Notes

What’s next? ⛺🥾🍂🚴

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The next adventure, assuming the weather cooperates, is heading up to Perkins Clearing in the Adirondacks at the break of dawn to work on Friday remotely and then spend the holiday weekend around the Speculator, riding, paddling and floating maybe with a bit of sparkle from Tropical Skittlez.

Then it’s just a matter in September when the weather is nice to plan Fridays to work remote, heading up to Rennselaer State Forest or Charles Baker. I bet riding those dirt roads at night would be a lot of fun. And even into October.

Come November, after Election Day, depending on the weather I’ve been thinking about a trip up to the North Country or Horseshoe Lake. Yet that depends on how much snow there is and what my living arrangements look like by then. And how well Big Red is running at that point.

Today apparently is National Dog Day 🐺

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Is that a celebration of the Dire Wolf? Just asking for a friend after the long weekend. Now it’s back to work at least for a few more days.

It’s back to work after a fun weekend. 👨‍💼 I am riding my bike to work, though who knows how wet it will be by afternoon with the thunderstorms. 🌩 I am not sure if I should be wearing jeans or shorts today, 👖 but I have more clean jeans, and I’m hoping to make it through the week without going to the laundromat, with the plan to work from Spectulator on Friday, so I don’t really have to have perfectly clean clothes for that. I think I had fun with Tropical Zkittlez, I shoud get more of that before the holiday weekend.

Things are unpacked and I’m ready for the week.  🧹 Accidentally spilled flour over everything unpacking last night, and I need to finish up cleaning tonight, but things should be good. I got the Drive Safe and Save beacon installed in my truck, though I’m not sure when I will drive next — probably Thursday night to stock  before camping. Thursdays though I often work late in the office, so that’s a consideration as I need to be n Speculator before 9 AM to remote work. 💻️

Scammers left my cellphone alone on Friday, ☎️ trying to run the same old tax scam that they’ve been harassing me for months about my back taxes that don’t exist. Do I pay too much in taxes, and should I have a plan to cash in some of my assets to buy a house? 🏘 Yes, but not through a scam service, which one day I tried engauging them when I was bored and maybe a bit high on vacation, after weeks of them calling. They seemed most interested in selling me a loan either for taxes or debt. 💣 I didn’t give any personal information but I asked a lot of questions about what they were selling.

I’ve been avoiding my work email box, ✉️ as I’m sure it’s suffed full but at least my physical mail box wasn’t too bad. 📮 It’s just a busy time of the year, both legisatively and for the campaign committee, but good work is getting done. It is really good that I’ve mastered R and the tidyverse, 🤖 as those are things I use every day, even more then other langauges like C or Python. R is such a werid language, but it’s really good for data maniplulaton, at least with reasonably sized datasets.

Do I spend too much time studying all things cannabis these days? 🪴 Probably yes, but it’s a fun topic to learn about – it’s agricultural, it’s political, it’s controversial and it’s the most pungent of odors. 👃 What’s not to like about it? I have kind of a one track mind, 💿 though there are some who will accuse me of becoming addicted to marijuana. I do admit coming home after summer vacation, the world seemed so plain and colorless after many nights of fun 🌈 but it wasn’t like I was that compelled to light up, as I have decided to limit it like my drinking to only when I’m out on adventures, and only in a reasonable quantity, bar once and while having a bit of fun and singing along with Dire Wolf under the stars in the wilderness. ✨ Truth is there is actually very little evidence to Cananbis Use Disorder, it’s mostly something that judges 👩‍⚖️ and treatment centers see as a money maker in the form of kick-backs for government workers.

Marijuana Legal ≠ Safe

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That’s what some conservative, probably Christian associated drug rehab billboard says outside of Amsterdam. Probably the kind of think you would expect from a small town just like the 97% Fat Free Silage Bales by the dairymen promoting drinking of whole milk in an effort to improve sales of milk and milk components.

Both are pretty laughable things, as the intoxicating herb is pretty darn safe and whole milk, relatively speaking is unhealthy as it loaded with inflammatory saturated fats. It’s not to discount the dangers of cannabis – it’s a mind altering substance and everything in this world contains some risk. Especially if there is some form of reward. Be it the high or those rich fats in milk.

I’m not against drinking milk or smoking pot in moderation. I do think skim milk is a healthier option though as is alternative dairy beverages like plain low fat Kofuir and Greek yogurt. Cannabis should be enjoyed in an enjoyable setting and just enough to feel good and inspired but not an every day use product.

You can have high times 😶‍🌫️

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It turned out to be a beautiful but cool summer weekend to have my head in the clouds, both figuratively and literally floating in the East Canada Creek and doing a lot of reading and thinking with smoking Tropical Skittlez and 5 hour energy shots.

I won’t argue that was the healthiest combination 🥓 but the same can be said about Mariaville Farm bacon frying the produce I got from Samdills Farm. 🍆 Still it was good to be away, fully off the grid for three days with no cell service or radio Thursday evening through Sunday. 📱 Riding down to Stratford on Saturday I could have momentarily turned on my phone to see if I had gotten any messages but I didn’t care want to know. 💓It was a fun weekend and so far my heart hasn’t given out even if my doctor 🧑‍⚕️keeps reminding me I need to get a stress test with family’s history of cardiac arrest.

Did I smoke too much 😄 and listen too much Grateful Dead 🎸? Absolutely but it was my last full long weekend fully away from it all through November. Now it’s back to work, 📧 I have several emails to get through. But I enjoyed a weekend of floating ⭕ and riding my bike. Reading 📖 a lot and thinking. No house listing’s to review 🏡 no constantly thinking about my future. Just a moment of Zen. 🪷 Rode down to Stratford on Saturday afternoon, via Old Stage Road then through the hamlet and back up Piseco Road. Nice ride but I had to carry the bike over down trees 🪵and rougher sections of the road.

That said it was a fun weekend 😶‍🌫️ with the Grateful Dead, Tropical Skittlez and 5 hour energy shots. ☕ A good satvia really can make the world a fun place, full of laughter, forgetting about all of the problems for a little while. Plus the Grateful Dead song, Dire Wolf 🐺 is so much fun when you are stoned. 🤭 I beg you, don’t murder me! Plus riding the mountain bike after dark 🚴is so much fun when your pupils are dilated and you can see the woods so while, noticing every shadow and so many things you would not ordinary see.

Did a ton of reading and listening to audio books 📖 including listening to Peter Grinspoon’s Seeing Through the Smoke and Leslie Iverson’s Science of Marijuana. 🪴 I’ve been intensely fascinated about cannabis both it’s health ☺ and legal ⚖ upsides and downsides and how it works. There really is a whole culture around smoking pot and a lot of fascinating science and it touches on everything from psychology to personal values to politics. Then I also read a book on being a homeowner, 🏡 one on farm life on a small beef cattle operation in Southern Ohio, 🐮 and one restoring old houses. 🛠 Also spent some time writing 📝, thinking 💭 those high thoughts and putting them on paper.

You know it’s weird to think this was likely my last trip to Piseco Powley for the year 🏕 and soon here in the Adirondacks it will be another autumn 🍁 then winter. ❄ Seems like it happens so quickly but with Big Red getting old and me still looking at houses and land who knows if I will ever get back here again. I get it that owning a home doesn’t preclude all vacations and travel though it would consume a lot of time and resources, livestock certainly would. 🐐 I’m well aware the current situation is unsustainable. But I also have gotten so much enjoyment out of the Grateful Dead this summer. 🎸

This afternoon I paddled out on Lily Lake from the Stewart Landing Dam for a few hours. 🛶 I didn’t make it all the way to West Lake but I wasn’t far from that. Very nice day, the lake was quite calm. Now I’m heading out on the bike from Fonda to Canajahoharie or as close as I can get as allowed by time. I want to be on the road heading home by around 7 pm so I’m not driving home most of the way in the dark. 🦌 Not to mention, Friday morning before work I’m heading up to Perkins Clearing to set up camp 🏕 and remote work that day.