How Gun Blasts From Indoor Shooting May Cause Brain Injuries – The New York Times
The Wednesday After the Last Call for Election Day 🗳️
I mean I voted back in September but it was good to take a visit back to Plattsburgh State and visit some of the old sites around P-SUC including Point Au Roche, Beekmantown, Peru, and Lake Champlain. And Rugar Woods. I still can’t believe that the Green Fee that I worked in college became a thing, and the College Student President – Mike Cashman is now an Assemblyman. Good for him, I had a lot of fun seeing the old haunts of my college years and knocking on some doors for him.
It was good, I went for another morning beach ride from Cumberland Bay State Park, riding downtown out to Rotary Park at the Wilcox Ferry Launch. 
Cloudy to start out yesterday, but it got clearer as the sun rose though soon I was back out canvassing. But first I took some time to ride along the shoreline of the lake, which was very low because of the dry weather of recent, revealing well packed sand which was great for riding on. Rode down along the suspension bridge, took some more photos 
and caught some of the last glimmers of autumn. Yesterday, I spent the balance of day canvassing in the Village of Peru and then Lapham Mills, getting out the vote, then driving down through the Adirondack Northway in stillness of the moonlight of the full moon over the Adirondacks. 
Peru had the wonderful smell of apples 
though Lapham Mills was more tangy from Remillards Holsteins spreading shit. 
Their mountains of silage along the Adirondacks is always impressive. It’s November, the time when dairymen count the loads of shit spread before the frozen ground! 
Depending on the agricultural use, based on book I just read – Managing Manure – there is a time period often running 100 days between spreading and crop harvest. Depends on what your growing, and how much and when you need the spike of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. Made me wish I had taken today off to and could have done an overnight in the Adirondacks like I don’t know, maybe outside of Newcomb or Minerva on Boreas River. 
But alas it’s back to work today. Maybe next weekend? Red seems to be running good.
Already missing the scenery of the Adironacks and Plattsburgh area. 
It was good to get away though even if just for a weekend to some place I haven’t been in a years. The last time I was up through Plattsburgh was November 2015, when I did that road trip up to Brasher Falls State Forest. 
Some great ag country, then it opens up into the mountains in almost al directions. I just wish there were more options to camp in the wilderness nearby in developed roadside campsites, and then I could head back down into the valley to explore. In college I used to camp at Terry Mountain State Forest, 
but that was either back country or parking just at a random spot off the road.
This morning I was up at 4:30 AM but I was also asleep around 9 PM last night, 
so that’s reasonable. I’m not fully adjusted to the time change, but I actually like the early hour as it gives me time to cook and think. 
Some of my clearest thinking and best time to read is in the stillness of the morning. It’s cold and dark when I get home most nights, especially with the time change and winter getting underway, so I figure it’s best to retire to bed early 
and maximize the time in the morning. 
Plus it’s more of an excuse to drink excessive amounts of coffee which keeps me pissing and pooping. 
People always say they have no time to cook, but it’s funny how much extra time I have not owning one of those boob tubes or having the interwebs at home beyond my phone. 
Taking in the bus today 
as I have an event in the evening but whatever. I’ll walk down to the shuttle 
from Madison Avenue for some steps though I got plenty in yesterday but that french onion soup 
and chicken pasta primavera 
was pretty heavy but I did burn a lot of calories riding and canvassing and tonight after the open bar 
I’ll be back on the healthy eating thing. I mean there is a reason I’m busing it in as I’ll be too drunk to load a bike on the bus. Indeed the french toast from my own homemade bread 
with blueberries and sugar free maple 
syrup was a start. And fried onions, black beans 
and some of the left over pasta primavera was a good start. And Sunday and Monday I pretty much eat the rice, beans, plain yogurt and oranges and bananas 
was good though not enough vegetables. Changing that for the balance of the week, lots of vegetables in meals planned for tomorrow and Friday. Plus I’ll bike in tomorrow and maybe Friday, 
though it will be dark at 5 PM an I’ll have to put my bike on the bus home, that is after riding back downtown. The schedule sucks with the transfer from the bike to the bus, but whats the alternative? Drive my big jacked up truck in.
I still want to take another long weekend before Southern Zone Hunting Seasons opens, 
but I’m seeing conflicting forecasts for the weekend. I am thinking if I take Monday off and then with Veterans Day it can be a four-day weekend, and leave for camp on Saturday morning. But not if it’s going to be too cold and wet and generally miserable on Sunday. 
I mean I really want to get back up to the woods and have a fire 
and ride trail before rifle season but not if it’s too nasty out. The next time I think I’ll have a chance to get out of town is Black Friday after Thanksgiving and maybe take that Monday off after the long weekend. That would likely be the East Branch but it depending on how snowy it is I’ve also been thinking the area along the Boreas River and NY 28N. Kind of want to get back to the High Peaks, I was rather inspired by that drive up to Plattsburgh for this past long weekend.
Addressing Allegany County
Today, I spent much of the day working on the Allegany County portion of the database I maintain for work. A lot of hours studying addresses and C structs, USPS Mail Encoders and Google Streetview to trying untie complicated rural addresses, looking at rundown houses and farms. It’s been a long time — too long of a time — since I’ve been out to back-roads Allegany County in my now creaky ol’ jacked up pickup truck in those towns that smell like silage and cow shit.
There are some neat lands and houses down that way. They say they’re poor people but have you ever looked at the costs of raising livestock and homesteading? Equipment ain’t cheap neither is parts and fuel to keep that equipment humming along, feed and vet bills. Those big pickup trucks are not cheap these days nor the fuel bills for trips into town or work. As it’s the rural addresses that tend to break in large blocks in our database, it’s what I end up studying the most for programmatic fixes plus I find the most interesting places to study. Better than the Hampton and those endless Queens addresses that have been breaking since the days of the old Data General system.
Plus how can one be actually poor and live in the deep rural, homesteading, hunting and fishing? Eating fresh vegetables grown locally. I know I’m probably viewing such communities from the lens of the noble savage, romanticizing the cow shit, the broken families, the alcohol and drug abuse as people struggle to appease their creditors risking losing their land and ways of getting around while the law keeps garnishing more of their hard earned cash toiling in the mud, grease, cold and the smoke. I’m reminded by colleague who said they counted the days left in winter on the family dairy by the loads of shit they hauled and spread for the season.
I’ve been told these aren’t good people. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but don’t you know they’re all Republicans, Trump Lovers and Bible Fanatics. Uneducated, poor people. But I don’t know, most of people I’ve met are actually pretty sensible, down to earth people who work and understand the land far better then I would ever. It’s such beautiful country, and it’s real – with broken down farm machinery and vehicles – piles of mud and manure, guns and livestock. I think many of those rural people know a lot more about how the real world does then a lot of scientists and politicians.
For now, though it’s a day dream. Just something to look at through Google Streetview as I fix another record, write an SQL command and take notes to pass along to the programming staff. Eventually I want to live deep rural, but not in New York with the high taxes, gun laws and burn ban. It’s tempting to look just south of border in Pennsylvania, and many things they do better there, but it’s also a fairly blue state and they’re not that far from being another New York after a few changes in power.
A picture below from an autumn trip in rural Cattaraugus County about a decade ago!
Joe Hill Road to Roaring Branch
Somehow I found myself on steep but pretty road cutting over from PA 414 to PA 14 in an effort to speed my arrival to US 15 and avoid the Trout Run part of US 15 Expressway but it didn't work out all that well for saving time but it was scenic.
I’ve been studying the power line heading out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. 🔌
It looks like there is a wye to the high leg delta transformer near Delaware Avenue and Orchard Avenue. There is three transformers with smaller than the other one, suggesting a high leg delta. From there, the step down transformers to houses which appear hooked phase to phase as there is no ground line to reference like you would have with a wye, as with along Delaware Avenue. The Environmental Education Center is hooked to all three phases with step down transformers wired as with a delta, so I’m pretty sure its a high leg delta.
Last call at the voting booth 🗳️
We made it to Election Day 2025 and soon enough it will be the mid-terms, but that’s kind of getting ahead of us all. I still want to get to Michigan and Wisconsin before then along with many other things. But first, today looks like a stunningly beautiful day, though maybe a bit cool with the lake breeze. I’ll ride a bit once the sun rises before getting down on other adventures for the day.
I am not looking forward to that long slog back home, 
along the Adirondack Northway in the dark but I might pop one of those caffeine pills and finish up Bill McKibbean’s latest audio book I got out of the library – Here Comes the Sun. 
I don’t always agree with everything McKibbean says – he’s gone from being a degrowth advocate to an industrial solar advocate – it’s good to hear his perspective. I do agree solar in rural areas is better then building more houses and bringing more people in. Solar panels don’t complain about hog shit, gun fire or garbage burning barrels or try to change your community in local elections. Truth is we need more electricity, and how we generate it up to debate. Solar seems really sprawling and high impact, but compared to all the acres people farm, even a full build out of solar is not that enormous. Solar isn’t like residential development, there isn’t toilets to be flushed or electricity to be developed or chemical lawns.
But first a morning ride and seeing how bitterly cold that wind really is. 
I guess bundle up, the sun will help a lot. Figure it’s best to enjoy the fresh tangy cow-shit air 
before those days come and go, the memories of my college years, and the mountains and great vistas of the North Country. Tomorrow it’s back to work, the buses and city folk. Honestly, I don’t mind talking to the people up here, though it’s shocking how impoverished some of the people just outside the city really are. 
I tend to often romanticize their lives, thinking how much better it is compared to the high consumption suburbanite, still I don’t know. Hogs and venison and rabbits for meat, hog shit for growing veggies and cannabis, a burn barrel and going to scrap yard/dump once a year for unburnable trash, and solar for electricity. Really that’s the life, though only a few up here really are truly lucky to live that life. Got have some plain Greek yougurt with the nuts and other crap food they have that continental breakfast downstairs at 6 AM. All wrapped in plastic and paper. But the coffee is good. Yet before jumping on the day, today looks like a stunningly beautiful day, though maybe a bit cool with the lake breeze. I’ll ride a bit once the sun rises before getting down on other adventures for the day.
Yesterday, I spent some time riding along Lake Champlain at the Cumberland Head Bay State Park, 
and it was great with the water levels being so low in the lake and sand well packed. It was fun, watching the sun rise 
and waves crash along the lake shore. Plan to do that again this morning before things get too busy. When I got back to my truck, there was a tree rat 
violently crashing around in the back of the cap. The only thing I can think of is he climbed in when I was unloading my bike. Didn’t do any damage but I’ll have to clean up all the squirrel crap before I go camping next time. Now that’s some wild ass North Country shit, says the boy who hits the town with a cowboy hat on, 
sniffing the smells of silage and cow poop – and paper plant at least in Plattsburgh. Yes, you spell it with an “h” at the end, you non-locals, lol. 
Watching the weather for next weekend, 
and maybe Madison County won’t be a thing with heavy rain expected on Sunday and a washout for most of the rest of week. I guess the next option for travel is after Thanksgiving – maybe the East Branch – as I don’t necessarily want to camp in the Southern Zone during Big Game Season. 
I kind of like the solitude of not having cell service and being disconnected from the news cycle 
for a few days. Maybe there will be snow or maybe not. Really hard to say. Or it’s possible the forecast could change. 
Only time will tell. Certainly this time of year camping the evenings are much longer. More time for drinking and smoking pot I guess, and watching shit burn.
