Up bright and early, before 5 AM. And I was running early before I was about to leave and I couldn’t remember where I left the pot. Yeah, so I spent a fair amount of time looking through my bags and then where I stored it before I remembered where it was secured. Then I had to stop and get olive oil and scrubbing pads at Price Chopper but they had some good strawberries cheap. Then I had to visit Samdill’s which is a bit out of the way on my way to the Adirondacks.

Early start to the day,😴but I’m here. At lunch time I’ll set up camp and assuming the internet works well enough over my phone, and I don’t have anything too data intensive, I’ll work from camp. Maybe I’ll make up some coffee later, this morning I did a caffine shot with shredded oatmeal and bananas to avoid having too many piss breaks on the drive up north.

Forget to get olive oil and need deodorant 🛒 so I started my morning at Price Chopper. Those strawberries look good, I also got blueberries and kefir at Walmart last night. Stopping at Samdills’ got me some corn and summer squash both which should be good — I already had some zucchini and with eggs and cornmeal I should have a lot of good eats.

Fixed the bike kickstand 🚲 so that should be good this weekend. I will oil chain up well, and plan to do a lot of riding, especially on Sunday into Labor Day. Next week I will probably replace chain, I just got to make sure the one I have will fit the bike. This should help maintain reliability, as the chain is a wear part, and I don’t want to destroy the gears. That is this time.

Saturday is going to be rainy, but hopefully it won’t be an all day rain out.☔ But I have several E-Books and audio books to read and enjoy. And I plan a working weekend, I’ll have my laptop to work on and maybe once work is done for the day, have a puff or two in the truck cap. Sunday looks much nicer, with lots of sun. I will do a lot of riding and hiking that day, I might go down to Speculator to see the firetower lighting on Sunday. Labor Day, I will probably ride the Speculator Small Loop. And stop by the Kunjamunk Cave.

Drive Safe and Save. 🚦 So far I’m pretty happy and not annoying as I feared. I was dinged once for excessive braking. No interference or ding for smartphone screen being on and Waze running — it displays an icon when it’s running but no messages pop up on the screen. 📱 The icon disappears shortly after you park the truck, and they don’t charge you for touching the phone when your not moving. Doesn’t seem to drain the phone battery much while charging in my truck. Ultimately though, it’s only pennies a day. 👛➕ Adds up but not much.

Brought the tube ⭕ and paddle but no kayak 🛶. The kayak is heavy, and I’m going to be so busy this weekend that I don’t want to mess with it. Plus cool and windy on Labor Day. I’ve done a fair bit of paddling the previous week. When I come up here in late September — maybe that last week or Columbus Day Weekend — I will probably bring the kayak. Also thinking of a remote work trip to Rensselearville State Forest in a few weeks.

Blog has done well over the past year, and the first year of advertising will likely have brought in close to $1,000 by the time one year of advertising is done late September. That said, we need to start withholding more money 💵 from my paycheck to cover blog taxes. Already been doing $200 a month extra withheld for state and federal taxes, but between interest, and dividends, and blog income, I probably need to boost that further.

Been so busy with work. 💻 I keep volunteering for new projects.🪜I am good at what I do but I keep stepping things up. But it’s good, I’m learning new skills and becoming more efficient one everything I do.

Discussing smoking 🚬 cannabis on Facebook. Talk about people being opinionated. But it such a complicated topic with such strong opinions. A lot is a value judgement, and I’m be careful and having a lot of fun in the wilderness on my days off.