I talked to banks about getting a mortgage and started down the road for pre-approval. I talked to my friend who has the 10 acre old homestead in Greenville, how he got there. I looked at several houses, toured one in June asked questions about one to a realtor. I read books about buying a house and building your own. The houses and properties I actually liked where much too far from work. Many had other issues, some would have been a cash purchase and needed to be built from the ground up, prefab or otherwise. Most much where too large.
The banks were happy to steer me towards a conventional 30 year mortgage for $2,000 a month. It would finance up to $275k to $300k, probably more house then I would need and want but actually not an unrealistic budget when a lot of ready to move into, nicely maintained but older houses are in the quarter of a million range. Of course, most that the banks really like are your very typical and boring house in suburbia. And I would be paying that through my 72nd birthday, assuming that I didn’t refinance and didn’t pay it off early.
It’s really hard to find a house under 750 square feet. Some people are like don’t you want to heat and clean an extra room or two as a home office? Plus storage for tons of crap you’ll most certainly secure as a homeowner. No not really. Honestly, I thought that 700 sq ft house I toured was bigger than I liked. Plus it had a dirty old oil burner and no wood stove. Plus I guess running water, flush toilets and an indoor shower are great in the winter and for reasons of convenience but it just seems like a lot of crap to break.
What I really want is the simple, small hunting style cabin that is common in the Adirondacks or the more remote parts of Pennsylvania. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have some solar panels, gravity sink and hand pump, outhouse and outdoor heated shower. Propane range for cooking. I get such living is harder than the current suburbia way of living but I despise the shinny trash everything every other week and replace of suburbia with the shiny and new.
I could have looked harder this summer gone by, had I not spent so much time up in the woods, reading, smoking pot, riding my mountain bike, floating in the tube and finding distraction in my kind. I could have moved Zillow back on my phone as soon as I killed my phone and aggressively persued every listing I could find that sort of made sense to me. But I did not, preferring to spend as much of my summer up in the wilderness, high as a kite while I kept sending my landlord $800 checks as he hammers and grinds along the unit next door as a gentle reminder that time is not long for my current moldy apartment.
I mean this summer is not unlike other summers. Big Red brought me to the wilderness for many nice nights though the cannabis and the Grateful Dead records were a friendly addition. Maybe it was much too ordinary of a summer with a little extra sparkles. But if I had been a little more aggressive I could have my own land at this point, be growing my own cannabis and having livestock, or at least clearly leading to that point. And I’m now a full director in my office, this should mean I should have moved out of just out of college apartment.
Truth is that I’ve not found what is right for me. I’m not going to waste my money on a big house in the suburbs that I despise and don’t care about. A house might be a good decision if you care about the building and where you live, but I don’t want some place out in the suburbs with vinyl siding and carpeting that I don’t give a rats ass about and wouldn’t care if the roof collapses or the building burns to the ground. A house is not a good investment if you don’t care about it and would be just as happy with it not long in the world.
I will be on my way to the Adirondacks. I have a rough plan of where I am going to go though nothing is set in stone. It seems like such a downscale from my biannual trips I made to West Virginia but my truck is old and I’ve been wanting to get back up to Horseshoe Lake, the St. Regis Canoe Area and Adirondack Rail Trail for some time now. Still at one level it seems so ordinary, but then again so would be a trip down to Tucker County, WV as I’ve done for ten years nows or even the Allegheny National Forest. My mind screams boring!
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Today’s cool and clear weather after yesterday’s rain and the increasingly low sun angle each day, even mid-day makes me realize that autumn is not a distant dream but it’s upon us. I know that as a fact at one level, but after such a long expanse of dry and warm weather, I found it hard to believe winter is coming soon. But it just feels cold today, such a change after the rain. It’s not that rain and cool is a bad thing, it greatly reduces the fire risk. River levels will still be low for paddling at times though I suspect.
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I was in denial about my autumn trip. I didn’t think it would happen. This time I didn’t try to blame it on my truck which seems to be running well for a 14-year old truck but I do need to check the oil and coolant before leaving in the morning.It will probably make it and be a good trip. But instead, this time I had other mental obstacles – first it was recovery from the LASIK, then it was the dry conditions and the burn ban. But now I’m feeling good, with excellent vision and hardly any signs of dry eye issues, and it rained a bunch. True, the burn ban isn’t over and we are still in a drought but week ahead promises to be somewhat rainy and things aren’t as dry as they once were. I’ll keep my fires small when I have them, though I may really need them if it’s a cold and damp as they’re predicting.
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I disabled phone notifications from Zillow on my phone before my summer vacation. I really got tired of the endless stream of notifications for suburbanite houses covered with vinyl siding and asphalt roofs, with wall-to-wall carpeting, high speed internet and television in every room, along with weekly garbage pickup, natural gas heat and 200-amp electric services – and no room for a hog pen or chickens much less a burning barrel or ATV trail in the back 40. It’s not to say such properties don’t pop up occasionally but most are much too far away from work. And I like riding my mountain bike to work, though I still don’t know what I am going to do once the time changes in November. Maybe ride downtown and take the local, but that sucks as the local doesn’t leave downtown until 5:40 PM. I’m still saving, but I don’t like any of the options immediately in front of me.
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I got that book out of the library on Hoopla a while back on dating. I actually set up for Facebook dating but I’ve never reached out to anyone, though it would be good to meet some new people. Just have to ask, its a great time of the year to meet a girl for some hot cider and doughnuts. But I’ve been busy, traveling, with work, and fighting to Save the Pine Bush. It would be fun to meet some other people, get out of my comfort zone. Yet, I also don’t want to be tied down or boxed in.
***
So yeah, I’m heading north for a week. WIth no real plan besides hike, ride, paddle, and smoke a little dope and have fires and burn shit. It’s not that I’m saving or have no future plans but the options in front of me immediately aren’t great except to plan for better days ahead and hunker down for a long cold winter in that very drafty and dilapidated apartment that rents for the same rate the county offers to the homeless. Continue to save and invest every penny I can within reason. And continue to travel, sitting behind the lens of camera, observing the wildflowers, the woods, the rural landscape.
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Don’t be so scared of changing And rearranging yourself It’s time for jumping down from the shelf A little bit
Lately there has been a move to celebrate saturated fats and re-brand them as not only tasty but also healthy. A lot of it is by farmers who raise livestock for meat and dairy, especially the later who get paid for the components in their milk, and if people drink milk that is not skim, it can, at least in theory raise the price of milk components, namely the butterfat. Not only do the dairymen want you drink more milk, the highest of value for milk products, but they’d prefer you drink milk with as much butterfat as possible.
For some time now, most major medical organizations has argued for reducing the intake of saturated fat to promote health and reduce the risk from cardiovascular diseases. This is why skim milk has proved to be quite popular, with more and more milk fat going into cheese and other desserts. But contrarians and dairymen would like you to reconsider how much milk fat you have in your drink, noting that the fats in milk can make you fill faster quicker, displacing potentially more harmful foods like highly processed carbs like bread and rolls, sweets and desserts.
But the less bad way of thing doesn’t makes something bad. It doesn’t mean you should never enjoy a cold glass of whole milk or some in your coffee, but skim milk remains a healthier option – especially if not with a enormous hamburger and fries. Like everything, it’s about averages, not the every day. A few times of year, having whole milk, ice cream or cheese isn’t going to kill but such things should be a treat not an every day occurrence. Bacon, especially from tamworth hogs, is good as an occassional treat. But you really shouldn’t be having bacon every day for breakfast.
After driving my big jacked up truck out to the Pine Bush mid-day for the unvailing and dedication of the John Wolcott Pine Bush Hikers’ Underpass, I was in no mood to drive home on such a beautiful day. My bike stored in my office, I figured I could just ride home.
I am sure it will be fine, 🛠️ and chances are good that it won’t be found in the morning sitting up on blocks with the wheels all stolen. I mean you need a special key to remove those Rockstar wheels and my office is pretty suburban even though they do have the tables and umbrellas locked down in case kids were to decide to steal them. 🚲 I much prefer to ride back and forth to work and I figured tonight is a good time to run to the store and get groceries and supplies I need for camping 🛒 after work. I’ll get the extra cannabis tomorrow. It’s not like Red is a super nice truck anymore, plus it’s parked out with the rest of the State Assembly pool cars they lend out for official state business.
Didn’t do much packing yesterday, 💼 indeed I went down to the park right after work until it got dark and cool out, and then came home, cooked some dinner up, 🍳 mostly just the usual fried onions, beans, homemade bread and squash. 🍆 This morning I got up fairly early though not super early, then it was eggs and onions and lots of hot sauce and coffee ☕. Going to shower and ride in early, as I was at the John Wolcott overpass unvailing probably longer then I should have been during an hour long lunch hour. I guess you’re not supposed to take two hour lunches, but whatever I am the the director and I’ll make up the time as I was in early yesterday. Showering now and will also try to get get in a bit early today.
I am excited about heading north tomorrow, 🏕️ even if the weather looks to be cooler, cloudier and wetter then this week bar maybe Tuesday. Really Sunday night into Monday aka Columbus Day looks to be worse weather of the week, 🌥️ and that’s when I’ll be driving north and probably opens up the most options for camping at Horseshoe Lake when I get there. 🔥 At least with all the rain we’ve had and more coming next week the fire risk will be much lower, though still elevated as it will take quite a bit more rain to fully pull us out of the drought from almost no rain that lasted from mid-August into October. it’s going to be a good trip, I think Red is running well though I should top off the coolant and oil 🛢️ before I head out. I’ve noticed now that it’s cool out you can smell the coolant leak when the heat first comes on. It’s good that I’m retiring Red at the end of winter season.
It was really neat to see the unvailing of the John Wolcott Pine Bush Hiker’s Underpass sign yesterday in the Pine Bush, on a beautiful early autumn day, soon to be passed by 3.8 million cars and trucks each years. Most won’t give it much thought, just another meaningless name along the highway like Ruth’s Auto or Stewart’s or Goodwill but at least some people will Google the name and learn about how it just got started with one phone call and an ask. It will appear on maps on highway trivia websites, inevitably retelling the story.
I used to visit with John Wolcott a lot in his later years, 📹 for a while we did a lot of video and audio recordings of him telling his stories, sometimes blending truth and fiction – the wild haired red-head of Sheridan Hollow had long faded to gray and had in many ways forgotten many of details – but it was still fascinated. He was interested in preserving the history and discoveries he found, I mostly was interested in stories of more contemporary history – the battles over saving Fort Orange and dozens of historic buildings in Albany – and the Albany Pine Bush. For him, Dutch History was particularly relevant – for me it was the stories about Erastus Corning and Thomas Whale and Jerry Jennings. 🏫 So many of the details have been lost to time, the house fire, and failing memory. Time marches on, with so much lost but many things gained – like the preserved and restored Pine Bush – and a Hiker’s Underpass who story previously unknown to many. ⌛
It was good to be there at the sign unvailing. 🌲Over a 100 people were there to celebrate the announcement, including State Senator Fahy and representives from County Executive and Assembly offices. Maybe I should have taken off the full afternoon as there was a hike down to the now officially named underpass though I’ve hiked and ridden my mountain bike under it many a time before. I can go back there any time again. 🚶 With the sign to be installed on the highway in the coming weeks, I will want to get back and take a picture and hike the underpass again. Eventually, I’m sure Pine Bush Commission maps will reflect this detail as will the many websites about highway signs and roadside trivia. John was a map guy before free and open source GIS software, I’m sure he would have loved all these details and trivia if he was still alive.
It’s kind of great to see a civilian honored in such a way 🛣️ as it’s so rare to see anything named after somebody who is not a military soldier, politician, cop or government worker. Especially on a major highway like this on a large 4’x12′ sign.
