The shop is now open at 8 AM and they want it in by 8;30 AM but first I need to get the hub caps off and the new windshield wiper blade installed as the old one isn’t clearing the window well in the rain and snow, and with winter coming that’s kind of important.
The assemblying of the windshield wiper clips went actually fine this time, 😀 it helps when you buy the right kind, not the absolute cheapest blade, and assemble it in the morning when you are fresh and awake. I checked and all of the lights are working on my truck, no check engine light, it seems to drive about as good as it always does, and I got the hub caps off with no problems as they’re also going to rotate the tires. Topped off the windshield wiper fluid so I don’t have any more annoyance for a day or two of the low windshield washer fluid message, not that it matters for the inspection.
I could have worked from home today, 🖥️ but I had another hearing to go to last night and didn’t want to have to bring my laptop with me or back to work tomorrow, especially as I think I want to ride my bike to work tomorrow and my computer is falling apart and kind of fragile. Instead I want my day off so I can ride and hang out, and wait with baited breath about the inspection 🫦 though I feel odds are good it will be fine and if it’s not, then I’ll get shit fixed before it breaks down in the wilderness or kills me. I probably will ride out to Five Rivers 🐸 for a while this morning, and then when I pick up my pickup, head down to Hannaford for a few supplies. And then just spend the balance of day finishing up the books I have on Hoopla before they return. I should be excited, I still have 10 more Hoopla borrows for the month, but I’ll probably instead finish up that book I have on Libby about raising livestock 🐑 🐐 and then get more books on there – and wait to later in the month to get more on Hoopla, probably before I head up to camp on Christmas Day. 🤶 Generally speaking, Hoopla is a lot more reliable for offline reading 📖 in the wilderness.
Carrot 🥕 were shredded for the cornmeal pancakes with onions, 🥞 and like usual were pretty delicious. Didn’t get up real early this morning, as I needed to catch up on sleep 🛏️ as I was up super late by my standards on Monday. 😦 Feeling better after a good night’s rest, but I want to get my truck to shop shortly right when they open up so hopefully I get it back early in the day so less chance to spend the day worrying.
Do you feel like something’s not real? Let the spirit move you again Are you leaving for the country?
I was sitting at that Public Hearing on the Eminent Domain proceeding for taking of Pine Bush on Rapp Road for the proposed transfer station to replace the Rapp Road landfill and haul all of Albany and surrounding communities garbage to a 10 acre expansion of the Franklin County landfill on the Canadian border next to the several state prisons about 15 miles north of Malone.
The Albany City Council hearing on the Eminent Domain proceeding was everything you would expect from the city, complete with rich looking lawyers like from Whiteman Osterman and Hannon or one of those big firms and of course Clough Harbour. We the environmentalists made the case for preserving the Pine Bush and the corporate lawyers for the city explained why they thought they were justified in the taking. They of course pointed out that the taking didn’t guarantee that the permits would be approved, but we all know what the presumption is though a very brave agency man or commissioner or judge could change everything.
It was the last regular city council meeting of the year, so there was a diverse group of individuals from the public to speak during the general comment period, many honoring a long-time city hall employee who recently passed away. And there were several homeless activists – and former homeless persons including a man who said he slept in the bushes behind the LOB many a cold night. I want to be an off-gridder, and I camp in wilderness many a night but I always have my heater and my truck to climb in if it gets too cold. Tough life on the street. I liked their proposal to turn some of the former Saint Rose dorm into housing for the homeless, and how difficult it is for many people to obtain the very limited social services that exist. Of course, some of it had to blend into my imagination from recently reading Edward Abbey’s The Fool’s Paradise.
I was sitting there as the meeting dragged on, flipping through my phone, doing mindless scrolling on Facebook which I told myself that I wasn’t going to do and it kept reminding me I was over my 30 minute self-imposed limit on Facebook. Pictures mostly of cattle and hogs, farms, solar and rural landscapes. The things I interact the most with, things that taste like silage and of vast open spaces of countryside. My mind floated away for a few minutes, as I looked the glory of the City Hall Chambers, not unlike the State Capitol but also still a bit run-down like most of the once opulent government buildings maintained on a shoe-string. I’m sure people looking over my shoulder in the cramped city hall gallery had to think what a hick I must be.
I didn’t stay for the whole meeting, though I had hoped to catch the vote on the final condemnation of the land, but it was getting late and I wanted to catch the 9 PM bus home as I’m usually asleep before then. I just leaned at the bus shelter, staring at the Capitol, the Empire Plaza Towers and the Alfred Smith Building. In many ways I miss working downtown, though I do transfer to the shuttle there everyday. But as I daydreamed a bit on the shelter, with the signs reminding people of No Loitering, I listened to more Ian and Sylvia and dreamed of the off-grid cabin, away from all the plastic and the garbage dumps and the endless ads and commercialism. No home internet, no TV, heat and electricity I made myself, waste I disposed of myself – returning it back to earth. Far away from the homeless and many urban problems, next to a nice warm woodstove in a dimly lit room as I sat before retiring to bed.
