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Happy Friday! 🎃

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It’s a Friday already, which seems to happen so quickly but then again with all my meetings and events that are going on these days, and working remote other days, it seems like the week goes by so quickly. Final Friday in October, which seems really had to believe.

Cooler out today but sunny. 🌞 Morning are hard to get going being so dark these days. I was going back and forth whether I should work remote today or go into the office, 🏢 as I like the ride and it’s excellent exercise on such a beautiful day 🚴 but ultimately I settled on working remote, as I want to work from Five Rivers at least this afternoon and go for a walk at lunch time. In the morning, I’ll probably work down at the library at the picnic table I’m thinking. Figure enjoy the beautiful weather, it won’t last. 🍂

Last night I decided there was just enough daylight, 🌇 so I rode out to the Bender Mellon Preserve after work to look at the mountains close to dusk. After next weekend with the time change, that certainly won’t be possible, and indeed I’ve been looking at additional lights and DOT tape to add to my bicycle for safety when night riding. 🔦 If I decide to ride in from the Menands office, the commute home will be in darkness, though probably I would only ride to downtown and get the express from there.

This morning was was carrot pancakes. 🥞 Used up the last of baking powder I had so I ended up using some yeast in the mix. Made it almost bread-like, it was a 50%-50% mix of baking power and yeast. Gave it a bit extra time to rise with warm weather and beat it well. Came out pretty good. I’ve been too much into sweets lately having spent a lot of time as campaign committee doing work there with the break room full of candy, so I’ve been adding too much stevia and frozen fruit to fill my sweet tooth when I’m not in the office. That said, I would never buy anything that crap of myself.

This weekend I’m staying in town, 🏠️ hoping to do an oil change on Sunday when I’m out at my parents house 🔧 and also go apple picking with dad. 🍎 That way I’ll have fresh oil in the truck, and I’ll just wait to rotate the tires until December when I get my state inspection done. I am not planning a lot of trips for November, probably do a trip out to the Green Mountains or — maybe — Cazenovia over Veterans Day Weekend and then maybe a trip to the East Branch of the Scanadaga on the Friday after Thanksgiving. But mostly November I’ll be home more.

December is when I’m more likely to take time off to do that Cazenovia or other trips once rifle season is done, 🦌 though a lot depends if we get early snow in December or not. It’s possible I do something next weekend, but I’m undecided on that fact. Hoping for some rain so the fire risk is less. 🔥 It’s surprising how dry this autumn has been, as usually if anything the climate has gotten wetter in this general area.

Been working on updating a bunch of maps on the blog. 🗺️ I am surprised how much ad revenue has dropped recently on my blog, though I don’t do political ads, which is currently where all the money is. Probably ad revenue will increase as the holiday season approaches. But also now that camping season is done for a lot of people, my blog doesn’t get the search engine traffic it once did. No ad check this month, though I should have enough revenue to get a November one. Maybe I set aside too much from paychecks to pay taxes, now that interest rates have dropped and as has blog revenue.

I keep reminding myself…

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The truth is Donald John Trump may very well be the president elect in a little over a week and a half, although chances are good that the parties will still be counting ballots at that point and fighting over election law in the courts. The Republicans will most likely win the US Senate and it’s looking increasingly like they’ll keep the House. But we won’t know for sure until the votes are cast and counted.

I have very mixed feelings about that. I generally believe in divided government, that there should be somebody to say no and keep the politicians honest. But despite casting a protest vote against Kamela Harris, I do kind of hope she is ultimately elected. I fundamentally think many of Trump’s ideas are bad such as tarrifs and I like smoking pot and believe in renewable energy and a role in government in creating rules for a fair economy.

Ultimately, we are victims of whatever our nation’s leaders decide, though elections are very temporary things and it will be 2026 and 2028 before you know it. Politicians are a lot more constrained then they let on and we all live in the zeitgeist of the times. We have to do the best we can do in our personal circumstances, regardless of what we see blaring on the color television.

Carry Lean-To

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Exploring the Carry Lean-To in the West Canada Lake Wilderness, off of the Cedar River, about a mile above the Cedar River Flow.

Then it got cooler this Thursday …

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I woke up during the middle of the night when that cold front pushed through, the wind pushed up and it got cooler in my bedroom. Still, yesterday was a beautiful day and today is cooler but not exactly cold. Definately though this morning reminds us we are well into the second half of October. It was dark and I got a late start into the office.

More clouds this morning and cooler. ☁️ I greased up my chain and headed in, packing the last of the brown rice made so creamy and delicous by cooking down with red lentils, turmeric and a bit of salt. 🍲 To beef it up I added some veggies. That also was dinner and lunch yesterday. It reminds me a lot of those processed-rice dishes you can get like Rice-a-Roni, though with the red lentils and brown rice, it is much healthier of an option. 🛌 It was hard to get out of bed this morning.

I decided to do my own oil change this weekend, 🔧 so i don’t have to worry about getting that done with it so hard to get an appointment, having to take time off from work, etc. Then I’ll have them rotate the tires in December when I have state inspection done. 🔎 🛻 I might do a trip out to Cazenovia next weekend, though I’m thinking the following weekend — Veterans Day Weekend — might be better, possibly tagging a few extra days on it. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about remote work, I could be fully off the grid.

I might instead camp Veterans Day Weekend along the East Branch of Deerfield River in Vermont. 🏕 Then I’m thinking Black Friday through that Monday, camping off of NY 8 and East Branch. Come December after Big Game Season, as I’ll probably have time to use, I’m thinking that would be a good time to camp in Cazenovia or Brookfield, and maybe do more of the Canalway outside of Utica/Rome. 🚴Figure best to plan any further away trips after the state inspection, as they could find defects in the suspension, etc. that would be worthwhile to fix before I have a breakdown on the roadside. 🚛

I’m not particularly phased about the upcoming election 🗳️

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One of the two leading Presidential candidates will likely win the election, and they will inevitably go on television each night, causing indigestion in millions of households across the nation. The politicians and their enablers, the news media, will remind you that everything is at stake and you should go out to vote, but the truth is bar the indigestion the election may cause to watchers of television, not much will change regardless of who is elected this November.

Politicians act like they are all powerful, how they can move socities but they are awful constrained both by existing law, existing technology, and future elections. Politicians have to constantly be on their toes, they have real reason to fear the voters in two to four years. Politicians have a lot less power then they like to express. They say all kinds of crazy talk, but when it comes down to it, they are just another bureaucrat in the government. Even the President has very little impact on your day to day life.

The older I get, the less I pay attention to the news. The more I operate on a need-to-know basis. There are some things that are legitimately important to know about, but there is also a lot of crap out there that has little bearing on one’s own life, and even when it does, you have very little control over it. Why be angry or concerned about who is going to be the next President when we all are soon to be victims of whomever is elected for good or bad? Only time will tell.