 98% set up the way I want. All’s well that ends well, I guess.
-Sixbears
Looks like another hurricane is headed for the west coast of Florida. It’s enough to make one set down their beer and take notice.
FEMA is already running out of money. No problem though. Florida doesn’t need Socialism from the Federal government.
But seriously money is not the issue. In an election year especially it’s just a matter of turning up the printing presses. There will be some sort of funding coming from somewhere. Perhaps the bigger question will be resources. Do they have the people and resources to respond effectively? We shall see.
This next hurricane looks to be heading right to the Tampa area -give or take a storm wobble here or there. The path of this storm, right now, appears to be right across the state and into the Atlantic. It’s still a few days out so we really don’t know the exact strength or path.
That’s a part of Florida I know very well having spent many months in that area. My folks retired north of Tampa and I spent a lot of time visiting them. It’s also where I did a lot of sailing. I bet that after the next storm my charts will be way out of date. Storms remake the Gulf Coast of Florida all the time. Islands appear and disappear. Channels move or are filled in completely. New channels form. Never mind all the debris in the water.
There are knock on effects from these storms that affect the country far from impact areas. One small example: my Internet issues with Spectrum. After the storm their customer service lines were overwhelmed. It took two days to get a human on the phone. It probably didn’t help that their customer service is based in North Carolina. Once I did get through they sent a service man the next day, so that worked out.
So keep an eye on the weather and check your preps. If you are in the predicted impact area bugging out might be the smart option. Everyone’s situation is different but it’s likely survivors will be on their own for a long time.
Be well everyone.
-Sixbears
For a lot of people who’ve suffered the loss of their home during storms it’s decision time. Do they rebuild or do they move on? It’s not an easy call.
When you are part of a community it is difficult to leave all that behind. You have things that hold you in place: family, friends, jobs, or even a simple love for the area. The first reaction may be: we will rebuild. Is is the smartest decision?
Maybe not. There are places that keep getting hit with the same disasters over and over again. It’s hard to credit it to being a “once in a lifetime event” when it happens twice or three times in the same year. Florida is the poster child for this, but it’s far from the only problem area. Just ask the folks in Vermont who keep getting flooded out.
If you decided to move to a safer area it’s better to be one of the first to leave. Ideally you’d move before the disaster. That’s when the property values are highest and there are many potential buyers.
For those who get a decent insurance payout, moving out is worth considering. As the insurance industry suffers more and more losses the payouts won’t be nearly as good. You just might want to keep that in mind. There are already plenty of people who can no longer carry insurance at all. Prices have gotten too high.
As disaster pile up some people won’t be able to move. The ones who remain will be the old and the poor. They will lack the resources to start over. If they are able to sell it will be for pennies on the dollar. If they owe money on their property it’s even worse. Abandoning their property will ruin their credit making it that much hard to start in a new location.
Hard choices are best made early.
-Sixbears
East coast dock workers are on strike. How bad will supply disruptions get? It all depends on how long the strike lasts. A few weeks won’t be much of a problem. Even a couple of months shouldn’t be too terrible. After that there would definitely be major shortages and price increases.
Major retailers knew this might be coming. Many already have their Christmas stock in place. Most of their money is made during the Christmas season, so they plan ahead. That’s not say there won’t be some unavailable items.
Food will be a different issue. Imported foods may become unavailable especially fresh foods. Bananas in particular will be a problem. Longer shipping times to other ports won’t work. The fruit will turn to mush before it hits the east coast stores. The weird thing is that before the strike our “fresh” veggies were getting worse. Bananas and lettuce have been terrible lately.
I guess I’ll be eating a lot of local fruit -which basically means apples. Good thing I like apples.
Meat exporters will lose foreign markets. Eventually, if this goes on long enough, they’ll have to reduce flock and herd size. Prices will drop for a short while when that’s going on. It would be a good time to top off your freezer.
For most people the port shutdown will be an annoyance but not an end of civilization sort of thing.
In unrelated news Spectrum sent their repair guy over. He changed out a couple of sketchy cables, cleaned some contacts, and we are back in business. Nice to have full use of the Internet again.
-Sixbears
My local Internet provider was bought out by Spectrum. There's a downside to being with a big company. Apparently there's something wrong with my hardware. It took two days to get in touch with customer service. Well, two days to get a human.
My guess is that the company is currently overwhelmed with hurricane damage. That's probably why it was so hard to get help.
The service guy is supposed to get here between 3 and 4 p. m. today.
-Sixbears
I just now heard about another friend in S. Carolina who's fine. She only ended up with tree limbs in her yard and power has been restored. That was the last report from the friends and family in the storm affected area. Everyone I was worried about has reported in.
My heart goes out to the many who've received bad news.
-Sixbears
So far we’ve heard from most of the people who were in the path of the storm. Our Florida folks are safe. Some of the local snowbirds have lost property down south but that’s just stuff. They are physically fine.
One of my daughters used to live in Asheville North Carolina and has a lot of friends there. I’ve been there a number of times myself and know most of those folks. Some of those we’ve yet to hear from. I’m hoping it’s due to cell towers being down. The few remaining towers are overwhelmed.
All we can do for them right now is to send our prayers. Hopefully we’ll hear good news soon.
-Sixbears
Sometimes I’m just freaking stubborn. I’ve had issues with a second hand washing machine I purchased. No matter how perfectly balanced it was the darn thing shook and rattled like crazy.
Then I went down the Internet rabbit hole. Eventually I basically rebuilt the whole suspension system. It was better, but still not great.
Back down the Internet rabbit hole.
Eventually I discovered a video that showed how to get to a weird reverse thread nut located under the agitator. It was loose. Tightening that up appears to have done the job. Usually I’m pretty good at figuring out how to fix things -even without Internet access.
Without the video a certain part would have been destroyed. Most washers need that part part removed but my model did not. The guy who made the video did destroy that very same part before he figured out the right way. It’s nice to learn from other people’s mistakes.
Now I know a lot more about washing machine repair than I ever wanted to know. These days it’s not what you know but how well you can search through information.
-Sixbears
Hurricane Helene clobbered a large part of Florida. Damage appears to be extensive. However, the storm moved quickly and did the dirty to parts of the interior. Helene was still a hurricane when it hit Georgia. Flooding in the Carolinas and west Tennessee is extensive.
On the bright side it looks like this storm isn’t heading up to Vermont.
There are parts of Florida that have been hit by three hurricanes in a row. How many times can people rebuild? I’ve a friend who’s a big deal in the insurance industry. I’m hope to talk to her soon to see how this storm is going to affect rates.
Just to make things interesting there are potential storms still brewing. It’s entirely possible that a new hurricane could follow the same path as Helene. That would definitely add insult to injury. It makes me wonder how many people will give up on Florida.
There are people in my town who’ve moved here after losing their place in a previous hurricane. This seemed about as far away from the Gulf as they could get without going out west. One guy lost his house when the St. John River flooded.
I think I’d rather deal with a New Hampshire blizzard.
-Sixbears
The vast majority of off-grid house systems have a backup generator. If you’ve got solar eventually there will be a cloudy week. If you have wind power it could become becalmed. Even micro hydro has issues. Water sources go dry or maintenance needs to be done.
I really don’t like messing around with generators -noisy smelly things that they are. Then there’s the issues of fuel storage and replacement. If a generator is going to work in an emergency regular service must be done. You don’t just blow the cobwebs off and hope the gas hasn’t turned to varnish.
With that in mind, when I added solar electric, I decided to keep the grid. A number of electrical loads are normally run off the grid. It’s most important role is to top off the battery bank as needed. There’s a battery monitor wired to my kitchen. If the batteries are low a simple flick of a nearby switch turns the charger on.
There is a danger on relying on the grid for charging. The batteries have to be topped off before the grid goes down. Normally that’s not a big problem. Most of my grid threats I see coming. Winter storms cause the most outages so keeping a shape weather eye is necessary.
So all that background brings me up to today’s issue. For some reason I’d let my batteries get lower than normal. I got out of the habit of checking the battery meter. We’d had a good long sunny stretch and the solar panels had no difficulty keeping the batteries full.
Then we got hit with cloudy days. It happened to be at the same time I was running motors that are power hogs. Had the grid gone down I’d have started the outage with depleted batteries. Instead of mostly ignoring the outage strict conservation would have been necessary.
Most of the time the solar electric system requires little attention. My mistake was in forgetting it needed at least some attention.
Duh.
-Sixbears
Just a quick heads up: the government is giving out 4 free COVID tests per household again.
-Sixbears
The SKS isn’t really a bad gun. It’s pretty reliable. Millions were made both in Russia and under license in other countries. What it isn’t is a sniper rifle.
The press said that the Trump golf course assassination attempt was with a AK-47. As is often the case concerning firearms the press got it wrong. It was an SKS. Not just any SKS though. This one looks like it was modified. That’s pretty common as SKS rifles used to be really cheap so plenty of “improvements” were available.
The SKS in question had one of those crappy plastic stocks and a questionable 30 round mag conversion. It appears the scope was, honest to god, attached with electrical tape. This guy would have been unable to hit the side of a barn -from inside the barn.
At the distances involved, the ballistics of the bullet, and the condition of the rifle, hitting anything would be terribly unlikely.
I think the shooter has a pretty solid insanity defense.
Anyway, it’s a small item in the great scheme of things. However, it just annoys me how the press gets gun coverage wrong all the time. It makes it hard to have a serious gun discussion.
-Sixbears
I’m a big fat guy. There is no denying it. Weight is something I struggled with most of my life. The thing that really pushed me over the edge is when I was prescribed high doses prednisone. In three months I gained about 80 pounds.
My most recent weight gain was during the pandemic. Then I was troubled with repeated leg infections that limited the amount of exercise I could get. Lack of exercise combined with eating out of boredom is not a good combination.
In spite of my size my blood pressure and sugar levels are good. That’s probably mostly good genetics but I’m getting older so the weight is harder to handle.
With that in mind I decided to do something about my weight. The local weight loss clinic had a pile of paperwork to fill out before they’d even consider you as a patient. They accepted me but never got around to scheduling appointments. In the mean time I decided I didn’t want what they were offering.
Their big go to solution is bariatric surgery. I don’t want to go that route as it’s a pretty invasion procedure.
The next big tool in the weight clinic tool box are the new weight loss drugs. They can help people lose a lot of weight. Three things have steered me away from that approach. The first is cost: those drugs aren’t cheap. The second is potential side effects. The third is that necessity of being on the drugs for the rest of one’s life. Those who get off the drugs generally gain all the weight back.
One guy I know who’s on the medication said he lost 27 pounds so far. He also has constant diarrhea and vomiting. That doesn’t sound like any fun at all.
The weight loss clinic appears to be a poor choice for me. However, I still have to lose weight. With that in mind I’ve set up my own weight loss program. A lot of is is understanding the psychology of why I over eat. That’s been a journey. The second bit is eating less and getting more exercise: boring, I know. Every week only a little weight comes off, but so far it’s added up to 39 pounds, so it’s working.
-Sixbears
We just had some friends over for another campfire. It’s a rare week that we don’t have a least one fire. It sure beats screen time. There’s something very basic and primeval to a simple campfire.
Humans have had fire for a very long time. It must be in our very DNA by now.
Fire provides heat and cooking. In fact, cooking unlocked nutrition that was unavailable previously. Fire is the very basis of our technological advancements.
For me the big draw of a good campfire is the coming together of community. We share food, sure, but we also share stories. Perhaps we developed language just to have something to do around the campfire.
The summer’s come to an end, but that doesn’t mean the campfires will.
-Sixbears
It was a long day. I finally got to do a 400 mile road test on the scooter. The Scooter Cannonball route averages about 400 miles a day -all on back roads. I wanted to know what those 400 mile days would feel like.
With that in mind I programmed a round trip in the Garmin that simulated probable Cannonball conditions. The route had dirt roads, rural back roads, city and town navigation, and large elevation changes. A lot of the roads were ones I’d never traveled before. Since they didn’t directly go anywhere I had few reasons to drive them before.
I hit the road at 8 a. m.. The temperature started out at 50 degrees and it was extremely foggy. Before long my helmet shields and goggles were too fogged and I had to do without. I started out on rough dirt roads so I wasn’t going very fast. For long sections my speed was mostly 5 – 10 mph. Baseball sized rocks and massive washouts slowed me right down.
By the time the tires hit pavement once more the fog had lifted. Eventually temperatures rose into the low 80s.
It was 7 in the evening when I finally pulled into the driveway. The scooter ran well, even loaded up. The memory foam seat cover really really helped. By the end of the day I was still enjoying myself. Sure, I was a bit sore, but not crippled up and suffering.
All in all it was a good test and loads of fun.
-Sixbears
Wow! Hezbollah had a few thousand pagers explode, killing some and injuring many. The next day their hand held radios also exploded. That was different. It’s not too often that one sees a new military tactic come into play.
I’m not going to comment on the rightness or wrongness of the operation. However, I will note that children were among the victims. It’s always the innocents who suffer.
The question that came to mind was: how? For the pagers there was some initial speculation that the communication system was hacked causing the lithium batteries to explode. That’s disturbing as all our cell phones run on lithium batteries. As is usually the case initial speculation was wrong. It turns out that somewhere along the supply chain explosives were inserted into the pagers. Then the radios blew up the next day. While fewer people were using the devices the explosive load in the radios was larger causing more damage.
So how can a group guarantee safe communications? Will they be back to runners carrying messages?
How do you plan on keeping in touch with people?
-Sixbears
My lovely wife and I went camping for a few days at the coast of Maine. The campground was like many many others located on the coast from Maine to Florida. There was a sizable area of full time RV campers. Many of them had porches and sun rooms added on. It had a short term RV area with very tight sites. The tenting area was small and cramped.
We brought our L. L. Bean Alpine 6 tent. It’s larger enough for me to stand up and has a small attached screen room. While it’s a sizable tent it’s not a monster. Fortunately the park manager let me park my car on a nearby site that wasn’t booked.
It was near Route 1 and the railroad tracks. Good thing we didn’t go camping for the open spaces, peace and quiet. We get that at home.
What we did get was close access to the ocean, lots of antique stores and restaurants. Also, we have friend who live about 35 minutes away and they joined us for a campfire. Another night my oldest daughter and her family drove up from Massachusets for a day trip. After we checked out our Maine friends treated us to lunch at a restaurant they are fond of.
It was a pretty good trip and not terribly expensive. However, it was nice to go home and get away from the crowds and noise.
-Sixbears
The scooter was prepped. Most of the gear loaded and the route planned.
Then I woke up with some intestinal distress. There was no going anywhere.
One thing I learned though, packing some Pepto for the Cannonball is probably a good idea. With all the travel and road food it might be essential.
-Sixbears
I’m doing a test run on the scooter today. Yesterday evening I mounted and installed a new rear tire. The oil’s been changed. It’s good to go.
The Scooter Cannonball will have a number of 400+ mile days. This a long distance test to make sure everything works as it should. Just like the Cannonball my long ride will involve a lot of twisty back roads and elevation changes.
My load out will be similar to my load for the event. Tools, spare parts, changes of clothes, lots of water and gasoline. A route for the GPS has been programmed for navigation practice. I’m not even stopping for a real meal along the way. The plan is scarf down an energy bar during quick fuel stops.
This summer I’ve gone on a lot of 100 – 200 mile trips but no 400 mile ones. Something always comes up. With summer quickly coming to an end I figured I’d better get this ride in before it freaking snows.
-Sixbears
Today is primary voting day in New Hampshire.
Remember, if voting didn’t work they wouldn’t work so hard doing voter suppression.
-Sixbears
There’s a lot of be said for living out in the country. There are also some downsides. One big downside is being at the end of the supply chain. If there are going to be shortages they will show up in the hinterlands first.
Next day Amazon delivery here is a joke -more like next week, if you are lucky.
During the pandemic we were often out of a lot of items, but there was always something in stock somewhere. It took some flexibility. I also learned that fresh foods and frozen foods had totally different supply chains. When there was no fresh chicken available frozen was.
Irving is the big gas station chain in this area. A couple weeks ago all the Irving stations were out of gas and I have no idea why. The whole chain for a good 50 mile area had empty pumps. Fortunately there were other brands that still had gas. It happened before in the winter when snow prevented resupply but I never saw them go dry in the summer before.
Currently I’m waiting for a new scooter tire to be delivered to the closest Honda dealer. Their closest warehouses are out so it’s coming from some distance away. Stocking up on spare parts for vehicles might be the thing to do.
Of course, there’s only so much stuff one person can buy and store. With that in mind, make sure essentials like food are made a priority.
-Sixbears
Our niece has made a pretty heroic attempt to seriously cut down on her Internet time. Of course, she doesn’t want to live like Colonial Williamsburg either. She still wants to write books and listen to music.
She purchased a manual typewriter. I learned on a manual machine and owned several over the years. Back in the 70s I was in a typing class of 40 students. 38 were girls and only there were only 2 boys in the class. Typing was an unusual skill for men back then but I found it handy -especially since my handwriting wasn’t all that great.
It wasn’t just learning how to type. A fair bit of the class concerned the mechanical ins and outs of the typewriter. Helping my niece sort out her typewriter has brought it all back to me. Good fun.
She’s also playing CDs and cassette tapes. Anyone else remember mixed tapes? Remember what a breakthrough it was to have a machine that could record directly from vinyl to cassette? There’s also DVDs instead of streaming services. Actually, considering the price increases for streaming services those old DVDs make more and more sense.
-Sixbears
My uncle passed away and the funeral was on Friday. He was an uncomplicated man but a good and kind man. The old guy played hockey at 80 years old against opponents many years his junior. Unfortunately the last couple of years were rough ones. He died at 85 -not a bad run for anyone.
It’s been a while since I went a full Catholic funeral. There were calling hours at the funeral home in the morning, a full mass during the early afternoon, followed by a graveside service. Afterwards the friends and relatives gathered at a local restaurant. It was a long and emotional day.
Between the funeral home expenses, church fees, and the dinner my cousins took a big financial hit. The funeral industry is a monster. They hit you at your most vulnerable. A traditional funeral is stupid expensive.
I thought my dad’s funeral expenses were bad enough but nothing like what my cousins had to pay. My dad had a falling out with his church before he passed so they were cut out of the mix. Dad was cremated and buried next to my mom’s ashes. We had a celebration in the hall at the Florida park he lived in. That was pretty good as he made a lot of friends down there. Back home in New Hampshire we had a celebration of life ceremony and a nice dinner at a local restaurant. All in all it probably cost about as 10th of what my cousins had to pay and it was a good send off.
As for myself, when I done with the mortal shell . . . well, trash pick up is on Tuesdays.
-Sixbears
I wear out at least one a rear tire on my scooter every season. Another one is currently on order and should be in tomorrow. It would be possible to get through the rest of the season on the current tire but I have trip plans.
The scooter event will have 400+ mile days. That’s a lot of miles on a 150 cc scooter. 100 – 150 mile rides are pretty normal for me but I haven’t done more than 300 miles in a day. That wasn’t too bad as I broke up the trip with a lot of stops and had a leisurely lunch.
The Cannonball won’t be so relaxed. I’m planning out a 400+ mile trip and will emulate rally conditions as much as possible. It will all be on back roads and may even contain some dirt sections. The day will start early with a quick breakfast. Lunch will be grab and go food like power bars -maybe supplemented with an unhealthy gas station snack. Dinner won’t happen until the day’s trip is over. Staying hydrated will be essential.
The scooter gets a new tire, an oil change and will loaded up with tools and the gear needed for the event. If all goes well that should happen sometime next week.
-Sixbears
Like many of other New Englanders I have an oil furnace -and a woodstove, of course. Nights have been cool so we decided to get the oil tank filled. That’s always a good chunk of change. I shamelessly switched oil companies for one that gives a senior discount. Just call me an entitled Baby Boomer.
The furnace had run empty so it had to be primed again. I keep the correct sized wrench right on the side of the furnace. There’s also a container with a tight cover for catching the primed fuel oil. If the furnace has to be bled during the deep cold of winter I don’t want to be hunting for the right tools.
We’ve some fuel for the woodstove but we’ll probably burn more oil this coming winter. My niece will have the house to herself a lot this coming winter and we don’t want her worrying about the woodstove. Now I don’t have to worry about her being worried.
There’s not a lot of winter prep left to do and the essentials are ready.
-Sixbears
Why is it that smoke/CO detectors always fail in the middle of the night?
A weird loud beeping noise woke me up. It was one of my older detectors. Neither the carbon monoxide nor the smoke LED was on. Taking it outside into fresh air did nothing. After pulling the battery I found some tiny print explaining the different beeping patterns. The patten it was beeping out signified a total detector malfunction. In the trash it went.
The new detector mounted about eight feet away never made a beep. I guess that’s now the old detector as I’m getting a new one the next time I’m in town.
Having numerous detectors comforts me. When I was a firefighter I had to deal with dead people who’d probably still be alive had they detectors. Body recovery was never one of my favorite things to do.
-Sixbears
I’m somewhat of a pack rat. Throwing stuff out is hard for me. So much junk has potential to be rebuilt into something useful. In spite of my desire to hold onto stuff I’ve been filling up heavy duty trash bags.
Half my mud room is full of tools and materials. It’s been long overdue for a complete overhaul. I’ve been stuck at home recently and tackling the mud room has been a good way to pass the time. On the bright side I’ve found some tools I thought were lost and gone forever.
There’s also a lot of just plain garbage. There are tubes of glues and gasket cement that probably solidified years ago. Why did I keep so many empty bags and packaging? Maybe I just need to keep a trash container in the mud room so useless stuff can be easily thrown away?
Then there is the weird stuff that isn’t exactly junk, but it’s stuff I’ll never use. Things like 1980s Mercedes Benz alternator brushes, ambulance light bar motors and reflectors, and the center console insert for a 1994 Ford pickup truck. Why did I save a bunch of office chair wheels that were replaced with better ones? Who knows?
There’s also a small fortune of nuts, bolts, electrical fixtures, plumbing connectors, and whatnot in serious need of organization. Have you priced that stuff lately? I’m pretty glad I didn’t throw that stuff away. Good thing I saved up a lot of containers.
-Sixbears
Sometimes I go down the rabbit hole of YouTube prepper channels. Ho boy. There’s a lot of gizmos for sale. A number of these channels are little more than commercials. (check the affiliate links below!)
I love gadgets but even I know better than to stock up on all the prepper toys out there.
What people really need is knowledge and skills. Then they have to practice to keep those skills sharp.
Focus on the essentials. Fire to keep warm and to cook. Pure water to drink. Food. Decent clothing and shelter to protect from the elements. Know your environment. What conditions are you likely to have to deal with? Rain? Cold? Heat? Wind? You get the idea. Those basic needs can be satisfied fairly cheaply. Heck, if you have the skills it’s possible to go into the forest with basically nothing and survive.
However, there are a few tools that make things a lot easier. A decent knife is a big one. Keep it sharp.
You might need to cut some cordage, so let’s add paracord to the list. It’s useful for so many things -if you’ve learned a few basic knots.
Being able to boil water is a big deal. Get something big enough to at least heat a couple of cups of water. Not only is it useful for cooking, boiled water is much safer to drink.
Making fire is essential. I happen to like larger sized ferro rods. They can be soaking wet and still be able to put out a spark. Turning that spark into a blazing fire is another of those skill things. Don’t just throw one in your go bag and call it good. Practice.
Personally, I like a good sized heavy duty rain poncho. I’ve even successfully strung one up with some paracord and made a decent shelter out of mine. It kept the rain off and I got a decent night’s sleep.
As you can see my choices tend to be fairly simple. I didn’t include stuff like the stove that also charges your cell phone or other gizmos like that.
-Sixbears
Building supply centers excite my lovely wife. Her imagination runs wild. She gets all kinds of home improvement ideas.
We decided to get the 5 cubic foot freezer that was on sale. That’s the purchase we agreed on . . . but then there’s the old sink in the bathroom. My lovely wife wasn’t wrong it does need replacing. Apparently it needs replacing real soon as there’s a new sink in the bathroom waiting to be installed.
Oh well.
. . . and to think I balked at the $90 delivery fee. Picking it myself cost over $150 -if you include the new sink and lunch, plus a few gallons of gasoline for the trip. Good thing everything was on sale.
At any rate, it was a fine day out and I really don’t mind doing these projects. That sink install will be a good rainy day activity.
I’m just lucky she didn’t like any of the new style kitchen lights. I made the mistake of saying I didn’t like the old kitchen light all that much. Now it’s another mission for my spouse. Eventually she’ll discover a new light she likes.
-Sixbears
Sure, it’s getting down into the 40s at night, but summer isn’t over. Sure, the kids are back in school, but summer isn’t over. Sure, the darkness comes earlier, but summer isn’t over.
It’ can’t be.
I don’t have all my summer projects done yet.
To be fair summer officially has a few weeks left. There’s time to get a few more things done. On the plus side some projects have been completed. My health is better than it’s been in some time. That right there is reason enough to celebrate.
If we are lucky we’ll get another beautiful fall. It’s pretty here in the mountains at any time of year but the fall is special. There’s a reason people come from all over the world to experience it. Even though I’ve lived in the area most of life I’ve never become jaded. The beauty is still appreciated.
-Sixbears
This happened during a cold winter some years back. A guy from work was tightening up the battery terminals on his plow truck. He dropped a wrench and it just happened to land on both the negative and positive terminals. The wrench welded itself to the battery, shorted it out and the battery exploded. The guy’s hand needed medical attention. He’s lucky he didn’t lose any fingers or eyes in the fiasco.
So now I maintain a battery bank of a dozen batteries in my basement. Each battery is bigger and has a lot more energy than that guy’s plow truck battery. You really really really do not want to short out the whole battery bank. With that in mind all my metal battery tools have rubber handles or are wrapped in electrical tape.
Electric cars have more electrical capacity than my modest home battery bank. Not only that they have lithium batteries which are more dangerous than lead acid. When an electric car catches fire it’s a bad time indeed.
Regular car fires are bad enough. There’s gasoline, of course, but the rubber tires and plastic body parts burn energetically. That pales compared to an electric car. Typically it can require tens of thousands of gallons of water and many hours to extinguish one.
I’m glad I retired from the fire service before electric cars became common. There are special extinguishers being developed but they aren’t in common usage. In the mean time I’m using a rule of thumb when it comes to electric car fires. If I can see the car that’s on fire -I’m too close and need to back off.
-Sixbears
I’ve been thinking about our food storage situation. It’s always evolving as needs change. One thing I haven’t owned for sometime is a stand alone freezer. Years ago I had a big side by side freezer and took part in one of those frozen meat delivery services. That only lasted about a year. The food was okay, but not really that great a deal.
To make matters worse the freezer wasn’t very efficient. Even keeping it in a cool basement didn’t seem to reduce the electrical usage all that much. Eventually it just sat there empty and gathering dust. I sold it soon after. A friend who owned a restaurant had their freezer suddenly die and needed one in a hurry. They made a good offer on mine and brought a crew over to haul it away.
The other day my lovely wife and I were in a big box store and they have a nice little 4.9 cubic foot chest freezer on sale. It’s tempting. One of the interesting features is that it can also be used as a refrigerator -all depending on the temperature setting. I might even replace my regular fridge one day. Those freezers are really efficient when used that way. Even if I don’t like it as a freezer there is that option.
It would be nice to take advantage of bulk sales, plus hunting season is just around the corner.
-Sixbears
There’s a guy in town who throws a big party every year about this time. The main event is a bean hole chili he puts together. Saturday is the prep day. My lovely wife and I gave him a hand getting everything ready. I chopped a lot of onions. Once the fire pit was ready and the cast iron kettle loaded up we lowered the pot into the fire. To move the loaded kettle it takes a very long lever and a lot of chain.
It wasn’t all work and no play. Folks brought a few dishes to share and we hand plenty of time to visit.
Sunday was the big day. I’m guessing there was around forty or so people there. The chili was amazing and there were plenty of side dishes. A few musicians brought instruments and jammed together.
We met some old friends and made new friends. Some folk come from far away for this event. We are lucky to have someone who is willing to host this sort of get together.
I can’t believe how much work he puts into it. Not only that, next weekend he’s making another bean hold chili at a county fair.
We’ve already be invited to next year’s event.
-Sixbears
On the spur of the moment my lovely wife and I decided to go fishing in the evening. We were supposed to meet up with friends but my buddy threw his back out. So much for that. He called just as we were about to start the car.
We decided to drive to a nearby lake that we hadn’t been to in a while. The place was empty. It’s a beautiful lake nestled in the mountains. The only cottages on the lake are on the other side in a private compound.
I keep a couple of compact fishing poles in the back of the car just in case we feel the need to do some fishing. By then it was starting to get dark. It was great fun trying to tie fishing line in the dark without my reading glasses. Apparently the fingers remember what to do and it didn’t take too long to set up both poles.
Did we catch anything? Naw, but it was a beautiful evening. The loons were doing their crazy calls and we watched the stars come out.
Sometimes the best experiences are spontaneous.
-Sixbears
I went to the farmers’ market where I normally get some of my meat. They farmer was totally out of beef. He said the national herd is small right now and he sells out quickly.
I jokingly said that he could have taken a few of the neighbor’s cattle so I could get some hamburg. A look of horror came over his face.
“That’s rustling. They’ll hang you for that,” he said.
I replied, “Is that really a thing in this day and age?”
“I had two stolen from my herd. That’s a lot of money you know,” he said.
He did have plenty of lamb and pork. Unfortunately nobody at my house really eats lamb. One person in the household doesn’t eat pork but I got some chops for those of us who do.
Let’s just say I picked up more veggies from him than I normally do.
-Sixbears
So far I’ve tentatively planned two cross country trips for 2025. If you’ve been paying attention you know that one of them is the Scooter Cannonball from Oregon to Texas. Since I’d be leaving from northern NH it’s a heck of a trip to Oregon. The current plan is to haul my scooter in the back of my daughter’s truck. That will be a trip across the top of the US. We may cut across Canada for part of it.
After the Cannonball I’m looking at two options. There’s a chance a good friend may pick me up in TX and we’d meander our way back home to NH. Another option is take the scooter home and do a lot of camping along the way. That’s up in the air.
The Northwest is the one part of the country I’ve never been to. The best time to visit, in my opinion, is during the summer. Most summers it’s hard for me to leave my place here on the lake in NH. The Cannonball is a good excuse to get out there.
Before that my lovely wife and I are thinking of going to California to visit family out there. Last time we went was by train. That was fun, but there’s not a lot of time to experience things along the way. With that in mind we are thinking about driving across the country in our own meandering way. We’d probably come back using a different route too.
I’m looking forward to seeing how things really are on the ground. You won’t learn anything flying over on a jet.
-Sixbears
My lovely wife and I were down to North Conway New Hampshire doing some shopping. There are a lot of stores. Many people come from out of state just to shop there. New Hampshire’s lack of a sales tax helps a lot too.
There are a number of outlets that cater to the outdoor recreation crowd. I was looking for a couple of items that used to be pretty common but nobody in town had any. The L. L Bean outlet was a major disappointment. It’s probably about 98% clothing store now. Forget about buying most camping gear. We once bought a tent there but I didn’t see any this time.
Much as I like to support brick and mortar stores they have to have what I’m looking for. When we got home I went on-line and quickly ordered what I wanted. That’s fine for some things, but some items are best when bought off the shelf.
I’m a big guy and getting anything that fits is a trial. One shoe store manager explained that the suppliers won’t even ship the larger sizes to stores. They save those for on-line shopping. Clothing and shoe sizes only get you into the ball park -maybe.
What I end up doing is ordering my best guess, wait for the item to come in, then half the time ship it back. It’s a waste of time and energy all around.
-Sixbears
It’s darn interesting to listen to Russians complain about being invaded by Ukraine. They are astonished that in this day and age one country can just go out and invade another. The lack of self awareness is astonishing. Then again it’s not like Russia has a monopoly on people blinded by propaganda.
Ordinary Russian citizens are still vacationing in Crimea. Never mind that popular beaches are right next to military targets. Never mind that stray munitions have killed people on the beach. I’m not sure if this is an example of propaganda, normalcy bias, or a mix of the two.
There’s a lot of speculation on why Ukraine is invading. I’m not privy to Ukrainian strategic thinking. There are probably a lot of reasons. The invasion is drawing more experienced troops from other areas of the front. They’ve captured a lot of very young conscripts for future prisoner exchanges. Supply lines are disrupted. A tremendous amount of political pressure is on Putin.
One item not too many analysts are talking about is the effect on agriculture. The lands being occupied are the most productive in Russia. Most of Russia has poor soil and climate but the Kursk region is an exception. It’s harvest time and a significant amount of grain won’t be going to market.
There’s one thing I’m asking myself: where are the F-16 jets? The jets that have been used in the invasion appear to be their old Soviet era planes. So where are the new jets? Are they holding them back for another operation?
On thing for sure, the invasion changes a lot of political thinking. Russians are waking up to the fact that war goes both ways and it’s not pretty. Putin better have a food taster and stay away from open windows.
-Sixbears
When I want to relax some evenings I listen to a lot of YouTube story channels. Generally I’ll go with a S/F story. They tend to run somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes. It’s just the right length when I want to take a break but don’t want to commit to a movie.
When I was getting into those stories it didn’t take too long to discover something about the narration. The best ones had human narrators. It wasn’t long before the AI narrated channels were identified and avoided.
Both humans and AI make errors. That’s to be expected. After all, to err is human. The AI errors stuck out as being weird. They weren’t the sort of errors that humans make. No doubt, over time, the machines will learn to do a better job.
I’ll still prefer the humans. There’s something emotionally flat about AI. It’s something you might not pick up in the first few minutes, but after a while it’s noticeable. Humans bring some hard to quantify qualities to story telling. I’ll always support the humans over the machines.
Just for fun, here’s one of the channels I listen to: https://www.youtube.com/@AgroSquerril I get a kick out of how the narrator even dresses up for the part. While most of these stories aren’t exactly high art, they are entertaining.
-Sixbears
I’ve been running a couple air filters in my house. There’s plenty of pollen in the air and we also have a woodsy hint of burning Canadian forest. The filters help quite a bit.
They would take some modification to be useful during a radioactive fallout event. The idea is to flood a room or a house with clean filtered air. The trick is to have the indoor space at a higher air pressure than the outside.
It’s similar to the way self contained breathing apparatus works in the Fire Service. The old ones worked like a scuba mask. As you drew in breath a diaphragm would trip a valve allowing air to flow from the tank. The downside: if the mask did not fit perfectly you could draw in toxic smoke through the gaps. The newer ones kinda work like that but with one extra feature. The mask is under a constant pressure, like a cpap, so that any gaps in the mask fit would cause air to blow out the gaps. Sure beats sucking in nasty stuff.
So here your room or house is like the inside of the firefighter’s mask. It’s at a higher pressure than the outside. Any gaps or cracks in the room would blow the radioactive particles out. If your structure is close to air tight a simple one way valve would exhaust the stale air allowing it to be replaced with fresh.
Back in the 70’s there were some pretty simple designs for air filters. One used toilet paper rolls, big metal juice cans and a fan.
Of course, the trick is to some way to power your air filter, which is a whole ‘nother subject.
-Sixbears
So I’m 66 and on Medicare. Now that I have decent enough medical insurance I’m keeping my doctor’s appointments.
It also helps that I have a doctor I actually get along with. There haven’t been too many of those over the years. Too many of my former doctors appear to have never heard of the “Do no harm” pledge. Then there’s the doctor I saw when I was 35. He told me I’d never make it to 45.
My doctor’s visit on Wednesday went much much better than that. It’s nice to hear a doctor say that I’m doing “fantastic!” How sweet is that? Not to shabby for an older fat guy.
Oh yeah, about the fat guy part. I’m working on that too with a doctor’s supervision. I made some progress. My clothes fit looser. The driver’s seats in my cars are more comfortable too. It’s like the seats can slide back a few more inches now -but it’s not the seats, it’s me.
Anyway, I’m encouraged. There’s plenty of more stuff I’d like to do while on this pretty blue marble of a planet.
-Sixbears
My lovely wife and I eliminated all but one of our credit cards. That one is truly only for emergencies.
It didn’t take long but we just got a preapproved credit card in the mail. The terms of the card were awful, combining a yearly fee with a high interest rate. One of the reasons we got rid of the credit cards in the first place was due to a jump in interest rates.
Now we are running on debit cards, cash and checks. Yes, checks. I’m a boomer. Some people think having to deal with a check is a hostile act. That’s cool. I actually write checks to one company knowing they hate to have to deposit them. It’s one of those companies I have to deal with but don’t much like.
I’ve no payment apps on my phone. Last year my PayPal account got hacked. It was soon straightened out, but that’s all I needed to eliminate them too.
Actually, I do a lot of “business” in the barter and gift economies. It’s a win for the little guys and doesn’t leave a paper trail.
Money is something for use outside of one’s tribe.
-Sixbears
It’s no secret that most major appliances are no longer built to go the distance. The Maytag repairman is no longer a lonely bored guy. Actually, I bought a Maytag washing machine once and it was the worse I ever owned. Little did I know they were being made in China at the time and were coasting on their old reputation. This one’s big problem was a recurring transmission oil leak. The laundry room floor would get covered in sticky goo and heaven help you if it got on clothes. The repairman just topped off the oil then threw the empty jug in the woods. My woods. By the time I noticed what a crappy job he did the guy had moved out of town.
So now my current front loader machine is on its way out. Over the years I’ve performed numerous repairs on it but eventually you reach a point of diminishing returns. On the bright side I was able to stretch its life beyond the 5 – 7 years of most washing machines.
Unfortunately, I really didn’t have a new machine in this years budget. Next year we should be in much better shape. However, clothes have to get washed between now and then. The local dealer in used appliances had a few machines. For less than half the price of the cheapest new ones I got a clean used washing machine, delivery and installation, and removal of the old.
If you really want a decent machine get the same brands your local laundromat uses. Of course, something like a Speed Queen will go for around $1200 or so. Ouch! Then again: quality only hurts once.
-Sixbears
There was a surprise knock on my door. One of my cousins, who hasn’t been to my house in years, was at the door. He just picked up a scooter, a 2023 Honda PCX. He knew I had a 2013 PCX and wanted to ask some scooter questions.
His scooter was a dealership hold over from the previous year. While it’s essentially new, it was missing the owner’s manual. The dealership promised they’d get him one but you know how that goes. In the mean time he though he’d pick my brain a bit.
I was curious to see what changes Honda did over a ten year period. Honda tends to do incremental improvements. The first thing I noticed is that the tires were wider on the newer scooter. They probably will wear better and provide better traction on gravel roads. The other big change is that it has all LED lights and more streamlined directionals. The instrument cluster has been updated. It also has a simpler yet better parking brake. The old style parking brake fails all the time and is nearly impossible to fix correctly. Of course, there are slight changes to the body panels.
While it’s a slightly improved bike it’s not worth upgrading -as far as I’m concerned.
My cousin and I went or a great little ride together and my older scooter didn’t have any trouble keeping up -even with me on it.
-Sixbears
There’s a saying: there’s no bad weather, just bad gear. There are some variations on the saying. I found multiple sources with different claimed origins. At any rate I’m sure it’s from somewhere that gets a lot of rain.
Right now my home town feels like it’s part of the New England rain forest. It’s hard to get decent enough weather to mow the lawn. It sure grows well with all the rain.
Gardens are a mixed bag. Some things are doing well -others, not so much. I’ve noticed that large potatoes have mushy centers. That’s caused by too much water, or so I’m told. One of the issues is that when it’s raining the sun isn’t shining. Plants need sun too.
My solar electric system has had an interesting summer. There are days when the panels are generating power like crazy. Other days I have to rely heavily on the battery bank to get us through. Now and then it’s been necessary to charge the battery bank off the grid.
So back to my gear. I’m a big fan of decent rain ponchos. Don’t bother with those thin flimsy ones that self destruct in a light breeze. Get something heavy enough to do double duty as a tent ground cloth if necessary. The poncho is easy to throw on and off for quick trips outside.
What I’m lacking is something suitable for wearing on the scooter. I’ve a decent Columbia rain jacket but it’s a tad tight. Good thing I’m losing weight. That still leaves me in need of a decent pair of rain pants. It would be great to have something easy to slip on and off over my regular clothes.
Anyway, judging by the change in our weather patterns, it won’t hurt to have more rain gear.
-Sixbears
The Scooter Cannonball plans are moving along. There have been a couple of major developments. One of my daughters is definitely driving me and the scooter to the Northwest coast. That’s a lucky break. Seaside Oregon is a long long way from northern New Hampshire. The road trip out there should be fun.
The second thing is reserving my hotels for the event. That took a huge chunk of change. I had toyed with the idea of spending some time in campgrounds. However, after long days in the saddle a climate controlled room with a shower will be hugely appreciated. I can also lighten up the bike by not having all kinds of camping gear with me.
I’m debating on splitting the room costs with other riders. However, for right now, having my own personal space and schedule might be worth the cost.
The destination cities and official hotel list came out on August 3rd. A couple of days later some of the hotels were already booked up. Considering there’s 300 riders registered this year that’s no surprise. Add in more rooms for the event organizers. That add some more rooms for people’s individual support crews. I’m glad I didn’t try to do this booking a few weeks before the event.
So how do I get home after the event? South Padre Island Texas is still about 2500 road miles or so from where I live. Right now I’m toying with two options. Option one: a good friend picks me and the scooter up and takes us home. A buddy has friends who actually live on South Padre and he’d love to drive down and connect with them.
The second option is to have my camping gear shipped to my sister-in-law’s place in Texas. From her place I could take my time going home and camp most nights on the way back. There are some places along the way that would pretty cool to visit. It’s a big country with a lot of things to see.
Progress is being made. There haven’t been any show stoppers yet.
-Sixbears
No, I’m not talking about the stock market. Market fluctuations barely ruffle my Zen. They happen. It’s all part of Capitalism. If a market crash causes you to miss meals you’ve been investing in the wrong things. Maybe you should have invested in rice and beans.
The real disaster indicator is when Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel comes to your town. If he shows up wearing a rain coat get the heck out of Dodge and head for high ground.
The stock market is just a bunch of numbers. Storms will directly kill you. Unfortunately there have already been deaths from the storm known as Debby. There are going to be more. Flooding is the main killer during tropical storms and hurricanes. The storm is dumping record amounts of rainfall in places that have bad drainage during the best of times. These are not the best of times.
Monday evening, here in northern New Hampshire, we had some impressive rain storms -again. A trip that normally takes a half hour took a full hour. Visibility was bad and we’ve had numerous road washouts this summer.
At least I already live in hills so there’s no need to head for them.
-Sixbears
My lovely wife had a close call on the way home from town. She fell asleep at the wheel. She woke up to the sound of tansys slapping against the car as she careened across a field at 60 mph. In the confusion her foot hit the clutch instead of the brake so the car wasn’t slowing down. She was able to avoid a metal highway reflector and steered back onto the road.
She was fine.
The next day we backtracked her path. That short section of field was the only place where it was possible to drive off the road with disaster happening. The rest of the 15 mile route she would have gone down steep embankments, into the river, crashed into trees or rocks. Her guardian angel must has PTSD.
Even the car didn’t make out too badly. There’s a loose heat shield that rattles now. It’s an easy fix. All the plant debris plugged up the cabin filter. The last thing is that the front of the car is covered in pounded up tansy bits.
The car being in good shape is just a bonus. If the car would have been totaled but my lovely wife okay it would still have been a good day.
-Sixbears
Lysteria bacteria is a pretty nasty food contaminant. There’s been a lot of food recalls recently. Cold cuts with lysteria is a more recent one.
I went into my local grocery store the other day. The deli counter was shut down. All meats had been thrown out. The deli section was isolated from the rest of the store using big heavy plastic sheets. There was a sign about how they take customer safety seriously. They were in the middle of a deep clean.
Seeing the empty shelves gave me a flashback to the pandemic when certain foods were unavailable. However, just like then, there are work arounds. Fortunately I have a fair bit of canned meats in storage. It also isn’t that hard to cut up roast chicken into sandwich meats.
If it was just me I’d be perfectly happy to live mostly on vegetable proteins. It’s not that practical right now as someone in my household has to eat a low fiber diet. Believe it or not, some people have digestive issues from fiber. That person normally eats most of the cold cuts that come in the house.
There seems to be a lot more news stories about contaminated foods recently. I guess we even have to worry about heavy metals in chocolate. That’s just one more example. Fortunately my weekly stops at the local farmers’ market keeps us well supplied with good food. It really helps to know the farms where you food comes from.
At least none of them have lysteria issues.
-Sixbears
When you live in snow country summer is a time to get certain things done. You really don’t want to do outside construction projects in the winter. Some things, like painting, really can’t be done in the cold.
The last two summers I was dealing with bad leg infections. The pain and other issues made projects nearly impossible to do. Just to make it worse the antibiotics I was on made me sun sensitive. It was very easy to burn so covering up was essential. All those coverings caused overheating.
So now my legs are no longer infected. All the wounds are healed up and there’s almost no pain anymore. My big issue right now is to not overdue things. The last thing I need is to reinjure myself and start the infection circus all over again.
Pacing myself is not easy as I’m looking at a two summer backlog of projects. It’s not all going to get done. I’m also going to accept help with things that I used to do by myself. One of the big things is the number of massive cedar trees that I lost over the last couple of winters. They are perilously leaning all over each other in a series of widow makers. I’ve a cousin who does tree removal professionally and he offered to help. I’m taking him up on it.
Of course, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Summer is also the time for outdoor fun, so that’s important too.
-Sixbears
Just before heading to bed my smoke detector gave out a couple of loud bleeps. Whatever it had detected wasn’t putting out all that much smoke. In fact, I couldn’t really smell anything myself.
The thing about smoke detectors is that you have to trust them. This one had a new battery only days old so I was pretty sure it wasn’t a problem with the detector. One thing for sure, I wasn’t going to go to bed until I found out what the problem was.
It took a while but eventually I found the culprit. A table lamp was malfunctioning. The bulb was still putting out the normal amount of light but the base of the lamp was too hot to touch. That ain’t normal, especially with energy efficient lights.
The lamp was shut down and unplugged. Windows were opened to air out the house. Only after an hour or so did I truly feel it was safe to go to bed.
Smoke detectors and especially carbon monoxide detectors are things you have to take seriously. For me they are in the same category as a compass. You have to trust the tool -not your hunches.
-Sixbears
Saturday was a good day for a ride though the White Mountains. I thought I might have made a mistake looking for a coffee in North Conway. It’s such a tourist town. Fortunately there’s some motorcycle only parking. That saved me a good mile walk to the coffee shop.
The line in the coffee shop was long but moved briskly. The front of the shop was absolutely packed with people -standing room only. However, just down a short hallway there was a back room that apparently nobody knew about. I had it to myself at first and enjoyed my coffee in quiet air conditioned comfort. Eventually a nice couple from Rhode Island joined me and we had a pleasant conversation.
My little 150 cc scooter had no difficulty keeping up with traffic. The only issue was in the steepest mountain passes. Fortunately there were good passing lanes so I didn’t hold anyone up. I was traveling with a pretty decent load on the bike. The saddle bags were on and pretty full of stuff. The idea is get some idea how mountain travel in next year’s Scooter Cannonball is going to be.
With that in mind I also practiced filling up the scooter from the spare 2.5 gallon tank. That’s carried in the milk crate on the back rack. Filling up the tank and taking a good swig of water takes less than five minutes. I figure that with the spare tank I’ll only have to make one gas station stop during the timed event. That’s assuming I start each day with a full fuel load. The 2013 Honda PCX only has a 1.5 gallon gas tank. The newer models have a 2.5 gallon tank, but I’m not going to spend that kind of money just for the bigger gas tank. My older scooter is in excellent shape.
Under ideal conditions I’ve been able to get around 100 mpg. In more real world driving that drops to about 80. With my big self, a full load on the bike, and wide open throttle all day my real world mileage drops to about 70 mpg. Those numbers all necessary to know before the Cannonball.
In my travels I able to meet up with a friend for a beer. He’s got a seasonal site at a campground south of the mountains.
Just before dark I pulled into my driveway -another excellent day on the scooter.
-Sixbears
My lovely wife and I went to another friend’s funeral Friday. It was just a few months ago we sent her husband off to his final rest. I guess we are at that age where we go to more funerals than weddings. Yeah, it sucks.
Friday evening we gathered with a few friends by a campfire and decompressed. I’m grateful to live in a place where campfires are normal and expected. Sitting around a fire sure beats looking at a computer screen.
During the time of the virus a few of us gathered together every week around a campfire. It was a special time. It’s easy to find excuses not to meet with friends. I’m so glad we made the time. There’s no telling what the future may bring.
Today I’m going on a long scooter ride just to visit with an old high school buddy. He just got a clean bill of health after cancer surgery. You can’t take your friends for granted.
-Sixbears
Recently my lovely wife and I loaned our six person L. L. Bean tent to a church group. There were several tents needed. They had to be set up ahead of the group’s arrival. So far so good.
With years of tenting practice under our belts we set up our tent in about 15 minutes. We weren’t in a hurry. After that we helped a second group sort out the mess they made with their tent. That took much longer.
Normally when camping we have the whole camp ready in about a half hour -right down to the bedding, kitchen area, comfy chairs and solar electricity. Plenty of people with RVs take longer than that.
Actually, one of our fun activities in a campground is to watch the new RV owner try to park and set up their rigs. We’ve seen tree collisions, picnic tables run over, power and water poles smooshed and sewer lines crushed. Could we help them? Maybe, but I’m not going to take the chance. Emotions run high and spouses speak nasty words to each other. One couple made such a spectacle of themselvesb they later went around apologizing to other campers.
Typically most people upgrade from a tent to some sort of trailer or motorhome. We enjoyed the heck out of camping out of a converted ambulance. When that was no longer reliable we sold it and went back to tents. Why didn’t we upgrade to something else?
Time and money were big reasons. A tow behind trailer needs a vehicle capable of safely pulling it down the highway. Few people are smart enough to get a small trailer that can be pulled by a normal vehicle. Instead they get a heavier trailer with more bells and whistles. That requires a sizable tow vehicle with the added initial cost plus on-going expenses. Motorhomes are horrible on fuel, are high maintenance and costly to insure.
We don’t want to sell our house to live in an RV full time.
Here’s the thing about tents. Get a good one. While they can be pricey there are often sales. We bought our L. L. Bean tent off season from one of their discount outlets for half price.
So what do you do if it rains for days on end? Go to a hotel for a few days. With the money saved by tenting a hotel room now and then won’t break the budget.
-Sixbears
Looks like our election is going to be very interesting this fall. Here’s a thought: just like Joe won’t be running it’s entirely possible Donald won’t be either. At his age anything can happen -just like what we saw with Joe.
But enough of politics for now. I think I stirred up the hornet’s nest enough.
Speaking of a hornet’s nest, a good friend was mowing her lawn on a riding mower and hit a ground hornet’s nest. She was stung repeatedly then fell off her mower and broke her arm. That’s what messing with a hornet’s nest will get you. In her case I wish it was only a metaphor.
Weather here has been very wet with intense storms. A trip to VT right now involves some long detours to avoid damaged bridges and blocked roads. I’m very careful on my scooter these days. Where there once road shoulders there are three or four foot ditches. There are parts of the road to my place that are crumbling into the river. It’s like we now have spring floods several times during the summer.
I’ve ordered a backup battery pack for my cpap. Right now I run it off my solar electric system. That’s good backup for the grid but lately I feel I need backups for my backups. While it’s still possible to turn money into useful things I might as well take advantage. Money always felt kinda make believe to me.
Not a bad time to round out your preps. There may be some civil unrest in our future and I know there will be nasty weather issues.
-Sixbears
In my last post I made of point of pushing some people’s buttons. It was very educational. Traffic to the site jumped 40 – 50%.
If that sort of thing was important to me I’d be hitting those emotional buttons all the time. News and pretend news sites are aware of what drives traffic. They know upsetting people is good for business. Never forget that news is a business and their main focus is to make money.
The “pay” from this site is insignificant and that’s not a problem. I certainly don’t do this to make money. That frees me to say whatever I want to say.
-Sixbears
This is going to tick off a lot of people but this is how I see the election going down.
It almost doesn’t matter who the Democrats run against Trump. The Democrat is going to win it.
If you are in the Trump bubble you won’t see it. He has a solid core group of people who’ll vote for him no matter what. They are also very vocal. They make so much noise that the Trump crowd seems bigger than it is.
There are more people who will not vote for Trump no matter what. That ranges from never Trumper Republicans to Bernie Sanders liberals. Heck, some folks just won’t vote for a convicted felon.
Expect a lot of right wing election denial in November, but there will be a Democrat President come January.
Do what you want with this info, but be aware this is not an invite for a debate. If you really want to live in a country run by an authoritarian I hear Russia has a labor shortage.
-Sixbears
Yesterday I serviced my solar electric system. One of the things I do after topping off the distilled water in the batteries is to charge them up from the grid. Because of that I went to bed with a fully charged battery bank.
So I get up in the morning and do my regular routine. It took about an hour to notice that the grid was down. It just happened that everything electrical I used the first hour was powered by my solar electric system.
We had a storm during the night that took down a lot of trees. One of them, just a few hundred feet down the road, took out the power lines. The resulting fire also fried the Internet cables. The road was closed for a good part of the morning.
I had a nice talk with one of the firefighters who was on the scene. He told me that most of the roads that had been repaired got washed out again during the night. Such is life here in the New England rain forest.
-Sixbears
My solar electric system is old school in a lot of ways. There have been upgrades. I updated the charge controller and the inverter. Some parts, like the panels themselves, have been in service for over 20 years.
While I’ve changed out the battery bank a couple of times I keep going back to lead acid. I would have thought by now that I would have something better. Lithium batteries are an upgrade but the price is prohibitive.
Besides price lead acid has some other advantages. They can take a fair amount of abuse. I made a lot of mistakes with my first battery bank and still got 10 years out of them. The big thing to remember with lead acid is to keep the cells topped off with distilled water. Never let them get to the point where the plates are exposed to the air. That one simple item is critical for years of service.
Another big battery saver is to never let them sit in an uncharged condition. Ideally, never let the charge get below 50%. If it gets to that level but it’s early morning I’ll let the panels charge them up. If it’s dark or very cloudy I’ll top off the battery bank from the grid. Should the grid be down I’ll go into serious conservation mode. Eventually the panels will bring the batteries out of the danger zone.
I’ve just topped off the distilled water so the batteries won’t have to be checked for three or four months.
-Sixbears
With all the weirdness going on lately it felt good to get out on the scooter. Only part of the afternoon was free but I did knock out 150 miles. That included a couple of rest stops to cool down from the heat.
The previous owner had purchased a nice top box for the back of the scoot. That looked great and all, but it had some downsides. One big issue was that the darn thing would pop open without warning, scattering my stuff all over the road. A bungee cord over the top usually stopped that from happening . . . usually.
While it doesn’t look as slick I replaced the top box with a milk crate. That actually worked out great on my trip. One big advantage is that the crate easily holds a 2.5 gallon gas can, plus a whole lot of other stuff. The top box only really fit a 1.25 gallon can.
My route took me all over the back roads of ME. Almost every time I use the motorcycle GPS I discover something new. Also, it’s one thing to mess around with the settings from the comfort of home. Making adjustments on the fly when hot and uncomfortable is something else. Watching videos from previous events really brought home the fact that I have to know all the ins and outs of my GPS.
It looks like I can count on a ride to the start of the event. My daughter should be available to load the scoot on her truck and drive me across the country from NH to OR. That’s plan A. With the nature of these things it’s prudent to have a plan B and C.
-Sixbears
Trump was grazed by a bullet at a rally. The 20 year old shooter was killed by his security detail. A bystander was also killed and others wounded.
That’s pretty much what’s actually known at this point.
However, there’s been a whole lot of speculation and theory presented with the assumed authority of proven fact.
I’m not going to add to that.
-Sixbears
. . . but not for long. The rain came down hard enough Thursday night to flood every road that would allow me to leave the house. Fortunately I didn’t need to go anywhere. My lovely wife and I went into town Friday afternoon as the waters had dropped enough. Driving on flooded roads is a recipe for disaster so waiting it out was the wise thing to do.
There were an awful lot of washouts but they mostly chewed up the dirt shoulders. There were a few places that could eat a car so caution was required.
I was pleased to hear that my daughter’s place in Montpelier VT was high and dry. While the capital didn’t get it too bad this time around nearby towns got clobbered. Whole houses were washed away and RT 2 was closed.
I’m glad my house is at a high enough elevation not to worry about being flooded.
-Sixbears
My wife’s parents and her sister live in Texas. We were able to get hold of them after the hurricane passed through.
Her parents have some serious health issues. They live about 60 miles north of Beaumont. Fortunately they’ve weathered the storm in fairly good shape. No doubt part of that was due to my father-in-law’s diligence in removing hazardous trees over the years.
My sister-in-law and her family are in a Houston suburb. They are fine but are some of the millions of people who’ve lost power. Hopefully they’ll get power back soon. Summer in Texas with no AC is no fun at all.
-Sixbears
Political pundits are pretty much the same.
Case in point: the current French elections. The “news” people got it exactly wrong. It was predicted that the far Right would probably win the majority. Nope. It was the far Left that did really well followed by the Center. The Right came in far behind.
As it turns out far Right policies have limited appeal these days. Too bad the pundits missed it. It’s likely they got caught up in their own little echo chamber.
While my knowledge of French politics is limited I see some of the same forces at work here. “News” organizations have drifted far from just covering the facts. Almost all of them have their own agenda.
In the US polls have been proven inaccurate election after election. Does anyone know how to do real reporting anymore?
At any rate, it’s going to be interesting.
-Sixbears
My lovely wife and I are back home. We had an excellent visit with family. Holiday traffic is no fun at all.
In my travels I finally got to see a couple of Cyber Trucks up close. You know how they look kinda dumb in on-line videos? In person they are even more stupid looking. They are pretty scary trying to fit on tight urban roads.
My grandkid described it as “looking like a dumpster on wheels.” They weren’t wrong.
-Suxbears
I’ll be taking a few days to celebrate that time we threw out a tyrant. Good times. We had a good run.
-Sixbears
I happened to run into an old friend who’ve I’ve know since he was a baby. That’s a pretty weird feeling as the guy’s in his early 50s now. Also, he’s says he’s going to retire in January from the fire department.
One of his goals was to buy a big RV and see the country. His wife, on the other hand, has a different plan. They get a huge discount from a major hotel chain. Her idea is to forget about the RV and to stay in hotels instead. Actually, with their discount, it’s probably a lot cheaper than the whole RV thing.
Even without the discount it might be cheaper than the RV option.
In my travels I’ve seen and talked with a lot of RV campers. It used to be a pretty economical way to travel but decent RV parks ain’t cheap. Boondocking is still an option but your rig better be set up for it. That usually involves solar electric and generators for power. Large holding tanks and sizable fresh water tanks are necessary.
It used to be easy to find a free place to park for the night. There are a lot fewer now. Part of the reason is the number of people who’ve abused the privilege.
The idea of traveling around the country without an RV is more attractive. Personally, I’m still happy tossing a tent in the car and calling it good. It’s easy and cheap plus a few nights in a hotel now and then doesn’t hurt either.
This time of year there are a lot of tourists visiting the mountains. I’m horrified when meeting overloaded RVs trying to navigate narrow mountain roads.
Personally, I’m not interesting in driving a a mobile apartment. I used to get paid for driving trucks. I’m not going to do it for recreation.
My friend’s wife might be saving him some headaches.
-Sixbears
