DDT Let’s Put It Everywhere (1946).
How times have changed. Most people certainly wouldn't think of putting DDT on old Fido nowadays.
Notes
Been thinking more about that Drive Safe and Save Program. 🛻
Simply requesting the beacon and installing the app saved me $60 on the September insurance renewal. That’s cool. Ten percent discount. Maybe go up to 30% but I think it will be below ten percent when I renew just because I have my phone screen on when I drive for Waze and in case I get phone calls, emails or text messages that require me to pull over and respond for work. I’m a director, I can’t be fully off grid every time I’m in automobile. I’m not going to necessarily touch or look down at my phone, it’s safely put in my phone cradle as I drive, like I’ve done for the past decade and a half.
So far I’m not thrilled by the app. I find it annoying it yells me every time I turn off the Bluetooth to disconnect my headphones, but so be it. I probably will also get dinged for inevitable smartphone use while driving — not that I frequently touch my phone while driving due to the law — but because the screen is on as use Waze to monitor traffic and specifically my speed because my speedometer is off by about 9% too low due to the 35 inch tires. Plus I need to know when a text message or call comes in from work, so if necessary I can pull over and respond. I don’t ever take calls or reply to texts while driving though occasionally I’ll report touch my phone cops on Waze, though I am certainly willing to not do that. I’m careful and rarely do that as I don’t want to get a ticket.
I’d rather pay more on insurance then risk getting a speeding ticket due to my speedometer being off. Or not hearing the warning ping when I’m speeding. I’m careful but not perfect and hearing the bell ring can remind me to slow down. I just hope the app doesn’t constantly complain and interfere with my use just because I leave Waze running and the screen on while I drive. Maybe an occasional ping or warning message ain’t the end of the world and I’m willing to forfeit that part of the discount but it’s a problem if it makes it difficult to use my phone or the annoying factor is too high.
I guess there is a risk the insurance would notice my odometer is off by 9% but it’s not like it should effect rates much as I’m already in the 7,500 plus mile class, as despite not commuting I do a fair amount of miles on weekend trips and summer and fall vacations. Then there is the issue of how the acceleration meter will read my jacked up truck going around the curves — it’s a big lifted truck — it sways and dips a lot on bumps and curves, though I probably drive slower then most because of that fact. I guess the risk is low, as your guaranteed a 5% discount and the right to cancel at any time. Yes, I guess they could use data to in theory deny a claim, but I am not sure if there is much evidence of that or the state insurance regulator allowing it.
I probably should look are more insurance companies, but the one time I had a claim it was paid and my family has done business with the Elaine Van DeCarr for 40 years now. Auto insurance has become a lot more expensive recently, both thanks to climate change, bad driving habits and the legislature mandating more coverage, and it’s across the market. When I compared plans in the past, though I found there wasn’t a big difference prices — many of the options were more expensive with my unblemished record. If anything the big savings came when new insurers tried to push you into higher deductible plans, and especially with lower coverage limits. Lower coverage limits is fine if you don’t have many assets, but I have all that money I’ve been saving to buy land and that off-grid property, and motoring is a risky activity, and I want to ensure I have good coverage limits, well above the state minimum.
Maybe I’m too willing to give up my privacy for what literally is a few bucks a month. But insurance just keeps going up and I would like to become a safer driver. Crashes are no joke, they can forever change your life. And even pennies add up after time. I don’t believe in conspiracies and I understand the protections given to me under law and what the insurance company can and can not use my data for. Plus New York State not only has expensive car insurance but also strong regulations on industry practices. But privacy advocates are not wrong and I’m enabling potentially really bad behavior for industry.
But I guess it’s worth a try.
Nonfarm payroll growth revised down by 818,000, Labor Department says
The U.S. economy created 818,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the 12-month period through March 2024, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
As part of its preliminary annual benchmark revisions to the nonfarm payroll numbers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the actual job growth was nearly 30% less than the initially reported 2.9 million from April 2023 through March of this year.
The revision to the total payrolls level of -0.5% is the largest since 2009. The numbers are routinely revised each month, but the BLS does a broader revision each year when it gets the results of the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
The Ultimate Reboot!
I do want to get back to West Virginia next year … 🍂
I’ll have to see how that will work out though. I’m not convinced that Big Red will make it down there one more time, but maybe, actually quite possible that I will have a new truck by then as Red is turning 13 years old in a few weeks and showing a fair bit of rust and age. I don’t know if I will buy a house and homestead by then, cannabis isn’t legal there, and there is that issue that you now have to pre-reserve the campsites at County Bridge Campground in Penna. and pay extra fees if that’s where I want to do the overnight rather then at Sugar Hill State Forest or Long Pond State Forest in New York.
But it was such fun to spend a full week camping up in Canaan Heights and doing a lot of mountain biking, exploring all the West Virginia highlands have to offer. I still have yet to get down to the New River Gorge, but would like to still do that again. I would like to do it again, at least one more time. Certainly a new, smaller truck would be more efficient and reliable for taking such a long trip. But who knows how much commitments I would have back in Albany, especially if I have land at that point. Yet, I do enjoy travel a lot and West Virginia is such a beautiful state.
Had to get milk this morning 🐮
Got to have the moo juice to start the morning off right with coffee and carrot pancakes loaded with cinnamon and topped with blueberries and syrup. What will happen with empty container, see below. Not that I’m in any rush to go out and get any kind of dairy animal soon.
Clouds and cool this morning, woke up around 5 AM or so. ☁️ Didn’t sleep as well last night, 🛏 not totally sure why as it was a good day for sleeping. Went out to Five Rivers last night after riding home from work. 🐸 Not a bad evening but it sure gets dark early now that we are rapidly plunging toward September and ultimately autumn. Before you know it will too dark to ride after the evening ride home. 🚲 Stiff wind again last night pushing up against me riding home. Last night was those delicious kidney beans 😋 fried up some some scrambled eggs, peppers, onions, and cornmeal. 🍳 Good eats for sure.
Black tie dinner tonight 🕴️so I got to wear a suit and tie to work. It’s so baggy on me since I loss so much weight. Some day I should get at least one suit that actually doesn’t look like it was tailored for Trump. I know I shouldn’t complain, it’s a $100 a plate dinner that I’m not paying for at 677 Prime Steak House. 🥩 I get a laugh 😂 at how people think I’m a vegetarian because I don’t eat meat daily and often prefer beans and tofu as a protein source over meat. I’m not against meat, it’s a good treat but it’s often loaded with saturated fats. 🥓 You know how I love my Mariaville Farm Bacon. 🐽 Maybe some day when I have land I’ll get some feeder pigs too. 🐖 I could change and drive back into the city after work, but I don’t want to drive home especially if there is alcohol involved. 💥 Truth is I drink less and less these days, and really after a drink or two I’m not ready to get anywhere near an automobile. 🚙 If anything I’d much rather have a smoke. 🚬 I tend to think smoking pot is actually healthier then drinking – – alcohol is a particularly problematic substance on many levels but it’s very legal and widely accepted outside of motoring. 🍻 Calories in alcohol are the worse kind, even worse than added sugars. On the other hand, cannabis is still controversial for reasons I do not understand. But then again, there are many things government does that I do not understand besides the activists, corporations, and government workers wanting it that way. 👥
I think I will be able to get away this weekend, 🏕 I was thinking about Thursday after work but I might be stuck in the office until late on Thursdays, as often is the case. I need to get propane most likely after the ten days camping during summer vacation, and it’s probably better to get up to camp when there is daylight, so I’m thinking of leaving before 7 AM on Friday, stopping and getting what I need and setting up camp by 10 AM. 🛻 Early start 🌅 but maybe it’s what will work best, plus I hate driving half awake to camp with deer 🦌 especially this time of year. Haven’t yet gotten my State Farm tracking device for the discount program, but hopefully that will come in the next few days. It will be interesting to see if it actually works and I get the discount. 💵 And better yet, if it actually teaches me to be a safer driver. I think of my self as a safe driver but I’m sure I have some bad habits – though I’m not foolish to think my driving is above average like supposedly most motorists do.
Other then had, just moving forward. ➡ Need to get new e-library books 📚 out on Hoopla and maybe Libby before I leave on Friday for my mini-vacation. 🏖 Not sure totally what I want to read 📖 but I would like to get a book about restoring old houses and maybe something again homesteading. Plus maybe an e-book but Midwest life or another part of the country. 🚜 While I grew up in the country for the first 24 years of my life, there i much still to learn. And maybe some good tunes to listen to while I’m floating away on the East Canada Creek. 🔉 I’ll get them from YouTube. Maybe some Phish records, I got the Allman Brothers the other day saved to my phone. 📱Plus lots of Grateful Dead 🎸, I’ve become such a Deadhead lately, lol 😂. I wonder why. Good memories from summer vacation 🏖 that is the part I remember.
I continue to study the various houses and properties that are popping up on Zillow, 🏡 which really thinks I want to live in Rensselaer County, maybe because I checked out that one property in Hoosick Falls and decided it was too far away. There are options, and I should make up my mind, but I have yet to find the perfect 👌 property. After learning what I pain real estate agents can be once you first reach out to them, I try to do as much due dillegence including a property drive by 🔎 and GIS data study and pull the deed before I ever research out. Been writing and thinking a lot 💭, finishing up things I start on vacation a few weeks back, and really trying to figure out what’s next in my life, from housing to automobiles to smoking and homesteading. What can I say, I like the dirty life as deep down I’m redneck even if I wear a suit and tie. 💩
The internet marketers have discovered I have a concern about paranoia and smoking weed, 🤪 so now my social media feeds are once again filled with advertisements for Better Help and Talk Therapy and low cost mental health treatment options. 🧑⚕️ Of course you feed the advertisers the fact your concerned about paranoia, not understanding the context, the advertisements become very tailored for big angry black men. 👨🏿 I was shocked a bit at first about the ads with all the black people I was seeing. As apparently those are the only people who have such worries in the racist algorithms that sell shit on the internet. And of course advertisements for drug rehabs. Because I’m just looking for a good time up in the woods, and not worries about my housing situation or my big jacked up truck getting old. 🛻 I’m not paranoid about privacy or internet tracking but I do not like these targeted ads, they are so creepy, 👻 especially as they rarely understand the context in which you might be reading or researching a topic. 💭
Trump or Harris!
The people insist. When you tell them you’re thinking of voting third party, their initial reaction is you must be thinking of voting for Bobby Kennedy Jr — he’s nuts!
Honestly, I don’t have a strong opinion on either Trump or Biden and if I have to choose in November, I think Chase Oliver would be better. You know the libertarian. My vote doesn’t count for much living in a heavily blue state so might as well vote my conscious. I like guns and cows but also wilderness and smoking pot.
I’m a Democrat, that’s the party I work for and have been actively involved in for twenty years now. I think Harris would be good on ending the federal cannabis ban and advancing climate change initiatives and perusing electrification which would dramatically reduce local sources of pollution in the cities. Harris wouldn’t appoint people who are bonkers on the economy, her appointees are more likely to be the steady hand rather than the marginally competent bomb throwers Trump would likely appoint to the federal reserve and bank regulatory agencies.
On the other hand, I’m not convinced that Donald Trump would be a complete disaster. Maybe we need some people on government willing to break shit and get people all of the old routines in government as a lot is not working today for average people. I suspect Trump would be good on the second amendment, though I’m reminded of his unconstitutional bump stock ban and have to doubt his true champion nature. And maybe Harris would continue to lard down the economy that would keep prices going up. Clean air and water is expensive and it’s reasonable to have a debate about how fast we should moving in that direction. Often Democrats are too fast to lock up and close off public lands from public use.
I’m really okay with either candidate but I would lean towards Harris this cycle but would hope if she’s elected the Republicans really hold her accountable much like the Democrats should hold Trump accountable if elected.