I was reading more of Michael Moss’ Sugar, Salt and Fat about the history of ultra-processed food and specifically the section about tang. They noted the primary reason why NASA was interested in Tang, that artificial orange beverage, was it had virtually no fiber which made it easier for the human waste osmosis system to recycle water on the space ship.
I had to Google the term, and found out the so-called low residue diet is a thing, especially with people with bowl disorders like Crohn’s disease or even hemorrhoids, though I think with the later you’d actually want more fiber to help pass poop easier. That said, it sounds pretty disgusting and unhealthy – if anything I think you would want more fiber not less in your diet – as Americans already eat way too much processed foods without enough fiber to keep the poop moving through your body. Fiber is key to healthy digestion and moving the unusual parts of food through your stomach.
I always try to add more fiber to my diet from unprocessed sources – be it shredded carrots on pancakes, onions, beans, whole and chopped up fruits. Fiber takes up a lot of space in your stomach which displaces your intake of fats, sugar, and carbohydrates. It literally fills you up and reduces your ability to overeat. Plus it guides excessive nutrients through your digestive track and out the other side.
Good, solid, regular poops is a good thing. Fiber really does that. When you hear about people who don’t poop for days or struggle on the toilet, you got to really wonder about their diet – and realize they’re probably just eating American with all the colorful boxes and plastic wrappers that are toxic to burn. Especially when I find I have to poop in the morning and mid-day, though some of that has to do with the strong coffee at work. But it’s good to clear yourself out.
That said, I do think all that poop is kind of a waste. Humanure composting, done in a proper way to kill pathogens while recovering the unused nutrients in poop seems like just a sensible thing, just like you collect and compost food scraps. With all that fiber and unused nutrients going out the other end, it really makes sense to recover all that one’s body can’t consume especially when the inputs are so good with a high-fiber diet made up of whole foods.
Truth is I don’t know if I’m going anywheres this weekend, so it’s best to just restock my pantry with the basics on the bike ride home. Mostly just things like frozen vegetables, more onions, maybe some tofu and rice. Probably need the lights on my bike to ride the remaining way home, but they’re fully charged.
The forecast looks fairly cloudy tomorrow and potentially not gray and cool n Saturday, so I’ll just take it by ear. I’ll need more by the weekend but Hannaford is always just a bike ride away, or I can take my big jacked up truck to Wally World for a bigger shop.
That said, I sure would like to get Shauls one last time for the year and riding some of Catskill Scenic Trail for the remaining color, but not if it’s cold and gray all Saturday and Sunday. I probably have enough propane available for a night of camping if I do decide to do an overnight, and the three beers I have left in my fridge and weed in my truck will get me through a single nights adventures if I choose. If I go Saturday morning, then I’ll have time to find wood on site, and won’t have to deal with splitting pallets or picking up nails.
And, there is always that Veterans Day Weekend which is only two weeks away when I head most likely out to Madison County. I can’t believe November is just around the corner.
No more riding home from work. Turning that brass desk lamp on at four o’clock each day, watching as it gets dark outside from my office and coming home to my dark apartment. Cold, long evenings.
A lot of people don’t like after the leaves fall off the trees and the woods gets a palette of browns and grays. But I do as I like how so much more light filters down to the forest floor and the interesting shadows made by the hills and hollows with the low sun angle.
The nights are so gawd-damned long these days, which might be good for drinking beer, smoking pot and watching random plastic things melt and burn up in wilderness while listening to an audiobook about living the zero-waste life but I also need the lights working on my bike for riding after dark and commute safety.
Running low on food again because I mostly got fruits and bananas plus eggs and milk when I stopped on my bike ride home from work on Monday. Pinto beans and rice have been most of my meals this week – economical and healthy but I used up the last this morning for breakfast with the eggs along with packing for lunch. Also packed the last of the frozen veggies for lunch I had bought before vacation. I might run to Walmart and Tractor Supply for food and supplies tonight, or I could drive in tomorrow, get propane and supplies – and maybe a pallet for firewood if I’m heading up to camp tomorrow.
I took the early express bus in yesterday, and it was late, and it was raining and kind of sucked. Maybe I should have taken the yokel local bus in that stops every six and half feet while the welfare recipients protest paying their bus fare, or better yet, just driven my big jacked up truck to my suburban office with acres of parking. Like normal people do, as they drive home to their plastic-coated asphalt roofed suburbanite homes, and sit next to their 500 square foot colored televisions and get the lasted news blasted into their brains about how awful the Trumpster is. Walking the Empire Plaza, it felt like I was walking in some kind of police state, as I think the Governor was in town pontificating about the state taxpayer grants they’re handing out to repair roads etc. popularly branded the Regional Economic Development Council. I mean, paving contracts and those for street cleaning, are technically economic and put people to work.
But that costs more money to drive to work that some day could be buying hog feed, and I got to ride my mountain bike home yesterday. 🚲 And yes, fuck I’m riding my bike to work today. So far I’ve put in $20,236 into my 457 retirement account for the year, s o making progress on that part, though it’s still a decade and half until I can sit back on my own land, and spend the days focused on breaking ice and hauling feed out to the goats and slop to the pigs. 🐖 Few more paychecks and I’ll reach the federal maximum, and maybe I’ll put the rest of money 💵 back into my savings account, to restore money spent on getting my eyes snipped going on a month ago now. I noticed there is a bunch of pallets left out on the road to work, so if I drive in tomorrow, I could get pallet wood for campfires. 🪓 I always find myself looking around and seeing all the free shit in dumpsters and left around that could be turned into livestock bedding, compost and fuel if I only had my own land. City people are so wasteful.
I was so going to go out to Vermont and ride up and around ol Prospect Mountain Road ⛰️ and while the signs of “No ICE in Vermont” are working – it’s been a kind of mild but they still have a ban on campfires up in wilderness in Vermont. So maybe that’s not that option for the weekend. Then I’m considering Rensselearville, that’s always an easy option but I feel like I go up there too much in winter season and I want to save for that the true cold and ice and snowy season, like in January and February ☃️ when I’m fucking desperate to get up in wilderness and have a fire 🔥 and watch those flames while listening to Gram Parsons. Out with the truckers, the kickers, and cowboy angels. 🤠
So I don’t know, maybe Schoharie and riding the ol’ Catskill Scenic Trail this weekend and hitting up Shauls one last time before they are closed for the season. I think they are still open and probably a great place to get winter squash and other things that make for many a good morning. I always like a good ride, and while probably most of the color is gone at this point, it still would be nice to get away for the weekend. Next weekend I have work stuff to do, though I’m thinking Veterans Day Weekend heading out to ol’ Madison County to ride, smell the freshly spread cow poop and enjoy a more country landscape compared to days I’ve spent in wilderness lately. Before Big Game Season gets underway. After Thanksgiving I’ll probably do the East Branch Scandaga River or maybe Piseco-Powley depending on if there is snow yet.
I think future White House administrations could repurpose the ballroom as a parking garage, assuming the federal government could find the money to patch roof leaks to keep plaster from falling on the cars kind of like how RKO Movie Palaces were sometimes repurposed for indoor parking garages. After all, there is always a demand for more parking – go to any local government planning meeting and you’ll understand 99% of what government does is enforce parking minimums at drinking establishments and other businesses.
again because I mostly got fruits and bananas 
plus eggs 
and milk when I stopped on my bike ride home from work on Monday. Pinto beans 
and rice 
have been most of my meals this week – economical and healthy but I used up the last this morning for breakfast with the eggs 
along with packing for lunch. Also packed the last of the frozen veggies for lunch I had bought before vacation. I might run to Walmart and Tractor Supply 
for food and supplies tonight, or I could drive in tomorrow, get propane and supplies – and maybe a pallet for firewood if I’m heading up to camp tomorrow.
in yesterday, and it was late, and it was raining and kind of sucked. Maybe I should have taken the yokel local bus in that stops every six and half feet while the welfare recipients protest paying their bus fare, or better yet, just driven my big jacked up truck 
to my suburban office with acres of parking. Like normal people do, as they drive home to their plastic-coated asphalt roofed suburbanite homes, and sit next to their 500 square foot colored televisions and get the lasted news blasted into their brains 
about how awful the Trumpster is. Walking the Empire Plaza, it felt like I was walking in some kind of police state, as I think the Governor was in town pontificating about the state taxpayer grants they’re handing out to repair roads etc. popularly branded the Regional Economic Development Council. 
I mean, paving contracts and those for street cleaning, are technically economic and put people to work.
this weekend and hitting up Shauls one last time before they are closed for the season. 
I think they are still open and probably a great place to get winter squash and other things that make for many a good morning. 
I always like a good ride, and while probably most of the color is gone at this point, it still would be nice to get away for the weekend. Next weekend I have work stuff to do, though I’m thinking Veterans Day Weekend heading out to ol’ Madison County to ride, smell the freshly spread cow poop 
and enjoy a more country landscape compared to days I’ve spent in wilderness lately. Before Big Game Season gets underway. 
After Thanksgiving I’ll probably do the East Branch Scandaga River or maybe Piseco-Powley depending on if there is snow yet. 
