In an effort to somewhat keep my mind open and learn the facts, I am continuing to investigate truck campers over the traditional camper shell I've had on my two pickup trucks over the past 22 years. I know truck campers are popular, but they're expensive, heavy, raise the center of balance on your truck, and just are a lot of plastic and particle board.
I do somewhat like the idea of an indoor shower, but most of the time in summer I swim in creeks to be clean and bucket shitter works fine. And just so much padding and soft stuff to get muddy and moldy, that can't be easily taken out to the laundromat.
Regardless of what I do on my next rig, I do want a diesel heater because my toes and fingers get so damn cold now that I've gotten old. Blood circulation ain't as good, moreover it's just cold when it's zero degrees out even with sleeping bags. Truth is I do like the simplicity of the ARE MX Cap like I had on my old truck, maybe with a wooden rack for gear like I had. Plus a truck cap can be purposed for a second life hauling small livestock and gear in a dry space if I get away from traveling and into homesteading. Some day I'm going to get old and have feed to haul and animals to feed, once I settle down, move out of the dumpy apartment and back out in the country.
While American culture has this unhealthy obsession over expensive meat for boosting protein intake to unhealthy levels, beans remain my preferred way to have a healthy amount of protein in my diet. While it’s true beans alone are not a complete protein as they lack methionine, combined with nearly any kind of grains – be it rice or whole wheat flour or many vegetables at some point in your day – you get a complete series of protein.
Beans are very affordable and long lasting, especially if purchased in bulk. They don’t produce a lot of garbage unlike so much packaged foods these days – that four pound bag of dried pinto beans has provided several weeks of beans, split into two batches, boiled then half of those frozen and other half used in rice, mashed and used in eggs, cooked with zucchini, enjoyed with lunch, and drizzled with sugar-free maple syrup and a little salt as a filling snack.
People say too much beans make you gassy. People who say such things are not wrong, over time your stomach adapts to a high protein diet that contains a large amount of non-digestible sugars. They become more digestible over time. That said, I’ve overdone it before and eaten way too much especially with sugar-free syrup making for smelly bathrooms and being a bit gassy. But in moderation, they are wonderful.
Most dried beans are an incredible bargain, at anything beyond the two pound bags, and the value only grows the larger the bag you purchase. Bigger bags means they last longer and less trash per unit of beans. I also get black beans, kidney beans, cranberry beans, and navy beans. And sometimes chickpeas and lentils. Any kind of dried beans you can’t go wrong. Yes, there is electricity consumed in their cooking and freezing or chilling in the fridge, but on a per-healthy calorie basis and considering the protein you et from eating beans you can’t wrong.
I guess it won’t be so cold out, which is often the thing when it gets clear out on a winter’s day. Truth is I’m not missing that much having a truck, and it’s not clear I would have gone anywheres after New Years Day regardless due to the cold of early January that has come our way.
Yesterday, I did somke some weed and ride my mountain bike 🚴 to Five Rivers, and walked around in a bit of a snow squall, but despite the supposed warmer temperatures my fingers 🧤 got painfully cold and stiff, and I rode home by quarter before five. It was kind of pretty watching the snow fall, but also kind of ordinary. A lot of people were there, I think there was at least one or two who probably noticed I was stoned out of my mind, 🧟♂️ and it was not one of those days when there was a lot of wildlife out in the woods. I was just so chilled through that I got home, boiled up some sweet potatoes 🥔 and onions, then mashed them, though I ended up sticking the potatoes in the microwave as I didn’t cook them enough. Part of it was the burner I started to cook them on collects grease from the olive oil I use on the grittle when making pancakes, so I moved it to a different burner and did not wait long enough to finish cooking on the other burner.
Finally remember to soak half a 4 lb bag of kidney beans, and cooked them down this morning. 🫘 Before losing Big Red, I really stocked up on kidney beans, as they are my go-to-source for affordable, healthy protein that doesn’t produce a lot of garbage. 🗑️ I would care less if I could get to the woods and have fires, but now it’s just landfill. 🔥 I’m trying to make these days not owning a vehicle both healthier for myself and the planet, 🌍 even if I do ultimately get that Ford SuperDuty truck. Though even now I’m having doubts on that, but the options are kind of bad and limited. Read 📖 for a while last night, been really enjoying my new free access to the Wall Street Journal from the library and Monte Bourch’s Guide to Building Hunting Camps and Lodges on Hoopla. I also listening to Dr. Lt. Dave Grossman’s On Hunting as I rode to and from Five Rivers. 🦌
When I got home I was pretty chilled through, 🥶 and having not shaved or showered since before work on Wednesday, I decided it best not to go to the library, but instead hide under the sheets with the heated blanket. 🛏️ Today though I think I will go to the library with my laptop, as I’m pretty bored with being home, 😦 when it opens for the morning. Ten o’clock on a Sunday. Then hang out there for a few hours, playing with data and maps before heading home. Maybe an afternoon bike ride, but I don’t love riding in the cold and snow, and I’m not going to fuck up the wheels on my bike riding on the icy bike trail, especially when that’s my primary method of transport besides the buses which run so infrequently these days after the cut backs. Laundry is going to be the biggest pain of them all, 👖 hauling the bag on my back the mile down the road to the laundromat, hopefully I can do most of that when I get a ride out to visit my parents. I bought extra pair of jeans just to be safe. I can do the bus, but it runs really only every 45 minutes in the evening, though maybe what the real solution is to do it before work, when it’s likely the laundromat is quiet and buses run every 30 minutes. I am kind of an early riser. Then it keeps my evenings to myself and I can use the bus both ways.
It’s a choice, I know it. ⚖️ The car-free lifestyle is not something I’m doing because I’m disabled or poor, it’s because I don’t want to buy a new Ford SuperDuty truck in the middle of winter after the frame rotted out on my Silverado. Or I could have gotten Big Red patched and kept on the road a few more years, the most economical and sensible thing to do. It’s like renting a $800 a month apartment that is completely run down and in need of serious renovation after 18 years of only the most minimal repairs being made by my various landlords. 💰 I’m doing it both to be frugal, spend money on things I actually bring me joy. ☺️ I’m not poor, colored or disabled, but I wanted some time to think 🤔 and decide my next move after Big Red. 🛻 I want to save and invest as much as possible for a better future, for that off-grid cabin where I don’t have to wash bottles out before tossing them in burn barrel and making a little black smoke, where I can hear the hogs grunting 🐖 and guinea fowl clucking. 🐥 Where I can smell manure and wood smoke. Where I don’t have to pay a fee and beg the government for permission to buy ammunition. 🔫 Yeah, that future. Plus the car-free lifestyle helps assuage my liberal ego before yeah buying a ginormous SuperDuty truck.
The semiquincentennial of the United States, is one of those words that is hard to pronounce, and it required me to Google it to spell it. But it means it’s 250 years since America declared Independence from Great Britain, a quarter millennium of ups and downs, the longest lasting democracy in one form or another in the world’s history.
The truth is this celebration of America’s historic milestone seems even more downplayed then the bicentennial in 1976 or even the 150th anniversary of America in 1926. While one could argue the reason for New York’s limited celebration of the 300th anniversy Henry Hudson’s journey up in 2009 was due to the depths of recession and necessary government cost-cutting in those tough times, this year there really isn’t much of a justification for holding back beyond it being seen as a crass celebration of President Donald Trump’ s ego more then a celebration of the great progress America has made, even if it has seen many set backs in more recent times.
Every time I see the America 250 logo, I dislike the swoopy ribbon like 250, though it is in many ways an improvement over the first draft that looks like some guy with Microsoft Paint typed America over 250. At least there was some artistry but it was still overly swoopy and soft. And it really doesn’t represent what America should represent – a melting pot of ideas and cultures – one where people are free to experiment and where the market in voting and commericalism will decide which ones rise to the top. A cooperative spirt, not one squishy and soft without direction. The 1976 bicentennial logo was vastly more attractive.
While there will be inevitable fireworks shows and historic displays, it seems like this year’s celebration will be down scaled and toned down. The amount of commercial products and businesses playing up the 250th anniversary will be limited, as they don’t want to be too closely associated with the Trump administration. And the debate of how much should focus on America’s revoluntary history versus it’s cultural and inner battles over democracy and civil rights will overshadow the whole celebration, even if both celebrating the Revoluntary War and the Civil Rights Movement are important to understanding America and it’s triumphs and tribulations over it’s past 250th year. But alas, celebrations are waste of limited taxpayer resources that could be better spent on helping people. People aren’t as proud of America anymore, showing pride towards your country and it’s institutions both good and bad, seems to be more a of crass form of partisanship and commercialism.
One of the new free resources the Upper Hudson Library is now offering is free access to the Wall Street Journal building on their already free access to the New York Times. While it can be annoying that you have to enter your library card daily, it really expands access to important newspapers building on the free access you get to hundreds of magazines, including Newsweek and Mother Earth News on Libby – along with thousands of books on Libby and Hoopla.
But I really think the Wall Street Journal is big, because it’s important to know what the movers and shakers of the financial world are saying. While there are many good resources from NPR and YouTube on financial happenings, the truth is Wall Street Journal gives additional perspective from the business mindset. And business matters, as it’s what is the economic engine of our country, generates wealth which can turned all kinds of toys, land, and equipment.
