Like a campfire during a burn ban 💚 🖕 🔥
I’m like fuck the greenies – this morning I’m posting a picture of my fire last night that I’m sure had flames no higher than 2 feet and eleven inches of pallet wood and burnable plastics but no garbage as that’s illegal in New York unlike BFE Pennsylvania and I save that for composting. Got to be green, but I concede it’s been a dry autumn so I made sure to wait until well after dark for a fire so the humidity would rise, wind die down and any fire brands could be started. I wet down and stirred the fire before bed making sure it was cold but also there was a hard frost last night and those pine scraps quickly burned.
I always carry a magnet 🧲 on me any time I burn pallet scraps because I want to keep nails out of my tires and those of others. Been there done that with the thirty fives. Plug has held well. One of the small pallets I picked up in the industrial 🏭 area where the Assembly data center kind of stunk of toxic chemicals ⚗️ when I stuck it in the cab, a fact I didn’t realize before getting on the Thruway. 🧠 Kill more brain cells beyond the weed and alcohol. 🔥
All of the campsites up by Mason Lake were taken, ended up at my usual favorite up on Hardwood Hill outside of Perkins Clearing. It’s fine, I have excellent cell service here and it’s been a year since I was last up here. Traffic was so bad on the Thruway and through Amsterdam but then it thinned out after there. 🚗 Left work at 4 pm and set up camp around dusk. 🌆
Always a shock 🍁 to see how much different the Adirondacks are in the spring and autumn compared to lower elevations though I’m not surprised by the lack of color or leaves as it’s mid October and peak color in much of the Adirondacks is the third or fourth week of September not October. And it’s been so darn dry. Still it seems hard to believe in my mind it’s been over a year ⌛ since I was last up at Perkins Clearing that last week of September 2024. Where does the time go? Sings the Fairport Convention on the radio. Followed by Hello, Darkness My Old Friend. 👴🏻 I told myself that this trip would never happen until it did. I do like the woods looks after the leaves fall. I should renew my hunting license and as an excuse to spend more time in the woods during my favorite time of the year. Few days do I prefer to those moderately warm leaf free, sunny days with deep blue skies.
Watched the sun rise, made coffee and waked and baked. ☕ I really love ♥️ that Dragonfly Just Peachy Infused Cannabis 🐲. It just has such rich flavor even if it is kind of a junk food. Made up some eggs 🥚 and eventually found my onions and other food stuffs. Spilled cornmeal everywhere when the bag ripped. Things really weren’t at all organized – doesn’t help that I wanted to have as complete of a pantry as possible for eating 🍏 for the next nine nights as options are limited for groceries in the Adirondacks especially before I reach Tupper Lake on Thursday. Got cranberries and cooked some down both last night and this morning as a snack. I do add a bit of Stevia but I actually like how bitter cranberries tend to be.
It’s nice to wake up during the night 🌃 and look out and see the moonlit landscape and stars ✨ crystal clear without grabbing for glasses 👓 or dealing with contact lens and my irrated eyes 👀. I’m far enough now out from the surgery that dry eye 👁️ really isn’t the issue it once was but I did bring artificial tears 😭 and dry eye solution especially when I’m outdoors or smoking weed. Cold ❄️ start to the morning, a very heavy frost. But it really reduced my concerns about wildfire risk.
I have no real plans for this weekend, ⛰️ I’ve thought about riding down and over to the West Canada Wilderness and hiking up Pillsbury again 🚶 or maybe down to Speculator. I might drive down to Speculator tomorrow morning just so I can hike those trails around the park 🏞️ as might be a bit more color down there but being mid October I didn’t expect much color up here on Hardwood Hill or even around Mason Lake. Maybe there will be a little bit left in Tupper but I have my doubts. Truth is I just am here for the quiet 🤫 beyond the occasional sound of a deer 🦌 rifle in the woods. When I reach Horseshoe Lake come Monday or for that matter St Regis Canoe Area 🛶 on Thursday I don’t expect to see many people at all. But first I want to organize my gear further, especially all the food and supplies.
Been targeted a lot by scammers lately 🎯
I wonder if made some kind of ranking to become a prime potential victim of scamming or there has just been a uptick in scams lately but I’ve gotten hit hard with obviously scammy material targeted directly at me.
- Fake Facebook Dating profiles that match my interests perfectly for dating, even friends with one of my friends who is known to let anyone be her friends. I am thinking this is a romance scam.
- Creepy fake text messages from my bank alerting me of fraudulent withdrawals with a tinyurl.com link to what mostly is a fake login page to my bank
- Creepy fake text messages saying my package has been undeliverable with suspecious links
The later two have me a bit more worried as I had a legitimate bank fraud alert relating to my web hosting purchase earlier in the day and package undeliverable messages came around the time my bike light was going to be delivered. Makes me wonder if my phone has been hacked with some kind of Spyware, or maybe it’s just scammers carefully monitoring my blog and social media platforms – or maybe just dumb luck. I know a few years back when my truck broke down, and I posted it on social media, shortly thereafter I got one of those fake login scams in my text messages. Who knows!
Nobody’s Right if Everybody’s Wrong. Peace Please! ☮️🕊️✌️
The Isreal – Hammas conflict reminds me a lot of what you read in the history books about the Indian removal and creation of the Indian reservations in America. White European settlers with their early industrial revolution produced superior weapons that rolled over the unfamiliar countryside and took the land long settled by the red men – the Native Americans and forced them onto undesirable lands, the reservations. The red men fought back bravely with what they had, occasionally uprising and engaging in terrorism against the white men, but ultimately because of disease and the overwhelming power of the American colonists ultimately ended up signing away their rights and giving up much land that they had once farmed, hunted and lived on.
Isreal has long had a similar relationship with the Palestinian people. Many Isrealies are driven for a passion to recover their religious homeland, an ideology of Zionism similar to that of the American settlers and manifest destiny. Both are an ideology of hubris, a grandeous delusion built on superior military force. Religious ideology – fundamentalism in the form of the Jewish or Muslim faith – is fine but one’s religion should be private moral code not an excuse to bully or remove the Palestinian people from their homeland.
Like the white men taking over the red man’s land when a group has no practical way to lawfully to fight back, their option really is only to engage in the unconventional war tactics – namely terrorism and war crimes against civilians. As they said about the Viet Cong in the United States, “those commies never fight fair.” Isreal is responding with their own series of war crimes, starving Palestinian civilians from food, energy and water. Not unlike how the United States engaged in war crimes both against the red men throughout history, or more recently in Laos and Cambodia.
If there was adults in the room known as the globe, both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders would be rounded up and tried for war crimes. Bombing and kidnapping Israeli citizens who aren’t leaders or military people is disgusting and immoral. But likewise imprisoning Palestinians in their communities, cutting them off from food, water and energy – while bombing their towns is morally repugent too. Killing the opposing side is not the solution. Compromise and peace is.
First we need peace. Stop bombing and bullying both the Isrealis and the Palestinians. Then we need to hold leaders on both sides accountable for terrorism and war crimes. Not civilians even if they are sympathic towards the fighters. But actual leaders. Then we need to find a two state solution where both the Isrealis and Palestinians are free to create their own forms of government that uphold their own values that allow for the free movement of people and goods. There needs to be borders assertian that everyone agrees upon, with both sides losing a bit. We need democracy in both the Israeli and Palestinian states.
But most of all we need peace. 🇮🇱 ✌️ 🇵🇼
The Science & Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) | Huberman Lab Podcast #78
I got listening to Andrew Huberman originally because I was interested in his analysis of marijuana - both what it does to one's mind and the pros and cons of smoking pot. But I'm also really interested in OCD because I still to this day think to much about burn barrels and rednecks burning trash, and being juts a general pyro. I tried the mental health treatment thing, but I'm more just concerned now about enjoying life even if I make some black smoke occassionally that the govenrment might not approve of. Lol!
The Five Mile Gap in Future Interstate 86
Hale Eddy, where Sullivan County Route 4, Lower Hale Eddy Road, Silver Lake Road and Roods Creek Road cross NY 17 at Grade with stop lights and sto signs.
Big Red’s final big trip 🛻
That’s not totally true in the sense I have a work trip to do later in the month and I’m planning probably Veterans Day Weekend to head out to Stoney Pond State Forest or maybe Long Pond State Forest but it’s the last week long trip I’m planning for him.
Of course, it wasn’t a confidence boost to be at Walmart today and seeing another GMT 800 💥 a broke control arm or upper ball joint and the wheel broken off. Hopefully that’s not foreshadowing anything, as I had Red checked out a few months ago and it’s getting inspected in December, but it’s another reminder that I should be glad I’m trying to have a planned retirement for my truck. People say, but that’s a waste of money, but it’s been a good 14 years. I still can’t believe I bought that truck 14 years ago. I really want to be retired from my job in another 14 years, and I want a reliable vehicle to do a least a little more travel before I settle down. 🏡 I’m not saying I have to give up everything to own a home and land, but when you got goats and other livestock too feed, you’re much less able to travel – literally disappear into the wilderness of a week.
Traffic was heavy driving home this evening, Walmart was crowded. 🛒 Got to the check out line and realized I didn’t get Cider Vinger. Walmart should have that in the morning. The bank I normally go to remains closed, that’s the one that has the video lottery terminal or whatever they call the machine that prints out $1 and $5. I guess I have enough cash, but if I want to get weed tomorrow I should get another $20. Maybe before work when I go to get my propane tank filled. And cider vinger to mix in my water 🍏 for that bitter taste I love.
I’m actually ready to go. 🛠️ Even packed the gear puller and extra spokes, and got an extra tire and lantern manttles 🏮 should any of those things go bad. I have the kayak on the roof o my truck. Hell of it is, we are now watching a Nor-Easter roar up the coast 🌀 though it looks like it won’t be cold enough for snow 🌨️ up north and might mostly hug the coast. After being so freaking dry, it actually looks the week will be cold, cloudy. damp and maybe even wet. Whatever, I’m not so far away that if it is totally miserable I can’t come back home. At least the fire danger 🔥 is low enough that on the cold chilly nights I can have a small fire at night and don’t have to worry about sparks from camp stove or a lantern starting a fire. I won’t have any fires though unless it’s very dark out so I can keep an eye on fire brands at least when it’s not raining out. I’ll have the propane tank filled in the morning so I don’t run out if end up using it a lot.
While life has been busy, it’s been a quiet week at work. 🤫 People are like – you’re already taking another week long vacation? Didn’t you just take one the second half of the August? Yes, but this is the second trip of the year, and usually I take my summer vacation in late July, not August, and because of work obligations, I didn’t take any time off during most of July or August. There is some slow burning fuses happening at work, 💣 one of our legacy systems, but there is nothing to fix at it right now, and the technicians know about it, and it can either wait until I’m back from vacation or others can address it.
And I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with contact lens of glasses 👓 anymore up at camp. No worries about dirty hands and infected eyes, no reaching around for glasses when things go bang at night, no fogged over glasses first thing in the morning. Just crystal clear vision, day and night. I’ll bring my sunglasses and probably wear them while riding just to be safe, though some days I’ve ridden without the protective glasses as my eyes 👀 have pretty much healed, two weeks out since the surgery.
