Notes

Sing along with the Grateful Dead and Uncle John’s band…

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“Well the first days are the hardest days, don’t you worry any more
‘Cause when life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door
Think this through with me, let me know your mind
Wo-oh, what I want to know is, are you kind?

It’s a buck dancer’s choice my friend, better take my advice
You know all the rules by now, and the fire from the ice
Will you come with me, won’t you come with me?
Wo-oh, what I want to know, will you come with me?

God damn, well I declare, have you seen the like?
Their walls are built of cannon balls
Their motto is “don’t” tread on me”

Come hear Uncle John’s Band, playing to the tide
Come with me or go alone
He’s come to take his children home

It’s the same story the crow told me, it’s the only one he knows
Like the morning sun you come and like the wind you go
Ain’t no time to hate, barely time to wait
Wo-oh, what I want to know, where does the time go?

I live in a silver mine and I call it beggar’s tomb
I got me a violin and I beg you call the tune
Anybody’s choice, I can hear your voice
Wo-oh, what I want to know, how does the song go?

Come hear Uncle John’s Band, by the river side
Got some things to talk about
Here beside the rising tide”

I was hoping in vain for clams today 🦪

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I went to Tops in Watkins Glen hoping to get clams but by the time I was there they were out. Not the end of the world, there’s always Thursday and it built in time to get wild berry cobbler ice cream rather than rushing back to Bennetsburg to get to the sweet corn stand before the rain and darkness.

Clams and sweet corn ould have been nice at the stay at camp 🏕 day, ending this month with some rain showers ☔ and hanging around camp with an e-book 📖 and maybe doing some rides 🚵 around the National Forest or floating on the tube ⭕ this afternoon. But first the rain has to stop though it’s starting to pull off but there may be thunderstorms ⛈ throughout the day.

Yesterday was a fun day and not so wet. ⛈ Anqother slow morning but I went to Watkins Glen, rode down to Pine Hill north of Horse heads via the Catharine Valley Trail. 🚲 Sprinkled a bit on the way down then we got a pretty good down pour by the time I reached the park at the end of the trail at Pine Hill. 🌧️ Then it was pretty much rain free until riding back, when I found shelter at the Montour Falls library portico. I could have gone in – it was open – but I was good on the porch. Floating on Seneca Lake ⭕at the end of the day was nice as was that wildberry cobbler ice cream 🍦.

Today is a hang out in the National Forest type day. 🏕 Tomorrow it’s back at it again, probably Pen Yann but I also am willing to consider Seneca Falls and Montezuma to kayak the Seneca River. 🛶 Friday, I am thinking Ithaca again to visit the Cornell Botanical. 🌸 Saturday back to the Glen again and maybe Sunday Trumansburg to swim. 🏊 Vacation always comes and goes so quickly. ⏳

Will things be better after the Trump generation is no more? 🧓

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Being in my early forties, I’ve come to the realization that I probably won’t have my parents around for all that much longer. The same is true with many of the baby boomers, the Vietnam generation. Those who graduated college in the early 1970s, lived through a decade of stagnation and the Reagan administration thereafter.

The loss of that generation may have a profound impact on politics, although conservatives always seem to have ways of remaining relevant as times change. I am sure my parents generation felt the same way about the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation. When the Hoovers and even the Eisenhowers generation is gone, things will be better. Ignoring the backlash politics of Richard Nixon and his of party during the late sixties and early seventies. A lot of things did change for the better with that generation but also backlash politics of mass incarceration and hysteria over drugs came to be.

I doubt liberalism will become ascendant in the years to come but conservativism will certainly evolve to remain relevant. We are already seeing that with the remaking of the GOP under Trump. I expect it to change further just like the Democratic Party is, changing to remain relevant.

I should become a responsible adult one of these days 👨🏼

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One of these days it will happen. At some point I’m facing eviction from my rundown apartment and I should buy a house, as I have the cash for that. I should buy a reasonable automobile for commuting and a house in suburbs, wash out and sort out my recycling, sell my guns and stop smoking pot and drinking beer as I spend so much of my time in the wilderness. Give up on the Spanish pipedream of the life out in the country in the off grid cabin and owning livestock, growing cannabis and zucchini and my own bacon.

But what fun would that be?

Catharine Valley Trail

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The Catharine Valley Trail follows the old Chemung Barge Canal towpath and sections of the abandoned Northern Central Rail lines, connecting the communities of Watkins Glen, Montour Falls, Millport, Pine Valley, and Horseheads.