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With maybe one of the last minor snow storms of the winter on the way, hopefully, the blood moon was not visible this morning, but the carrot pancakes were good though runny at first as I put too much water in the solution.

So glad with the snow 🌨️ melt I could ride the Rail Trail both ways to work yesterday. It beat some of the stress of dealing with car dealerships yesterday. Truth is that I hate driving 🚘 and Second Avenue was pretty stressful at times to ride with the traffic and parked cars. Bike trail is icy but well packed and not too rough to ride. Hopefully the mild temperatures and rain will thin out the remaining of the ice. 🚲

I did not sleep well last night, 🛏️ as the various dealerships I talked to yesterday where for the most part not pleasant to deal with. Keep listening to the news 📰 and reporting about the Iran war. 🇮🇷 And my SuperDoubts continue about the big truck with the whole Iran situation. I’ve started to look more seriously at Toyota Tacomas with the six foot bed, but they’re not that much cheaper and I’m not convinced the reliability is much better. You do get a lot more technology with the Toyota though, for good or bad, unlike the base HD work trucks. Like adaptive cruise control. And also electric cars, especially used electric cars, 🔋 they are so cheap for what you get. But I don’t want a commuter vehicle, but the price of fuel for SuperDuty gives me a lot of pause. Maybe I should look more at 6.8L Minizilla trucks. 😳 I also don’t love the look of me being in a big truck to my landlord, my friends, especially the more greenie and liberal persuasion. 🌎

And honestly, I kind of like not having a car, riding my bike everywhere. 🚲 Trash pickup isn’t an excuse to get a truck, nor the freedom of having fires in the woods. 🔥 March 16th is coming up, and all social media accounts are warning ⚠️ about coming fire restrictions and risk with spring brown season ahead. And don’t you even think of burning anything plastic, unless of course you are in frugal living group in a rural part of a free state where plenty of people live without trash pickup. 🤜 I keep thinking how much money I would save this summer if I skipped traveling, stayed close to home, and rather then doing a summer vacation just taking days off from work and going to bike rides around town, 🚲 maybe riding out to a State Forest like Cole Hill with just a hammock, some food, matches, and flashlight and doing nights up in the woods. 🏕️ I just worry a lot about gas prices sky rocketing, 🚀 ⛽ and all the costs of unreliable big Ford truck.

I got back both very large state and federal refunds this year, 💰 as I really over-estimated my withholding based on the previous year’s dividends and interest rates, but both of them fell last year. I was sure my tax forms would be rejected for mistakes as the refunds seemed to large, but my withholding needs to be adjusted. I was bit the previous year by not withholding enough, so I bumped things up way too much last year. 🤷‍♂️ I’m just glad my tax returns were approved, as while they were honest and accurate, I thought 💭 by the size of the refund. Plenty for the truck cap or a sizable down-payment on the truck. I know I made the government rich this past year but I didn’t want to get fined.

Truth is though I’m my toughest critic, 💢 and of course the dealerships want as much leverage as possible over me and accuse me of being difficult. But I’m also quite undecided and not very confident despite my months of study. Guess what, I have my position to defend, and if you don’t like it too bad. 🖕 I’m going to the Guilderland Town Board to argue for more land preservation tonight with the Save the Pine Bush, 🦋 much to disapproval of the some of leaders and developers. But you got to fight for what is right these days. 🇮🇷 I thought about going to some of the Iran War protests but it’s difficult to find time in my schedule.