Frugality is a trait and a value as old as time, spiking in certain cultures and generations, living situations and individuals, out of both necessity and outlook. Behaving economically with money or resources has become both a rare virtue — on aspirational blogs like the Frugality or self-help tomes like Your Money or Your Life — and a cultural punchline, good for a joke about hoarders or one’s immigrant family, grandparents who lived through the Great Depression, or good old-fashioned tightwads. "What’s newer, in fact, is the idea that some items are immediately and obviously disposable"
What’s newer, in fact, is the past 70-ish years of American materialism, which birthed the idea that some items are immediately and obviously disposable, or that eating food that you bought and paid for, food made of food, is inherently strange. As a widespread attitude, it’s historically unusual and it may be, at least for now, fading.
Since quarantine started, following the spread of Covid-19, there has been a move away from this culture of waste. This new strain of frugality — call it the novel frugality — is defined by its attachment to this moment and its participants’ motivations. While it might mirror long-held practices (like not throwing away aluminum foil or consciously saving scraps of leftovers to make new meals), its impetus is slightly different.
Good evening! Partly clear and 45 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a northwest breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. That breeze makes it’s a bit cold. After my evening walk 🚶 I came inside and are laying on my bed.
Fairly quiet day at work today 💼 so I brought my laptop to the laundromat and worked there. Got my wash and sheets done and then worked down at the library parking lot on my laptop. Got a bunch of videos and data for future blog projects and uploaded a bunch of content to the blog. 💻
Walking on my evening walk 🚍 I saw a CDTA bus. You don’t see so many of them now that they are running only the Saturday schedule and with so few people riding them. Seems so werid to see the buses now they it’s been eight weeks since the buses shut down except for the bare bones 💀schedule 🚏and working from home.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 33 degrees at 4am. 11 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 5th. Northwest wind around 10 mph. Cold night barely above freezing. My windows are closed. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 52 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1974.
Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon with 92% illuminated. At 10 PM, the moon was in the south-southeast (158°) at an altitude of 44° from the horizon, some 226,299 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by October 23rd. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The Flower 🌷 Moon is on Thursday, May 7. The darkest hour is at 12:53 am, followed by dawn at 5:15 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:46 am in the east-northeast (67°) and last for 3 minutes and 9 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 17 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:26 am with sun in the east-northeast (74°).Tonight will have 9 hours and 44 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 24 seconds over last night.
Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 56 degrees at 4pm. 10 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 11th. Northwest wind 11 to 14 mph. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 58 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 1944. There was a dusting of snow in 1900.❄
Going to be cold but sunny tomorrow. ☀ It would be nice to work out back but I think it will be too cold. I do need to get milk 🐮 in the morning, I’ll probably buy two gallons so I’m good for the week. Next week is Stewart’s Half Gallon Ice Cream sale 🍨🍧🍦and I’m definitely looking forward. That said, I should probably cut back as lately I’ve been putting on weight. Despite my efforts to get out walking 🚶 it seems like I don’t get as much walking as I did when I was catching the bus 🚍 downtown.
In four weeks on June 1 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (302°) at 8:26 pm,🌄 which is 27 minutes and 32 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had partly sunny, thunderstorm and temperatures between 81 and 49 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 74 and 52 degrees. The record high of 94 degrees was set back in 1918.
Still chewing over my summer vacation plans ⛺ but with the pandemic much may change. I’m still thinking about Piseco Powley Road for a week if I can get a camping permit for the weekend week. In a campsite with a lot of sun for the solar ok my truck and the screen house for buggy and rainy days. And maybe a swimming 🏊 hole within walking distance.
Looking ahead, Flower Moon 🌕 is in 2 weeks, Memorial Day 🇺🇸 is in 3 weeks, June 🍹 is in 4 weeks and Average High is 80 🏖 is in 7 weeks.
🇺🇸🦅Only 18 days remain until the start of Memorial Day Weekend!🦅🇺🇸
COVID-19 Update; News Items: New Row of Periodic Table, Safest Coffee, Pentagon UFO Videos, Malaria Vaccine; Who’s That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Informed Consent; Science or Fiction
Every week I look forward to Coronavirus update as they are real scientists and not super political or ideological. The new row of the periodic table is a bit scary – you don’t know where the scientists will lead to but if they find a stable zone in the super heavy elements some of them could be quite toxic. Also the coffee discussion is hilarious.
I’ve been trying to learn more about the Rural Resettlement Administration. 🚜
Did families benefit from their government resettlement or did they end up suffering over the long term? A lot has been written about the Japanese resettlement in the World War and the Indian Resettlement program to encourage natives to move off reservations in the 1950s but not about the earlier program. That’s why I shared that article earlier about Rexford Tugwell. Didn’t answer my question but still interesting.
The idle ones, a segment of the United States has turned informant, calling the police, public health authorities and the employers of people they believe are violating social-distancing decrees or stay-at-home orders.
Across the country, these complaints have led to shut downs of dog groomers and massage parlors as well as citations and police scoldings to restaurant and bar owners whose patrons are lingering too close to one another.
A few years back, People of Albany United for Safe Energy (PAUSE) was created to fight oil trains in Downtown Albany. The concern was the large number of highly volatile oil tanker trains that were parked in Downtown Albany for transfer to ships and pipelines heading down to refineries in New Jersey and New Brunswick.
In more recent years they’ve gotten into the zero waste advocacy – actually as a contactor for the city of Albany to comply with their state mandated landfill permit that calls for the city to have a recycling coordinator position that promotes recycling education throughout the member communities.
While this city grant may help with their advocacy efforts it does make their group tied to the city for funding. Criticize the city’s recycling efforts and their group may be without a city grant.
Save the Pine Bush has never taken city funding. They are fully not for profit and independent, free to criticize and fight any development in the Pine Bush.
In contrast, the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, a state operated and largely state funded corporation, is able to focus on education and managing the land while being subject to all the political concerns such a corporation faces.
