John Boyd Thacher State Park, is situated along the Helderberg Escarpment, one of the richest fossil-bearing formations in the world. Even as it safeguards six miles of limestone cliff-face, rock-strewn slopes, woodland and open fields, the park provides a marvelous panorama of the Hudson-Mohawk Valleys and the Adirondack and Green Mountains. The park has volleyball courts, playgrounds, ball fields and numerous picnic areas with nine reservable shelters. Interpretive programs are offered year-round, including guided tours of the famous Indian Ladder Trail. There are over 25 additional miles of trails for summer hiking and mountain biking, and winter cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and snowmobiling.
With my job I travel quite a bit and get to see a lot of soulless upper-class suburban areas.🏡 The suburban areas are typically have supposedly nice chemically treated lawns, hardwood floors and enormous high ceilings made out of Chinese drywall and with the finest vinyl decorations you can find at local big box stores. They usually have the best selection of cookie cutter shrubbery and large open kitchen with marble countertops and massive color televisions and smart devices in every room. Everything is made out of cheap nasty industrial materials from China but is celebrated as being modern and stylish.🚽
Organic food fills the pantry and don’t worry, they even have an enormous recycling bin to compliment their even larger trash can. 🎠Advanced electronic controls keep the house a perfect 72 degrees even on the coldest winter day or the warmest summer evening. Because they want to make a green statement they may have grid connected solar panels on their roof, an plug in hybrid in their driveway and a plastic compost bin out bin back.🚗 And a frilly dog inside. That’s the suburbanites life.
They work their high stress job in the big office tower downtown,🏢 drive their plug in hybrid back and forth to work every day through the grid lock of rush hour.🚙 They always send in their yearly check to the Sierra Club and get the latest magazines from the suburbanite house wife magazine. Despite living in tranquil suburbanites neighborhood they live in fear that a criminal, 👹somebody of a dark skin color will break their picture window to steal their color television and rape their wife.
It’s a tacky, awful and expensive life if you ask me. It’s an incredibly consumptive life as they burn through millions of watts to keep the lights burning on the temperature perfect.:idea: They are left with big tax bills and utility utility costs every month. 💰Their lives are completely isolated from the real world, insulated by remote industrial forces outside of their bubble.
I have nothing but disdain for the suburbanites way of living, especially how it emphasizes consumption and debt over all things in life. 💳Rather than saving and investing, it encourages borrowing and television watching promoting even more extravagant suburbanite living.💵
I do enough camping and spending time in the wilderness and I know how to pay my future first and save and invest in a variety of products to allow my money to grow avoid the trap of suburbia.💸 I know that eventually I will be able have a more primitive and responsible life on my land if I plan and continue to invest both in the markets and myself through expanding my knowledge. 📚I don’t have to have a plastic suburbanite life if I don’t want it. If you don’t have those expensive cable and utility bills, don’t own a television or have internet at home you can afford more. 💻If you a primitive water supply, and outhouse and a simple instant on hot water supply for showers you can afford a lot more land and other toys that can bring you closer to the natural world then isolate you further in a plastic world🔌 made up of Chinese drywall, marble countertops, big screen color televisions.
It’s actually remarkable how expensive the modern suburbanite life☎ is based on my estimates, although I guess I wouldn’t really know because despite living in the suburbs I choose not to participate in it. 📲I like my small run down two floor apartments without air conditioning and only minimal heat in the winter. I like taking the bus to work every day and walking around town to the park and library. 📗I like taking my own trash to the transfer station and doing whatever I can to conserve energy at home. And I do enjoy my many nights in the wilderness, camping alone out of eye shot and ear shot of anyone else. 🐄🐂But I do miss the small town living.
Regardless my weekend adventures in the wilderness keep happy as I work for a better tomorrow.
Or so the Roman court declared, and despite some dissent by members of the court, he was executed via the cross for the the high crime of treason. While our criminal justice system has made some progress over the original Roman system of justice — it’s hard to argue that all that much has changed since the days when the Romans laughed as Jesus died in agony on the cross.
Government, even in so-called representative democracies, is the sovereign with power justified by law. What happened — the lawful murder of Jesus Christ by the state — could happen even in our modern times. Law can not determine whether or not something is moral, only what is justified as force by government actions against the people.
Whether or not Jesus was a menace to God and mankind is debatable, indeed millions honor Christ for his organizing of the working man against the rich man. For confronting the Alderman and politicians, for raising his voice. Jesus, the son of God wasn’t afraid to confront power, with acidic attacks on power, confronting comfortable ideas with truth.
Did Jesus argue for the over-throw of the government, the treasonous acts that the Roman court claimed was supported by evidence? We may never know, as much is lost in history. But we do know that Jesus organized the carpenter, the weaver, the farmer, as a voice against the rich and powerful. His power, through the people, confronted old ways of thinking, put established ways of thinking at risk.
You know after all these years of fighting development in the Pine Bush, and bemoaning yet another house being built in a woods or a farm field, I am seriously considering buying some undeveloped land and building a house on it. It’s really hard to find a property with lots of land that has a reasonably-sized structure for one person that is energy efficient and is powered by renewable energy.
How do I plan to address some of my moral quams about developing land?
I am not looking to turn the land into a suburban paradise but instead rural use – homesteading with livestock and gardening, not inconsistent with rural uses
I will work to minimize the removal of trees, especially quality native species and work to plant additional native species
I will work to build the soil using livestock, wood ash and compost, minimize waste generation
I will work to clean the land, remove debris and recycle or scrap as much as possible
I will work to eradicate invasive species and will not plant introduced species except to the extent needed to produce food for myself and livestock
I am planning to use solar panels and wood from on site trees as primary sources of energy
SEQRA calls it the inevitable irreversible consumption of natural resources which it is. But with a light hand on the land, much of it can be restored in the out years or continue to provide rural sustainable housing once I’m gone.
What’s the worse thing that can happen? I waste a bit of ice keeping the cooler cold and some gasoline driving to work. But I do maintain, at least it my shit brain that I’ll have tomorrow off and it will be a great weekend in the wilderness with some great hikes, mountain biking, camping and fires. And if not starting tonight it will be tomorrow. They’ll get that extender done as I can’t imagine anyone really wants to spend Easter in Albany especially with beautiful weather ahead.
Good morning! Rain showers around and 42 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ There is a northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Got to get out of this place. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Monday around 3 am. ☃️
I am packed for heading out of town, 🏕️ with the assumption being that I’ll have Friday off. No guarantees, but I didn’t want to miss out and the stakes of not packing to leave today are higher then if I didn’t pack and lost out on what should be a nice evening today and a beautiful day tomorrow. Going to be windy tomorrow afternoon, but I’m not going to be that far off the road that if a limb falls I can’t chop or saw it. Plus after all the snow and ice of recent, I don’t imagine there will be a lot more to break.
Today will have a chance of showers, mainly after 10am. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 47 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 21st. Northwest wind 6 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning, which became partly cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 53 degrees. The record high of 85 5was set in 1945. 14.2 inches of snow fell back in 1932.❄
Last night was black beans with tomatoes, 🫘 🍅 and spices. Got packed, downloaded some videos and e-books to read at camp. 📚️ Looking forward to a nice weekend away from it all, maybe three days away from reality. Might be a bit cool with the breeze but the ample snow should help. I think there will be a bit of snow up north, but nothing real deep, and that’s good because it will reduce the fire risk. 🔥
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 50.6° from the due south horizon (-20.2° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 4.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:40 pm with the sun in the west (269°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (275°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:17 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:45 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:19 pm. At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 44 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 11 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 36 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be cloudy ☁, with a low of 34 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 7th. Northwest wind 13 to 15 mph. In 2023, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 25 degrees. The record low of 85 occurred back in 1946.
A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Good Friday, mostly sunny and 51 degrees for the high. Breezy though but the rain and remaining snow in the high country should cut the fire risk or so I tell myself. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 53. Breezy, with a northwest wind 17 to 21 mph. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 52. Typical average high for the weekend is 51 degrees.
Looking ahead, there are 14 weeks until Independence Day 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 8:37 pm with dusk at 9:10 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 84 and 54 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 83 degrees. We hit a record high of 104 back in 1911.
I’m up early and bussing it to work doing laps walking on the Concourse. Been a while since I’ve been downtown but I figure it’s a good chance to get in some steps before work.
Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Cloudy ☁️ and 38 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south-southeast breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. There are 2 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Temperatures will drop below freezing at Saturday around 6 am. ☃️ I can keep the heat off for now, didn’t even need the electric blanket last night.
Pancakes with carrots, oatmeal banana and cinnamon topped with mango and blueberries with real maple syrup, 🥞 just waiting for the blood sugar crash. 😋 Probably should have had more protein with breakfast besides the egg in the batter, though carrot, whole wheat flour and oatmeal should slow the absorption of the sugar.
Today will have showers, mainly after 10am. 🌦 High of 49 degrees at 4pm. Typical for today. South wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 52 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 1998. 6.7 inches of snow fell back in 1959.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 50.2° from the due south horizon (-20.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:39 pm with the sun in the west (269°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (275°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:16 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:44 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:18 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 48 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 7 mph. Tomorrow will have 12 hours and 36 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over today.
Yesterday for dinner was reheated ham soup 🍲 from the parents house and homemade bread 🍞 which was good with some shredded apple 🍏 and shredded oatmeal with cinnamon for dessert. 😋 I decided to do a bike ride 🚲 out along Meads Lane to see the cows 🐮 and get a bit more exercise as I knew I wouldn’t be riding to work today. 😔 I did ride both ways yesterday to work but rain today. ☔ Maybe I’m just making excuses and making the bus company rich.
Tonight will have a chance of showers. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 40 degrees at 4am. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 22nd. South wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2023, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 33 degrees. The record low of 85 occurred back in 1945.
A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Good Friday, mostly sunny, with a high near 49. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 50. Breezy. Easter Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 51. Typical average high for the weekend is 51 degrees.
I still haven’t heard about Good Friday ✝️ but I am inclined to thst believe that I will have it off but it hasn’t been made official yet probably because of the state budget crap. These days I’m glad I’m no longer working Capitol Hill. 🏢 I will probably pack tonight, and I’m hoping to use my get out of jail early card for Thursday but who knows. I’d kind of like to get bacon 🥓 on the way to the ADKs from For the Love of Bacon but they close at 5 pm, plus I want to get up north fairly early not just to crack open a beer 🍻 but because it takes more time to set up camp ⛺ in the snow. The bacon place is open at 7 am on Good Friday so I could do the bacon thing on Friday and go up early as an alternative assuming that I don’t know about Good Friday until tomorrow.
As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until 8 PM Dusk 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 7:33 pm. On that day in 2023, we had sunny skies and temperatures between 67 and 30 degrees. That works for me. Typically, the high temperature is 57 degrees. We hit a record high of 86 back in 1922.
Rise and grind on this second day of the week. Started my morning with Johnny cakes with spinach and broccoli and old bay seasoning, I guess to celebrate the collapse of the Baltimore bridge, or I wasn’t feeling like pancakes despite having some cherries and bananas rolled in oats as a side.
Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Mostly sunny and 24 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. ☀️A cold start to the morning. There are 3 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ Melting quickly though, by tomorrow’s rain it will be gone at least locally. ️Things will start to thaw out at around 8 am. 🌡️
I guess I’ll be riding in this morning. 🚲 I’m going to try to do the rail trail, it’s better than Corning’s Hill and the rough as duck 🦆 South Pearl Street. Depending on how much snow is left on the bike path I’ll try to ride home too, but last night I ended up catching the express bus 🚍 from the old train station downtown. ⚙ Adjusted the gears on my bike, went for an evening walk and did some reading 📖 last night. Got another e- audio book from the Libby app to listen to on my ride to work. 🔊 Waiting for the next, part of Power Broker to be available, in the meantime I’m listening to Ralph Naders new book on CEOs who did the right thing.
Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 46 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 19th. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 56 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 2021. 6.1 inches of snow fell back in 1899.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:02 pm with sun having an altitude of 49.8° from the due south horizon (-21° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:38 pm with the sun in the west (268°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (274°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:15 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:43 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:17 pm. At sunset, look for potential rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 42 degrees. There will be a southeast breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 12 hours and 33 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 53 seconds over today.
Tonight will have a slight chance of sprinkles before 8pm, then a chance of showers after 10pm. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 37 degrees at 2am. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 15th. Southeast wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. In 2023, we had clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 27 degrees. The record low of 78 occurred back in 1998.
It looks like now the heat can be off until October or November ♨️ though maybe not quite warm enough for the windows open. I’m also not ready to put away the electric blanket but I’m using it less and less these days.
Easter Weekend stilllooks outstanding. 🐰 Good Friday, mostly sunny, with a high near 49. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 49. Easter, mostly sunny, with a high near 48. Typical average high for the weekend is 51 degrees. A little bit below normal. But I’m looking forward to getting out of town. 🌲
There are 2 weeks until 7:30 PM Sunset 🌇 with dusk at 7:59 pm. On that day in 2023, we had sunny and temperatures between 55 and 29 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 56 degrees. We hit a record high of 77 back in 1991.
![Untitled [Expires November 8 2025]](https://andyarthur.org//data/photo_021729_large.jpg)
