Photo of Andy Arthur

Andy Arthur

October and already the leaves are fading away in the Adirondacks. 🍂 Most shocking to me is that we are less then a month away from November, which in many ways should be a sigh of relief with the craziness of work and with the deep blue skies and crisp days of that month.

Those nights camping at the State Horse Camp on Christmas 🤶

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I was listening to Joni mitchell this evening as I wandered around Bender Mellon Farm Preserve as the sunset.

But it don’t snow here
It stays pretty green
I’m going to make a lot of money
Then I’m going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly

Nice evening for Christmas

I was reminded of that Christmas Eve almost a year ago I spent alone at the State Horse Camp. I was on a pre-Christmas at Stoney Pond and then Charles Baker State Forest, riding road and camping, ended up staying through the day after Christmas due to my parents being sick and quarantining. I roasted chestnuts and cranberries on the fire and listened to Joni Mitchell’s River song among other Christmas music.

Christmas Eve at Camp

Spending Christmas alone at a State Horse Camp without presents to open, just cool cloudy and long evenings alone sounds kind of depressing. But I liked the serenity of it all, the time alone spent with nobody but myself as a few snow flurries flittered around, as I enjoyed Greek yogurt with chestnuts and other holiday nuts roasted on the fire along with cranberries. In the cold of the night, the darkest time of the year as we celebrate Christ’s birth.

Drizzly morning at camp ?

I am struck by the lyrics, “I’m going to make a lot of money, then I’m going to quit this crazy scene.” I love being out in a place like Madison County, the deep rural yet I am stuck here in Albany except when I can get away on a crazy cold evening like that weekend in the deep rural as I heard the cows moo and the coyotes call out in the distance. I keep almost craving homelessness, the simplicity of being a traveler. At the same time, I think about buying some land and making a tent my permanent home, assuming the government workers in some rural township within commuting distance to Albany would permit such an unconventional way of living. Or maybe just a hammock, traveling from place to place, living on the street. That said, I really want to get away from the city. It’s not the cannabis that has me thinking this way but the podcast I was listening to about preparing for homelessness. It’s a silly way to think when I’m a hard working director.

Roasting nuts

The vinyl siding, carpeting, drywall and central heating does nothing for me. I crave the mountains and the small towns like I was in as I camped at the State Horse Camp last Christmas. Away from the endless lines of code, data dumps and the garbage dumps and the pollution. Places that tap into my soul and give me a feeling I so lack in Albany while I try to keep my head afloat, survive and make the best of my life in the very problematic world that I currently live in.

Grandview Wind Farm

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Built on the old GOB pile from coal mining near where the Flight 93 Memorial is located, high up on the Grandview Ridge not far from the Lincoln Turnpike.

They call it the fog of war 🌫

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I found myself running the same label job at the end of the day that I had run earlier. I was just so fried even though I kept up with the emails for the most part but work kept piling up for tomorrow as I checked my spreadsheet of work orders.

I’m out wandering this evening at the Bender Mellon Farm Preserve. 🏞 It could have been a Target big box I tell myself. I’m listening to Jonni Mitchell’s Blue and Paul Simon’s 1972 album as the sunsets and I enjoy the beauty. It’s cool but clear and the sun is setting so early but it’s to be expected this time of year. 57 days until Election Day and I fully admit I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. 😋 While it’s been nearly two weeks since I smoked at camp, I swear I still see so much more beauty than in the past. But maybe it’s all in my mind.  🧠

I could have hurried home after work 🏡 but its a nice evening and I’d rather avoid the craziness of the endless construction 🚧 zone that is my dumpy apartment. I needed to get away from it. Bike pedals were really clicking ⚙ until I rode a few miles, but then the noise went away. I got to track it down or admit I need to drive in one day and head to the shop at lunchtime to get repairs. 🛠 I also keep telling myself that I should hang out at the Troy Bicycle 🚲 rescue and learn some skills. Seems more like lubrication issue, and that’s certainly something I can handle. 🏘 I keep seeing possibilities for houses and land and I should schedule a tour before I’m homeless but I fear 😱 making a bad decision. I get you have to pay to play but it’s such large sums of money and so much risk. 💵 And maybe I want the impossible.

Plus I wasn’t really hungry. 🍔 Lunch was Burger 21 which was good but I didn’t like it was wrapped in throwaway plastic containers and it was all chicken tenders and bun and barely a slice of lettuce and a pickle 🥒. And a massive cookie. 🍪 I know I didn’t have to eat it or I could have tossed the wrapper in my bike box 🥡and taken it home but that’s silly 😋. I had to be at the meeting and I was hungry after climbing the big State Street Hill. 🚲 Even if I don’t know where the hell this is all leading, I’m becoming a damn good R programmer, if you consider that a programming language. I was working so damn hard today. 🖥

The debate is on too late for me to listen. 📻 I tell myself, I don’t really have a dog 🐶 in this fight. Even if I did, I can’t change it. But I won’t be a victim, let the politicians ruin my life. I’ll do what is right for me, even if that offends you, is morally distasteful and somewhat illegal. ⚖ I’m not you I’m not society. 🌎 If I can’t save the world, I’ll at least save myself. It’s getting dark fast 🌇 and I should get on my bicycle 🚲 and ride home and enjoy the summer squash before that’s done not before long. 🍆

I need the moon (I need the moon), but the landlord need money
A field of wild flowers that the stars could provide
A bird on my shoulder to fly through the rainbow
First things first when you get to the sky