Wine Country 🍷
Hills outside of Penn Yan.
Taken on Friday August 14, 2020 at Notes.
Personal
The world with less saturation 🌎
That was the thing I was noticing last night into today after that vacation that was and involved a lot of pot smoking. And the general decline in wide angle perception and the magical nature of the landscape. Even the Grateful Dead seemed less inspiring.
The lows after the high. 😔 The cruel nature of returning to reality after ten days floating 🛟 in the land of ice cream 🍦 and cattle. 🐮 Rainy day ahead today, though I’m busing it in 🚍 which ensures no rain for either the morning or evening commute. 🌧️ I mean, the colors weren’t that psychedelic on vacation 🌈 but they were certainly enhanced and more saturated. Or maybe that was the rural, agricultural landscape of the Finger Lakes with all the natural greenery. 💚
Washed Big Red 🛻, and my clothes 👕 and got groceries at Wally World. 🛒 I wanted to get the mud off Red to keep as much moisture off the sheet metal which as it turns 13 in October and going into it’s 14th winter is flaking off right and left. 🪱🥫A bunch of weather stripping fell off my apartment door🚪 and my bike chain 🔗 was clanking maybe due to the need for oil or mud, or maybe because it’s due for replacement. 🔧
One good thing was after all that ice cream on vacation, 
only ended up putting on a few pounds — 209 lb according to my doctor. 
Of course if she is to be believed I am only 6 feet and 2 inches tall, which is absurb when you see that on my driver’s license I am 6 feet and 5 inches, but maybe they want to increase my BMI so they can sell me more medication. 
Even though they measure me with my boots off at the doctor’s office 
I can’t imagine I loose 3 inches with the boots off, as I’m not that short. Plus everybody tells me I’m tall. Last time I was weighted at the doctor’s office I was 207 lb, so it’s not a big gain, and the plan is to burn it off, though not today as I’m not riding to work. 
At least I’m eating healthier again — big thing of carrot pancakes for breakfast 
with lots of carrots, shredded oatmeal, whole-wheat flower, egg, sugar-free syrup and lots of fresh fruit. 
No more beer or getting high until I go camping again. 
And it’s not going to happen this weekend with the weather forecast. That said, with the weeks’ forecast riding to work may be difficult many of the days. 
I’ll have to try to get the Plaza early to walk more days.
Intel is a Victim of it’s Own Arrogance
What’s the Difference?
One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more 🐉
Off to the doctor’s office this morning to have my yearly physical, and find out how many pounds I put on during vacation eating all that ice cream and smoking all that pot. Hopefully my memory has improved somewhat, but it was a fun week, even if it went by much too quickly.
I ended up leaving Ithaca around 5 PM last night, 🌇 and it was a beautiful ride home. Still seeing a lot of beauty and richness in color that I didn’t see before. Somehow vacation just opened my eyes to a lot I didn’t see before. You know it really has me being a lot more open to New York now that cannabis is legal. I don’t hate upon it quite so much. Plus those burn barrels down in Penna kind of stink, even if burning shit in the country 🐮 is still fun and it keeps it out of landfill. 🔥
Got home a little after 8 PM. 🏡 Or at least the place I get my mail, as I’ve never considered Delmar much less the Albany-area to be my home, but merely a place to stay over temporarily while I make some money and figure out the next step. The traffic on the Thruway was obnoxious, I really should have gotten off at US 20 but I was tired 😴 and just wanted to get unpacked. Got most of my gear put away, 💼 fried up an onion 🧅 with some cornmeal and went to bed. 🛏 In many ways, it certainly is convinent to turn on a light switch and be flooded with light 💡 and a sink 🚰 and get lots of fresh cold water, rather then running low on the water bottle. In many ways, things are better in the wilderness, 🦉 but also urban life is much more convinent. It’s something I’ll have to consider further if I build that off-grid cabin some day.
Doctor’s appointment at 9 AM this morning 🧑⚕️, I get to find out how many pounds I put on with all that ice cream and munchies 🍅 from the cannabis I smoked. 🚬 That said, most of those munchies were on brightly colored sweet fruit like strawberries 🍓 and tomatoes. 🍅, the later which were so fresh and good out in the Finger Lakes. Plus while there was certainly lazy days on the tube, ⭕ there also was a lot of time riding the bike, 🚲 probably well over 200 miles though I didn’t have the speedometer running on my bike all of the time due to the rain. ☔ I tell you that week did go by much too quickly though.
So far the weekend forecast doesn’t look for getting out of town, 🌧️ but it is a Nature Bus 🚍 weekend if I want to go Thacher Park. Maybe Big Red and my budget need a rest for a weekend. Plus who knows how busy I’ll be work, still catching up after 10 days away from it all. 🖥 I want to get back out to Schoharie County at least one more time before Labor Day and one more time up to Piseco-Powley during the month of August. Labor Day Weekend still I plan to do Speculator, remote working that day. Maybe it’s a good weekend to spend at home reading, 📖 though Sunday looks decent. Piseco-Powley is great because once your set up there, you can ride your mountain bike 🚲 everywhere, so if you want to smoke, especially that White Wedding with the 23.75% THC, you can do it without having to worry about driving anywhere. 🚘 And just be really relaxed all day long. ☺
We’re not guilty, we are addicts ☀
Fifty years ago, it seemed like that the war on pollution would be won. Things got better, especially after the Clean Air Act of 1990. But the scientists warned us about climate change, and we ignored their warnings. The high that fossil fuels gave us was too attractive.
And now we are seeing the consequences of climate change. Beaches closed due to blue-green algea. Air dirtied from wildfire smoke and extended heat waves that further cook the tail pipe emissions from cars. Clean water and clean air increasingly seems like it’s a more distant goal.
Things aren’t necessarily better stoned 🧠
Somehow I had this idea that smoking pot would make me a lot more creative, increase my ability to understand the world around me. Find some tranquility, laugh more at the shitty situation we all live in. Occasionally I giggle a bit, the leaves and clouds much more fascinating but it’s not earth shattering.
If anything it’s a reflection of how arbitrary our laws and are government are. As a gun owner in New York State I already knew that to be the case, but it’s more and more obvious when you think about it more. The same can be said about the burn ban in New York, it’s almost treated as saintly by the state politicians but in rural Pennsylvania nobody cares, people burn all kinds of debris. I’m sure if I was a woman of child birthing age, I would feel the same about state abortion laws. What is perfectly legal and commonplace in one state can be a serious crime with serious prison time in a different jurisdiction.
My mind has to think you’re free to leave one state for another if you choose. But you have to follow the laws of the jurisdiction your in or you risk serious punishment. But then again, only if you are brought to the attention of law enforcement – which generally doesn’t go out of their way to cause trouble for people it would seem.
Maybe you don’t need pot to be truly creative. Or maybe I should try a different strain. There are many things I want to figure out in life and could use some colorful inspiration.