Stewart’s

Good morning! Mild and increasingly nice day ahead but breezy 🌤

That’s a nice change as yesterday was really cold and wet. I stayed home, didn’t go anywhere, spending a lot of time reading and learning about more advanced computer science techniques I didn’t know about before. I also finished a book about managing forests for maximum habitat value as a land owner and spent some time flipping through Zillow.

Mostly cloudy and 37 degrees in Delmar. ☁ Breezy, ️16 mph breeze from the west-northwest 🌬 . Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 2 am. ☃️

I was thinking about heading up to Vischer Ferry Preserve 🐦 and going for a hike up there but changed my mind after deciding that I didn’t want to use the gas, especially when there are places I can walk to locally. Plus it gets dark so early these days, and it’s going to be windy. I do want to get up there, maybe next week after the Save the Pine Bush Hike, assuming I don’t decide to go to the Adirondacks that afternoon. A lot depends on the weather, and whether or not I have jury duty next Monday. I’m on call, but who knows if I’ll actually get called this week, as the term lasts for four weeks, and can be called for any of those weeks in December.

Instead I decided to go down to the Norman’s Kill Falls 🚶 on the rail trail 🚂 for a change as I’m a bit tired of Five Rivers but I didn’t want to drive anywhere. Sometimes I like simple things that don’t cost anything but let me get my steps 👣 in for the day. The gorge is always nice to see and it’s fairly protected from the wind.

I probably would have been more optimistic about going out further, 📉 but I looked at my stock portfolio this morning, and decided now is not the time to be burning up gas, ⛽ but instead investing, as it’s been a bad year on the market, though I have to say a few times I did play it well, though I’m still down a lot from a year ago, despite putting a lot more money in. Now is the time to invest, I tell myself, as everything is on sale, especially the stocks and bonds that I bought in September. 🤑 I am happy with that decision, but only tomorrow will decide how things will work out.

I thought about ending my CD and putting it into savings in case I need a new truck or car next year, 🛻 but I decided to see if I can get another year out of Red. Worse comes to worse, I break the CD, it’s only a 1-year CD and it’s only 3 months interest lost on the amount you with withdraw, not the full balance. 🚗 I have enough cash reserves, I won’t need that much from the CD, especially if I don’t get a big fancy truck like I have. Plus I drive so little these days, I’m hoping to limp Big Red along for another year. It’s not that old.