I need to make a hiring decision soon. I was reminded of that in the meeting today but another good candidate gave me his references today. I’ll look at resumes again tomorrow. And then make a decision.

I’m simply not good at making decisions, 💭 I often choose the default or the first option and make do with it. Like I should have bought that rundown horse farmette property I looked at. 🏚️ If I had bought it I could have gotten a wood stove installed, moved there by now. Had a fire 🔥 pit out back and slept outside plenty of nights. ✨ You loose out on one option, there are others I tell myself. ↔️I like living in the city and traveling. It’s going to be a great summer vacation in a week. Going to loose out if I don’t decide soon – the agency director is on vacation tomorrow – so who even knows if I can get final approval until I’m after on vacation.

Part of it is a want perfect 👌 on a $40k hiring budget or maybe in the case of horse farmette $150k. And it isn’t going to happen. And life is full of risks and unknowns. The house was too close to the road, and other houses, it’s in New York and I’d have to commute out there five days a week. And I couldn’t travel the way I like to travel. I’d have to be somewhat careful what I’d burn 🔥 there and would have to devote a lot of time to it. Truth is that I spend a lot of time looking a my new business cards 🎴 which I finally ordered that say in big letters under my name, Director of Data Services. Somehow next to that New York State seal, in blue ink, it seems more real than the every day work at my job, or the paperwork I signed months ago when I officially took the title on January 1st. I know I do good work, otherwise I wouldn’t have that business card.🏆

My kitchen has gotten gross 🤮 with all the heat and humidity encouraging mildew to grow and me being busy, traveling so much. 🏕 I cleaned the counter tops, sink, refrigerator and stove. It’s much better now I tell myself. My apartment is such a dump but I like it that way. A little cleaning of mildew and spilled food makes such a difference. I’m just such a dirty hick – maybe that’s why I like farming so much 🧑‍🌾- the mud and muck, the blood and the grain and smells of silage. I don’t love cleaning and I kind of like dirt 💩 . Someday, maybe not tomorrow I’ll own my own land. 🚜 But when I am still a little bit young 🧒, I still want to travel 🌲and spend a few more nights in the wilderness and not spend all my days hauling slop and shoveling pig 🐽 shit. I can still get good bacon 🥓 in the meantime at For the Love of Bacon and the farm stands are wonderful this time of year. 🍆 🌽

Out at Five Rivers but it’s getting dark fast 🌇 as we are starting to loose daylight in the evenings and I was at the campaign committee for a while this evening before riding home, frying up some onions and rice 🍚 and cleaning in the kitchen.🧹 Don’t get me wrong it’s a delightful evening with not much humidity. 🐦 Going to be a nice weekend too, I’d be packing to head out of town if I wasn’t leaving in a week for summer vacation. Might still hammock camp Saturday night under the moonlight 🌕 but Friday night I’ll be home, ride to work both ways.

I am looking forward to summer vacation 🏖 but well aware when I return summer will be in serious decline with the evenings much shorter. 🌆 It will be so nice in the Finger Lakes. But I’ve had a lot of great adventures this summer and will have several more weeks to get away, and come September or maybe even the second half of August are going to work remote every Friday so I can camp 🏕 and work from there and be able to switch between state and campaign duties easily off state property. 🖥 I just got a new campaign laptop with built in internet so I don’t have to worry about using too much bandwidth on my phone processing data jobs. 🍁 I think I’ll have to do some work during summer vacation but a conference call on the shores of Seneca Lake doesn’t seem bad if it ends with me eating ice cream 🤣🍦 from Glen Dairy Bar.

Going to head home, sit out back with some lemonade 🍋 and look at the moon. Then head to bed as I I’ve been getting up early. On vacation I’ll stay up late, maybe smoke some pot 🚬 have some nice fires 🔥 and look at the stars ✨ to look for as many shooting stars as possible. I want to see and do as much as possible on summer vacation but I’m also not opposed to some quiet lazy days at camp 🏕, laying back in the hammock reading 📖 and riding the dirt roads on my mountain bike. 🚵 Slinging some cow 🐮 shit with the bike tires riding the Interlaken Trail through those cow pastures.

Things are better now,🔧is the phrase I frequently repeat to myself from the Art and Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance. 🏍 And it’s true even if I’m troubled by many things in my world. I know I don’t want to spend all weekend around the apartment because demolition and construction continues in the unit next door. 🚧 It seems like they keep ripping out more with little progress after four months. And winter is coming in my drafty run down apartment. I don’t care, I keep the heat low and use the heated blanket, retiring to bed early. 🛏 I could have something nicer or that homestead property, and installed a wood stove there. 🪵 After all, I know what my state business card reads.