A Rainy Saint Patrick’s Day 
It’s the holiday brought to you by triphenylmethane and chlorophyllins, the later which is considered less bad to put in your body, as made from chlorophyll which is green because plants absorb primarily red and blue light to turn into energy with carbon dioxide. But as the tangy smell from the air reminds us on this morning, they got to get the manure out on the ground before things can turn nice and green and into hay and silage for moo-moos.
It’s raining out so no riding to work. 
It’s fine, that was the forecast and tomorrow I can’t ride in either as it’s going to a meeting after work with Save the Pine Bush. Wednesday through Friday I should be able to ride in and possibly this weekend I’ll ride trail and maybe do an overnight in wilderness 
if the weather is good. Nice not having to work evenings or weekends in March. 
Back to work but I’m hoping for another quick to pass by winter weekend, as spring approaches. 
Obviously the farmers have faith in the changing seasons and so should I. I still want to get a night in the wilderness and have a big fire 
and I know those days aren’t that far away. 
Maybe I could ride in but I don’t want to risk getting soaked. 
Lots of rain on the radar. Plus there are the drunks to deal with on the roads in the evening. 
It’s fine, I’ll bus it in. 
I do need to get shopping tonight, 
though I wanted to wait until to tonight for a couple of reasons. 
I am thinking of washing my truck tonight, and I figured it would be good to do after the salt is off the roads. Plus it breaks up the week going shopping after work, and Monday nights are often slower at the grocery store, with better stock 
and less crowds. Especially on Saint Patrick’s Day. Hopefully get home before dark after shopping, so there aren’t drunks on the road, though it’s not like it’s a long trip to the supermarket. 
I’ll drive carefully and if there are drunks on the road this evening, give them lots of room.
Got reading about laundry powder vs liquid laundry detergent. 
It sounds silly but I’m trying to get away from packaging, as much as possible in my life, especially those thick plastic packages that burn black and are noxious. 
Recycling is such a scam, but I also want to avoid glass which never goes away and metals which don’t burn though probably actually have some value in recycling. There is some disadvantages to traditional laundry powder, like it’s not as effective on difficult stains, but it seem so much less wasteful then those big plastic jugs. 
Used to be I used styrofoam plates and plastic forks 
all of the time at camp — and even in summer at home — and burnt them up, but truth is it kind of stinks and those chemicals are nasty. 
But I’ve really tried to get away from so much plastic, especially now that I’m looking more at my own land, and I don’t want to make a mess of it even if I don’t want to go to dump with bags and bags of garbage every week. 
Used to think it was fine if it burnt up completely — silly greenies — but I think it’s better to avoid consuming such things in the first place. 
I might drive a big jacked up truck, but I do try to be more sustainable even if I don’t have that off-grid property yet and still buy some things in plastic. Still, I prefer to have more compost then things to burn these days, no matter how much fun watching dripping plastic might be.
Went straight up Bennett Hill to the summit 
Wanted to be to the top before it started to rain and darkness approached so I did a quick bushwhack straight to the top, greenies be damned. Still getting a bit damp on the way back down but I expected it. I don’t want to establish herd paths and erosion so I took a dry, lightly traveled zig-zag pattern to the top.
What can I say, I’m an outlaw like that time watching four of July fireworks 
from the summit a few years back. I also was curious to see how windy it was at the top and get some exercise in after the corn beef and cabbage at the parents house 
. Got to enjoy it while I can still can because I know such things aren’t long in the world. With so many older people, they are with you forever until they aren’t. Less windy 
than I expected, there was some pretty good gusts out there. The whole weekend has been windy. Not good for my parents though, the weeping willow tree that overhangs their house is in bad shape, and all it needs to come down before it takes the house. Hopefully it won’t come down before they can have someone take it down not on their head. I would never plant a soft-wood like a weeping willow near a house, or any structure I cared about.
When I was out there, I went for a walk around the property, 
surveying the shape their woodlot and land is currently in. Been reading a library book about managing wood lots. Their wood lot could use a work for sure — getting rid of all the trash species and brambles and getting more light in there for desirable species. I don’t know if I’ll eventually end up owning it when they pass away but my sister has her house up in Saratoga and I’ve been looking at a homestead, and they have 5 acres barns and forests that could be restored with goats, pigs and chainsaws. 
Not off grid, not outside of New York, not as wild as I want and it’s more residential then I’d like so I’d have to be careful what I’d burn with the burn ban but maybe it’s what I’ll end up with eventually. It’s a kind of redneck neighborhood but it’s New York with it’s laws. I was glad to hear they’re planning on taking down at least one of the big trees out front that is in bad shape this year with a tree-cutting crew, one less thing for me to worry about – I do wonder if they don’t get it down soon it won’t take down half or all of the house. But then I guess it’s not my problem. Maybe the city will take the property to add to reservoir conservation lands. 
Might be who I end up selling it to if I do decide to move out west after I retire and my parents pass.
Warmer than I expected this afternoon when I went out to see the folks. I think it was warmer outside my apartment then inside it. I actually was chilled through enough mid morning when I was reading 
that I ended up turning on the portable electric heater and my heating pad. Then I dosed off 
apparently because sleeping into six o’clock wasn’t enough. Been in bed 
and asleep most nights by eight. Truck seems to be running good. I am excited to get out of town, maybe sooner then later. Really could use a good camp fire, but got to be careful this time of year with all that dry grass. 
Between the wind and dryness, I decided this was not a good weekend to camp. And I was not wrong on that fact – 
not only was it gusty both days but also kind of gray and not nice. Rained a bit while I was driving but to folks but not a big washout yet but rain and potentially severe storms is coming later. 
I wish in someways it was a more adventurous weekend, 
but I did get a fair amount of reading done, more work on my taxes, got that new shifter lever on my bike and chain. 
I am not happy with chain skipping but I’ll have to decide if I will need to put the old chain back on or replace the cassette. Crankset is a bit sticky with the new chain, but it’s rapidly getting better as the chain stretches. Maybe I should put the old chain on, but it’s not that bad and once I break the new chain in a bit more maybe it will be good. Kind of don’t want to wear on the crankset more as that’s expensive but I’m kind of hoping it will stretch enough to keep the old cassette. I can always swing by Steiners to get a new cassettee and have it on in five minutes myself, but I only swapped the chain thinking it good maintenance. 
With the rain though, I’m not planning to ride in tomorrow at any rate. I’m annoyed, what can I say.
Oil City, Penna.
Oil City in Pennsylvania is near the birthplace of oil extraction in Pennsylvania, Titusville. A boom and bust city located between the hills outside of the Allegheny National Forest.
Open source rocks 
One of the great things about running only open source software on your computer is any time you are curious how a program works, you can look at the header files then look at the methods to see how exactly it works. No mysteries, just sometimes cleverness!
First day of Spring at the Cabin!
It's the first day of spring at the cabin and what a beautiful day it is. There's no better place to be right now! Going to hang out and do some easy chores. Enjoying life in the slow lane. ;) Spend 20 minutes with me and take your mind off of everything that's currently going on in this crazy world.
