Personal

To be fair to those reacting to impending dire emergency severe snow storm extreme homeland disaster, I did ride my mountain bike to Hannaford last night and picked up some groceries, that is the few they had left on store shelves.

Not that I was concerned that much about the snow, ☃️ but it did sound like riding my mountain bike in negative 20 windchill on Saturday and Sunday didn’t sound like real fun. 🚲 Though, they didn’t have carrots so maybe I’ll be going to Price Chopper on Saturday. 🥕 After all, I am a poor desperate person without a vehicle this winter, even if I do spend too much time looking at Ford SuperDuty trucks with the Godzilla engine. Don’t you know, only very sad people like drug addicts, the colored and poor, are extremely isolated and don’t own a car in suburbs. But I want to study my options and consider them, I do have still a month before I test drive my first truck and two months before I want to close on a deal.

I was thinking though at least now I won’t have to clean the snow off my pickup truck after the snow storm. 🛻 As I am a poor, desperate person without a vehicle to snow on. I mean Red is stored at my parents house but I don’t have to clean him off because he ain’t going anywhere. Not sure if they are going to close the office on Monday, 🏢 I was going to bring my laptop home but I don’t want to do that on bike, so I probably won’t. I’ll make it into the office on Monday with the bus, it’s fine. 🚍 Visiting Mom and Dad on Saturday, so I won’t have to worry about getting down to Four Corners Laundry on Monday before work. 👖

I’ve actually never ridden all the way over to Hannaford after dark, 🛒 but it was fine last night, took the back streets and cut over the bike path and behind Hannaford, missing the trafficked roads. I have good lights on my bike, and I wear bright clothing. It was kind of pretty seeing all the suburban houses that still have their Christmas lights on, 🎄 and got a bit of exercise to boot. Actually, yesterday was Thursday, and they were doing the propane delivery at the train yard, blocking both exits from the office, and I ended up riding up to Menands, then taking South Pearl Street downtown, adding a few extra miles to my commute. I may actually fairly comfortable with riding after dark around town. But it’s so dangerous the colored television reminds us, imagine how much safer you would be if you drove your frugal 20-year old Honda Civic everywhere around town.

I did sleep pretty well last night, 🛏️ but I also was dog tired 😫 as I didn’t sleep well the previous night. 💊 Even took a sleeping pill, assuming I’d sleep soundly and not wake up listening to a podcast with the five minute intervals of those creepy voices singing, Better! Better! BETTER HELP! For all those sleepless nights!! Or Talk Therapy or whatever those marketers are pushing. 🤯I guess it’s better then ads for Active SCAM ETFs, used cars (we BLOW THEM OUT OF YOUR ANUS with out FINANCE DEALERS at JOE’S USED SUPER CENTER FOR THE COLORED AND POOR!), and lemon 🍋 law lawyers. Apparently I’m about a buy a lemon used car and I need an extended warranty because I’m legitimately concerned about reliability of various models in auto era ruined by EPA and inflation.

Actually, I am more annoyed that now my Facebook feed and blog advertising feeds are full of ads for extended car warranties, 🧑‍🔧 because I must have lingered my mouse of an ad, and probably because I’ve been doing a deep dive into vehicle reliability. Mostly as a form of mental masturbation, over buying a SuperDuty with he Godzilla engine. I mean, the 7.3L is not just a big ass engine that drinks fuel ⛽ it’s one of most reliable ones left these days since the EPA crapped all over the small displacement engines with their fuel economy standards forcing blown, I mean supercharged engines that use thin piston rings and very light oils. The 5.3L DoD in my old truck was fine, it never ticked much and quit it’s oil drinking habit but trucks are so damn expensive, so I want something real reliable. 🛠️ I know I am ignoring the wonders of how bad the Ford 10-speeds are, but I’ve been promised by the internet that they fixed the worse of problems in 2026 model year. And some 7.3L, especially older ones idled all day do develop lifter delamination which is very bad but better then a lot of common issues with engines using blowers. Honest, I’m aware half of the crap I watch on the Internet is from either Ford fan-boys or mechanics who are familiar the old technology, ⚙️ and have rose-colored glasses 👓 of the olden push-rod engines and other simpler or at least old ways of doing things.

I do keep falling back though on looking at Toyota Taco 🌮 trucks but they are so tiny, and how I will ever get a week’s worth of gear on them. And despite their small size and blown engines, they don’t get that great gas mileage. ⛽ I mean they don’t drink fuel like a Godzilla, but the differences are less then you would think they would be. And even the latest generation of Mexican Tacos have engine and tranny problems, due to the EPA crap, and manufacturer economizing. They also use that pissy thin oil. From my perspective, it’s just a different bottle at the store, still mechanics seem to think 5w30 is still much more protective. Back in the day, though mechanics used to think 5w30 was disaster when most cars still used 10w40. Still, a 7.3 engine is a big one, as are those SuperDuty trucks. What happens if I’m forced to move out of city, ugh, drive to work? When my parents get old and need care or I take over their homestead? 🐐 I guess I could park outside of city and ride the last five or ten miles most days to save gas. And those SuperDuty trucks aren’t cheap. But I make good money, and gas ain’t that expensive, even if it does go up to $5 or $6 a gallon. Plus a SuperDuty will be bitch to park. 🅿️

Truth is I’m having a lot of fun learning about the automobile industry 🚗, and how to secure the best deal for a reliable, enjoyable truck for the next 10 or 15 years for a fair price. Navigating the spin is a lot of fun, but I would say that I’ve spend a lot of time working down at Capitol over the years. 🏛️ And I’m at that point in my career, where I want to make the right decisions and be responsible, while somehow slotting the big SuperDuty into all of that. It’s not like I won’t use it a lot for camping, and it will be a nice truck. 🏕️ All while continuing to grow my investments 📊 and saving for the homestead. 🚜 I don’t really see myself driving to work anytime soon unless there is no other alternative, or moving out of city. I really enjoy biking or busing it to work compared to the traffic and cops with their penises out looking for speeders. 🚲 It’s not like I have a lot of other luxuries in my life, it’s wilderness camping in my truck camper shell, no fancy resorts or trips. It’s just so much money, though if I want to believe those unrealized Capital Gains from last year are not just imaginary, then what is but a few months of time, 💰 that will give me a lot of joy over the decade and half between now and retirement. It’s not like I am making $15 an hour delivering pizzas 🍕 out of back of my 20-year old Honda Civic financed for 84-months at 13.2% interest these days.

On that note, 🥚 I had eggs for the first time in a while for breakfast 🐔 with lots of vegetables and a bit of cornmeal. Been a while, I think I generally prefer more whole wheat carbs in my breakfast but it’s good to change things up from time to time. I should shower, 🚿 get on my mountain bike and ride to work. 🚲 I think I’ll have meetings downtown, I’m hoping if it’s not too cold I’ll be able to ride home, and probably not be riding for a bit until it warms up again after the Dire Emergency snow storm comes to an end. More time to read, research and think about that fucking SuperDuty. 🗓️ Still a month until that test drive, and two months before I lock down the deal, so a lot could change between now and then, and maybe I’ll end up with a Mexican Taco 🌮 truck when I finally let my brain 🧠 override my small dick. Have a good day, it’s a Friday, smoke some grass and listen to old Karen Dalton records, like I remember riding trail last fall in the rain up at Horseshoe Lake.

Let’s shoot those varmits, the Ground Hogs, the Whisle Pigs, the Woodchucks. Not only do they brake cattle legs, they deliver terrible weather news or so I’m told. As they say,  one more day before the cold and the snow. Hello, January my old friend. Where have you been? While statistically the coldest time of the year in Albany used to be mid-January it seems to get pushed later and later. Will we get a foot of snow on Sunday into Monday? How cold will it? Questions to be answered by the Weathermen of America, and if it’s like my experience riding in the past few days, they’ll probably be wrong.

All I know is next week I think it will involve busing it in, 🚌 or at least using Corning’s Hill. But today and probably tomorrow I can take the bike path in. I do need to decide if after work I should run down to the store and get groceries on my bike,  🛒 as Saturday looks to be mad cold and Sunday not just cold but also quite snowy. 🌨️ Middle of the night I woke up sweating, ♨️ I ended up turning off the heated blanket and the heat downstairs, as it warmed up last night and the heat really started to catch up and then go beyond what it should be. I am so used to sleeping in cold, that warm was uncomfortable. Didn’t sleep well at all last night, ended up listening to radio, then podcasts with endless hours of “Can’t sleep?! See What You Need is BETTER HELP and a SO-FAT Mattarress!” 🛏️ Ended up watching more videos on SuperDuties and the car buying process. I get so many ads on my social media now for 20-year old Hondas now. And extended car warranties, which aren’t warranties but actually insurance contracts misbranded. No, insurance is a scam, only insure for risks you can’t afford to pay out of pocket. Those Ford 7.3 gasser engines are some of most reliable out there these days, and the newest generation 10-speed trannies are supposed to be better. And, no I have zero interest in Audis or Lexis-Nexis automobiles, just big pickups. Ads trigger me.

I started putting in for a few quotes for car insurance yesterday, ⚖️ based on a Ford F-350 Extended Cab FX4. Looks like it will add about $200 to my six-month bill. Been trying to figure out what insurance levels I need and want – I really want to maximize my deductibles, do the $1,000 or maybe more deductible, just because I’d rather pay less for insurance, and a $1,000 surprise bill doesn’t have sting it once did, it certainly would not be ruinous. I mean if I’m buying a SuperDuty, I can afford that deducatable. Really shouldn’t insure losses that you can pay out of pocket for because that’s a waste of money, as self-insurance (paying cash) is always cheaper and encourages you to engage in less risky behavior. 💰 It’s both psychological and monetary, a fact insurers know. I mean, I wouldn’t love a $1,000 collision bill, but that’s a good reason to drive less and always drive safely. Also planning to sign up for the driver monitoring program, because it’s a good way to both save and make sure I’m always driving safe, because I know my insurance company is alway watching. 🔎

I want to get better coverage beyound 100/300k liability, 💰 but it gets expensive to go to 250/500k if insurers offer it all. I think the higher liability is bait for trial lawyers, but I would like additional protection as I don’t have money locked away from creditors in a homestead yet. I was going to also do $1,000 deducatable comphrensive, but maybe I’ll reconsider getting glass coverage, as I certainly do throw a lot of stones on the dirt roads I drive, and usually if you get glass coverage it also means you’re getting a lower deducatable comphrensive which covers deer strikes and floods, the maximum deducatable glass is $50 with $500 comphrensive. How much is glass to replace? Obviously less then $1,000 – otherwise it would fall under comphrensive except in a crash or my parked F-350 being struck by a hit and run. 💥 I heard comphrensive coverage (with or without a lower glass limit) not only covers the glass in the truck but also a permanently attached truck cap. I don’t know, it’s just one of many financial decisions I want to make responsibly while still ending up with a F-250 or F-350 on my driveway by spring time and a camper shell by summer.

Truth is I want to feel somewhat financially responsible when buying such a big-assed Ford truck. 🛻 That’s going to drink fuel ⛽ like no tomorrow but will provide hopefully for many nights in wilderness 🏕️ and good travels. These days though, I like to go up to camp, and set up for multiple days parked and do everything out of camp with my mountain bike 🚲 so I don’t drive the miles I once did. I will have solar set up, and probably a cell phone booster, so my hope is I can frequently just drive straight to camp, and not run my engine much. I know there is nothing financially responsible about buying such a big truck, but at least if big pickup trucks is my big vice, I do everything else right in life. 🤷‍♂️ With my 43rd birthday a week away, I keep watching the stock market like a hawk, because I want my net worth to be a certain round number, and I’m so damn close after getting payed next Tuesday but it all depends a lot on the underlying value of assets that fluctuate day by day. 📊 Shit I don’t control, and it’s all imaginary as many of them I can’t touch for another 16 1/2 years, but I was not happy to say the least about the President’s stupid this week messing up my little log book.

The bike basket 🚲 tightened up and the front brakes bled, I think it’s time to shower 🚿 and head off to work. I should leave a bit earlier as taking the bike path is a bit slower due to the ice and snow, then it would be if it was snow-free. I guess I could take Corning’s Hill but the bike path isn’t that awful right now but you do have to go a bit slow and cautious ⚠️. Winter won’t last forever and the bike ride is always great for the mental health, 😀 especially after a rough night’s sleep. I think studying weighting insurance policies gets you thinking about awful things, you know like having liability insurance to cover when you slam into that toddler on the highway, and the baby is burned 🤱 over 85% of their body. 🏛️ I tell you the news these days is all so bad in the era of Trumpster, 📰 though I did hear he was making some refinements to gun regulations and past illicit drug use restrictions which make a lot of sense, recognizing the modern science of addiction. 🔫 And just with my birthday 🎂 coming up next week, trying to figure out what is the best way to manage money, and get to life goals like that off-grid homestead – be it in retirement or whenever. 🐐 And I just wish I could be up in the woods and have a fire, 🔥 but I know that’s not really an option at this point as even if I did lay the cash down for that SuperDuty I like up in Latham, I wouldn’t have a camper shell until spring time, and I would have a salt-encrusted truck that sits mostly parked for the next two months, rusting while I pay insurance on it. 🏕️