The time change and having to catch the later local bus downtown with my bike back home remains fustrating how I have to wait to catch the bus, then load my bike on a slow, crowded local bus. And make the slog home. It seems like from Wednesday that if I don’t have my bike and take the shuttle downtown, with traffic there is a good chance many days I’ll be able to catch the earlier local – 30 minutes earlier – home but it doesn’t really matter at this time of year it’s cold and dark out. Just have dinner and then head to the warmth under my sheets. And they had the gall to reach out to me from parking management today about getting a discounted bus pass. It was a different world when I applied for the bus pass. I know they didn’t know and state government acts at government speed.
I decided against taking off Monday. Rain – maybe rain showers – on Sunday will give away to snow showers and maybe Lake Effect snow and a chilly breeze should I got out to Cazenovia or Brookfield for a three-night trip. Its fine, I’ll wait until hunting season is done. My next trip will be to the East Branch after Thanksgiving. That said, if Saturday morning seems nice I might do a quick overnight to Rensslearville or maybe Burnt-Rossman. I’ve thought about going out to Schoharie possibly to ride the Catskill Scenic Trail on Saturday and then maybe visit Shauls for root vegetables before that season is done. I’m getting up at 4 or 4:30 AM each morning so I have time to decide. Going to bake bread and soak pinto beans and cook them in the morning so I can bring them if I camp or otherwise enjoy them from home. I need propane to camp, but I could get that at Greenville Tractor Supply. Might head up to the Pine Bush to see the John Wolcott sign and ride trail too. Then visit the Salvation Army and Goodwill in search of more clothes to wear for work.
I mean it’s a good deal… only applied about 7 months ago…. I think its $14 a pay period for unlimited rides but without the express bus and biking to work most days at my suburban office with acres of free parking, not such a good a deal. Worth a try, and I would certainly do it if there was value in the proposition but between biking and driving, hardly a great deal!
The whole bus situation is endlessly frustrating though, since the express bus disappeared. The local bus just doesn’t correspond well with my schedule after you figure in the transfer. And it’s so slow and crowded. I get that there is free parking where I work, but I don’t love driving with traffic – it’s not just the cost of the fuel but also the pain of fighting traffic and cops. Honestly, I can’t wait until mid-February when there is enough daylight to ride my bike both ways to work again.
So I got this flyer from some kind of mortgage company in the mail, didn’t even look at much before tossing it in the basket with the rest of the paper trash. For some reason, I pulled it out of the trash before tossing it in the fire, I don’t actually know why. Actually I do, there was a picture on the cover of a post-and-beam structure on the cover and inside very typical suburbanite houses. It was advertising the low amount of money down – not just because you don’t have money for a large down payment but as a way to avoid capital gains taxes and keep your money in the market. I had to think, catchy advertising.
Soon enough though that ad will just be another blackened sheet of paper, some smoke and ash. Truth is I do need to find a home but I still can’t bring myself to buy something in New York with the burn ban and the gun laws. Having enough land and buffer from the neighbors helps, but it’s so risky. And the high utility costs, the lock-in of having to pay for fossil fuel electricity and heat each month for enormous non-shared structure seems like a waste. Likewise, it seems like a waste to burn a shit ton of gasoline and be forced to drive back and forth to work every day. The question in my mind – what for? Building equity the advertisement proudly acclaims!
It’s trash I tell myself. I don’t want a home, a place I’m tied to that I spend all my time driving back and forth to, fixing broken shit. I mean I do want to some day have land and livestock, a place where I can burn shit and shoot guns, but I also am not ready to give up my life at this point – traveling and exploring – just so I can shovel feed and manure and weed a garden. And to buy a house in New York is to make a commitment to the state beyond what I have at my work. It means giving up on the goal of having that off-grid homestead in a place where I can left alone from government harassment and stupid laws written for the urbanite. I honestly don’t want something that can bought with a mortgage or insured by an insurer. I’d much rather have something if it burns, I can push the debris into a hollow, throw some dirt over it, and start over again without much significant loss. Something not made entirely of plastic and particle board, asphalt and pine lumber.
