I wish somebody would erect a sign that says, “No ICE on the Bike Path” but right now that would be a lie. The Cherry Avenue Connector is town maintained and cleared, but not the Albany County Rail Trail. I had thought the ice was pretty much gone when I went down to Hannaford yesterday then it rained, but alas it’s still around. I guess it will be Corning’s Hill tomorrow on the bike.
I was going to ride out to the Bender Mellon Farm Preserve 🍈🍉 but with the ice making for rough riding and not wanting to break a spoke I ended up getting off and heading over Surrey Mall to New Scotland Road to the Pine Hollow Arboretum 🪷 for a bit of a short walk 🚶. Truth is that I didn’t have a lot of free time as I had to shower and meet dad at 11:30. I realized I don’t think I’ve been to Pine Hollow Arboretum since the late autumn, but actually that’s not true as I took the bike path over there a few weeks ago. That had to be December though who knows, the past few weeks and months have been a blur. I feel like I was just camping on the Boreas River a few weeks back.
It was nice to see the folks 👨👨👦 and look at Big Red just sitting up on the hill. 🐕 Drives the dog nuts as he is associates the truck wit hme. They’re doing good but each time I see them it’s obvious they are aging, but then so am I. 🚘 I don’t think they are necessarily happy I don’t have a vehicle in case of emergencies as only dad still drives. 👴🏻 It’s even tougher out in country without a vehicle unlike living tin the city.
After visiting, I rode out to Five Rivers. 🌨️ It was a nice evening, a good snow squall came through while I was out there and got kind of cold and snowy but it was a good ride out there and I walked around for about an hour. Smoked some grass before heading out there, so I was pretty stoned by the time I got there, probably not great for riding on rural roads, stoned out of my brain, 🐮 but the scenery and the cows were amazing as I rode past 🚲 in which seemed almost like a dream. But then again, mild, clear winter days often have that look, I was taking in the view of the Heldebergs as Dad drove me out earlier in the day. In many ways not having a truck 🚚 is kind of tough, but I need time to think before I repair or replace Big Red. 🛻 I keep talking and researching Ford SuperDuty trucks, and I know ultimately that’s what I will likely get, but I am still unsure and undecided. It would be good though to have a good solid rig to travel a bit more before I settle into the homestead life. Kind of want to see Michigan and Northern Wisconsin not just for the farms, 🐮 burn barrels, 🛢️ or the scenery, 🏞️ but to know if that’s the right place to settle to once my job is done in Albany, be it retirement or other situation. There is no guarantees in life,
Honestly, I’m kind of enjoying not having to think about driving or cleaning my truck off in snow, 🌨️ and it’s fun to find things to do on the bike, get my groceries 🛒 on the bike. Been just dropping my trash and recycles off at random bins along the street, I could ask the neighbor, or just smash it down and save it for spring for burning or the transfer station when I get a truck. Did put my food scraps into their compost. Still I loathe any kind of plastic nowadays when I can’t just toss it in the big white bin and turn it into fire. 🔥 I just hate buying and throwing away plastic when I know it’s going to a bin and a landfill and not getting burnt. I did my wash when I was at my parents house, 👖 it came out fine, a bit wet. Going forward when they can’t come and get me, I’ll just have to do it before work, probably 6 AM on Monday morning is best with the 30 buses every thirty minutes, then I will have a week’s worth of clean clothes by the time I get home, and at that hour the laundromat is certain to be pretty quiet. 😦
I saw one of those Cellphone Boosters on a DOT truck 🚚 and reminded myself that is something I should get for my new rig. 📱 They’re not cheap but besides being a good safety measure in the wilderness, they’d make it a lot more possible to work remotely from more wilderness areas up at camp 🏕️. I could put off getting the diesel heater until next winter. I do think though a lot about the money 💰 and the cost of this all but also I’m at a point in my life where I don’t have to save every penny 🪙 but I still try to be frugal where I can be. Shit adds up though. That said, maybe a good portion of the summer into the autumn I’ll work remote Friday to Monday in Green Mountains, especially if I have more solar and stoage. Really want to spend a lot of nights in my new rig – not just Michigan but also much of the fall working remote from the Adirondacks, Green Mountains, or Rensselearville anytime I don’t have to be physically in Albany for in-person meetings.
At times I waiver about my trip out to Michigan this summer and the necessary step before then – replacing Big Red. With work, it’s not the best year to take an extended vacation, though late July and August will be slow, and I will have my laptop and can work remotely as needed.
But I also know this is the best year to travel and visit Michigan as I don’t know if it will be the last I can travel. I keep seeing my parents get more frail, I see myself getting grayer and grayer every year. People can and do travel in their later years, but I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance or get sucked into the homestead life in Westerlo and never really get a chance to get away. Indeed, many retirees travel the globe, but I want the off-grid cabin, not wasting my life visiting tourist traps.
It’s so much money and things to think about replacing Big Red and building the next rig. I make good money, that’s a given, I’ve been quite successful financially and in my career, still it seems like so much cost for a vehicle that will only last for a decade or so, but also I know this is likely my best chance to travel before it’s too late.
I was looking at Big Red today, and some ways regret not getting him welded and keeping him on the road. But he would not have been good to go to Michigan. A nice new truck will provide a reliable ride to Michigan, a truck cap that doesn’t leak, upgraded batteries and solar for camping, and quite possibly adding a cell booster for better service for remote work. I can put off the diesel heater for now, though I do want that for winter camping with the problems I have with my chilled through toes, even with wool socks, camping in an unheated truck cap in winter. Getting old kind of sucks.
Maybe I regret not having a family, or staying too long living in the city, instead focusing on a life based on escape rather reality. Too much focus on the potholers and nights in the wilderness, and not enough on buying a house, having a wife or children. But I never wanted those things, I wanted to spend more time in wilderness. And by replacing Big Red, I have a chance for at least a few more big adventures before it’s too late with hungry goats and hogs to feed.
I really like my freedom and ability to do what I want, without much attachment. Yet, I often feel like it would be nice to have somebody to fall back on, to spend time with. At times I do feel a bit lonely, especially during the winter months when I’m stuck at home.
A times I’ve thought about settling down. But girls are expensive and there is a cost to losing one’s freedom. Much like the homestead, I would miss my weekends in the wilderness and traveling. I get that you don’t have to give everything up to have a girl friend to spend all your time and homeownership doesn’t require owning goats, yet still there is reality and realizing such thing require such dependencies.
Truth is though I love my time in wilderness, riding trail, camping, smoking pot the big trucks, and as much as swear about it, my cold diapolated apartment in suburbs. The idea of having a house to maintain or a practical 20-year old Honda Civic to drive to the suburban office complex just rubs me the wrong way. Though I’m well aware these days can’t last forever, and I’m getting old.
The truth is a one legged stool is awful wobbly, as much as I like those days in wilderness, it’s hard to not have anyone really to fall back on. And my apartment is such a dump, and the city buses are dirty and slow. Most people find it hard to believe that at my point in the career I’m still living in same dumpy old apartment I rented when I first graduated college, and still biking or busing it to work every day, even though my office is far from downtown and an easy commute. But my true love still remains the wilderness.
First it was Mary Travers ... And now it's Peter Yarrow. Joan Baez has lost her voice and Tom Paxton is frail. Phil Ochs has been dead for fifty years now. Time marches on for good or bad. It won't be long before it's just the recordings are left.
Maybe it's for the best, though, as we are seeing both the best and absolute worse of that generation in their twilight years. While lessons should be learned from the yesteryear we shouldn't hold back the inevitable changes whatever they may be. But as the last of them die off there will be a lot of emptiness in our world, and so many stories untold and lessons unlearned. But it was before my time!
Mild and sunny this morning, going to head for a ride in a bit maybe out to Voorheeesville and the Bender Mellon Farm. Not a long ride, as dad is picking me up at 11:30 for a Sunday get together with the family.
Yesterday was mild and fairly gray, ☁️ finished up another book on car buying and the auto industry, gaining further insight into the process, learning more about the FX4 Off-Road Package on Ford Trucks, and reconsidering a lot of things, like whether or not to finance. More on that later. Rode my bike down to the Norman’s Kill Preserve West and it was super icy down town there, but nice down by the Norman’s Kill. 🏞️ You can see so much more this time of years when the leaves are off the trees, though no free blackberries to eat. 🍓
Then I rode over to Hannaford, got $30 in groceries, just a few things, rode home, then out to Five Rivers 🛒 for a while mostly to see Mead’s Cows 🐮 and I don’t know, listen to more of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929 which chronicles the Great Depression. Been doing a lot of reading and thinking about personal finance, running numbers and thinking about how I can move more of my IRA and 457K into Roth accounts, so I can take advantage of tax-free growth without getting pounded even harder with taxes. ⚖️ It really sucks to get hit with a big tax bill in retirement if I need to buy something like a tractor 🚜 or a manure spreader. 💩 Paying the government a shit ton of money to sling shit.
I am very happy the bike trail is free of ice and snow 🚴 for the most part so I can ride to work at least through Wednesday with no issues, avoiding Corning’s Hill and Delmar Bypass. That should be good for getting through Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929, and the ride through the gorge is always pleasant, as is avoiding the morning busing. 🚍 Still have to take the bus home in the evening, but eventually we’ll get to Valentines Day ♥️ and have enough light to ride both ways. That puts a smile on my face, 😀 as even if I do get a big-assed SuperDuty, ain’t going to drive that thing to work and visit the gas station ⛽ every day on the way home.
I didn’t realize that most standard auto loans don’t contain a prepayment clause or fee, you can finance a small amount, maybe $1,000 or whatever the sales tax is, and within 10 days pay off the balance of loan only paying a few days interest and servicing fees. 💵 You might ask why, well it turns out dealers and manufacturers often have incentives for credit buyers that exceed the value of dealer cash, and dealers get a cut for loan origination, though they do get some of that clawed back if people pay off their loan within six months, but you can pay it off before that. Fascinating stuff. And lots of info on various fees and strageties to confirm a vehicle is on the lot, get a total out the door price, and negotiate in a way that both gets you a fair deal 🤝 and makes dealer generally willing to work with you
Still I don’t know the idea of financing something makes me cringe, 💰 I’ve never actually taken out a loan or had a subscription to anything. though I pay rent. But I guess holding a $1,000 note 📜 or whatever for two weeks before paying it off to save a bunch of money might be worth it, but I need to study the specifics of the fees and loan text to make sure it makes sense. But it’s easier to be honest with the dealer, and tell him I am interested in financing when working on the total out the door price. I am also planning to make sure I get prices from a lot of small town dealerships, as you know they all have those SuperDuty trucks but a lot of people in small towns are quite poor and can’t afford them, especially this time of year. I could see farmers buying in the fall when they sell their harvests, 🌽 but in winter, nto so much. Milk prices and soybeans are way down, I sadly don’t see many teat strippers buying themselves a new SuperDuty in Schoharie or Davenport Ford anytime soon. 😔 Unlike buying a house, one SuperDuty with the same package as another one is virtually identical, you can travel to take delivery, as it’s not like a house that has to be within reasonable commuting distance. Any Ford dealer will be more then happy to preform warranty work, because they get paid by factory.
I realize I have time, still eleven weeks until that last week of March, 🗓️ which is my target date for getting a truck before the end of Quarter 1, by then hopefully the snow will be gone and the roads free of salt. ☃️ Who knows, we do sometimes get later winter snow storms but they’re rare. Dealers are more motivated to make sales quotas by the end of quarter, but also I wouldn’t have to worry about road salt eating away at my new rig right away, or getting caught in a blizzard trying to get my new rig home. Lamolin coat that bad boy, probably professionally done next fall, and then buy my own bottle and underbody sprayer for touch ups that there after. That still gives me a few months to order a camper shell or camper for the truck, get the solar and CB radio and other equipment moved over. I was actually looking at potentially using a larger residential panel for solar, but if I don’t go that way, I do stick at least a second 100 watt panel on the cap for more power, especially if I will be powering a diesel heater next winter camping.
Honestly, it’s something to keep my mind active and busy during the long winter. 💭 People find it boring and offensive, but the whole auto dealer experience intrigues me because it really reminds me of my whole career in politics. While I’m now working over in the Data Unit, 💽 for years and years I worked directly with Assemblymembers on communications, so I know a lot on how negotiations work and don’t work. 🏛️ I know how to spin and communicate, sell ideas. Selling big trucks aren’t that much different. I’m not saying I’m going to become a used car salesman, but I do find it fascinating how persuasion works on sales floor and what is legitimate and what isn’t. 🐐 As much as I might like reading books about homesteading, this is in some ways much more practical. Like learning the ins and outs of buying land and houses, like I did a deep dive into two years ago, a lot of knowledge is transferable. I do want that off-grid cabin, but it’s not practical to build what I want in New York, and to walk away from my good paying job at this point, so damn close to the 20-year pension 1.6% to 2.0% per year of service credit would be tough. 🐽 Honestly, I want to get in 30-years, and who knows then if I buy my parents homestead what I’ll do but I still want a kind of freedom I can’t find on 5 acres in New York State. 🛢️ 🔥 🔫
