I thought they’d never end ⏳
Those were the days my friend, we thought they never end, as the lyrics played by Macías Nguema on that Christmas Eve 1969. Somehow though lyrics of that delightful song have so much relevance in this era of the Trumpster. But at same time, I have look at Big Red with some sadness knowing the era is not long for him, amd that is certainly the last trip out to Finger Lakes with him coming to an end, I don’t plan to come back to the Finger Lakes at least in not in 2026 in favor of my trip to Michigan.
I should be excited about getting a new rig next spring time, 🛻 replacing Red with something newer, more reliable, more fuel efficent and safe, and much easier to park and navigate around tight spaces. But what I feel is sadness. But I know with the rust, the shit suspension, the anti-freeze and oil consumption and another salt-encrusted winter ahead, 🌨️ I know it’s getting close as his 14th birthday approaches. If I make it to April, I will have gotten 14 1/2 years out of him, and between the lift kit, cap, and other repairs probably spent $50k over 14 1/2 years which isn’t that much money for a lot of good adventures. You say that’s wasted money, but how much did you spend on hotel rooms and fancy campgrounds and restorts? Still soon this all will be a memory, photographs and thoughts back about what was. Much like how I look back at my life twenty years ago finishing up my degree at Plattsburgh State during Hurricane Katrina 🌀. While I didn’t experience any of the bad of the hurricane besides high fuel ⛽ prices, it does bring back a flood of memories of that time in college. 🎓
Kind of another cold and gray morning, though the rain pulled off fairly early and the woods isn’t so wet. 🌥️ Zucchuni, peppers, mushrooms and eggs for breakfast and lots of coffee. 🍳 I drank more coffee then I usually do at camp, ☕ but I’m not worried about an anxiety fuel haze, as I’m not going anywhere today and Big Red was remarkably well behaved yesterday. It makes me think potentially about going back down to Pennsylvania to do the Pine Creek Gorge Trail on Sunday, the last final full day in the Finger Lakes or maybe not. Tomorrow though I plan to spend in Ithaca. As a practical matter I need propane and probably grass by then, and I want to explore my options in Ithaca as I’ve heard the dispensaries are good there. And speaking of weed, 🌾 I want to check out the Cornell Botanical gardens 🌸 to see what flowers are growing there in late August and the Canadilla Gorge which surprisingly enough I’ve never visited. And maybe make time to visit Buttermilk State Park for a quick swim? Sunday looks nice, but I’m really undecided what my last full day in the Finger Lakes for at least two years, as next year I plan to do Michigan and Wisconsin in my new rig, and potentially West Virginia in November 2026. 🍁
I keep coming back to my brief trip down to BFE Pennsylvania, seeing the run-down farms and homesteads and burn barrels 🛢️ which kind of makes me want to go back on Sunday, In my mind there is something sacred about the hills around Asonia and Pine Creek Gorge, but I also like seeing fire and people burning garbage and nobody giving a damn. I just how moralistic New York politics can be and how different the culture and communities of Pennsylvania seem, and it’s not just the hillbilly incense piled upon the smells of manure, wood smoke, and other parts of rural life. 🐐 I was noticing how many people in BFE New York have a few hogs 🐽 penned up out back for a roast or bacon, plus they are such wonderful animals for building good quality soil and consuming organics. 🔥 The thing I already burn most of my junk, indeed after returning the cans and a aluminum recycling bin 🚮 at Walmart and the regular fires, once I have another campfire there won’t be really any trash leftover from two weeks of camp. I burned some of the poop 💩 the other day, but I’ll bury the rest and let it rot. It’s amazing how much poop you make – especially eating healthy – after two weeks. And so manu people are freaked out about a little trash or poop, but I’ve been having a lot of fun splashing through the cow pies on my mountain bike, 🚲 and studying the dung beetles 🐞 and watching as the plastic bottles melt and burn. Fuck you liberals and your burn ban.
The cloudy skies should be good for fishing, 🎣 and I also want to hike over to the gorge trail and I don’t know, maybe hike the Interloken over the top of the Backbone. 🚶 And find time to read and maybe listen to another audio book. 📚 Hoping it does clear out relatively early, and maybe catch one more good sunset. I have a feeling the next three days will fade away remarkably quickly, and Labor Day I want to take down camp fairly early for ra leisurely. drive out to visit my parents on Labor Day via NY 23 at least east of Oneonta. 🏡 Might stay over night there, as I’m not sure I’m ready to face my apartment come Monday evening. Tuesday I’ll have to either drive to work or bike in – – probably the prior as I want to bring my laptop in and not on the bike. 🖥️ No more express bus! 🚍 Plus if I’m unpacking, I might be late. Whateever, it’s not like I haven’t driven a lot of miles the past few weeks. And it’s not like work is all that far from home, and I’ll certainly need groceries after work. 🛒
The press and police encourage mass shootings!
They glamorize them, make the names well known and famous. They want the ad revenue as sad parents are riveting television which sells a lot of laundry soap and Korean cars. Police love mass shootings as it’s lots of overtime, plus it makes the case for more police officers, higher wages and better pension benefits because obviously it’s a dangerous job with all these shootings!
Let’s be honest if they didn’t cover these events they would be rare as nobody would be inspired to kill themselves or others in this way.
Your everlasting summer you can see fading fast 🌇
Telling people, See You in September seemed cute when vacation was still something in the future, when it seemed impossibly far away. But like anything, you can start seeing the final days of summer vacation falling into place, choices made and options eliminated from the running.
Today I am thinking of going to Sugar Hill State Forest, 🌲 parking off of Templar Road and hiking up the Finger Lakes Trail to the fire tower and central horse camp. 🐴 I was originally thinking this would be the Ithaca day to check one of the grass shops (as the advertising says, “Hope Speaks Louder then Addiction”) and then Cornell Botanical Gardens and get some Cornell Dairy Science Produced Ice Cream.🍦
In many ways I’m a bit frustrated about wiling the time away, and finding new, unique and memorable experiences in the area. 🏞️ It seems like I’ve pretty much done everything unique around the National Forest, and things like Elmira and even the Pine Creek Gorge are a pretty long drive from the National Forest. 🌲 On the other hand, I do enjoy the downtime, reading and thinking. 🤔 It is nice having the hours to study the cows 🐮 chewing on the grass, the pasture birds and the wildflowers. And despite the forecast predictions, it’s actually been a remarkably rainy time. I am really ready for this to be my final vacation int he Finger Lakes for the foreseeable future. It’s kind of same reason I’m not doing West Virginia this autumn – I am so bored with it. 🍁 Going back to the same place time and time again, seems not worthwhile or memorable. But then again, there are places I actually enjoy. Sometimes it’s difficult to find new places to explore, as most of the things I enjoy most just put blank faces on other people, and certainly the tourist bureaus have no information on such things. Maps sometimes include them, but maps often are missing details or hide things in plain sight. 🗺️
Yesterday, I started an audio book called Frugal Woods where a middle-class family gives up their corporate jobs to homestead. 📙 Previously, I was listening to a book about a young man who rebuilt an inexpensive cabin in Oregon, 🏡 and now are also reading a e-book on life on a Texas homestead. I also finished up Temple Grandins book on Humane Livestock Handling. I’ve been trying to stay off social media as much as possible, because it’s all more and more of the crap of “Man Fries Cat, Eats with Ketchup – ARREST HIM!!!” And other such silliness. 🙀 But I did hop on YouTube and the first suggestion was frugal used, old cheap cars that are reliable! 🚗 Don’t you just want that clunkers that will allow you to save so much money on your daily commute to your meaningless job in the corporate office plaza, next to the Old City Garbage dump and the North End Sewage Treatment Plant? Sorry, I was dreaming of going back home and no longer having the express bus to take to work and having to decide between transferring to the local and much longer commute home or driving to work. 🚍 Someday it will lead to goats 🐐 and a burning barrel out back. 🛢️ And watching that plastic bottle 🍶 melt into werid shapes before bursting into flames.
I want to be on the road by 9 AM to hike at Sugar Hill, so I have time in the evening for a quick swim at Watkins Glen pool 🏊 before the rain comes in. ☔ Tomorrow is going to be another wet morning, so I’ll probably stick around camp for one more day. Saturday or Sunday I’ll probably do Ithaca / Trumansburg, and I still have one more day to figure out. 🏕️ It’s not a bad thing to be around camp on Friday, I can watch as all the fools pile into the National Forest searching for that perfect camping spot for the Labor Day Weekend. I’ll have to keep my music down. 📻 I thought about the Pine Creek Gorge but I did that before, and it’s such a long drive in my creaky old truck. And I was down in Pennsylvania briefly on Tuesday, so I got to see the backroads with their blackened burn barrels 🛢️ where nobody cares about a little hillbilly incense. I watched as the Styrofoam egg tray melted away the other night when I had a fire. 🔥 It’s not like I sent any plastic or paper to dump or fake urban recycling at least since Memorial Day. ♻️ I should bring the handful of sardines cans 🥫 out to my parents house for urban recycling.
Yesterday was cold but I did a lot of reading, listening to audio books. 📚 The pasture walks were nice, as was doing some fishing 🎣 and just sitting by the various ponds up here in the National Forest. After watching the tail end of sunset from a pasture overlooking Seneca Lake, 🌇 I sat up at Foster Pond until 11 PM watching the stars. ✨ Saw only one shooting star though, but maybe I wasn’t paying careful enough attention. And just walking through the pastures, someday dreaming of having my own, watching livestock graze. 🐄 One of the graziers on the road up from here has an Off-Grid Farm without much plastic, and it’s pretty darn neat. I just don’t get the love of drywall and vinyl siding or a television in every room. 📺 But maybe I’m seriously mentally ill as I don’t embrace the corporate live-style, much poorly handled then the techniques that Temple Grandins suggests for cows and goats. Vacation needs to be about being relaxed. It’s hard to be though with so much troubling in this world. ☕ But I’ve been limiting the caffeine which does help with the jitters and the anxiety.
