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A variety of maps, writings, and photos on a various topics that can’t easily be categorized into a county or place.

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I guess the bike is back on the road sort of 🚲

Still having issues with derailuer being out of alignment but it looks like the frame is bent. Maybe I need to see what I can do with a pair of vice grips. A bigger issue is it looks like the chain got a kink in it, but I tried to straighten that with vice grips on the chain.

What I probably need is professional help, πŸ§‘β€πŸ”§ but I am not sure I want to drop hundreds of dollars on a 3 year old, fairly basic bike with lots of issues and half repairs I’ve done over the years. Hoping I can get the bike running though good enough for commuting around town, I did ride about 2 or 3 miles yesterday, and might go for a test ride out to Arboretum this morning. 🌲πŸͺΏ I have a feeling that the chain issue will straighten itself out now it’s lubricated and somewhat straightened just by putting some miles on it. That said, Tuesday and Wednesday look awful hot so I might just bus it in to avoid the heat.

Yesterday I’m sure the local bike store had their used bike sale, 🚲 and maybe I should have looked a t that. Or look at getting a second bike at the end of the season. I think I want to keep riding the bike to work. The local bus and transferring to the shuttle πŸš€ kind of sucks, especially the time I have to wait in the evening for the next bus home. 🚍 I have thought about potentially getting a 25-year old Honda Civic or otherwise getting rid of SuperDuty but I like my big truck but not for commuting. I could also move closer to the office to avoid the transfer, but I like the bike. βš™οΈ Getting that good quality but not cheap Quick Link tool made swapping the chain super easy. I guess just not having the bike running well and not being able to get around means I feel so immobile, which sucks with such beautiful weather. I realize part of my problem is I buy shit tools or lack the right tools, and I need to also get quality parts. Like from the bike store, not the China Crap you get on Amazon. I realize getting rid of the old bike shouldn’t be hard, if I left it on the road with a free sign, chances are a scrapper would get it in a few days. Or I could take it to the scrap yard with some of the other metal crap I’ve accumulated over the years. ♻️ Shit builds up when you don’t have trash service but mostly burn and do a can run to transfer station once a year.

Maybe I’m just pissed I missed the car show πŸ›Ί at the Power Authority, or otherwise spent my weekend out at the Mine Kill Pool. πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈ Next weekend looks stormy β›ˆοΈ though anything could change over the next five days. Assuming I get mostly caught up on work over the next few days, and the weekend is decent, I may well take off Friday to head out Schoharie and also Shauls. πŸ§… πŸ† 🌽 Maybe do Bromley Mountain Firetower in Delaware County, that’s been on my bucket πŸͺ£ list for some time now.

Went to the Henry Hudson Park πŸ›Ά and paddled back to the falls on the Vlomans Kill and around on the Hudson River for a couple of hours then sat down by the river as the sun set. πŸŒ‡ Pretty nice evening, listened to more of the Audio Book, the Crazies by Amy Gunerman about the politics around a wind farm development on ranch land in Montana. 🌡 Flipped through a few E-books then drove back home, stopping at Walmart as I wanted to get more cottage cheese. I missed having cottage cheese and Greek yogurt all winter, πŸ₯£ but now that my rig is working, I don’t worry about the excess plastic trash. Honestly, when I seperate it out, it’s kind of fun to watch those containers melt and burn, but regardless compacted and burnt, they still make some nice bright flames. πŸ”₯ Lot of salt in cottage cheese, though that’s why I like to have it moderation.

Thematic Map: Myostis Lake Watershed NLCD
Thematic Map: Myostis Lake Watershed

Derailuered

Well I sort of got my bike working, new derailuer is skipping a bit. Continuing to adjust and I don't care if it's perfect or all gears work. Think there are more issues than the derailuer like the derailuer hanger is bent. Among many other issues with the bike, I ride it hard, many miles and do most of my own maintenance often with bit the greatest tools. 

But I'm determined to get back on the road even if it does eventually mean seeking professional help or getting another bike. Even a really nice bike is cheaper than a single car payment and paying insurance on a car plus the SuperDuty. Plus I absolutely hate driving to work though the local bus and transferring to the shuttle or second bus ain't my favorite either.

There are always those people who will insist what I need is a 25 year old Honda Civic and a plastic covered house with asphalt shingles to live in with a 100 square foot television and high speed internet in every room. With weekly garbage service and air conditioning. Sit in bumper to bumper traffic, cut off your own balls with a butcher knife, join a HOA and mow your own lawn. I can only imagine how much I'd bleed after doing such things even if I'd heard Rocky Mountain Oysters are tasty. 

Maybe I spend too much time reading Hunter S Thompson and Edward Abbey, or up in the wilderness watching shit burn, giggling in the hammock. Stories about the west and wilderness. Away from the flashing store front lights yelling buy shit, the garbage heaps, backfiring cars that billow smoke and sewage treatment works. Dreaming of far away places, looking at off grid cabins, farms and ranches and places out west or at least in BFE. But in the mean time I really like riding my bike to work and around town and it would be so hard to give it up in favor of a tacky plastic house and a 25 year old Honda Civic. 

Saturday July 11, 2026 — Bicycles
SVGZ Graphic: County Debt per Capita

A year came and went since I decided to get LASIK πŸ‘€

I did the consultation last July but put off the surgery until September as I didn’t want to spend my summer recovering after the surgery. Seems hard to believe it’s been September without dealing with contacts – I came across some when I was cleaning out my old rig and they got burnt up in the fire the other day. Pulled the aluminum seals out of the ash.

It’s wonderful seeing without the sometimes severe irration and dry eyes associated with contact lens. I wake up and go to bed now without having to touch my eyes. No more fishing pieces of plastic out of my eyes, much less searching for a contact lens that got rolled up under an eye lid. I just wake up and see, go to bed without touching my eyes or looking for my always seemingly scratched up glasses.

No more dependency on having to order disposable contact lens or having to buy more when supplies ran short. No more mandatory visits to the eye doctor – I should go every two years for a quick check up – but it’s not required I buy glasses or contacts from their shop. It always felt like wearing glasses and contacts was a lease on vision but now it’s permanently fixed, and no more fishing those contact lens aluminum seals out of the ash.

Happy Saturday! β˜€οΈ

Looks like it should be a nice weekend. I am hoping that Steiner’s Sport or maybe Mad Dawg will have a Shimano Altus Derailuer and a Quick Link tool avaliable for sale, and I can get the bike back on the road today.

Going to be a nice weekend, β˜€οΈ now that the clouds push off, not outrageously hot. I didn’t realize until yesterday afternoon that the Power Authority Car Show was this week – if I had I known I might have planned to go out to Schoharie. Next weekend, if there aren’t too many thunderstorm β›ˆοΈ or rain, I might do Schoharie or I could go back up to the Potholers if it looks hot. Probably take off next Friday, make a three-day weekend.

It’s tough not having a bike, βš™οΈ but I am hoping the either Steiner’s or MadDawg has a Shimano Altus or compatible derailuer and I can get it installed this afternoon. Also I am tired of messing with needle nose pliers or those awful China Quick Link tool I bought and then returned πŸ”§ so I want to invest in a good quality tool. I am so stressed and feeling sick over the derailuer – it’s stupid – it’s a $20-40 part, maybe slightly more with the bike store mark up. I have the old derailuer off except for the part still suck on the chain, and it shouldn’t be a hard fix when I get the part. I guess worse comes to worse, I’ll order online but you never know what you’ll get online.Β  I didn’t want to order line because the internet is flooded with junk knock-off bike parts that never work right.

Been working on the listing for Big Red, going to offer the cap and truck seperately or together … πŸ›» Hoping to get it ready to go on sale next week. Once it’s ready to sell and I’ve finished doing my research I’ll be posting more about that. I think I will offer the truck at $4,500 with the cap, and also list the cap seperately if people just want that.

Next weekend I want to get out Schoharie County for the weekend. πŸ•οΈ No auto show next week, but I can still float in the Schoharie Creek on the tube by Towpath Mountain, get sweet corn 🌽 and veggies at Shauls. Look forward to enjoying lots of fresh produce. Enjoy riding trail 🚲 and road, a summing the bike is working good. I could go House Pond and Piseco-Powley again next weekend, but I was just up there for the start of the Independence Day Weekend holiday, so I’ll probably wait until August after I get back from summer vacation for that trip. Though that seems so far off, I really haven’t planned the Finger Lakes Trip much but what do I have to do for that besides take the time off from work, drive out to Finger Lakes, I can always buy food and any neccessary supplies at Wally World or Tractor Supply while I’m out there.

Map: Green Mountain National Forest North
Map: Green Mountain National Forest South