Nearly August.

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July, for summers here, is like Wednesday is to the week.  The hump.  The hottest section.  It will continue into the 90s, but be broken by cooler days, or if any regularity remains.  Cloudy, from time to time.  Which has already been happening.  So, I am hoping, rain will come sooner, and cool will be accelerated.  Time will tell.

While waking and doing a few first things, I kept looking at the clock.  Between groggy vision and still sleepy mind, I couldn't tell if it was eleven or thirteen hundred hours, or even what in change after.  As I sit, I see it is noon, so... must have been half past eleven hundred when I finally got up.  I woke earlier, to shut the house down.  I got up twice.  I thought the front door might still be a pickle holder... I mean... ajar.  But no, I had worried for nothing.

A fatted coffee, and some meat sticks, to start out.  I did purchase eggs last time I was in.  They aren't too expensive.  But they aren't brown eggs, or from pasture raised chickens.  But, it is what I was willing to pay, per egg.  Only mediums, but that is pretty familiar.  Though, compared to other store bought eggs, I know where these were hatched.  Couldn't quite throw a stone and hit the place, but... proverbially, as a crow flies, perhaps.  Of course, not literally in any sense, if there is any fact to literal in most realities?  Something like that.

Today?  I don't know.  I really am beat.  Just getting the watering done through the night pretty much tuckers me out.  The sprinklers aren't much, it's the 150' of constructor grade hoses that get me.  But, the watering was done.  And is ready to go again Tuesday.  Things are greening.  Just, but they are.

I would like to get another shower, but later.  Hitting dishes would be good.  I cleaned out pee jugs this morning, three.  I have been... busy with other things.  Counters and maybe boxes.  Little bits of the living room.  I just don't have it in me.  They remain the goal until the goal is reached.

I believe I am going to call off the review, and stop playing with the buyers.  I am just going to stick around, for now.  No one can afford the house, one way or the other, or will.  At least as she sits.  If I could get her cleaned up, maybe.  Not as worried about the crash in house sales.  I wouldn't be selling to typical buyers.  I would be selling to California and Illinois escapees.  Usually with cash.  Or Chinese or Blackrock scalpers, also in cash.

I'll spend a couple of months trying to get the place in order, as it cools this fall.  Then, consider maybe even putting it on the market.  But, on the official market.  Let them bid against real buyers.  While there is some slow down, in some areas, for houses in this range, locally, there is a high want and need.  But... it has to be viewable ready.  Then, perhaps, I could get the competition going.  We aren't in drought here, regardless what they try to say.  And, compared to the rest of the South West, that means something.  Plus with acreage, outbuildings, and a dry basement in an area where most basements flood every other year?

It needs work.  That $30k loan, if it had gone through, would have seen new furnace, central air, a new electrical panel, new flooring where needed, some wall work in the kitchen, the bathroom completed, an automated sprinkler system, maybe a backup generator, a new window in one of the rooms, and more.  Perhaps even new siding.  It seems like a lot, but that would probably nearly double the value of the house.  It used to be, depending on where you were, that a bit would get you back a little less.  But, in hot markets, a little can get you far more.  It's want and perception, when they are biting.  Bling, baby?  Yeah, unfortunately.  I just can't do bling.  But I can improve it so that there can be viewings.  But... not now.  Just too damned hot.

I did get some things.  And I am keeping that even in the heat.  So, I am hoping I can push through as it cools.  Then, pretty much, just live, and live small, in just a few areas.  Keeping up on those.  Then again?  There... may be a resource, for the $30k, that... remains.  I hadn't thought of it, until just now.  No promises.  Probably no.  But... there is one last place I could check.  I might be able to find a personal financier.  Maybe.  I'll... have to check.  How to even approach such?  Directly, of course.

Oh, I keep looking up things about bikes.  While I looked at extra fuel options, I also looked at ways to increase mileage.  Well, some technical ways.  The truth is, learning to ride "boring" will save a lot of gas.  As will cruise control, if that only works on some bikes.  Most bikes?  Some.  Why?  Well, I don't want to run out of gas a hundred miles from nowhere.  I have nearly done that with the Xterra, here in Utah.  A road outage, for some reason, running into a secondary detour while thinking gas was just ahead, not paying absolute attention (difficult in the heat, regardless of ac, on long trips)... and... almost ran out.  And, down there, it is 90 at night.  So, yeah.  That... could easily have been fatal, especially with no vehicles passing or following.  

I think some people knew this area had become... a problem?  Went different ways.  I just didn't know enough, or have resources to let me know.  That... got my attention.  I may have had tanks of water, but... you can only carry so much and...  No... I probably would have waited by the side of the road, with the water.  Until I could hitch.  Walking away from five gallons of water, in a desert, is very possibly a death sentence.  If you get down to what you can carry, then go?  Aye, as I see it.

I probably want a bigger tank, an auxiliary tank, and extra external storage.  Especially going into Mexico, and then on the South America.  Oddly?  I fear Canada more than I fear Mexico, if I fear Mexico more than South America.  All can be dangerous.  Just... how I weight things.  Canadians won't kill you, but their government will arrest and hassle you.  There government is even more unhinged than the US government has become.

Well?  Got lost, looking at videos.  It's now 13:55?  Oh well.  It's a hot day.  Hard to keep up, stay focused.  Ah, the videos... ideas on sparing mileage and adding fuel.

The nice things about these is, I have a backpackers' stove which uses these, and it runs on gas.  So, these things would be multi-use.  Though, in some areas, I'd prefer eight.  Two gallons.  Along with, say, a 7.5 gallon tank, and a 3 gallon reserve... a few fuel conservation mods, and right riding, I think I could just about make it to anywhere.

Overkill?  Maybe.  Not saying I plan to go there, literally.  But, sometimes?  Choices are more limited.  And the fire is better than the frying pan, if... you can keep your distance and keep moving.

What was it they said?  If you find yourself in hell, keep going!  Check.

Could I end up dead?  That... isn't a question.  That is a fact.  It only matters where, when, and how, I will end up dead.  I'd rather die somewhere more interesting, than on my butt in front of a computer screen.  Not sure I'll make it, and I don't think there, in that last video.  But... something between the extremes would be fine.