Happy June 250th 🇺🇸 🏳️🌈 🚜 🏕️
Made it to the first week of June, hoping to take delivery of the truck cap this week, I am ready for it. Decided to get a second 100-watt solar panel for new truck, as it seems like it should fit once I get some aluminum bar to mount it plus a MC-4 y-connector to parallel the panels.
Got to bed fairly early 🛏️ once I got home last night, and was asleep by 8:30 PM and despite waking up briefly at night and reading a bit of an E-book, and running to the rest room a few times 🧻, I stayed in bed until almost 6:30 AM so to at least start the week out fairly rested but still tired. I just seem to be low energy lately. It was nice having dinner with Mom and Dad, though it’s tough as it’s pretty clear the end might be coming closer with Mom. Still I’m enjoying her food, even if it is a bit off-tasting, 🍴 and conversation even if a bit awkward. The difficulty is often figuring out what exactly to say 🙊 while you still have a chance. What are the meaningful conversations to have? Maybe there is a few years left, but it’s something that keeps me up at night. As does the truck. I want to get back up to woods, but I’m waiting for the cap, annoyed with gas prices, and how building the new rig that will eventually wear out in a few years just seems so dang expensive these days.
Like so many things, I get worried about the escalating costs, 💰 but once the truck cap is installed, the panel is like $80 plus $10 for y-connector and maybe $30 for the aluminum bar. Plus tax. I was hoping to get the bar from Lowes but they don’t have size I need, so I’ll just have to drive in some point this week and swing by the Metal Warehouse which is up the road from where I work. I also want to pad up my savings account as things are dipping a bit into the cash on hand after the truck and now the cap. It’s silly to get worried about such pissy amounts of money, but I know that’s where the most bleeding can occur over time. 🩸 I’ve actually trimmed some expenses from the project – I am not going to bother with a speaker for the CB radio, holding off on cellphone booster for now. I do want to have that cellphone booster by my trip out to Michigan and the autumn when I’m working remote from the National Forest.
It will be fine and good. ☺️ I measured things up, soaked the bolts on the old truck cap with oil so I can get the 🔩 racks and the one panel off the old truck. Mom has been hinting she wants me to put the old truck up for sale soon, which is fine once I get my gear moved over after getting the cap and washed it down and take photographs. 📸 At this point, once I have gear off it, I just want to get rid of Big Red, 🛻 if I get some money out of it for vacation, great. Thinking maybe listing it for $4,000-$5,000 as it needs the frame repair and body work, but it runs, the air conditioning and transfer case work, doesn’t have any major engine issues AFAIK. Good 35 inch tires, and a lift kit. It’s a nice truck but with the remote travel I the creaking, rough riding lift kit, I didn’t want to risk having a break down in remote country. Especially as the frame started to rot out. Carvana offered $2,500 I think, I could also potentially sell the truck cap for a few hundred bucks. The thing is right now my cash savings has only $28,000 in it, I want to be over $30,000 for a margin of safety in case of any emergencies or job loss 🚨. And I want to have some money for that Michigan trip. I might slow down my non-retirement investments so I can build up my cash investments as the markets seem overvalued with all the AI hype, though people have been saying that for 5 years now.
I still have a lot of self-questioning and doubt about the new rig. 🛻 Did I order the right truck cap for my needs, the MX model like my old one? Not the enhanced structure one? The weight of two solar panels and kayak on the roof is within the limits of the truck cap, I confirmed that, but for a while I was worried. Also I keep wondering if I should have gotten a slide-in camper but I wanted something lower profile without as much equipment to break. 🏕️ I really did not want a roof tent, I wanted to camp in the bed. And I keep wondering if I should have gotten an HD truck or just another half ton, though I like the added strengthen and features you get by going up to the SuperDuty 1-ton truck level. It’s tough in my mind though. 
It’s going to be fun regardless I tell myself. 🫦 😎 It’s great to be maximizing retirement accounts and investing a bunch each month, I make good money. Indeed, I was doing the hard numbers this weekend, and realized that I should be doing more Roth in my deferred comp to avoid getting pushed into the 24% tax bracket in retirement. I’ve always maxed out my Roth IRA but until recently only started doing it for deferred comp. 🐐 I could also probably free up some cash but reducing my withholding as I got a big refund last year, over-estimating how much I would owe. But it’s kind of unpredictable what the markets will do with dividends, especially with the energy stocks 🛢️ which are definitely doing the dividend thing right now. I just don’t want to get fined for underpaying my taxes or owe a lot next year.
Hoping at least to have things mostly together for camping 🏕️ during Juneteenth Weekend, taking off June 18th and heading up north through the June 21st – four days out of town. Camp different places to avoid having to get a permit. Have at least the 200-watts solar and line to battery wired up, along with the inverter and some of the lights in the truck the cap. 🪫 The nice thing about the new truck 🛻 is with the remote start, I don’t have to even get out of my hammock or put down my beer 🍺 with the remote start should the accessory batteries go under voltage and the protective relay shuts down. Just hit the button on the key fob, and the engine will run for 15 minutes. I can even walk away
