As somebody without home internet or a colored television, rides public transit and keeps his heat at 48 degrees all winter long, I am often convinced that most people are dumb slugs who spend their lives staring at their boob-tubes, spending their endless hours obsessing over Kim Kardashian while mindlessly ordering tons of plastic garbage off of Amazon to fill their 6-yard plastics recycling dumpster that sits in their front yard.
Truth is my disdain for all things suburbia, the “reliable” SUVs and sedans, the plastic-coated houses with their vinyl siding, the mowed grass lawns, the supermarkets and big box stores, driving everywhere, expensive organic food is probably not grounded in that much reality. Lives based around monthly payments, installment loans, credit cards, mortgages and auto loans. Where people have negative or minimal net worth.
There are definately people who live extravagantly, over spend and are extensively in debt – or as the euphanism is – leveraged. Many people are just happy with the standard American existence of high consumerism, but that is not necessarily all Americans, as others do choose to live the simple life. There are more homesteaders out there, more people who don’t have a lot of technology then media wants you to believe. Indeed, living in suburbs, I have to think many of my views are colored by the people around me, and when I travel into the city and especially rural areas, it often is av very different experience.
Living off the grid we use solar lanterns, LED headlamps and flashlights for everything. Especially here in Alaska in the winter!!! We wake up hours before the sunrise and then halfway through the day wonder what to vlog about.... So we made this poorly lit video to show you all what goes on around the lodge while it's still dark. The sun is in the sky for less than 4 hours so we have plenty of darkness to test out the good, the bad, and the handiest lighting gadgets.
I don't know, with 20 odd hours of darkness, I think I would want a bigger battery bank, more solar and a generator. Headlamps and solar lights are fine, but I can't imagine spending so much of my day in the darkness, without a little more light, especially a golden warm white light. 💡Maybe you get a bit of it from sitting next to wood stove. Regardless, it has to be a heck of a life living off-grid in Alaska.
Night before dawn is 5 hours and 54 minutes, Dawn starts at 5:54 am and runs for 28 minutes, Sunrise is at 6:22 am which is 5 hours and 37 minutes before noon, High noon, the transit of the sun, is at 12:06 pm, From twelve noon to the sunset at 5:51 pm is 5 hours and 51 minutes, Dusk lasts for 31 minutes concluding at 6:19 pm, Leaving 5 hours and 40 minutes until midnight.
Night before dawn is 5 hours and 54 minutes, Dawn starts at 5:54 am and runs for 28 minutes, Sunrise is at 6:22 am which is 5 hours and 37 minutes before noon, High noon, the transit of the sun, is at 12:06 pm, From twelve noon to the sunset at 5:51 pm is 5 hours and 51 minutes, Dusk lasts for 31 minutes concluding at 6:19 pm, Leaving 5 hours and 40 minutes until midnight.
The truck purchase is a commitment until 2040 and my retirement. At one level it is not far away, yet it still strikes me as a very distant number. Maybe I’ll junk the new truck before then or stay at my job into my late fifties and early sixties, but that’s really not that plan at this point.
Don’t you know the massive depreciation when you buy a new vehicle?🛻 So people keep telling me, still I don’t want somebody else’s reject, that isn’t going to last very long if I’m spending the time and money to have a truck cap built for it, wire up all the camping equipment and gear in the truck. Still it’s so much fucking money, compared to a 25-year old Honda Civic, which I am sure is great to take your job at the Shopping Maul selling perfume at Teenager Stinks-a-Lot. 🧴 And just the idea of buying a big-block engine pared to a diesel transmission, even with 3.73 gears while the Middle East is blowing up just seems like madness. ⛽ That one-ton axle SuperDuty will look really nice when gas is $15 a gallon, with a 10-gallon limit at your local gas station, by reservation at a set time and prepayment over the internet only. It’s so easy to get your 10-gallons of fuel for $150 – just apply for your spot at the gas station online, pay, drive to the gas station, scan your QR Code from your phone at the pump, and off you go with your 10 gallons for $150, with a 34-gallon tank. I noticed one of the first things advertised when I was researching those big trucks was supplemental gas tanks, as 34-gallons really ain’t enough if your towing a bunch of cows 🐮 and getting 9 MPG.
Maybe I should just become a greenie and buy an electric car. ⚡ though maybe not a Tesla as only fascists drive those cars, and they are full of screens and electronic crap that the SuperDuty I looked at lacked by modern standards of the past decade, even if everything was pretty much computer controlled beyond the keyed ignition and the tiny screens that have probably been in the parts bin at Ford since 2012 or so. Certainly the interior of that truck reminded me more of my 1998 Ford Ranger then mom’s fancy Honda with all the big screens. I kind of hated how hard the steering wheel was and how plasticky everything was in that truck, but it’s a base model. ⚙️ That TorqueShift diesel transmission shifts like a diesel, harder then old 3-on-the-tree manual. Blind spots sucked too, has zero technology like blind spot monitoring, though I think that’s kind of gimmick. And I don’t want something fancy. But yeah, $63.5k OTD, no thanks. I guess if I end up going the SuperDuty route, I should shop around this upcoming week with email quotes. 📧 Maybe nobody will want my business, but honestly, if there are so many of those big trucks rotting on the lots, some dealers are going to be getting tired of paying floorplan interest and getting paid instead.
It’s just something I’ve been thinking about a lot, 💭 it’s more then just the truck. Do I want to keep living in the suburbs, riding my bike to work most days? 🚲 Do I want to buy a house and car commute to work? Build the homestead now, or wait? 🐐 Getting old so quickly. But I still enjoy my adventures in the wilderness, 🏕️ and with the camper shell and a bit more equipment, in my mind a SuperDuty would be perfect. 👌 I get so worn out thinking about and studying trucks, watching these videos about both dealer scams (DON’T YOU KNOW WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IS A 1996 HONDA CIVIC FINANCED AT 28.3% INTEREST OVER 96 MONTHS) and diasater trucks with blown transmissions and engines. I heard somewhere on the internet that 99.999999% of Godzilla engines have expensive lifter problems. Don’t you want an EXTENDED WARRANTY SCAM ? 🛠️
I get so tired, I was asleep by 7:30 PM last night, 🛏️ and then awake by 3:30 AM and found myself cooking down chickpeas this morning by 4 AM, then back in bed for a brief nap listening to another podcast, 📻 and ads for mattresses and BETTER HELP as it’s 5 AM, then carrot 🥕 🍏 and apple pancakes for breakfast. 🥞 Showering, 🚿 and then I guess it will be to work on my mountain bike 🚴, as I’ll probably have meetings downtown this afternoon, and fuck making the bus company rich 🚍 which is forcing me to buy a new bus pass in less then a month, because I’ve been a loyal customer for more then a decade now. I don’t know these days, I just don’t know. I am so confused. 😕
