It’s a Friday already, which seems to happen so quickly but then again with all my meetings and events that are going on these days, and working remote other days, it seems like the week goes by so quickly. Final Friday in October, which seems really had to believe.

Cooler out today but sunny. 🌞 Morning are hard to get going being so dark these days. I was going back and forth whether I should work remote today or go into the office, 🏢 as I like the ride and it’s excellent exercise on such a beautiful day 🚴 but ultimately I settled on working remote, as I want to work from Five Rivers at least this afternoon and go for a walk at lunch time. In the morning, I’ll probably work down at the library at the picnic table I’m thinking. Figure enjoy the beautiful weather, it won’t last. 🍂

Last night I decided there was just enough daylight, 🌇 so I rode out to the Bender Mellon Preserve after work to look at the mountains close to dusk. After next weekend with the time change, that certainly won’t be possible, and indeed I’ve been looking at additional lights and DOT tape to add to my bicycle for safety when night riding. 🔦 If I decide to ride in from the Menands office, the commute home will be in darkness, though probably I would only ride to downtown and get the express from there.

This morning was was carrot pancakes. 🥞 Used up the last of baking powder I had so I ended up using some yeast in the mix. Made it almost bread-like, it was a 50%-50% mix of baking power and yeast. Gave it a bit extra time to rise with warm weather and beat it well. Came out pretty good. I’ve been too much into sweets lately having spent a lot of time as campaign committee doing work there with the break room full of candy, so I’ve been adding too much stevia and frozen fruit to fill my sweet tooth when I’m not in the office. That said, I would never buy anything that crap of myself.

This weekend I’m staying in town, 🏠️ hoping to do an oil change on Sunday when I’m out at my parents house 🔧 and also go apple picking with dad. 🍎 That way I’ll have fresh oil in the truck, and I’ll just wait to rotate the tires until December when I get my state inspection done. I am not planning a lot of trips for November, probably do a trip out to the Green Mountains or — maybe — Cazenovia over Veterans Day Weekend and then maybe a trip to the East Branch of the Scanadaga on the Friday after Thanksgiving. But mostly November I’ll be home more.

December is when I’m more likely to take time off to do that Cazenovia or other trips once rifle season is done, 🦌 though a lot depends if we get early snow in December or not. It’s possible I do something next weekend, but I’m undecided on that fact. Hoping for some rain so the fire risk is less. 🔥 It’s surprising how dry this autumn has been, as usually if anything the climate has gotten wetter in this general area.

Been working on updating a bunch of maps on the blog. 🗺️ I am surprised how much ad revenue has dropped recently on my blog, though I don’t do political ads, which is currently where all the money is. Probably ad revenue will increase as the holiday season approaches. But also now that camping season is done for a lot of people, my blog doesn’t get the search engine traffic it once did. No ad check this month, though I should have enough revenue to get a November one. Maybe I set aside too much from paychecks to pay taxes, now that interest rates have dropped and as has blog revenue.