Personal

Is Andy Gay? 🏳️‍🌈

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I think that’s the assumption with the pride flag I hang at camp and the fact that I am a male in my forties who is never married without kids.

The truth is that if anything I’m a pyromaniac, I love burning things. Watching that log burn in the campfire, that plastic bottle shrivel up and disappear in the flames really makes me horney.

Give me a cabin up in the woods with a woodstove and a burn barrel out back for the burnable trash and I’d be happy as a pig in shit. I don’t need the government to tell me what I can and can not burn – I’m well aware there are places like rural Pennsylvania and Missouri with far fewer restrictions on open burning.

It’s not that I haven’t thought about settling down. Or that I didn’t try sessions with a licensed mental health therapist. But ultimately I am who I am and despite maybe a little black smoke from time to time in the wilderness, I doubt I’m hurting anyone much. I get that modern trash in full of chemicals and some of them are going to be released into the environment went burnt but so is the world we live in.

I’ve been told I would be happier if I settled down, got into a committed relationship with a man or a woman. I’ve been told that masturbation is fun but sex with a fellow human being is far more fun. I do like my pictures of burn barrels and reading about rednecks burning their trash when I can’t be up in the woods burning my own stuff.

Some day I will settle down, have that homestead and time for a committed relationship to a man or a woman – I don’t know I’ve never gaven it much thought. Somebody who shares my interests, wants to spend the rest of their life on my homestead. Join the local fire department when I live in a rural area, not just for the fun of participating in controlled burns but also so I can help my neighbors, develop fellowship and make sure they’re not on my back when I’m burning debris on my own land.

By no means am I anti-gay. I say live your life as you choose, I’ll do my thing, you do yours. I’m not ruling out someday a relationship with another man or woman but I enjoy my life as it is today – even if it is a redneck dumpster fire.

Pride

Lee Kindlon Defeats Soares

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Incumbent District Attorney David Soares in recent years has become a thorn in the side of Democrats, with his position on the state’s major criminal justice reforms – bail reform and laws around sharing discovery with defense attorneys and youthful offenses. His positions not only were conservative and backwards looking, they branded all Democrats as soft on crime and twisting the facts about reform that was helping promote justice and get many peoples’ lives back on track.

In recent years, DA Soares had been the State GOP’s best advocate. His positions provided a voice to conservatives, a way to point out liberals – – and Democrats more generally – – were making the state unsafe and embolding criminals. While there is no evidence that is true, DA Soares amplified the GOP’s voice, allowing them to make inroads in state politics and almost delivering them the Governorship in 2022.

I didn’t think a non-African American could defeat DA Soares. There are many white liberals in the county, but without the coalition of African Americans, it’s hard to see them picking up the DA’s office. But apparently progressives in this low-turn-out election dumped the conservative Democrat from the DA’s office. Still it has to be a bit bitter irony that DA Soares, once the progressive challenger, was tossed out in the wastebasket by the voters for turning conservative, by a new progressive challenger.

Plus DA Soares kind of did in himself, getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. As the county’s highest paid employee, making over $200,000 a year plus with a county driver and full police protection, he decided he needed an additional $22,000 bonus from a state grant. While maybe not unlawful, such actions stunk to high hell, representing pure greed for soembody already well compensated and potentially too comfortable after 20 years in office.

Is DA Soares gone for good? It’s not clear. He could potentially petition and get on the ballot as using an Independent Nominating Petition, after collecting 1,500 signatures county-wide from people who hadn’t previously signed a DA’s petition. With the support of the County GOP and more conservative-minded Independent voters, he could potentially win his way back to the DA’s office. I could see conservative campaign contributors and police unions building a coalition to keep the conservative DA in his office.

Went out to Five Rivers for a while this evening to read 📚

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Truth is I ended up spending more time on my phone then doing all that much reading. 📗 Most of the e-books I got from the library are interesting but not that interesting in my mind. Maybe I need to get some more books, especially on Hoopla as the month is coming to a close. I think I want to get more books out about computer programming, as I often find them the most interesting and useful to read. Plus I need to start reading that book I got out from the library about fixing up old houses — as one option to research going forward — even if I’m passing up on that house down the street from my parents house.

I am sitting out back, the fire flies are out and the mosquitoes kind of biting, 🐝 but it’s been a pleasant day not too humid but warm. Sipping some nice cold lemonade that I freshly squeezed with some stevia. 🥤 Snacking on some pumpkin and ground oatmeal. 🥣 Didn’t get out at lunch time, because things were just too busy in the office and a project came in. It’s really been non-stop, but I’m always trying to step up, 📄 use my data science skills to move projects forward in the office and impress people with all the ways we can work with data. 🤖

I’ve been so busy the past few days, 👨‍💼although some of it is I am inviting additional work into my life right and left to keep extra busy. I think maybe it’s a coping mechanism from walking away from the fixer-up house that could of been mine, had I not mentally made a long list of all the reasons I should not buy it, or being too afraid of the risks — like the gap in fire insurance, the unknown situation with the water and electricity as both are currently turned off. 🔌 It was a nice property in many ways, but it also came up short in my mind in many ways — noisy next to the main highway, that weird inset in the property, the lack of forest land or a woodstove. 🌲 The reason I found out about the issue on getting fire insurance between the sale and moving in was actually calling the insurance agent to discuss the cost of adding a woodstove to the property. 🔥 Plus the whole issue of the eviction of one of the locals who previously lived there, and my werid relationship with the folks in the neighborhood.

And despite all my talk about moving back out to country, I really enjoy riding my bike to work, 🚴‍♀️traveling on the weekends and on extended vacations, not dealing with motoring except for fun. Maybe it’s fear driving my mind, or my lack of knowledge and experience in the situation, but ultimately I decided it’s not the right time or the right property. 👨‍🎓 I’ve studied a bit on buying property, land ownership and development and off-grid cabins, but nothing on fixer-upper properties. 🔨 I would want to have more book smart on such a topic before committing. While some people gave me advice on potential real estate lawyers, I don’t have a property surveyor or home inspector on speed dial, much less an assessor on dial. It’s a lot of money to pay all those people 💸but if you don’t want to get screwed, it’s best to pay up front and know all the facts.

Truth is if I want to live out in the country, 👨‍🌾 I really want to live out in the country, outside of a small town. Kind of like when I was out around Fort Plain and Canajahorie. Plus, let’s be honest, New York State sucks on many levels especially if you want to live rural. Simply living in a suburban subdivision that smells like cow shit 🐮really does nothing for me. Yet I’m also well aware that I’m only 13 1/2 short years away from age 55, and if I want to take early retirement from the state, that’s an income source plus tapping the 25% of my salary I’ve been saving now for years pre-tax in retirement. Won’t be a lot of money coming in especially with tapping my state pension at such a young age. 🏚 but if I tap my savings and investments, build a small, very rustic off-grid cabin in a low-cost state like a Missouri or South Dakota, raise a lot of my own food, maybe run a data or GIS business for a little spending cash, I could make ends meet. 🚜 And it would certainly be better then buying some house that I don’t really want with a long commute.

There are definitely housing options in the mean-time that are affordable, 🏘 even if none is as cheap as where I currently live. That said, so far I haven’t been evicted and I think my landlord is just happy with me being a paying tenant, now at a slightly higher rate. But alas inflation. Being able to bike or walk to work (and take transit in bad weather) is a big money saver. I may be able to eck a few more years out of Big Red, 🚘and certainly my next truck will last through the start of early retirement at age 55 if I continue to not use it for commuting. People say if you don’t follow your dreams now you’ll regret it but I always point out to them — you have no regrets once you are dead. The median age for taking over the family farm is people in their late 50s, probably if you look at people who build off-grid homesteads, it’s close to same age too. 🧓There is always some risk you’ll die before age 55, but if you take care of your body, eat well, the risk is relatively low. 💪

Weekend looks wet ⛈ so I’m not hopeful about getting out of town. 🚲 If it’s not too wet, I still might go to Thacher Park via the Nature Bus and ride home down the New Salem Hill — it’s so much fun. It all depends on how wet it is. I also want to get over to Rensselear County to pick up some sparklers and ground fireworks for Independence Day Weekend. Also want to get some cannabis to enjoy during the long holiday weekend — I haven’t smoked cannabis in years but it might be fun up at camp. 🚬

But then again, Thursday and Friday the following week I have off for Independence Day Weekend. 🇺🇸 🎆 I’ve thought about Piseco-Powley again, would like to do some time in the tube, but I’m also considering the Green Mountains especially Forest Road 71 Somerset Airfield now that it’s open to ride it and float in a tube in Deerfield River in that swimming hole next to the campground. ⭕ 🏕 The problem with New York State land is unless I get a camping permit I’m going to have to find a new campsite after 3 nights, plus who knows what will be taken if I leave work at 5 PM… although I’m hoping to sneak out closer to 2 PM but things sometimes get busy in the office.

I should stop listening to this Frank Zappa record and get ready for work.

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Tuesday. Up and away from you. Give it a bit of gas and ease your foot off the clutch and off we go a bit faster.

Monday certainly was a busy day. 👨‍💼 When you are gone for six days a lot of things accumulate needing to get done both in the office and around home. I ended up working late last night a bit, 💻 then sticking around a bit longer for the rain to pause before catching the local bus home as I didn’t want to ride home in the rain.

The sky opened up at 5 PM but it’s fine as I had to work somewhat later, 🌧 and then when I finished up I waited for the thunderstorm to finish up and then caught one of the later locals back home. 🚌 While not raining when I left the office, I could see the rain clouds in the distance, so I took the local home rather then riding home and getting soaked. Not a bad decision because it was raining by the time I got home.

When I got home last night, 🚲 I had fried zuccunhi for dinner 🍆 and then waited for the rain to stop, when I ran down to Hannaford and got some groceries. I have to go to the laundromat at some point — maybe tonight although maybe I can wait until Wednesday at this point as I think I have enough clothes.

I really hate stuff 📦

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Maybe because I’ve never had trash pickup since setting out on my own, grew up in the country with burning barrels relatively poor, are kind of a dirty hillbilly and a hoarder of sorts, I really despise stuff.

I get the fact that humans need some stuff to survive. You obviously need food, water, clothing and shelter. That’s a given and that involves consuming some stuff. Other stuff like a truck to get to the mountains, a camper to camp in, a mountain bike to ride trail and get from place to place makes life better. I like my big jacked up truck, I like having a basic smartphone, my camper shell with the lights for wilderness camping.

That said the problem with stuff is it breaks and wears out. Often soon after you purchase it. And it’s not just an issue with buying cheap disposable stuff at Walmart like the marketers often claim to be. Everything seems to break and get used up quicker than you would hope and expect. You buy stuff, you should be planning it’s disposal too. Much of that stuff – things they call durable goods but really ain’t – don’t burn very well either so it means trips to the dump.

I don’t know the solution. Not getting rid of things just means you end up with a lot of broken clutter that still needs disposal. Things get stuffed in the crawl space or the corner and are forgotten. Bonfires are great – heck Thoreau was talking about community bonfires in the 1800s – but even they can’t fix what seems like the inevitable flow of broken crap in our lives. I try to avoid buying stuff but it seems to just creep into our lives.

You may leave here for six days in space, but when you return it’s the same damn place 🏙

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It’s tough to return back into the routine, especially when you get back at 9:15 PM at night because you were out riding and exploring Canajoharie and other Mohawk Valley hick towns before driving back through Rural Grove.

I am well aware that NY 162 is closed, 🚧 though you can sneak by the road closure over Old Spraker’s Hill Road, despite the local traffic only sign. I bet the residents along that road aren’t happy with all the traffic winding back and forth over theirr hill, not taking the official detour which adds miles to the trip.

Most of my gear is packed away, 💼 and at this point based on the forecast it doesn’t seem likely I’ll be getting out of town, though who knows I could still end up hammock camping. ⛺ Things could certainly change, I am more then willing to consider a trip up to the Green Mountains this weekend. I figure get away while it’s nice.