I bet the teats on the camel up in Vermont are pretty warm even if everything else in cold this morning. Nice thing though in April even on a cold day, the sun is quite warm due to the higher angle.
Started out the morning with cummin rather then cinnamon in pancakes which gave them kind of rich, chilli kind of flavor. It’s find, actually worked out good with syrup and some added cinnamon and Splenda, kind of a warm flavor on such a cold morning. My hands are cold as I type this out. Better get in the shower soon to warm them up.
Rode both ways yesterday, but it was a cold trip back and forth. I finished the anti-smoking questionnaire for my $20 buck check from the NYS Health Research / Smoker Cessation program. I gave them my honest opinion on it. Hid under the covers and my heated blanket to warm up yesterday as the heat is off. Once I shower, I’ll ride in this morning.
I got a project I’m working on at work, so I should have a busy morning in the office. It will help make the day go faster. Not that I’m not expecting another cold evening, so I’ll probably do dinner and bed again tonight pretty early once I get home. Get through this week and weekend, and shit weather we’re expecting.
You know it always strikes me as problematic to shame smokers and suggest they are addicts, while it’s not okay to suggest obese individuals are fat and unable to control their urges to eat. Or that somehow smoking is more harmful to one’s body then eating hamburgers and doughnuts. Or that smokers simply need “help” to quit.
While I don’t endorse smoking of anything for ones health, and it can be pretty stinky and nasty, I don’t really see the harm of an concessional drag on a cigarette with beer infrequently – maybe one or twice a month. While there is evidence that even light smoking over a long time is more harmful then heavy smoking and then quitting, the evidence for an occasional drag on a cigarette with a beer doesn’t suggest it is the worse thing in world. If anything, it’s healthier then obese American’s eating meat and other processed foods every day.
I don’t disagree with restrictions on smoking in public places. Cigarette smoke is pretty nasty smelling, and it does quite a bit of damage to interior of buildings, and not everybody wants to partake in the activity or smell it and breathe it walking by. And it’s not harm-free, just like the chocolate doughnut or TV dinner is not harm-free. But I really object with people painting anybody who occasionally enjoys a smoke as an addict.
And, no advertisers I’m not looking for advice or help quitting.
If anything this year, it’s a been a windy one. Not to mention quite wet. I am on the fence about riding in this morning, though I probably will though who knows what I’ll do come the evening. I might put my bike on bus, that way I’m not riding in wind all the way home. That said, I do like the exercise.
It was kind of a rough night sleeping. Cue the advertisements for Better Help and mattress retailers. No, what I need is a night or two in wilderness. For some reason I find it hard to sleep on Monday nights. Maybe it’s the stimulus of weekly shop at the bright and colorful Walmart or the craziness of driving Or maybe it’s that I still face four more days of work. I woke up for a few hours last night, and then slept into 6:30 AM. Now I’m running late and need to shower, and get on my bike and head to work up in Menands.
Truth is I spend too much time dreaming of a better tomorrow, and reflecting how awful life is in New York. Thanks to internet, I see how other people live, how they can survive on much less, how there are other opportunities out there. I was angry that the Supreme Court isn’t going to review the state’s sensetive areas law and all the bullshit gun laws, and I just so want to get out of city. Truth is I am troubled by my work, but I also don’t love Trump and I am worried about the tarrifs screwing things up even more. But the status quo sucked, and it’s easy to be critical of the Trumpster, but let’s be honest, for too many decades politicians stood idlely by while Rome burned. At least Trump is trying something new. Will the tarrifs work? Probably not, but we can’t keep going on the way we’re going. After following Homesteady’s move to Alaska, along with those off-gridders in Missouri and Arkansas I know damn well there is another world out there. I don’t know why I’ve stayed as long as I have in New York except for the money. And pure laziness.
Truth is I am just so desperate for a night in wilderness, and so annoyed how people are so mocking and dismissive of it – oh he wants to go camping – like it’s some kind of lolly-gagging, just an excuse to burn things and smoke marijuana and drink beer. When you put it that way, it seems so trivial, that nights in wilderness are not essential, they’re just a silly recreational pursuit. I am annoyed that in two weeks, on Saturday, at 1 PM in middle of the long holiday weekend I have to go to Mom and Dad’s 50th Wedding Anniversary party, as I know that is going to be a beautiful weekend. It’s special for them, and I know it may be one of last time we will be all together.
That said, maybe I’ll spend as much of my weekend in wilderness as possible in Rensselearville or Schoharie, but I really wanted to get to Adirondacks that weekend, as I am sure that is one weekend it will be nice. I guess a weekend in wilderness isn’t as essential as air, water or making money so I can pay the rent, but doesn’t mean I want it badly. And it’s not like the only think I do in wilderness is camp, indeed, the bedding overnight is only one part of adventure. I hate term “he wants to go camping”, it seems so trivial and it’s not at all what I want to do. I want to be in wilderness where I shoot guns, have big fires with nobody caring what I toss in fire, smoke grass and lay back in hammock, read, ride my mountain bike, and just take in the beauty of wilderness. I guess there is always the following week but the week after that I have to lead the Save the Pine Bush Hike.
Eggs with wild onions I harvested on Sunday in woods, along with spinach, broccoli and cornmeal and lots of turmeric this morning for breakfast. Last night, it was a reheat of some pork roast and apple sauce with some of those wild onions and a red onion chopped up before going to Walmart. Only Shopping was fine, only spent $71 which balances out from previous weeks, but they didn’t have bananas but I might get them on commute in one of these days on my bike. Hoping to commute in through Thursday, though that day might be dicey with rain. But if I get wet at the end of day, so be it.
In the mail yesterday, I got a letter from the NYS Health Department with a five dollar bill and promises to mail me a $20 check if I filled out an online survey about my thoughts on tobacco regulation. Hell, even in New York that check will buy a pack of cigarettes or a cannabis joint. It actually wasn’t that bad to do on my phone, mostly asked if I supported bans of smoking at multi-family housing, or sales of cigarettes. No. I don’t advocate for lighting up, but if people want to do it then so be it. I think treating all cigarette smokers as addicts in need of serious detoxification is a bad pubic policy. There are some people who are truly addicted, you know standing outside in cold to smoke, but that’s not everyone. Maybe because I do sometimes enjoy a light every once and while next to fire up in wilderness. I am sure the survey was supported by the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, and state has more money then they know what to do with for smoking cessation, so this what happens. Might as well get my $25 and because the survey it’s self is only $20, the state ethics laws don’t apply to it.
You know I’m very fascinated about rural poverty and the definition of being poor. Maybe because I grew up that way or choose to be that way, riding the bus to work, living in my drafty ol apartment and not driving except when I have to. Keeping the heat and lights low, shopping frugally, living without internet or television at home. Obviously, the money I’m not spending today I’m saving and investing.
Yet, there is another question on my mind – how can I afford a rural life? It’s obvious there isn’t a lot of jobs out in the country, and commutes into the city can be nerve-wracking with heavy traffic, delays, not to mention the cost of all those used up automobiles and fuel they burn. If I save up enough money to move away from the city, I want to make sure I have enough resources to live frugally, so I don’t have to give up the dream.
But beyond that, I find the pro-consumerism, buy, consume, discard model of the suburbs to be so disgusting. Often the rural poor seem to find ways to make things meet without buying and consuming so much. They find ways to creatively put together things they already have, to repair and reuse rather discard and purchase new. I also like the idea of putting land to work, raising livestock and gardening to produce food rather then buying everything wrapped in plastic.
Plus, I don’t like the unrealistic view of world that so much of suburbia is wrapped in. There is something about the rural poor, the closeness to earth, the lack of beauty and grace that I find so repulsive about the suburban life. So I’m interested in learning as much as I can, and not from the overly intellectual world of marble countertops in McMansions.
And there is just is fun of not giving a fuck to everything in this world. I find it obnoxious on how much of middle-class suburbia is about thinking about scientific models and writings of long dead philosphers. Let’s be honest, yuppies are boring comparing to beer drinking, four-wheeler-riding, toss it all in bonfire.
I wouldn’t call it snow this morning, but I’m also not going to ride it in favor of hopefully the earlier bus downtown this morning.
Now if it could only get it out of it’s system for the weekend, that would be great but I don’t see that much reason for hope in Trump’s America. Just like I don’t see the stock market going anywhere but down, and no I’m not talking about the sales barn. I was noticing my parent’s neighbors collection of mini-ponies, aka hay burners to go along with their cattle yesterday. I can’t imagine ever owning an animal you can’t put a bullet through it’s brain or snap it’s neck and eat.
It wasn’t a terrible weekend. I should have left work early on Friday and camped overnight before the rain and had a fire but I did not. That said, I did the greenie thing and put some recyclables including plastic in my parents recycle bin and emptied out about 5 gallons worth of food scraps in their compost pile. I wish Saturday wasn’t such a waste with the rain but I did get a lot of reading in so that was good. Still hoping the forecast improves for this weekend as I want to get up north for a long weekend but not based on current very wet weekend again up ahead. Tuesday should be good though for once again riding in to work.
Shopping again tonight, I probably should have dun that last night but I wanted to get out of the apartment on what is likely another cold and rainy night. I don’t plan to turn on the heat this week but in evening I’ll certainly be using the electric blanket and probably retiring to bed shortly after dinner. Going to reheat leftovers from a few weeks back at my parents house. Pancakes this morning with shredded carrots and bananas in the mix. Not a bad breakfast, sweet but easy with lots of fiber to keep my pooping throughout the day. And now I see so many ads for chrons’ disease and IBS even if anything I’m very consistent with all that fiber.
Other than that it’s a very ordinary week ahead. It’s pay day today which will temporarily improve my bank balance and I hope I do get my state tax refund soon so I can pay my federal tax come the fifteenth along with the credit card bill. I could hit the rainy day again but I’m not sure it has much left and I don’t want to touch the savings account if I can at all avoid it. I’m hoping the stock market remains low for a while as I’d rather get my usual bimonthly investments at a discounted rate. Some point I’ll be able to turn that money into manure and fire . It’s going to be here before you know it even if there is a few cold and boring days in the meantime. Save now for a better tomorrow.
which gave them kind of rich, chilli kind of flavor. It’s find, actually worked out good with syrup and some added cinnamon and Splenda, kind of a warm flavor on such a cold morning. My hands are cold 
as I type this out. Better get in the shower soon to warm them up. 
but it was a cold trip back and forth. I finished the anti-smoking questionnaire for my $20 buck check from the NYS Health Research / Smoker Cessation program. I gave them my honest opinion on it. 
Hid under the covers and my heated blanket to warm up yesterday as the heat is off. Once I shower, I’ll ride in this morning. 
so I should have a busy morning in the office. It will help make the day go faster. Not that I’m not expecting another cold evening, so I’ll probably do dinner and bed again tonight pretty early once I get home. Get through this week and weekend, and shit weather we’re expecting. 
️
Cue the advertisements for Better Help and mattress retailers. No, what I need is a night or two in wilderness. For some reason I find it hard to sleep on Monday nights. 
Maybe it’s the stimulus of weekly shop at the bright and colorful Walmart 
or the craziness of driving 
Or maybe it’s that I still face four more days of work. I woke up for a few hours last night, and then slept into 6:30 AM. Now I’m running late and need to shower, and get on my bike and head to work up in Menands. 
and reflecting how awful life is in New York. Thanks to internet, I see how other people live, how they can survive on much less, how there are other opportunities out there. I was angry that the Supreme Court isn’t going to review the state’s sensetive areas law and all the bullshit gun laws, 
and I just so want to get out of city. Truth is I am troubled by my work, but I also don’t love Trump and I am worried 
about the tarrifs screwing things up even more. But the status quo sucked, and it’s easy to be critical of the Trumpster, but let’s be honest, for too many decades politicians stood idlely by while Rome burned. At least Trump is trying something new. 
Will the tarrifs work? Probably not, but we can’t keep going on the way we’re going. After following Homesteady’s move to Alaska, along with those off-gridders in Missouri and Arkansas I know damn well there is another world out there. 
I don’t know why I’ve stayed as long as I have in New York except for the money. And pure laziness. 
and so annoyed how people are so mocking and dismissive of it – oh he wants to go camping – like it’s some kind of lolly-gagging, just an excuse to burn things and smoke marijuana and drink beer. 
When you put it that way, it seems so trivial, that nights in wilderness are not essential, they’re just a silly recreational pursuit. I am annoyed that in two weeks, on Saturday, at 1 PM in middle of the long holiday weekend I have to go to Mom and Dad’s 50th Wedding Anniversary party, as I know that is going to be a beautiful weekend.
It’s special for them, and I know it may be one of last time we will be all together.
I guess a weekend in wilderness isn’t as essential as air, water or making money so I can pay the rent, but doesn’t mean I want it badly. And it’s not like the only think I do in wilderness is camp, indeed, the bedding overnight is only one part of adventure. 
I hate term “he wants to go camping”, it seems so trivial and it’s not at all what I want to do. I want to be in wilderness where I shoot guns, have big fires with nobody caring what I toss in fire, smoke grass and lay back in hammock, read, ride my mountain bike, 
along with spinach, broccoli and cornmeal and lots of turmeric this morning for breakfast. Last night, it was a reheat of some pork roast and apple sauce with some of those wild onions and a red onion chopped up before going to Walmart. 
Only Shopping was fine, only spent $71 which balances out from previous weeks, but they didn’t have bananas 
but I might get them on commute in one of these days on my bike. 
Hoping to commute in through Thursday, though that day might be dicey with rain. But if I get wet at the end of day, so be it. 
with a five dollar bill and promises to mail me a $20 check if I filled out an online survey about my thoughts on tobacco regulation. 
Hell, even in New York that check will buy a pack of cigarettes or a cannabis joint. It actually wasn’t that bad to do on my phone, mostly asked if I supported bans of smoking at multi-family housing, or sales of cigarettes. No. I don’t advocate for lighting up, but if people want to do it then so be it. I think treating all cigarette smokers as addicts in need of serious detoxification is a bad pubic policy. There are some people who are truly addicted, you know standing outside in cold to smoke, but that’s not everyone. 
Maybe because I do sometimes enjoy a light every once and while next to fire up in wilderness. I am sure the survey was supported by the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, and state has more money then they know what to do with for smoking cessation, so this what happens. Might as well get my $25 and because the survey it’s self is only $20, the state ethics laws don’t apply to it.
I should have left work early on Friday and camped overnight before the rain and had a fire 
bin and emptied out about 5 gallons worth of food scraps in their compost pile. I wish Saturday wasn’t such a waste with the rain but I did get a lot of reading 
in so that was good. Still hoping the forecast improves for this weekend as I want to get up north for a long weekend but not based on current very wet weekend again up ahead. Tuesday should be good though for once again riding in to work. 
Pancakes this morning with shredded carrots 
and bananas 
in the mix. Not a bad breakfast, sweet but easy with lots of fiber to keep my pooping 
throughout the day. And now I see so many ads for chrons’ disease and IBS even if anything I’m very consistent with all that fiber.
It’s pay day today which will temporarily improve my bank balance and I hope I do get my state tax refund soon so I can pay my federal tax come the fifteenth along with the credit card bill. I could hit the rainy day again but I’m not sure it has much left and I don’t want to touch the savings account if I can at all avoid it. 
I’m hoping the stock market remains low for a while as I’d rather get my usual bimonthly investments at a discounted rate. 
Some point I’ll be able to turn that money into manure and fire 
. It’s going to be here before you know it even if there is a few cold and boring 
