Personal

It was nice spending Christmas Eve with Mom and Dad. They seem to be doing well, we had a nice homemade lasagna dinner as turkey dinner more then once a year is a bit too much. I cherish such times as I often see them like my old truck, never did once conversation about next Christmas come up. Maybe they’ll be another Christmas together but like that wallow and frame rust I spotted in my truck last summer, it’s not over until so suddenly it‘s over.

I treasured the evening with Mom and Dad, the lasagna and the time together around the Christmas Tree. 🎄It was mostly small talk, maybe we should have talked about more profound things, knowing that time is not forever. Truth is Red’s unexpected expiration on December 31st has really made me think a lot about life, and how there is no guarantees for tomorrow. ⌛ I think my parents health is okay but I’ve never asked that many deep questions and I see them getting older each year, as I age too. It keeps coming up how relatively close I am to retirement, assuming I take it one of earlier years I’m eligible to focus on building that off-grid homestead. And maybe other activities, if I only figure out what they are before time was too late. Maybe it’s like me babying my truck – throughout it’s life and now especially in it’s final hours with it’s weak frame – but I am often afraid to have those much need conversations, 💭 before it’s too late.

In many ways, Big Red 🛻 seems to be running the best he has, though at times I swear the wallow has gotten worse. Comes and goes, but I am pretty sure that rear shock mount is completely rotted though, as is the gas tank mount and there may be flex from the holes in the frame and mid-center connection. But at this point, if it gets me up to camp and back home come Saturday or Sunday, it will be good. ☺️ Then one more trip out to Walmart then out to Mom and Dad’s house for fondue and toasting the New Year, and then I’ll sleep over night, take of the license plates in the morning and get a ride home with Dad. Already agree where I can park the truck until spring time when I pull out my camping gear and clean up the truck. I really can’t believe I’m taking Big Red off the road, I was so excited and proud of him back in mid-September 2011. But that was a long time ago, nearly a decade and half has passed by. Longer then I have until my likely retirement to build my off-grid homestead. 🐐

I can’t help but have a bit of a bunker mentality creep in knowing I will be without a vehicle until April. 🪖I will be one of the many car-free living people, mostly in cities, mostly poor. I keep buying more and more beans and rice, 🍚 thinking that will store and be cheaper at Walmart. And things like toilet paper and personal care supplies. I can store the trash outside or pay my neighbor to take it, and bring a bucket of compost and/or recycling when I get ride to my parents house. It’s silly to get too upset about not having a vehicle, as most of the winter the only place I drive is out to Mom and Dad’s, to the grocery store, the fuel store and the car wash. Maybe if it’s nice a few weekends in winter I’ll go to the Adirondacks or Schoharie to camp. 🏕️ But that’s only been a thing I’ve done in recent years, since I got the propane heater and learned about the relative winter accessiblity of certain campsites. It’s not like I am that seriously not thinking of owning a vehicle, hell I wouldn’t be looking at all those big, overpriced SuperDuty trucks if I wasn’t planing to get back on the road come April. That said, I refuse to get one of the real fancy, truly gargantuan extended cab models with all the sensors and features that are likely to break, or a diesel or high end truck. I want simple, reliable, and reasonably sized and fuel efficent by Super Duty standards. ⛽ I want a a truck with vinyl seats and mechanical guages, not some woke sofa on wheels with a mode and sensor and computer to break. How much I’m willing to spend has limits.

The water containers are full and I’m packing my clothes now for camping. 💼 🚰 Soaking kidney beans to start cooking early tomorrow morning, and kneading bread to bake and enjoy up at camp. I don’t want to cook beans at camp because I don’t want to use too much propane, as I’ll need quite a bit for propane heat up at camp. Packing the woolsocks and Long John’s, as tomorrow night sounds to be very frigid. For my next truck, I think I want to get a diesel heater for winter camping to heat the cap. ♨️ Although, maybe I should look at prices for used slide-in bed campers, especially if I’m getting a long bed Superduty. I feel like that’s something you can get on Want Ad Digest or Craig’s List cheap. But I don’t love all that soft bedding and particle board crap, I’d much rather sleep in pickup bed on a stack of sleeping pads then have to worry about getting padded bedding all wet and moldy. But my toes increasingly get chilled through 🥶🦶 as I sleep in the winter. Tomorrow, and through the weekend, especially with the cold, I’m not going to worry about excessive idle of the truck, it’s better to keep the batteries well charged, and I have sufficient fuel for rest of truck’s life at this point. 🔋 Goin to be pretty bitterly cold on Boxing Day, 📦 and maybe we’ll get a half foot of blowing snow with temperatures only in the single digits. 🔥 But it will be fine with hot cocoa, a roaring fire and the propane heater. ☕ I will enjoy it as it’s last adventure as Red comes to an end.