It had stopped and started back up so I expect showers all morning, but I’m still hoping to ride to my mountain bike to the dental appointment, the chain well greased up. I’ll bring extra socks in case I am completely soaked by the time I get to work, and it’s always ungodly warm in my office but then again I keep the heat in my apartment at 48 degrees so the pipes don’t freeze solid.
I started the 15-bean soup on the stove at 4:30 AM and realized I didn’t add additional pinto beans to the mix when I was soaking last night, 🍲 but whatever when those beans are gone, I’ll probably break open another bag of pinto beans, soak them over night and have the other two pounds of them for the remainder of the week. Also have bread 🍞 baking in the oven, and scrambled some eggs 🥚 with a bunch of onions, mixed vegetables, salt and some cornmeal, balsamatic vinger and Stevia. It’s fine, now just to clean my teeth good 🪥 before heading to the dentist. I really hope the rain holds off to west as I both want to ride to the dentist then over to Menands in the office. Probably just take Delaware down to Morton and from there the bike trail should be fairly clear or I can ride the various south end streets. 🚵 I don’t want anything to do the Capitol this morning, as I’m not dressed up as data frames don’t care, 💾 plus I like to avoid crowds. I really didn’t get out of bed until closer to 5:30 AM but with the 9 AM dentist appointment I actually will be going in later then if I had taken the bus to the shuttle to the office at 9 AM.
Continuing to read through that second book about buying cars I got out of Hoopla, 📚 and watching various videos on YouTube about perspectives on how to get a fair deal when buying a car. Much like investing money, there are is a lot of consensus on many things but also a lot of difference in opinion. ⚖️ I do think I have a fairly solid strategy, researching until February, test driving in February, then scouring dealer listings through March and making a decision near the end of the month, 🗓️ before the first quarter comes to a close. Study window stickers online, get internet quotes for out the door prices and a break down of what goes into the out the door price. Like shopping, stick only to models you can study the specifics carefully on the internet. Focus on the total out the door price, but also carefully review the components, and understand what each means to know how much bullshit they really are. 📧 Everything besides the the out-the-door price is bullshit, but some are easier to chew away at. There is a lot of things like dealer holdback, floor payments that go into that calculation that don’t appear on the bill but are worth further consideration when reviewing the bill. The nice thing about limiting yourself to specific stock numbers 📄 if you can fully research them. I plan to start out in Syracuse, Glens Falls, Bennington, Pittsfield, Newburgh, Oneonta dealers first and get total out the door quotes, 🎯 and see if local dealers will match it on trucks I like. It doesn’t seem like the F-350 regular cab long bed, with the XL appearance package and the rear locker is exactly an uncommon or high demand truck, though it seems like every dealer has at least one or two of them in back lot. Undecided about the XL off-road package. But I pretty much know what I want. I think though that I haven’t test drove, and fuel economy and shit stiff ride gives me pause. it seems like the F-350 1-ton axle is much more common then the F-250 3/4-ton axle, the main difference is towing and rough ride. 🏔️ But it’s a real truck. I want to be fair and informed, respected by the dealers, but also realize I’ll never know as much as they do, so it’s worthwhile to listen even if I do not ageee with eveything. 🤝
I don’t know, there often is an older gray SuperDuty regular cab truck parked along Eggy’s 🛻 which I kind of like. I should consider alternatives more seriously, but I don’t want a pissy little truck, and I share the concerns with many mechanics about all the blown, I mean supercharged engines, all the LEDs and fancy displays. Those SuperDuty’s with the XL package, the vinyl seats and floors, mechanical speedometers, really remind me of my old Ford Ranger, and I have good memories of that old truck. And I want a bigger bed. But fuel economy and ride quality, especially for long trips just gives me pause. Truth is though until February this is all just theoretical in my brain, 🧠 and it’s not like I am going to buy another truck until at least late in March, maybe longer, otherwise I would not have surrendered my plates and dropped my insurance. I still have the registration on my old truck, so I could get new plates and insurance if I want to get it back on the road too, but I admit that boat 🛥️ has probably sailed.
So I’m just watching the rain and how it’s going to turn to sleet. ☔ I’ll probably do the bike part of the way, but I concede busing it is the better option but with the schedule, it could mean a lot of waiting, so I’ll probably be riding in the rain unless I want to figure out the Uber/Lyft thing and pay. 🚖 I don’t know, I won’t melt in the rain and the damn truck is going to be so expensive. But I still want to travel and not own a 20-year old Honda Civic. So bike it will be in the early morning rain. 🚲 With lots of grease to resist to the road salt, as I’m sure it will kill my mountain bike in a few years, just like it did to old Big Red. Winter won’t last forever though, and eventually I’ll get back to the woods and have a good fire, 🔥 and these days will be behind me.