Personal

Well, the new registration sticker and air filter is on the truck and I’m stocked up on groceries for the weekend 🛒

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I can take a breath now or at least Big Red can. I’m going for a quick jot up Bennett Hill. Kind of a cool autumn day, especially when the breeze picks up but the sun helps too.

Yesterday I kind of took the day off. 📴 You know just kind of stay home, really trying to study up on computer 🖥️ programming, learn the ins and outs of vscode and things like git and cmake. A lot of reading 📖 some coding. And then just data services work for all the campaigns. It wasn’t a lot but it needed to be done. 🚴 Tinkered with the bike for a while, trying to find the creaking and clanking noise I’m hearing from time to time with no luck. Rode out to Five Rivers 🐸 via Meads and then Fisher Boulevard over to the Bender Mellon Farm Preserve. 🌇 Watched the sun set, looked at the mountains and headed home 🏡 and read some more. It was warm inside – I think my new neighbor has his heat really warm but last night as the temperature dropped by morning I needed my heated blanket a little bit.

I do feel a bit guilty about not being involved in any campaigns this year, 🐴 I thought about knocking on some doors 🚪 but nobody asked me to help. That was one version of what I had thought this weekend would have been as a trip out to Cazenovia but the days are so short and the fire risk high. 🔥 Truth is as a director I’m not expected to pound pavement but I kind of like it. Plus I’ve had a fair number of data jobs to do. I’ll just be glad when it’s over, whatever the result is, knowing I did my best for my part of the operation. Trump is probably going to win and the Republicans both houses of congress based on the absentee ballots returned and early voting data which suggests Republicans have all the energy this cycle. 🐘 Things won’t be quite as grim at the State Houses but I could see us loosing a few seats.

The time change brought more sunlight to the morning 🕒 but it’s still a cool and clear November day. It will be getting dark around 5 pm. The extra lights for my bike have yet to arrive 🚲 but I have one and the roads have street lights in the city and I’ll take the express bus 🚌 home. Next weekend I plan to go out to Cazenovia or maybe just Vermont after my dental appointment on Thursday. 🦷 My teeth are bad – they need a cleaning and probably a filling. Sucks. 🍌 Probably not from candy 🍬 I’ve eaten at the campaign committee but instead all the bananas and apples 🍏 I snack on at work.

Truth is that I’m not ready to face another winter. 🌨️ It’s a good time to learn and think about my future 🔮, maybe really master computer programming once and for all. 🤓 Continue to research my housing options 🏡 maybe resume planning my homestead. And I can certainly winter camp at the horse camp or Rennselaerville. But it sucks. Seems like it was only a few days ago I was smoking pot and floating on a tube in the wilderness, enjoying the Grateful Dead 🎸. I shouldn’t complain about the good life, yet I wish I could point to more progress then grams smoked and days fallen off the calendar 📅. At least the oil 🛢️ change got done last weekend, air filter and registration this weekend.

Western Slope

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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.

Taken on Friday October 11, 2019 at Notes.

Invasive Weed, Found in NYS, Resists Common Herbicides – Morning Ag Clips

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Invasive Weed, Found in NYS, Resists Common Herbicides – Morning Ag Clips

ITHACA, N.Y. — The invasive pigweed Palmer amaranth, first found in New York soybean fields in 2019, has been dubbed the “spotted lanternfly of weeds” for its ability to spread quickly and wreak havoc on crops. Now a new study sheds light on how formidable an opponent the weed is for New York state growers – and offers a way forward.

In a paper published in the journal Weed Science on Oct. 28, researchers find that some known Palmer amaranth populations – collected from Steuben, Genesee and Orange counties – have resistance to glyphosate, the leading weed control chemistry used in soybean crops. Researchers also confirmed the mechanism for resistance in the populations and identified classes of herbicides that are still effective.

Sleeping like a baby with the windows open 👶

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Turns out when you don’t drink tons of Red Bull in the day time, you sleep so much better at night.

That said the mornings are still quite dark, 🌃 though that will change come Sunday at least as far as the clocks are concerned when we set them back an hour, which means come Monday you can legitimately go to work an hour later, though the evening commute will be dark.

I’m up and going, with red lentils, rice, onions cooking down on a big pot on the stove. 🍲 Should make some good meals, those red lentils get so creamy and yummy once there fully cooked down. Enjoying the fresh air with the windows open, plus I don’t have to worry about my apartment filling with moisture and smoke from cooking or showering. 🚿 That said, the warm weather isn’t expected to last into weekend, though it will continue to be pretty mild next week.

Maybe some rain showers ☔ today through the weekend, though not a lot of precipation. More lake-effect rain though down wind of Lake Erie in Central NY  – I might head out that way for Veterans Day Weekend, as soon as next Friday. 🇺🇸 This time of year can be a bit tricky, but after next weekend, it’s big game season in the Southern Zone so I’ll probably stay out of the woods through at least after Thanksgiving. 🦃 Might do East Branch on Black Friday. Then can you believe it’s December? Yesterday, I had to rush to finish getting my ten free October borrows off Hoopla, 📚 got more books about computer programming, cabin construction and homesteading. You know the usual stuff. Now I just go to sit down and do a bunch of reading.

Noticed another creaking noise on the bike, 🚲 oiled it up but I’m not sure what’s causing it. Could be chain 🔗 stretch or gears not meshing properly, though I’m thinking it’s something more like a loose reflector. Checked the spokes. Should be fine for riding into today. Starting next week, I’ll be busing to home, 🚌 as I won’t be able to ride due it being dark out at the end of day at work. But then again, it’s getting into that cold ❄️ time of year, and at least next week with Election Day and probably taking Friday off if I decide to take a long weekend, 🏕️ it’s not like I’ ll be riding that much next week.

I’ll be glad when campaign season is over 🍬

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I really don’t have to eat all that candy and processed food at the campaign committee offices, nor do I have to eat the lunches and dinners they offer that is pretty much standard American fare, though I fully do as it’s tough when your surrounded by such unhealthy foods.

I don’t buy such things at home or camp – I never buy candy or snacks or processed food, preferring to cook my own from basic ingredients. But spending all this time doing campaign work, I’ve rediscovered my sweet tooth and how wonderful processed crap is for anything but one’s waste-line and health.

But in less then a week, it will be a memory, and while there is the inevitable Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations, other then that I will be eating a much better diet, though I won’t be riding all the way home now that evenings are dark.