In My Apartment

Coffee Pot

|

I’ve been considering buying a drip coffee pot. These days they aren’t really that expensive and for a few bucks over the base model, I could have one with a timer that would ensure by the time I got out of bed I would have hot coffee every morning – assuming that I bothered to set the timer, fill the machine with water and fresh grounds. Then again, all except the automatic switch, I could do the same with the camp percolator I currently own.

Right now, I use a camp percolator for all my coffee. It works fine, but it sure gets dirty and it’s somewhat messy dumping out the grounds and washing out the filter every morning. I ended up with coffee grounds all over my kitchen, accumulating in all the places that aren’t real easy to clean. In many ways, drip coffee machines are less messy, especially with the disposable paper filters that commonly used with them.

Drip coffee pots use less electricity and make much better coffee then the percolator, especially with my tendency to put the percolator on it and boil the heck out of the coffee until the grounds are incredibly bitter. I don’t use sugar or cream, just one percent milk, which ensures the coffee is as bitter as it can be. Maybe I should watch the percolator more carefully, and not walk off and do other things.

Making Coffee

Part of my problem with drip coffee pots is they use a lot amperage – even if it’s temporarily – to heat the water. Sure my electric stove does too, but sometime I envision living off grid without a high amperage electricity supply. I guess one of those high-tech drip coffee pots probably won’t last that long, but then I got to throw it out – which is a pain, because I don’t have trash pickup and would have to take it to the transfer station. Not to mention all those coffee filters and grounds, which are a wet mess, especially because I don’t have a compost bin where I live.

Most people a long time ago would have bought an coffee pot. But I think the percolator pot works fine for my purpose, no matter how grimy it gets or how awful bitter the coffee it makes. I don’t need excessive technology in my life that really serves no real purpose that some point I’ll have to pay to dispose of later on.

Really Getting Tired of Renting

|

For almost 6 ½ years, I have lived in my rather inexpensive apartment in Delmar. It’s a fairly run-down building with mold problems, although my landlord was pretty responsive last week, my neighbor called and took care of the backed up sewer. Still the flood wasn’t that bad, but I was still annoyed about having to deal with a flood that wasn’t really even my fault.

The Kitchen

With all the tax credits for homeownership, it really is a pretty good deal – even if I probably couldn’t find a home the size my of my apartment for purchase. Honestly though, I tend to think my apartment is too big, and eventually would like to downsize – those mini-houses you see on the various off-the-grid websites are pretty neat.

Setting Sun

First though, I got to get out of the city and Albany. I really don’t want to own land in New York State or make any long-term investment in the state. Property taxes are pretty high and I don’t like the SAFE Act or the open burning ban. I just want to be left alone by the government and live in a place where people mind their own business.

It's cheap and in a good location, but it's pretty run down and in the city. Go figure.

Learning to Make Peace with New York

|

There is a lot I do not like about living in Upstate New York, in the city, riding the bus to my job downtown everyday, and generally living out in the suburbs but spending most of my life working in the city. But then I looked at my W-2 from last year, and I realized I really shouldn’t complain. Life may be not perfect living in the city, but I sure make a lot of money compared to my rural, small town background.

Sometimes you just got to take the some of the money and enjoy it, putting more of it away for better time in future years and/or retirement. For once it’s nice not to be dirt poor, even if I am not a millionaire, but I make enough from work not to have to worry about being hungry or paying the rent – and knowing that if my checking account looks in danger of bottoming out, I can make myself a zero interest loan for a week or two. And that includes money to jack up my truck.

Any other opportunity at this point in my life would pay a lot less. I might get more freedom based on the laws of state, but I would also loose a lot of potential income moving away from my current life, and the ability to travel and experience things that I am free to right now. I have money to jack up my truck, and gas to keep it’s tank filled up regardless of the adventure. I can go up to the woods and do whatever I want whenever, and never be bothered by anyone.

peaceny

People say there is a lot to life besides then money. But having a little money sure is nice too.

Sometimes I wish I could move on to greener pastures, but having money sure is nice too.

My So Called Place in Delmar

|

The other day I was scrubbing down my kitchen for mildew. My apartment and my kitchen has perputual mildew problems, requiring a heavy bleach treatment from time to time. Due to bleach and mildew, the refigerator and stove are starting to rust. The kitchen is always damp due apartment having faulty design, and probably because my neighbor keeps her unit well air conditioned in the summer and well heated in the winter.

So is life. My apartment is pretty awful, but it is relatively cheap, it’s on the bus line, within walking distance to the library and the town park. There is a bike trail/segegrated sidewalk around the Bethlehem High School, which makes for safe walking at night, which I almost do every night. I’ve never bothered to get home internet here, or spend much time at home, because this rather miserable awful apartment, really isn’t as much a home, as much a place to “stay” in the city.

Colorful Reflections

I tell myself, as awful as it may seem at times especially compared to some of places my friends and colleagues live in, it’s okay. The money I’ve saved on this dumpy old apartment was enough to buy a very nice pickup truck, and keep the tank full enough, and cooler full of cold beer for almost every weekend trips to Adirondacks or somewheres else up in woods. In many ways, I consider the woods to be my home.

I like camping out a lot. While it may not like being have roots in a place one can really call home, it’s good enough for now. Up at camp, I can have campfires, play with fire, burn camp trash, drink beer, see some beautiful landscapes, and have a good time. I can be in the country around country-folk (most of people who go to woods), even if I continue to keep my place in Delmar as my mail address, and place I crash at night after work.

At some point I will find a real place to call home, outside of the stupidity known as New York State. A career I actually find respectable. A real place in cou ntry, not a place I go to hide out in woods during the weekends, as an escape from my urban place. A place where I can have animals, maybe do a little hobby farming, heat with wood, and have fires to burn my trash. Maybe have a four-wheeler and play in the dirt out back. A place without stupid restrictions on gun control, or where all the public lands are tied up by red tape and stupid policies persued as part of environmentalist agenda.

Some times, living in New York State, in the suburbs, working for the government makes me kind of bitter. I know there are so many better options, but I sure like that secure job, and the public lands in NY State aren’t half bad. Certainly, the Adirondack Park, despite all it’s limitations and restrictions has not totally yet been destroyed by the activist-types, trying to keep man away from his woods.

Do I Really Want to Live in City for Another Year?

|

Last night, on my evening walk I was walking on the bike path past the Bethlehem High School, on the outskirts of the developed area of Delmar, looking across Sunnyside Farm and the rural hinderlands beyond it. I looked across the tall grass, and towards the Heldebergs. I saw the setting sun, with Bennett Hill predominately in the background. I felt like I really missed something.

It’s not an unfamiliar scene. Indeed, it’s a comforting one, I’ve seen for most of my life in the city, looking back through office windows towards the Heldebergs. They are just mountains, farm land, forest, and rural homesteads, something not really that uncommon in Upstate New York. Indeed, get a little ways out of any city in Upstate, and your in one of many vast rural areas of Upstate.

The town I live in is Delmar. I have lived here 5 years, taking the bus downtown every morning to work. I come home on the bus, have dinner, and in the summer months, head down to the park with a book. I walk to the library, the store, and go for delightful evening walks. I rarely use my truck at all on weekdays. It’s kind of nice not having to drive, or fill up the tank on weekdays. I can have a couple of beers after work, and not worry about getting pulled over. I can come home fatigued, and not fear an accident. On weekends I hop in my pickup, go up to woods, to camp, hike, explore.

Yet, I feel something is missing…

I don’t really like living in the city that much. I don’t like the constant noise of traffic, the constraints of city life. While I can always hop in my truck and go places, now that I am in city, I doesn’t happen that much. In city, every place I would want to go – in the hills and mountains always seems so far away.

I guess for now I am content with how things are going. The Adirondacks, the Green Mountains, and the hilltowns remain within a fairly short drive, that I can get to on weekends. I can spend my weekends in the city, and then spend the money where I enjoy it most. But still I am less then happy with current arrangements.