Day: June 22, 2019💾

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Why I Rent

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My rent is currently $675 for the apartment in suburbs I’ve lived in for almost 12 years now. That’s $8,100 a year which sounds like a lot of money going to waste (if you consider shelter a waste, which is probably better than being homeless) when I could buy a home but I actually think I come out ahead renting.

While it’s true that I’ll never get back the money I spent on rent, I’ll never get back a lot of money buying a house, especially with a mortgage and the high property taxes that are the norm of living in New York. Buying land and a property has all kinds of other sunk costs that I would never recover either – motor vehicle commutes, consumables like lawn mowers, water bills or even common repairs that add no actual value to the home. I’m quite happy living in the modest apartment I’ve had since I moved to Delmar, I don’t need more.

At some point I do want to move back to the country and have an off grid cabin but not in New York. It’s just too expensive with the taxes, the restrictions on open burning, the gun laws, all the taxes, fees and regulations. People across the country live in places far cheaper and freer than New York. But moving out to the country in a freer state means giving up my job, my family and even my community and the consistency of the suburb life served by public transportation.

As long as I live in New York, I’m quite content with a small apartment in the city on public transportation and saving the money I’m making with a low rent for a better tomorrow. While I doubt I’d want a larger building when I’m a landowner – smaller is cheaper to heat and clean – land is important so I can hobby farm, hunt, trap, have fires and burn whatever I want on my land.

Those days will come eventually even if for now I live modestly in my rented building, saving for a better tomorrow.

This Supreme Court Decision Should Worry the EPA and FDA

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This Supreme Court Decision Should Worry the EPA and FDA

Under existing law, vast discretion isn’t unconstitutional provided there’s an intelligible principle to guide it. The laws that delegate authority for regulation to the Environmental Protection Agency or the Food and Drug Administration confer that authority in extremely general terms — but express the goals of a cleaner environment and safer food and drugs

Yet Gorsuch argued that the very doctrine of the intelligible principle makes no sense, and “has no basis in the original meaning of the Constitution.” In his view, Congress can assign “essentially fact-finding responsibility” to the executive branch. But it can’t delegate “legislative power,” understood very roughly to mean the exercise of central policy-making judgment characterized by “unfettered discretion.”

I think this is a interesting court case to watch, as sometimes administrative agencies do abuse their power making public policy when that's the job of the  congress. 
Map: Lincoln Mountain State Forest

June 22, 2019 Morning

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Good morning! Happy Average High is 80 🏖! Well that’s not the case up here in the Adirondacks but still a beautiful day. Three weeks to Hottest Time of the Year 😅. Partly sunny and 64 degrees at the Perkins Clearing. There is a north-northwest breeze at 13 mph. The breeze is nice, no mosquitoes today but a big ol horse fly got me in the hand ✋ where it’s tender. 🍃. The dew point is 47 degrees.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 71 degrees at 3pm. Nine degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 22nd. Maximum dew point of 47 at 10am. Northwest wind 13 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Good for the bugs. 🐜 A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 81 degrees. The record high of 95 was set in 1954.

I ended up sleeping 😴 in until 10:30 this morning, recovering from the week that was. Beautiful day for sure but not real warm by summer standards – not beach weather. I thought about hiking back to Pillsbury Lake but that’s such a tiny parking area, I’ve misplaced my flashlight 🔦 last night when I was on the bucket shitter and it’s already afternoon. Maybe instead I’ll just fish the Miami River, maybe hiking rather than driving there. 🚶

The sun will set at 8:42 pm with dusk around 9:18 pm, which is 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 64 degrees. The dew point will be 48 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 13 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 25 minutes of daytime, an increase of 6 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 47 degrees at 5am. 12 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 17th. Northwest wind 6 to 13 mph. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 57 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1940. Be wearing the hoodie again tonight.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Hottest Time of the Year 😅 when the sun will be setting at 8:37 pm with dusk at 9:12 pm. On that day in 2018, we had hot weather, mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 88 and 61 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 83 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1894.

Big Red

SVGZ Graphic: All America City