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A variety of maps, writings, and photos on a various topics that can’t easily be categorized into a county or place.

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Truth is that I really hate parks and all they represent 🏞️

I guess some people like them but they really are not for me. I mean I’ll visit them occasionally and the free Nature Bus is great but honestly it’s not like my choice. That said, it it’s something to do on a Saturday and the bus is free to ride. Beats staying home.

Oh, so you want grid tied solar, say the greedy greenies’ businesses 💚

Grid tied solar, at least the businesses that promote it for corporate profits are so woke. And they really want your business, installing now-relatively inexpensive solar panels on your roof in a few hours, paying an electrician then charging you for decades to finance the panels. Liberals really don’t want to admit it – but a lot of these solar companies are scams. And when they’re not, they are ripping off other ratepayers by subsidizing other, often wealthier,people’s solar.

Truth is the solar subsidies were needed at first, as the technology was immature. Grid tied solar makes a lot of sense, even for the suburbanite homeowner, but it should not be subsidized. Instead, solar systems should have battery storage and work with the grid to support and enhance everybody’s energy reliability while reducing homeowners electricity costs. Homeowners with grid tied solar should avoid sending power to grid whenever possible, storing it for their own use in batteries, and only tapping the grid when there is insufficient battery storage. That’s really what is best for the grid and the environment.

Grid-tied solar doesn’t have to be a drag on other consumers, while still being a way for homeowners to get low-cost, environmentally friendly-energy into their homes. Battery storage can ensure the home is a little reliant on the grid as possible, and if they lack insufficient power, tapping the grid only at times when there isn’t enough power remaining in the batteries. It can also tap into the grid to top of batteries in times when there is excessive grid capacity, such as at night when electricity rates are low.

Now if I was interested in a suburban house, whettther it be one that smells like cow shit or otherwise, maybe I would be more interested in Grid-tied solar. But I really want to do that fully off-grid thing when I buy my own land, so I never have a pay a utility bill, and are in full control of my system. So I don’t have to live somewhere next to major road, near neighbors that would complain or otherwise annoy myself. Of course the greenie advertisers don’t understand such things, and instead will fill my social media feeds with advertising for grid-tied solar finacing scams.

The anti-woke reason I mostly grocery shop at Walmart 🏷️

In my opinion some of the least healthy food at grocery stores is label certified organic or otherwise healthy. The problem with labels is that if something is healthy, you don’t really need a label to advertise such a fact. All the label is doing is lying and projecting wokeness on you. Walmart, especially the store-branded and unlabeled stuff is just food. Not wokeness.

A lot of grocery stores prominently feature woke labels – as people think wokeness is a good way to eat healthy. After all, there are smiling faces and colorful labels that char up just as good in fire or look beautiful buried in the landfill. The truth is the usually generic, store or no labels foods are as healthy if not healthier then those that are actively lying to you.

After two years of getting into healthy one of the basics of learned is that don’t buy into the wokeness. Buy into the macro-nutrients, the boring things like eat lots of fruits, vegetables, beans – the things experts have been saying for decades now. Avoid saturated fats, especially omega-6 fats like animal meats except as a treat. Eats lots of vegetables and fruit. Don’t buy packaged things or things with multiple ingredients. Cook your own foods, but keep them simple.

I have a strong aversion to this day to sugar. Maybe it’s because my dad is dying from diabetes. I do use sugar-free maple syrup and Splenda when cooking, but I don’t buy pre-cooked foods with those ingredients. I use them in my own cooking. I don’t do restaurant meals regularly, I don’t buy prepared foods. Instead, I make basic meals that are dominated by vegetables.

I don’t obsess over protein, though I don’t think it’s a bad thing. More important in my mind is fiber – not only does it keep the plumming work internally, it fills you up with few calories. And most high-fiber foods have a variety of nutrients in them – be it whole wheat flour, broccoli, edamane, spinach, onions, etc. Not to mention flavor. I do douse things in a lot of turmeric as I like the bright yellow color and tangy flavor.

Full-fat dairy is all the rage today, but I’m actually not convinced on the benefits over low-fat dairy. They say full-fat dairy is more filling, but I don’t like the idea of all those bad saturated fats and extra calories. With processed foods like flavored yougurt, I get that they replace fat with sugar, but I actually enjoy the tartness of plain, not-fat Greek yogurt and the natural sweetness of frozen or fresh fruit like strawberries or blueberries added. No additional sugar needed.

Onions are such a stable of my diet these days. I eat 5 to 6 lb each week and are used for many meals. In the summer months, I use tons of summer squash and zucchuni fried with onions. Otherwise I look towards frozen vegetables or sweet potatoes. Sometimes I’ll mix on cornmeal and often I use a lot of turmeric and some salt.

And I can’t forget apple cider vinegar. Some people like it as a health booster but I like it because it adds a lot of flavor to water, without any calories. It makes water taste so better, especially the very alkaline water that is common in this part of Upstate NY. It’s a calorie free drink, or close to calorie free without any chemicals. It’s important to remain well hydrated.

I used to fret about eating poorly when visiting with friends and family. Or the rare communial meals at a restaurant with such people. But now I realize such times are a small part of my diet it’s okay. I don’t have that crap at home, and it’s not bad to eat “normal” American food from time to time. It’s actually strange to taste the fats and sugars on one’s tongue when you go out. It’s good but almost so fatty, salty and over sugary that it’s not real delicious. It’s actually funny how werid American Food tastes when you don’t eat that typical crap all of the time.

Bethlehem Energy Center Aka Albany Steam Station

Key Facts:
Location: Bethlehem, NY
MW: 790
Fuel: Natural Gas (Low Sulfur Distillate Oil As Secondary)
Technology: Combined-Cycle
Commercial Operation: 2005

https://www.pseg.com/family/power/fossil/stations/bethlehem.jsp

"Albany Steam Power Station first began operations in 1952 as a coal-fired station and was converted to oil in 1970. It was further modified in 1981 for natural gas and became a 400MW oil and natural gas-fired power plant. The BEC has cut emissions of smog-causing nitrogen oxide by 90%, and reduced sulphur dioxide emissions by 94%. The BEC generates 50% less waste heat than the Albany Steam Station and has reduced air emissions by at least 95%."

https://www.power-technology.com/projects/bethlehem/

"The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment (Siting Board) has announced approval of plans to make hardware and software changes at the Bethlehem Energy Center in Glenmont that are designed to help improve the plant’s energy efficiency. The petition was submitted by the plant’s owner, PSEG Power New York LLC. The approved changes will allow for the replacement of certain components of the three combustion turbines and certain changes to related software programs. The equipment being replaced are components of the combustion turbines themselves. According to the Siting Board, the upgrades will result in very little, if any, impact on the environment or the surrounding community, and will not result in any increase in air emissions from the facility."

https://www.spotlightnews.com/news/2017/01/12/state-siting-board-oks-plans-to-improve-bethlehem-energy-center/

 Bethlehem Energy Center Aka Albany Steam Station

It’s another rainy Saturday ☔

Seems like I say the same thing every weekend, but it’s true. At this rate though, I will miss all of black fly season, though the deer fly have a few more weeks as they dominate the woods.

The skies just started to pouring around 3:30 PM and rained until around 6 PM last night.  🌧️ Despite my better wisdom, I rode my bike 🚲 to work yesterday and subsequently rode down to the DEC Building 🌎 downtown at 5 PM, getting fairly wet. The bus driver waved me on to bring the bike on the bus but I ended up putting it on front, helping to blast off most of the mud off the bike. Got home, and I was pretty tired. 🛏️

I want to head to Walmart and stock up on several things before the crowds this morning. 🛒 In particular I need eggs, flour, bike chain lube, contact solution, frozen veggies. 🥚 I just get the big 18-pack of Styrofoam commodity eggs, the package I’m sure burns black when tossed in with the rest of burnables. 🔥 I don’t like to think of it as trash but big flames and fun. Some day I’ll have my own chickens 🐔 but I’m not going to pay extra for Woke-branded Eggs when the cheap ones have just as much protein and nutrients and the Styrofoam burns fine – just don’t tell a liberal that you’re not planning to woke recycle it. ♻️

Thinking later on I might go up to Thacher Park on the Nature Bus 🏞️ just to hang out there for a couple of hours before heading back home. It’s free, something to do, might ride around a bit, check out the crazy amount of water going over Paint Mine Falls, do some reading, etc. 📙 And just enjoy the scenery as the rain pulls off.

Maybe next weekend I’ll get out of town, 🏕️ but I don’t really know. I have been thinking about a quick weekend trip to the Green Mountains ⛰️ but I really don’t necessarily want to drive NY 7 on Friday the 13th. Plus that weekend even without the dark overtones is often the worse of the year for severe thunderstorms and even tornadoes. I remember a few years hitting incredibly bad weather driving the Great Western Turnpike. Plus the following weekend is Juneteenth and I am thinking of heading up to the Potholers for that. 🏊 Leave early on Juneteenth, hit up For the Love of Bacon 🥓 and then float all day, have a good fire, but only stay three nights so I won’t need a camping permit.