I can be sad about what was, but there is only 13 days left in the year, so I might as well maximize them before it’s done forever. Put on as many miles, see as much as possible before the year is forever done.
Truth is that I am quite excited about going to Michigan and Upper Peninsula next summer, and this does remove a major mental impediment to the trip. And it will give me a chance to build a better rig, with fewer worries in first few years. Seeing the Midwest with the forests, farms, dirty hick towns that smell like burn barrel, manure and paper plants, all while singing along with Ian Tyson and Dick Curless. Seeing places that might be on a map, but aren’t on many people’s mental maps except but the locals, and certainly can’t be found in any tourist brochure.
But the internet is like, don’t you want a plastic house in suburbs, heated and cooled to 72 year round, with a 100 foot square television in XXX High-tech 200000 Resolution and high 62G speed internet and a 30 yard plastic “recycling” dumpster in front yard? That you can drive your frugal 20-year old Honda Civic to and from, because that’s the financially responsible thing to do. Please put a bullet through my brain if it ever comes to that. Thanks.
This weekend I want to get to the thrift store and look at getting more shirts so I have enough for the winter. Maybe go for a hike in the Pine Bush or for a drive to just enjoy the countryside while I still can. It’s fine, winter won’t be that long and I’m getting a new or maybe used truck come spring. I also want to get to Walmart and stock up on rice, beans, lentils in the bulk size packages, along with toilet paper. I also want to get a few spare tubes for my bike. Most other things I can get at Hannaford or Price Chopper using the bus or my bike. I can still ride to Walmart on my bike but bulky packages are not easy to transport on the bike. Truth is if I have $35 in things I need that aren’t food, Walmart will deliver them for free with their free shipping program. So if I need jeans and some other supplies, that’s always an option. And EBay for other things or I can ask Mom to order for me on Amazon.
This is a good excuse to call up Mr. Van Wie at Meadowbrook Farms and sign up for milk delivery, to eliminate that source of plastic trash. Then I should talk to my neighbor about letting me use his trash bins – I can give him some money but in the past he’s said that’s okay. Going to be gentle on the bike now and not ride the ice covered bike trail, as while I’ve gotten better at wrenching, the bike is quite essential for everything the bus won’t get me to.
I still plan to take a trip on Christmas Day, probably to Madison County but depending on snow, how I’m feeling and how Big Red is running, it could just be Schoharie or Rensselearville. I want to get as much use out of Big Red now before he’s done on December 31st, but I also don’t want to break the rotted out frame and get stranded somewhere. Honestly I don’t think on the Chevy’s frames crack as commonly as they do on old Dodges. I will leave my camping gear in my truck for the winter, and will not disconnect the solar so that the starting and accessory batteries remain charged over the winter so I can move the truck as necessary.I will move that gear over to the new truck in the spring.
Then I just need to enjoy the solitude and peace of not having a vehicle this winter. No gas or insurance to pay, no worries about breakdowns. Inconveniences like hauling wash to the laundromat on the city bus, but I can manage for a few months. Likewise, the basket on my bike is somewhat limited on what I can get for groceries, but there is always Stewart’s for milk and eggs, but I really should get fresh milk delivered in glass for less trash. More time to read, more time to visit local parks on my bike. I think it would be fun to bike to auto dealerships when looking at cars, especially if I am at least half seriously considering another big truck. And then I got to figure out my Michigan trip. I need to study maps, books and try to learn as much as possible before setting out on that trip in early July.
So many things to do and so little time with Red coming to an end in the final days of the year!
The story of how the Endangered Species Act went from unanimous passage under a Republican president to becoming a deeply partisan wedge. The act was passed to protect big, beloved animals like bald eagles and blue whales; no one thought it would apply to a motley, reclusive owl. In this episode from Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Timber Wars, a story about saving the last of America’s old growth forests and the push to roll back environmental protections.
It is an amazing day for riding to work for winter, though I think I’ll skip the bike trail as I don’t love the pounding that the rail trail riding involves. Corning’s Hill is fine.
I know I should be driving in with for so few days left in Big Red’s life 🛻 but I’ll wait until tomorrow for the rain and use that an excuse to buy groceries for the coming week. Got to use that brand new windshield wiper I installed yesterday. And then I got to think about what I can get to stock up my pantry before the year comes to a conclusion over the weekend, and run any necessary chores that require the truck this weekend.
The plan is after winter to get a new or used truck, get a cap and move all my equipment over the new truck. And then UP Michigan in early summer. There is a lot to look forward to even if I am so heartbroken about the situation with Red even though I knew this day would come. I’ve been giving it a lot of though. I mean I’ve known this day would come but I was hoping to have a bit more freedom to decide on my own schedule. It will be good to give up driving for a while, spend more time in city and riding my mountain bike in countryside. Don’t get me wrong, I like being in the woods, smoking pot and burning shit, but I can do the plastics recycling thing for a while this winter. It’s kind of fucking cold at the Horse Camp in the middle of winter.,
Didn’t do much reading yesterday, 📖 truth is I spent much of the afternoon on a memory trip of all the travels with Red, riding my mountain bike 🚲 and singing along with Ian and Sylvia. Years are gambled, and gone like summer wages. And you keep rolling along, until you get to Vancouver. It was fun riding out along Creble Road yesterday, with it’s tangy smell of manure and plastics plant, seeing Meads cows, 🐮 and spending a few hours just wandering mostly aloene at Five Rivers.
But alas it’s back to work today, time to shower and head to Assembly’s World Data Headquarters, where the IOI Codes are generated and the addresses are corrected an label jobs are exported next to old city garbage dump, past the sewage treatment plants, freeway interchange and oil trains. That cold will feel good on the face as I ride in. Time to shower and move forward, as few days remain in the year. Probably be cold with the wind riding back downtown, but whatever. I like the exercise. And it beats walking laps in the Plaza.
It happens every time I park Big Red. To think those days will be over before I know it. I told Mom I didn’t want a State Parks Pass this year as I’m planning to go to Northern Michigan / Wisconsin next summer once I get a new truck – but I don’t know. I loathe to leave Big Red behind. Especially, a small little Toyota Tacoma seems like such a step down from Big Red. Like a step backward. Maybe that’s why I’m still half seriously thinking about getting a 3/4 ton long bed work-truck type F-250 or Silverado, probably red in color, though I know that’s not the right option for me as soon enough I’ll have a house and have to commute and gas ‘er up for reasons beyond fun. But every time I see that developer at Colonie Town Hall with his big regular cab F-250 4×4, I have to think I so want his truck.
I tell you Big Red is no fun to drive in traffic, especially on narrow streets, and in tight parking spots behind businesses. Normally I don’t drive Big Red in the city but when I do it’s not a lot of fun for sure. Backing up slowly, watching your angles, peaking around the mirrors, knowing you have enormous blind spots, especially around back – as my truck is much too old to have a backup camera. Really was in a tight parking spot the other day, and I was reminded how much I dislike having to drive Red in such places. And to get another big truck like that, at least while I still have to drive from time to time in the city and in tighter lots and spots, makes me really not want another big truck. But a Toyota Tacoma just seems so tiny, especially when I park my big jacked up truck near my neighbors little truck. But just think how much easier such a truck would be to drive, and how much better it would be on gas. I know. But I’ll miss Big Red.
I keep telling myself I plan to retire Big Red at the end of the winter. It is time, the heater core leaks coolant, the suspension creaks and grones and offers little comfort riding the rough roads. There are no guarantees in life, and certainly not of a breakdown at this point. But it will hopefully get through the new few months and adventures as it fades off into the sunlight, to the dealer trade in, maybe some kid wanting a cheap ride and ultimately t hejunk yard, the auto shredder, the dump and scrap metal forge.
It’s been a good 14 years. Actually at this point, more then 14 years, which seems to have to gone by so quickly. It’s been a good ride, mostly trouble free except in my own troubled and torchured mind. And time marches on, maybe much too quickly. But there will never be another Big red, regardless of what my next rig is.
From a practical perspective, I highly doubt my next rig with be a full-sized truck. True, I did look carefully at that big red F250 4×4 regular cab truck I saw at the Colonie Planning Board the other week, but I really don’t need a truck that large and part of the reason I want to get a compact truck is it will be much easier to take down small mountain trails, easier to park, get into campsites. I care more about fuel economy both as I want to drive out west – Northern Michigan and maybe Wisconsin next year – and because at some point I know I’m going to have to buy a house or atl east start commuting to work, which has gotten dramatically more difficult with the express bus being eliminated, working in that suburban location, and noting it won;’t be long before the bike trail is covered with snow and ice. I don’ t want to trash my bike wheel again this year riding so hard on the frozen snow and ice.
So yeah, a little Toyota Tacoma most likely. Seems like such a step down there. Those trucks are so tiny, but good on gas, easy to drive, and enough room to camp on the back if I get another cap – which I will do. So much better on the trail. A big lifted truck might make it over big rocks but only if the trail is wide enough, which usually is the bigger issue of the two. Most likely I’ll get a trailer hitch – in case I ever decide to get a trailer when some day I own land and need to haul shit but for now to get a mountain bike rack and haul Blackie like I should and not just heaped over my cloak of camping crap. Still, those little compact trucks are so dang tired.
I’ve loved red, it’s been many nights together in the wilderness. But all things must end, it’s a fact I can see on so many levels as yet another piece of sheet metal crinkles off as a pile of rust. Detroit’s dreams are so temporary, like any piece of machinery, so quickly it goes from being shiny and new to landfill garbage. Just a heap of brokenness, smashed up and buried with a million other pieces of junk.
And then UP Michigan in early summer. There is a lot to look forward to even if I am so heartbroken 
about the situation with Red even though I knew this day would come. I’ve been giving it a lot of though. I mean I’ve known this day would come but I was hoping to have a bit more freedom to decide on my own schedule. It will be good to give up driving for a while, spend more time in city and riding my mountain bike in countryside. 
Don’t get me wrong, I like being in the woods, smoking pot and burning shit, but I can do the plastics recycling thing for a while this winter. It’s kind of fucking cold at the Horse Camp 
in the middle of winter., 
time to shower and head to Assembly’s World Data Headquarters, where the IOI Codes are generated and the addresses are corrected an label 
jobs are exported next to old city garbage dump, past the sewage treatment plants, freeway interchange and oil trains. That cold will feel good on the face as I ride in. Time to shower and move forward, as few days remain in the year. Probably be cold with the wind 
riding back downtown, but whatever. I like the exercise. 
And it beats walking laps in the Plaza.
