I usually do my summer vacation during the last week of July. Being farther west in the Finger Lakes it gives me about as much sunlight in the evening as Albany has on the first day of summer. But it also means by the time I get back home, summer is in inevitable decline with the evenings being darker earlier and the earliest hints of autumn starting to appear in the woods.
Just planning on another quiet, not notable vacation in the Finger Lakes. Probably the last one with Big Red, the last one in the Finger Lakes. I have my eyes on Michigan and Northern Wisconsin for 2026, traveling in a new truck, seeing new country. A real adventure. But just quiet this summer, laying back in the hammock, swimming in the gorges, hiking and riding trail, floating in the tube. Doing some reading and fishing, smoking some marijuana around the campfire, eating fresh sweet corn and farm produce. Listening to the cows moo and the crickets in the night, counting the shooting stars late into the night.
Maybe it’s what the anxious mind needs. A trip without too much planning or thought, 10 days of relaxation and giggles. Leave early on a Friday and have camp set up long before the weekend tourists arrive. Music and cold beer. Fires and freedom. A summer vacation like so many in years past without too many worries or fears.
I woke up this morning and saw it was 5 AM and said, I better get up. Trying to get back on the early morning schedule, and it’s good to maximize daylight. Lately I’ve been staying up too late and sleeping in on the morning.
Eggs 🥚 with coffee ☕ this morning, back to drinking coffee now that I have milk to put in it. Amazing how that moo juice changes everything. Good to make sure to include calcium and teeth-staining coffee in the morning. 🦷 I know it’s not just coffee that stains my teeth so badly, it’s also all that turmeric I have with lunch and other meals most days. 🍏 Also started my morning off with some water and apple cider vinegar as it’s good to start each morning with water to be hydrated and not pissing my brains out all day.
Riding out to Five Rivers to read 📖 and look at the birdies for a while. 🐦 And maybe get yelled at by the woke birder. Just because he’s woke. It’s early, I’m woke but in not that kind of way. 🌥️ Fairly cloudy to start out the morning, but it’s supposed to clear out by mid-morning. ☀️ Then I’m going to head back home, take a quick shower 🚿 and go down to the library 📚 to work on some maps I’m working on, then get some gas, and out to Lawson Lake for a paddle. 🛶 Then Sunday dinner with the folks. 👨👨👦
It’s funny to think that tomorrow is the last day of June. 🗓️ Hundred 💯 dollar month on the blog ad revenue, though these days that’s pretty pissy money but it’s probably the best of the year as traffic drops as autumn approaches. 📈 Maybe more disturbing is thought that Labor Day is 62 days and it will be October in three months. 🍁 Summer seems to end before really beginning. Summer vacation is in three to four weeks, probably out to the Finger Lakes National Forest for one last week 🏕️ 🐮 🌲 – next year it’s Michigan and Northern Wisconsin once I get my new truck. 🛻 That said I’m going to miss Big Red.
Thursday I’m pretty sure I am going to take off, 🏕️ and head back to the Potholers after getting bacon 🥓. And then lots of floating on tube ⭕ before yet another summer is done. Maybe not the perfect 👌Independence Weekend but I have a lot of fireworks 🎇 to light off. And let’s be honest, this summer is not long to be in this world. I’m going to try to get in early on Monday to get a few extra hours in avoid using up too much time ⌚ and because I have work 🖥️ to get done. The cool crisp morning today has me already thinking about Labor Day Weekend at Harmon Hill in Perkins Clearing.
Okay maybe next Saturday will be more fun depending on how much grass I smoke a spend laughing my brains out at the Potholers as I cool in the creek but paddling a bit of the Vlomans Kill up to the falls and laying down by the river on my hammock was fun.
It’s easy to forget how nice it is to erect a hammock along the banks of the mighty Hudson River and just lay listening to an audio book 🔉 and then doing some reading Essential Sustainable Home Design for a while listening to Frank Zappa’a Waka Jawka. I am so glad I have my hammock again.
I got Walmart in Rensselaer and it didn’t not disappoint. 📱 🎇 I got a bunch more sparklers and a replacement waterproof case for my phone though I do want to get another waterproof pouch before camping. My pantry is well stocked and I got cookies 🍪 for the meeting on Monday and candy and sparklers 🍬 to give out for Independence Day at work.
I’m going to leave the kayak 🛶 on my truck and may do some more paddling tomorrow, maybe just Lawson Lake though I could change my mind. Maybe I’ll stay overnight at the folks house tomorrow night in my truck, I’m undecided on that and I need to ask.
A year ago, I purchased my first marijuana legally in New York. While I had taken a hit on work trips with colleagues in the past, I never smoked it recreationally myself even though I had heard many good things about the whacky tobacco from the popular culture.
There are so many songs that hint at or even explicitly suggest that smoking marijuana will give you great creative energy, restore clarity of thought. I got a couple of e-books out from the library about the history and uses of cannabis – I had great hopes of learning about what would be the perfect high.
At first it was kind of fun, giggling by the waterfalls and listening to the Grateful Dead singing Dire Wolf. But much like a great record you play too many times and get tired with and no longer sparks that special joy in your life, cannabis kind of wore off it’s magic. I only smoke up at camp, well and Election Day, I thought the absence would bring back the magic and not just make me sleepy. Maybe it’s the junky pot I was sold at the shady dispensary last November in Colonie.
Even at best though, pot made me giggle, enjoy the sparkles in the water, the shimmer of the green leaves of summer, the clouds in sky and enhanced the colors of the world to make it more real. But it hardly gave me the clear view of the world I so badly wanted. Mostly when I’m stoned, I actually don’t want to read, write or think deep thoughts. I just want to stare blankly in space.
I still enjoy the reaction I get from people who are surprised that I smoke pot. I never thought Andy was a pot head! I like the association of free thought, color and tuning in with pot as popularized by the culture even if I’ve never been able to get beyond being a bit stoned in the wilderness.
Everybody let’s sing along with Country Joe and Fish. Just like as it always is the case, the rain is getting ready to fall from the sky as is required for every weekend since last November. It saves up. Sunday looks pretty groovy as does Monday but then more rain on Tuesday. But maybe Independence Weekend looks good, especially if I get a jump start on it by taking off Thursday and leaving just early to get to For the Love of Bacon early when they open.
I really do think too much about bacon 🥓 and smoking pot. 🍀 That said, thank Dank Jack Diesel I got last November from that Colonie disperany with all attire of a DMV and a tiny parking lot for my big jacked up truck is such crap, it really doesn’t get me high or maybe it’s gotten moldy and is crap. And it made my eyes so dried out and itchy, 👀 I still need to reach out TLC Eye Centers and a few others to learn more about getting the process started on LASIK before the end of year, and so I can open an HSA and save a bit on taxes on getting my eyes corrected permanently. I just so hate those tiny pieces of plastic in my eyes necessary to see, almost as much as I hate smell of Jack Diesel. Why on earth did I get talked in handing over $55 for it last autumn? 💵 Before summer vacation I need to get to Northern Lights. I really liked the stuff I got last summer, I’ll have to look back on my blog. I’m willing to pay for something that really makes me giggly and creative, and not just stoned out of my brain up at camp. My neighbor was smoking some of that diesel shit the other day, it’s even more noxious when you’re smelling it. I mean if I wanted to smell nasty burnt crap, I’d toss some rubber debris in the burn garbage. 🔥
It just hasn’t been the same since I was in the wilderness swatting those deer flies. 🪰 So busy, I’ve not had a chance really to get my blog updated or my mind back together. Wednesday work was non-stop, I drove in as I had that work dinner to go to at 5:30 PM, and traffic was bad getting there. Thursday I was working on that map for somebody up in Troy. Friday was the dentist and remote work, which with my new position as head of Data Services 🖥️ is so much of a pain because needing to access the network over the VPN, which only works on Windows, And it’s so slow because my Windows HD is mounted in the CD drive bay, and it’s an old fashioned spinning disk. 💾
I was planning on doing a hike or bike ride or paddle 🛶 this morning and getting to Rensselaer Wally World to get sparklers and the water-proof case for my phone but I think I’ll wait for tomorrow, 🌥️ as already the clouds have pushed and I actually got quite a bit of groceries yesterday at Hannaford so I’m in no rush to get shopping. 🛒 I think I’ll wait until tomorrow, early Sunday Wally World should be much more empty. That Rensslear Walmart on Third Street is always packed compared to Glenmont, there aren’t as many Woke Folk out that way who will never shop at Walmart, a lot more goat owners, mountain folk and teat-strippers in Rensselaer County. 🐐 Probably because the gun laws are slightly better, and there are a lot of hills and deep hollers with good soil for growing silage and making milk and ice cream. 🐄 🔫
I guess the alternative today is to stay home and stay safe. 🚴 I think there is some kind of festival at Five Rivers today, but I still might ride out there on my bike and just hang out there, do some reading and observing nature. 🐦 📖 I got the replacement hammock in so I should try that out maybe later on. 🛶 Could do that down at Henry Hudson Park. Low tide is at 2:32 PM, which means if I went out kayaking in the Hudson afternoon, there would be a gentle push to the north, but not too dramtic as the river’s flow tends to balance it out. I was thinking this time I’ll bring the kayak up to Pisceo-Powley for Independence Day though lately my thoughts have been evolving on that.
I mean, people might start to believe that if you keep repeating that phrase in describing yourself to others.
I have different ideas then might be popular in society, like the worship of polyvinyl chloride, a material I despise on so many levels. I just despise the lawns of suburbia, the smart televisions, the marble countertops, the green veneer of electric cars and solar panels on the roofs of McMansions. I don’t want to live life the normal way, with the 2 1/2 kids attending a good school.
Is it a tougher row to hoe? Yes. But not wanting such things doesn’t officially make you mentally ill, because mental illness is defined in the context of being non-functional in society, rather then simply rejecting tacky societal norms.
