I am hoping we get enough rain that it melts the snow and ice from the bike path so I can ride it in on Thursday, though I concede that’s not likely so I’ll probably be taking Corning Hill in if I ride in on Thursday. Today and tomorrow will be be busing it days.
Got more Save the Pine Bush Meetings to go to tonight, 🌲 I didn’t go to the organizational meeting last night as it was cold and dark and honestly I didn’t want to spend half the night in a overly swanky bar somewhere off New Scotland arguing about bullshit politics and stragety. I am the map and GIS guy, and they wanted me there, 🗺️ but I’d rather go real public meetings where I can bitch out Town Leaders for demolishing more of the Pine Bush while I dream of the log cabin with grunting hogs and a burn barrel out back. 🐽
I get so defensive about retiring Big Red, 🛻 because he was more then just a truck to me, though I knew his time has come. When a vehicle is perceived as being unsafe and unreliable, maybe it’s time for retirement. Let him become somebody’s else’s problem, preferably somebody who has a welding experience and a knock for fixing little things roadside, and isn’t primarily taking him out to the wilderness or driving 5 states away to see the Great North Woods of Michigan and Wisconsin. 🐺 🌲 🦌 And I can’t keep stop thinking about how fucking much money those SuperDuty trucks are but I so want one. But my knowledge and study of finance says it’s a bad idea, but it could give me a lot of joy over the next 10-15 years. I keep studying car buying stragety and pros-and-cons of various vehicles, though I know I have time. The earliest I would buy a truck is the last week of March. Even if it means passing up the deal of the lifetime. 🤝 They’re not that rare, and there is a shit ton of Ford dealers Upstate.
It’s not like I am going to find land in Upstate New York close enough to work where I can have a burning barrel, not have to recycle stupid plastics, an an AR-15 and handguns to ventalate such a trash burner. 🛢️ 🔫 So I might as well get the big-ass truck I want. Capital gains will make the money spent on the truck disappear in the next year, assuming the market continues to grow like the past few years. Sucks to have to spend the money, but New York is where I make my money, and I make good money but I work hard and good deliver results for clients. I heard the head programmer was saying good things about the work I do in the department I oversee. 🖥️ It just tickles my ego, every time I hear people talk up my work. But maybe because I have a small dick and drive a big truck.
I keep reading books about buying cars 🚘 and everything I can learn about the industry, both from the Internet on YouTube and the library. If I am very stragetic, cast a wide net of dealership, have some flexibility in model and trim (like an 3/4 ton F-250 vs 1 ton F-350), there are definately options out there. I need to understand the off-road package too, what does it buy besides AT tires? Most of the SuperDuty trucks come with the lockers. Maybe a skid plate under the tranny, I do worry about the tranny lines getting caught in brush, though I’m not going to take a $50k or $60k HD pickup down some rough narrow trail. 🤡 I don’t want to get scammed, get a fair price from dealerships, but maybe I’m more afraid dealerships won’t sell me a SuperDuty even though I have the cash to do it. Oh, you what you really want is a blown-engine (aka supercharged) F-150 or Ranger. No shit sparky, I know those trucks exist. We won’t show you the SuperDuties, you’re not SuperDuty material, sorry bro! But I’m a unit director who makes six figures, even if I do take the city bus and ride my mountain bike to your dealership because my big jacked up truck is off the road.
Truth is it gives me something to think about and dream about this winter, 💭 as the day goes by and is much easier to price and develop compared to the off-grid homestead, which involves so many systems to develop and study. 🐐 There is something nice about buying something already built, and not fragmenting the forest further, but so many of the existing houses are plastic houses tied to grid with the assumption of maximum wastage of resources. And while I guess I could I make it work in New York, lest some smoke drift off the property though at least in ag community, people aren’t to likely to care about the smell of some wood smoke or manure. 💩 Still it ain’t no Missouri or even Wisconsin, and I think just makes sense to build some place where I can do it right, with minimal interference by the urban state government. A truck I can at least drive up to wilderness 🐺 aways from all this urban shit, and you’re not going to have neighbors around, though one time I saw people were bitching me out on internet forums for doing so much shooting in woods, and disturbing their peace. 🔫 Fuck ’em. I want to shovel out the bus stop, shower, 🚿 then it’ s the bus to work! Read on way in, catch the shuttle over the office, work, work, work.
Finally surrendering the plates for destruction at the DMV and canceling my auto insurance made it hit home to me. This really is the end. Those were my plates for 22 years, now just a memory. I am so defensive about my decision to retire Big Red, as from an economic standpoint it’s completely irrational – it’s a nice truck and everybody is asking about it – but I felt this was the time to retire it.
Maybe because I’m unsure of what is next.
I mean at one level it’s obvious, take the bus and bike to work. Test drive a truck or two in February, start scouring the listings and websites come March. I should replace it but like any lost love one that’s easier said than done. Maybe I’ll be happier to a new Ford SuperDuty but I don’t know it won’t be lifted. And I don’t know if I even want a lifted truck at this point. But it’s so much money even if I do pay cash though all new trucks are expensive. It’s not like I haven’t made good money in the markets and my career is progressing well I can retire in probably quite young compared to most.
I keep reminding myself that time is on my side. But I have a lot of angst about the cost of a Ford SuperDuty truck, probably because I spend so much time studying finance and investing – and the frugal lifestyle – which everybody says by the 20-year old Honda Civic and the Plastic (coated) House. I do despise vinyl siding and asphalt roofs. And color television, and weekly garbage service. But despite all the fascinating shapes plastic makes when you toss it in the fire stoned out of your brain, it really stinks when some of it burns. And I don’t want to undermine my future homestead by buying a big truck now, though honestly I make good money, and my investments have grown significantly over the past decade and half and in comparison, a SuperDuty truck which will last most likely 10-15 years before needing to be discarded really is a pissy amount on a yearly basis. But I still have a lot of angst about it.
I keep repeating this phrase, "this really is the end." It's over, though I still need to call the insurance company and let them know and I didn't cancel the registration though I probably should have but it's like $40 left on it and it makes it easier if I decide to put the truck back on the road or transfer it to the new truck. But I see no reason to rush, time on my side if I wait.
On the backside of Mount Grant and Bread Loaf Mountain is the headwaters of the White River in Granville, Vermont. Forest Route 55 provides access to the back country, and there is a deep hollow with informal campsites along it to explore.
I peacefully surrender! Now don’t take my guns. Bringing my license plates in to work today to surrender to the DMV at lunch time today, either for them to hold or destroy depending on what they want to do. Honestly, I don’t care because it’s the dealers problem when I get a new truck to figure out how to get me plates. Then to ask for my insurance money back. I’ll search for new insurance policies in March or so when I get a bigger idea if I’m really going to buy a Ford SuperDuty or that 20-year old Honda Civic everybody praises as a rational choice for delivering pizzas out the back.
While I continue my research and continue to learn, I am really not in a rush to get a new truck at this point, 🚚 as summer is still a ways off and we are in depth of winter but I want to be as informed as possible so I get the best possible platform to build my next rig which hopefully will last me through state retirement circa 2040 when I may very well want a different rig when I get my off-grid cabin. Or maybe an F-350 would be a pretty damn good snowplow truck and even hauling bags of feed and towing a trailer full of hogs 🐽 when I retire. I can’t believe today marks 19 years since I started the Assembly Internship, but granted I have a few more then just 11 years until 30 years of state service, because I worked a year over at Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee and several months in years past during election season. 🗳️ I tell you, the crazy-assed stories I could tell. I just finished rolling over my retirement from that organization into my main IRA account. Going to slowly convert it over an Roth so I don’t have to deal with taxes or RMD when I buy a manure spreader or bailer or whatever you are supposed spend your money on in retirement. 💩
Today I am going to try to be less vulgur on my blog 🤬 less I upset the advertisers. Believe it or not six weeks later my Facebook account is still restricted for promotion of shooting cops with heroin and therefore apparently promoting “dangerous” illegal substances. 💉 From what I’ve read, the actual danger of narcotics is less then what a lot of people think – a majority of first-time users of narcotics don’t become addicted unless their is a regular supply and the social and psychological conditions that promote addiction. People don’t become down and out because their addicts, it’s also that people become addicted because they are down and out. 👹 But don’t tell the drug warriors that. Granted, two summers vacation ago when I smoked a lot of weed, it was kind of a downer when I got home and had to quit. That was fun though, lots of giggles studying the melting plastic and laughing with the cows in the National Forest. 🤭 Honestly, I am not that freaked out about pornography but I read a lot of books about animal raising and husbrandy, and if you have cows and goats, you have to have at least one bull or smelly ol’ buck to mount them. 🐐
Kind of feel that way with motoring, with people pushing you left and right to get another car and saying it’s so sad to not be a motorist, but honestly I don’t care though I do at times still feel the sting of Big Red and realize the inconvience of not owning an a car. I get it, figuring out the trash and wash is kind of a pain, but most people figure out alternatives. I think the going early to the laundromat makes sense when necessary, as I’m an earlier riser. Recycling and landfilling is for the city dogs, I’d rather have a fire. I don’t mind getting home late, as it’s warm walking those laps in the Plaza. Don’t get me wrong, a truck is a great way to get away from the cities, hauling garbage to transfer station, and when I have livestock, feed home. But I hate the idea of daily motoring, and using a car to get around the city. When I retire, and have my off-grid homestead I’ll certainly have a truck but I doubt I’ll go into town more then once a week or less to buy food and feed I can produce, wrapped in plastic for the burn barrel to eat. I look forward to someday looking at the wooden tongue and groove, only having a trash and compost bucket, and producing as much of my food as possible without all the wrappers and plastic. Each day, and year is one step closer.
I am still excited to be back to work today. It seems like I’ve been home a lot with the holidays and the cold weather and no longer having Big Red. I am sure I would ride even more and spent more time outdoors if it had been so darn cold, but it is still January out there. Not that I would have necessarily gone out to Madison County over the New Years holiday, because I think there is too much snow up there. Maybe I would have gone out to Rensselearville State Forest for winter camping and rip roaring fire in January or February, or gone skiing if I had gotten skis but alas I did not. But it’s good to be back at work, as there is a ton of things to keep me busy and my mind active writing code and SQL statements. I am ready for the challenges of the new year both at work and not owning a vehicle.
I was reading the Wall Street Journal today and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency targeting immigrants as criminal and public safety threats. I was wondering what the difference was. I asked Google Artificial Insemination to explain:
While the terms are often used interchangeably in casual conversation, “criminal threats” and “public safety threats” represent two distinct concepts within the American legal system. The primary difference lies in their scope: a criminal threat is a specific offense committed against an individual, whereas a public safety threat is a broader condition that endangers the community at large.
A criminal threat is a defined statutory offense. For a statement or action to reach this level, it must be a “true threat”—one where the speaker intends to place a specific victim in reasonable and sustained fear of death or great bodily injury. In many jurisdictions, such as under California Penal Code 422, the threat must be so unequivocal and immediate that it conveys a clear prospect of execution. Here, the legal focus is on the psychological harm and fear inflicted upon a single person or their immediate family.
In contrast, a public safety threat is a classification used to justify emergency state action or to prioritize law enforcement resources. Unlike a criminal threat, which requires a specific target, a public safety threat involves hazards that affect “any considerable number of persons.” This category is not limited to intentional crimes; it includes environmental disasters, infectious diseases, or an armed suspect at large.
The distinction is most critical during police encounters. Under the Public Safety Exception established by the Supreme Court, officers may temporarily bypass certain constitutional requirements—such as reading Miranda rights—if they are responding to an immediate threat to the community. Furthermore, agencies like the Department of Homeland Security use “public safety” as a metric to prioritize the deportation or detention of individuals who have committed serious felonies or are involved in organized gang activity. Ultimately, while a criminal threat is a private harm addressed through prosecution, a public safety threat is a collective danger that triggers the state’s duty to protect the general welfare. Understanding this difference is essential for navigating the boundaries of individual rights and communal security.
with people pushing you left and right to get another car and saying it’s so sad to not be a motorist, but honestly I don’t care though I do at times still feel the sting of Big Red and realize the inconvience of not owning an a car. I get it, figuring out the trash and wash is kind of a pain, 
but most people figure out alternatives. I think the going early to the laundromat makes sense when necessary, as I’m an earlier riser. Recycling and landfilling is for the city dogs, 
I’d rather have a fire. 
I don’t mind getting home late, as it’s warm walking those laps in the Plaza. Don’t get me wrong, a truck is a great way to get away from the cities, hauling garbage to transfer station, and when I have livestock, feed home. But I hate the idea of daily motoring, 
and using a car to get around the city. When I retire, 
and have my off-grid homestead I’ll certainly have a truck but I doubt I’ll go into town more then once a week or less to buy food and feed I can produce, wrapped in plastic for the burn barrel to eat. 
I look forward to someday looking at the wooden tongue and groove, only having a trash and compost bucket, and producing as much of my food as possible without all the wrappers and plastic. Each day, and year is one step closer.
I am sure I would ride even more 
and spent more time outdoors if it had been so darn cold, but it is still January out there. Not that I would have necessarily gone out to Madison County over the New Years holiday, because I think there is too much snow up there. 
Maybe I would have gone out to Rensselearville State Forest for winter camping and rip roaring fire in January or February, or gone skiing if I had gotten skis 
but alas I did not. But it’s good to be back at work, as there is a ton of things to keep me busy and my mind active writing code and SQL statements. I am ready for the challenges of the new year both at work and not owning a vehicle.
