At times this morning, that wind was really roaring like crazy, as the mercury drops into the single digits after a light dusting or maybe an inch of snow last night. This frigid weekend might be the last real roar of winter, slowly but surely next week into Presidents Week there is a moderating trend and possibly close to normal or above normal come the following week.
I am glad the poor desperate individual on the mountain bike, 🚲 decided to go grocery shopping on Thursday night, so I can stay home, preferably under my heated blanket for the balance of the day. I have one of those Italian Bean Soup mixes soaking in the fridge, going to make some bread up later in the day and maybe cook up that acorn squash that’s been sitting in the kitchen for some time for a late lunch or early dinner. I was going to bring my laptop home but ultimately I decided against it. My computer monitor is at work, and honestly I don’t like using my computer that much anymore. Truth is with being so cold, once I’m done blogging for the day, I’ll probably climb under my heated blanket, and spend the balance of my day there were it’s warm. 🛏️ But first I want to get my hands kneading bread to have with the Italian Bean Soup. Sounds like a good meal with things being so cold.
I’ve been spending some time chatting with the Google AI – that is Gemeni about my situation with my truck, 🛻 trying to get some non-judgemental advice both on personal finance, the roll of my truck, what to buy, and how to go about doing it. While I have done a lot of research and given it a lot of though, as a very frugal person, spending $60,000 on a vehicle I’m going to throw away in 15 years seems so extravagant and wasteful. Not to mention a Godzilla engine is going to suck down fuel like crazy and be expensive to drive and insure. As the Google AI notes, “It is clear that this conflict arises because you are evaluating the purchase through two different lenses: your identity as a frugal person and your values as an individual.”
I keep getting suggested these videos on YouTube about people who get over their heads with crazy-expensive, unreliable cars financed by high interest loans. 💸 And reminders how truly wrong people can get when buying a car, doing lasting financial damage. But as the AI notes, “you have achieved a level of financial independence where ‘frugality’ no longer needs to be about survival or strict deprivation. Instead, it can transition into intentionality.” True financial experts often suggest ‘cutting costs mercilessly on the things that don’t matter so you can spend extravagantly on the things that do.’ You have already done the hard part—cutting the ‘doesn’t matter’ list to the bone. This truck is the ‘does matter’ exception.”
Google AI also says I should go to the Godzilla, 🐲 it’s worth the extra money for better reliability and power and it’s not that much of a difference in cost or fuel economy over the Minizilla – and will be good especially if I do end up buying land in the next few years and need to tow livestock or equipment trailers. 🐐 You don’t want to break down in BFE Michigan, and you want the truck to last for 15 years, and if I change my mind about the SuperDuty, a Godzilla truck will have a much higher trade in. It does kind of limit my choices though, as the Godzilla isn’t as common on low-trim trucks I’m most interested in – which means less negogating power at dealerships. And it does sound a lot cooler to tell the bros, I have an F-350 one-ton with a fucking Godzilla, not one of those F-250 3/4 tons with a Minizilla. And the TorqueFlite 10R140 is tougher tranny then a TorqueFlite Q 10R100.
The poor desperate individual without a car went grocery shopping on his bike, after dark before the extreme danger cold pushes in this weekend. Which I’m pretty damn tough, but yeah, negative 30 or 40 degree windchill would be tough on my fingers riding down to Hannaford. So I did it last night in the dark.
See if you had a ginormous Ford SuperDuty with a Godzilla or maybe Minizilla engine, 🛻 I could like so totally be warming the climate 🌎 not just with my plastic trash fires but also driving said ginormous truck to supermarket, not that I would as parking such a beast would be a bitch. 🅿️ So I guess it best to ride my mountain bike 🚴 there, singing along with Ian Tyson and Dick Curless like I was last night. I mean it will sound 🔊 great in the SuperDuty but riding the bike burns calories. 🦵🏻
Yeah, I’m riding the bus 🚍 in today. I don’t know for sure when the snow is coming 🌨️ but I don’t really love 😍 riding Corning’s Hill. I made cornmeal pancakes 🥞 to bring in for the chilli 🌶️ contest at work. 🥣 I don’t know how many people from my unit will be there but I’ll be enjoying it and I figure I’ll spend the balance of the day downtown as I’ll have meetings after that. 🤝 I’m also kind of tired as I woke up at 4 am or at least somewhat after the Teat Strippers 🐮 sent out the Morning Ag Clips. 📧
Still want to take off half or maybe a full day during President’s Week to test drive a SuperDuty like I’m interested in 🛻 though neither DePaula Ford or Metro Ford have many SuperDuties with extended cabs like I want. I’m leaning towards now an extended cab, 8′ long bed 4×4 with the STX Appearance Package and the FX4 Off-Road Package. Also want the cskoer/plow package for the large alternators for charging the accessory batteries without the stink of a cooking alternator. This is a fairly common configuration that maximizes my ability to leverage dealers against each other. If I’m spending so much money 💰 I don’t want it to look like a complete stripper truck even if I dislike LED headlights due to the cost of replacements. But I figure if they fail I’m sure there will be junkyard or aftermarket ones but there is something to say about simple old halogen. Still all this complexity in cars is bull shit, I’d probably get a half ton if I could get one without a blower or DoD. Or maybe not, I like ginormous trucks. I plan to put out bids for out the door pricing in a month to at least a dozen dealers and take delivery by the end of March assuming it’s not an enormous blizzard and order a camper shell in April. I’ll get a ride out to the hick town where the truck is available, sign for papers 📄 and find out how painful it is gas up a HD truck and how much of an expensive lawn ornament it will be. ⛽
So yeah, moving forward. ▶️ There was a car fire downtown 🚒 as I rode my bike to work 🚲 yesterday and it was making an enormous mushroom 🍄 cloud ☁️ of black smoke though I was up wind the whole time so I missed the stink. 👃 You could smell the compost plant though pretty strongly in the office 🏢 yesterday. But that’s to be expected. The digital media list process I developed in the office is going smoothly the first day, it was a lot of steps to get done but it’s good to see it moving forward. I’m bring my laptop home this weekend 💻, I might walk down to the library tomorrow or use it at home. I’ll bus it on Monday 🚍 too as it’s going to be pretty cold ❄️. But it looks like a moderating period as Presidents Day approaches and I’m hopeful to be mostly riding both directions to work, especially if we get some rain ☔ to melt the snow on the bike trail.
Lately I’ve totally been on a rant about how bad new pickup trucks are with their downsized, turbo-charged or super-charged engines. How the fucking EPA has ruined everything in America. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten enthralled with big pickup trucks, I want an HD truck to replace my lifted Silverado half-ton. But also I agree with a lot of mechanics criticism of the downscaled turbo-charged engines, you’re putting a lot of stress on a small little block with all that boost for a vehicle that’s designed both to tow and provide reliable transportation for the next decade and a half. Naturally aspirated engines, especially big block, overbuilt engines, are much more reliable then blown small-block engines.
We were warned a decade ago that tightening fuel economy standards would require pickup truck manufacturers to go to these downscaled, blown engines. But maybe I had too much faith in technology and clever engines – and that blown engines wouldn’t be so bad. Yet, I fear they are as bad critics says they are. People said the 5.3L displacement on demand engine in my old Silverado would develop a lifter tick and a premature death but besides it’s on and off oil drinking problem, it was fine. And the problem with large displacement engines is they require a lot more gas, even under light demand, especially in city driving when the throttle is either closed or mostly closed, causing engine vacuum to increase, slowing the vehicle down more then desired in city driving. At highway speeds, this is far less of an issue because usually the throttle is at least partially open to overcome wind resistance.
It seems odd that as an environmentalist, I would be shitting on the EPA and fuel economy standards. But it’s obvious they’ve made life worse and more costly for Americans without getting us closer to electrification of transportation. Electricity is the ultimate of transportation fuel, especially as we get better at storing and managing it. You can generate it by virtually any fuel source, and most homeowners and rural residents can generate it on-site. It’s both the ultimate climate and air pollution solution – it’s a lot easier to clean up one big tailpipe then a million other ones. But instead, we are stuck with a lot of shitty EPA-mandated engine designs and air pollution equipment that only half works and is expensive and unreliable.
Don’t’ get me started on EPA and clean air people ruined diesel …
If I was remotely responsible, I would have gone to the store last night after work and stocked up my pantry. But maybe I’ll do that tonight as the weekend looks like it will be another bitterly cold one, not good for riding my bike down to grocery store, as a poor desperate individual who rides his mountain bike to work and store without a big-assed Ford SuperDuty truck.
It just looks to be so bitterly cold again for the weekend, 🌨️ maybe even some more snow on Friday night. Go figure, I guess it’s not impeding as much on my riding to work, which feels so good, 😀 but now the snow just needs to melt down on the rail trail so I can start riding that way in and avoiding that NY 32 and US 9W merge on my bike which yesterday was kind of a bitch with all the traffic. 🚘 It may have just been the timing, but I miss the serenity of riding the bike trail. 🌷 I guess spring with all it’s tangy smells of manure and wildflowers will be with us before you know it. Chilli 🌶️ contest tomorrow at work, I don’t know I might just get a jug of milk or maybe actually make a stack of the cornmeal pancakes 🥞 I make for breakfast, as they would be good in chilli. Most of the people in my division aren’t going, but that’s fine.
Finally the last few parts of the system upgrade we were working on in office 🖥️ came together after months of asking and probing, though we still haven’t started the database update. 💾 I now know what government speed is like, slow and deliberate like watching paint dry. But you could buy a plastic house in suburbs, and never have to paint it again! Just throw away the vinyl siding when it gets too discolored or dirty. But it felt good to get that done, as did it feel good finishing up my taxes last night, 📄 and realizing this year I wouldn’t get fine for underpayment of taxes but instead I overpaid them. Maybe I can convert more IRAs over to Roth this year, though I got to be careful if I get extra income from one of my side hustles. It is good, it will pay for the truck cap on SuperDuty, and then I’m hoping I can sell Big Red and get some money for that trip out to Michigan, the biggest cost being fuel for said F-350 truck. Maybe do I want the STX with the bigger cowel and less aggressive tires for better gas milage, ⛽ not that a SuperDuty is going to have much milage but a lot of gas. I heard they raised taxes on weed on Michigan, and it’s no longer as cheap as it once was. 🌿
I tell myself I will ride my bike 🚲 and actually go shopping tonight after work, but yesterday I was kind of tired 😴 and made excuses, plus it’s so dark to be riding a bike down Delaware Avenue, and I can’t really go the back way because there is snow, or maybe I can, just push it over the snow bank. I don’t know why yesterday was such an exhausting day, I mean did sleep well 🛏️ by winter standards, but whatever. But I need to shower, and ride my bike to work and fight the traffic at the NY 32 and US 9W merge. Need to grease up my chain 🔗 good this morning as it was skipping a bit especially before it got warmed up from rust. I don’t think the cassette is too worn, it’s the chain gets rusty quickly when parked from all the road salt.
After installing Fedora 43, I ended up having to reload all my Post GIS databases. It’s fine, it’s good to reload and optimize them. But I got the emojis working and newer versions of my software installed when I did the upgrade, though I fully admit Fedora 44 will be out in a few months, but I’ll upgrade in summer when the bugs are worked out. One of the thing annoying about Fedora is you can’t upgrade in the background like most Linux distros, it requires a reboot like MS Windows. I am like WTF?!
It’s fine, it’s good to reload and optimize them. But I got the emojis working and newer versions of my software 
installed when I did the upgrade, though I fully admit Fedora 44 will be out in a few months, but I’ll upgrade in summer when the bugs are worked out. One of the thing annoying about Fedora is you can’t upgrade in the background like most Linux distros, it requires a reboot like MS Windows. I am like WTF?! 
