John Boyd Thacher State Park, is situated along the Helderberg Escarpment, one of the richest fossil-bearing formations in the world. Even as it safeguards six miles of limestone cliff-face, rock-strewn slopes, woodland and open fields, the park provides a marvelous panorama of the Hudson-Mohawk Valleys and the Adirondack and Green Mountains. The park has volleyball courts, playgrounds, ball fields and numerous picnic areas with nine reservable shelters. Interpretive programs are offered year-round, including guided tours of the famous Indian Ladder Trail. There are over 25 additional miles of trails for summer hiking and mountain biking, and winter cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and snowmobiling.
I call bullshit when people call their home their biggest investment, or say that home ownership is an investment at all.
Houses fundamentally are a consumable, they provide for a human need but are intended to be used up and discarded. While with enough money and effort they can be maintained to a high level of habitability and ultimately resold, there is no guarantee of profit even if the sale price is often higher than the initial purchase price.
When I buy my land and build my cabin, I am not seriously considering what will make me the most profit when I go to dispose of it in later years. Maybe the value of my house won’t ever even be a relevant question — if I build what I like and live there the rest of my life — then it really doesn’t matter if the property goes to a negative million dollars in value. Once I’m dead, it’s somebody else’s problem. Instead, I plan to build what I what, regardless of what it does to the sale value of the property in out years.
It’s not say I plan to build cheap, ugly trash that has no value at all — or that I plan to degradate the land and the property. My goal is build sustainability, on a scale that fits me. Not the next person to own my land. To use materials in a right fashion, not because they’re popular or will make appreciate in value in the future.
On my blog, I am often known for my wild and free nature, the cowboy hat, saying my thoughts on how I think the world should work. My ideas are some liberal, some conservative, there’s a mix. I am pretty much know for my maps, camping in the wilderness with Big Red, and open, rural country I love to explore.
At the same time, I have to contrast that to my much more mundane life on the weekdays as a communications professional and political coordinator. The cowboy hat and big jacked up truck is put on the rack for the suit and tie, and a ride on public transit to the big office building downtown from the suburb to the city.
As my bottom of my goatee turns increasingly gray, as do splotches of my hair, I become more and more concerned about my professional development, my retirement, my savings and my tomorrow. Not because I expect to ever become a suit and tie guy at heart, but I do like the money, especially what is saved and invested for tomorrow. I dress up and play the role, not because I love the suburban life, but because I know what it’s paying for tomorrow.
That’s the question of the day over at WordPress.com. I figured I would briefly discuss why I enjoy my job.
First and foremost, work has to be about money. It’s not work if your not getting paid for what you. While pay isn’t the only consideration in life, a good paycheck and benefits can go a long ways to make even the most awful job not so awful, especially when you clock out for the day.
Second, work should be meaningful. I enjoy delivering results for my clients, the look on both their face and my face when I deliver a quality product.
Third, I’ve gotten to like not working downtown. It’s so much quieter working up in Menands, without the craziness of downtown and politics. The dress code is casual, the hours regular and predictable. Parking is easy should I choose to drive in, or it’s not bad biking in either.
Fourth, I like working with others to solve problems. Some of the best times at work are reaching out to others, discussing the issues in front of you, finding solutions by working with others who have expertise in their part of the business.
Fifth, I enjoy coming up with solutions to problems using automation and technical skills, often with real creative thought and effort. It’s fun to come up with time saving solutions and play with code and commands to fix real world problems in the business.
Meteorological winter comes to an end today. This has been a colder winter then recent ones — we only had one 60 degree day, hitting 62 degrees on December 21st. Previous winters in recent memory had some 70 degrees days.
