Photo of Andy Arthur

Andy Arthur

Ultimately maybe I could have headed out of town this weekend, πŸ•οΈ but that's behind me and I found ways to be busy and have fun riding down to Henry Hudson and Hollyhock Preserve this weekend. And doing lots of reading. I'm hoping for better weather next weekend, but maybe it's time to get out of town regardless.

Olean

Ortho Olean

Olean is the largest city in Cattaraugus County and serves as its financial, business, transportation and entertainment center. It is one of the principal cities of the Southern Tier region of New York. It's population is 13,711 and is bordered by the Allegheny River to the south and Interstate 86, the Southern Tier Expressway to the north. The Olean Creek joins the Allegheny River in the city, and the hills surrounding the city are historical centers for oil production, although most of the wells are just stripper wells nowadays, producing a few barrels a day.

Maybe hit 81 degrees with lots of sun today β˜€

As they say, you got to make hay when the sun shines. Or at least enjoy the nice weather if you don’t have fields and lots of expensive hay-making equipment.

Made it to a Tuesday. ☺ Going to be a nice one it seems, already 57 degrees and sunny and it’s only going to improve. Looking forward to the bike ride to Menands this morning. Finally got the bike speedometer and it’s installed and configured though it dropped out part of the way heading out to Five Rivers last night, but I think I just needed to tighten the battery and adjust the sensor to make it closer to the wheel. πŸ›ž I’m hopeful it will work better now.

Went to Five Rivers for a while last night. 🐦 Not too long as I was pretty tired. Still it was a nice evening, though I got a late start on the way out to Five Rivers as I was playing with the speedometer after a quick dinner of some leftover ham I found in the freezer plus sweet potatos, peas and some Greek yogurt.🍠 This morning was Johnny cakes but they aren’t the same without the onions, spinach and broccoli all pulvurized into the mix. πŸ₯ž

Scheduled my physical for June 5th, bright an early at 8 AM. 🩺 Assuming it’s not pouring rain that day, I’ll do that in the morning and then ride into work a bit late. After all my doctor is right off the rail trail, which is super convenient. 🚲 Still researching mental health professionals — I have to make some calls to see what is avaliable — but I want to ask the right questions and I don’t want to do more then a few sessions that are relevant and useful rather then beating around the bush. 🌳 If they mental health professional is talking about visits in a the autumn or year from now, they’re not right for me. Probably the biggest question in my mind is do I want to build my off-grid cabin in New York State or not. Seems like an odd question to ask a psychologist but it comes down to a question of my values. I really need a neutral party to discuss with – – not somebody who has a stake in it all. Do I stay for the money and family, or do I reboot my life? The last person I saw, clearly had a view and didn’t really seem willing to help me explore my own values. Plus, it’s a waste of time to go a mental health professional, tell him I’m mentally ill, fix me please, as it doesn’t work that way. Being a redneck who loves to burn shit πŸ”₯ and have fires doesn’t make you mentally ill. πŸ€ͺ

Continuing to research my phone options, I am leaning towards a fairly basic Samsung Galaxy A15 5G for $80, though I’ve considered less expensive phones and also what people consider to be a “quality” budget phone in the $300 range. πŸ“± Truth is mostly what I want is a phone whose touch screen actually works correctly, which mine currently doesn’t work well at all this point. 😑 Not having a fully functioning touch screen that fires at random is frustrating! πŸ’₯This phone I could order and pick up at Walmart which is a convenient option, I thought about doing it on Thursday when I’m leading the Pine Bush Hike but I think I might want to wait until after my camping trip to buy the phone.

Pretty sure I’m going to leave on Friday evening for camp β›Ί and just do the weekend. Again it looks cloudy β›… and rainy at times, but that’s the best it seems we can do these days. Figure get away this weekend and also do the Green Mountains the following Memorial Day Weekend as lately the weather has been such crap. 🌧️ As the summer gets underway, the weather is likely to get warmer at least but I’ll be busier with work and it will be hard to take extended trips where I don’t have cell service.