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You know, I go back and forth in my mind about the big truck and being a status symbol. It is but at least in liberal Albany, it will be as much an anti-status symbol with friends and colleagues judging me the wrong way, seeing the truck as completely fuelish, wasteful both in money and fuel. One day, when I show up with an F-250 or F-350, everybody is going to think either I’m rolling in money or more likely debt, my landlord included. But I live simply, I keep my heat at 47 degrees and my lights low, I don’t eat out or party, don’t have home internet or television. I’m not arguing the truck isn’t a big chunk of money but it will last 10 or maybe 15 years, a long portion of my life leading up to retirement, and won’t cost more then a few months of dividends and stock market growth.

The truth is big truck will have a lot of utility for me with my travels, having lots of room to reliably transport all my gear up to camp. I like getting to camp, setting up and hanging out for the weekend or week. I really dislike driving, which seems werid for somebody who wants such an ginormous truck. Maybe I could make a little Toyota Taco truck work, but it would be tough to fit all my gear. And I did the half-ton thing for the past 14-years, and I am not sure I want to go back, especially with the complex blown engines the EPA is forcing down our throats. Truth is the work-truck level SuperDuty, isn’t that much more money then a Taco truck.

I am not arguing that some small-town, pickup truck people will say, that’s a cool big-ass truck. Yeah, it is. I am not going to argue it, but it’s not just about a status symbol to me, even if I’m not planning to tow boats or cattle as of now, even if I do pack the bed with batteries, camping gear, and other toys for up in woods. Based on the sometimes stink of over-heating alternator on my old truck, the bigger electrical system will be much welcome, as will be the bigger engine, as that lift kit, when Big Red was loaded down, was kind of a dog going both up and down the mountains.

Which is good because it’s mad cold, and actually it took longer then expected so catching the bus back home would have been a challenge or required me to bring wet wash back home. Got a good machine load full heaping over the bike, plenty of clothes for the rest of week.

The clothes rode on the bike just fine, 👖 I was able to load them on the bike. I was originally going to do the bus, but yeah the bike saved a buck thirty and was good. I had a full small load but I could have actually a strapped a somewhat larger bag on my bike. I was though annoyed that I left my headphones 🎧 home when I was down at the laundromat, but I listened to YouTube quietly, and there wasn’t a lot of people at laudromat. I would have ridden home while the wash was going if it wasn’t so cold and dark. I am glad I did it last night and not this surprisingly awful cold late February morning.

I slept well last night but still feel a bit of a haze, as it was bitterly cold once I woke up this morning. I thought we done with the real cold of winter, but it was a hard reminder when I got up and heard the wind howling around, and the mercury in the mid-teens. I don’t know why I was tired, granted I was in bed by 8 PM but not asleep until 9:30 AM and half-awake by around 4 AM though I didn’t get out of bed until closer to 5:30 AM. Nice how much sunlight there is in the morning, it will kind of suck in three weeks, but rm

Honestly, I’m actually back on the train of maybe a MiniZilla would be a better fit, as some people say they get better fuel economy compared to GodZilla while others are kind of a mash. I still think the 7.3 and TorqueFright is better then 6.8 and TorqueFright-G or whatever they call it, is a more reliable option, but will it even make a difference? And while I was thinking the FX4 package was essential, those skid plates and the hill descent control, while cool and marketable for resale, really is kind of silly because I’m not going to be rock-crawling an gianmous SuperDuty. 💭 But on the other hand, if I’m paying so much money, who cares about a a few thousand more to get the truck I truly want. 💰 The upfitter switches, bigger alternator, extended long bed seem like far higher priorities in my mind, though the 6 3/4 foot bed I guess isn’t that much shorter then 8 foot. But that’s where I camp, so I should go for the long bed.I don’t know, next week when I test drive one and look up close, I’ll have more direction in my mind. Especially when I get actual out-the-door prices, as 100% of listings is bull shit and imaginary.

After test driving next week, 🚘 I will have a better idea 💡 what I actually want, and start getting in some real proposed prices, rather then the made up ones I keep seeing on dealership websites that don’t include fees and taxes. Truth is the trucks I am looking at are within my budget even if I add in 10% for taxes and fees, but I know that is seriously overpaying for the truck, so I need to negotiate. ⚖️ I’d rather not have to play the finance game with a dealership, study a loan agreement and have to cut two or three checks and wait for the title in the mail, ✉️ but whatever. I guess all this study on negotiation and dealership practices just has my nervous. Each day now I check roughly 10 local dealership websites to see prices and inventory, along with the Ford site, to see what dealers are proposing to charge, just so I can see what trends are happening in the industry.

Truth is it keeps me busy and my mind active during the doldrums of winter 🧠 figuring out what my next rig should look like and how I want to build it out, much like two years ago when I was studying buying a house and homestead or maybe building that off-grid cabin. 🏡 It was an interesting thing to learn about, and maybe ultimately I don’t end up getting a truck. It’s fine to walk away. That house to my parents house was fine, and interesting to tour, and it would have been inexpensive even after fixing it up, but it wasn’t right for me, and I didn’t want to have to drive to work every day. I am not opposed to moving back out to country when I retire, 👴🏻 but right now I kind of like living in city.