People act like it’s the greatest disability not to own a car in city. Don’t you know, the only people who don’t have own cars and drive everywhere are those who are on THE POGEY or live in a high-rise in Manhattan?
I often make fun of myself not owning a vehicle right now, but it’s worked out fine lest the flat tire I got last night, but whatever I got it fixed, rode to Walmart and now carry only a new tube on the bike. I ended up with $85 in groceries and supplies, my bike seriously overloaded on trip home. Damaged some of bananas, I guess going to have to have lot of banana pancakes and maybe banana bread in the few days. Noticing on the well loaded down bike on way from Walmart that my wheel is further out of true, but I have a spoke key and can adjust. Maybe there is a broken spoke I didn’t see in earlier inspection. I can fix that too. Rode out to Five Rivers this evening, enjoying the rural landscape and watching the sun set as I passed by Meads cows. There fun, some day when I move back out to country, I should get myself some cows.
Even if I do get that SuperDuty in the coming month, I am probably still going to rely on my bike to get around town primarily, as such a big truck is going to be expensive to drive around town and difficult to park and get in and out of traffic. But I like riding the bike, it gives me far more freedom then a car would, as I can pull over, sneak through back ways and over sidewalks, and developed recreational trails. One of the great things about living in the city is you don’t have to drive everywhere. It just seems like you would be very trapped if you had to rely on your vehicle to get everywhere. For so many people, they use their car to get everywhere, it’s one big search for parking spots in between the endless traffic lights and cops taking pictures of you, looking to hand you tickets. I am not opposed to moving back out to country, but not until I retire. I want to retire young, even if I do spend a lot of time working on the homestead and doing smaller, remote work type projects from home…
I do miss getting out of the city, and who knows if I’ll get out to visit my parents tomorrow with more snow coming. It might have been a decent weekend for a trip out to Rensselearville State Forest if I still had Big Red on the road, but next winter with the new truck, I’ll not just have the cab but also a diesel heater which will make winter camping even more pleasurable. And maybe finally break down and get skis, though after this cold and snowy winter, probably next year winter will be snow free. Not only winter camping, but also I am looking forward to many adventures this summer, hopefully gas won’t be too expensive, but whatever, I make good money these days, and if gas is really pricey, I just need to plan longer trips in wilderness where said ginormous truck stays parked. I doubt Trump will tolerate high gas prices for long, it will be very bad politically for him. And once I have the solar and batteries all wired up, assuming the campsite has reasonable sunshine, I won’t burn any fuel for days, just parked and riding my mountain bike everywhere from camp.
I’m going to shower and put the heat back on. It was nice how mild it was and I could keep the heat off the past two days. And an almost full moon to boot!
It’s bad enough already with the traffic trying to get through Manlius on NY 92 at rush hour. Plus it’s such a charming little hamlet with many of the buildings over 200 years old and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Don’t worry if the traffic engineers had their way, they would have extended I-681 around Fayetteville and Manlius via the old rail grade, and bypassed Oran completely. Good ol’ NY Route 20SY, which became NY Route 92 back in 1961.
Yeah, so I got this brilliant idea that I would ride the bike path home in the snow, as riding Second Avenue with all the traffic sucks dog balls. I knew I would be pushing my bike, partially in darkness, you unlawful dweller on the bike trail after dark, but I didn’t expect to get a flat tire on South Pearl Street, and unsuccessfully inflate the spare I had on me, and having to push my bike all the way up to Delaware and Elsmere where I was able to the load the bike on the bus for the rest of way home. It rode on the bike with a bad rear tire fine, got home, had dinner and went to bed.
I really should only carry a new spare tube on my bike, 🚲 and indeed I put both a new tube on the bike and a brand new spare on the bike, and will pick up another tube today at Wally World. I will patch the other tube, so I can hopefully get more use out of it, but it’s silly that I couldn’t swap out the tube due to my stupidity when I had one at home, and spare I had on the bike was crap. It wasn’t bad pushing the bike through the snow, it was a mild moonlit night, maybe a lit stiff but I did not break any spokes or knock the wheel any more out of true, and had the replacement tube mounted and ready to go by 7:30 AM this morning.
I wasn’t going to leave my bike in the South End over night, 🚨 lest it get stolen, so I my options were to put it on a bus, but I wasn’t sure how it would ride with the flat tire, so I logged it through the snow. Without the flat, I could have ridden it most of the way. Monday I very much may ride the bike trail, and I’m hopeful with rain and milder temperatures coming the second half of the week the trail should be mostly free of snow and ice for the second half of the week. If I had a vehicle, I might have chained it up, taken the Blue Bus to the 18 and then gotten my truck, but honestly, pushing it through the snow worked out fine and was home by 7:20 PM last night. Later then I was planning, but shit happens. 💩 It ultatmely worked out fine.
I had a feeling it was a bad idea to take the rail trail home with the snow still on it, ❄️ but I was like whatever, worse comes to worse I’ll slog the bike through the snow. I figured at this point the snow would be well packed, and with the warm weather, the trail wouldn’t be so rough to ride with the ice. It was fine, but I certainly was hoping it would have not been so dark when I was pushing the bike through the snow. The trail was packed and not rough, but I wasn’t going to ride the bike with a flat tire. It’s fixed, and in a bit I’ll head down to Wally World for supplies on the bike, 🛒 and maybe later on out to Five Rivers 🐸 to look for signs of spring. Still too much ICE and snow ☃️ for spring peepers.
Tomorrow is March, 🌬️ and it looks like this year it will be coming in like a lion. 🦁 I want to tomorrow look at the Ford March incentives, and on Monday I’ll call up DePaula to see if the they still have the trucks I’m interested in, 🚴 ride my bike and/or take the bus over on Tuesday morning to take a look or a test drive, though I don’t plan to purchase that day, and I won’t unlock my credit or share personal information beyond my phone and email 📧, although I guess they can take a picture of my driver’s license if required to test drive. I’ll ask for a follow up quote for the out-the-door price after my visit, and ask a bit about proposed fees and taxes, to see where things stand and what finance programs are avaliable though ultimately I don’t anticipate holding a note for long. After the test drive, I’ll decide if I really want a SuperDuty, and if I do, start reaching out dealers in around 150 miles to see what they want for an out-the-door price. ⛽ Maybe the Iran war will drive up gas prices, to help my case. I’d like to close the deal in March, 🤝 but it’s not the end of world one way or another.
I asked Google AI for some help about my situation…
Being in a state of sadness or depression without a support system (the “super duty” of emotional, social, or professional help) is a deeply challenging, isolating experience. It often feels like “screaming into the void” where one may feel unloved, ignored, or incapable of sustaining daily life.
