Maybe I’ll head out for a ride when the sun rises higher in the sky. It’s a cool morning, but let’s be honest, it’s actually pretty nice with the stars when I went out to Stewart’s to get my Saturday milk bottle. Got to have my favorite dairy beverage and plastic trash to watch melt and burn.

I concede maybe I should have headed north yesterday, but I was afraid of driving through a lot of lake effect snow on the way up there, those snow squalls can make for a lot of slow driving, and it’s quite a bit of a drive even up to the East Branch. But the thing I didn’t like was I thought there would be too much snow to drive back to camp, so I’d be digging through the snow bank, then hauling my gear back on the plastic sled, hot tenting it. That can be fun, but I wasn’t feeling it yesterday. Frankly I was just still feeling stuffed after Thanksgiving dinner, plus I’m not that much of a fan of camping along the East Branch — it can be super noisy with the roar of trucks and vehicles along it throughout the night, noise billowing through the valley.

I am probably making excuses, but the real reason was I wanted to study more computer programming. Lately I’ve been trying to become if not an expert, at least knowegable about the full range of open source software building tools, like gcc and various data libraries like duckdb and sqlite3. I am not totally sure what I want to build — which is why it’s hard to sit down and study — but I want to become a lot better at those tools. The R Statistical Language is fine, and a great tool, but it’s slow and isn’t everywhere like big work server that uses gcc and awk scripts. Plus it’s kind of an odd language, and it’s not like your going to build production level things with it. Then I spent too much time in R in afternoon, trying to parse the WCS data from the NOHRSC Snow Analysis unsuccessfully. I want to be a real programmer so I can build good, useful tools that work in the production environment. I think at work as Director of Data Services is good to have a tip-top programming skills, because while there is a development team I work with, I often have a better idea of what clients actually need, as I’ve worked with them first-hand over the years and know their process requirements then the programming staff who are generalists, good at code, but maybe not in the way the outputs are actually used.

Plus after my rent check and renters insurance cleared, I have only $567 left in my checking account, though I get paid on Monday and I’d probably put even more on my credit card if I headed north. While I have plenty of grass, I probably need more propane, some additional food, alcohol and cigarettes if I was going to be freezing my ass off up north. I don’t normally smoke, but sometimes a drag on a cigerette by a fire at night is fun. You’re going to get cancer, don’t you know. Probably from all that plastic garbage I’ve burnt over the years. I shouldn’t joke about that, one of the hog-farming, hunting and trapping hillibilies I watch on Youtube is dying from cancer in his thirties. I don’t think next week looks better, but maybe the following week. I’m also thinking of taking off December 30 and 31st, and I have the days off on Christmas and thereafter as holidays, so December 24 would be my last day of the year working. So I probably will go to the winter trip that week, weather depending, possibly out to the Finger Lakes. Kind of want to get the truck inspected before my next big trip as I’ve noticed some shuttering on hard braking, and I want to make sure I don’t have another bad ball joint or control arm that is going to break somewhere in the wilderness. 🛻 It could also just be the rotators are a bit warped or muddy from the shit roads I drive on. It’s due for state inspection and tire rotation this month, I’ll call on the shop on Monday.

Yesterday was cold and damp, despite the sun, and I stayed inside, shivering, looking at the wind gently blowing the trees, thinking about whether or not I really wanted to head north. Part of it is my insistance on keeping the heat at no more then 50 degrees, though I did use the heating pad for a while and maybe very briefly turned on the space heater. Truth is it probably doesn’t save big bucks vkeeping the heat low, but it was above freezing yesterday, so it doesn’t harm much besides keeping me shivering. I know it’s silly, like riding my bike to work to save a $1.30 bus fare, but it is was all part of the dream of eventually owning my own land. I know I could get a mortgage right now, or for that matter, just cash out some of that half million in stocks and bonds I own, but there isn’t a lot of good options locally that I like, plus I just can’t see buying in New York. But I have my job and family locally right now. Plus I am not that far off from having 20 years in the Tier 4 pension system, and then the years of service are multiples by 2% rather then 1.6% in pension calculation, and that means at an $100k three year average, that’s an additional $8,000 per year if I wait until the full retirement age to take it. Plus it’s more years of service. Next week is final paycheck until I reach federal maximum on my IRA, so the last paycheck will be nearly $950 bigger, plus an end of year bonus of some amount is expected. So I’ll have money, but as much of it as possible, I want to invest it.

The thing is I just want land up some mountain somewhere, something run down and not fancy, where I can burn whatever shit I want, own whatever guns I want, ride four wheelers 🚙. A rundown trailer with a burn barrel that smells a bit like silage, woodsmoke and hog shit would be find for me. And maybe that’s not that kind of thing money buys, but if I have money it offers more options, including early retirement. If I can implement my vision for the Data Services department where I work — a truly innovative agency for targeting communications to a wide variety of people, build skills and references I believe it’s how I can get there. At least it’s one way.

My big certificate of deposit matured yesterday, and I cashed out it out, after years and years of auto renewing it. I put a third of it in bonds, as I’m trying to get away from keeping so much cash on hand and more in the market, though right now the bond market is in crapper, though maybe I’m getting a deal. A lot depends on the market, but I wanted to have more balance between stocks and bonds, while getting more market exposure. I did keep probably more cash on hand then I really need, but I may need to replace Big Red and maybe the property of dream comes available and my views of New York State will change. I mean my job is alot of fun and I make good money. Plus I now have full access to the databases and developer tools, so I can write whatever is neccessary to improve operations there and provide better tools and services to the clients. And maybe that’s why I am spending so much time learning about C and makefiles and in the outs and of gcc and linker.

Heading out riding shortly, and then after I get back from Five Rivers or wherever the bike takes me on this cold morning. The sun is now rising, and while I still can see my breath inside here, in partially from the steam from the coffee and the garlic cornbread, onions and tomatoes I was making up earlier, so it shouldn’t feel so cold if I go out riding shortly. Much like yesterday, I haven’t decided what the balance of the day will look like. I’ve considered a quick overnight to Rensselearville State Forest ever since yesterday, but I’m not sure if I want to do it, as there is a lot of snow up there, and I wasn’t planning on camping in the Southern Zone until the rifle season was over. I might just wait another two weeks — next weekend looks very cold, and I could do more reading today and some rides around town. Certainly that would be the most affordable option.