Do you still like the SuperDuty? 🛻
People ask me that question and it kind of gets under my skin.
![Untitled [Expires April 18 2026]](https://andyarthur.org//data/photo_019920_large.jpg)
Maybe because honestly I don’t know, I am a bit uncomfortable with the big number it cost, the cost of cap and outfitting it with camping gear, much like my old rig had. Time marches on, and while I could have kept Big Red on the road, the lift kit gave me nothing but worry especially in the later years as it creaked and groaned over every bump, and the engine’s lifters complained a bit more idling at camp.
Truth is it’s an appliance in my life. Maybe not a 25-year old Honda Civic, but once I get the cap and start traveling, it will serve it’s purpose. Maybe I could have gotten a used or an old truck, but I wanted something reliable and dependable for heading out to the back country. A vehicle that could serve me into retirement, something basic but reliable. Old cars and trucks are fine if you mostly drive in the city and there is always a tow truck to call and buddy to take you home, but it’s different in wilderness.
With such economic growth in the past few months, the cost of SuperDuty was hardly more then a blip in my financial future. But now I have a reliable ride, a simple basic 6.8L engine, and no-frills HD truck. It will bring me to many wilderness areas, hopefully to Michigan and West Virigina this year, and maybe Missouri and Arkansas next year. Not only will be good for camping, but also if I end up getting that homestead and need to tow heavy.
Still everything makes me question my decisions. Like choosing the exact same cap set up I had on my old rig. I could have gotten something cheaper, but I wanted a cap that didn’t leak, and I like the windows that open on the sides for easy access to gear but also have window screens to keep out the bugs. And I didn’t want a big top heavy camper on my rig. I am quite fine shitting in a bucket outside, cooking under a tarp. I liked the set up I had with Big Red, but he was getting old. But with the HD truck, I get a rig roughly the size of my old lifted truck, with 33 inch tires and nearly the same amount of ground clearance.
Maybe I’m just trying to appease the world, when what matters is my own happiness. And things are just so damn expensive these days, but I make good money and my investments have grown a lot.
Starlink
Lately Starlink, Elon Musk’s low-orbit satellite internet service has been advertising on my blog. Thank you, I like the revenue. The service has a lot to offer people who live in remote areas and need high-speed internet access for work and other communication purposes, though I wonder if I would want such a thing when I build or buy my off-grid cabin in retirement. At one level it would be nice to have a job and do business over the internet, on the other hand I just want to be away from all this technological and media crap.
It just seems like a of stinky toxic plastic to toss in the burn barrel every few years.
That’s really how I feel about so much of this technology. I am not a complete luddite, but I don’t buy into this whole connected home thing with all it’s mix of disposable electronic crap that quickly wears out. The thing is these days you can do so much with a smartphone, the need for a computer is less and less, as is the need for high-speed internet. There was a time I brought my laptop home all of the time and went down to the library for Wi-Fi but basically I do all that from my phone now. I don’t know if I even will need a computer when I retire, though I guess I still like making maps and will want to blog or write some code from time to time. But I doubt I’ll ever have anything but a simple Linux laptop, never a television or streaming device. And the laptop will be for those occasional rare times I can’t do something with my phone.
AI Search Cost
I was curious how expensive AI searches were compared to ordinary internet searches both today and yesterday. So I did some sluthing with Google Gemini and found out the following…
The average cost of an AI query to compute and run ranges between $0.01 and $0.10. However, the price fluctuates heavily based on the model and how it is measured. [1]
- Small/Lightweight Models: Ranging from $0.0001 to $0.001 per query. (Examples: Llama 3 8B, GPT-4o-mini).
- Advanced & Reasoning Models: Ranging from $0.05 to $0.30+ per query. (Examples: GPT-4o, OpenAI o-series).
- Heavy Multi-Step Tasks: Advanced coding or reasoning agents can occasionally cost anywhere from $1.00 to $20.00+ per complex task. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
AI queries are far more computationally expensive than traditional web indexing.
- AI Chatbot Query: Costs roughly $0.01 to $0.10 and requires 10 to 20 watt-hours of electricity to process.
- Standard Google Search: Costs an estimated $0.0002 to $0.0005. [1, 2, 3, 4]
- Pricing reflects current cloud processing costs and does not include auxiliary enterprise infrastructure, server maintenance, or software subscription costs (like the $20/month consumer upgrades).
- In 2000, a single web search cost search engine companies roughly $0.005 to $0.010 (half a cent to a full cent) to process. While that number sounds incredibly small, it was 25 to 50 times more expensive than running a traditional keyword search today, adjusting for the era’s technology limitations.
Why I decided to pay more taxes now 💰
I decided I think I want to pay $500 more in taxes this year.
In recent years I’ve been doing deferred compensation, which is the equivalent to a 401k type plan in the private sector. I’ve long done a Roth IRA but always did most of deferred comp pre-tax rather then with a Roth deferred comp post-tax. But I have started to worry more and more about taxes in retirement when I have that off-grid homestead.
Clearly buying land, cabin, infrastructure for livestock and living is going to be the big expense. But also I’ve watched alarmingly how quickly my taxable investment and retirement accounts have grown, even though I have been maxing out my Roth IRA for a decade and half now. I also have a lot of concern that the tax brackets will be pushed upwards, and being in Tier 4 Pension system, I will easily be pushed into the 24% bracket in retirement, especially if I have expenses and need to cash out money related to livestock and equipment. On the other hand, I do like the savings that contributing to regular deferred comp has by going in pre-tax.
As you get older, you think more and more about taxes. And it seems like only taxes will go up – not just on the rich – but ordinary people who work hard and invest. The government, ever growing, needs it’s money. Still it doesn’t seem fair how much it truly takes.