Personal

The propane flare burns into the night by suburban office 🏢

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I stopped at Tractor Supply to fill my propane tank, so I should have plenty for summer vacation. Picked up my bicycle with the flat tire at the office and decided it would be a nice night for a walk at Peebles Island.

As I walk at Peebles Island I’m reminded of the girl from work who died of brain 🧠 cancer. She was all about Waterford, an old mill town 🏭 about ten miles north of Albany still known for the paper factories and and GE Silicones that not only save energy but leave behind massive mounds of toxic chemicals just north of the city. Just north of the factories where they mix oily substances and hazardous waste, burn it a high temperature and take shale, heat it and expand it for lightweight aggregate to build buildings and roads on it. 🪨Pure madness I am told.

I was going to go to the Henry Hudson Park and sit down there until we’ll after dark and read 📖 but ultimately decided on Peebles Island. I’m sure come 8:15, Moses men will be reminding me it’s time to go home 🏡. I mean, they’re probably not wrong. I might go to Waterford then and sit there until dusk 🌆 then head back home, stopping at Wally World for supplies and groceries.

Waterford is a charming small town. 🏫 Ignoring the pollution from the factories 🏭 maybe it’s a place I should consider moving to. That new Blue Busplus line 🚍 would be convenient and it’s Saratoga County with lower taxes and better sheriff’s department if I wanted to eventually get my pistol permit. 🔫 Probably cheaper too then anywhere around Albany for a decent neighborhood. Maybe it’s just pretty with the moonlight and a great sunset. A lot of the downtown is on street parking 🅿 which sucks. I do get why that colleague loved 😍 her small town so much.

Tomorrow I’ll probably camp at Cole Hill or Rensselearville State Forest. 🏕 Going to be a a beautiful moonlit night even if the day is a bit cool and cloudy. 🌥 Then Sunday spend riding trail at Partridge Run and maybe cool off with an e-book 📖 in the Switz Kill before going out to see the folks.

Wasn’t the worse of Fridays until I got a flat tire going into the office … 🚴

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Not sure what I ran over but that front tire went flat quickly on my bike along Erie Boulevard. Something big, I pushed my bike the last 1/4 mile to the office. But I still was in plenty early and I should be in okay for legislative hours.

It’s stupid but annoying to say the least. 😡 If it hadn’t been a Friday, I would have just left my bike at the office and brought the wheel home and patched it. But alas, I am going to bus it home tonight, have a quick dinner, go get my bike, and then run to the store. 🏪 I will get the propane tank filled; 🏮 and get some extra food for camping and other supplies for the coming week, as I probably won’t shop again until vacation. 🍏 Might be nice to sit down by the river for a while this evening reading, although I’m kind of tired. 📚 If I need any other food items in mean time, I’ll just get them at Hannaford riding in to work.

Tomorrow I want to get out early 👷‍♀️ before the inevitable pickup trucks and the grinding and sawing 🪚 that is part of the endless next door construction on the rebuild of the unit next door. I’d rather get out early before all the craziness starts. It’s creepy having the landlord snooping around, and it’s just loud and noisy with all the construction. They keep gutting more and more of that unit next door. 🏗  I’d rather be away while it’s happening. Though it doesn’t look quite as nice as they had first predicted for the weekend, with more clouds  ⛅️but at least seasonably warm and low humidity. Sunday seems nicer. 😎 Still it’s too bad no nature bus to Thacher Park tomorrow. But I’m thinking hammock camping tomorrow 🦦 and maybe finding a swimming hole for Sunday before heading out to the folks house for Sunday dinner. 🍔

A week from now I should be in the Finger Lakes. 😁 I really want to get to For the Love of Bacon as close to 7 AM as possible on Friday, so I can hit Ithaca by around 11 AM or so. ⏲ That way mid-day I can set up camp, and be ready when I need to clock in work in the afternoon. The long range suggests it will warm up again for summer vacation, but maybe more unstable with thunderstorms. 🌩 But alas, it’s summer. Warm is good for pool time and floating on Seneca Lake in the tube or kayaking. Even biking ain’t bad on trails in the shade. 🚲 Or just relaxing in the hammock, doing some reading. And if there are rainy days, they are good for some reading, hanging out, maybe having a smoke or two. 🚬 Plus doing some cooking. 👩‍🍳 And ice cream is certainly good when it’s hot. 🍨

Your trash ain’t nothing but ash 🔥

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You know, having burned most of my trash over the years I’ve not thought that much about the plastic trash in my life. It goes in the white or black garbage bag, I smash it on down, take it up in the woods, pour some lighter fluid on it and stack a bunch of wood on it and it becomes a bright fire. Then it’s gone. But it’s still trash – carbon dioxide that’s warming the planet, water vapor and several more noxious chemicals including the much discussed dioxin and furans.

I rarely buy to go food or take out. Seems like a waste of money. Nor do I use single use products except maybe for paper plates and plastic silverware at camp that gets burnt up but even that I’ve gotten away from in large part due to the cost. I always seem to focus on the things I have to pay to get rid of and aren’t recyclable – namely broken appliances. Not things that burn up to nothing. I think this really distorts my views on single use products and trash – people who don’t burn – make a lot more trash and its a whole lot more visible then the things I burn or pay to get rid of.

You snooze you loose 😴

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I need to make a hiring decision soon. I was reminded of that in the meeting today but another good candidate gave me his references today. I’ll look at resumes again tomorrow. And then make a decision.

I’m simply not good at making decisions, 💭 I often choose the default or the first option and make do with it. Like I should have bought that rundown horse farmette property I looked at. 🏚️ If I had bought it I could have gotten a wood stove installed, moved there by now. Had a fire 🔥 pit out back and slept outside plenty of nights. ✨ You loose out on one option, there are others I tell myself. ↔️I like living in the city and traveling. It’s going to be a great summer vacation in a week. Going to loose out if I don’t decide soon – the agency director is on vacation tomorrow – so who even knows if I can get final approval until I’m after on vacation.

Part of it is a want perfect 👌 on a $40k hiring budget or maybe in the case of horse farmette $150k. And it isn’t going to happen. And life is full of risks and unknowns. The house was too close to the road, and other houses, it’s in New York and I’d have to commute out there five days a week. And I couldn’t travel the way I like to travel. I’d have to be somewhat careful what I’d burn 🔥 there and would have to devote a lot of time to it. Truth is that I spend a lot of time looking a my new business cards 🎴 which I finally ordered that say in big letters under my name, Director of Data Services. Somehow next to that New York State seal, in blue ink, it seems more real than the every day work at my job, or the paperwork I signed months ago when I officially took the title on January 1st. I know I do good work, otherwise I wouldn’t have that business card.🏆

My kitchen has gotten gross 🤮 with all the heat and humidity encouraging mildew to grow and me being busy, traveling so much. 🏕 I cleaned the counter tops, sink, refrigerator and stove. It’s much better now I tell myself. My apartment is such a dump but I like it that way. A little cleaning of mildew and spilled food makes such a difference. I’m just such a dirty hick – maybe that’s why I like farming so much 🧑‍🌾- the mud and muck, the blood and the grain and smells of silage. I don’t love cleaning and I kind of like dirt 💩 . Someday, maybe not tomorrow I’ll own my own land. 🚜 But when I am still a little bit young 🧒, I still want to travel 🌲and spend a few more nights in the wilderness and not spend all my days hauling slop and shoveling pig 🐽 shit. I can still get good bacon 🥓 in the meantime at For the Love of Bacon and the farm stands are wonderful this time of year. 🍆 🌽

Out at Five Rivers but it’s getting dark fast 🌇 as we are starting to loose daylight in the evenings and I was at the campaign committee for a while this evening before riding home, frying up some onions and rice 🍚 and cleaning in the kitchen.🧹 Don’t get me wrong it’s a delightful evening with not much humidity. 🐦 Going to be a nice weekend too, I’d be packing to head out of town if I wasn’t leaving in a week for summer vacation. Might still hammock camp Saturday night under the moonlight 🌕 but Friday night I’ll be home, ride to work both ways.

I am looking forward to summer vacation 🏖 but well aware when I return summer will be in serious decline with the evenings much shorter. 🌆 It will be so nice in the Finger Lakes. But I’ve had a lot of great adventures this summer and will have several more weeks to get away, and come September or maybe even the second half of August are going to work remote every Friday so I can camp 🏕 and work from there and be able to switch between state and campaign duties easily off state property. 🖥 I just got a new campaign laptop with built in internet so I don’t have to worry about using too much bandwidth on my phone processing data jobs. 🍁 I think I’ll have to do some work during summer vacation but a conference call on the shores of Seneca Lake doesn’t seem bad if it ends with me eating ice cream 🤣🍦 from Glen Dairy Bar.

Going to head home, sit out back with some lemonade 🍋 and look at the moon. Then head to bed as I I’ve been getting up early. On vacation I’ll stay up late, maybe smoke some pot 🚬 have some nice fires 🔥 and look at the stars ✨ to look for as many shooting stars as possible. I want to see and do as much as possible on summer vacation but I’m also not opposed to some quiet lazy days at camp 🏕, laying back in the hammock reading 📖 and riding the dirt roads on my mountain bike. 🚵 Slinging some cow 🐮 shit with the bike tires riding the Interlaken Trail through those cow pastures.

Things are better now,🔧is the phrase I frequently repeat to myself from the Art and Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance. 🏍 And it’s true even if I’m troubled by many things in my world. I know I don’t want to spend all weekend around the apartment because demolition and construction continues in the unit next door. 🚧 It seems like they keep ripping out more with little progress after four months. And winter is coming in my drafty run down apartment. I don’t care, I keep the heat low and use the heated blanket, retiring to bed early. 🛏 I could have something nicer or that homestead property, and installed a wood stove there. 🪵 After all, I know what my state business card reads.