Personal

I feel sweaty and sore this morning 🌧️

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It’s the rain and humidity for sure. More of a drizzle right now, but for a while it was a very intense rain.

Walk out of any doorway
Feel your way, feel your way like the day before
Maybe you’ll find direction
Around some corner where it’s been waiting to meet you

I can’t believe it was a week ago that I was at Cornell in the Finger Lakes. 🌼 The days of grass and grass puppies 🐮 are fading rapidly in memory. That was a pretty rainy day though not as rainy as today. I can listen to the Grateful Dead and ponder my indecisiveness as the days. No rain currently – I almost could have ridden in but Erie Boulevard will be a canal by evening if the weatherman is to be believed, though they keep stepping down the rain forecast. 🌧️

Last night I was tired 😴 and fell asleep 🛏 shortly after dinner of fried zucchini 🍆 and some oatmeal and cherries 🍒 and watching an interesting video on 555 timers. ⏰ I should get back into electronics again. Maybe it’s a good way to pass the winter, especially if I stay in my dumpy and drafty apartment for another year. I was going to read 📖 some of the numerous ebooks I have out from the library but that didn’t happen.

Walking 🚶 the Empire Plaza before catching the shuttle 🚀 up to Menands on this soon to be very rainy ☔ morning. It looks like the Finger Lakes will be getting particularly wet, so maybe it’s best I’m heading to the suburban office 🏢 and not out in the wilderness today. I need to bite the bullet and decide who I am going to hire today. I mean I’ve made up my mind but I’m not ready to admit I’ve decided. I also probably should reinstall Zillow and continue trying to figure out my housing situation. As I’m sure the nailing and jack hammering will be starting up extra early tomorrow next door after the rain day today. 🚧 And I’m watching the stock market continue to crap out 📉, which is chewing away at my assets but also should eventually help with housing and auto prices.

I’m undecided about the weekend. ☀ The weather has improved enormously since earlier in the week but tonight is going to be rather wet and stormy and nothing is packed. Tomorrow is the Nature Bus 🚍 out to Thacher Park. I could do that and then hammock camp sort of like three weeks ago. Or I could go out to Schoharie for an overnight of riding trail and swimming 🏊 at Mine Kill and floating in the tube ⭕ on the Schoharie Creek. Water levels might be very high, but next weekend looks bad in the long range forecast. But we are down to two more weeks left in August before Labor Day Weekend. 📅

Well everybody’s dancin’ in a ring around the sun ☀

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Not that one is going to see much of the sun the coming day or so, but the weekend forecast has improved significantly as the dire emergency hurricane is expected to come and go this evening into Friday evening. Friday evening will probably be too much shit to head out of town, but maybe I can go to Thacher Park on Saturday’s nature bus and or spend Saturday evening in the wilderness.

Up at a little after 5 AM this morning, frying up a big pan of onions, summer squash and eggs with some cornmeal and tumeric. 🍳 Seems like a good way to start out the morning. Heading in early this morning as I have meetings downtown mid-day and I need to make sure I get my legislative hours in if possible. Plus I have a lot of projects on my desk that need to get done including figuring out who I’m going to hire or if I should interview more people. 🤝

Foggy morning for the ride in but rain later. ☔ Already packed my rain coat on my bike, but I’m hoping the rain holds off until at least 2 PM so I don’t get soaked on my way to downtown for the afternoon meeting. I’m sure in the evening though I’ll be busing it home, but so be it. At least I’ll be able to ride in during the morning.

Yesterday I got to the farmers market, which was nice. 🌽 Got some sweet corn, eggplantand peppers, and one of the former employees brought in some zucchuni and cucumbers 🥒 which I was enjoying last night. Plus it was a fun ride downtown, especially the ride from downtown, down the hill to Menands. 🚲 Visited the downtown office 🏢 for a while, caught up on happenings so I can better coordinate with my office in the suburbs.

Last night the bike 🚲 trail was so congested. It was crazy busy, like bumper to bumper with cyclists and walkers and dogs. No fun with so much congestion. I decided after I got home just to go to the Town Park 🏞.

Grateful Dead and Stoned Poneys 🐴

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You know I’ve really gotten into the Grateful Dead.

I was looking for some good music to listen to on vacation while smoking pot, and I knew my stoner friend from years ago was a big fan of Grateful Dead. We used to listen a lot in his car, he had Sirus XM Radio with the Grateful Dead channel.

The thing is I’ve gotten to like the Grateful Dead even when I’m stone cold sober. It’s not clear if it’s because my brain has been permanently rewired or if just good music bringing me back to those days of yore – both on vacation and listening to the records in his car. Or a logical progression of musical tastes. But the Grateful Dead is just such good music.

Kamela

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I like Kamela Harris. She’s much better than the incumbent, who you can argue is better than Donald Trump but still is yesterday’s man. Kamela is somebody who you can vote for rather than voting against the other guy.

Under a Harris Presidency, we will continue to see the fight to take on climate change and more help to states and people facing the now inevitable consequences of climate change. There is a lot of pain ahead that might have been avoided if we taken action decades earlier. But at least Harris won’t stick her hands in her ears and deny reality.

I hope that between Kamela and her Vice president, Tom Waltz we can finally see legalized cannabis in all fifty states. Or at least much more progress ending federal regulation on cannabis in favor of state limits. Some states will inevitably stricter the others, just like how it is with alcohol. Some states will inevitably limit sales to dispensaries and package stores while others will inevitably allow sales at gas stations along the freeway. But at least the feds should get out of the way of the market.

And I think Kamela will be a leader in the field of greater fairness to consumers and people all over. People will be treated fairer in the work place, when the shop, seek healthcare and education. Of course, it’s not clear how much she will rein in prices, as regulation is costly. But even if it’s not cheap, you will get a fair and a quality deal or at least that’s the hope.

Mountain bike works a lot better when you knock all the cow shit off the derailer 🐄 + 💩 != 🚵 😀

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That’s my observation, and after cleaning the deraileur and greasing the chain up well, things are running quite smoothly for the morning commute. Still raining a bit out this morning but should clear out by evening, which means I should be able to commute both ways to work without worry today.

You gotta ride when you can ride. 🚵‍♀️ At least this week with all the shit weather we have with hurricanes. I can’t believe the landlord was out grinding away at the building at 7:30 AM this morning 👷‍♀️ still working on the unit next door. Makes me glad I didn’t buy that that rundown homestead for $150k earlier this summer with all the foundation issues — I am sure I would still be spending all my time repairing the shit foundation, pouring concrete, ripping out rotted out boards. 🏘 That said, I know my current housing situation isn’t long in the making, the $700 rent last year that became $800 as of June certainly come next year will be $900 or more. 👆 I really should find a permanent place to live, but inflation is eating everything alive. New York is great for the legal grass 🪴 but the burn ban,🛢️ gun laws 🔫 and political culture 🦍 more generally is so obnoxious. But it’s where I make my money 💵.

I totally get it’s the panademic that is jacking the shit out costs. 👾 It was a fun summer while it lasted with remote work, but we are now paying for it everywhere. I got my car insurance bill for September 🤯 and I was shocked to see it went up to $660. Really? It was only $520 six months ago in March which seemed unreasonably steep as in 2021, it was only $378 after the panademic. A big drop then, but things are really out of control. 🚘 I get there have been a lot more crashes lately, 💥 cars have gotten so damn expensive for all those safety features and electricifation 🔌 and so forth. It’s not like that I’ve gotten any tickets or in a wreck in over a decade now, and that wasn’t even my fault.

Maybe a recession is just what we need now. 📉 God only knows. I have a feeling if the markets are in the crapper 💩 and lots of people are unemployed, then there were would be fewer car crashes and prices might come down all together. I mean, I didn’t feel good when my net worth dropped by $20k upon the stock market dip on Monday, but that’s part of the ride. Market is still up 15% over a year ago, and since June I’ve been hoarding cash rather then buying stock — outside of retirement — to buy that shit homestead next to my parents, 🏘 which I ultimately didn’t buy due to my concerns with getting insurance on it, and the foundation and rot issues I saw when I looked at it. Maybe I could have protected my assets by dumping a ton of money in it, 💰 and then moving out to country, but that’s not the option I chose. Maybe I was an idiot. Or I could have bought a nice house in the suburbs, either with a 15-year mortage or cash. But I want a place I can have hogs 🐽 and goats 🐐 and burn my garbage. 🔥 But I could have done something else. But right now I’m just the new landlord’s bitch. 🐶

It’s just money, I remind myself. 🤑 And I make good money, but I also see my future at such risk from inflation. But I’m better off then most people, I am not at risk of immediate homelessness, 🤪 and I can ultimately buy something if I have to rather then live on the street even if it’s not exactly what I want. But I still want to live rural eventually, 🚜 have my own land and livestock, 🐷 fires, 🔥 and grow and smoke a lot of pot. 🚬 Yet, I work so hard to get shit on by society and it’s inflation and taxes. 💸 And that annoys me to no end. Someday I’ll make it happen m

I got to admit it’s frustrating. 😡 I finally decided on a new employee and the day before she was to start decided not to take the job. $40k is not a lot of money I agree 👍 but it’s what I was alloted. And people where I work all are struggling to get by but it’s hard to ask for raises 🙏 without a plan to improve the agency’s performance. I have ideas and I’m working on implementing them but it’s a matter of figuring out where to get the data from and getting a line to buy data from commercial brokers. Matching the data and the coding is the easy part. I was just shocked 😲 to learn how much rot 🪵was in the agency when I took over. Things I need to fix – I have the technical tools and I can make it happen but it won’t be easy. But then again, I remember reading the Power Broker 📙 and things weren’t always easy for Bob Moses at first.

Big Red 🛻 is getting up there and realistically will need to be replaced in the next year, I believe. I guess it’s an opportunity to get something smaller and more fuel efficient ⛽ and consider car commuting 🚙. Maybe it will be the end of the adventures as they were and moving onto the next stage in life. I’ve grown comfortable with the way things have been over the past decade and unwilling to invest in change and a potentially better life. My run down apartment is such an embarrassment as an agency director who even in these inflationary times is doing better than most.

Yesterday was nice at the Pine Hill Arboretum 🌳🎄and truth he told it was rain free enough I could have biked to work but I didn’t trust the weather. The evening was cloudy ☁️ but only a few sprinkles here and there. This evening should be pleasant too ☀ but rain comes back tomorrow evening through Saturday. ☔ At least it’s not during vacation, which is now just a very colorful memory, somewhat lost in haze. 💭 I’ll also ride in tomorrow as well as I have that meeting downtown in the afternoon so it’s easier to ride 🚲 then try to take the shuttle back and forth. 🚀