For a while I was seriously thinking about heading out to Schoharie and then maybe later on thinking about Rensselearville State Forest for an overnight in my wobbly jacked up truck and good fire in the smokey haze of the climate-fueled wildfires but I decided against it noting the rain would be coming in later at night an last most of the morning.
Still hoping for things to clear out this afternoon 🌥️ and I’m thinking I’ll ride my bike over to Pine Hollow Arboretum 🪷 and walk around that for a while before heading out to either Voorheeesville or maybe just Five Rivers on the bike path. 🚲 Depends on the weather, and how ungodly hot it is come the passing of the thunderstorms. ⛈️ Still would like to get some exercise in as yesterday was mostly chilling on the banks of various creeks, cooling down.
It’s been hot and smokey lately. 🌫️ Albany has had some of the worse air quality in two years as more Canadian Wildfire smoke blows in. Probably caused by my big jacked up truck and all that plastic I’ve burned over the years. And several billion other people, and the inability of our politicians to address serious pollution concerns, 🌎 which are anything but woke – though usually the left just prefers woke solutions and theirght to stick their heads in the sand. 🦪 It was nice spending much of yesterday at my parents house down in the creek with the dog, 🐶 and then after having dinner with them, spending it down at Hollyhock and Onesqathaw Creek until around 8:30 PM when it was getting dark out. Mom got my some raspberries 🍓 from Stanton’s Farm Stand, had some of them with Greek yougurt when I got home.🍦 I thought about getting ice cream on way home – I haven’t had any since the Gas Up 🚜 in June – but you know I feel like being so lazy, the Greek yogurt was good enough.
Spending the day home, I finished up Mark Kulinsky’s Milk 🐮 reading down by Hollyhock after visiting my parents, occasionally wading down into creek both at their house and at Hollyhock. Truck is fine, though I do want to get that loose shock fixed, as it making for an awful ride and it’s not safe with all that body roll, especially going out to vacation in a few weeks with the kayak 🛶 on the roof. Also started reading Abragil Gethring’s Back to Basics, which is a book a little bit about everything from finding a homestead site, to clearing land, logging, building a house and livestock. 🪓🪵🏠🐐 It’s so long I probably don’t have a attention to get through the whole book. It’s on Libby though so I can keep renewing it for a while at least, and it’s not like it is part of my 10 books a month on Hoopla. That said, I need to look at my July borrows on Hoopla soon because the month is rapidly fading away, and I haven’t got any additional books out of the 10 quota for the month. Got to have them out by Thursday, which I think is July 30th.
I tried to fix the broke bottle jack for my truck, 🛠️ with no luck. I am going to get a proper sized bottle jack for my lifted truck in the next few days so I don’t have to deal with that dangerous piece of fence post I’ve been using to jack my truck up in emergencies to change the tire. 🚨 I think I’ll get the one I see at Tractor Supply as the reviews are decent, and it should be fine for occasional emergency use. If I am getting rid of the truck the end of next March in favor of a smaller, more reliable Toyota Tacoma which I tell myself I won’t jack up, having a good heavy duty, high lifting bottle jack will be good on the future truck and many other projects. They’re under 50 bucks so it’s not a big purchase. And who knows with the dirt roads I drive on and the campsites where idiots like me burn pallets 🔥 I might end up putting another nail through those 35s. Those BFGs are nail magnets in my experience. 🧲 Both on my Ranger and Big Red.
So I’ve been looking a bit at trucks. 🛻 🔍 I will start browsing show rooms over the winter next year, and try to take delivery by spring, so I have time to get a cap for the truck, move the solar panel, wiring, batteries, and equip the new truck for mid July to make that trip out to Michigan and Northern Wisconsin. I really want something smaller, more reliable and safer for such a big trip then big heavy, creaky old Red. Plus I’ve noticed some rusting on the frame, besides the body work and another harsh winter isn’t going to be kindly to Red. It’s been a good 14 plus years with Red now, 10 years lifted, and a decade is a major part of one’s life. That said, a small Toyota Taco 🌮 truck would be so much easier to drive and fuel efficent compared to Red. 💰
Plus I’ve been holding too much in cash in recent years in though of having to replace Red in near future, so it makes sense before I am vehicle-less and trying to get to car dealers on the city bus 🚍 or renting a car – and trying to transfer all my equipment from the truck at the junkyard. I don’t think I’ll get much on Red from the trade, but mom seemed to think they might still offer me $4-5k with current prices, which is certainly better then $500 at junkyard or whatever they give now, or paying to get rid of it at the landfill. I’ll have to see what Carvana would offer too. That said, I’ll miss Red but still here is the belated summer vacation in a few weeks 🏖️ and that October trip to the St. Regis Canoe Area and the Adirondack Rail Trail 🚉 after my eye surgery 👀 and any other adventures I squeeze in November through t the winter.
I’ll call 📞 Capital Region Truck Center tomorrow to see if they can replace the shock bushing onBig Red and then I should be good for vacation once I get the replacement jack from Tractor Supply. I will want to do an oil change after vacation, but I’m hoping Red will be good as I think most of the other random noises and complaints he makes isn’t new. 🛻 Leave on August 21st and be back home on Labor Day from the Finger Lakes. I think that’s like 11 days, as I’ll stick on that day I normally take off before Labor Day. Or maybe hell I’ll leave on August 20th – the Wednesday and make it even longer. I can do up to 14 days in the National Forest, 🏕️ and I might as well use up what I have. I guess it depends if I do any long weekends in the meantime either to Schoharie or the Potholers/Adirondacks. Sunsets will be earlier by late August, but that means I’ll be back to camp earlier for the camp fires and sitting out, watching for the shooting stars into the night. 🔥 Hopefully it will warm up after the predicted cool start to August. Been also researching the best grass stores in Ithaca, as while I like the place up in Menands, I’ve heard they have some good, different products in that famously liberal college town, and I want to giggle 🤭 some on vacation, something better then the last of the Dank Diesel I currently have.