Andy

Twenty years together ๐Ÿฝ๏ธ

Made it to May. Things are better now and will get better in future.

Kind of a cloudy, bleak start to the morning. ๐ŸŒฅ๏ธ I got to bed much too late after getting home late, but I still awoke around 4:30 AM or somewhere around there and laid in bed until 6:30 AM drifting in and our of sleep. ๐Ÿ›๏ธ I do think Iโ€™m sleeping better these days with the windows open and I do have hope for summer, despite for my critics and haters. Truth is I feel like a shit ๐Ÿ’ฉ this morning, I didnโ€™t get enough sleep and Iโ€™ve been achy ever since mid-last week, particularly my right arm but I canโ€™t find the tick bite. ๐ŸŽฏ

I was thinking it was 20 years Iโ€™ve been going to Save the Pine Bush Dinners now. ๐Ÿฝ๏ธ Back when it was only $10 for dinner, now itโ€™s $20 but I ended up taking home a bunch of lasagna. Fewer and fewer of original Save the Pine Bush members are still around, the Erastus Corning years are so far gone. Seems hard to believe that two decades has gone by now. Two decades from now, Iโ€™ll be 62 years old. And hopefully have that off-grid cabin up in woods somewhere. ๐Ÿก Itโ€™s been twenty years since  my mid-years in college, 21 since I started exploring the Albany Pine Bush in depth. ๐Ÿฆ‹ I do dream of that day when Albany and all the problems of the city with all itโ€™s pollution and grime are just a distant memory.

It was a great dinner, Al Hicks gave an excellent presentation. ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿบ Makes me almost want to be inspired to be politically active again. Rode my bike down Madison Avenue and caught the 18 home. I probably should have ridden all the way to the dinner rather then take the 910 over there, but I was lazy and didnโ€™t feel like riding up the State Street Hill at rush hour, plus I wanted to try out that that new express bus. ๐Ÿš Wasnโ€™t as fast as I had hoped. After the dinner, after dark, I rode back downtown. That Madison Avenue Bike Lane sure makes riding along that route pretty easy and much safer, even after dark with my lights. ๐Ÿšฒ I complain about a lot in this world, but I sure like my bike and the bus service to get around the city. Someday I want to move back out in the country, but not in New York for the reasons I write about so much Ina repetitive at time fashion. Still, I really feel a connection to small cities and towns I visit, and Iโ€™d love to work and do business in such a place, though Iโ€™d want to live out in the country and have acerage and do those rural things, some of liberals find so disapproving and bad. But for now, I have weekends in wilderness and deep rural places far away from the peering eyes of libtards. ๐Ÿฎ

I got home at 10:15 and was up until after eleven. ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Iโ€™m never up that late but was wired from the coffee โ˜•. Even after having two brownies and lasagna, salad and garlic bread I wa a bit hungry when I got home so I fried up some onions and some of the light red beans that I cooked up into a mash yesterday morning. This morning was reheated coffee with banana-carrot-oatmeal-flour pancakes. The banana gives them them so much flavor and helps hold the oatmeal, carrot and flour together. ๐Ÿฅž Topped with frozen blueberries and syrup.

Got my remaining Hoopla borrows for the month. ๐Ÿ“š Itโ€™s May now. I had five books โ€“ โ€“ half of them audio books but I wanted to make sure I got my ten borrows for the month of April before they expired. ๐Ÿ”Š Audio books are great for bike commuting, they kept my mind thinking and moving forward as I ride back and forth to work. Of course, the thing today will be to stay awake while Iโ€™m riding in as I am so sleep deprived after the dinner last night. ๐Ÿšด Truth is the Pine Bush doesnโ€™t help me, if anything it makes my thoughts more disorderly with my frustration with politics these days.

I concede the past few weeks on my morning blog posts ๐Ÿ“ Iโ€™ve really let me OCD show through a bit too much. ๐Ÿคช I really should try harder to get clean. But after so many years of the secretive life, I kind of want to be truthful at least on my blog, in many a kind of silly way. I know it only raises peopleโ€™s heckles and gets me mean and nasty comments and harassing emails. ๐Ÿ“ง I wish I could be more truthful to myself and world around me, but I do struggle to figure out what thoughts are rational, what are dreams, and what I should be fighting for or against.

Truth is thoughts are only thoughts, and sometimes I just put words together as I like to clang them together. But also, I know OCD is a serious disorder, they say itโ€™s the seventh most serious condition one can suffer form outside of heart attacks, breathing disorders, schizophrenia, and a few very other severe things. I should try to get clean, try counseling again, but maybe not that creepy guy in the basement in an run-down office building in the outskirts of city. ๐Ÿคœ I really worry that shrinks will shrink my mind. ๐Ÿง  Still, I donโ€™t want to give up so much of what is me. What can I say, I have some controversial views that really anger some of my more liberal followers. How dare you โ€“ is the reaction I so often get from people on my posts. Maybe itโ€™s a good thing Iโ€™m forcing people to think. ๐Ÿ’ญ

The key ๐Ÿ—๏ธ at this point is just to stay alive. I am so close to living the life I actually want to live if I put in a few more years in with the state. Itโ€™s really not that much more time. โŒ› Iโ€™ve come so far, becoming a unit director, overseeing a small but important department. And Iโ€™m doing great work, ๐Ÿ’พ new initiatives bringing together code and data. Things will get better, I tell myself. I havenโ€™t checked my investments lately, but I keep adding into the pool every week. Those days of finally saying good bye to Albany forever arenโ€™t that far away.

That said, Iโ€™m just glad to be out camping ๐Ÿ•๏ธ and traveling again, to get away from my critics and haters in the wilderness. Why do I get so bent out of shape by a threatening email and blog comments from people Iโ€™ve never even met before. ๐Ÿ˜ก Why do I fear every monster ๐Ÿ‘น in the dark corners of the internet even if I know they probably arenโ€™t like that in real life. I should just delete ๐Ÿ—‘๏ธ and ignore the trolls.

Intermittent Fasting ๐Ÿฒ

One of the latest fad diets is intermittent fasting. I would argue itโ€™s a lot like the popular keto diet that says you can eat unlimited bacon as long as you cut down on the carbs. In other words, donโ€™t really try, have your cake and eat it too. Ignoring all that saturated fats clogging your arteries and larding up your arteries.

Muslims during Ramadan often doing fasting part of the day. They usually though break their fast with a calorie dense meal. The thing is Iโ€™m not sure if there is an actual net reduction of calories or that health and weight actually improved. Delayed calorie intake doesnโ€™t guarantee you wonโ€™t take up more calories later in the day.

I guess if your problem with excessive calorie intake is one of snacking all day long, setting an eating schedule can help. Fewer hours to eat in theory means less eating. At least thatโ€™s the idea of intermittent fasting. Still I donโ€™t agree as delayed calorie intake doesnโ€™t mean less calories or better health. Moreover, to the contrary I tend to think intermittent fasting encourages low blood sugar which only encourages excessive sugar and therefore calorie consumption when a fast is broken.

Whatโ€™s a better idea โ€“ the opposite of intermittent fasting โ€“ eating all day with a focus on smaller, healthy unprocessed foods high in fiber with some occasional healthy omega 3 fats and protein. Fiber and more fiber. Things that are naturally filling like lentils and spicy foods. Staying away from artificial sweets except for a rare treat. Go for the apple or banana or grape if you crave sweet. But never stop eating that fiber from things like carrots, celery and broccoli. And drink lots of water.

Land Use in Ohio

Southern Ohio is hilly and Appalachian with great woods while western Ohio is much more agricultural with field crops predominating. 

Comparing Cottontails | NH Rabbit Reports

Comparing Cottontails | NH Rabbit Reports

There are two species of rabbits in New Hampshire, the eastern cottontail and the New England cottontail. The eastern cottontail is not native east of the Hudson River and was introduced to New England in the early 1900s as a game species. The New England cottontail is native to the region but has seen dwindling population numbers over the last several decades throughout its range, mostly due to habitat loss and fragmentation, and is currently listed as a state-endangered species in New Hampshire.