I think throughout the month of December into January I only rode into work a handful of times in part because my brake reservoirs was low, I had the lock bounce off my bike, I was out for a while it got cold and I got COVID.
My parents are still both sick 🤒 with colds, and that kind of scrambled plans for the day. I haven’t seen them since before Christmas when we went to the Nutcracker. Mom turned 76 and Dad is turning 78, it’s really hard to know how much time they have left. They’re always is see you next time until there isn’t with older people. 🧓 👴 On the other hand people sometimes do live longer than expected. ⌛ Truth is time is short. Kind of really screwed up my plans. Now I got to plan to get to the laundromat and maybe groceries. Not going to fire up Red 🛻 today as I don’t need to. Can’t drop my cans 🥫 off for recycling at my parents house trash can ♻️ so I got to find room in my can. If I known they were still sick I done the laundry yesterday and the transfer station. Practical stuff but I miss them too. 🍲 Sunday dinner with family is special.
Got my bike up and running 🚲, once I used the proper adapter and did it right I was able to top off the fluid and pump out the bubbles. I got brake fluid on the front calipers so they sqweak and don’t stop really strongly but have good brake capacity now. I do need to replace the pads, I have them but didn’t do them. Brake cleaner would fix both things but I’m not applying that indoors. Rode out to Five Rivers, 🐦 it’s a nice day so lots of people out here but I don’t know what my plans are after this. I think I want to Hannaford and get a few things but I can’t get too much without a freezer. 🍏
I’ve done my best to clean my apartment and get things ready for the landlord to swap out the fridge 🧼 though nothing is perfect. But you can only polish a turd so much. 💩 A lot of things just are worn out or need extensive repairs and it’s not my building. I’m the paying customer and I’m fine with it the way it is though I need a refrigerator. I’m filling the ticket 🎫 for repair on Monday for the fridge. I’ll do it first thing in the morning. Nothing for me to worry about, I’ve been at the unit for over seventeen years now and that’s a long time for only minimal maintenance not that anything was new when I moved in. Even if I kept it spotless it would need extensive renovations before the next tenant moved in. Buildings don’t last forever, especially with inexpensive contractor grade materials. 🔨 I’m my toughest critic, but I always pay my rent early and rarely ask for repairs.
I’m hoping Friday to take off to camp 🏕️ during the long weekend. Probably Madison County for the horse 🐴 camp but it depends on the snow and ice levels and the weather. I also am considering the Adirondacks. I just want to have a fire 🔥, smoke some pot 🚬 and relax up in woods 🍻 enjoying the cold ❄️ and the woods. It’s been tough recovering since COVID with the cold. 💤 I still don’t have the energy I had before COVID, I got to build myself up again and it’s been tough with the cold weather. It’s January!
My hands may be greasy and my mind fried from watching too many minutes of the Bikes for Dykes, Vegetarian Bark Eater Biker and the BMX extreme biker channels on the YouTube but my front brake is successfully bled and topped off and my rear brake is topped off and pumped up.
This time I done it right using the correct adapters and not paying attention to the overly complicated snobbery of how to fix your French bike to the highest of standards to ride down to the local abortion clinic and pride march. I get it, live your life as you want it but YouTube personalities and bikers more generally are the most obnoxious awful people to watch.
Regardless of the painful YouTube experience it’s good to be back on the road. I’m happy as a pig in shit to be able to ride to work once again.
I still refuse to have internet at my apartment. While a few years ago, I did break down and buy a very basic $45 a month smartphone, it does not have ability to sync with my laptop. And I’m quite fine with that fact.
For one, having the Internet would be an additional cost, something that my budget would struggle to include with such a priority placed on saving money towards my retirement and eventually affording land, an off-grid cabin, and hobby farm. The most basic plans would set me back $45 a month, plus taxes and fees, which would bring me up to over $60 a month — there simply is not $700-$800 extra a year burning a hole in my pocket.
But more fundamentally, I don’t like the idea of having the Internet to play with at home. I like the exercise of either walking down to the Town Park or library, and I like keeping the Internet to a set part of my life — with time and boundaries. Granted, having a smartphone with Facebook and WordPress kind of breaks down the boundaries, but I phone is somewhat more limited then a full-time laptop.
If it was free I probably would use the Internet at home, but if I have pay a whole bunch of money, absolutely no. I doubt I would ever subscribe to an internet service.
Allegany County is not a good value when it comes to county and local property taxes, with a county $13.17 per $1k assessment and many towns assessing an additional $10-12 per $1k. You might be able to score property cheaply there, but you'll pay some of the highest taxes in the state there on it.
