Winter

“Tell me how long you plan to stay here Joe,
some people say that this town don’t look good in snow.
You don’t care, I know.“

It is a life goal of mine to eventually get out of New York State in search of greener pastures, where the winters aren’t as cold, the taxes are lower, the regulations are less zealous. Certainly it would be nice to have winters that are less harsh, but honestly having a place with a good woodstove and snowmobiles make it a little less harsh, although I still hate driving on icy roads in the winter.

But it’s not going to happen next week. I plan to stay in New York at least as long as I have family around, which is probably another 10-20 years. I can’t leave my elderly parents alone, especially as my sister has my niece to take care of and she lives over an hour away. They sometimes fall or need to be driven to doctor. And in New York, at least in the Capital Region, there are a lot of good jobs that just aren’t available in Rural America, were wages are lower and the work is generally harder. Albany is able to siphon quite a bit of wealth off America’s biggest city and if you can live frugally, you can put it away for a better tomorrow.

The wind is cold and harsh. Your dress shoes and pants gets covered with road salt, the days are short and gray. Road salt covers your car or truck, burns holes in the sheet metal and corrodes everything up. The best roads to backcountry are blocked off by the snow, although you have question whether or not you would want to camp in the cold and dark nights of winter. But it’s good, I stay home, I save and invest for a better tomorrow. Heating bills may be high, but their offset by lower fuel and supply bills from road trips.