And then suddenly it was Monday 🤯
It’s all that marijuana and plastic smoke from the past weekend on my brain. And the alcohol and hours sitting out in the sun floating on the tube and reading books about solar electricity, goat farming and timber frame houses. See I’m not woke, I drive a big jacked up truck and burned that old broke milk crate and other things that made some smoke to celebrate Independence Day while lighting off fireworks, ever so carefully studying them.
You know what they say about people who in their forties smoke marijuana. 
I tell you I had this colleague at work years ago, he’s now a county legislator, no definately not Sam Fein, who used to get so angry when he smelled marijuana smoke – it’s fucking destroying their mind. But then again people say the same thing about me burning garbage or sitting back watching that plastic bottle melt, turn to flame and go bye-bye. Or the idea that some one could occasionally enjoy a drag on a cigarette with a beer and not be cancer patient number 1 in the hospital ward. Don’t tell a liberal, but then again they’re too freaking out over no tax on tips and over time. I just wish I wasn’t management and didn’t work for the government and got over time. I’m salary.
It was great yesterday exploring Moss Island 
and riding a bunch of the Erie Canalway from Little Falls out to Frankfort in upper Mohawk Valley. 
Between my various trips, I’ve now ridden basically the whole Erie Canalway from Cohoes to Syracuse, though I’m missing that on-road section between Frankfort and Utica, and the trail between Utica and Rome – I expect I’ll do Utica and Rome in November, camping probably at the Charles Baker Horsey Camp 
so I can enjoy that horsey smell 
which doesn’t really exist in winter after the horseys are gone, then drive north to Utica and ride all day so I can say I’ve actually done Cohoes to Syracuse, a bit over 2 1/2 years.
The weekend is looking good and somehow floating on a tube 
in the Schoharie Creek seems like a good idea with hitting up the Schoharie Valley farm stands, maybe riding NY 30 and camping 
at Betty Brook. Mine Kill swimming 
pool. Then a week or maybe two weeks from Friday I’m out to the Finger Lakes National Forest for ten 
days! I would prefer to go out in two weeks to better break up summer, though one consideration is the weekend after next is a dark weekend at Watkins Glen International. 🏎️🏎️Truth is I doubt that it would be much of a problem, but I do want to make sure I can get a good campsite at National Forest. Heading out early on Friday helps though. I’m not sure if I want one of Chicken Coop sites or that one on Potomac Road. 
Kind of like that Potomac Road that’s on the field farther off the road – with the solar power, privacy, and no cell reception is kind of nice at night at camp. Either one is just a quick bike ride to Foster Pond for studying the stars late into the night, 
and seeing how many shooting stars I can see before I don’t know, two or three in the morning.
But in the mean time, it’s back to work. 
Riding in today as usual. Its good, I need to do some good exercise after mostly laying in the hammock, reading or floating in the East Canada Creek as I polished off an 18-pack of beer and was so hungry all weekend – you know why – see aove, warfing down onions, spinach and that occasional slice of bacon. 
Yesterday, I did ride about 30 miles between the Canalway Trail, and side trips around Illion and Little Falls on the bike. Got back to my truck at 7:45 PM. I was thinking about once again stopping at Dairy Carnival in Sloansville but I had some Greek yougurt I had gotten before camping, and figured just finish off that container. I’ve had enough calories that weekend that was 
and plus it was made crazy busy at Dairy Carnival and it was getting dark and late. Some day, I’ll visit Dairy Carnival on US 20. 
I came back via NY 162 to US 20 – to avoid completely driving in the city. I like rural landscape, 
somebody was having a good bonfire outside of Guilderland. 
Tonight I probably should go shopping. 
While I got bananas as Hannaford this morning, I need to get a few additional things as a lot got eatern up on the weekend. 
I think it would be a good evening to head over to Normans KIll Preserve after dinnner, eat some wild raspberries, listen to some music and read 
then go to Hannaford to get a few more things. Then head home, and sit by the fan, taking a good nap. 
Seems like a reasonable way to do a Monday. Working 5 days this week I think, in person, in the office, but the week will go by quickly. If I drive in Friday and head up to camp 
for the weekend, it will help break things up quickly.
The truth is I like thinking more about smoking pot then actually smoking …
Maybe the best part of being high, is thinking about how much fun it is to be high. To read about other’s adventures about getting high and learning about genetics and strains of cannabis. To learn about the health pros and cons to smoking, to read the debate over cannabis and how legal it should be. Often it seems dreaming about doing something is a lot more fun then actually doing.
I fear summer is ending too quickly
The calendar says July. Not only does it say July, but also summer vacation is less then two or three weeks away. You know, the usual trip out to the Finger Lakes, leave early on a Friday morning, set up camp in the National Forest for the next ten days, come back a week from that Sunday. Then a few more trips to the Adirondacks and Potholers, a trip or two out Schoharie for the Mine Kill Pool and Betty Brook, and I don’t know, summer is basically done after probably the usual Labor Day Trip up to Perkins Clearing and Hardwood Hill to watch the sun set one more day onto summer.
It’s fine. It’s boring and will go by just fine. Truth is that I have the places I enjoy more, and like going to and I’m pretty stuck in the routine. But it’s like exploring the same places is boring, hardly even worthwhile to snap a picture or two, even in the “disposable” picture more I operate much of my blog in, taking photos that are automatically deleted in two weeks. Things that are memorable are new and unique, though such adventures always involve risk and sometimes failure, or at best sometimes just plain disappointment.
Some of it is I have optimized my summer trips to things I enjoy, are relatively close and simple to implement. No need to plan much or do any kind of research, as I’ve been to those locations a million times. I know what to expect. But such trips are hardly memorable, it’s really just return of something I’ve done a dozen times before and will likely do again. Yet, it’s so easy.
I do like those days laying in the hammock, smoking pot, riding my mountain bike and floating on the creek. It’s not a bad life, or a poor day, but there is nothing new to inspire my mind. I do try to find new things to do, but many things nearby have been experience and decided not to be all that worthwhile of revisiting. Other things, just seem too far out of the way, too risky.
I am looking forward to next year if at all possible to do that trip to Northern Michigan and Wisconsin. See a different part of the country, must like my travels to West Virginia. I am ready for a change, something actually worthwhile to experience and photograph, and not just the same ol routine I know much too well. I do crave novelty, and I know novelty will make summer last longer and be more enjoyable.
Tear down that campsite, move into summer vacation mode 🏕️
I can’t keep but thinking that summer vacation is but one weekend or maybe two weekends away in the Finger Lakes. Then comes August. I’ll probably be back up to Pisceo-Powley one time during the August swelter then Labor Day comes early, and I’ll have to do my usual end of summer thing on Hardwood Hill in Perkins Clearing, with the sun setting around 7:30 PM.
Summer really is such a brief period – 10 weeks between when the calendar says summer and Labor Day. 🏖️ That’s the only time the state beaches and pools are officially open, and it always go by so quickly especially once I’m back from summer vacation.
It seemed like I was just up here for Juneteenth Weekend and summer swealter, 😰 taking down, heading home, and then on Thursday coming back, setting up early, spending the day reading, smoking and drinking, hanging out by the Potholers and lighting off sparklers. 🎇 Some swimming on Friday and especially yesterday, hitting up three different swimming holes, but in general it was pretty cool. Yesterday, my eyes 👀 were quite irritated from the contacts but today I replaced them and they are much better. Do need to call 📞 about LASIK this week when I’m back at work.
Yesterday I was doing a lot of reading, finished up a book about DIY grid tied solar (primarily), that was already a bit out of date published in 2017, but the principals remain the same. The book was still discussing old fashioned solar controllers and lead-acid batteries, or actually discouraging people from not doing grid-tied as this was long before LiFePo batteries 🔋 and modern all-in-one hybrid inverter-controllers. Amazing how quickly things have changed in the solar world – especially the off-grid world in the past decade. Then also finished up the book on Organic Farming I had, plus gota good way into the book on Timber Framing for Houses and barns. 📚 Definately did a lot of reading yesterday, but it was still fairly cool for swimming 🏊 though did some of that too.
Spent some time watching and listening to YouTube videos about the National Forests in Northern Michigan. 🌲 Really have me excited about the trip next year seeing all those dirt roads, scenic visas, roadside campsites in wilderness. Everything you see from the tourist bureaus emphasizes ways to spend money, but what I crave is wilderness. These videos remind me there is a lot out there that tourist bureaus aren’t promoting.
I’ve been taking down camp 🏕️ as I cook breakfast. Not that I am in a rush to get out as it often seems people are on end of holiday weekends, but I want to avoid the situation of nine days ago when it was hot and buggy while I was taking down camp swatting deer fly. I’ll leave the hammock up for now, but other things can come down now. Pumpkin 🎃 banana pancakes this morning, 🥞 though I think that banana 🍌 was a bit past prime.
So once I finish taking down camp, I might do some reading and floating on East Canada Creek and then head up to Potholers. ⭕I am thinking about going down to Little Falls and riding along the bike trail to Illion , then poke around Little Falls. 🚲 If I want to go to Little Falls today, I should leave by around 2 PM, then get on the trail by around 3 PM with the goal of leaving Little Falls for home around 7 or 7:30 PM, which will leave light for the drive home, which I’ll probably take NY 162 to US 20 and avoid the city. Depends on how hot is by mid-day.
If I decide I need more Potholers 🏊 time, then I’ll leave around 4 PM, drive down to Canajaoharie and maybe sit down by the river on one of the swings there, then ride west to St. Johnsville, along with poking around Fort Plain and Canajaoharie a bit. I know the famous 🚦 dummy traffic light on the post has returned to Canajaoharie so that would be fun to check out. But it’s also been a few years since I’ve been to Moss Island so I kind of want to visit that.
I am pretty sure it will be a August swealter before I’m back up here, ☀️ but that’s fine, I’m kind of bored with it this year, having camped here nine days ago and this year being kind of cool but sunny up north. But it sure seems like summer is going by much too quickly.
Why is discussing smoking pot not considered polite conversation when it’s now legal?
Nobody questions going out to the bar or dinner with a glass of wine. It’s fine to reflect back on an evening of drinking and the fun times, as long as no damage was done and you got home safely. But still despite being legal, discussing your cannabis use still remains taboo.
A lot of people still think cannabis use is a mental health disorder or an addiction. A sad thing, a person’s life spinning wildly out of control. For some it is, just like some are addicted to alcohol. But still something about cannabis use is seen as more sinister, like you’re breaking the law or frying your brain, though these days as an adult with current laws none of those things are true anymore.
I guess technically its federally illegal and admitting your use opens up the possibility of federal charges though rarely does the federal government prosecute you. But that’s silly. When is the last time you actually saw a federal police officer? Why is smoking pot still considered something so taboo?
A possible dream
If you don’t take the first step, you will never get there. But I’m so close but not ready to step off the bus.
At one level it seems like the most exceptional year with high interest rates and a booming stock market that swelled my net worth at twice the rate of my salary – which ain’t bad figuring this year I will close out the year with a six figure income for the first time in my life. Which ain’t bad, though six figures ain’t what it once was before inflation. I have a job I love, that is a lot of fun, pays good even if I am staring down another winter my grimy, falling apart mold infested apartment – assuming I’m not evicted. I’ve been looking at houses but none really suit me or the way I want to live anywhere within a reasonable commuting distance from Albany.
Over the past three weeks, I’ve worked 11 days in the office and spend much of the rest of the time working remotely from the woods. At the end of this weekend it will be 8 nights camping in Rennselaerville, the Green Mountains and now the Adirondacks. I am fortunate at least for a few weeks in the autumn every other year, remote work returns from the wilderness then my normal suburban office overlooking the old city dump. I’m. happier out in wilderness. Some day this won’t just be a trip but home. I know it, I can do it as I’m building up the resources and skills to live the life I want to live.
Truth is that there are many alternatives to the vinyl siding and marble counter tops and carpets of suburbia. There are many options for cabins, woodstoves and off grid buildings. There are many rural areas out there where nobody cares if you have fires, burn trash and debris. More and more states are legalizing cannabis and many states have far better gun laws than New York. Many have excellent public lands and forests within a short drive. I’m saving a lot and it’s a dream I can live if not tomorrow then the day after then. My life won’t be over at forty unless I want it over then. But the best is yet to come I believe.