I guess it won’t be so cold out, which is often the thing when it gets clear out on a winter’s day. Truth is I’m not missing that much having a truck, and it’s not clear I would have gone anywheres after New Years Day regardless due to the cold of early January that has come our way.
Yesterday, I did somke some weed and ride my mountain bike 🚴 to Five Rivers, and walked around in a bit of a snow squall, but despite the supposed warmer temperatures my fingers 🧤 got painfully cold and stiff, and I rode home by quarter before five. It was kind of pretty watching the snow fall, but also kind of ordinary. A lot of people were there, I think there was at least one or two who probably noticed I was stoned out of my mind, 🧟♂️ and it was not one of those days when there was a lot of wildlife out in the woods. I was just so chilled through that I got home, boiled up some sweet potatoes 🥔 and onions, then mashed them, though I ended up sticking the potatoes in the microwave as I didn’t cook them enough. Part of it was the burner I started to cook them on collects grease from the olive oil I use on the grittle when making pancakes, so I moved it to a different burner and did not wait long enough to finish cooking on the other burner.
Finally remember to soak half a 4 lb bag of kidney beans, and cooked them down this morning. 🫘 Before losing Big Red, I really stocked up on kidney beans, as they are my go-to-source for affordable, healthy protein that doesn’t produce a lot of garbage. 🗑️ I would care less if I could get to the woods and have fires, but now it’s just landfill. 🔥 I’m trying to make these days not owning a vehicle both healthier for myself and the planet, 🌍 even if I do ultimately get that Ford SuperDuty truck. Though even now I’m having doubts on that, but the options are kind of bad and limited. Read 📖 for a while last night, been really enjoying my new free access to the Wall Street Journal from the library and Monte Bourch’s Guide to Building Hunting Camps and Lodges on Hoopla. I also listening to Dr. Lt. Dave Grossman’s On Hunting as I rode to and from Five Rivers. 🦌
When I got home I was pretty chilled through, 🥶 and having not shaved or showered since before work on Wednesday, I decided it best not to go to the library, but instead hide under the sheets with the heated blanket. 🛏️ Today though I think I will go to the library with my laptop, as I’m pretty bored with being home, 😦 when it opens for the morning. Ten o’clock on a Sunday. Then hang out there for a few hours, playing with data and maps before heading home. Maybe an afternoon bike ride, but I don’t love riding in the cold and snow, and I’m not going to fuck up the wheels on my bike riding on the icy bike trail, especially when that’s my primary method of transport besides the buses which run so infrequently these days after the cut backs. Laundry is going to be the biggest pain of them all, 👖 hauling the bag on my back the mile down the road to the laundromat, hopefully I can do most of that when I get a ride out to visit my parents. I bought extra pair of jeans just to be safe. I can do the bus, but it runs really only every 45 minutes in the evening, though maybe what the real solution is to do it before work, when it’s likely the laundromat is quiet and buses run every 30 minutes. I am kind of an early riser. Then it keeps my evenings to myself and I can use the bus both ways.
It’s a choice, I know it. ⚖️ The car-free lifestyle is not something I’m doing because I’m disabled or poor, it’s because I don’t want to buy a new Ford SuperDuty truck in the middle of winter after the frame rotted out on my Silverado. Or I could have gotten Big Red patched and kept on the road a few more years, the most economical and sensible thing to do. It’s like renting a $800 a month apartment that is completely run down and in need of serious renovation after 18 years of only the most minimal repairs being made by my various landlords. 💰 I’m doing it both to be frugal, spend money on things I actually bring me joy. ☺️ I’m not poor, colored or disabled, but I wanted some time to think 🤔 and decide my next move after Big Red. 🛻 I want to save and invest as much as possible for a better future, for that off-grid cabin where I don’t have to wash bottles out before tossing them in burn barrel and making a little black smoke, where I can hear the hogs grunting 🐖 and guinea fowl clucking. 🐥 Where I can smell manure and wood smoke. Where I don’t have to pay a fee and beg the government for permission to buy ammunition. 🔫 Yeah, that future. Plus the car-free lifestyle helps assuage my liberal ego before yeah buying a ginormous SuperDuty truck.