Notes

You could smell the carbon monoxide from the cars this morning at the traffic light as I hurried out to the local bus downtown. Catalytic converters don’t work well in the cold and engines don’t cycle between rich and lean until they get fully warmed up. If I had taken Big Red to work today, he would have been such a dog on the bypass before he warmed up, going 0 to 55 in I don’t know a minute or two. It needs a light on the dash to show that it’s moving when it’s cold. Compression what’s that in the cold?

But regardless it’s warm on the bus downtown. Wasn’t sure when I first got on the bus but the driver cranked up the heat. I actually watched the bus real time info and checking that the bus had left Price Chopper before heading out to the stop. Then it’s a quick dip under the portico of that gaudy old office building downtown, then through the Concourse where I’ll wait inside for the shuttle over to the Starship. I need to dig out Big Red tomorrow and clean off the solar panel to top off the batteries. Sunday I’ll head over to visit the folks and maybe Monday or Tuesday I’ll drive to work. But the other days my hope is to be riding back to work. Not sure if I’ll be able to do the Rail Trail with the snow and ice but the alternative is Corning’s Hill which is fine. Friday is the Christmas, I mean Holiday Party at work. Or whatever the Trumpster wants to call it, as long as he doesn’t keep taking datasets off the internet.

It was so windy in the wind tunnel between the Capitol and the Concourse this morning. The Capitol was actually a bit cold this morning while the Concourse was warm. Go figure that’s rarely the case. My office in the Starship is above the loading dock which offers some comedy when it’s icy and the semi trucks but everybody says it’s cold in the winter but it’s unlikely for me to notice as I keep my heat at 50 degrees at home . I do wish I had a woodstove. Should have bought a house or a cabin or something.

I was up at 4 AM this morning. Had to pee and poop and figured that meant it was time to heat up coffee on the peculator. Then it was cornmeal pancakes with carrot, oatmeal, onions, whole-wheat flour and stevia. Topped with more of Franks Red Hot Sauce and plain Greek yogurt. Does Franks Red Hot Sauce count as a processed food? I guess it does, and its loaded with salt. But it’s calorie free as it’s mostly just peppers and salt, and a bunch of wonder chemicals. So I don’t know if it’s the worse thing ever, certainly better then the crap most people eat. I get the big plastic bottle, which I don’t wash out but just toss it in the white bag and turn it into fire when I’m done. Don’t you know, the woke folk people like to say, burning plastic is so bad, and you can recycle plastic, snicker snicker. As long as it’s not the PVC, it really isn’t that stinky or bad.

Tomorrow more reading and probably a ride out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. Now  I’m kind of wishing I had skis but it’s just more shit to own, break down and discard. A lot depends ultimately on how cold it is. Next weekend with rifle season done I might do a couple of nights in the wilderness . Depends again on the weather. I have a feeling that the cold will break by the middle to the end of the month because it’s rare cold lasts for any length of time any more.

Next week, I need to schedule the inspection for Big Red. He seems to be running good now, and I replaced that bad license plate bulb, so I’m not anticipating any major issues. But I still think I will replace him next year while he’s still running decently so I can shop around and make decisions without feeling too pressured to buy with a dead truck somewhere along the road. 🛻 I keep telling myself I should just get a simple Toyota Tacoma with the 6-foot bed, but I kind of like the big trucks and want to get a regular cab 3/4 ton 4×4 for the 8-foot bed and the big truck feel but no so much for the gas milage. Probably not going to live in the city for the next 15 years, nor do I need something that big to to cows or other trailers at this point.