Notes

15 degrees and the wind is roaring 🥶

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I’m good starting out my winter hiding under the covers. At some point I’ll face the morning, make some coffee and sit by the heater but I’m not rushing.

It’s cold outside. 🌬️ But it’s winter and that’s to be expected. I’m in no rush to get outside as with the wind it will be only colder and it’s comfortable under the covers. The heater and hot coffee ☕ will be nice but I also want to delay taking down camp 🏕️ and not leave until midday 🕛 when the roads are better.

With the snow ☃️ and no wind yesterday it was pretty camping and not super cold ❄️ by the standards leading up to Christmas 🎄. It was fun listening to podcasts and enjoying the fire 🔥 which I kept fairly small – warm enough but not burning through too much wood. 🪵Pretty too with the snow coming down.

I’m thinking about getting up around nine, 9️⃣ making a nice breakfast 🍳 and sitting by the heater, and then take camp down around ten into eleven and maybe doing a hike to enjoy the woods covered in snow. Head home around noontime, carefully driving in the snow 🚘 and getting home and things put away in the afternoon and maybe grocery shopping 🛒 in the evening or I could wait until morning. Tomorrow is my family 👪 event, going to see my niece at the Nutcracker ballet. 🥜

Dire Emergency 🐺

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Upstate NYers should be very concerned about climate change should the Dire Wolf return. This time, they won’t necessarily be staying south of the Leggs Stock Farm and the Pennsylvania border more generally.

“Dire wolf fossils have rarely been found north of 42°N latitude; there have been only five unconfirmed reports above this latitude. This range restriction is thought to be due to temperature, prey, or habitat limitations imposed by proximity to the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets that existed at the time.”

I missed my window of leaving before the snow 🌨️

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I’m a bit concerned about the roads tomorrow as it’s going to be cold after the snow today and tomorrow but I don’t have to leave early – just before it gets too cold.

I am actually looking forward to some winter camping in the snow ☃️. I guess I’ve camped a few times in snow storms but still it’s fun especially once I get that roaring fire 🔥 going this evening. Cheese Hill Road was a bit icer than expected yesterday but it had sand on it and I expect throughout the snow storm they’ll be plowing it. The county highways were bare on the way up but I worry they might not be on the way back home on Saturday after the snow and cold move in.

It’s fine, it will be an adventure and while I have to be home by Sunday and before that to beat the cold 🥶 there’s no real rush tomorrow time wise. And the snow is beautiful, I have a half tank of gas and lots of propane and food. 🪵 Today is about enjoying the beauty of the snow storm here at Rennselaerville State Forest. Today I’m just going to wander the woods in the snow ☃️ and then come back for a nice fire. 🔥 I got a good stack of wood chopped and ready to go for this evening. 🪓

What do I think the next four years will be like with the Rodeo Clown in the next four years? 🤡

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Entertaining in a somewhat cringe worthy way.

Truth is that I don’t own a color television and don’t pay much attention to the news these days. Outside of the weather it’s not obvious what benefit there is to watching the news outside of getting really angry and learning about the latest consumer products out there to buy.

I think the threat and promise of a second Trump Presidency will be overblown. In many cases, Trump will be rebuffed by institutions, other politicians, and the public – especially if he takes unpopular measures. A four year time period goes by remarkably quickly these days, and policies can be upended and changed depending on popular will and whomever is elected in four years.

At some point there will be a market correction, though I generally believe politicians care about their jobs and know how much money is tied up in the market and will take steps to stop the bleeding. I also think the American economy is so big and diversified that such a downfall while painful in the short term won’t last. Might help slow the rise of prices and mean some good buys in the markets. Plus I still have 13 years until retirement.

I think climate change will really start to bite harder into our every day life. It’s already starting to mess up the entire insurance market, with car and home insurance skyrocketing. It could further boost the housing crisis, as more people loose their homes from natural disasters. That said, I’m not sure if climate change deserves all the blame, or if it’s bad policies executed at local and state level that encourage housing development in all the wrong locations – areas that are flood or fire prone – and building patterns that concentrate water flows that ultimately make it easier for an area to flood.

On the other hand, am I convinced that there will be massive action on climate change? Not really, even if we should be doing something. Adaption will occur as people and institutions are lost adverse, and technology will march on. I think solar and wind will continue to expand, not just in blue states, but because it’s a cheap form of energy to build out on a per unit basis. We need cheap, peaking power these days, not baseload energy like coal and nuclear. Probably more gas plants will be built too, under the auspices of interim, which will be determintal to climate goals.

All and all, I am not that worried about the next four years. Maybe we would have made more progress under a Harris administration, but Trump will be good on the second amendment, and somebody has to lead our country. Maybe not my first choice, but we have to live with whomever was chosen by the voters.

Thirteen years or 2038

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You know those sound like vastly different time spans when you write them out. But in thirteen years from now it will be the end of 2037, my 54th year coming to a close, with my 55th birthday that January.

But on the other hand, 13 years ago wasn’t that long ago. I’ve had Big Red more then 13 years now, I was starting out as a coordinator back then. I had already been working for the Assembly for four years then, so it’s not like I was just at of college at that point.

But 55 seems so old – even if that’s when I’m hoping if I execute my retirement stragety correctly – I can hang up my hat in favor of owning my own land and an off-grid cabin – and work either part time or at least in a job that allows me to live in an area that suits my values.

Four days away from the office, two more left at work through the end of the year 😊

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Heading up to camp mid-morning, going to spend out in the wilderness through Saturday, when I will come back home. Expecting a few inches of snow on Friday, I figure that will make for a pretty afternoon and evening. Not a lot of snow where I’m going but it should be cold enough that it won’t be all sloppy.

Nice morning around the freezing point this morning. ☀️ Looking forward to getting away for a few days leading up to Christmas. Then back to work on Monday and Tuesday, Christmas Eve. Then I’m off through January 2nd, when it’s back to the winter grind in the office. But by mid month, there will be enough daylight in the evening that at least I won’t be riding back to the express bus 🚍 in darkness, and by President Day, I’ll be able to ride all the way home, assuming the rail trail is free of snow and ice.

Getting packed this morning, slowly, as I’m not in that much of a rush to get out in the woods but I need time to get set up and gather wood 🪵 before dark. Plus I’d rather be at camp around noontime so I can have a nice lunch, maybe ride or read during the afternoon and listen some podcasts. 🎧 Have some time before dark, which will come much too early this time of year. I remain too much of a sugar fein, I had chocolate pancakes this morning, 🥞 I bought a big container of pure baking coca at the store this week. Coca itself doesn’t have a lot of sugar and fat, and I used an egg and a little bit of olive oil and Stevia to give it that chocholately goodness with the fats and sugars.

It should be good to camp. 🏕️ Fully expect it to be cold, but I’m looking forward to the snow tomorrow –  the road I’m camping on will be plowed – and it should be pretty watching the fresh falling snow. ☃️ They are talking about 2-4 inches of snow, which is nice but not so much to deal with at camp. I’m probably going to sleep in the truck cap, so I’m not worried about digging the tent out of the snow. Then just kind of relaxing, catching up on my reading. 📖 Bringing my bike, not sure how much I will ride, depends on how deep the snow is up there, though I’m not expecting more then a few inches. Also it will depend on how windy and cool its up there at camp.

Truth was I didn’t sleep that great last night, 🌃 probably way too much caffeine and sugar. ☕ 🍪 They had a lunch in at work yesterday, with too much sugary cookies that deserved a lot of coffee to dip it in. Plus it was another busy day at work, I was trying to get caught up before I took off the rest of the week. I realized I coded a bunch of records incorrectly, so I had to fix them. 🖥️ It’s fine, I can run the job at night next week nohup and the server will fix them as I sleep. 😴

Been thinking about the new year. 💵 I really should look more at finding a fee-based advisor to go over my investments. I do worry about paying a lot of money and not getting something worthwhile in return, or pushed into a bad investment. Trust but verify. I need to read up more about such things, 📚 and while I’m pretty happy with mostly simple index-based investing, I often find it hard to fully understand the tax ramifications of my decisions. Maybe I’m stubborn, but I’m not like some – here’s my money – go invest it and if it looks like I’m getting some return never question it. Maybe it’s like my experiences with the mental health treatment – they promise you so much but the truth is they often don’t have any answers beyond what you already know. Still, I do value the ideas of experts in the field.

It’s great to spend time out in the wilderness, 🎄 but I still want some point to have a place to call home that isn’t a dumpy apartment in the suburbs. But I don’t know. That’s why I spend so much time and money investing and saving for the future. So these trips don’t have to be just something I do a every few weeks! And I have better shelter then a truck cap in the cold!