Today is going to be a hot one the weatherman warns us over the next few days. I am riding into the office after dropping Big Red off to the shop and waiting anxiously for the news. In the evening, I’ll probably bus it back home as the hill won’t be fun ni the heat, maybe leaving work early to pick up Red if it’s ready.
Starting off the day by dropping off the truck at around 8:30 AM this morning, 🗝️ I could probably do a bit earlier and drop my keys off in the night box so I get to work closer to on time. Going to drop the truck off, and hop on the Rail Trail and head in. Truth is the shop is a bit closer to my office then the apartment, so I should be in close to time. And who is going to report me, I am the big boss man after all and my boss works five miles up the road, and it’s not like they care as long as I keep the data frames and Excel spreadsheet 🖥️ flowing their way. Already cut the August lists, and they are schedule to send to mail house ✉️ on Friday.
Yesterday was a remarkable nice day, ☀️ despite having some more problems with the bike front derailleur 🚲 which I fixed enough to get me to work and back home with a piece of p-travel from the road and adjusted when I got home. 🛠️ Took the hub caps off the truck last night. Dropping the truck off shortly at the shop. I know it’s probably just the one bad hub, but who knows what they’ll find in the front end but I want it fixed if it’s likely to fail before vacation. Got some sweet corn and zucchuni, some of which I fried up yesterday and are using some of it in the pancakes this morning to make them extra tender and delicious. 😋
I was noticing after pulling off the hub caps that front brakes are getting a thin, but I certainly didn’t measure them or get that good of look. Hoping they’llhold out for a while, Rather put as little money as possible into a truck I plan to get rid of in 8 months or so. 🛻 Big Red for the most part has been great, and it has been fun for ten years having a big lifted truck – and a stock truck four years before that – but I’m ready to move on before my road trip out west next summer. I need something to worry about in the mean-time on vacation. Or maybe I just need to chill out and enjoy the grass on vacation while I listen to the cows moo. 🏖️
Rode out to Five Rivers and read more of Mark Kulinsky’s Milk 🐮 about the world history of dairy. On the morning ride In and back home listened to more of White Rural Rage by Tom Schaller, a book I don’t totally agree with everything in it but I’m always fascinated by rural perspectives on life. Beautiful evening for sure, 🌸 but already it feels like ware losing daylight a fair bit in the evening. Need to make sure to keep the lights well charged on the bike. 🔦 I did charge the front bike light overnight.
Maybe that’s one reason that gives me pause about taking summer vacation at the end of August – the days are so much shorter then though it gives me more time to enjoy star gazing ✨ and the camp fire. 🔥 Often when it’s still somewhat light out to 9:30 PM, by the time you want to have a fire at 10 or 10:30 PM it’s pretty late and I get up so early, that I’m real tired by the time there is much of a fire to sit. Plus have a beer and smoke and it really knocks you out. But that said, I really like the idea of an extended late August vacation – I am now thinking of leaving on August 21st and just kind of hanging out in the National Forest through Labor Day September 1st.
I think that I haven’t taken much time off, and I get to the office early to do work, I have quite a bit of time built up. 🗓️ Plus I’m not sure I’ll make a full week off on October this year as I’m not going to West Virginia – this year it will probably only be an extended weekend to St. Regis Canoe Area to paddle 🛶 and ride a bunch of the new Tupper Lake to Saranac Lake Rail Trail 🚴 that the DEC is so heavily promoting. Maybe a trip in early November down to Long Pond to hunt and hike, and then a day trip down to Pennsylvania but I don’t want to be in the situation I’m rushing to take days off in December, lest I can’t roll it all over to new year. 🐿️ 🔫
Truth is despite my sometimes anxiety and kicking the can down the road, 🥫 things aren’t that bad. My confusion on everything lately isn’t schizophrenia or old timers disease, but my very legitimate criticisms of the woke throw-away plastic society we all live in these days. 🗑️ There are just so many beautiful wild flowers 🌼 to look at in woods as we are midsummer, and that’s a respite from the insanity of everything else in this world. 🌍 The truth is waiting isn’t a bad thing, if you’re investing and learning about options. There aren’t really any houses 🏘️ I like near the city, and I don’t want to invest in crap I hate and want to get rid of as soon as possible. 🐐 I want acerage, that off-grid place with livestock but it’s nearly impossible to find that without an excessive commute. And New York State sucks on so many levels.
There are just so many things I am trying to learn about 📙 from timber frame-houses to goat farming, management of forest land and renewable energy systems. ⚡ For a life to be. Despite the advertisements and housing listings I look on Zillow, vinyl siding, drywall, asphalt roofs, granite countertops and all things fake aren’t the only options. Especially in rural areas, there is still a lot of land for sale and some more interesting off-grid homes and rural homesteads. The problem is just they are so difficult with commuting. But I know there is an options for early retirement. 🧑🔧Truth is I’m just fillibustering my time, as my nervous about the truck repairs, though I know they’re not as bad as my mind wants them to believe they are.