EPA Moves to Prioritize Review of New Chemicals for Data Centers – Inside Climate News
Farm Country Outside of Middleville
Driving along NY 169 between Middleville and Little Falls near dusk.
The part of the conservative movement I find so repulsive 🤮
I often consider many of my views to be conservative. I want the government to be out of my life as much as possible, to stop levying taxes and fees on me, to provide services without moralizing them. I believe in self-reliance, I don’t need or want the government to hold my hands during the scary moments.
Yet, I hate how conservatives often embrace the crown and the state, makes military and police something to respect and celebrate. Yes government work is a job and yes there is dangers but many jobs in the private sector are quite dangerous and hard to. I don’t think our country is special or government is wonderful – maybe a necessary evil but hardly something worth celebrating! America is fine and necessary but it’s not wonderful.
Happy Dry Eye Saturday! ☀️
Going to be a warm one for early October. Dry too, which is not great for my eyes or for burning shit. Got to watch out for those Chinese Uncles that everywheres these days. Apparently they don’t understand what it means to be living in Trump’s world. Thinking of heading down to Columbia and Dutchess Counties today. But first listening to some Country Joe and Fish and packing my day pack and bike, enjoying that ever sweet smell of the corn silage. No getting stoned with the dry eye.
I need to fire up Red and get him off the lawn, 🛻where he has sat since last Saturday when they re-sealed the driveway. Probably killing the grass. I should have moved him mid-week but I was busy all the different things going on and I was riding bike to work all week so no need to fire him up. 🚲 It wasn’t a bad night down at the Town Park after work, still wasn’t super dark until around 7 PM. I rode home without eye protection, though it did kind of dry out my eyes.
I was going to go out to Schoharie today and do an overnight, 🔥 but with the fire risk and burn ban making people give you stink eyes when you even mention having a campfire or smoking pot in the wilderness, and the whole common sense thing, I think it be better to instead do day trip today and maybe just ride out to Five Rivers tomorrow and hike maybe at one of the other preserves before going out to see the folks on Sunday. I soaked more kidney beans overnight for cooking this morning but I’ll wait until I get home this evening or maybe tomorrow morning.
I think instead I’ll head out to Columbia and Dutchess County. 🍁 🚶 Thinking maybe the Beebe Hill Fire tower, then head down one town to Hillsdale, park and spend the balance of the day riding the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. 🚲 I’ve been thinking of riding and exploring the Harlem Valley Rail Trail for some time now. Then maybe check out the Greenport Conservation Area before dark, then take US 9W back north. I doubt those homesteaders off US 9W with all the goats and hogs that get into a tizzy with the town about the smell that always used to have a burn barrel going won’t be having a fire today, even if they burned far far the ban in 2009. 🔥 I kind of like their homestead, too bad so much of what they’re doing with their land is illegal in New York. 🚜 Fucking whining liberals.
I am a little worried about my eyes getting excessively dry from riding but I can wear my sunglasses 😎 which should help, and some of the dry eye is caused by looking at my phone 📱 and other devices, which apparently discourage blinking. I guess if they get too dry, put in more eye drops and stop riding. 🚲 I need to grease up the chain and crank as it’s creaking again, but I can do that out on the trail. ⚙️ I always carry grease, tools, and an air pump with me at all times.
I need to get to Walmart and evaluate what my options are for dry eye treatment going forward – preservative free solution is probably the best and most soothing, and while I do a mostly full vial at work and one unopened one in office, I do see it being used up quickly and it’s rather expensive. Plus I don’t want to get addicted to artificial tears 😭 which is always a risk. There is other supplies I need at Walmart too like more eggs, cornmeal and I’m sure other things I can’t think of immediately. 🛒 Well maybe when the day comes to an end, as darkness is earlier and earlier this evening.
I say I’m recovering quickly from my eye surgery 👁️ but the dry eye issues keep popping up even though they seem to have gotten better especially as I keep my eyes wet. But it’s about finding the right balance of keeping your eyes wet, while not spending too much on solution or becoming dependent on it. Wetness helps the nerves and cornea grow back together quickly and strengthens my vision. It’s actually so sharp both in the day and night. But it still doesn’t seem great at times with the irratation. 🌃 I do think the LASIK place really undersold the dry eye risk, though in the majority of cases the nerves grow back and you do recover eventually.
Still thinking Columbus Day Weekend I’ll head north for a week, 🍂 I just want it to be a little wetter and less dusty. Between the road dust, the campfire smoke, the dry eyes caused by the marijuana and the fire risk, I really want rain. 🌧️ Right now, smoking pot with dry eyes just sounds painful. 😭 Plus I get tired of the Chinese Uncles, mostly on the internet or elsewhere being like OMG! you terrible had a small campfire 🔥 after dark when you can see embers during the burn ban, you awful person even if it’s legal if not recommended. Or even worse, running into one of them in the wilderness. 🌲🌲 And people complain that I make too much noise blasting holes in shit with my shotgun. 🔫 The culture of Chinese Uncles is not just ruining the internet, the Democratic Party, and the world more generally.
Fuck the burn ban 🖕🔥
Two weeks of household trash mixed with motor oil and light fluid and wood went up into smoke. I remarked how black and pungent the smoke truly was.
At one level I get why they banned burn barrels and rednecks burning their garbage. Some things are pretty noxious to burn, full of carcenogenic chemicals. Still much burns down to little more than water vapor and carbon dioxide. I get the stench but life has pungent smells especially in rural areas where food and fiber are raised and processed, but the liberals are so obnoxious.
While the seasonal burn ban really only impacts brush pile burning and not small campfires for warming and cooking food, it’s been dry so one needs to be extra careful like I was a few weeks ago up at Rennselaerville State Forest and in the Green Mountains National Forest – the later now completely banning campfires outside of developed campgrounds. Hopefully soon we will get rain.
It wasn’t a fait accompli that I was going to take my week off to go to the Adirondacks starting this evening. But I sort of wanted to do this week before all the colors were gone midweek with the expected and much needed rain coming. Yet, I was so busy with work and everything else, plus I have a lot of events I would otherwise miss next week. And that rain would have impacted my mid week when I planned to be at Horseshoe Lake. And dumped me up at the St Regis Canoe Area during the busy Columbus Day Weekend where solitude might be hard to come by.
If fire danger meant no fires all week up in the wilderness that would mean many long cold nights in the wilderness next to the heater. Plus all the accumulated trash from a week camping. I’m sorry, not having a fire in the woods ain’t real camping regardless of what you say. I hate separating out all the otherwise burnable packaging and cleaning it for recycling.
Some day when I own my own land, I will continue to burn whatever paper and plastic I can, but in ways superior to a stinky smoldering burn barrel. Something that can easily consume multiple feed sacks of packaging garbage, that is the packaging of things that I can’t produce or reuse on my own land. Have lots of garbage cans so I can avoid burning in the driest of weather but also have the satisfaction of knowing every wrapper I toss ends up in the mound on the outskirts of town.
I know eventually it will rain again, and I’ll be able to spend nights again in the wilderness with fires. And in the meantime I can dramatically cut back on my trash output by once again washing out containers and separating them for the urban single stream recycling either in my parents or neighbors bin, or taking it to the transfer station. And even if I don’t get out camping this weekend or having a fire this weekend, it’s not the end of the world, other day trips end other adventures can be planned. I’ve been craving to explore the Harlem Valley Trail for some time now.
Well that meeting last night lasted into the late hours of the night 🌃
I was a bit creeped out by waiting for that bus at Delaware and Morton at quarter after 10, especially with the black kids racing and giggling down the street, having fun like kids, dodging in and out of traffic.
Cue all the racist stereotypes of gang bangers and muggers, 👦🏿👦🏿👦🏾👦🏾👦🏽👦🏿 reinforced every day by the Trumpster and I was a bit nervous. I don’t know, just kids and yokel locals and my phone and bike aren’t particularly nice but I did quickly stick it in my pocket like any good racist and was willing to flee on bike. Just a lot of kids out and about on such a warm and pleasant evening for early October. One thing that amazed me though was how awesome my vision 👀 since having my eye surgery a week ago. While there is still some minor halos around the street lights 💡, really things were so bright and clear. Maybe it’s because the city has invested in better streetlights when they went to brighter LED lights, but I felt like things were not dark or dull at all last night. Even in the darkness of the suburbs, it didn’t seem so dark. The bus was about 10 minutes late due to construction 🚧 on Delaware Avenue but it eventually arrived, and I made it home. I had some trouble with the bike rack 🚲 on the bus, it is very tight being a new unit and being that one style they use, but once it was on, it was very secure. Good because Delaware is rough in parts due to the construction.
It was a productive meeting, 🧑💼👨🏼💼💼 and I think we made some good arguments about why they should not permit solar development ☀️ there. But it left me so tired and it was late for sure. It was good after a very quiet day at work. 🖥️ After a past few weeks, things have been very quiet in the office. Rode in yesterday, but today was particularly nice. I am still so exhausted from last night though.
Headphones 🎧 are now working again, after not charging properly. I had accidentally washed them in the machine last week, and while they sort of worked good for a while – got rid of all the ear wax plugging them 👂, they weren’t charging properly. 🔌 But a good cleaning with a q-tip and some rubbing alcohol they are charging well. They are kind of essential for my mental health, especially while working in the office. 🧠 The tunes provide a good distraction, especially when I’m coding.
By the time I was home due to construction and the late meeting, 🚧 I stepped off the bus and breathed in that sweet smell of corn silage from Preska’s dairy. 🌽 🐮 It smelled absolutely amazing, really an intoxicating experience with it’s sweetness. I got home, cooked up some onions, beens and some of the remaining zucchuni I had, 🍳 headed to bed, but after a night of talking politics and the Pine Bush and carefully reviewing the proposal for a solar farm in a large part o the Albany Pine Bush, ☀️ I was pretty amped up and could not get to sleep.
Plus I was reading about the DEC burn ban, 🔥 which is really just the typical seasonal burn ban for large bonfires and bursh piles, though I guess they’re starting it a week early due to the dryness. Campfires and cooking fires are still allowed, though it’s obvious they’re trying to discourage it due to the fire risk. I guess I don’t need to save all those burnables for fire starting, I’ll have to do the green thing, 🌎 and start separating out the milk jugs and junk mail for recycling rather then fire starting. ♻️ Indeed, was up in Rensselearville State Forest two weeks ago, and even Vermont the week before that, I was very concerned and careful with fire, making sure to drown it out before bed, and keeping it well under the three-foot limit. But that’s not the reason I decided to put off my Adirondack Trip until next weekend. 🏕️ Most of it is my concern about my dry eyes, I can’t imagine spending all day riding in the dry air with so much irriation. 👀 I know things will get better over time, but the weather is certainly not helping.
Probably next week regardless I’ll head up north. 🏕️ Hoping the Wednesday rain showers ☔ are a little more substantial in the North Country, and if I do have a fire 🔥 up north I’ll keep it small. Probably things will be past peek by then, but I would go up to Speculator area for the Columbus holiday weekend ⛵ and on Columbus Day head up to Horseshoe Lake 🧲 and I figure by Monday evening most of the campsites would be free and quiet. I’m hoping that in two week things wouldn’t be wet mid-week unless next week when they’re talking rain right in the middle of my trip. Then come Thursday, head up to Floodwood Road or maybe one of the other areas just off the St. Regis Canoe Area for the final three days, to ride the Adirondack Rail Trail 🚲 and paddle and portage the St. Regis Canoe Area ponds. Do need to fix the tires on my portage cart. Both are flat.
This weekend I’m not sure. Still thinking about Schoharie, or maybe I’ll just do a nice day hike or bike. 🚲 Maybe just Five Rivers. Need to decide what I want to do. 💭 Should be a beautiful weeekend but probably a bit too cold to swim, and certainly not a lot of water around in a lot of the creeks. And it’s not like I’m ready to leave tonight.
