There is no reason that I should have not expected, I mean the forecast did call for rain and mild temperatures last night. And I’m not complaining about that as it feels pretty warm inside but I was hoping to ride this morning in the sun either out to the Arboretum or Five Rivers. Maybe later and maybe I’ll check out the Sportsmart later in the search of skis but I know chances are good I won’t end up getting any.
Friday came and went. 🥧 It was a busy day with the pie contest and then I spent several hours tagging people in adult care homes in the database at work and grabbing other data on volunteer firefighters from some tax rolls on Long Island. And working with the operators to implement some complicated targets that were good, rational targets, but complicated in implementation even if they were good as they ensure communications get in front of relevant parties. The pie contest was fun, I was surprised almost all of my queche went and gone. Apparently queche eaters are a big thing – it no longer has the stigma that avocado 🥑 toast has nowadays. Eggs 🥚 are cheap again, and I wanted something I could make up from home.
There was a request that came in at 4:57 PM, 🖥️ and it was a good laugh not because it was bad but because it was a bit complicated to implement, and it as the weekend. I told the assigned operator it would wait until Monday. I didn’t say it but I was thinking, what the hell have a wrathed on my agency? Truth is though it makes sense to pull the suggested records – but not until Monday. It’s amazing how much things have changed in two years, and how much data I’ve been able to acquire from private vendor, public andgovernment sources. The parcels program is amazing, and towns are required are required to post tax rolls. And there is so much data you can gleam from and project just by family names or knowing what neighborhood one lives in, or the age or style of their home. Toblers First Law of Geography – “everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things“– is such a powerful concept.
I left the office a little after 5 PM and wandered my way through the bumpy ol’ streets of the south end, riding in my ol jacked up truck with my cowboy hat 🤠 listening to Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World, followed by John Rich’s Shutting Down Detroit and Marmalade’s Reflections of My Life. I’m changing, arranging everything. The news headlines after the big meet up between the Trumpster and Mayor Mamadani just put a big grin 😀 on my face. Things are fucked up in this world, 🌍 but we’ll make it through it somehow. It’s great to see how much my agency has changed over past two years leading it- since I’ve made it a priority to link data together, script things, take full advantage of what we know about constituents. Things that were done on a small scale manually, can certainly be expanded and run in automated fashion.
Stocked up at Walmart so I can avoid the traffic around the stores through Thanksgiving 🦃 though on Black Friday I may have to skip buy nothing in favor of getting a few supplies on the way up to camp. With I had gotten more hot sauce in big plastic bottle, and maybe olive oil – both are lower in my pantry then is good – but I should have enough in my pantry and except for the olive oil neither is essential. Used a lot of olive oil with the queche I made for work so it wouldn’t stick and would taste good, 😋 more then I would use usually use. Now I’m thinking for the Christmas Party 🎅 at work I’ll have to to make those cranberry pancakes 🥞 I make at home with some Greek yogurt. I feel like that would be a hit.
At times I am brought back to Horseshoe Lake a month ago, smoking weed and listening to Karen Dalton’s Are You Leaving for the Country. The sound of the major pentatonic scale and sharpness and backwood sound of her voice. The feeling of cold and dampness and mud and dirt, climbing down Lows Ledge. Just taking it slow, noting the many days left in week before the autumn trip came to it’s logical conclusion. How time just seemed to slow down into a cold, damp haze.
Seems hard to imagine a month came and went from those days, now how distant the wilderness really is. How deep that wilderness is but accessible yet quiet this time of year. There is something so fun about just smoking a lot of pot, riding your mountain bike all day out to scenic, remote locations, even in the rain. Not having to worry about driving or even recycling your trash as the evening bonfire will take care of it. As you watch the bright flicker of the fire. Even if your drenched in a cold, damp haze as is so common in autumn months.
That’s what my phone suggested as I started to type Hangman, as I thought that seemed like a fitting start to the Friday blog post on this Friday before Thanksgiving as I am inspired to listen to Peter, Paul and Mary’s Hangman from the See What Tomorrow Brings album from 1967. You know after the Trumpsters remarks on his social media network. One of the last albums before the break up after Paul Yarrow’s brush with the law and young girl that lead to his insprisonment and breakup of the group for a good part of a decade as 1970 rolled around.
It’s Friday and it’s cold and grey November day 🌥️ though the weather pattern is moderating for the weekend and tomorrow is supposed to be quite nice. 1 PM tomorrow is the Sportsmart so I want to try to see if I can join into the cattle call and the crowds and see if I can get a good pair of cross country skis. If not, whatever it’s not like winter lasts that long any more, and if anything I’d rather just ride my bike places and stay home when it’s truly cold. ❄️
Still watching to see what will happen with the Thanksgiving storm, 🦃 it seems like December is trending colder and snowier. 🌨️ Only time will tell but I’m hoping next Friday to get up north through Monday, enjoying late autumn camping and maybe do a hike somewhere in the Eastern Adirondacks. Kind of leaning towards NY 28 in Minerva, you know up off the Boreas River but only if there isn’t too much snow to get back to those campsites. Later in December I want to do the Horse Camp but not until after Christmas most likely or maybe New Years Day through the weekend of January, both of which Ih Ave off, 🎅 though a lot depends on when the Lake Effect snow guns ramp up.
One thing that’s nice about not riding in or taking the bus, 🚌 is I can leave a lot later. A 9 mile commute mostly on the highway is actually quite a bit faster then on the bike 🚲 or the bus with the transfer to the shuttle, 🚀 and I can leave quite a bit later. My pie is done – it’s a queche with spinach and onions and hot sauce and cheese with a crust made out of homemade cornbread. Crust is a relative thing, the cornbread was a bit thicker then I expected so it’s a bit of a half and half layer type deal. Should be good. ☺️ And if it’s left over it’s not like I’ll be stuck with a big thing of sweets 🍬 to eat a home.
In this video I want to give you a tour of my off grid cabin and property in celebration of 10k subs. I have 50 remote acres of peace and quiet. I built the cabin myself with wood I cut and milled right on my land. The cabin is solar powered, I have a well, garden, fruit trees and plenty of game of around. And wouldn't you know it, winter has made an early appearance this year. Enjoy the tour!
I really like NB888 channel and his set up a lot. He has a decent chunk of land, and a reasonably sized cabin -- not these enormous multi-bedroom McMansions that you see everywhere. And he doesn't go crazy with solar or high technology -- at 500 watts of solar and a few kilowatt hours of battery storage -- his system is very small and minimalist. Basically heaven in my book.
For calls their big gasser engine in their 3/4 ton pickups the Godzilla engine. Am I seriously considering getting another big truck? One bigger then I already have? Probably not but I can’t help but keep eyeing the Big Red regular cab long bed F-250 one of the developers regularly has parked out at the Colonie Town Hall. Truth is I kind of want a simple but big, reliable, old fashioned kind of work truck with an eight foot bed for lots of room for camping.
The Toyota Taco trucks are fine and you can get them with a six foot bed. They would be much better on the gas, driving in traffic and in the city and narrow off road trails. But I worry with all my camping gear – especially week long trips it would be difficult to fit all that crap in. And I don’t love all that technology crap and the big TV screens cars now have and you need to go through a menu to turn on the defroster. Seems like more crap to break, plus all that emissions and unreliable fuel economy crap like displacement on demand. The big trucks are exempt from that crap and tend to be over built and better suited to take a beating on the rough roads I like to explore. But the Toyotas are legendary for reliability – though they’ve been forced to adopt a lot of that government crap now.
The thing is that I know it’s only a matter of time before I have to commute again and if I move back out to the country then I’ll need something that won’t kill me with the gas bills. I don’t necessarily want to mess with the suspension of my next truck but I do like riding up high. And I’m not sure I want another half ton truck – they’re fine but their big but hardly heavy and though like a 3/4 ton. If anything the half ton trucks have gotten even more suburban – lower to the ground, lightweight components, softer seats and technology crap. Stuff I don’t really care about or want.
It costs nothing to look, dream and think. Red is good for now but it’s so obvious in my mind that he is going to need to be replaced sooner than later even if I do dump a lot of money to stretch out his remaining days.
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