I mean it’s a good deal… only applied about 7 months ago…. I think its $14 a pay period for unlimited rides but without the express bus and biking to work most days at my suburban office with acres of free parking, not such a good a deal. Worth a try, and I would certainly do it if there was value in the proposition but between biking and driving, hardly a great deal!
The whole bus situation is endlessly frustrating though, since the express bus disappeared. The local bus just doesn’t correspond well with my schedule after you figure in the transfer. And it’s so slow and crowded. I get that there is free parking where I work, but I don’t love driving with traffic – it’s not just the cost of the fuel but also the pain of fighting traffic and cops. Honestly, I can’t wait until mid-February when there is enough daylight to ride my bike both ways to work again.
So I got this flyer from some kind of mortgage company in the mail, didn’t even look at much before tossing it in the basket with the rest of the paper trash. For some reason, I pulled it out of the trash before tossing it in the fire, I don’t actually know why. Actually I do, there was a picture on the cover of a post-and-beam structure on the cover and inside very typical suburbanite houses. It was advertising the low amount of money down – not just because you don’t have money for a large down payment but as a way to avoid capital gains taxes and keep your money in the market. I had to think, catchy advertising.
Soon enough though that ad will just be another blackened sheet of paper, some smoke and ash. Truth is I do need to find a home but I still can’t bring myself to buy something in New York with the burn ban and the gun laws. Having enough land and buffer from the neighbors helps, but it’s so risky. And the high utility costs, the lock-in of having to pay for fossil fuel electricity and heat each month for enormous non-shared structure seems like a waste. Likewise, it seems like a waste to burn a shit ton of gasoline and be forced to drive back and forth to work every day. The question in my mind – what for? Building equity the advertisement proudly acclaims!
It’s trash I tell myself. I don’t want a home, a place I’m tied to that I spend all my time driving back and forth to, fixing broken shit. I mean I do want to some day have land and livestock, a place where I can burn shit and shoot guns, but I also am not ready to give up my life at this point – traveling and exploring – just so I can shovel feed and manure and weed a garden. And to buy a house in New York is to make a commitment to the state beyond what I have at my work. It means giving up on the goal of having that off-grid homestead in a place where I can left alone from government harassment and stupid laws written for the urbanite. I honestly don’t want something that can bought with a mortgage or insured by an insurer. I’d much rather have something if it burns, I can push the debris into a hollow, throw some dirt over it, and start over again without much significant loss. Something not made entirely of plastic and particle board, asphalt and pine lumber.
It looks like a cold November weekend, with rain on Sunday turning to snow showers Monday and Tuesday, with a stiff breeze to West. Do I do the Horse Camp? Stoney Pond in Cazenovia? Long Pond in Greene? Burnt-Rossman?
Rain will be cold but the snow flurries and dusting of snow 🌨️ might be fun come Monday into Veterans Day, though probably cold with the wind. I would have to get propane either tonight or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow, stop at Tractor Supply in Guilderland on US 20 then get overpriced groceries at Hannaford in Duanesburg. I need to decide today, so I can let my supervisors know I’m not coming in on Monday. Going to be cold and wet, and I’m not looking forward to the wind while camping, but what is the alternative? 🍻 I have lots of beer and weed from previous purchases. Just need a few groceries to supplement what I have, maybe I can cook up pinto beans this evening and bake bread 🍞 first thing tomorrow before leaving. It sounds like I’ve made up my mind to camp in the rain, snow and wind, but I don’t think that’s true.
Next weekend opens rifle season 🦌 so this is the weekend to get out for sure. But it also doesn’t seem like a real pleasant one and it’s not like I have ton of extra vacation time. Maybe I should just stay home and read, go up to the Salvation Army, get more shirts to wear for work. Get that picture 📸 of the John Wolcott sign in the Pine Bush, ride trail for a bit there. 🚲 Then really the best chance to get out is after Thanksgiving, probably up to the East Branch. Though I’m thinking increasingly about something more in the Eastern Adirondacks/High Peaks area, maybe NY 28N and Boreas River, and riding or driving to some areas around there. By then riffle season is mostly done and with some blaze orange and giving the final deer hunters their space, Is houdl be good.
I got a flat, well low tire ☹️ when I left the Alfred Smith Building yesterday, but I carry an air pump with me and topped it off a few times and that got me back to the suburban Starship office in Menands 🏢 and then after adding more air was able to catch the local bus home and I was home by 6:15. It was a big articulated bus, which bumped along the rough streets of Albany, stopping every 50 feet to pick up more yokels, before grunting along. I do miss the express, and while it’s possible I could catch the earlier local, it’s only if it’s running late. But I like riding my bike to work. Sure, I could drive my big jacked up truck to work with the acres of parking, like most of the suburbanites do, and get home by 5:30 PM but that involves fighting traffic, no exercise, gas, and cops up your ass at every street corner. ⛽ The tire only lost a bit of air last night, I am going to fill it up hard with the electric pump on my truck, and I should be good for today. I thought about driving in today to get groceries,🍌 but if I stop at Hannaford for bananas this morning Is houdl be good.
I still haven’t turned the heat on, ♨️ so I went to bed around 7 PM last night after dinner, officially to read and maybe watch a Yotubue video but I mostly just flipped open TikTok to watch rednecks burning shit and farmers doing farmer shit, then put on a Fresh Air Podcast about how Trump will put his finger on scales ⚖️ for the 2026 election using dubious means to help the GOP win close elections. Politics crap, I don’t really care that much. I was dead out by 7:30 PM and up at around 4 or 4:30 AM this morning though I didn’t start the coffee ☕ until closer to 5 AM. Heading into the shower shortly, 🚿 once I find a reasonably clean shirt to wear, and then off to work on this Friday. I got to decide on the weekend soon, as I do need to let both my parents know and the bosses.
