Those nights camping at the State Horse Camp on Christmas 🤶
I was listening to Joni mitchell this evening as I wandered around Bender Mellon Farm Preserve as the sunset.
But it don’t snow here
It stays pretty green
I’m going to make a lot of money
Then I’m going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I was reminded of that Christmas Eve almost a year ago I spent alone at the State Horse Camp. I was on a pre-Christmas at Stoney Pond and then Charles Baker State Forest, riding road and camping, ended up staying through the day after Christmas due to my parents being sick and quarantining. I roasted chestnuts and cranberries on the fire and listened to Joni Mitchell’s River song among other Christmas music.
Spending Christmas alone at a State Horse Camp without presents to open, just cool cloudy and long evenings alone sounds kind of depressing. But I liked the serenity of it all, the time alone spent with nobody but myself as a few snow flurries flittered around, as I enjoyed Greek yogurt with chestnuts and other holiday nuts roasted on the fire along with cranberries. In the cold of the night, the darkest time of the year as we celebrate Christ’s birth.
I am struck by the lyrics, “I’m going to make a lot of money, then I’m going to quit this crazy scene.” I love being out in a place like Madison County, the deep rural yet I am stuck here in Albany except when I can get away on a crazy cold evening like that weekend in the deep rural as I heard the cows moo and the coyotes call out in the distance. I keep almost craving homelessness, the simplicity of being a traveler. At the same time, I think about buying some land and making a tent my permanent home, assuming the government workers in some rural township within commuting distance to Albany would permit such an unconventional way of living. Or maybe just a hammock, traveling from place to place, living on the street. That said, I really want to get away from the city. It’s not the cannabis that has me thinking this way but the podcast I was listening to about preparing for homelessness. It’s a silly way to think when I’m a hard working director.
The vinyl siding, carpeting, drywall and central heating does nothing for me. I crave the mountains and the small towns like I was in as I camped at the State Horse Camp last Christmas. Away from the endless lines of code, data dumps and the garbage dumps and the pollution. Places that tap into my soul and give me a feeling I so lack in Albany while I try to keep my head afloat, survive and make the best of my life in the very problematic world that I currently live in.
Best selling Christmas Singles
Further evidence that Christmas music is pretty awful based on what people are parting with their hard-earned cash to download legally from the interwebs. Plus a fun exercise in webscrapping with Wikipedia to make a graph.
library(rvest)
library(tidyverse)
music <- read_html('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Christmas_singles_in_the_United_States')
table <- music %>% html_table()
table[[1]]$`Digital downloads`=as.numeric(gsub("(\[.*|,)","", table[[1]]$`Digital downloads`))
table[[1]]$`Artist` = gsub("\(.*","", table[[1]]$`Artist`)
ggplot(table[[1]], aes(x=table[[1]]$`Digital downloads`, y=reorder(paste(table[[1]]$Title,table[[1]]$Artist,sep="n"), -table[[1]]$`Digital downloads`),
fill=table[[1]]$Rank)
) + geom_col() + geom_label(aes(label=scales::comma(table[[1]]$`Digital downloads`)),hjust='right', size=6, fill='white', nudge_x = -20000) +
scale_x_continuous(labels = scales::comma_format(scale=1/1000000, suffix='m'), expand=c(0,0), breaks=seq(0,3,0.5)*1000000) +
scale_fill_gradient2(low='darkred', high='darkgreen', midpoint=mean(table[[1]]$Rank)) +
labs(title = 'Best-selling Christmas singles',
subtitle='',
caption='Wikipedia/Nielsen SoundScan began trackingndigital download sales data at the end of June 2003. ',
tag=paste('Andy Arthur,', format(Sys.Date(), format="%m/%-d/%y")),
x='Digital Downloads',
y='',
fill = "", ) +
theme_bw() +
theme(
text= element_text(family='Overpass',size=14),
plot.title=element_text(hjust=0.5, face='bold',size=28),
plot.background = element_rect(fill = "white", color="white"),
plot.subtitle=element_text(hjust=0.5),
plot.tag=element_text(size=10,hjust=0, color='#555555'),
plot.caption=element_text(size=10, color='#555555'),
plot.margin = unit(c(1,1,1,1), 'lines'),
plot.tag.position = c(0.0,0.01),
legend.position = 'None',
)
ggsave(paste('/tmp/christmas.svg',sep=''), width=1920, height=1080, units='px', dpi=150, device = grDevices::svg)
I don’t really celebrate Christmas
I don’t really celebrate Christmas these days. Sure I will go out to my parents house for Christmas dinner, but I don’t decorate or do much special for the holiday season. I don’t have any decorations in my apartment and I don’t hang up lights. I’m not really all that much into Christmas music or the hustle bustle of the stores. It’s just not a holiday that does much for me, especially not being a particularly religious person.
I think I would rather just spend Christmas in the wilderness, looking at the trees glimmering in the snow, enjoying a long night by the campfire. With the snow I usually can’t camp with the power from my truck to run the colorful Christmas lights, but I can have lots of candlelights, and the lantern works well. The Big Buddy heater will help to keep my chair warm and my tent toasty. Listen to some Christmas music and maybe some podcasts, enjoy the stars and God’s beauty, then retire to the tent for a nice warm night in cozy sleeping bags.
![Untitled [Expires September 13 2025]](https://andyarthur.org//data/photo_020471_large.jpg)
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Christmas Day 🌲 🎅
Millions of children will be opening their presents today, fathers and their kids looking at the burning wrapping paper and boxes out back after feeding the cows and doing the chores. I’m heading up to camp in what promises to be a bitterly cold winter’s day followed by a half or maybe a foot of snow come Friday into Saturday and maybe an ice storm on Sunday, but if that promises to be true, I’ll head home on Saturday.
Ended up deciding to go to Rensselearville State Forest 🌲 to winter camp so not to get trapped in deep snow I’d have to dig out as that campsite is on a plowed road. I’m hoping that campsite isn’t taken, probably not, otherwise I’ll have to go out to Schoharie. I was going to do Madison County but I don’t want to drive back in crap weather, and I want to limit the miles on my tired old truck with it’s rusty frame. Still can’t believe Wednesday Big Red’s being decommissioned. Even just uttering those words gives me pause. ⏸️ But one last adventure this weekend. Not going to worry about excessive idle on this trip, I should have sufficient fuel left in the tank, and I don’t feel like economizing on the lights or risking having a dead battery. 🔋
Up early again as I had to do pinto beans and bread to have up at camp. 🍞 🫘 Got rice, onions, eggs, cornmeal, flour, canned veggies to cook up into various meals. Simple healthy things, basically the same things I have at home but also a six back or so of beer to polish off over the next two or three nights at camp. I should return those cans while I still have the truck. ♻️ I want to do one more Walmart shop before Red is done, maybe on New Years Eve or I might take the 30th off from work to maybe go for one last drive. 😔 Still, I don’t want to push my luck too far.
I realized I have a lot more options when it comes to SuperDuty trucks if I consider both the 3/4 ton and 1 ton F-250 and F-350s. 🛻 Truth is while I understand there is a bit of difference in towing and bed capacity, stiffer suspension, and I don’t really need the later for hauling shit, the later is much more common and similar in price. Including both in searches offers a lot more options even with the same engines and trannies. I do think I would want a 2026, just because of 10-speed transmission is much more reliable after Ford made some changes in latest models. Or so the Internet tells me. The destroked 6.8L gasser though still seems reliable, but relatively frugal choice both on fuel and price ⛽ compared to full-bore 7.3L and diesels. And when you open up the search like that, they even show extended cab basic models for not much more in cash, but I still want a long bed, regular cab without the advanced technology. Starting to weight more a used slide-in-camper versus fiber glass cap. I know I am getting old when I think about such options, I mean it wasn’t that long ago that I didn’t make SuperDuty kind of money. I don’t know, I like the simplicity of regular cab, long bed, no extra technology. 💡 Don’t lie to yourself Andy, you don’t want a squishy-like-suburban home camper for your truck. True, but I’ll entertain the possibility. I do want at least one, maybe two additional solar panels for 200-300 watts of solar input plus 300 amp hours of storage in bed for electricity. It’s a lot of lead to carry around, but also means I could have much more power at camp for things like running a diesel heater for winter camping.
Just so much more to learn. 🤓 I was hoping to find a book from the library that explained all the different options trucks have, but no such luck. Whatever the rig I build, will likely last me through the start of retirement, and certainly past the life of my parents, a prefound statement in my mind. With a SuperDuty though, I certainly would be able to get a snowplow and used horse trailer to move livestock when I have a homestead or should I inherit my parents land. Or carry full-size cattle or hog panel in the long bed. Also I was thinking how I could use the built-in up-fitter switches of the SuperDuty, running relays back to the bed, so I could turn on truck cap lighting and control the batteries in the truck all from factory switches, which is pretty neat. That could be fun shit, especially as I’ve learned more about electrical and wiring, and knowing all the relays and connectors you can find on EBay these days thanks to China. 🔌 Truth is it’s fun to build a new rig from scratch.
Merry Christmas!🎄
It seems remarkable that Christmas is upon us again, so quickly. Where did the year go? It just seems like time fades away so quickly with another Christmas upon us.