Long bed, regular cab trucks aren’t super popular anymore but I like them especially those with less technology to break or be fiddlesome.
I am thinking of getting a truck like this in the April F-250 regular cab long bed 4×4 with the 6.8l Mini Godzilla Gasser Engine. I like them as they are really old school, reliable technology. Granted not three on the tree and they have air conditioning but it is 2026.
Old fashioned incandescent $12 headlights and $2 1157 bulb taillights – no LEDs. Simple Group 89 starting battery that Walmart sells for $80 and takes 10 minutes to install yourself. engine no auto stop shutoff and no cylinder deactivation. I avoid driving on roads with stop lights so I don’t need the EPA engine trashing woke technology. Big burly 250 amp alternator. Recommend 5W-30 oil that actually lubricates the engine. Not the horse piss non lubricant endorsed by EPA. Tiny little digital displays, you turn a key in the ignition to start.
While the WOKE might despise such trucks, the EPA designed Wokemobiles that comfort every need including heating your back with their crew cabs are such disposable crap. I’d much rather pay a little more for a basic reliable truck and a bit extra in fuel that I can get inexpensive, reliable parts and repairs compared to the wokemobiles all the advertisers are pushing full of screens and LEDs. When I see a truck advertising all the comforts and technologies, I have to scream! I don’t want a F-150 or a Maverick with every sensor and feature of imaginable.
Hell of it is – to avoid going woke – you got a spend a lot of money. As all the cheap vehicles are Uber Woke full of TV screens. But you do get a lot of capacity in exchange for your money, big powerful engine and alternator, roomy bed. Hell of it is with the sofa on wheels Wokemobiles with their mandatory crew cabs, they’re only 4″ shorter than the long bed regular cab Superduty. Oh, I do like the color red.
I was listening to Joni mitchell this evening as I wandered around Bender Mellon Farm Preserve as the sunset.
But it don’t snow here It stays pretty green I’m going to make a lot of money Then I’m going to quit this crazy scene I wish I had a river I could skate away on I wish I had a river so long I would teach my feet to fly
I was reminded of that Christmas Eve almost a year ago I spent alone at the State Horse Camp. I was on a pre-Christmas at Stoney Pond and then Charles Baker State Forest, riding road and camping, ended up staying through the day after Christmas due to my parents being sick and quarantining. I roasted chestnuts and cranberries on the fire and listened to Joni Mitchell’s River song among other Christmas music.
Spending Christmas alone at a State Horse Camp without presents to open, just cool cloudy and long evenings alone sounds kind of depressing. But I liked the serenity of it all, the time alone spent with nobody but myself as a few snow flurries flittered around, as I enjoyed Greek yogurt with chestnuts and other holiday nuts roasted on the fire along with cranberries. In the cold of the night, the darkest time of the year as we celebrate Christ’s birth.
I am struck by the lyrics, “I’m going to make a lot of money, then I’m going to quit this crazy scene.” I love being out in a place like Madison County, the deep rural yet I am stuck here in Albany except when I can get away on a crazy cold evening like that weekend in the deep rural as I heard the cows moo and the coyotes call out in the distance. I keep almost craving homelessness, the simplicity of being a traveler. At the same time, I think about buying some land and making a tent my permanent home, assuming the government workers in some rural township within commuting distance to Albany would permit such an unconventional way of living. Or maybe just a hammock, traveling from place to place, living on the street. That said, I really want to get away from the city. It’s not the cannabis that has me thinking this way but the podcast I was listening to about preparing for homelessness. It’s a silly way to think when I’m a hard working director.
The vinyl siding, carpeting, drywall and central heating does nothing for me. I crave the mountains and the small towns like I was in as I camped at the State Horse Camp last Christmas. Away from the endless lines of code, data dumps and the garbage dumps and the pollution. Places that tap into my soul and give me a feeling I so lack in Albany while I try to keep my head afloat, survive and make the best of my life in the very problematic world that I currently live in.
Further evidence that Christmas music is pretty awful based on what people are parting with their hard-earned cash to download legally from the interwebs. Plus a fun exercise in webscrapping with Wikipedia to make a graph.
library(rvest) library(tidyverse)
music <- read_html('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Christmas_singles_in_the_United_States')
I don’t really celebrate Christmas these days. Sure I will go out to my parents house for Christmas dinner, but I don’t decorate or do much special for the holiday season. I don’t have any decorations in my apartment and I don’t hang up lights. I’m not really all that much into Christmas music or the hustle bustle of the stores. It’s just not a holiday that does much for me, especially not being a particularly religious person.
I think I would rather just spend Christmas in the wilderness, looking at the trees glimmering in the snow, enjoying a long night by the campfire. With the snow I usually can’t camp with the power from my truck to run the colorful Christmas lights, but I can have lots of candlelights, and the lantern works well. The Big Buddy heater will help to keep my chair warm and my tent toasty. Listen to some Christmas music and maybe some podcasts, enjoy the stars and God’s beauty, then retire to the tent for a nice warm night in cozy sleeping bags.
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