But alas it turned to all day rain. I am getting tired of these rainy Saturdays not that much is expected to change before next weekend, which is calling for more rain. I’m spending it at home, in some ways I wish I had brought my laptop home but I didn’t want necessarily want to walk in rain down to the library.
Truth is this day is for recovery, Friday was a tough day. I still can’t believe I crashed my bike on the way to work, dozing off or otherwise not paying attention, hitting that curb, throwing myself off the bike, hitting my head and shoulder and banging up my knee. Now since I mention I was thrown by the bike, my social media feeds are full of advertising for traumatic brain injury lawyers and articles about recovering from concussions. But I was wearing a helmet, and I wasn’t that sore – I mean I rode the rest of way to work and then home in evening, though I wasn’t in a rush either way. That and at Friday 4:30 PM at work we got this brain twizzler selection request, which I couldn’t figure out but if I don’t master it first thing on Monday I’ll talk to the programmers.
I just have no where to go to today. It’s good in the sense I don’t have to get changed or dressed up or shower, and I have spent a lot of day cooking – first breakfast then cooking down a big pan of beans and now some rice. I never got bananas or baking powder at the store this week, I might get some tomorrow, ride down to Hannaford in the morning or maybe the evening, or maybe on morning commute on Monday. I don’t know if I will shop on Monday or wait until Tuesday. I kind of would like more certainty for the forecast on Good Friday and whether or not it will be a holiday for me, but so much of that is tied up in state budget, not that data department gets involved in that unless members want to do communications on it.
Spent much of the morning hiding under the covers, as it’s warm there, and it’s not like I’m willing to turn on the heat at this point – it’s mid April. I guess if it’s cold enough it will turn itself on but it’s not that cold and the thermostat is turned all the way down until November or so is plan. I keep hoping to get back to the woods, but wasn’t happen this weekend. I’ve been reading and maybe watching more Youtube then I should be. I’m a bit sore, and truth is I just need to recover after the week that was. Nothing real bad happened, it was a very quiet week at work but Thursday was a terrible night for sleeping. I fell asleep early – with the rain coming down – but woke up and kept listening to podcasts.
Besides the crash the worse thing that happened this week, was I decided I wasn’t going to get my state tax refund in time to pay my federal taxes, so I transfered $1,000 out of savings to cover it. And the same day the transfer came through, the state tax refund appeared in my account. Literally, two weeks after filing. It’s good to know that transfers only take 1 day with my saving account now, so I could have in theory waited until Monday, though that was risky. Now to figure out what to do with that money, at one level I want to buy more bonds but I’m watching at interest rates are going back up and underlying bond prices fall. Not great for bond funds, and they don’t preform all that well. On the other hand, savings account rates are really good but it’s also generating so much interest that I’m ending up having to pay taxes on now. I could buy stock, but then you know Trump and his tarrifs. God I don’t know.
Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans! Doesn’t have to taste bad – you just need to experiment with spices and cooking it appropriately. After a few months, eating things without much fiber becomes so bland and uninteresting as you grow to love food with texture and structure! Chewing is good.
The other day I had a piece of white bread – yuck when you’re not used to eating things like that. I want my food to have flavor and texture!
People talk about smoothies with all that added sugar being good. I guess in fifty years when I’m in the nursing home in my last few hours on a feeding tube they’ll be good but I’ll have an apple or carrot today while I still have teeth.
When I own land, I want as simple and small of home possible, as I want to spend my money on the land and not the building. Acreage is more important then square footage, and indeed a small home would be easier to clean and more difficult to accumulate things. If you don’t have room, you can’t buy it. While certainly a hot shower, refrigerator, gas stove and oven, and wood fireplace are essential, I am willing to give up most other things within reason. Obviously I would want room to have a table where I can walk on my laptop, some place to get up and stretch on a rainy or cold snowy day, and a relatively comfortable bed.
A smaller building is easier to heat and maintain order in. Less distance for things to break, and I really don’t want to have utility electric or internet service at my building. I’d rather be a long-ways back from the road, so I have my privacy and not be causing a nuisance with neighbors with my music or fires. I want things as simple as possible, both for low cost and sustainability. I want to make as few trips as possible to the landfill, use as little coal, oil or propane in support of my home. Have some solar power, but not a large set up — just enough to keep a few LED lights on, have fans for cooling or moving heat around, charge my phone, laptop and other USB appliances.
I do think many of the tiny homes you see online are pretty gaudy with stainless steel refrigerators, fancy woodwork and paint jobs. Or they are so tiny, something easily moved on wheels. That’s a bit too small for me, but a nice hunting-cabin style property would be nice, especially way back off a road, only accessible by four wheel drive, quad or snowmobile. I don’t need a lot of space, but I do need something that is decently well insulated and dry to make it through the inevitable rainy and snowy periods. Better insulation is more wood saved, less wood to split and feed into the stove and fewer carbon emissions, after all.
Natural wood is good as is natural materials. I don’t want to pollute my own land and I don’t want to haul much waste to landfill. While natural products can be less efficient and suspect to rot and degradation, they are obviously much preferable to the synthetic plastics that are common on modern houses. I remember years ago when I was a children, when my neighbor got a new double wide delivered — and they burned the scrap vinyl siding. Nasty! There is definitely a balance to be struck, and it all depends on what the property I like ultimately has on it.
But it’s not tomorrow. I have a few years to continue to think about it all. I have time to continue to read and learn, and research into solar and batteries by scientists across the world is only going to produce better, more reliable products that will be cheaper. They’re is a lot of benefit to all this research going on in reducing carbon footprints, as it also means better products will be coming on the market for off-grid homes. Time is on my side.
Friday was a tough day. I still can’t believe I crashed my bike on the way to work, dozing off or otherwise not paying attention, hitting that curb, throwing myself off the bike, hitting my head and shoulder and banging up my knee. 
Now since I mention I was thrown by the bike, my social media feeds are full of advertising for traumatic brain injury lawyers and articles about recovering from concussions. But I was wearing a helmet, and I wasn’t that sore – I mean I rode the rest of way to work and then home in evening, though I wasn’t in a rush either way. That and at Friday 4:30 PM at work we got this brain twizzler selection request, which I couldn’t figure out but if I don’t master it first thing on Monday I’ll talk to the programmers. 
It’s good in the sense I don’t have to get changed or dressed up or shower, and I have spent a lot of day cooking – first breakfast then cooking down a big pan of beans and now some rice. 
I never got bananas or baking powder at the store this week, I might get some tomorrow, ride down to Hannaford in the morning or maybe the evening, or maybe on morning commute on Monday. I don’t know if I will shop on Monday or wait until Tuesday. I kind of would like more certainty for the forecast on Good Friday 
and whether or not it will be a holiday for me, but so much of that is tied up in state budget, not that data department gets involved in that unless members want to do communications on it. 
as it’s warm there, and it’s not like I’m willing to turn on the heat at this point – it’s mid April. I guess if it’s cold enough it will turn itself on but it’s not that cold and the thermostat is turned all the way down until November or so is plan. 
I keep hoping to get back to the woods, but wasn’t happen this weekend. I’ve been reading 
and maybe watching more Youtube then I should be. I’m a bit sore, and truth is I just need to recover after the week that was. Nothing real bad happened, it was a very quiet week at work but Thursday was a terrible night for sleeping. I fell asleep early – with the rain coming down – but woke up and kept listening to podcasts.
the worse thing that happened this week, was I decided I wasn’t going to get my state tax refund in time to pay my federal taxes, so I transfered $1,000 out of savings to cover it. And the same day the transfer came through, the state tax refund appeared in my account. 
Literally, two weeks after filing. It’s good to know that transfers only take 1 day with my saving account now, so I could have in theory waited until Monday, though that was risky. Now to figure out what to do with that money, at one level I want to buy more bonds but I’m watching at interest rates are going back up and underlying bond prices fall. Not great for bond funds, and they don’t preform all that well. On the other hand, savings account rates are really good but it’s also generating so much interest that I’m ending up having to pay taxes on now. I could buy stock, but then you know Trump and his tarrifs. God I don’t know. 
