Day: July 13, 2026💾

Good morning, Happy Monday. I am going to ride into today, I think the bike is good enough, hoping that occasional skipping just works itself out. I tried straightening the built in derailuer hanger a bit with the vice grips and I have tools to adjust things on derailuer if need be but I think odds are good I’ll make it work today.

Maybe it’s just the anxiety over the bike that’s getting to me, 🚴 and it’s silly because honestly the bike is a less then $1,000 expense in the worse case scenario where I go out and replace it with a new bike, and leave the old one along the road to become somebody else’s scrap load or problem. I am not going to rush out and get another car or start commuting to work via the SuperDuty anytime soon, just because a $600 mountain bike I bought three years ago and have used it for daily commuting year round has some issues. Hell, I would have easily burned up that much in gasoline in a few months in Big Red or the SuperDuty.

Went out to my parents house last night. 🌭 Had a nice dinner of sausage and peppers. Helped them clean up a tree 🌲 that came down and cleaned up my truck. Did my wash and then I went over to Hollyhock for a bit of walk and sit by creek and swat bugs until it got dark out. 🌺 Went home, got unpacked and to sleep around 10 PM. I was up closer to 7 AM then 6 AM but still felt incredibly tired by the time I got up. Kind of processing the end of the Big Red, though he doesn’t feel like my truck anymore now that all the gear has moved over. Time just marches on, but it just seems like yesterday I took title to the truck but that was nearly 15 years ago, and 11 years ago that I put the lift kit on the truck. It was cool while it lasted, but time goes by so quickly. ⏳ It won’t be long until the SuperDuty is old too, but then so will I be, and seriously thinking of retirement at that point. Driving by my parents neighbor’s hog barn 🐷 my noise peaked up a bit, but also it was so pretty down by the creek at their homestead. Who knows what will happen with that when their time comes and goes, though I still want that off-grid homestead outside of New York, more rural where I can burn and own whatever guns I want without government permission.

I finished removing all my equipment and vacuuming out Big Red, 🛻 and will be listing it probably today or tomorrow for $4,500 cash with the cap, or for just the cap $1,000. Not a lot of money but the frame repairs aren’t cheap and it has 119,000 miles on it and is kind of beat up at this point. True, somebody could have the frame welded, the rusty body panels patched, and the trucked detailed, and have a nice lifted rig, but I’ve moved on with my F-350 SuperDuty. I make good money, I don’t have to drive a 15 year old beat truck that may very well break down in the wilderness. Certainly not detailed or even washed, but for that price, it’s not worth my effort to make it too pretty. I just need to confirm that’s fair pricing but that’s the number I had in my head and Google Gemani seems to agree that’s fair and likely to move the truck off my parents lawn. Still it seems sad to see the end of era coming to a close, even though Big Red stopped feeling like my truck after the gear was moved over to my new rig, and it really stopped feeling like my truck. $4,500 seems like so little money with the lift kit costing more then that 10 years ago before inflation, but the truck is beat, I’ve had many good adventures in it, and I didn’t buy it as an asset but as I consumption good to use, use up an discard. Whatever I get from the old rig at this point is just icing on the cake. 🎂 The lifted truck was fun, but it seemed like more of a pavement princess then an off-road SuperDuty work truck.

Truth is I focus too much on little expenses, 🤑 but I know how they add up. Just numbers hurt my brain, indeed I rarely dwell on how fast investments or my grow. But I still have that dream of the off-grid cabin, and I know the power of saving and investing – it sure was a lot easier to buy the SuperDuty when I could just choose a truck and number I wanted to pay, and draw a check. Same thing with buying land and a cabin – when you don’t have to deal with banks or interest – it makes life a lot easier. The bike won’t break the bank, 🚲 but I also small numbers are easier to understand. The bike can be irritating when it doesn’t work well, but I want to continue to bike to work as much as possible. Not just for saving of gas and bus fares but for my sanity. Really is good for the mental and physical health to ride the bike. 🐐

So today I am riding in, 🚵‍♂️ wish me luck. 🤲 Tomorrow with the heat wave coming, I think it best to bus it in and the same with Wenesday. Hoping my bus pass comes 💳 soon so I can use that rather then that stupid phone app which is a pain and no guarantees on it ever working or being logged in. Tap and go with a physical card just is easier. Thursday I may drive in to head up to camp and Friday take off to go out to Schoharie. Probably spent Friday at Mine Kill State Park, and maybe fishing at Looking Glass Pond, Saturday I want to go down to Bramley Mountain which is a recently restored fire tower on hill between Bloomville and Delhi. And then ride some of the Catskill Scenic Trail. Sunday probably Mine Kill and maybe some floating on the Schoharie Creek. Of course all depends on thunderstorm ⛈️ and the final weekend forecast. Or if I have somebody interested in the Silverado. In the mean time, this evening I need to stop at Hannaford on the bike ride home and get coffee ☕ and maybe frozen fruit. 🫐 That said, maybe if skip the frozen fruit I can follow it up with an evening ride straight out to Five Rivers until dusk. 🌇 Losing daylight quickly soon, so the opportunity for such evening trips – especially long ones – quickly disappears especially after summer vacation comes and goes.