Absolutely beautiful morning 🌅

Ever since last night I knew I would be kicking myself for not going out to Vermont this weekend. But it’s not like I don’t have adventures planned — this weekend I should spend a least a bit of time cleaning and packing for my six-day trip I’m planning in the Adirondacks to beat the heat.

I was sure yesterday evening would be a soaker, ⛈️ setting up camp in the rain, the woods completely wet. Plus having the second half of next week off from at least having to come into the office, so it seemed crazy to drive out to Vermont, hurry home on Sunday, run to the laundromat, get gear cleaned up and ready to go. But today is so beautiful, and yesterday evening was rain free but with a few threatening clouds as I went to the library.

Today a lot of the effort is going to be getting ready for the trip ahead. 🚲 First off I plan to Tractor Supply to get the propane tank topped off so I plenty for the five nights up in the Adirondacks. Then I want to get to the bike store and have them check out the front wheel and let me know what is clicking and hopefully tighten up the front fork which I loosened when I bent the handle bars when I crashed riding two weeks ago at Thacher Park. I think that free bus trip for riding trail at Thacher Park turned out to be a lot more expensive then I anticipated.  🚵 It was a lot of fun but I rode things a bit too hard. At least I didn’t break any bones. I’m hoping it’s just the wheel is out of true and the shop can fix it with a spoke key, and possibly replacing that bent spoke. I probably made it worse with my tinkering with the spokes without a tuning tool. Studying it more I’m noticing the spokes might be occasionally hitting the brake caliber, which might cause the noise. Or maybe it’s not the reflector. Then hopefully it won’t be hundreds of dollars and I’ll have it back by Tuesday.  🫰 Fingers crossed as they say. I still need to replace the handle grips, get a clamp on kick stand and probably replace the rear brakes before summer vacation, though it will be fine for the Adirondacks this week, as it’s going to be so hot I doubt I’ll be doing much riding. 👩‍🔧I am not a mechanic, but I know people who will take my money and make it all good again.

I’ve been reading the book on sed and awk I got from work. 🤖 A lot of the data processing scripts on the main frame server — buddha3 — at work are done in awk, and it’s a very useful tool both for data work at work and at home. While I usually prefer to use R Statistical Language for a lot of my work, I don’t have that on the server, only my various work and personal computer desktops, and for many simple things using R (or even Python) is like using a nuclear bomb when a fly swatter would work. R though is still werid and wonderful, and I prefer it for most of my data processing streams. 📜

This afternoon I have different options. 🚜 I might hammock camp out in Northern Schoharie County, and then go to Gas Up on Sunday before visiting the parents on Sunday. 👪 I should do a little more prepping for the big Adirondack trip before the heat starts to bake in a Sunday and so I’m not so rushed on Monday night with shopping and finishing packing, as I plan to leave directly from the suburban office to head to the Adirondacks on Tuesday night. I really wanted to do Stewart Lake and Lily Lake on Wednesday or Thursday, but I know I’m going to have data work to do later in the week, even if I’m off.