Alfred E. Smith Building

The Alfred E. Smith Building, known officially as the Alfred E. Smith State Office Building and sometimes called simply the Smith Building, is a structure located in downtown Albany, New York across the street from the New York State Capitol and One Commerce Plaza.

The building’s namesake, Alfred Emmanuel Smith, was a four-term governor of New York and the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 1928 presidential election. The Art Deco skyscraper has 34 stories and at 388 feet (118 m) is Albany’s second tallest structure (after the Erastus Corning Tower).

Completed in 1928, it houses offices of the New York State government. Built originally with an observation deck on the 31st floor, the 350-foot-high (110 m) open-air deck was closed in 1976 when the 589-foot-tall (180 m) 42nd floor enclosed Corning Tower Observation Deck was opened. An extensive renovation of the building began in 2002. This modernization, which cost at least $103 million, is now finished.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Smith_Building

Good Morning! Happy Thursday.

With the Rainy Weather Last Night.Β I spent some time cleaning up my man cave in Delmar, took the kayak off the roof of my pickup, and spent $50 at the grocery store stocking up on supplies. A lot of that stuff will last for a while, and I did get paid yesterday, so for a couple of days, I will have more then $330 in my checking account — although most of the money will soon go to pay bills, savings, or the retirement account. It’s good to live in a lean-fashion — and the more money I save — the more money to buy toys down the road.

No Real Plans for the Weekend. The weather looks pretty rainy. Β We will see how things go, but maybe I will do something locally like a hike or paddle somewhere. Maybe a spring time paddle in the Hudson River, to reinforce to people that I am totally nuts. Raw sewage, when you paddle into it, smells goddamn awful.

Memorial Day Weekend is in Two Weekends.Β It is possible that I go somewhere exotic next weekend, but the big trip I’ve planned for Memorial Day to Moose River Plains is the main thing next up in the agenda. The first or second week of June, I am planning a trip to Charles Baker and the Brookfield-area. Probably paddle up through Nine Mile Swamp again, and also finally try to reach the summit of Tassell Hill — this time by hiking — and with a darn good map. Snowy Mountain Firetower is also on the agenda for June.

Did Some More Debugging of the Blog.Β I kind of hate working with those social media sites because if you make a mistake in the code, you either end up with incorrect posts, multiple posts, or no posts at all. Lately, I’ve had issues with getting the right number of posts from Facebook and Twitter, but hopefully now that is fixed. I also had to fix the issue with Facebook and locations in the Adirondacks. It turns out that