I am sure they had their fun at big party in Albany known as Caucus Weekend but I spent it at home except for a few trips down to the library, a bit of riding my mountain bike to store and then taking Big Red out to my parents house, then down through South Bethlehem and out to Walmart to stock up on week’s groceries.
I can’t help but look back at Big Red and think he’s been mine for nearly 13 and a half years now, and this is the forteenth winter. Doesn’t seem like much time, but you see fewer and fewer of this older Silverados on the road, it’s mostly redneck boys in small towns who still drive them, rusted and hollowed out by a decade plus of harsh winters. I know there are only 12 more winters remain until I’m 55 and I can forever hang my hat up on Albany. When I point that out to my parents, they gently push back, noting that they don’t have 12 winters left. 
I know, but certainly doesn’t seem like that long having been at the Assembly going on 18 years now, if you count the internship. It’s not been all easy for Red, the salt is really chewing away all over the truck this year. But it feels good to know there is an end in sight on Albany.
I clicked on an ad for a tourist bureau promoting travel to some foreign country I had never heard of, 
and now on my blog and everywhere else I am getting tons of ads about tourism. Truth I have very little interest in traveling overseas, though I’ve been talking about poking around the Rural Midwest 
and maybe the West for years looking a land and exploring the National Forests. The west is wonderful, but the fire danger with climate change these days, plus it’s so much more expensive then the forested areas of Wisconsin or Missouri. I hate the idea of staying in motels or campgrounds. I’ll bring a hammock and sleep in the trees. Though bringing a lot of camping gear can be difficult with airplanes, but I could certainly rent a car. 
I’ve thought about driving to Ohio, and exploring the Warren National Forest, 
but I am not sure I want to do it with Big Red and it’s advanced age with everything wearing out this year. I also don’t know if I’m going to do a West Virginia trip this autumn – truth is I’m kind of tired of West Virigina even if I do want to get to see more of Southern West Virginia and New River Gorge at some point. 
I know my parents have been encouraging me to explore further away, especially if I am dreaming of living in a place like Wisconsin, Missouri, or Idaho – to see if those places really share my values. I think they I would be totally off-put by the bible humpers and conservative politics of those areas. But I do like Pennsyltucky, except maybe for the high taxes and expensive gas – and now the charging to camp in the state forests. 
It’s just been a cold day out. 
But I’m glad that I got down to the library, and fixed the updated blog theme and got it up and running. I like the layout better then the old one, even if in many ways it’s quite similar. It will be interesting to see the advertising performance. I like the money coming in — I was thinking between the blog revenue ($1,050 of the year), the Drive Safe and Save Insurance discount (around $260 over the past year), I’ve been able to deal with the higher rent and higher costs for everything over the past year without giving up on my savings goal of owning my own land. 
It’s such a pissy amount compared to growth in net-worth from the awesome stock market of the year, but every penny counts. While I’ve never said this to my parents, I think there is somewhat of an unspoken word that I’ll probably end up buying their 5 acre homestead when they pass, at least in the interim before I move out west. 
I don’t think my sister wants it, and while their house is excessively large and full of junk, the barn with stalls for goats and chickens, and probably could do hogs to would be great. 
Thoughts I had as I was hauling my overflowing 5-gallon bucket of food scraps plus several coffee cans back to their compost pile. I sure have a lot of organic waste and much less garbage, since I started eating healthy. That said, it’s still has too many nearby neighbors, and it’s still New York.
I got to Walmart though not to the evening tonight. 
Not too crowded, finally got an electric toothbrush. 
My gums have been hurting the past few days, probably due to burning them on excessively hot onions and other fried stuff right out of the pan 
but I’m also concerned about my poor dental hygiene. After that one-time dental hygienist cussed me out with high-resolution color photos of my yellowed teeth and inflamed gums, I’ve been really concerned. My normal hygentist, Hamid is so much better. To make worse, I here from elderly mom constantly how she has struggled to get dentures, and tells me how bad life can be without good teeth. Hamid has told me for years to get an electric toothbrush to improve my dental hygene, and they had a cheap one at Walmart so I figured now is the time. I try to floss at least once a day, I did it twice today. It seems like the electric tooth brush worked well when I tried it, got my teeth very clean, but it’s just more plastic and shit to break, which I why I resisted getting one for so long. But I also don’t want to lose my teeth. I grew up in a small town, with so many people who are buck-toothed and quite mangled up mouths, and it’s quite sad. 
I am always surprisingly proud of the lack of processed foods in my cart, but then again since I’ve gotten into healthy eating, I don’t really like all those fats or the sugary tastes of the processed foods, though I do MSG, Stevia and sugar-free maple sugar in a lot of my cooking, which usually is all whole-wheat when I bake my own bread and pancakes from scratch. 
Beans are soaking in the fridge for cooking tomorrow. 
I’ve been thinking about doing a page about who I am, 
like I used to have on my blog, but I often find that more difficult then you would think to put it in one essay. 
I have my professional self, the business person, Director of Data Services, the person who rides his mountain bike to work in snow, the map maker and data scientists, the person who spends his weekend in the wilderness camping, having fires and smoking grass, and the person who is saving every penny towards his dream of the off-grid homestead some place out west. But it’s often hard to put all of those things together in one ball of wax, as it’s such different worlds. 
Parking 
my truck this evening, I was noticing how enormous my neighbors flat screen TV is on his wall. I don’t know, I am quite happy not owning a television 
or having cable.
Well I’m tired, and I took a sleeping pill. I should get some sleep 
not that it comes easy or well, 
in these winter months with my windows closed and dreams of nights in the wilderness next to the fire. Maybe next weekend, I could take off Friday though I don’t have as much vacation time as I used to have as I don’t work late nights anymore with my new position – at least not very much. Plus it’s cold this time of year, but I really could use at least one night away from it all. I wish that had been case this weekend, getting out to woods, or better yet to Madison County. 
I know spring is coming, and despite the cold, there is reason for hope. 
