Camping at Rennselaerville State Forest on October 6, 2024
Just a quick weekend trip to the nearby state forest.
Just a quick weekend trip to the nearby state forest.
I was working on a map of Fire Fall State Forest and was curious if there was any old roads through the state forest found on the old topographic maps. Doesn't look that way, so I'm not missing anything obvious on the map, though maybe I could find some using LiDAR data.
Always good to burn shit, though maybe not right now especially in Pennsylvania or the Hudson Valley. But all the Pennsylvania rednecks disappointed, should not dispair, there is more time to collect up debris for an even bigger bonfire come Black Friday, with hopefully not too much black smoke. That and maybe you should consider voting today in the mean time if you haven’t already?
At any rate, happy last voting day. I am just glad that I don’t have to deal with voting today, it’s a decision I made over six weeks ago now, long ago sent in the mail , put in the custody of the USPS mailbox and according to state board website, recieved and scanned in. It will get tabulated and counted at 9 PM tonight. And then we can move on from Election Day.
I was in bed by before 7 PM as it was dark out and cold. Plus I was home early as I worked from home yesterday, as I started my day messing around with that headlight which should work good tonight driving home late after Election Day. Slept in to after 6:30 AM but I did wake up a few times during the night, so it probably was only closer to eight hours of sleep. But I feel good this morning but maybe it’s because I took a quick toke and had a bunch of coffee this morning and then rode my bike downtown to the campaign headquarters. Nice morning, but ironically the route I took on the back streets to avoid traffic, I didn’t pass any polling places so I have no idea what the turn-out looks like bar what I’m reading on the Twitter.
Today is a state holiday for me, though it’s a bit of working day you might say, and it’s back to work in Menands tomorrow for a full day of state work. Got the extra bike lights, so I should be good for riding down to the old train station at the end of the day. I plan to keep extra ones charged in my office at all times. Things soon will be picking up. Thursday I have my dental cleaning and I’m thinking of taking the balance of Thursday off — actually all of Thursday and Friday off — and heading off to the wilderness for a long weekend ending on Veterans Day. It would be a fun weekend, assuming Sunday going into Veterans Day isn’t too wet. Thinking of exploring more of Canastota and Green Lakes State Park and the Erie Canalway.
And a very early trip to Walmart this morning to buy a headlight bulb, fun installing it, and now it’s remote work from the library. I was going to ride into the office this morning and work several hours at state office in Menands before heading downtown to campaign committee, but that was all changed when I left home last night — deciding the priority had to be to fix the headlight and then remote work.
Of course when I got to Wally World at 8:30 AM this morning, no basic H11 bulb was to be found, but I was able to get a two pack of the next step up from the basic bulb. I know you’re supposed to replace them in sets but I never do, but it’s good to have one handy as I’m sure the other side will burn out some point in the future. I don’t care if they are perfectly matched, as I don’t do that much driving at night and I’m sure they’ll be good enough. I tell you with only one low beam though it made for a very dark drive home. I certainly did not want to be driving home late at night on Election Night with only one headlight working, especially with deer but also inevitably the cops also all over over the road.
So there is light again on both side of the truck, those H11 bulbs are simple and don’t last that long but also aren’t that difficult to replace or that costly. Usually get about 3-5 years out of them before they burn out and need replacing. It’s annoying with the accessory battery in the plow battery hold I have to pull the battery, and I spent much too long this morning searching for my 6 inch socket extension, which of course was hiding out in my pocket. I don’t know how I could loose such a tool in my pocket but I was searching all over my truck and in my apartment for it, and was ready to hop on my bike and run down to Delmar Hardware and hand over probably what would be $20 these days with inflation for a simple tool that I needed to pull the battery. Once I found the tool, I had the battery out and the bulb in and all was good.
I also bought some draino to get the tub to drain faster, some stevia as I’m addicted to all things sweet, and dish soap which I managed to spill over all the carpet. 🫧 I started to mop that up but then the data jobs started rolling in, as tomorrow is Election Day and I’m getting so much data to process, upload, and send along to folks. I figure the carpet with a little water will get good and clean, or at least somewhat better. My apartment is do dingy and dirty but what do I care. Already eight emails waiting. So that’s the story of the morning. Busy, busy, busy! I do wish I could have ridden into the office, but I would have not gotten much work done regardless, with so many data jobs coming in. I actually thought today would be a lot slower then it turned out. There are so many ways I want to re-write my code and R Script and change the way I do things for 2026. Being busy is good, makes less time to be stressed out about the outcome of the election, which looks to be shitty but we won’t know until everybody’s voted and the judges make the calls on close ones.
Leaving West Virigina on a autumn morning, heading up to Keyser and then Paw Paw to explore for the day's adventure. A nice morning.