Day 918. This morning it is very foggy to the west, extremely sunny to the east and mostly blue sky with a fringe of clouds directly overhead which has me wondering what the hell kind of day it is actually going to be as far as the weather is concerned. It also has me looking at it as a sort of metaphor about the current state of human 'civilization' but other than that vague metaphor my brain refuses to endeavor upon thinking more on that subject because all in all it is a beautiful morning, the birds are singing their songs, the espresso is strong and my solar panels are getting some good sunlight...so why would I want to lose sight of all that to entertain thoughts of some rather unsavory things instead especially this damn early in the day.
On a different note yesterday really sucked as far as electricity production goes and after goofing up and losing all the energy that I had stored (as I detailed in yesterday's Daily post) from probably the sunniest day that there had been here in a month...last night all my batteries were rather depleted and all I could think was 'well that was avoidable.'
So I got to thinking more about my energy storage and how shoddy and just plain old inadequate my battery scenario is which lead me to thinking (daydreaming really) about not just having better batteries someday but also perhaps setting up a bank of supercapacitors just to experiment with them some. The supercapacitors definitely have their limitations but damn they just seem so neat that I can't resist the urge to do some tinkering with them but only after I eventually solve my battery problem which at this point is definitely the weakest link in my entire setup.
Although the resources to do it are well outside my reach currently (and for the foreseeable future because covering the moving expenses are my biggest priority at the moment) what I am thinking to do is to find a decent deal on a batch of maybe eight high amp hour sealed lead acid true deep cycle batteries and be done with it. This would give me enough batteries to store roughly a month's worth (depending on the amp hour rating of the batteries) of the marginal amount of electricity that I actually 'need' so when it is cloudy for an entire month (like it basically has been this past month) I won't actually run out of the stuff. It would also provide me with the opportunity to setup a few battery banks with different voltages which would be incredibly handy especially if I want to ever use my power tools again without the aid of a generator or grid power.
All that stuff is solely in the realm of pure fantasy at this point in things but it sure is nice to daydream about and also work out the various things I would need for such a setup and what all I could do with that much electricity at my disposal like running my own mini weather station or even powering a small server to host my own website on that is one hundred percent solar powered much like that Low-tech Magazine website that I am so fond of. In the past I have even entertained the idea of mining cryptocurrency with an off-grid rig but after crunching a bunch of numbers (pun intended) it just does not seem viable to do for any of the more valuable cryptocurrencies unless I want to build a small power plant to generate enough electricity for it all and heavily invest in the mining rig itself. Nonetheless having more electricity at my disposal would definitely open more opportunities to me for what I could potentially accomplish.
All that jazz aside here is how I am doing: My fund raising efforts to help cover my moving expenses are not going all that awesomely which just 'is what is' and I am probably as loathe to share the various links for folks to contribute as folks in turn are probably tired of seeing them. My Patreon patrons have been my saving grace the last several months because the revenue from it combined with my Steemit earnings (that I have been cashing out) have provided me with just enough to cover my very basics each month. Meanwhile I write and write and write each day and am still clocking nearly eight hours a day seven days a week between all the writing, editing and posting. I have not been uploading any videos recently but yeah I am still making them which is a wonder in itself because I really don't have much going on worth vlogging about at this point but I want to maintain the habit of doing it that I have instilled in myself over the last nine hundred plus days now. Mentally I am in pretty good shape especially facing the loss of all my efforts here and the uncertainty of a future home for the dogs and me to continue living our rather mundane existence. The financial stresses are horrible but hey there is nothing new there. My rationing of food for myself has been rather extreme even for me and thankfully I don't have a serious physical workload to match my calorie intake to so that is a relief but I basically eat at least one small bowl of something each day for three weeks and gorge myself on food the fourth week when I do my monthly supply run. I have been eating a good bit of blackberries but they hardly put a dent in my perpetual hunger. Again there is nothing new there and I am long practiced at not letting my empty stomach overly affect my mood or even my mental well-being because if there is one thing in this world that is not all that hard for me to do it is my ability to deftly deal with hardship. I sleep well enough each night although I often find myself wandering one bizarre post-apocalyptic landscape after another with a sort of detached interest more than any actual strife loaded involvement. I have ultimately rolled with the changes handed to me and done my best to find a new place without getting all bent out of shape about how things have/haven't worked out here and that is about the best that I can hope for because a bunch of hard feelings damn sure are not going to help me at this point. Each day I am thankful to wake up with my canine companions and glad that I can somehow manage to provide them with a better life than I have ever had which has always been my goal with them. They above all else have done me a world of good over the last many years so returning the favor is fulfilling to say the least.
Well this is going to all be a bit of a mess to edit but I am going to wrap this up, get to it and see what becomes of the day. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a nice day/night or something like that.
This was great. I enjoyed taking in your thought for the day. Electricity is important for sure, and there is so much new tech. It was nice to find your post. We always want to support personal, first hand experience. Be well!
Thanks @theinnerblocks! I am glad that you enjoyed it.