Hump Day Comes to a Rainy Close

Made it through the middle of the week. Pouring rain this evening, after I walked down to the library. Wasn’t so cloudy when I first got up, but it’s headed in the direction of rain by the time I got out of work. So far the weekend doesn’t look all that great.

This morning, rodeΒ the bus with no name downtown. Or so it seems, taking a bus without a working destination sign. They must be short on buses, because last night I caught a bus home, which was a shuttle bus. Probably makes sense to use the smaller buses, as they are more fuel efficient, especially if they aren’t full, which they usually aren’t in the evening by 5 PM.

Roundtop Mountain

Tomorrow is the first day of calendar spring. That means in one month, it will be April 20th. Might even see some signs of spring by mid to late April, besides a slight tinge of manure in the air. I am hopeful that by late April when I take my trip out to the Finger Lakes, there will be some signs of green at least down by Seneca Lake. We shall see, as spring always comes late in higher elevation.

Bought my fishing license, which will be effective on April 1st. I haven’t done a lot of fishing in recent years, but I am going to get a good rod and reel next weekend.

Walking Back to the Truck

Almost ready to buy the solar panels for my truck camping and maybe the CB radio. Probably will be 400 bucks for everything — including the CB antenna, quick connects, mounts, solar controller, and half a dozen other parts.Β Once it is delivered, all I will have to buy is some 8-gauge wire (which is not cheap), some plywood, screws, fuse holders, fuses, and hinges to put it all together. Also maybe some rubber cement to patch up the hole in the firewall when I run the antenna out there.

Done a lot of research and I think I will end up with a good setup that will let me continue to use as much electricity as I need camping during day without starting up the truck — and get weather alerts and CB radio info.Β It would be fun to get things wired up this next week.

I have almost finalized my latest investment decisions for retirement after a lot of careful study of the options. It’s kind of hard to know what to buy these days, as its apparent the stock market is kind of overvalued from quantitative easing and the like. But I think I got a good mix of index funds and bond funds, and so small-cap and medium-cap stuff. Also plan to buy some energy stock. Yeah, that fossil fuel stuff that is so awful but provides good historical returns. Diversity is key for investing, as they say.

Putting off the lift-kit for now — probably the end of summer. I am leaning towards wearing out the tires, especially now that one of the tires has developed a wear pattern due to an alignment issue. That’s why I have a little more money to spend on things now, by cashing in a few of my short-term investments for toys I’ve wanted for a while.

 New Lebanon Overlook

Kind of a rainy middle of the week. But the rain will turn the snow into mud, and maybe soon it will be camping time.