Topics

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

Marijuana Legal ≠ Safe

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That’s what some conservative, probably Christian associated drug rehab billboard says outside of Amsterdam. Probably the kind of think you would expect from a small town just like the 97% Fat Free Silage Bales by the dairymen promoting drinking of whole milk in an effort to improve sales of milk and milk components.

Both are pretty laughable things, as the intoxicating herb is pretty darn safe and whole milk, relatively speaking is unhealthy as it loaded with inflammatory saturated fats. It’s not to discount the dangers of cannabis – it’s a mind altering substance and everything in this world contains some risk. Especially if there is some form of reward. Be it the high or those rich fats in milk.

I’m not against drinking milk or smoking pot in moderation. I do think skim milk is a healthier option though as is alternative dairy beverages like plain low fat Kofuir and Greek yogurt. Cannabis should be enjoyed in an enjoyable setting and just enough to feel good and inspired but not an every day use product.

You can have high times 😶‍🌫️

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It turned out to be a beautiful but cool summer weekend to have my head in the clouds, both figuratively and literally floating in the East Canada Creek and doing a lot of reading and thinking with smoking Tropical Skittlez and 5 hour energy shots.

I won’t argue that was the healthiest combination 🥓 but the same can be said about Mariaville Farm bacon frying the produce I got from Samdills Farm. 🍆 Still it was good to be away, fully off the grid for three days with no cell service or radio Thursday evening through Sunday. 📱 Riding down to Stratford on Saturday I could have momentarily turned on my phone to see if I had gotten any messages but I didn’t care want to know. 💓It was a fun weekend and so far my heart hasn’t given out even if my doctor 🧑‍⚕️keeps reminding me I need to get a stress test with family’s history of cardiac arrest.

Did I smoke too much 😄 and listen too much Grateful Dead 🎸? Absolutely but it was my last full long weekend fully away from it all through November. Now it’s back to work, 📧 I have several emails to get through. But I enjoyed a weekend of floating ⭕ and riding my bike. Reading 📖 a lot and thinking. No house listing’s to review 🏡 no constantly thinking about my future. Just a moment of Zen. 🪷 Rode down to Stratford on Saturday afternoon, via Old Stage Road then through the hamlet and back up Piseco Road. Nice ride but I had to carry the bike over down trees 🪵and rougher sections of the road.

That said it was a fun weekend 😶‍🌫️ with the Grateful Dead, Tropical Skittlez and 5 hour energy shots. ☕ A good satvia really can make the world a fun place, full of laughter, forgetting about all of the problems for a little while. Plus the Grateful Dead song, Dire Wolf 🐺 is so much fun when you are stoned. 🤭 I beg you, don’t murder me! Plus riding the mountain bike after dark 🚴is so much fun when your pupils are dilated and you can see the woods so while, noticing every shadow and so many things you would not ordinary see.

Did a ton of reading and listening to audio books 📖 including listening to Peter Grinspoon’s Seeing Through the Smoke and Leslie Iverson’s Science of Marijuana. 🪴 I’ve been intensely fascinated about cannabis both it’s health ☺ and legal ⚖ upsides and downsides and how it works. There really is a whole culture around smoking pot and a lot of fascinating science and it touches on everything from psychology to personal values to politics. Then I also read a book on being a homeowner, 🏡 one on farm life on a small beef cattle operation in Southern Ohio, 🐮 and one restoring old houses. 🛠 Also spent some time writing 📝, thinking 💭 those high thoughts and putting them on paper.

You know it’s weird to think this was likely my last trip to Piseco Powley for the year 🏕 and soon here in the Adirondacks it will be another autumn 🍁 then winter. ❄ Seems like it happens so quickly but with Big Red getting old and me still looking at houses and land who knows if I will ever get back here again. I get it that owning a home doesn’t preclude all vacations and travel though it would consume a lot of time and resources, livestock certainly would. 🐐 I’m well aware the current situation is unsustainable. But I also have gotten so much enjoyment out of the Grateful Dead this summer. 🎸

This afternoon I paddled out on Lily Lake from the Stewart Landing Dam for a few hours. 🛶 I didn’t make it all the way to West Lake but I wasn’t far from that. Very nice day, the lake was quite calm. Now I’m heading out on the bike from Fonda to Canajahoharie or as close as I can get as allowed by time. I want to be on the road heading home by around 7 pm so I’m not driving home most of the way in the dark. 🦌 Not to mention, Friday morning before work I’m heading up to Perkins Clearing to set up camp 🏕 and remote work that day.

Digital Terrain Models

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Digital Terrain Models

Lately I have been experimenting with digital terrain models extracted from the LIDAR point cloud. It allows me to measure the height of buildings and tree cover and can be used for better 3d modeling. 

I Enjoy Ticket Splitting

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In an era of hyper-partisanship, people are often surprised to hear that I agree with Democrats about 55% of the time and Republicans about 45% of the time. I guess I’m a rarity as somebody who regularly splits the ticket while voting, often for my preferred candidates on third party lines under New York’s fusion voting laws.

I will often start off on the Working Families line then hop up to the Conservative line and then over to other lines like the Independence line should the candidate not be available on the other line. It’s a check on the major party power, it gives smaller more ideological parties a bit of a check on their power. I generally like Republican executives and Democratic legislatures, I like the check they provide on each other’s power.

I generally look at candidate and their background to see what they have done in their lives. I’d rather vote for a thinking person who has gotten things done than any one ideology. I also like to push forward divided government as I believe a divided government is best for blocking the passage of new laws and limiting the size and scope of government. Divided government also avoids the extremes by blocking legislation completely unpalatable to the other side.

I like the Democrats as I think they are often on the right side of history when it comes to the big picture things. Fairness in banking and commerce are big things. Reforming healthcare to make it more affordable. Working on the climate crisis, especially reducing the massive climate emissions generated by our big cities. Providing school aid to hold the line on taxes while providing a quality education. Pushing industry to innovate like with clean air standards for automobiles. Protecting freedom of the press and the right of women to make choices over their bodies.

At the same time, I think Republicans are helping to limit over regulations of our personal freedom and the ability to invest and grow our economy. Democrats are always pushing to lock more land up as wilderness when the land could be sustainably managed for diverse purposes. Democrats are often pushing for unfair and unjust gun laws that are arbitrary and capricious that put the states interest over the public interest. Republicans often push for lower taxes that allow us to keep more of our hard earned paychecks and allow our investments to grow. Republicans often push back against excessive risk regulation and are more willing to let individuals live and let live.

Neither political party really suits my interests. But I do vote and try to push for competitive elections and divided government where no one side has too much power. Often it’s a broken government that governs best. We should celebrate our dysfunctional system that does more to defend the status quo and protect our interests.

You suffer from amotivational syndrome 🏡

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I talked to banks about getting a mortgage and started down the road for pre-approval. I talked to my friend who has the 10 acre old homestead in Greenville, how he got there. I looked at several houses, toured one in June asked questions about one to a realtor. I read books about buying a house and building your own. The houses and properties I actually liked where much too far from work. Many had other issues, some would have been a cash purchase and needed to be built from the ground up, prefab or otherwise. Most much where too large.

The banks were happy to steer me towards a conventional 30 year mortgage for $2,000 a month. It would finance up to $275k to $300k, probably more house then I would need and want but actually not an unrealistic budget when a lot of ready to move into, nicely maintained but older houses are in the quarter of a million range. Of course, most that the banks really like are your very typical and boring house in suburbia. And I would be paying that through my 72nd birthday, assuming that I didn’t refinance and didn’t pay it off early.

It’s really hard to find a house under 750 square feet. Some people are like don’t you want to heat and clean an extra room or two as a home office? Plus storage for tons of crap you’ll most certainly secure as a homeowner. No not really. Honestly, I thought that 700 sq ft house I toured was bigger than I liked. Plus it had a dirty old oil burner and no wood stove. Plus I guess running water, flush toilets and an indoor shower are great in the winter and for reasons of convenience but it just seems like a lot of crap to break.

What I really want is the simple, small hunting style cabin that is common in the Adirondacks or the more remote parts of Pennsylvania. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have some solar panels, gravity sink and hand pump, outhouse and outdoor heated shower. Propane range for cooking. I get such living is harder than the current suburbia way of living but I despise the shinny trash everything every other week and replace of suburbia with the shiny and new.

I could have looked harder this summer gone by, had I not spent so much time up in the woods, reading, smoking pot, riding my mountain bike, floating in the tube and finding distraction in my kind. I could have moved Zillow back on my phone as soon as I killed my phone and aggressively persued every listing I could find that sort of made sense to me. But I did not, preferring to spend as much of my summer up in the wilderness, high as a kite while I kept sending my landlord $800 checks as he hammers and grinds along the unit next door as a gentle reminder that time is not long for my current moldy apartment.

I mean this summer is not unlike other summers. Big Red brought me to the wilderness for many nice nights though the cannabis and the Grateful Dead records were a friendly addition. Maybe it was much too ordinary of a summer with a little extra sparkles. But if I had been a little more aggressive I could have my own land at this point, be growing my own cannabis and having livestock, or at least clearly leading to that point. And I’m now a full director in my office, this should mean I should have moved out of just out of college apartment.

Truth is that I’ve not found what is right for me. I’m not going to waste my money on a big house in the suburbs that I despise and don’t care about. A house might be a good decision if you care about the building and where you live, but I don’t want some place out in the suburbs with vinyl siding and carpeting that I don’t give a rats ass about and wouldn’t care if the roof collapses or the building burns to the ground. A house is not a good investment if you don’t care about it and would be just as happy with it not long in the world.