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.
The other day half jokingly I noted on Facebook I didn’t want to leave my truck parked in the city with the stuff I needed for camp on a ninety degree day – with the propane tank, fireworks, ammunition and even the second battery sitting in the heat potentially posing a fire or explosion risk. I apparently watch too many cartoons or take the printed propane and battery warnings too seriously but I’d be unhappy if my truck burned. That said I was even more concerned about the heat decimating the ice I had to keep food prematurely.
Some random person that follows my personal Facebook feed commented that, that’s the kind of thing that gets you put on the government’s terrorists watch list. About the same time, reading the news for work, I saw this article about the Buffalo FBI surveillance of domestic terrorists and mass shooting threats. They mentioned that they had a unit that surveilled people of interest. That said, I was pretty bemused by the whole thing, noting that at least I’m creating good paying government jobs and the federal government has some of the best paid jobs in the Capital Region.
I’m really not that worried about government surveillance. If there is somebody in the government who sits around reading my blog posts and tries to psychoanalysis them, I’m glad I’m helping to keep them employed. I hope they enjoy watching my camping videos, stories about Big Red, my maps, photos and other content I provide. That said, more likely, they’re just read by an automatic spider run by the government like a Google, processed into some kind of intelligence like millions of other pages but ultimately not that useful. With 325 million Americans to keep an eye on plus six billion other foreign actors I’m sure I’m not that much of a priority or interest.
Sure as a staunchly independent individual, a single guy, who likes spending weekends in the wilderness, owns a few guns, are part of several pepper and off grid Facebook groups, plead to a misdemeanor a decade and a half ago, who has some conservative and some liberal views, I’m probably not the lowest of priorities by law enforcement monitoring. But I’m also not the highest either, and there are a lot more dangerous people out there like White Nationalists, religious extremists, racists and other hate groups. I’m certainly none of those things and there is a lot bigger fish to go after then me.
I also am aware that law enforcement has a lot of restrictions on monitoring citizens. Most monitoring when it occurs is probably broad-based and occurs on a lot swath of population and is fully automated. They have to have reasonable suspension that a crime is likely to occur in the near future and can only monitor people in public places or public utterances without a court order obtained by a judge after showing probable cause of a crime. Because of the cost and time involved, only when they have compelling evidence are law enforcement likely to investigate.
Using toilet paper if you use an outhouse or even a Porta John makes a lot of sense – the carbon helps tie down the nitrogen so that the poop smells less and the waste breaks down into night soil quicker. Bidets aren’t practical in outhouses, they lack running water.
Not sure if it makes as much sense on indoor toilet to use toilet paper. Toilet paper is an enormous waste of paper that is rarely from recycled stock and when it’s flushed down a toilet in a municipal sewer system, it is scraped away as solids in the primary clarifier and usually trucked to a landfill, burned in an incinerator or in some cases processed into farm fertilizer as biosolids. Seems like a waste.
Toilet paper on septic systems usually ends up as solids in a septic tank that needs to pumped occasionally as a lot of it doesn’t break down that quickly. Honestly, it’s probably better to actually keep toilet paper out of the toilet on septic systems to reduce the amount of solids going into the system by keeping a waste basket next to the toilet. That’s common in many third world countries and for thrifty farm families trying to avoid pumping their septic tanks.
Lots of sunshine and not a lot of humidity. I should plan to go somewhere fun, it’s been a few weeks. Then hot on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Maybe I should head out of town. Not sure, I think I want to wait another day to decide.
Today. Feels like …
June 23rd.
Mostly sunny.
North wind 10 to 13 mph.
and
81 degrees
,66 max dew point,
8:37
sunset.
Tonight. Feels like …
June 18th.
Patchy fog after 4am. Otherwise, partly cloudy.
North wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening.
and
58 degrees
,
5:23
sunrise.
Thursday. Feels like …
July 4th.
Mostly sunny.
Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon.
and
83 degrees
,61 max dew point,
8:36
sunset.
Thursday Night. Feels like …
July 15th.
A slight chance of showers after 2am. Mostly cloudy.
South wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
and
63 degrees
,64 max dew point,
5:24
sunrise.
Friday. Feels like …
July 4th.
A chance of showers.
Light and variable wind becoming northwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Good morning! What day is it? A muggy and Gray Hump Day, of course.
Came early this week with Monday being Independence Day. I should take off next Monday too for another four day weekend.
Mostly cloudy and 70 degrees at the Exit 23 – Albany (I-787). 🌥 There is a west-northwest breeze at 10 mph. 🍃 with gusts up to 21 mph 💨💨💨. The dew point is 66 degrees. The muggy weather ends around 5 pm. 😓
Remarkably humid this morning. 🌅 Then again we got a fair bit of needed rain yesterday so it’s not all bad. The air conditioning on the bus feels pretty nice.
Again somehow I manged to stay up too late 🌃 and I’m dragging my ass to work, barely catching the later express bus 🚍 downtown. I was so good until the late nights at work and the holiday weekend. Ands despite being dog 🐶 tired yesterday.
Yesterday I was still a bit tired 😴 after getting home late after hiking down the mountain ⛰ after watching the Independence Day fireworks 🎇 from the undisclosed location. By afternoon it poured ☔ and I had to take the local bus 🚍 home. Later in the evening it cleared up a bit, and I got my steps in 👣 walking down to the park 🏞. Made it through Tuesday. Did get kind of wet walking 🚶 home in the rain.
Finally started to break in my new boots. 👢 The old ones I got on West Virginia in early November are pretty worn out – I ordered the replacement ones two week ago and they arrived the next day. I’ve yet to find much difference between cheap and expensive boots.
Like so many other times, 🏡 I clicked through to an article that wades into the debate if it’s better to buy or rent property. While I tend to agree that for two properties of the same size, it’s better to buy, especially with cash. But if you live in a small apartment on the bus line, it’s probably cheaper than buying a much larger home than you need, especially if it’s not your forever home.
It’s not that I don’t want to eventually own my own land, 🚜 but just not a generic house in the suburbs in a liberal pukey state like New York. The internet is a constant reminder that there are other ways of living with lower taxes and fewer restrictions than New York.
I am thinking about heading north is weekend, as it looks quite sunny if not particularly warm by July standards. Might actually be real nice for hiking, especially the low humidity. The question is where to go, though I always enjoy the potholers and floating around at the House Pond Campsite. Though maybe too cool for that with the low humidity and breeze? Plus the forecast could change, I’m not taking off next Monday at this point.
Today. Feels like … May 31st.
Showers likely, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy.
South wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
and
75 degrees
,64 max dew point,
8:37 sunset.
Tonight. Feels like … July 15th.
Showers and thunderstorms before 2am, then a chance of showers.
South wind 7 to 14 mph becoming west after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
and
63 degrees
,67 max dew point,
5:22 sunrise.
Wednesday. Feels like … June 19th.
Mostly sunny.
Northwest wind 9 to 13 mph.
and
80 degrees
,65 max dew point,
8:37 sunset.
Wednesday Night. Feels like … June 15th.
Partly cloudy.
North wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening.
and
57 degrees
,
5:23 sunrise.
Thursday. Feels like … June 15th.
A slight chance of showers after 2pm. Partly sunny.
Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
and
79 degrees
,60 max dew point,
8:37 sunset.
Thursday Night. Feels like … July 15th.
A chance of showers, mainly after 2am. Mostly cloudy.
Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Good morning! Back to work on this somewhat dreary Tuesday morning. 👨💼
Not a lot of sunshine to help one getting going, and I slept in a bit late, but still caught the express bus downtown.
A few drops of rain around and 66 degrees at the Elm Ave Park and Ride. ☔ There is a south-southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 58 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 3 am.
I feared a repeat of last week 💦 when I was walking down to the Park and Ride this morning and sky just opened up. But it was just a few drops of rain then it let up. More rain later though. I think if I want to get my 10,000 steps in today, I should plan on maximizing my walking at lunch time. Getting to the Plaza this morning, the stairs I normally take to work where closed, so I had to walk through the LOB, though it’s a lot easier now that they aren’t checking IDs to get through the LOB after swiping your card.
Went out to my parents house for Independence Day Dinner 🍗 played with the dog while I was out there, and then did my evening hike. 🐶 Did several laps up top of the mountain, so I got my steps in for the day. 👣 Seemed like forever until it got dark out, and even at 9:15 PM wasn’t super dark for watching the fireworks, with the moonlight and some haze. It was pretty neat watching the Plaza fireworks from the distance, as was watching all the other people lighting off fireworks.
Last night I watched the fireworks on the Empire State Plaza and most of the mid-Hudson Valley from an undisclosed place. 🎆 I was kind of surprised I was the only one watching fireworks from there, although technically the place closed at dusk but I figured nobody would care if I got back to my truck an hour or so after dusk. I did walk back through most of the woods not using a flashlight 🔦 just to keep my cover and it was very dark at times.
Truck was good all weekend. 🛻 The ABS light remains off and I haven’t heard any unusual noises after noticing that occasional squeak on Saturday. Sometimes I worry about this a little too much. I’m sure at some point I’ll need more work done on it but I’m putting it off until things are more worrysome. I think I should be good for getting out of town this weekend, assuming the weather is decent I don’t have to work. 😎 I do just wish the forecast would be a bit warmer.
New York State rarely elects governors from Upstate, especially not Western NY. The last elected Upstate Governor was either George Pataki or Franklin Roosevelt, depending on what you consider to be Upstate and both lived in the Metropolitan-area, just a short ride on the Metro North to New York City.
There is no law prohibiting Governor’s from hailing from Upstate but the population is heavily downstate, with nearly 7 in ten 10 New Yorkers residing in the metro area, which George Pataki and Roosevelt, along with all other governors in the past century hail from.
Western New York is far from New York City. Not just distance wise but culturally too. It’s becoming more and more Republican too, especially the rural areas. Kathy Houchul doesn’t hail from Buffalo or Niagara Falls, she was a town council member in Hamburg, and she went on to represent a fairly conservative suburban district in Congress with the endorsement of the NRA.
With political polarization these days I doubt many Western NYers will end up crossing party lines to vote for Houchul just because she is a local favorite. She will probably do as well as Cuomo did in Western NY but but not much better. But can she motivate people in New York City to vote for her in the numbers she needs? Or will many democrats just sit this one out, at best indifferent to that sort of conservative Upstater on the top of the ballot? After all, the New York State elections will be largely decided in the suburbs as that is where the most swing voters live.
New York City suburbs are getting bluer although recent off year elections see that trend slowing. Crime is up in the suburbs, especially property crime and nobody wants their hard earned property stolen or damaged. Hometown advantage and decades of knowledge of suburban politics for Lee Zeldin may help him better connect with voters fed up with incumbents in these inflationary times with high gas prices.
