The western slopes are dry, open heath barrens. This year with the West Virigina drought, they were particularly brown in the autumn. In contrast, some of the other slopes were quite colorful, especially the eastern slopes where there are more hardwoods.
Friday October 11, 2019 — Notes
Apparently bicyclists are not to be encouraged to make such a connection on over with the new bike path. Probably the DOT decided it was not advisable to having pedestrians or bicyclists cross at that point, being a 45 MPH road. Still this is unfortunate, as I was looking forward to using this new bike path to connect over to McCormick Road and then over to the Pine Hollow Arboretum.
On the other hand, I find the connection from Cherry Avenue to the main Albany County Rail Trail to be very useful both for all points along the Rail Trail from Cherry Avenue and for commuting. The bike trail works well with the traffic lights, with the green left turn arrow sensing your bike when you approach without fail, and the green arrow giving you a a safe, easy to turn on the bike trail. At the same time, leaving the bike trail to Cherry Avenue South is easy, as you pull up to the stop sign, you can see when the light is green for going through, and merge into traffic seemlessly and safely. While occasionally you have to watch for right turning traffic, this direction is very uncommon, as most traffic that would be turning right, instead takes NY 85 at the previous round about rather then turning right there.
At 4:30 AM or maybe 5 AM there is enough minutes of moral and mental clarity before one is assaulted by the endless advertising for plastic and roofing services. And if morning’s echos said we sinned, I won’t be blinded by the light.
Always kind of liked that song by Merille Rush but then again, I’m kind of into that girly music. đļ The stuff no real man is willing to admit they listen to as they sing along in their big jacked up truck. Truth is I don’t mind going to bed at 7 or 8 PM and falling asleep, as at the end of day I’m usually tired and the nights are so cold and dark and I’m still refusing to turn on the heat in favor of the heated blanket. đī¸ Facebook has turned into a major advertising platform, but then again I see more and more ads because I like trolling the ads đ˛ with stupid comments either copied or pasted on advertiser posts. I just hate all of the Facebook trash, especially pitched at the woke suburbanite homeowner.
I was out at 4:45 AM running to Stewart’s to go moo juice đŽ, waking up around 4 AM and starting the pinto beans on the stove. Another plastic bottle full of milk added to that perculator which is empty much too fast. I guess I could make up another pot of coffee â to equal what I drink between home and work, I sure like that new flavored coffee that they have at the office. Kind of like the flavored weed that I enjoy too. It was a beautiful, crisp morning to start deer season this morning, đĻ I was actually surprised that Stewart’s wasn’t packed with hunters but honestly it’s more of a suburban location here in Delmar. Nice sliver moon.đ No breeze this morning either. I often wonder how many of those milk bottles I’ve burnt up over the years. đĨ Many just disappear without much thought in those white garbage bags and yellow flames. Certainly hundreds, probably thousands. I’ve thought about getting milk delivery from Meadowbrook – it’s excellent milk – but it’s kind of a hastle because he requires you call and leave a message on barn phone. đ
Thinking this morning once the beans are done, đĢ I will head over to the Pine Hollow Arboretum for a walk around đ˛ to see what color remains. Also, try out the much hyped Cherry Avenue Bike Trail Connector, that the woke have their penises stuck high in the air, bit by the frost, after they got a state DOT grant to build it. Going to start out the day sunny. âī¸ Then I think I’ll head over in my pickup to the Pine Bush area – I want to visit the Salvation Army and Goodwill in search of shirts for work. đ Then ride trail in Pine Bush or maybe some of the Erie Canalway trail? I could do the section through Schenectady, the Niskayuna section is kind of boring. Or maybe just stay in the Pine Bush. I want to get a few supplies at Wally World in Pine Bush too – Market 32 in Guilderland is fine but it’s always so pricey. đĨ And they don’t have the larger, bulk packages I prefer like with eggs and the 5-lb bags of cornmeal or 4-lb bags of pinto beans. I guess none of that is essential, I could wait another weekend though next weekend I was to get to Bethlehem Sportsmart Sale that the Boy Scouts put on to see if I can get a pair of cross country skis, đŋ as two years ago the pair I had broke and got turned into firewood and honestly quite a bit of unburnable fiberglass I had to haul out of woods. Not sure what I plan to do with all those pinto beans today, but there are many meals they can be cooked with. They’re more flexible then the green pea soup for sure. đ§âđŗ
The Albany Bicycle Coalition strikes me as an organization that is more anti-bicycling then is pro-bicycling. While their goals may be noble, two of the things they promote – ghost bicycles places where people have died in bike crashes – and the World Day of Rememberance for Lost Pedestrians and Cyclists is decidedly anti-bicycling.
In many ways the Albany Bicycling Coalition reminds me a lot of some of the gun control groups – whining a lot about the lost of life for cyclists and how tragic it is – while not doing much to make cycling safer or better beyond suggesting cyclists and pedestrians don’t belong on their road, and anyone crazy enough to step out of the protective cocoon of an automobile with it’s 10 different air bags is just plain asking for death by motorist suicide. Obviously, by emphasizing how dangerous cycling is, then it’s an excuse to embolden cops and cities to get more revenue by ticketing and harassing cyclists and pedestrians, even if they aren’t the ones causing most of the problems.
The problem with many of these cyclists organizations is they are primarily recreational in nature, most rarely leave the safety of the bike trail, or when they do ride, it’s on rural highways with wide shoulders and sunny weather in the middle of the weekend day primarily. When your a leisure cyclist, it’s easy to criticize people who rely on a bike to get around town in traffic. Commuting sometimes involves risks that you don’t have to deal with a leisurely peddle on a bike path. These cyclists organizations view owning a bike as something you do leisurely with family off-the-road. They don’t get that cycling may have dangers, but so does obesity, lack of exercise and fresh air, along with the harm that driving an automobile does with it’s toxic exhaust coming out of tailpipes and rubbing off their tires.
While I have in the past used the Wayback Machine, I never realized what a jewel the Internet Archive is for finding historical books and very old music from the era of 78 RPM record. Along with many old computer games and programs, and emulators to run on their. Then there also is the New York Historical Newspaper archive, which is a great place to find old newspaper archives from across New York and piece together why things are the way they are now based on ways they once were done.
Apparently I looked at an advertisement for gutters, or hung my mouse too long over an advertisement for gutters, and my feed is full off ads for gutters once again. Not the kind you might find on a tie-stall barn but the kind that is common suburban houses to direct rainwater away from the foundation and doorways on wet days. Clicking on the ad brings you to an advertisement for leaf-fitter, as leaves in your gutter apparently are the bane of suburban homeowners, as they get wet, clog up, which causes the gutter to get heavy and fall off the roof, or if the gutter is made out iron, then rot out.
I am not opposed to gutters as they serve an important purpose but I seems like too often water collected on roofs is wasted. Some of it is the instance of suburban homeowners on their cheap asphalt shingle roofs that turn otherwise clean water into a chemical soup of oils and rock dust as the water drips off it. Quiet and slower at releasing the rain, it is taken away as a toxic stew and discarded into lawns and sewers. But what if gutters could be part of a rainwater collection system? Filtered for clean drinking water – or at least used for watering plants, gardens and livestock? It seems like a roof, and gutters could do a lot more then be some kind of woke suburban house accessory.
