I mean it’s a good deal… only applied about 7 months ago…. I think its $14 a pay period for unlimited rides but without the express bus and biking to work most days at my suburban office with acres of free parking, not such a good a deal. Worth a try, and I would certainly do it if there was value in the proposition but between biking and driving, hardly a great deal!
The whole bus situation is endlessly frustrating though, since the express bus disappeared. The local bus just doesn’t correspond well with my schedule after you figure in the transfer. And it’s so slow and crowded. I get that there is free parking where I work, but I don’t love driving with traffic – it’s not just the cost of the fuel but also the pain of fighting traffic and cops. Honestly, I can’t wait until mid-February when there is enough daylight to ride my bike both ways to work again.
Moving to my dream state is often a big challenge and a leap into the unknown, one that is fairly far off – I’m committed to New York – saving and investing, working hard in New York while I still have family locally.
But eventually I want to move. I want more freedom to own the guns I want, have fires, burn trash and not have to deal with silliness like plastic bag bans or whatever else the legislature dreams up in the coming years like banning trapping as happened in California. I like my big truck and I want my off grid cabin to be in a place with as much freedom as possible.
But the truth is it’s such a big jump into the unknown. Rural communities are more homogenized than ever before due to centrally produced television stations and social media but moving to a new town with no friends, no job, no place to stay is a big jump into the unknown. Honestly when I do it I will be a lot more financially stable but still its a big leap.
That said, careful planning can help to make the leap smaller. Places like West Virginia and rural Pennsylvania I know fairly well, especially in areas where I regularly camp. They’re a smaller leap. With the internet I can also research local opinions about an area and what folks are saying about it – along with state and local laws enforced or otherwise. I can take a trip out to other states, interview for jobs, and ultimately when I settle there rent for a year before committing to buy land and home as my off-grid property.
When I move I can make it a priority to be socially engaged, join civic organizations and volunteer to make new friends. Join my colleagues out at the bar and when I have my off grid property invite them out there for a bonfire and beers or allow them to hunt the land. Friendship is more important than having that perfect deer in the freezer. I’d probably stay away from politics as I don’t want to alienate potential code enforcement people I need to work with to make my off grid property a reality.
Honestly, I do like the break to something new. Too much of my identity is still tied up with my hometown and my jobs in Albany. While I do good work, when you’ve been around as long as I have there is still a lot of baggage around that’s hard to escape. There are memories and institutions I really would like to put away for good.
So I got this flyer from some kind of mortgage company in the mail, didn’t even look at much before tossing it in the basket with the rest of the paper trash. For some reason, I pulled it out of the trash before tossing it in the fire, I don’t actually know why. Actually I do, there was a picture on the cover of a post-and-beam structure on the cover and inside very typical suburbanite houses. It was advertising the low amount of money down – not just because you don’t have money for a large down payment but as a way to avoid capital gains taxes and keep your money in the market. I had to think, catchy advertising.
Soon enough though that ad will just be another blackened sheet of paper, some smoke and ash. Truth is I do need to find a home but I still can’t bring myself to buy something in New York with the burn ban and the gun laws. Having enough land and buffer from the neighbors helps, but it’s so risky. And the high utility costs, the lock-in of having to pay for fossil fuel electricity and heat each month for enormous non-shared structure seems like a waste. Likewise, it seems like a waste to burn a shit ton of gasoline and be forced to drive back and forth to work every day. The question in my mind – what for? Building equity the advertisement proudly acclaims!
It’s trash I tell myself. I don’t want a home, a place I’m tied to that I spend all my time driving back and forth to, fixing broken shit. I mean I do want to some day have land and livestock, a place where I can burn shit and shoot guns, but I also am not ready to give up my life at this point – traveling and exploring – just so I can shovel feed and manure and weed a garden. And to buy a house in New York is to make a commitment to the state beyond what I have at my work. It means giving up on the goal of having that off-grid homestead in a place where I can left alone from government harassment and stupid laws written for the urbanite. I honestly don’t want something that can bought with a mortgage or insured by an insurer. I’d much rather have something if it burns, I can push the debris into a hollow, throw some dirt over it, and start over again without much significant loss. Something not made entirely of plastic and particle board, asphalt and pine lumber.
During the 1960s, several routings from Central Bridge to the Thruway were studied for Interstate 88. The routing of 1960s proposed connecting up with existing tool booths, as the Thruway Authortiy did not want to create additional ones due to the cost of staffing. From the I-88 Susquehanna Expressway from Schoharie-Schenectady Environmental Impact Statement.
