One of the great laws they’ve adopted in recent years in New York is Early Vote By Mail, where you can sign up once a year to have all the election ballots for the year mailed to your home address in a post-paid returned envelope. It’s so convenient, as about a month and half before the election, you get your ballot mailed to you in the mail. Included with the ballot is a privacy envelope, simple instructions, and postage-paid return envelope which you can use to drop your completed ballot in any USPS Collection Box, USPS Post Office or your home mail box.
I am a busy professional, and while I have Election Day off as a State Holiday, I often volunteer or work my other job with the campaign committee on Election Day. Primary Days I usually have to be in the office doing state work. But sometimes I travel on Election Day so I am no where near my polling place. Plus they moved my polling place further away from my house, to save money. So it’s really just a whole lot easier to fill out the ballot, in the privacy of my bedroom, without anyone looking over my shoulder or waiting to use the privacy booth, and then surrender the completed ballot at the USPS Collection Box on my way to work. And you can track both when the County Board mailed you your ballot, and when it was returned to the County Board.
Heading up to the sixties today.Yesterday afternoon was a pretty nice day for visiting the family, riding out to Wally World, then out to Five Rivers and eating more pinto beans.
I am listening to the Eve of Destruction, 💥 Think of all the hate in Red China and take a look around to Selma Alabama as Barry McGuire sung some 61 years ago. What a clusterfuck the whole situation is in Iran 🇮🇷, people say it’s transitory like inflation. I mean, gas prices are expected to hit $4 a gallon this week and S&P 500 futures are only down 1% after being down 2% earlier in the week. Assuming there isn’t some kind of massive rebound this week and the Trumpster gives the world a dumpster full of puppies and kittens 🐕 🐈 I have my doubts I won’t be getting an excellent deal this week when I dollar-cost my way into the stock market after getting paid this week.
Dark morning today, with the time change ⏰ but I slept well last night and was up a little after 5 AM. Going to head in early in case I hit a bit of snow and ice on the bike trail this morning, as I was late past few days to adverse conditions riding in plus I was in late an hour when I test drove that ginormous pickup truck 🛻 last week. I was leaning towards putting in an offer on that truck mid-week but you know I’m having second thoughts, and I am less and less motivated to buy because not only am I unsure I truly loved the truck, but also because with gas prices going up, I don’t see loads of buyers racing to buy trucks. Thanks to the internet, all I can think is of how to get every inch of leverage possible in a car deal, and a recession and high fuel prices could definately help. Gas lines would be even better. I mean, who doesn’t want a big block when gas is $5 a gallon? Makes an excellent driveway ornament.
Going to decide the next steps 👣 by Wednesday. I may put in a bid for the truck I test drove last week if still available. Or I might just wait. I do think the white color scheme is kind of boring, even though the black accents help. 🐮 The black and white Godzilla Holstein. But some of colors are nice, but it’s hard to find a long-bed SuperDuty with the Godzilla and the FX4. Not to mention, do I really care about the color? Capacity matters more then appearance. But won’t white get stained yellow from dirt and sap, and look like yellow-mud-manure colored fur of a Holstein cow against the white of snow? It’s a truck for camping in wilderness. And with gas prices so high, do I really want the biggest block engine currently out there? Pumping loses are real, and even though I mostly do highway driving, I do occassionally run into stop lights. 🚦 Maybe my friends are right, what I need is a Taco truck. 🌮 Honestly, I’m not that excited about driving once again, or filling up a 34-gallon tank.
Rode out to Wally World yesterday. 🛒 It was a nice ride, though on the way home my bike was very much overloaded. Didn’t a lot of milk for my coffee ☕ this morning, but I did enjoy lots of blueberry pancakes 🥞 (with carrots 🥕 in the mix of course for fiber). I am basically down to my last egg 🥚 and milk is completely empty, and I’m low on whole wheat flower. 🍞 All things I can stop and get on the bike commute home, which will have plenty of daylight and hopefully not much snow and ice to deal with on the Rail Trail.
Then went out to Five Rivers 🐸 for a while and went for a walk, no boots 👢 required. It was a surprisingly nice evening, with daylight well after 7 PM. Still lit bit of ice and snow around but not terrible. ❄️ Should be nice today, even if I do hit some snow and ice on the Rail Trail on the way in but shouldn’t be too bad one way or another.
Things often these days are quite foggy. But boy did it feel mild without a breeze this morning when I stepped out a few minutes ago before the rain showers pushed through.
Once the rain stops, I should ride over to Walmart 🚲 and get some groceries and supplies though if it looks like it will hang around for a while, maybe that will be best done after I get back from visiting Mom and Dad. Honestly, now we have that extra hour in the evening which will be nice. Still a fair bit of snow around, including on the Rail Trail but with the warm weather today, and especially tomorrow ☀️ it should be tough on th remaining snow and by Tuesday I would imagine much of snow will be gone from the Rail Trail. I have a Pine Bush meeting on Wednesday. 🌲
I never did go out to Five Rivers yesterday, 🌬️ as it was pretty breeze, cool and gray most of yesterday, and I just wanted a day off to hang out, think and not do a lot. Also obviously did not go shopping. 🏪 I think I am starting to make piece in my mind about buying the truck, I want to talk to a few more people to get their opinion, but I think I want to put in no-nonsense bids on a few trucks I was looking at. I think I have a good gage on what a fair price, not too low that dealers will ignore my proposition but not too high that I am getting totally scammed. ⚖️ Its’ though though as configurations very a lot, though actually there are fairly standardized configurations if you dig through the pile of crap on Window Stickers. 💩 Truth is trying to decide really is tearing at me, as is watching the Middle East blow up. 💣 Am I buying myself the ultimate adventure rig? Or is the Godzilla Holstein a White Elephant? 🐘 It is a work truck. At some point, the check will cut, money gone, I’ll have the truck. It’s just a number on bank account, I need a truck if I want to get to wilderness, and even if I end up selling or scrapping it in a few years, there will be some residual value.
I don’ t know, it’s just so crazy these days. 🤪 It could be an amazing rig, many good adventures ahead, and ultimately what gas costs week to week doesn’t matter, as much as what it does over the next 15 years. ⛽ You’re going to have times when prices go up, other times when it’s cheap. A Taco 🌮 might be more fuel efficent but it’s not right option for me. I have started to move on a bit more, looked at truck caps, solar panels, and even battery boxes, chewing what I can and should move over form the old rig. Cellphone booster for work and streaming from camp. Diesel heater too but that can wait until next autumn, though I want one before mid-October if it’s going to be chilly at times and I’m doing a lot of remote work from either the National Forest or the Adirondacks. 🏕️ I definately want more then 100 watt in solar, but I haven’t decided if I will get a second 100 watt panel or look at a larger commercial panel to mount on the roof. Need to spec out the cost and what would work with my existing equipment. Probably get a flat roof cap over the long bed. While I liked the extra height of the MX cap on old truck, the one tons have deeper beds, and higher roof lines, so I think I’m good with the flat roof, and that will help with the gas economy and easier getting the kayak on and off the roof. 🛶
Other then that, I don’t know. 🫘 Finished off the last of the chickpeas I cooked up earlier in the week and now I have pinto beans cooking down on the stove. Listening to Steven Stills and his gang sing Helplessly Hoping, noting some day I’ll have a house with a porch like the one on the album cover. Maybe I should put more of time into finding a house, building a homestead, but I still want to travel and have some fun while I am still young. In 15 years, when I retire, I can buy land and a cabin, and move forward from there.
Helplessly hoping her harlequin hovers nearby Awaiting a word Gasping at glimpses of gentle true spirit he runs Wishing he could fly Only to trip at the sound of goodbye
Wordlessly watching he waits by the window and wonders At the empty place inside Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams he worries Did he hear a good-bye? Or even hello?
New York State has 31 active, signed Interstate Highways (9 mainlines, 22 auxiliary routes) — the most of any state.
Main Interstate Routes in New York:
I-78: Short, crosses from NJ into Manhattan. I-81: Connects PA border near Binghamton to the Canadian border via Syracuse. I-84: Crosses the state from PA to CT through Port Jervis and Brewster. I-86: Runs east-west across the Southern Tier (Southern Tier Expressway). I-87: Connects NYC (via Major Deegan) to the Canadian border (Adirondack Northway). I-88: Connects Binghamton and Schenectady. I-90: Longest route, stretches from PA line to MA line via Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany (NYS Thruway). I-95: Runs through NYC, known as the Cross Bronx and New England Thruway. I-99: Short connector near Corning.
Auxiliary and Other Routes:
I-190/290/990: Connects Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Amherst. I-278/478/678/695/878: NYC area routes including the BQE and Van Wyck Expressway. I-287/684: Major NYC bypass and connector in the Hudson Valley. I-390/490/590: Rochester area spurs and loops. I-481/690: Syracuse city loop and bypass. I-587/787/790: Capital District and Utica area connections. I-781: Short spur to Fort Drum.
