In the later hours of the evening yesterday I spent several hundreds at the Bezos combine, a thing I had been meaning to do since before the Solstice.

The single most expensive thing was the diesel heater at about 190, plus another forty for a proper jerry can.

About as much in total went to a real zoom lens and a tripod.

120ish, for a medium-high quality manual coffee grinder, which I hope will be a one-time expense. It cost twice as much as any electric grinder I’ve ever bought, but those all last a year at best, and my theory is that there is just so much less to go wrong with a hand crank.

Then a batch of small purchases. The cheapest item was five dollars, for a short-handled 1/8th cup measure, which is what I use to measure out coffee (three scoops to the french press). Except that this one will live in the baking soda bag, which will make cleaning water jugs more efficient and less messy.

It was a major accomplishment which required a lot of last minute checking of various reviews and instructional videos to be sure I was spending wisely. If you care to watch along, I will recommend this one:

Hotboxing my Truck w/ a Diesel Heater – Solo Overnight

This is a 15-minute video from our old friend Mav. He tries out the heater in the dumbest and most careless way possible, punching a hole in the side of his pretty truck to no good purpose in the middle of a Minnesota winter, but sleeping cozy at 72 degrees nevertheless. How hard can it be?

Eight hundred and twenty-four Thousand views.

Life is just not just, god dammit.

In the morning of this underappreciated holiday, we down here were treated to a quick-hitting and quick-melting snowstorm. They say that northern Maricopa county, and maybe even Scottsdale, got a taste of the white stuff as well. It’s setting up to stay cold all week but mend its ways toward the weekend.

It was eight degrees warmer down in Cruces and that made me start to think about looking for a job there. Idly thinking, but still. Doing the purchasing project made me feel productive and also got me thinking about realistic options for the generation of grubstake.

I don’t think I chipped even one square foot off the 20 of The Pile, but I’m okay with that.

In the morning snow I made a week’s worth of hummus from scratch. As sunset approaches the dusted hills glitter in the full struggling sun.