It’s been kind of a slow and disappointing day in the office. One of data requests the state agency wouldn’t share for me and then I had some issues linking other data on the server. And it just been tough to fully get back in the groove after two weeks in wilderness, well at least the National Forest overlooking that cow pasture in the deep rural of the Finger Lakes. I was kind of hoping to get away yet again this weekend, but it looks like crap tomorrow. Not even sure if it will be good enough in the morning for a quick ride out to Five Rivers but Sunday should be okay for the oil change.
One of the people I have known over the years has fallen on hard times, and was asking for advice about ideas of places to move to. He said the social services office offered to put him up in a motel for $800 a month. Somehow that struck me as wrong, as that’s what I pay for rent in my dumpy old apartment. Since coming back from vacation, I was really noticing how messed up the building in, and I’m annoyed the landlord didn’t even acknowledge the torn window screen he installed, and none of the upstairs windows have replacement molding installed around the inside of the windows much less paint or fuly plastered in. But I don’t care, but I do realize I should be thinking more about a more permanent place to set down roots, though I guess afer 18 years it has been sema-permanet. The door was snagging again, screw the former landlord tried to fix the rotted out bottom has been sinking and falling out as more of the composite door rots away.
It makes me think more about buying a house, just to have that level of security my dumpy old apartment doesn’t offer. But there are so much more costs to heat and light a big building, not to mention the cost of cleaning and maintaining such a space. Yet, I get sick to my stomach with the endless advertising for roofers, heat pumps, gutters, vinyl siding, and grid-tied solar panels. I just don’t want all that suburbanite toxic disposable crap. Plus if I get land, who is going to feed the goats, pigs and chickens when I travel? Plus I like t burn things and owning lots of guns, but alas it’s New York State. It’s not to say I’ve given upon my dream on the cabin in woods in a freer state. I know such places I exist, I was down in Pennsylvania a week and a half ago and everybody rural there has burn barrels. I was clicking on and trolling those scam recovery ads on Facebook and now all I see on Facebook are ads for such things. The algorithms on the internet are serving me such crap.
I am tired, and so ready to peddle home on my bike. And then spend tomorrow reading and regrouping myself. Hopefully next weekend I can get out of town.
I have always though the craze over avocado toast to be kind of silly. While some of it isn’t real – a meme over thoughtless purchases by some Australian billionaire – avocado toast never struck me as particularly healthy or delicious. It’s not to say I don’t sometimes bake my own bread or buy avocados to eat on their own – they are a very filling snack – but avocado toast seems like your just trying to put a band-aid on something rather bad, processed food known as bread.
Now not all breads are bad. But generally my view is that store-bought bread is generally bad because it’s very tasty, convenient, and loaded with carbs. Convenient food by definition is unhealthy, because it is means you can consume a lot of calories and sugar with ease. But if it’s difficult to cook or time-consuming, then you are much less to consume it. Generally, less cooked, rawer, closer to nature to food is healthier.
I am all for eating avocados at least occasionally. They are a very filling snack, one of the few sources of omega-3 fats in vegetables. But maybe not so much on toast, even if it is whole-wheat toast.
I feel like that’s probably an accurate fact as I drove in on Tuesday, there was the Farmers Market on Wednesday and I rode down to the park and last night I retired to bed pretty early with the skies dark and rain coming. And most destinctively, it’s going to rain tomorrow which means it’s going to be a Saturday.
How much rain we get tomorrow is very much up in the air, ð§ïļ though I Know a lot of people want more then less as they didn’t get the rain here that they got back in Finger Lakes when I was on vacation. Could be an inch, maybe less depending on the models. Still hoping to get out early tomorrow, ride out to Five Rivers ðĶ to look at the birdies and the wildflowers. ðŧ In the evening get to Walmart for oil and a filter so I can get that done on Saturday. Technically I could wait longer on the filter but figuring I probably shouldn’t be changing my oil right after eye surgery and I don’t want to have to stay home just because my oil is due for a change. ð ïļ Plenty of other shit to break on that truck.
At around 5 AM when I started the black beans ðŦ on the stove, I could really smell that pollen on the air. ðū That stunk. Didn’t sleep great last night despite early bed time ðïļ, probably too much coffee â. As the rain clouds passed by, ðŦïļ things weren’t that bad and indeed I did lay back in the bed until around 6 AM when I made cornmeal pancakes with probably too much Stevia but also a lot of zucchuni and onions. So they were good. The beans should be done soon, which I’ll drain them, shower ðŋ then ride on in this morning. ðē Even if I was feeling lazy, I don’t really have the option to do that bus thing anymore as it’s no more. ð Riding home on the gorge trail, they were definately manuring one of fields ðĐ along the trail before the rain last night, to get that nutrients soaked into hay or maybe silage grounds.
Misplaced my headphones ð§ this morning and was desperately looking for them but I found them. Days aren’t the same in the office as I code without headphones. Kind of wish I wasn’t so achy but I have to ride in so hopefully soon I’ll be feeling better. No bus anymore!
I guess no COVID shot this year, ð though I will get my flu shot in a few weeks before the season is underway. Seems kind of silly that you can’t just get both at the same time, it’s hardly much more pain and there isn’t a lot of evidence that the COVID shot is particularly harmful. I don’t like vaccination mandates, but also getting COVID for Christmas ð last year was hardly fun even if I was fully vaccinated. Whatever, the whole thing is kind of silly in my mind at least.
While I am staying home this weekend, ðĄ one of the next two weekends I do want to get out of town because in three weeks is the big snip ð of my eyes. But I’ll be glad to no longer have the irritation in my eyes or be dependent on my contacts or worse glasses ð like some kind of addict. Next weekend or maybe the weekend after I’ll do Rennselaerville or maybe the Greens. We will see. Probably Columbus Day Weekend with a few days tacked on in advance I’ll do the St. Regis Canoe Area ðķ. Looking forward to exploring the rail trail ðē and getting to that part of the Adirondacks – I haven’t been that far north since the pandemic.
That pretty much explains everything yesterday. You can let people know about a problem and give advice, and people can be free to ignore you. I haven’t heard back from landlord about the busted window screen they installed, and there was just so many interesting projects to keep me busy at work since returning. It’s just a lot of fun to link records and data together and build new products for clients to use.
Back in the groove after summer vacation. ðŋ I was reading somewhere on the internet that they no longer make optical drives for computers anymore, the last maker is done. But then again, vinyl is popular once again. I don’t know, I do everything digital these days from my cellphone to solid state drives.
It was great riding to work yesterday. ðē There is so much serenity in riding that bike trail down into the Norman’s Kill Gorge. ðïļ Got to farmers market and got corn ð― and more zucchuni because you can never have enough zucchuni this time of year, I don’t care what you haters say. ð I also visited with my colleagues up on Capitol Hill for a while. I had shredded zucchuni with my scrambled eggs, with onions and mushrooms. Good stuff. Went down to the park until 8 PM then came home, got to bed around 8:30 PM. Sunrise sets so early this time of year. Tonight I’ll soak beans and get up early tomorrow to cook them. Maybe also cook up some brown rice and onions to go along with them. Looks like the rain will end early enough tomorrow that I can bike in tomorrow too, which means I won’t have to drive to work. I mean the local is always still an option but not a real good one with the transfer not working well, though I guess it’s always a chance to walk laps in Empire Plaza ðĢ and get yelled at by the homeless schizophrenic people.
Rain come Saturday afternoon â but they need it as there is a high-fire spread risk today. So if you’re planning to do any illegal outdoor trash burns ðĨ today, at least keep an eye on your fire. Hopefully it will be wet enough so the fire risk is low next weekend should I decide to head out to the woods for a weekend trip. ðïļ Often things are pretty in mid-September with the golden rod and other fall species before the leaves turn. Maybe get to Five Rivers early on Saturday for a while, and then go shopping on Saturday afternoon to get oil and filter and a few other supplies. Sunday change the oil on Red. Why does it always rain on Saturdays? No Nature Bus this week to Thacher Park.
I mentioned to Mom last week that at times I was anxious about my old truck creeking and making sketchy noises on summer vacation ðĪŠ and now my feed is full of advertisements once again for fucking Better Help. Maybe I searched something or lingered over an ad, there isn’t a lot of evidence that your phone ðą is listening to you at all times. But they’re the worse, exploiting data brokers left and right to try to target potential customers. Which is the exact thing I am constantly trying to get out clients to do using datasets I’ve been building at Data Services. ðū Really use your ad spend and communications to targeted people! That said, I would never do business with Better Help, I think my health insurance covers TalkSpace or one of the other vendors, though I think honestly there is much more value in-person therapy. That said, I am not convinced seeing a shrink is worth it at this point in my life, ð§ I tried that before but maybe I was focused on wrong things much like I often get focused on the wrong things on my truck, like the noises it’s been making for half a decade or even a decade now – normal operating noises at least with the lift kit. The ride though has gotten crap, and I do want to replace it before next summer. The thing is medicine is very bureaucratic, And if I want to call myself a redneck or idealize them, fuck them all.
So yeah the big snip of my eyes is in three weeks from Friday ð and that next week I will be down and probably would frown on me going to Adirondacks that week after the surgery, though I think Columbus Day Weekend I’ll tag a few days on that weekend ð to do the St. Regis Canoe Area, maybe some time at Horseshoe Lake and definately the new Adirondack Rail Trail. ðē ðķ I will have to wear eye protection – maybe my shooting glasses when biking – but I should otherwise be able to do those activities. That first week after the surgery I am not supposed to do strenuous ðŠ activities, so probably no biking it to work. I’ll have to decide if do local or drive to work, I do have that follow up visit with the doctor on Monday September 28, so assuming I can see I’ll drive in that day. I am so over wearing contacts. I did get one more bottle of contact solution, but only a single bottle even though it’s much more expensive that way, as that will certainly last through the last day I can wear contacts – I think it’s 3 days before surgery I have to be glasses only to make sure my eyes aren’t at all irrated.
It’s kind of werid to be back home again, exploring my dirty falling apart apartment, sleeping in my own bed after what seemed like two short weeks in National Forest. Yesterday, I drove in but today I should be able to bike to work. Saves money and good exercise, I need to do more after all that ice cream, beer, clams, sweet corn and weed and hours studying COWS and WILDFLOWERS on vacation.
Should be another nice day, âïļ though Thursday and Friday look more dicey, and Saturday looks like rain. ð§ïļ I know people around here want rain because it’s been so dry, but why on a Saturday? Sunday looks good though if I want to change the oil on Big Red ð§ so I might go to Wally World on Saturday to get oil and a filter and a few more groceries I forgot to get last night after work. ð I also have all those books I got from Libby. People say, don’t you know they have grease pits and mechanics that you can pay to change your oil, but most of the grease pits won’t service my big jacked up truck, plus I like keeping the used oil as it’s good to perk up a good fire up in woods. ðĨ Of course don’t tell a greenie. ð The greenies not only recycle plastics and don’t burn them, they also probably drive electrics which don’t burn much less use oil for lubrication in the crankcase. No free Thacher Park Nature Bus this weekend and sit in read into pavilion or ride in the rain, so I can’t go up there in the rain, unless of course I drive my big jacked up truck to the park. ðïļ And if I’m going to go somewhere in the rain in my big jacked up truck, it’s not going to be some super woke park.
The bike should be good to ride in today. ðē Apparently the correct way to replace a spoke bike is to pull both the brake disk and the gearsâïļ but I only did the later by bending the spoke enough to fit. Whatever I think the wheel is true enough I can ride in. Later in the week I’ll have to decide if it rains if I’ll take the local yokel bus ð or drive in. Driving is fine but it’s expensive and I don’t necessarily really enjoy doing it even if going through the south end the traffic isn’t bad but Albany roads are so rough with my beat to shit suspension. ðĨ I need from fresh air and a few minutes away from suburbia already as that tangy manure smell fades away from my camp gear. I will be good and stay in town this weekend, but next weekend maybe I can go up to Rensselearville State Forest or somewhere fun like the Green Mountains. Already miss the Finger Lakes! ð
Mom and Dad’s washer was broke so I was at the laundromat doing my clothes. ð It’s fine, I haven’t done wash in over two weeks. Normally I just drop my wash off but tonight I decided to stay. I could have dropped it off and gone to the store or the library but I figured I could bring my bike wheel here and bolt the brake disk back on after replacing the spoke myself. It’s done. I finished drying my clothes on line at my apartment. But they say if you owned one of those plastic suburbanite houses you could wash all the clothes you want at home. But I honestly don’t mind the laundromat plus then you don’t have to pay for the electricity or water. ðĩ Especially in the summer with shorts it’s not like I wear that much clothes and I often don’t change every day when I’m not working. If I do that off-grid cabin thing eventually, I probably won’t have a washing machine regardless. I mean I have to go to city sometimes to buy shit, and get rid of those tin cans ðĨŦ unless I plan to bury them.
Did I mention I despise all things suburbia, ðïļ including so-called rural houses that are just more of those plastic houses that smell like cow shit and come with a long commute. ðē I am glad I’m biking it in today, because I know schools ðļ are opening so not only are going to be mad cops ðŪ on every road, there will be epic amounts of traffic, because all cars do all summer is jam their bumper penises into each other, and then September comes around and millions appear on the road out of nowhere. ð ð ð ð ð ð ðïļ ð Probably a lot of them are Tesla Electrics, which they still throw their organic whiskey bottles out of while driving, but don’t tell anybody about their sins.
Making progress on getting R working on my phone. ðą It would be so awesome if I could run many of my work scripts on my phone, so I could do data processing jobs on my phone rather then lugging my laptop up into the woods when I’m working remote. Some of the packages didn’t want to compile at first but now they’re working. It would be nice to get an X11 server working, but even just the text interface with Openxlsx and Duckdb should be quite useful. ðĨïļ There are so many things I can automate and process using R, which I’ve traditionally done with my computer but if I can do on my phone, all that better.
