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Twenty two years ago on this September 11th 🇺🇸

Hard to believe it was 22 years ago that I was a freshman in college at Hudson Valley Community College on that day with the bright blue skies, listening to Amy Goodman and seeing those terrorist attacks on television at my college statistics class before college adjourned for the day and I spent it just walking along High Point Road in Berne, looking up and noticing the skies without airplanes above.

Good morning! Rain showers and 69 degrees in Delmar. ☔ Calm wind. The dew point is 65 degrees. The skies will clear Wednesday around 11 pm.

Catching the earlier express bus 🚍 downtown so I walk 🚶 in the Plaza before work as it’s really not a particularly nice day. Kind of a dreary autumn day, though at least not so hot. Certainly not the crisp, clear day of 22 years ago. I don’t want to go back to those days with all trials and tribulations ahead of me as I started in college, 🎓 it’s kind of nice to be in the midlife even if things aren’t perfect every day. That was quite a time, when so much possibility ahead existed, when I was learning so much and changing so quickly. I was bad yesterday, didn’t get my steps in, 👣 but this morning I plan to do the stairs maybe twice at work, and walk the Plaza in an attempt to get in 10,000 steps for the day.

Twenty two years is a long time ⏳ even if in the grand scheme of things it’s not. 14 ½ years from now my mom was pointing out I will be 55 years old and if I’m still working for the state at that point I’ll have in close to 30 years and can collect my Tier 4 pension if I decide to do alternative things. 💵 Maybe move out west, have that off-grid homestead property I want. By then I’m hoping to have $1.5 million in assets put away though some I won’t be able to tap until 59 1/2 (IRA) but it’s still young enough that if I stay healthy and continue to improve my physical shape there is a lot of possibilities at that age. September 11th in 2001 seems like just yesterday but it was a long time ago now. 🏙

Today will have showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 1pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 71 degrees at 1pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 24th. Maximum dew point of 67 at 1pm. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 7 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 74 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1931.

Listening to Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning while doing my morning walk 🚶 around the Plaza. I’m actually surprised there is less of a police 👮 presence as there was in years past on the anniversary. I guess September 11th has been forgotten but then again it was more than a generation ago now – and I’m sure the threat analysis by terrorism center kept the color code green or blue. I remember that day so well, listening to the attacks live with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, followed by that somewhat old lady troublemaker sounding Rezsin Adams who read 📖 from the Nation Magazine like she did every morning after Democracy Now on WRPI. It’s been decades now since she was kicked off the radio, 📻 and going on three years since her passing. It’s good I got to know her when I was at her house folding the Save the Pine Bush newsletter.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:53 pm with sun having an altitude of 52° from the due south horizon (-18.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 4.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:38 pm with the sun in the west (271°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (277°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:15 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 55 seconds with dusk around 7:41 pm, which is one minute and 46 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:17 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 70 degrees. The dew point will be 65 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 44 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 50 seconds over yesterday.

Yesterday, after a few hours of cussing including on Facebook 🤬 and playing around with controls on my bike and some internet research, I got the bicycle shifting smoothly again. ⚙ 🚲 I think what happened is a snagged the front derailleur cable on some bushes when I was riding at the back country at Thacher Park, plus over the past 750 miles or so of riding, cables have stretched. I think it’s good enough for now, though come the end of the year, I’ll take Blackie to the shop for a full tune up — the gears professionally adjusted for smooth shifting along with the wheels trued again. 🚵‍♀️ If I have continued problems with noisy operation or rough shifting, I will just take it back to Steiner Sports to get tuned up and maybe that cable replaced in the front. Sucks I have to put more money into the bike already, but in the grand scheme of things it’s not going to cost that much, even in these inflationary times. The gear adjusting is actually pretty simple to do, I can’t imagine they would charge a small fortune for 5 minutes on the bike stand to index the gears.

I also glued back together the lid on my mini food processor/chopped 👨‍🍳 and it’s working fine after shattering yesterday, but I got looking at getting a full-sized food processor with a dough blade and a big enough motor to knead dough. I would then “retire” my mini-food to my camping supplies, as it works well enough now glued together but I really want something for more power for at home, especially if want to use it to help automate the bread and dough making processor, make chickpea and red lentil flower, larger batches of hummus, etc. 🍞 🍌 I don’t mind kneading dough, but it sure would be convenient to dump the ingredients in, have things kneaded for me without a full bread machine. Looking at $60 model at Wally World, which is not a super high-end but should do that trick with enough power, assuming my dough aren’t so sticky and far more powerful then the 70 watt mini processor.  Truth be told I don’t need the mini-food processor for camping, but I sure like the sauces it makes, and how it mills the oatmeal perfectly for oatmeal-banana pancakes, and perfectly scrambled eggs. And it really has minimal current draw on the inverter.

I am a little worried about money, 🤑 but this week is a pay week and my credit card bill gets retired on Friday automatically, so that will help restore my credit limit. It’s funny but when you do the Autopay, it does it the date the bill is due, so it really covers the cost of summer vacation now. Plus I’ve had more costs with inflation, high food and gas prices ⛽ and a lot more summer travel over the past few months — to say nothing of getting more spices and kitchen supplies for doing more cooking. 🥘 But it’s good as eating healthier is an investment in my future. And it most of my concerns are short-term, if I have to move money around for a few days from a rainy day fund, it’s not the end of the world.

Tonight will be scattered showers, mainly before 7pm. Patchy fog after 2am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy ☁️, with a low of 61 degrees at 5am. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around August 19th. Maximum dew point of 66 at 6pm. North wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was humid. It got down to 65 degrees. The record low of 36 occurred back in 1875.

I think I might have a bladder infection 🚽 as I am going to the doctor’s this afternoon to get checked out. For a while I was chocking going to the bathroom at night and having to stop so much when traveling to just eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables with farm stand season underway, especially all those aciditic tomatoes and peaches, 🍑 🍅 but I was talking to my parents this weekend, and I think it’s best to get it checked out, especially before it could spread to my kidneys. Turns out it’s a simple test, and then antibotics if necessary. And then relief from pissing all of the time. It’s kind of bad that I can’t go anywhere these days without needing a pee break every hour or so, especially in the morning. Maybe I need to cut back on the coffee but I think I might also have an issue — and I’ve noticed some soreness since Friday.

Cool almost autumn like weekend ahead. 🍂 Maybe the North Country will have it’s first hints of autumn this weekend. I thought about heading north, but I think I’d rather wait for more color. It will be refreshing after all the heat and humidity of late. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 72. Maximum dew point of 53 at 12pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Maximum dew point of 58 at 12pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 75 degrees. 😀

This weekend I would like to head out of town. ⛺ Maybe Rennselearville State Forest or hammock camping at Cole Hill State Forest is an inexpensive option, I know mom wants me to go apple 🍏 picking with dad come Sunday. Not totally sure, the sunsets are so much earlier this time of year. If I want to head north, it’s best to take off Friday and just leave early that day to get north. That said, I think I’d rather wait until there is more color for a trip up north. 🍂 I wouldn’t mind a couple of quiet nights in the woods, even though the nights are much longer now, and some trail riding.

Looking ahead but not forward, next Monday is 7 PM Sunset 🌆 with dusk at 7:28 pm. On that day in 2022, we had rain and temperatures between 80 and 62 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 74 degrees. We hit a record high of 91 back in 1891.

Tree on Bank of Lake Ontario

Evening Along the Sacandaga River

Walking along the Sacandaga River on a clear but cool night along Old Route 8B. Did not see a single car or person in over two hours of walking, returning to camp after the moon had risen, providing light for nighttime walking.

Taken on Monday April 26, 2021 at Holt Preserve.

It’s already under six inch of dirt in the Rennselear Landfill

It’s already under six inch of dirt in the Rennselear Landfill

And all I can taste and smell this evening is like smoldering garbage in a burning barrel. That kind of yuck.

Interviewing Albany Historian John Wolcott for a documentary

This morning I started out my day trying to recover whatever historical documents I could from John Wolcott’s house which was severely burned and roof collapsed after a Sunday evening fire that jumped from a neighboring house, turning John’s archives in his attic into a raging inferno and leading to an emergency demolition at noontime today when the big diesel trucks lined up on Sheridan Street waiting to haul away the pulverized remains of 344 and 346 Sheridan Avenue rapidly removed by Di’Tonnonio and Sons’ Excavator. Another Dutch building pulverized with all its contents and covered with dirt at the Dunn Landfill in Rennselear.

I think we recovered a lot. Most of John’s files I had been going through over the past five years were saved, as much of the water damage occurred in other parts of the house. The Fort Orange and DASNY files were safe. Certainly the best of it wasn’t soaked. All the stuff upstairs was lost, as the fire was fed by decades of dry paper consisting of maps, photocopies, books and original research. Anything I hadn’t seen was lost and probably at this point with his failing memory is forever gone. That said, so much of it before the fire was faded photostat documents and with notes disjointed and memories faded its not clear how much was worth saving even before the fire. Even some of the fabled files that John Wolcott always talked about probably never existed or where just exaggerations of facts after talking with Jim Lafferty. It’s quite possible that the Democratic machine never wanted them found, although who really cares about the machinations of Dan O’Connell and Jim Coyne in 2020. Neither are likely to go to prison in the coming years even if they stole tax money and ran booze and prostitution rings more than a half century ago.

The city fire department retrieved a great deal of momentums that John and Linda had on their list to keep. Some of those boxes and books they hauled out where heavy with water. Very professional and caring. They also retrieved some of the files I had sorted, later on we were able to sneak in the back door and grab some more, along with a few other files that remain a mystery. The fire department grabbed the hard drive and computer so hopefully we can salvage the data off of that. Albany Historian and former Assemblyman John McEneny helped us salvage some materials and had some good ideas on how to save them. We are trying to dry what we can, they may take the papers to a freeze drier to salvage them. We stored them in a vacant apartment, they were going to figure out how to preserve later on.

One thing I couldn’t believe was the stink from the fire. I was prepared to go in the building, I knew it would be wet, smokey smelling. I wore old clothes, knowing that I would be covered with soot and ash by the time I had to leave – and planned to take a shower when I got home but I had no idea how pungent the smell would be, how I would track it home on my boots and my clothes. Despite taking a shower and washing my hands it’s still on them, it’s in my mouth and nose. Most just from handling documents and my brief run on doors to fetch more. It’s like everything had a sticky tar residue from the fire that reeked of smoldering plastic garbage. I wasn’t in the building more than five minutes and while I handled wet sooty boxes, I couldn’t believe how much rubbed off me.

Linda was very concerned about retrieving clothing and things like makeup from the building. That seemed so trivial to me when history was about to be forever pulverized and buried in the Dunn Landfill within a few hours. Her sister was very concerned about that but I couldn’t imagine even after washing you would want to wear any of the clothes. Certainly the fire department didn’t. Russell salvaged some of the bags of clothes but they were so wet and nasty. I thought it silly when there might have been more historical documents to save. Minutes before history lost, rather than trying to sneak in and save wet and terribly pungent clothing. Maybe it’s more salvageable then wet historical documents, and it’s better than it all going to the Rennselear Landfill this afternoon but nothing was historic or not easily purchased with money from the insurance settlement. Trying to save the new chair or chest freezer they had was pointless.

Truth be told, probably a lot more could have been salvaged from the landfill had we had a bit more time. The downstairs while water damaged especially in the back had very little fire damage. The first floor was in little risk of collapse even though the top floor was a mess. Probably in a rural or even suburban town the burned building would have sat for a while before demolition. And ultimately if labor was cheaper and material more expensive like 50 years ago, they could have saved the bottom floor while replacing the top. Assuming that they could get rid of that smell. It was so pungent! But today, the landfill is king, buildings are disposable, used for a few years to be thrown away like everything else.

They talk about all this green stuff and feel good recycling of tin cans and plastic bottles in front of every suburbanites house. But the truth is laid bare after a house fire when everything is pulverized and hauled to the landfill whether it was damaged by fire or water or not. Momentums are considered salvageable but nothing else is. Anything else you can remove is insurance fraud. And too risky, the building could collapse unexpected after the damage of the fire and water we are told. No time to seperate out the asbestos or the television or the vinyl records or the smokey, soaked rug or furniture before its buried in the landfill. The potent greenhouse gas HFC refrigerant in the refrigerator and air conditioner must be vented to the atmosphere as the building must come down, pulverized and be hauled to the landfill as soon as possible.

Maybe speed was of the essence and the building posed an immediate threat to public safety. The city engineer did and he understood better than any of us how a building could suddenly collapse. The building was old, the neighborhood had rapidly deteriorated since a drug rehab center had opened across the street. Gunfire rang out on the street minutes after I walked up it the last time I visited John to go through files. Plus the fire made everything stink so badly. Yuck. It would have been a job to restore such a mess. But in an era of greater material scarcity it probably would have happened. Probably not a lot of value at least on paper with today’s economy.

I’m just glad no one was hurt and we recovered a lot of important papers although certainly many others were lost. That house was a mess, it was full of papers and random junk. It inspired me to go on a purge of some of my own filing cabinets and discarding worn clothing so that I have less junk. Makes me even more resistant to getting more stuff. I didn’t grow up in the era before computers but I can’t imagine ever having nearly as much paper as Mr. Wolcott once had. If it’s important and I’m likely to use , scan it in. Otherwise, toss it. I know I won’t be saving nearly as much anytime random stuff in my future.

Plowing Day's Trash

After this week being so cold and icy, everything now is turning to mud.

After this week being so cold and icy, everything now is turning to mud. The road near the campsite has a section that was all ice a day ago, now it’s turned to a deep mud puddle. Fortunately the other direction doesn’t seem so bad as it’s sloped. While there was six inches of snow here last weekend, the ground never froze below the snow and ice, and now that the weather has gotten well above freezing its all turned to mush. While I was careful to leave Big Red parked on a gravel lot, the once snow and ice covered campsite by tomorrow certainly will be all mud. But I plan to leave pretty early tomorrow and I’ll try to minimize my trips trampling the ground.

Overlooking the Pond

This time of year the mornings are quite dark.

This time of year the mornings are quite dark. Sunrise isn’t until after 7:20 each day, making getting up and going to work a challenge. Camping means getting up in darkness, but at least it makes it easier to get out in the field before dawn when hunting.

In two and a half weeks the time will change, giving us a little extra sun in the morning in exchange for less sun in the evening. Soon though it will be pitch black at five. Mornings already are getting increasingly cold, almost warranting turning the heat on – and certainly at camp sitting by the heater warming ones hands.

Fortunately a hot cup of coffee and breakfast on the camp stove can help overcome the darkness. Morning still breaks, it’s just later then I would like. Eventually the seasons will change, spring will happen and summer days will return.

Looking Back Into West Virgina From Middle Mountain

Weekend at Bear Springs Mountain, Delaware Wild Forest, Warren Highlands

Based on the forecast for the long weekend, I decided to head down to the Western Catskills rather then Moose River Plains. It certainly was a bit sunnier, drier, and less snowy then it looks like they got up at Moose Plains. I simply did not another Memorial Day Weekend at Moose Plains, sitting in rain and snow showers.

I ended up heading down to the Western Catskills. Didn’t leave home until after 10 AM, because I was putzing around. So be it. I also had to stop at Walmart to buy another blaze orange hat, for hiking, because I lost mine. I knew it would be hunting season down there, and figured better safe then sorry. The previous night, they didn’t have one at Glenmont Walmart, so had to visit the Decided to head out the Warren Anderson Expressway (I-88) down to NY 10, and take that all the way south to Walton.

Fire Tower

Driving down NY 10, as soon as I reached Summit, you could see a dusting of snow on the summits around. Stopped in Stamford, drove up to Mount Utsaythana. There was a dusting of snow there too, in parts it looked like a winter wonderland. Then it was down to Walton, following NY 10 and the East Branch of Delaware River. Drove through Delhi, a small rural college town. I had been through Delhi years ago, meandering around Stamford, but not in years. Then I went down to Walton, climbed an enormous hill in the truck, and was at the Bear Spring Mountain Wildlife Management Area (aka Public Hunting Grounds).

At Bear Spring Mountain WMA there is a state DEC campground known as Bear Spring Mountain Campground. It consists of two parts, a fully developed campground with hot showers that is open during the summer months near Launt Pond, and the Spring Brook area with stud pends and a pit privy, similar to Charles Baker State Forest. Both areas are a $18 a night in summer, but from October to the end of hunting season, the lower area is free, but the water is shut-off down there. The designated campsites there are crunched together, and there is no privacy, so I can’t imagine it’s much fun camping there, especially with the smell of horses on a hot summer’s afternoon.

By the time I got down there, it was fairly early, so decided to explore a bit. Drove up to Corbett, explored the Corbett Suspension Bridge, and an old chimney from the “acid factory”, which made an acid from tree bark for smokelesss gunpowder. Decided to head back and explore Bear Spring Mountain WMA a bit more, and drove up West Trout Brook Road, past several hunters. There are some limited views from end of East Trout Brook Road, namely at the summit Bear Spring Mountain. There are better views from NY 206, climbing up from Walton, but with few view points. Also explored Beers Brook Road, which had some limited but nice views into the valley below, and Russ Gray Pond.

Bridge Tower

Bear Spring WMA, being a federally-funded public hunting grounds, does not allow camping. The only camping there is those tiny, smashed together developed campgrounds known as the Bear Spring State Campground, operated by the DEC. I decided it was getting late, and I would camp there tonight, especially because it looked like one of campers had packed up, and the only other person around, was a female bow hunter, on far end of the campground. I wasn’t thrilled, as it meant I would have to keep the music down, but at least the campground was deep in the valley, protected from the wind.

It wasn’t a bad night though. The pit privies were kind of gross, but probably not worst then most of the outhouses in the woods. There was surprisingly a lot of wood in woods near the campground. The truck worked well with keeping the lights on, since switching the truck’s radio back to the starting battery and evenly discharging both batteries. The radio shuts off automatically when the starting battery is starting to get a bit low, and Big Red’s DIC says “Battery Low: Start Engine Low”. Previously, with the starting battery at full charge, hooked up to the discharged auxiliary battery, the alternator wouldn’t kick up to full charge, so the auxiliary battery would fail to get fully charged. Now, with the starting battery slightly discharged – but with enough charge to crank the engine, things kept working well all night long. There was a little bit of sleet in the evening, but nothing major.

Russ Grey Pond

The next morning, I got a slow start. It was drizzling, and I kind of slept in. I didn’t have a tarp set up, which didn’t help. I probably didn’t break camp until 10:30 AM..I was thinking of hiking the NYC DEP trail that overlooks the Pepacton Reservoir, but I ended up turning off onto Holiday Brook Road, and deciding to check out Huggins Lake. Hugging Lake was a nice hike back, following an old woods road back there. There is a campsite down by the lake. Apparently on the ridge above Huggins Lake, there is an old growth forest, but I never got back there.

Then it was off to Mary Smith Road. On Campground Road, one of the cut-over roads, I got to a cover bridge, which had a clearance of 6’6”, which is about an inch too low for my pickup truck with the cap and racks on. So I had to turn around, and back track for about 5 miles. That sucked. Stopped and grabed a few pictures. When I got on Mary Smith Road, and back in forest preserve, I was pleasantly surprised to find three roadside campsites on it. I ended up camping at the most used of the sites – as witnessed by vegetation – along the Finger Lakes Trail/Mary Smith Trail/Middle Mountain Trail. It was a pretty nice roadside campsite.

About as soon as I scoped out the campsite, I realized it would be a pretty night up there. Despite the mountains on both sides, the north wind was whipping along the col. But I liked the campsite, and there was plenty of trees to hang a tarp up. I starting setting up camp at 2:30 PM – which was kind of early – but I figured it was too late to hike Mary Smith Hill (which wasn’t true), but it did start to rain/sleet a bit. Got the tarp up, then the lights strung up and flag up. A heavy sleet squall pounded the col, for a while bad enough I hid out in the cab of the truck. Then I went out, built a fire, and spent sometime listening to a podcast and reading a book about the 1964 World Fair in New York.

The new 60-watt equivalent LED bulb I bought worked real well in the cold, which got down below freezing that night.. But with the bulb focused on the book, it was easy reading and plenty bright. In the cold, the 60-watt equivalent LED bulb was actually brighter then the 100-watt florescent bulb I had at camp, even after fully warming up, because the cold wind made it impossible for the florescent tube to get warm enough to fully atomize the mercury in the fixture.

At times the wind picked up, and it was pretty darn cold, to say the least. I end up putting the fire out cold before bed, to reduce the risk of the fire spreading, and because the tarp partially covered the fire pit, I was afraid it could fall into the fire, and possibly set the truck on fire or cause dripping plastic to fall on it. The fire was out cold, and I went to bed around 10:30 PM. No nightmares.

Mary Smith Hill Roadside Campsite 1

After bedding down, the wind started to whip around. It literally was howling, and the tarp was snapping up and down, making quite a bit of noise. Morning came, and it was beautiful blue skies, but very cold. That was when I first saw car actually pass by on Mary Smith Hill Road – despite being a through-road, and not a super remote road at that. Had another slow breakfast, and built a small fire to burn up some camp garbage. Usually I don’t start fires in the morning, but I was chilly, and knowing that it may be a while until I got out camping again, I wanted to have a fire.

Once I finally got going, I hiked up Mary Smith Hill to the overlook. It really was a lot less further then I expected, and ha+d some interesting views to the north. Nothing totally breathtaking, but still an interesting short hike of maybe 20 minutes each way. Then I drove over to Russell Brook Falls, making a wrong turn and ending up going through Livingston Manor and the world famous fly fishing town, Roscoe. My impression of Roscoe, was it was a very a long and pokey 30 MPH zone, but with more stores then one would expect in such a rural, small town. I probably should have stopped, but I was burning daylight.

Finally made it to Morton Hill Road, and passed a Game Warden in a unmarked green suburbanite-style Jeep. The only reason I know that, was I saw him outside of the car talking to somebody in full uniform. Morton Hill Road climbs a lot from Roscoe out to where it hits Russell Brook Road. There are three campsites along Russell Brook Road, although in all of them there is a boulder barrier between the campsite and fire pit. One might still be able to use them for a pickup with a camper on them, I guess.

Russell Brook Falls 2

I hiked back to Russell Brook Falls – a beautiful but relatively unknown set of falls – at least to non-regulars to that part of state. They are less then quarter mile from the Russell Brook Falls parking area. I stopped and grabbed some pictures. Then, it’s easy hike back to back to Trout Pond, following a gated road 9/10th of a mile from the parking area. There is a slight incline on the road, but nothing to make one break a sweat, even a fat out of shape dude like me, who spends too much time sipping cold buds in the woods. The road is a designated route for people with disabilities – somebody very strong with a wheel chair could theoretically get back there, or maybe with a CP-4 disabled with an ATV permit.

Back at Trout Pond, there is a campsite on the easterly end, and the gated road continues to the west end of lake. On the west end of the lake, there are two other campsites, spaced a ¼ mile apart, along with two lean-tos. All are designed for those with disabilities. There is also a trout spawning shelter on one of the creeks leading into lake. One of the lean-tos was well equipped – somebody left behind some nice pots and pans, all cleaned up, and a selection of perfectly good adult beverages and soda along the back wall of the lean-to. Talk about paying it forward to the next person who will use that lean-to – most certainly a hunter this time of year.

It’s small game hunting season, heard several small game bullets ring out, while hiking back there. No hunters nearby, as far as I could see, but I did wear plenty of blaze orange. I am sure next week, there will be a lot more hunters back there. Wish them luck. Hiked back to my truck and explored Campbell Mountain Road and Campbell Brook Road, looking for additional roadside campsites, preferably the kind you can back a pickup all the way back to. No such luck. Oh, well.

Trout Pond

Then I drove down NY 30, through the hamlet of Harvard, then East Branch. Took Old Route 17 to Hancock, then poked around the Poconos and the Warren Highlands in Pennsyltucky, before eventually ending up in Susquehanna and Great Bend. The area around Hancock is very mountainous and beautiful. The Warren Highlands were rough, mostly hunting and rural landscape country, with a relatively small amount of farming going on. Lots of open burning going on too – I love Pennsylvania..

I love that wild country, and everything Pennsylvania. Fueled up, picked up certain Pennsylvania products not legal in New York and/or cheaper then New York, then hopped on I-88/Warren Anderson Expressway, and made a bee-line back to Delmar, stopping only momentarily at the rest stop on I-88. That place was creepy as all hell after dark, and not well lit either. I seriously thought of just taking a piss in some farm

I made it back to Delmar around 7 PM. It was a good adventure. Burned through more gasoline, then I had planned, although on the trip back along I-88, I average 19.9 mpg in my Big Red Silverado pickup, so not complaining.

A long-weekend trip in early November to explore the the Western Catskills.

A bitterly cold spring morning 🌬️

I am still planning on riding to work as I like the exercise and with the sun it won’t be that cold if I am fully bundled up. Erie Boulevard will be a refrigerator, but by the time I figure I will have worked up a bit of a sweat and be warm enough. The ride against the wind will be good cardio. The afternoon commute will be more difficult, climbing the hill in the face of the wind, but if all else fails, I’ll ride down to the Old Train Station and catch the express bus home from there.

Good morning! Partly sunny and 23 degrees at the Delmar, NY. 🌞 Breezy, ️20 mph breeze from the west-northwest 🌬 with gusts up to 31 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is 9. Things will start to thaw out at around 2 pm. 🌡️

Finished up the first 5 chapters of the Power Broker, 📖 though I’ve been skipping around a bit as I miss a few sections when I fall asleep listening to it. 🎧️ I want to catch up on the parts I missed before returning it, maybe tonight. Listening to the Power Broker is one of many ways I’ve been procrastinating later, as to avoid my anxiety about my housing situation. 😩 That and scrolling through Facebook and complaining about how anxious I am and how I’m avoiding doing research. Maybe because I’m undecided.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 34 degrees at 4pm. 13 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 8th. Breezy, with a northwest wind 20 to 24 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph. A year ago, we had sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 59 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 1921. 6.0 inches of snow fell back in 1905.❄

More fillbustering last night. 🍞 I decided to bake two loafs of bread, one with lots of herbs and spices and other with canned pumpkin, ginger and pumpkin spice and a bit of stevia for added sweetness. Both were baked this morning, after rising in the oven overnight. It’s funny, I think the mice have managed to chew a hole through the rotted oven insulation and firebox, but I have no evidence that they’ve made it up the oven walls to nibble on the rising bread overnight. The two loafs of bread were delicious when baked this morning.

I don’t know why I fear information so much. 📜 It doesn’t cost anything to watch Youtube videos or read library books about buying land and building a house. Maybe it’s not the option I ultimately want to do, but research will make me a more informed consumer if I’m not hiding from it. 🧭 I just got to be very careful about giving my information to sales people, or the harassing phone calls and emails were start, every day. 📞 At least the mortgage officers have abandoned me for now, as I’ve expressed no further interest since them running the credit checks and submitting the paperwork for pre-qualification and most of it for pre-approval.

Starting to learning about some of the downsides of modular construction 🛖 namely how it doesn’t necessarily increase in value, which is good for you when it comes to the taxman but not so much if you plan to sell it. The speed and simplicity of permitting is a big upside, but the downside is the quality of building materials can be less, though often modular buildings have better insulation and fewer air-leaks. Plus far less of a risk of theft of materials on site. But that got me thinking more about whether or not I want to stay in New York State and if I really want the long commute. 🚘️ It’s not like it’s that long before I’m eligible for early retirement at age 55 — 13 years, 10 months, 8 days. The winter of 2011 was further away then that. To build would tie me to New York beyond that date.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:03 pm with sun having an altitude of 47.8° from the due south horizon (-23° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:32 pm with the sun in the west (265°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (272°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:09 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:37 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-southeast (106°) at an altitude of 41° from the horizon, 250,980 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:11 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 30 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 17. ☃️ Breezy, 18 mph breeze ⛅ from the west-northwest with gusts up to 29mph. Tomorrow will have 12 hours and 19 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 55 seconds over today.

All I can say it’s a hell of a situation that I am in these days. ❤️‍🔥 Every dollar I spend today is one that takes away from tomorrow, it’s stealing from my future. The thing about it is I am still living in that dumpy apartment that I’ve had since graduating college, 16 1/2 years ago now, even though I have that swanky office and good salary, that I’ve worked hard to obtain. 13 years and 10 months and 8 days isn’t that long, and it’s a chance to advance my career more, save more money and increase my pension. Then at age 55, I am free to move to a place like the Ozarks of Missouri where I’m free to have whatever fires I want 🔥 and have lots of money for land and stock 🐮 and really build a nice off-grid house, without the somewhat large budgetary restrictions I have. If I have $250k to build now, I’ll probably have a $1 million to buy land and build then, which goes far father outside of New York or any metropolitan area. And then to keep busy, I can find a job shoveling shit 🧹or something along those lines for the health insurance.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 19 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 22nd. Maximum wind chill around 19 at 6pm; Northwest wind 13 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.  Pretty damn cold. I am going to have to turn on the heat I am afraid. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of 2 occurred back in 1875.

Nothing has happened with my neighbor’s garbage pile 🗑️ except some paper litter blowing along my door stop, but I haven’t been able to talk to him about it as he usually leaves before sunrise and doesn’t return until late into the night. I don’t care if he were just to get some trash cans, or stick in his car. At some point I would imagine the slumlord would notice. We should talk more but he works really long hours. I’m just up early, because I choose to go to bed early,  🛌 but he’s up early to work.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, rain and snow, becoming all rain after 11am. High near 42. South wind 6 to 13 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 42. Typical average high for the weekend is 48 degrees.

As previously noted, next Thursday is Average High is 50 🌸 when the sun will be setting at 7:18 pm with dusk at 7:45 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 53 and 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 85 back in 1945.

Old NY Route 8