Good morning! Happy Rainy Thursday. 🌧️

I have to admit today is kind of a crazy day to go for the morning walk but I tell myself it’s not raining that hard and I like my walk. Wakes me up.

Rain and 36 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ There is a south-southeast breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Sunday around 7 pm. ☃️.

Kind of a rainy ☔ wet morning for the walk 🚶 but ultimately I decided to go for it as I was up and going and I like to get my steps in. A rainy morning kind of breaks things up and it’s not icy although kind of a cold morning. If I get soaked walking it’s fine, I have a hot shower 🚿 and suit and tie waiting for me when I get home. 🕴️

It might be cold and rainy but at least the sun ☀ isn’t in my eyes 👀. Truth be told, today reminds me a lot of those cold wet days I’ve spent in the wilderness. ❄ Rain is good reduces the fire risk. The next few days are expected to be quite wet.

That said, when I got home I don’t think I was soaked. 🧥 While I wore a rain jacket and are a bit damp, I wouldn’t call today a real soaker although early hours were definitely wetter. Bringing though my umbrella to work. Things are a bit wet, but I am sure they’ll be dry when I get home. On session days when I dress up for work, I wear the same clothes at home and while walking. I don’t care if I’m a bit grubby at home. I’m dirty hick after all with a big shots job.

Such a long day yesterday. 📹 Morning in person meeting followed by four zoom meetings. While the Zooms were relatively short, they dragged on to after 5 pm. I’m anti social, I prefer projects I can just work on and not endless meetings especially those when you have to pay attention and ask thoughtful questions. 💭

Made it home at six 6⃣ and cooked up pasta for dinner. Not my favorite but it’s cheap and easy. Rain ☔ held off long enough for my evening walk 🚶 – I might have been able to walk down to the park for a bit but I saw the radar and didn’t want to get caught in the rain. I still haven’t turned my heat on yet but it’s only a matter of time. 🐸 I’m my book, if I can hear the spring peepers and it’s above freezing, too warm for the heat.

I was in bed 🛏 before eight 8⃣ not because I was tired 😴 but instead that heated blanket was warm with my heat being off. I like getting to bed early and getting up early around 5 am having breakfast at six o’clock and my walk 🚶 around seven.

One of the things I’ve been working on is trying to build up my confidence and self esteem. ☺ Signing my tax form with Deputy Director and reading an article about how you can’t be happier when you make more than $75k some how just felt good, even while I watch as inflation eats away everything and gas prices are at record high. ⛽ I’m learning a lot in my new job, sometimes if anything the way not to do things and how endlessly long management meetings are. 🤝 I know the skills I’m learning every day will translate into a better future, along with my constant saving and investing.

After some down days in the stock market, things are back up 📈 and if I truly wanted I could get parking 🅿 and drive to work and have a nicer home or apartment. 🏠 But I want to save money so I can eventually buy my own land with cash if possible, and enough acreage to buffer against neighbors. I still live in the same place as I did a decade and a half ago, take the same bus, 🚍 making nearly three times less than I do now. But inflation eats away at everything.

I continue to look at various properties on Zillow, 🏘 again not because I’m buying but I am just curious what is out there and for what prices. Of course the internet thinks I must be out in the real estate market, with all the advertising, but I’m just genuinely curious to learn about prices, taxes, and land.  In some ways, it’s just a confidence building exercise for me, a way to remind me that my future is not that far out of reach. 

I was reading about this homestead south of Albany that raises pigs, cattle and other livestock 🐮 that a few years back got into a bit of tizzy with the neighbors for homesteading in an industrial-zoned, rural neighborhood. Seems kind of silly. That’s why it’s so important to check things out before getting land. And having lots of land to buffer from your neighbors. 🚜 🌲 🌱 🌽  I don’t really want to smell my neighbors pigs or burnt plastic in the burn barrel, but I want the freedom to raise my own meat that is delicious and not have to haul every piece of burnable trash to the landfill. That’s why it’s important to have land and buffer. Not to mention, if you have privacy, your neighbors can’t spy on how your managing your land, and your less likely to get into conflicts with neighbors or the government workers.