The Isreal – Hammas conflict reminds me a lot of what you read in the history books about the Indian removal and creation of the Indian reservations in America. White European settlers with their early industrial revolution produced superior weapons that rolled over the unfamiliar countryside and took the land long settled by the red men – the Native Americans and forced them onto undesirable lands, the reservations. The red men fought back bravely with what they had, occasionally uprising and engaging in terrorism against the white men, but ultimately because of disease and the overwhelming power of the American colonists ultimately ended up signing away their rights and giving up much land that they had once farmed, hunted and lived on.
Isreal has long had a similar relationship with the Palestinian people. Many Isrealies are driven for a passion to recover their religious homeland, an ideology of Zionism similar to that of the American settlers and manifest destiny. Both are an ideology of hubris, a grandeous delusion built on superior military force. Religious ideology – fundamentalism in the form of the Jewish or Muslim faith – is fine but one’s religion should be private moral code not an excuse to bully or remove the Palestinian people from their homeland.
Like the white men taking over the red man’s land when a group has no practical way to lawfully to fight back, their option really is only to engage in the unconventional war tactics – namely terrorism and war crimes against civilians. As they said about the Viet Cong in the United States, “those commies never fight fair.” Isreal is responding with their own series of war crimes, starving Palestinian civilians from food, energy and water. Not unlike how the United States engaged in war crimes both against the red men throughout history, or more recently in Laos and Cambodia.
If there was adults in the room known as the globe, both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders would be rounded up and tried for war crimes. Bombing and kidnapping Israeli citizens who aren’t leaders or military people is disgusting and immoral. But likewise imprisoning Palestinians in their communities, cutting them off from food, water and energy – while bombing their towns is morally repugent too. Killing the opposing side is not the solution. Compromise and peace is.
First we need peace. Stop bombing and bullying both the Isrealis and the Palestinians. Then we need to hold leaders on both sides accountable for terrorism and war crimes. Not civilians even if they are sympathic towards the fighters. But actual leaders. Then we need to find a two state solution where both the Isrealis and Palestinians are free to create their own forms of government that uphold their own values that allow for the free movement of people and goods. There needs to be borders assertian that everyone agrees upon, with both sides losing a bit. We need democracy in both the Israeli and Palestinian states.
I got listening to Andrew Huberman originally because I was interested in his analysis of marijuana - both what it does to one's mind and the pros and cons of smoking pot. But I'm also really interested in OCD because I still to this day think to much about burn barrels and rednecks burning trash, and being juts a general pyro. I tried the mental health treatment thing, but I'm more just concerned now about enjoying life even if I make some black smoke occassionally that the govenrment might not approve of. Lol!
Hale Eddy, where Sullivan County Route 4, Lower Hale Eddy Road, Silver Lake Road and Roods Creek Road cross NY 17 at Grade with stop lights and sto signs.
That’s not totally true in the sense I have a work trip to do later in the month and I’m planning probably Veterans Day Weekend to head out to Stoney Pond State Forest or maybe Long Pond State Forest but it’s the last week long trip I’m planning for him.
Of course, it wasn’t a confidence boost to be at Walmart today and seeing another GMT 800 💥 a broke control arm or upper ball joint and the wheel broken off. Hopefully that’s not foreshadowing anything, as I had Red checked out a few months ago and it’s getting inspected in December, but it’s another reminder that I should be glad I’m trying to have a planned retirement for my truck. People say, but that’s a waste of money, but it’s been a good 14 years. I still can’t believe I bought that truck 14 years ago. I really want to be retired from my job in another 14 years, and I want a reliable vehicle to do a least a little more travel before I settle down. 🏡 I’m not saying I have to give up everything to own a home and land, but when you got goats and other livestock too feed, you’re much less able to travel – literally disappear into the wilderness of a week.
Traffic was heavy driving home this evening, Walmart was crowded. 🛒 Got to the check out line and realized I didn’t get Cider Vinger. Walmart should have that in the morning. The bank I normally go to remains closed, that’s the one that has the video lottery terminal or whatever they call the machine that prints out $1 and $5. I guess I have enough cash, but if I want to get weed tomorrow I should get another $20. Maybe before work when I go to get my propane tank filled. And cider vinger to mix in my water 🍏 for that bitter taste I love.
I’m actually ready to go. 🛠️ Even packed the gear puller and extra spokes, and got an extra tire and lantern manttles 🏮 should any of those things go bad. I have the kayak on the roof o my truck. Hell of it is, we are now watching a Nor-Easter roar up the coast 🌀 though it looks like it won’t be cold enough for snow 🌨️ up north and might mostly hug the coast. After being so freaking dry, it actually looks the week will be cold, cloudy. damp and maybe even wet. Whatever, I’m not so far away that if it is totally miserable I can’t come back home. At least the fire danger 🔥 is low enough that on the cold chilly nights I can have a small fire at night and don’t have to worry about sparks from camp stove or a lantern starting a fire. I won’t have any fires though unless it’s very dark out so I can keep an eye on fire brands at least when it’s not raining out. I’ll have the propane tank filled in the morning so I don’t run out if end up using it a lot.
While life has been busy, it’s been a quiet week at work. 🤫 People are like – you’re already taking another week long vacation? Didn’t you just take one the second half of the August? Yes, but this is the second trip of the year, and usually I take my summer vacation in late July, not August, and because of work obligations, I didn’t take any time off during most of July or August. There is some slow burning fuses happening at work, 💣 one of our legacy systems, but there is nothing to fix at it right now, and the technicians know about it, and it can either wait until I’m back from vacation or others can address it.
And I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with contact lens of glasses 👓 anymore up at camp. No worries about dirty hands and infected eyes, no reaching around for glasses when things go bang at night, no fogged over glasses first thing in the morning. Just crystal clear vision, day and night. I’ll bring my sunglasses and probably wear them while riding just to be safe, though some days I’ve ridden without the protective glasses as my eyes 👀 have pretty much healed, two weeks out since the surgery.
I talked to banks about getting a mortgage and started down the road for pre-approval. I talked to my friend who has the 10 acre old homestead in Greenville, how he got there. I looked at several houses, toured one in June asked questions about one to a realtor. I read books about buying a house and building your own. The houses and properties I actually liked where much too far from work. Many had other issues, some would have been a cash purchase and needed to be built from the ground up, prefab or otherwise. Most much where too large.
The banks were happy to steer me towards a conventional 30 year mortgage for $2,000 a month. It would finance up to $275k to $300k, probably more house then I would need and want but actually not an unrealistic budget when a lot of ready to move into, nicely maintained but older houses are in the quarter of a million range. Of course, most that the banks really like are your very typical and boring house in suburbia. And I would be paying that through my 72nd birthday, assuming that I didn’t refinance and didn’t pay it off early.
It’s really hard to find a house under 750 square feet. Some people are like don’t you want to heat and clean an extra room or two as a home office? Plus storage for tons of crap you’ll most certainly secure as a homeowner. No not really. Honestly, I thought that 700 sq ft house I toured was bigger than I liked. Plus it had a dirty old oil burner and no wood stove. Plus I guess running water, flush toilets and an indoor shower are great in the winter and for reasons of convenience but it just seems like a lot of crap to break.
What I really want is the simple, small hunting style cabin that is common in the Adirondacks or the more remote parts of Pennsylvania. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have some solar panels, gravity sink and hand pump, outhouse and outdoor heated shower. Propane range for cooking. I get such living is harder than the current suburbia way of living but I despise the shinny trash everything every other week and replace of suburbia with the shiny and new.
I could have looked harder this summer gone by, had I not spent so much time up in the woods, reading, smoking pot, riding my mountain bike, floating in the tube and finding distraction in my kind. I could have moved Zillow back on my phone as soon as I killed my phone and aggressively persued every listing I could find that sort of made sense to me. But I did not, preferring to spend as much of my summer up in the wilderness, high as a kite while I kept sending my landlord $800 checks as he hammers and grinds along the unit next door as a gentle reminder that time is not long for my current moldy apartment.
I mean this summer is not unlike other summers. Big Red brought me to the wilderness for many nice nights though the cannabis and the Grateful Dead records were a friendly addition. Maybe it was much too ordinary of a summer with a little extra sparkles. But if I had been a little more aggressive I could have my own land at this point, be growing my own cannabis and having livestock, or at least clearly leading to that point. And I’m now a full director in my office, this should mean I should have moved out of just out of college apartment.
Truth is that I’ve not found what is right for me. I’m not going to waste my money on a big house in the suburbs that I despise and don’t care about. A house might be a good decision if you care about the building and where you live, but I don’t want some place out in the suburbs with vinyl siding and carpeting that I don’t give a rats ass about and wouldn’t care if the roof collapses or the building burns to the ground. A house is not a good investment if you don’t care about it and would be just as happy with it not long in the world.
I will be on my way to the Adirondacks. I have a rough plan of where I am going to go though nothing is set in stone. It seems like such a downscale from my biannual trips I made to West Virginia but my truck is old and I’ve been wanting to get back up to Horseshoe Lake, the St. Regis Canoe Area and Adirondack Rail Trail for some time now. Still at one level it seems so ordinary, but then again so would be a trip down to Tucker County, WV as I’ve done for ten years nows or even the Allegheny National Forest. My mind screams boring!
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Today’s cool and clear weather after yesterday’s rain and the increasingly low sun angle each day, even mid-day makes me realize that autumn is not a distant dream but it’s upon us. I know that as a fact at one level, but after such a long expanse of dry and warm weather, I found it hard to believe winter is coming soon. But it just feels cold today, such a change after the rain. It’s not that rain and cool is a bad thing, it greatly reduces the fire risk. River levels will still be low for paddling at times though I suspect.
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I was in denial about my autumn trip. I didn’t think it would happen. This time I didn’t try to blame it on my truck which seems to be running well for a 14-year old truck but I do need to check the oil and coolant before leaving in the morning.It will probably make it and be a good trip. But instead, this time I had other mental obstacles – first it was recovery from the LASIK, then it was the dry conditions and the burn ban. But now I’m feeling good, with excellent vision and hardly any signs of dry eye issues, and it rained a bunch. True, the burn ban isn’t over and we are still in a drought but week ahead promises to be somewhat rainy and things aren’t as dry as they once were. I’ll keep my fires small when I have them, though I may really need them if it’s a cold and damp as they’re predicting.
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I disabled phone notifications from Zillow on my phone before my summer vacation. I really got tired of the endless stream of notifications for suburbanite houses covered with vinyl siding and asphalt roofs, with wall-to-wall carpeting, high speed internet and television in every room, along with weekly garbage pickup, natural gas heat and 200-amp electric services – and no room for a hog pen or chickens much less a burning barrel or ATV trail in the back 40. It’s not to say such properties don’t pop up occasionally but most are much too far away from work. And I like riding my mountain bike to work, though I still don’t know what I am going to do once the time changes in November. Maybe ride downtown and take the local, but that sucks as the local doesn’t leave downtown until 5:40 PM. I’m still saving, but I don’t like any of the options immediately in front of me.
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I got that book out of the library on Hoopla a while back on dating. I actually set up for Facebook dating but I’ve never reached out to anyone, though it would be good to meet some new people. Just have to ask, its a great time of the year to meet a girl for some hot cider and doughnuts. But I’ve been busy, traveling, with work, and fighting to Save the Pine Bush. It would be fun to meet some other people, get out of my comfort zone. Yet, I also don’t want to be tied down or boxed in.
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So yeah, I’m heading north for a week. WIth no real plan besides hike, ride, paddle, and smoke a little dope and have fires and burn shit. It’s not that I’m saving or have no future plans but the options in front of me immediately aren’t great except to plan for better days ahead and hunker down for a long cold winter in that very drafty and dilapidated apartment that rents for the same rate the county offers to the homeless. Continue to save and invest every penny I can within reason. And continue to travel, sitting behind the lens of camera, observing the wildflowers, the woods, the rural landscape.
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Don’t be so scared of changing And rearranging yourself It’s time for jumping down from the shelf A little bit
