I've had a couple of VA doctor appointments to deal with, this last week, which always puts a crimp in my schedules, and to learn from one of them, that I have a high propensity for sun related skin cancer outbreaks. All as they were freezing and cutting on me to remove the current lesions. That right there is depressing enough.

On top of all of that, my old personal computers are starting to wear out. I've been fighting with this laptop for a few months now as the touch pad is barely working these days, and a couple of weeks ago, I picked it up off the table to use it, and a piece of the plastic case broke off. It's just a small corner but that's a sign.

Then while researching to replace my old Dell desktop, I learned that with the chip trade war that Trump started with China last year, the prices of computers in general have all gone up because the price of the memory chips and processors have all jumped up. So now, I have to replace my desktop machine sooner than I wanted. The hardware is old and out of date now and it isn't keeping up with the other network equipment and applications I have been using lately. I bought it back in 2019 and paid a lot of money for it back then. Now a replacement is going to cost me a few hundred dollars more than what I paid for the old one. But, it will be a custom built machine, so I suppose that will be worth something down the road regarding keeping up with new technologies. With my skills, I can probably keep it going for longer than five years, hopefully.

As a retired IT tech, I know what I want under the hood of any PC these days and I'm willing to pay a little more to get what I want. Mostly, I need a more robust desktop to handle my video recordings and video editing application. Something my old machine is struggling with these days.

Now I just have to figure out how to pay for it. I have the cash but given the current state of the economy, I decided to take advantage of some free credit yesterday. Dell and their financial partner has a free twelve month interest program I want to use. I used to have an account to do that with, but as I also learned while figuring things out yesterday, I can no longer log in anymore as it has changed hands.

(Sigh), As I sit here writing this, I'm asking myself, maybe I should just pay cash and be done with it. I haven't decided yet so I'm going to wait until Monday morning to call Dell back to figure things out. I cancelled the original order until I get all of this sorted out.

And that is where everything became unravelled last night when I went to pay for the new computer. I applied for a new credit account online through Dell, and was approved. I went to use it to order the new computer, and the web site came back telling me that everything was good. But it wasn't.

I got two emails from Dell between last night and this morning, telling me that there was an issue with the form of payment I used. I needed to call the bank to sort it out. I called them this morning and it turns out, that I apparently jumped the gun, unbeknownst to me. When I paid for the new computer with the new Dell financial account, it was flagged as fraudulent and blocked. The bank managing the credit account had to reissue a new line of credit this morning but I won't be able to use it until I receive this new credit card in the mail and activate it.

Meanwhile, according to my young sales person at Dell, the prices of the chips in my new computer could jump after Monday morning due to the extreme volatility of the market.

I'm tired of this. I'm tired of living in an unstable world and it's only been a year and a half since Trump took over the executive branch in D.C. Imagine how I'll feel in another year?

On top of all of this, I have to deal with possible food insecurity! It's official as of last week. The planet is in a super El Niño climate pattern due to the overheated Pacific Ocean. We've been enduring temps at 35 to 38 C here in central Virginia the last few days. We had a thunderstorm last night that cooled things off a little bit but that's just temporary.

My wife and I are having more talks about stocking up the freezer and pantries to try and head off a possible food shortage by the end of this year. With 2027 shaping up to shatter heat records because of the El Niño event, I want to make sure we have some extra non-perishable and frozen foods on hand to get us through this winter and into next year.

One good thing has come from all of this money I'm spending this year on IT equipment. The commercial grade battery backup systems I bought last winter are already paying off. I had a small power outage last night during the thunderstorm and they worked great. One less thing I need to worry about. Now, if I can only figure out how to replace my ageing computers without breaking my bank account. That's a question I will deal with on Monday during regular business hours I guess.

I realise that in my old age, things like cancer can show up out of nowhere like a dark spectre. That's just another thing I'll have to get used to now. I've been through so much in my life, so I guess this is how it all catches up with me. I've been exposed to so many chemicals and toxic substances in my life, I'm a little surprised it's taken this long to manifest. I guess I should be a little thankful I've made it this far. That includes the toxic radiological substances from places I've been around the world as well.

My biggest issue, is the sun, according my dermatology doctor. I spent too much time exposed to the sun in my younger days and now it's showing up on my skin. I think deploying to equatorial tropical countries with jungles or middle eastern deserts qualifies. I will admit that I was a bit foolish back when I was deployed for Desert Storm for two years. I didn't use a lot of sunscreen or wear sun blocking clothing. In fact, I barely wore anything more than military swim shorts and tank tops, if I wore a shirt at all. That's what I get for being young and stupid.

I'm sure I'll survive all of this but at what cost? Some new scars on my already scarred up body? That I could care less about. But could this lead to something worse? That worries me more than any scars from the doctors removing skin cancer from my skin. I'm more worried about the possibility of cancer that is a little harder to see.

As for the IT business these days? It sucks to be a IT business owner now, with Trump wreaking havoc on the economy in the U.S. The chip wars started back during Biden's term and Trump just ramped things up so much more out of his sense of greed. Why can't we all just learn how to get along together? The world could be so much better if everyone would stop wanting to fight one another over money or the lack of it.

In my case, and most of the rest of you, we're stuck between the greedy oligarchs and the people just trying to make a living selling the things they create. I actually thought for a few minutes yesterday, when I was ordering my custom built computer, that it might be cheaper to just buy a Chinese computer, but then, I realised that Trump would just tariff the crap out of it or block it all together because the Americans are worried about Chinese spyware being embedded in their network systems.

My young sales man told me that the life expectancy for consumer grade computers these days is only about five years now. A commercial grade machine maybe a few years more. He did offer me quotes on a business class desktop PC and the price was about four hundred dollars more with less features. I need a hybrid that combines robust business class hardware with consumer hardware as I use old technology and new together in my PC's. Unless I want to build one from scratch myself, I have to work with what the companies offer me. I could build one I suppose but that would take up too much time, something I don't have a lot of these days. That and the cost of parts to make one is more expensive than buying a base unit and custom configuring it. I went on Newegg's website yesterday before my doctors appointment and they wanted a lot of money for a big box full of parts. More than this custom built from Dell I'm thinking about. Likely because of the parts or the materials needed to make the parts come from China and we have Trump's tariffs and trade war to thank for those high prices. Which will continue to rise.

Which means that I need to upgrade my computers now in order to future proof my work machines, even if they are not meant to live more than five or so years. Who knows what the world is going to look like in five years. Which is why I decided to spend enormous amounts of money this year and start saving like crazy afterwards. I may need every penny I can get by next year.

As I noted here before, we have finished our list of home remodelling and repairs for the year, barring emergencies. Now, I'm preparing for the unknown future. Replacing worn out machines with less expensive alternatives where I can and repairing what I can on my own. That's going to be the future I'm afraid.

If you have any skills using your hands, or want to learn, this would be the time. I have lots of mechanical engineering skills. Everything from internal combustion engine repair, to refrigerated and electrical appliances to computer technology. And I'm also a pretty fair carpenter and plumber. All skills that might be worth gold if the world heads into a major global recession. I'm not advertising those skills to my elderly neighbours though. If they need something, they can come to my door and ask.

They've proven to me in the more than five years we've lived here, that we're not all that popular with them and that's okay. I'll take care of my stuff and I'll be here if they need me. I won't lose any sleep over it if their stuff stops working and they can't go out and buy new ones anymore.

I don't mean to sound so negative but people just piss me off sometimes. Not just my cranky neighbours but the world in general. What sins did we commit to deserve all of this misery? Don't answer that. I already know and the list would take too long to make. Needless to say, we're stuck with this misery for time being and we'll just have to suck it up and do our best despite all of the things thrown in our way. We'll get through this somehow, I have faith.

I used to say that years ago when I was on a really miserable deployment somewhere or on some detail that really sucked. Now, I'm saying it again. I am back to telling myself to embrace the suck as it has to get better eventually. Doesn't it? What do you think?

It's time to go. I have other things to finish today before I can relax. If I can get time to relax anymore. It seems that my downtime keeps getting pushed back farther into the night hours these days. Now, I'm lucky to be finished by 2100 hrs. most nights. That's 9 pm for you civilians. Maybe I will get lucky today and finish by sundown so I can spend a little more time hanging out with my wife and little dog. I know they miss me at times. My wife has told me in the past that my office is like a dark hole. When I go in, she doesn't see me for hours at a time. I can tell when I've spent too much time in there when my dog runs up to me in the kitchen as if I were coming home from work at the end of the day once I reemerge. It kind of reminds me of coming home from deployments and weeks long field training missions. That's pretty sad because my office is just down at the end of the short hallway in my house.

Take care of yourselves everyone. Start preparing this summer for what is very likely to be a rough winter and even more arduous 2027. I'll be back next week with more news from the home front. Sláinte