Yeah, so I got this brilliant idea that I would ride the bike path home in the snow, as riding Second Avenue with all the traffic sucks dog balls. I knew I would be pushing my bike, partially in darkness, you unlawful dweller on the bike trail after dark, but I didn’t expect to get a flat tire on South Pearl Street, and unsuccessfully inflate the spare I had on me, and having to push my bike all the way up to Delaware and Elsmere where I was able to the load the bike on the bus for the rest of way home. It rode on the bike with a bad rear tire fine, got home, had dinner and went to bed.
I really should only carry a new spare tube on my bike, 🚲 and indeed I put both a new tube on the bike and a brand new spare on the bike, and will pick up another tube today at Wally World. I will patch the other tube, so I can hopefully get more use out of it, but it’s silly that I couldn’t swap out the tube due to my stupidity when I had one at home, and spare I had on the bike was crap. It wasn’t bad pushing the bike through the snow, it was a mild moonlit night, maybe a lit stiff but I did not break any spokes or knock the wheel any more out of true, and had the replacement tube mounted and ready to go by 7:30 AM this morning.
I wasn’t going to leave my bike in the South End over night, 🚨 lest it get stolen, so I my options were to put it on a bus, but I wasn’t sure how it would ride with the flat tire, so I logged it through the snow. Without the flat, I could have ridden it most of the way. Monday I very much may ride the bike trail, and I’m hopeful with rain and milder temperatures coming the second half of the week the trail should be mostly free of snow and ice for the second half of the week. If I had a vehicle, I might have chained it up, taken the Blue Bus to the 18 and then gotten my truck, but honestly, pushing it through the snow worked out fine and was home by 7:20 PM last night. Later then I was planning, but shit happens. 💩 It ultatmely worked out fine.
I had a feeling it was a bad idea to take the rail trail home with the snow still on it, ❄️ but I was like whatever, worse comes to worse I’ll slog the bike through the snow. I figured at this point the snow would be well packed, and with the warm weather, the trail wouldn’t be so rough to ride with the ice. It was fine, but I certainly was hoping it would have not been so dark when I was pushing the bike through the snow. The trail was packed and not rough, but I wasn’t going to ride the bike with a flat tire. It’s fixed, and in a bit I’ll head down to Wally World for supplies on the bike, 🛒 and maybe later on out to Five Rivers 🐸 to look for signs of spring. Still too much ICE and snow ☃️ for spring peepers.
Tomorrow is March, 🌬️ and it looks like this year it will be coming in like a lion. 🦁 I want to tomorrow look at the Ford March incentives, and on Monday I’ll call up DePaula to see if the they still have the trucks I’m interested in, 🚴 ride my bike and/or take the bus over on Tuesday morning to take a look or a test drive, though I don’t plan to purchase that day, and I won’t unlock my credit or share personal information beyond my phone and email 📧, although I guess they can take a picture of my driver’s license if required to test drive. I’ll ask for a follow up quote for the out-the-door price after my visit, and ask a bit about proposed fees and taxes, to see where things stand and what finance programs are avaliable though ultimately I don’t anticipate holding a note for long. After the test drive, I’ll decide if I really want a SuperDuty, and if I do, start reaching out dealers in around 150 miles to see what they want for an out-the-door price. ⛽ Maybe the Iran war will drive up gas prices, to help my case. I’d like to close the deal in March, 🤝 but it’s not the end of world one way or another.
I asked Google AI for some help about my situation…
Being in a state of sadness or depression without a support system (the “super duty” of emotional, social, or professional help) is a deeply challenging, isolating experience. It often feels like “screaming into the void” where one may feel unloved, ignored, or incapable of sustaining daily life.
At times I look at the SuperDuty trucks I see along the road, and I think how small and low to the ground compared to my old lifted truck – whose height is not much lower. Other times, not so much. I don’t know why there is such a difference in my perceived height when the I see these big trucks around, but sometimes they just look small and other times not so much. Maybe its when they are parked around big buildings or semi-trucks they just look small but in reality aren’t that small, especially in parking lots.
Today is the last Friday of February, with the month drawing to a close. There is no reason I have to get a truck in month of March, but I think it makes sense before the springtime inventory drop and so I have time to order a truck cap for my new rig.
Truth is despite what you might think, I’m really quite undecided. 🛻 I could get my old truck back on the road, get a 20-year old Honda Civic, get a SuperDuty, or a Toyota Tacoma. Or no vehicle at all – truth is the further I get away from driving the less I want to do it any more. I really don’ t like cars, all the stress, expense and hassle of owning one. But I thought you were so set on buying that goddamn gasser F-350 with the FX4 and STX packages and the long bed. I was going to call and ask the dealership to check if the trucks I’m interested are still on the lot, get a salesman’s name and see if they could meet me on Monday, but I’m leaning towards Tuesday morning, so I’ll make the call on Monday after checking inventories 🔎 and March Madness 🏀 incentives. You know, where they blow those trucks out of your ass. I eat a lot of pinto beans yesterday, but I didn’t have much gas. They’re so good and cheap in those 4-lb bags you get form Wally World.
Still I think about the cost of all the fuel, the various mechanical issues including catestrophic lifter failure and TorqueShift tyranny disingeration, 💣 bad steering shafts and under-carriage rot. Every time I open my social media posts, there is another reminder of some problem somebody is having with their Godzilla truck, as that is all the trends on my social media feed lately. Smiles per gallon, not miles per gallon. 😀 Drive to camp, smoke weed and ride my mountain bike. And after months of studying the art of negotiation from both sides, and how dealers can rip-you-off or ghost you, I am just nervous about the battle ahead to get the right vehicle at the right price. 💵 I know it’s not all a scam, and I can get a fair price, and if some dealers don’t want to work with me, guess what I don’t want to give them my hard earned money. Dealers, even drug or auto dealers, are people too, remember. 🤝 And it’s not like Godzilla trucks don’ t often get very heavy use and abuse, and the long-term non-extreme use data is still pretty limited as the engine has only been out for about 5 years now, but it’s a lot less mechanically complex then most of the turbo engines now.
Terrible thing about it is the process is almost kind of unreal, 🚘 in the sense that everybody is talking about auto debt, and I’m like over the past month and half, my net worth has increased almost enough to cover more then half of cost of the truck, though a lot of it is locked up in retirement accounts and doesn’t include capital gains tax on withdrawls, and is only on paper. 📊 Which of course means the downside could be far larger on paper, when the market declines, though I’ll still be buying more investments, and dollar cost averaging over time will move me forward. It’s going to suck the next time we have the big market decline and my net worth declines by 1/4 million or 1/2 million, making the SuperDuty look like child play. 🤓 I just keep geeking out on personal financial and market advice to feel less guilty, while everybody keeps nagging on me for leaving in a dumpy apartment and riding my mountain bike to suburban office campus with acres of parking, when I could own a 20-year old Honda Civic and a plastic house without smelly buck goats 🐐 or a well-blackened burning barrel for the garbage out back. 🛢️
I left work right at 5 PM yesterday 🚲 🚗 and the traffic was so awful on both Second Avenue and McAlpin Street as I fought my way home, weaving in and out from what seemed like far more parked cars with open doors and traffic rushing through downtown then a last remembered. 🫦It just was a stressful ride home, no close calls or mistakes, still I not fun. It will so much easier when the Rail Trail is free of snow, and I can safely and serenely ride through the quite of the gorge. I was so happy to reach the quiet residential streets for the last part of the ride. I couldn’t believe how truly heavy traffic was last night, it really was a headache. 👀
And yeah, yesterday I was kind of fucked up in the head, 🤕 because for some reason beyond my understanding I saw the weed sitting on my shelf, and decided to take a toke, which immediately put me into a deep haze, so I ended up popping a handful of caffeine pills 💊 and quietly walking into the office with a big grin on my road-salt encrusted face. 😀 Watching as the wheels of passing cars looked to be rather strange angles in my brain, studying those F-350s as the rolled down the road. I shouldn’t have done it before riding to work, but that fudge coffee ☕ was so tasty in the office and after two additional cups, I drank some water 💦 and by evening slept actually quite well, though I was super on edge all evening after th at commute. I shouldn’t have left right at 5 PM but instead let some of that traffic filter out of the city.
I heard the heat pop on when I was cooking breakfast, ♨️ and I was surprised and rushed to turn off the heat, thinking it was being wasteful to heat my apartment, even with just gas heat, when I’m heading out for the day. But the reason the heat kicked on is it’s only 11 degrees outside. But I thought today wasn’t going to be so cold. It’s not, it’s going to warm up but this morning is mad cold ❄️ even if it is sunny and clear. I am so ready for spring. 🌸 More apple 🍏 pancakes 🥞 for breakfast today with lots of shredded carrots and spices. It’s going to be yet another cold ride into the office today. 🚴 But then maybe 50 degrees on Saturday! Good weather for a ride to Wally World to buy groceries 🛒 and maybe out to Five Rivers to see Meads Cows 🐮 and maybe the birdies. 🐦
