Normally mid March I make my yearly trip to the transfer station with all the metal cans, glass bottles accumulated over the years and plastic jugs accumulated over the winter. Things are different now, my parents now have weekly trash pickup, I can toss such things in their bin if I want to and my neighbor offered the same.
Truth is that if I wanted to pay for weekly garbage service I certainly could but it seems so wasteful to be encouraged to make more garbage to fill that enormous big they expect you to pack full every week to be hauled to that ever growing mound of toxic crap in the Pine Bush . It’s like how many people have offered me old televisions and their internet wifi passwords as if I’m somehow deprived because I refuse home internet and television. But like riding my bike to work or taking the bus, or keeping my heat at fifty degrees it’s a choice. Let’s be honest, fire and nights in the wilderness is much more fun.
I make good money, money, six figures, but it never feels like much as I’m investing and saving for early retirement for that off grid cabin. Where you betcha at the cabin to be I’ll still be burning my trash, taking the ash and occasional cans to the dump once a year assuming I just don’t dig a deep hole and bury them there to rot away to soil. In a place where I’m not treated as some kind of monster threatened by civil and criminal penalties and a $500 minimum fine according to the government press release for burning a little plastic. The government is wrong, I am not a bad person.
It’s a nice morning out here at Hollyhock, birds are chirping and it’s not so cold. If not for the forecast and maybe my fear of wildfire I would totally be up in the wilderness sipping coffee next to the campfire and riding trail. I wish I was out in the mountains now, I so wanted to get away to at least Rennselaerville State Forest. Spring is coming and I know in two or three weeks I’ll be back camping in the Adirondacks, I’ve been still working on the specifics in my mind. Truth is such thoughts are the only thing keeping my sanity, I’m not depressed as I know better days will come. Stay home save money. Gas is free if you don’t burn it.
So I saw this house on a ten acre lot in Medway. Kind of the amount of land I want in a good rural area, just down the street from that old horse farm where it always seemed like they had something plasticky going up in smoke in their burn barrels back in the day. Horse people are interesting people. It’s fine, it’s a house, probably just your typical prefab house of forty years ago. Rocky as shit soil out that way though probably with some tons of grain run through hogs you could grow something there. 250k and it’s still New York State and a long commute to work, no bus or bike commuting. Plus I still want to travel while I’m young, be an outlaw and smoke grass and maybe even that occasional cigarette with beer . You terrible addict, you must need mental health treatment and smoking cessation programs. Plus it’s same old vinyl siding and generic interior. I want something far smaller and primitive then an suburban house out in the country. Lot more wood inside, no cental electricity, outhouse for shitting and outdoor shower house. I know, I’m severely mentally ill .
Later on its off to Blodgett Hill to check out the restoration work on the Pitch Pine scrub oak up top there and then get home before the rain and wind picks up. Move money around for the taxes , car insurance and rent payment. Maybe get out some more library books on Hoopla, and watch more of Jay and Jen Off Grid. Work on some more maps for the blog, I’ve been real interested in soil maps recently, it’s just a matter of understanding the linking of the file in R. Do some cleaning and retire to bed fairly early. And just close out another winter weekend as I wait for what is next. I’d never pay for unlimited phone access but if I have it sure is fun for streaming. But at least I can take my phone with me wherever I go.
Every time I open up Facebook or turn on the news on the radio I get a bit angrier.
Why do I really care? The things I read about only impact me incidentally me at best. But there is the dreaded comment box, which I often will click wanting respond, type a few words and click cancel. I’ve grown smarter as I’ve gotten older.
Nobody wants to hear my opinion anyways and if I do comment, it will only elicit a response on why I am wrong or uncaring. If I have something to say, my best venue is my blog where I have full control over content and now it’s presented.
Moreover, I don’t really care that much. My thing is making the best possible world for myself, saving money and investing in my own future. I don’t plan to stay in New York for many more years, so it really doesn’t matter to me how much of a shit hole our great state is becoming. I’ve never voted for the man. Half of decrees sent down from a high are ignored at the local level at any rate.
And the truth is... My opinion doesn’t really matter and it’s just best to close out and ignore the people I disagree with so passionately.
Living under the Trumpster 2.0, I have to think we are living under a political disaster that is tragic as so many levels, in because it was completely preventable. It is an out of control wildfire that is going to burn everything in it’s path and while some brave firefighters, namely the courts and blue state politicians will try to limit the carnage, it’s going to burn over much of America in coming years.
But I’m not convinced that it’s a complete disaster. Yes, many will get burned and even die – and institutions will be lost – the truth is much like the suburban hoarders’ house maybe the wildfire burning it over wasn’t the worse thing ever. Trump isn’t wrong about the American carnage, so many institutions are broken as the planet cooks, racism and unfairness to colored and poor is the norm. Too much of liberalism was worn on it’s sleeves, many feel good policies but not a lot concrete action to address America’s serious problems of poverty, inequity, racism or pollution.
Some of the greenest grasses and prettiest wildflowers reappear after the landscape is burned over. It certainly gives society a chance to reimagine itself as we head into the 2030s. What comes after the severely charred federal government under Trump? We can’t simply go back, the old ways of doing things were in many cases bad and failing the American people. Some things will revert back, some of Trump’s policies will stick around, and some new things will have to be recreated out of the ashes.
I don’t know what America will look like in 2030s. But it will be different and hopefully better as we rebuild our country and government after four years of destruction. Yet, much like a wildfire, it opens up a blank slate – new agencies to be created, new people to hire, new ways of doing things. It is important we all be thinking and communicating with our next generation of leaders how we want America to look as we rebuild from the Trump years, heading into the 2030s.
Don’t blow away as I tell myself riding in this morning in the frozen tundra. It’s actually not that cold compared to some days riding in January and February but still so windy. Going to blow away riding in this afternoon to the downtown meeting. At one point I had hoped to get away this weekend after the rain but alas another blustery and later rainy weekend is ahead.
I guess trout fishing comes next based on the fact we are like two weekends out from April. I’ll just be glad when the green up finally comes. And those week or two before the black flies take over. Building this morning is rattling in the wind . Blustery at times but also then the wind slackens. I just so want a night in the wilderness . I had hope that I could leave work early tonight and maybe do Rensselearville State Forest but with that wind it will be bitterly cold and despite last night’s heavy rain at times, I’m worried about the fire risk this time of year. There have been a lot of Red Flag warnings around, at least before the rain, and I keep hearing stories about homesteads and farms that get burnt up this time of year.
I was going to bake cookies for work with the bread this morning, and while the bread came out fine, the cookies came out blackened mush as I slipped putting them in a 5 AM. Truth is I was such a mess this morning getting to work, I would have never caught the express bus and would have to driven in if I had not ridden in. Hell of it is after riding the past 30 or 40 miles the chain has stretched enough to mess well with the cassette, that I think I’ll keep the cassette in storage until I replace the chain, this time based on actual wear measurements using the Park Tool Chain Gauge. I hate to go through so many chains but if I replace as needed it will avoid wearing on the cassette and especially the crankset. I’ve never done the crankset myself, but that piece is more expensive then the cheap cassettes and chain, but it doesn’t look that difficult to do. I’m becoming a regular bike mechanic, but not one of those woke ones that charges $50 to glance at your bike and tell you it’s last year models.
I certainly could but it seems so wasteful to be encouraged to make more garbage to fill that enormous big they expect you to pack full every week to be hauled to that ever growing mound of toxic 
crap in the Pine Bush 
. It’s like how many people have offered me old televisions and their internet wifi passwords as if I’m somehow deprived because I refuse home internet and television. 
But like riding my bike to work or taking the bus, or keeping my heat at fifty degrees it’s a choice. 
Let’s be honest, fire 
and nights in the wilderness is much more fun. 
Where you betcha at the cabin to be I’ll still be burning my trash, taking the ash and occasional cans to the dump once a year assuming I just don’t dig a deep hole and bury them there to rot away to soil. In a place where I’m not treated as some kind of monster 
threatened by civil and criminal penalties and a $500 minimum fine according to the government press release for burning 
and it’s not so cold. If not for the forecast and maybe my fear 
of wildfire I would totally be up in the wilderness 
sipping coffee 
next to the campfire and riding trail. 
I wish I was out in the mountains now, I so wanted to get away to at least Rennselaerville State Forest. 
Spring is coming and I know in two or three weeks I’ll be back camping in the Adirondacks, I’ve been still working on the specifics in my mind. 
Truth is such thoughts are the only thing keeping my sanity, I’m not depressed as I know better days will come. Stay home 
save money. Gas is free if you don’t burn it. 
farm where it always seemed like they had something plasticky going up in smoke in their burn barrels back in the day. 
Horse people are interesting people. It’s fine, it’s a house, probably just your typical prefab house of forty years ago. Rocky as shit soil out that way though probably with some tons of grain run through hogs 
you could grow something there. 250k and it’s still New York State and a long commute to work, no bus 
or bike 
commuting. Plus I still want to travel while I’m young, be an outlaw and smoke grass and maybe even that occasional cigarette with beer 
. You terrible addict, you must need mental health treatment and smoking cessation programs. Plus it’s same old vinyl siding and generic interior. I want something far smaller and primitive then an suburban house out in the country. Lot more wood inside, no cental electricity, outhouse for shitting and outdoor shower house. 
. 
Move money around for the taxes 
, car insurance and rent payment. 
on Hoopla, 
and watch more of Jay and Jen Off Grid. Work on some more maps for the blog, I’ve been real interested in soil maps 
recently, it’s just a matter of understanding the linking of the file in R. 
Do some cleaning 
and retire to bed 
fairly early. And just close out another winter weekend as I wait for what is next. 
I’d never pay for unlimited phone access but if I have it sure is fun for streaming. But at least I can take my phone 
with me wherever I go. 
comes next based on the fact we are like two weekends out from April. I’ll just be glad when the green up finally comes. 
And those week or two before the black flies take over. Building this morning is rattling in the wind 
There have been a lot of Red Flag warnings around, at least before the rain, and I keep hearing stories about homesteads and farms that get burnt up this time of year. 
and while the bread came out fine, the cookies came out blackened mush as I slipped putting them in a 5 AM. 
Truth is I was such a mess this morning getting to work, I would have never caught the express bus and would have to driven in if I had not ridden in. 
Hell of it is after riding the past 30 or 40 miles the chain has stretched enough to mess well with the cassette, 
that I think I’ll keep the cassette in storage until I replace the chain, this time based on actual wear measurements using the Park Tool Chain Gauge. I hate to go through so many chains but if I replace as needed it will avoid wearing on the cassette and especially the crankset. I’ve never done the crankset myself, but that piece is more expensive then the cheap cassettes and chain, but it doesn’t look that difficult to do. 
I’m becoming a regular bike mechanic, but not one of those woke ones that charges $50 to glance at your bike and tell you it’s last year models. 
