The past weeks have seemed kind of meaningless voids of time as I work my way to spring. Each week it seems like I go to work, shop at Walmart on Monday, ride back and forth to work, cook up some onions and veggies on stove, read or watch a YouTube video and go to sleep. Occasionally when the weather is nice I’ll ride out to Five Rivers or the Town Park after work, but dusk still comes much to early. Saturdays have been rainy and home days, then Sunday I drive out to Mom and Dad’s house for a few hours, then hiked up Bennett Hill or in the case of this week, Copeland Hill.

Truth is probably the right decision would have been to leave early from work on Friday and done at least one overnight at Rensselearville State Forest. It would have felt good to have a fire and sat under the stars at least for a while. Friday night was very pleasant at Five Rivers until it got dark. And now I’m watching another heavy rain and possibly snow storm come in for next weekend. It’s not that the hike up Copeland Hill wasn’t fun, but Saturday especially being stuck home all day made the weekend blow by so quickly and seem like such a nothing burger.

I do want to move back out to country, and maybe it’s wrong to keep passing over houses I sort of like but don’t really like. The idea of car commuting to work seems so far from where I am currently, I don’t like the burn ban or having to settle down in New York. Most of properties locally are so tiny, and butt up against both the road and other neighbors. It’s more then just the freedom to have a stinky ol burn barrel and big fires though, I want to have privacy and be able t shoot, ride four wheelers and shoot guns. And none of the properties I’ve seen on the market really fit that category. Plus I’m really not sold on grid tied power, hideous shag carpeting and vinyl siding, or how they make the properties look all so pretty. Truth is I’m more then a big jealous of the homesteads you see with run down trailers, cattle and hogs running around out back, with four wheelers and tractors and broke down machinery up front. Obviously all with wood stoves.

But in the mean time, the way I get my sanity is weekends in the wilderness. Yet, the weather has been so uncooperative, the forecast has been horrendous with ice, cold, wind and rain. There just hasn’t been any real good chances to get away. I know it’s not a permanent solution, but it’s at least a bit of escapism from these four small, cold walls in the diapolated apartment I live in on the outskirts of the city.