Between 1951 and 1969, the Punxsutawney Phil always saw his shadow. In comparison, between 2005 and 2025, the Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow 7 times. 🐻
The facts are simple — the Ground Hog is seeing his shadow less today then in years past. Long winters are becoming rarer.
Hasn’t happened yet, but we know it’s going to happen in Punxsytunney. Six more weeks of winter, as poor desperate as individual without a car. Supposed to warm up quickly, though I need to see how breezy it is before I actually ride in on my bike, figuring that I didn’t ride at all in on bike last week. I guess the bus is fine, but I’d rather get into the office all pumped up and ready for the week ahead. I can’t believe Presidents Week is in two weeks, and some time that week I want to test drive my first SuperDuty truck and convince myself I don’t really want such a big assed, expensive gas guzzling truck.
I feel like I am getting fat having not ridden my bike much lately, my 34×32 jeans 👖 at times feel tight, at least certain pairs but I think some have shrunk in the washing machine. Excuses. It’s true I am enjoying those weekly meals 🍝 at Mom and Dad’s more then I did when I was more weight conscious but at home it’s mostly lots of onions and pinto beans, apple pancakes made from whole wheat flour, eggs and Stevia. That said, I’ve been baking and eating a lot of homemade bread, though I use shredded carrot in both that and pancakes, 🥞 so it’s not quite a bad. And so much Apple Cider Vingar, I’m totally trashing my teeth with that constant bath of acid but I love the taste of it in my water. Plain water is like yucky, 🤮 but at some ACV to it and it’s almost like a magic drinking solution. I totally get why cattle love to drink water with ACV. Finished off the last of sweet potatoes I had boiled and mashed last night, skin and all, they are good. And I made another big pot of pinto beans up yesterday. For me, pinto beans and a dash of salt is peak eating, especially if you mix some sweet corn in the mix or fry up with onions. With all my love of food, I got to get back to riding more. 🚲 At least I don’t eat all of that comemrical crap wrapped in plastic that stinks when you burn it.
It was nice visiting with the folks and getting out of the city for a bit. They seem to be doing well, despite the cold. 🥶Not that it’s like even if I had a car I would be doing a lot in wilderness having been such a cold and snowy January heading into February. Riding back with dad, studying the landscape, I was noticing how many new houses have gone up in recent years, and how rural isn’t really that rural. 🏡 Really, you have to get out pretty farm out to get deep rural anywhere near Albany. The places I really love are far from the city. 🐐 Buying a house in Albany area for a homestead really doesn’t make sense with neighbors right up your ass and in the middle of your property. Especially if you want the freedom to burn, shoot guns and have livestock without smelling too much hog shit or plastic in the burn barrel. 🐽 💩 Bacon is great but hogs stink. 🥓 I do miss being out in country, but less so in New York especially when I realize how built up and how close the neighbors are even in small town I grew up in. Rural just doesn’t seem that rural any more, it’s more then just burn ban 🛢️ and SAFE Act, 🔫 I want to be some place far more remote and wild. 🐺 As the internet meme on dairy sites says, Happiness Does Have a Smell – Like Barnyard, and Manure, the Smell of Home.
I wanted to ride to Walmart yesterday, but I decided with the continued cold and light frigid breeze, I’d be better off just riding down to Price Chopper and getting bananas, apples and oatmeal. Good for making pancakes this week, I’ve been really into the apple pancakes 🍏 I’ve been making lately. Price Chopper in Slingerlands is really overpriced with all their plastic labeled woke products but it’s closer then Walmart and they have oatmeal in bags rather then the round containers, so a lot less trash though when I was having fires, the paper burns cleaner. 🔥 Honestly, I think the Walmart oatmeal in the tube is cheaper, so when I get my big-assed truck and can easily drive there in the spring, I’ll go back there for most of my weekly combustible plastics and food ration. Just imagine if I compost my poop like I do my food waste. If it hadn’t been so dang cold all weekend, particularly with the at occassionally roaring wind 🍃, I would have taken Bender Lane to Wally World if hadn’t been so cold. It’s just not pleasant to ride in 5 degree weather with the wind whipping around. 🌬️
Truth is I kind of want a SuperDuty more with the XL Off-Road Package then a STX appearance package with the FX4 Off-Road. 🛻 Tremor package is out of my budget. I’m unwilling to blow that much cash. 💰 The XL Off-Road Package is a real off-road package on the base truck like for ranches and oil field workers, with halogen headlights that are cheap replace, plus with the XL Off-Road you get 33″ mud tires, breather tubes for forging creeks, a bit better ground clearance compared to FX4 which is more about looking good and basic off-road capacity. ⛰️ That said, not a lot of dealers have trucks with the XL Off-Road Package, as it’s probably not a big seller for those looking for pretty more then functional trucks. But the STX FX4 certainly looks prettier, and I can put mud or at least 33 or 35 BFG ATs on later. Probably get better gas milage that way. And let’s be honest, factory tires are going to be cheap crap that wears quickly and needs replacement in a few years. Maybe I do get a leveling kit and do 37s eventually. But I hate the LEDs and gee-gaws on STX, though I’m having second thoughts about how nice the 360 cameras would be for getting a ginormous truck in parking in city or narrow campsites. I don’t know, I just like big trucks with big nubby tires, but let’s be honest, I’m not going to any real serious off-roading in a $60,000 big-assed F-350. I like the working man truck look, even if the underpinnings are pretty serious work. Decisions, decision. Tough life, as a poor desperate individual who rides his mountain bike 🚲 in the freezing windchill and gasp rides the public transit with the people on pogey, because he doesn’t yet have a ginormous F-350. Or F-250, I don’t really care that much how much I can tow. How do you survive without a car, you poor, desperate individual relying on your mountain bike and city buses?
This map shows 100 natural gas power plants -- co-gen and mid-market plants across New York State. The aerial photographs are from 2016-2020 an are fully-zoomable to 21 scale resolution.
Data Source: Energy Information Agency. https://www.eia.gov/maps/layer_info-m.php
(Verse 1)
She’s a silver streak of plastic in a world of SUVs
With a dashboard made of polymer and memories
Parallel parking is a breeze, a three-point turn’s a joke
She’s the ultra-reliable champion that never blows a smoke
While the neighbors pay for chargers or a massive diesel tank
I’m just whistling my way right to the local savings bank.
(Chorus)
Twenty years of rolling, thirty miles to the gallon
A frugal little warrior, a suburban street stallion
From the grey office park to the commercial shopping mall
She’s the greenest little thing that’ll never ever stall
Two hundred thousand miles and she’s just getting warm
The Honda Civic glory, weathering every storm.
(Verse 2)
The door chime’s got a rhythm, the seats are worn-in grey
She takes me to the cubicle to start another day
No flashy chrome or leather, just functional design
Keeping my commuter budget perfectly in line
She fits in every tiny spot, she’s light upon the earth
Proving every single day exactly what she’s worth.
(Bridge)
It’s a sea of molded plastic and a simple four-pot beat
The most sensible companion on any city street
She’s not a status symbol, she’s a promise kept in steel
The most honest, green, and frugal way to get behind the wheel.
(Outro)
Yeah, the odometer keeps climbing, but she’s feeling evergreen
The best twenty-year-old partner the suburbs ever seen.