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A beautiful Sunday morning on Cole Hill ⛰️

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It’s nice waking up in the hammock in the morning watching the sun rise over Filkins Hill. Start a fire, make some coffee and fry up some eggs after lugging them up the hill.

Really not a half bad trip ☺ being only less than a half hour from home and essentially on the way to the folks house for Sunday dinner 👪 later in the day. Want the fuel ⛽ in my truck to last through the start of summer vacation. Plus not listening to all the construction 🚧 back at my apartment. I can’t believe he’s still working on it. And it doesn’t look like it will be done for August.

Rode along Cole Hill Road to the Berne – Westerlo town line 🚲 yesterday evening after dinner which didn’t include salmon 🐟 because I left it in my truck and wasn’t going to walk down the hill again to get it. 🤷‍♂️ It will be fine to eat on Monday night when I get home. Been craving some omega 3 fats for a while, wish I had bought some cans of sardines not just for the easy to eat omega 3 fats but also all the calcium from the bones. 🥫 Also hiked 🚶 about five miles on various trails on the state forest, read 📖 a bunch and hung out and relaxed in the hammock. A somewhat lazy weekend but it’s still work hauling gear up and down the hill. 😰

On my list 📃 of much needed supplies to order online before summer vacation 🏖 is a new glass top for my percolator. ☕ I theory I could get them at many of the Ace Hardware stores but I’m hoping mom can order for me on Amazon so I have before the trip. Along with new replacement glass for the Coleman Lantern 🏮. Plus maybe a kickstand for my bike and new handle grips though neither is essential – kickstand does kind of get in the way and snags shit and most of the time when I’m not riding it it’s locked 🔒 up to a tree or bike stand.

Looks like hot and stormy by midweek with some rain ⛈ so who knows how much I can ride into work 🚲 but that’s fine. Get packed and clean this week while home. But in the meantime today, just a relaxed pace, doing some reading 📖 of the remaining e-book due tonight at the library, riding and exploring Partridge Run with maybe some cooling off at the Switz Kill. Also want to explore a back road with some land for sale, 🚜 just to see what it’s like as a potential home site some day in the future 🔮 but I’m not buying this summer. Just to enhance my understanding of land better.

Am I employable with my blog? 🧑‍💼

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One of the hardest decisions of late is deciding who to hire to fill the Word Processor position at Data Services. It’s a $40k job that isn’t the most demanding when it comes to credentials, you basically have to be able to type and use web apps and a bit of SQL. I had roughly 250 people apply on Indeed plus a few more resumes I got from staff and I interviewed roughly ten and made a short list of three or four to decide upon.

I’ve been calling their references and seeing what I can find out about them by Googling their names and checking their public social media accounts. Some of its pure curiosity but I also want to see if they will be a good fit for the office, if they’ve done anything notable good or bad, and if there is anything that they’ve posted that is really on the fringes that could come back to embrass me or my employer.

I worked for over two years as the Deputy Director of Research Services – and a decade ago was a Researcher – so I know a thing or two about background research into individuals based on public records and what’s out there on the internet. I’m pretty good at digging up dirt using just what’s public. And it’s important to do due diligence – be it government appointees or new hires. Plus not only do I not want to get in trouble with the agency director but also I don’t want to go through the process of interviewing a whole new group of people should the new hire not work out.

For a while I was a big social media user but once I became the Deputy Director of Research Services I deleted most of my social media accounts and locked down my Facebook. Not that I ever post many of the popular memes or political posts – but I certainly have my own views on the issues of the day. I hate how nasty social media gets with the comments and the shares. And the echo box nature of social media with its likes and shares.

That said, I sometimes express my views on my blog about politics and every day. I am not strongly partisan – I’m an enrolled Democrat and I work for the Democratic party but I keep an open mind and have independent and sometimes conservative views on issues of the day, such as gun control. I like my Gadsen flag and the freedom it represents – even if it’s alienating symbol to liberals. I like bacon, burn my garbage, own guns, drive a big jacked up truck and I am working to own my own land and have that off grid cabin. All those things are distinctively pungent in some people’s minds. I frequently talk about my experiences, my travel, nights in the wilderness. When I write and share on my blog it’s for all to see including a perspective employer. How would I look at my blog from the perspective of some one who just Googled my name and found it as one of the first listings?

I don’t know how I would view it. Probably not negatively, if anything I would note the wide variety of skills that Andy has or what an adventurer he is. But maybe I’m overly favorable about myself – I’d pass a different judgement on others. Obviously, professionals have a personal side, they do things besides work. Now my social media nor my blog is cultured for super high inspection by the public or as an uppty professional, but it is me. I tell my story, one word, one photo and map at a time. Maybe for some perspective employers my blog would be a negative but maybe I wouldn’t want to work there at any rate if it’s so opposed to whom I am as an individual.

The smell of crime 👃🏻

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We all went to high school and remember the smell of pot burning in the high school bathroom. Or wafting from the street corner. And remember it was only a few years ago, if a cop caught you with visible pot – you know like when you were smoking it or just had it out on table, you would be charged with a misdemeanor crime, have to go to court and potentially jail, rehab or probation. Possess too much pot, and you were looking at years in prison.

Nowadays marijuana is legal, not only can you possess it and grow it, you can easily and cheaply buy it at a dispensery that is similar to buying beer in Pennsylvania at a package shop. It’s now cheaper to get stoned then drunk. If your over 21, you just walk in to dispensery, tell them what you want and pay with cash – or for a fee, credit card.

After smoking it, as a legal product, cannabis really has a different sensation and smell. Still pungent, it’s still a quite rich smell. It’s the smell of a good, relaxed experience to be enjoyed and not associated with the cops, jail and court. It’s no longer associated with all the evils of government and the moralizers who say it’s the devil’s lettuce.

A week from now will be my first full day in the Finger Lakes 🏊

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Probably spending it Watkins Glen doing all the usual favorites – swimming at Glen pool, riding the Cayuta Trail and around the village, Rock Cabin Road observing nature, sunset at Seneca Lake.

But in the meantime I’m spending this weekend camping at Cole Hill just for an overnight. 🏕 Just a quick hammock camp though I got here relatively early as come the end of milking and feeding 7:30, Preska the dairyman 🐮 and contractor for the landlord was installing siding and working inside the unit next door making a bunch of noise. It’s just creepy to have them next door 🚪 on the project that never seems to end. I knew they’d be there early today so I wanted to get away to the woods 🌲. Setting up camp at around 9 am this morning.

Figured hammock camp tonight 🎑 as it’s going to be a full moon and nice weather. I wasn’t up to do a full weekend camping as next week was summer vacation and the previous to was July 4th at Pisceo Powley and then the weekend in Schoharie. But it was too nice to stay home. Plus it was nice going to Waterford and Peebles Island last night. I put a new tube on the bike 🚲 – I’ll patch the old one and have that with me come summer vacation lest I get a flat. But usually it’s Erie Boulevard where I get flats.

Just taking it slow today. 😴 I’m fried after the week that was and I want to ease my way through the weekend before vacation 🏖. I am fairly ready for vacation at this point and the thing is unlike the Adirondacks, there is plenty of stores 🛒 like Walmart and Tractor Supply out there if I need anything. I did a fair amount of cleaning on Thursday and I’ll have all week to pack. That said, I’ll probably do some hiking at Cole Hill this afternoon and maybe a road ride in the afternoon depending on how hot it is. 😰 That said, laying in the hammock is good by me too.