Notes

While Red still quite wallowly at times – I am sure due to the rot, especially on the likely rotted out and cracked beam that carries the driver side rear shock – all and all I’ve been quite happy with his performance today. But I see the cancer throughout much of the frame, and it’s bad. It really metastasized over the past few weeks. Maybe I’m being wasteful and ignorant about not getting the frame rot fixed as everybody tells me I should do, but I know it’s just a patch over a truck that is going to need to be replaced in a few years regardless, and I want something I can safely and reliably take to the U. P. this summer and see more of America. That said, after today, I feel pretty confident I can get reliably get wherever I want to go for camping after Christmas one last time without fears of something crapping out. Red’s been good to me, but he’s getting old. I wish I had gone to the Salvation Army and the Pine Bush yesterday, and then maybe driven out into the mountains, just for a drive, but I am still kind of freaked out about the mechanic wishing me to “stay safe” with my rotted out truck. Shits bad, but I don’t think those Chevy’s come apart like the Dodges do sometimes.

The Nutcracker with Mom and Dad was good, but Mom this time didn’t mention doing it next year. I don’t know if it’s a sign, but they keep dropping hints that they won’t be around forever, today reminding me that I might inherit part of their estate, and previously reminding me about their 5-acre homestead. I should express interest in buying it from them on their passing, but I don’t know how to have that conversation. It’s not everything I want, but it would hold me over until retirement, and somebody has to take it and I doubt my sister wants it. I could do goats, pigs, hell even cows their but I’d have to buy feed. I just love the idea of having lots of manure for growing shit, and being able to turn food scraps into healthy food. And not so much plastic. Neighbors now have a ton of cows on their homestead. And quite the cannabis growing barn they built with grow lights. Kind of residential neighborhood though so I’d have to be careful what crap I burned, none of nasty plasticiky stuff like as I kid especially with the burn ban. The 1990s were fun, even if some of that shit stunk in old burn barrel. At least we didn’t have to send all our garbage to landfill weekly. Just a stinky fire! Truth is if I homesteaded, I’d probably have even less plastic trash and I could haul my recyclables to transfer station and have hot bonfires primarily for drinking beer around that wouldn’t smell much besides wood.

The Nutcracker was fun, I was enjoying looking at the male ballerinas and their big nut sacks. I can not lie, I like big balls. Maybe it’s all that reading about honey buck goats and cattle and general livestock breeding from all those books.  I really enjoyed all the colors of the lighting and ballerina dresses too, since occasionally smoking pot, I feel like I see colors much more richly both when I’m stoned and not so stone. My neice was cute, and it was a lot of beauty, though ballerinas and show more generally ain’t my thing. Okay, see now everybody knows Andy’s gay, I’m sure that’s the assumption around the office as people who are not married in their 40s are closeted gays. Or maybe I’m just into big balls, and worried my dick isn’t big enough, and that’s why I like big jacked up trucks.  I’m more of a hillbilly pyromaniac, not willing to give up my nights in the wilderness to settle down with the right girl or guy. All that dioxin from your trash fires you’re producing probably is fucking with your hormones.  That said, I should some day settle down, put down the match book, and still still do Facebook dating.  We had as a family together a nice dinner at the local Mexican place. Very bland food, but filling. Drove around and saw some of the lights.

After driving around to see the lights, I took my parents home. They don’t drive after dark anymore, their vision is poor like mine with before the LASIK surgery. I now have excellent night vision for driving after dark, even in my big jacked up truck. That said, I hated driving their little Honda SUV, the steering wheel felt so light and plasticky, no big burly V8 engine or long traveling brakes. I know a Toyota Tacoma would be such an economical choice, but I really want an F-250. Not a Silverado 2500, I’m totally turned off from GM after my rotted out frame. Of course I said the same thing when I got rid of my Ford Ranger 14 1/2 years ago for the Chevy. I just like riding up high, the feel of a big truck. That said, I don’t think I’ll lift my next truck, except maybe for putting on bigger tires when the first set wear out, and maybe a body lift or leveling kit or both. But not a full-bore 6″ suspension lift. The thing is the 3/4 ton trucks can easily take 35s without an issue, and with a leveling kit 37s. Lift kits are expensive, stress out parts of suspension, require permanent cuts and changes to the vehicle. And it’s just headaches, as mechanics don’t love working on lifted trucks, as their kind of third-party engineered hack jobs.

Still, I cringe at spending $10,000 or more over a Tacoma to get a 3/4 ton, or the inevitable more fuel consumption of such a big non-EPA rated truck. But I sure love the feel of how those big truck drive. I don’t want to drive some puny little Honda or Toyota, when I work hard, make good money, and are so frugal in other parts of my life, using public transit and still living in the same slummy apartment I’ve been in since college. What I love is my travels in BFE, the hills and hollows, roadside camping, and I feel like getting a small truck, having so much gear, would really crimp my experience at this point. Easier to park, less gas, cheaper, yes, but I still am very cynical about things like 0W-20 oil, electronic screens everywhere, crew cabs, and keyless entry. I do like how basic the Ford XL trucks truly are. Old fashioned key ignition! Manual hubs! Small display screens with mechanical guages! But maybe I would go one step up. I don’t know, I still budget money for a truck cap too.