Two weeks have come and gone since I retired Big Red. And I still hear form people, but if you don’t own a car, how will you do X, Y, Z? Don’t you know buses are exclusively for the colored and the poor, those old buses –they’re so dirty and so slow. I keep hearing from people that in one point in my their lives back in the day, they did not own a car, and life was so tough and miserablewithout a car, riding the bus with the coloredand poor.
So yeah, maybe I should have kept it more of a secret that I retired Big Red. 🛻 Obviously I would have liked not to have the gap over the winter, but regardless I planned to retire Big Red in April before the Michigan and Wisconsin trip. But honestly I don’t care, the three only real issues in the interim months are trash/recycling – store and use roadside bins, wash – laundromat early in the morning or when my parents take me out there, and visiting the parents for Sunday dinner – they can pick me up for a visit or skip that for now. Honestly, that was the only things that have changed without a truck during these winter months. ☃️ Maybe I would have done a winter camp out at Rensselearville State Forest and had a fire, 🔥 but my feet get cold so easy these days, and especially when it comes to going out to Charles Baker it looks like their would be too much snow to get out there. Plus see I’m more or less following the law, 👮 by not burning shit I’m not supposed to and even washing out and recycling plastic. ♻️ So I’m almost a greeny. 💚
Last night that meeting over yet another development in the Albany Pine Bush 🌲 🦋 just dragged on and on, and by the time I got home it was 10 PM and after eating dinner and settling down to bed, it was almost 11. I was up around 5:45 AM this morning, which I much later then usual as I couldn’t sleep anymore but honestly I’m tired and will probably just sink behind my desk in the office though I already have work piling up my desk 🖥️ based on the emails I’ve gotten over the night. It’s fine it will get done. 🚴 The rain has mostly pulled out, it was warm enough last night that I think at this point the rail trail should be mostly ICE free ❄️ so it should be good for riding in I hope. I’ll grab it off of Elsmere Avenue so less riding if it turns out to still have some ice remaining, but I’m hoping it will be good for the foreseeable future. 🦵 I love riding in, it leaves me feeling so pumped when I get into the office. Same thing too riding back after dark to get the local bus home, it’s much nicer then walking laps in the Plaza. It was crazy 🤪 last night at the Empire Plaza with everything going on when I was getting my steps 👣 before meeting Lynne and heading over Builder land for the meeting.
I realize part of my situation is the virtue signaling I’m doing saying how wonderful it is I don’t have a vehicle 🚙 👉 🚍 🚲, while looking at listings for big-assed Ford SuperDuty pickups. Not that I’ve done that much of the later, though I sure have spent a lot of time studying how to buy a car and get a fair and reasonable price as dealership. Honestly, I just find striking up an auto deal to be so much fun, but that’s because I’m a two-decades plus, hell closer to 25 years at this point, quarter century veteran of Albany Politics when I consider my internship at StateWatch. I just enjoy the personalities and power dynamics, and how people sometimes spin things. There are probably a few crooked dealerships out there, but many of them may mislead or spin things to make the sale. 🤝 People despise such things, but honestly it’s part of the game of getting shit done. 🤡 The stories I can tell and the many books I’ve read about politics and power. I mean, really I’m not so set on Fords or even SuperDuty pickups, and I do see the disadvantages of various models like the Ford 10-speed auto, while also seeing the benefits of simpler XL trim and having a big-burly assed truck, even if it is a gasser both for cost and reliability reasons. 🛻 I was browsing the listing of Ford dealerships on Ford website, and there are 49 within 50 miles of my house, probably if I go out 100 miles and pick up Utica and Syracuse, down to Newburgh, it’s closer to 100+ Ford dealerships. So yeah, if a dealership doesn’t want to work with me, refuses to give me an out-the-door price with all taxes and fees attached, or is otherwise really pushy, I can just hang up on them.
Going to be a little wet riding in but probably not too bad. ☔ I guess I should bring extra socks in case my feet get wet, as old Erie Boulevard reverts back to the canal on rainy days. Bike trail will be wet but hopefully not too icy. 🥞 Onion and cornmeal pancakes this morning with some turmeric, salt, oatmeal and whole-wheat flour for fiber and bite. I need to get carrots 🥕 again, this weekend I’ll do that when I go shopping. With Martin Luther King Day 👑 it’s going to be a three-day weekend, and not terrible weather so I have multiple days I can ride my bike to the store, maybe even go to Walmart but I don’t have any specific needs there, and I’ ve gotten to like Hannaford App where I can make a shopping list, and the app orders everything by aisle and tells me the price and any coupons I’m eligible for before shopping. 🛒 Kind of nice to bike there, even if I don’t like driving on Delaware Avenue with all the cops and red lights 🚨 when I had my truck. Been going through those black beans I cooked up yesterday for lunch and dinner. Used to be black beans were tougher on my stomach 😲 then pinto beans but I’m so used to digesting them at this point, they don’t really give me any gas or bad smells. 🫘 I always get accused of being some kind of a vegetarian when I point out to people that while steak 🥩 and whole milk 🐄 are tasty, and I’m all for supporting dairymen and cattlemen who work the land, 🧑🏻🌾 neither one are exactly health foods. I’ll have to see if Dad will pick me up for a visit this weekend, otherwise on Tuesday morning before work I’ll take bus down to the laundromat 🧺 bright and early. I don’t mind. Other then that, maybe ride out to Voorheeesville or Five Rivers for walk around. Going to be mostly cold enough and snow free for good hiking. 📚 And maybe do a bunch of reading.