At some point I want to move out of New York State and buy land to live on. 🏡I’m thinking in maybe 10 to 15 years as that point my investments will have a lot more time to grow and I’ll have more than 20 years in with the state retirement system.📈 Maybe I won’t get the fat retirement of 30 years but I want to enjoy life before it’s too late and own my own land eventually in a freer state. 💼I figure if I work hard and secure results for my employer I’ll continue to progress through my career.
Relocating to a different part of the country can be a challenge. How to get to know a place when you’ve never seen it before. ๐ How to convince an employer to hire you when you lack roots in an area. 🌱 I would imagine I could do extensive research on the internet, take trips there and rent for a while until I really get to know the lay of the land.
It’s relatively easy to read about state laws and policies on the internet. 📚Hot button issues are often discussed on the internet. You can read about statistical analysis of an area, study photos and maps on the internet.🌃 You can learn about natural resources, hunting laws and public lands but without seeing the land yourself it’s really hard to understand. 🗽YouTube videos can teach you more but again much of what you need to really understand the land the lens will never capture.
Over time I will learn more. Pennsylvania is fairly close and easy to explore, although I think I want to leave the snow belt behind.โ I do think the laws are better in that state the culture less toxic but I still have a lot of questions about its future. Missouri seems like a pretty nice state as does South Dakota. Maybe the south but that might be a bit too hot for my tastes. But I don’t know, I still have a decade plus to evaluate my options and learn more. I’m still learning, keeping an open mind.💭
I’m a big of farmers who are essentially Living Off the Earth and think Rednecks are Noble Savages. Dairy Farming are key to our rural landscape. I’d trust a farmer or a hunter in a pile of guts he’s butchered over any ivory-tower scientist.
I just noticed that the Bethlehem Library is largely back to normal after the pandemic. I will have to go down there and get some books and/or work down at the library. No more working out in the parking lot and I can take my muzzle off when inside the library and working.
There have been a lot of big changes in recent days as we bring back even more of the library experience you’d come to know and love in pre-pandemic times. It’s been a challenging couple of months, and we have been so grateful for your patience and flexibility as we worked hard to balance the services we provided with the health and safety of our community.
The library is now open for in-person use during the following hours:
9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday
9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday
noon-5 p.m. Sunday
Just a reminder: The library will be closed Saturday, June 19, in honor of the 156th anniversary of Juneteenth.
Following state guidelines lifting COVID-19 restrictions, the library is not requiring masks inside the building. Unvaccinated individuals will be responsible for their own mask usage. Anyone who chooses to wear a mask for any reason may do so.
Over the past week I’ve literally spent 17 plus hours sorting through wet, smokey and increasingly moldy papers trying to save whatever Albany history I can before it’s forever gone. While maybe John Wolcott will never be as famous as Erastus Corning or Nelson Rockeller, the truth is activists like him preserved some of the city’s most important history and lands, raised important questions made a difference again the Democratic machine, often at great personal cost.
While he did pretty well when “Republican” Theresa Cook (ala that time Rezsin Adams ran as a “Republican” for county legislature) was running the county clerk’s office, other times he was attacked tooth and nail for his performance as a title searcher for the county, even though he was probably the best title searcher and researcher of deeds and history the county ever had. I came across his lawsuit today drying out his papers along with the numerous exhibits on Albany County corruption and sneaky misdeeds or the Erastus Corning machine and by that time Jim Coyne’s county operations. The Corning machine was only really interested in punishing male dissidents, they couldn’t see in their minds that women could have any influence of politics. Ultimately it was the federal District Court that sided with him and had him reinstated but he fought for years to get the pension credit he deserved going back to the days when he was a consultant for Fort Orange 787 dig. The Fort Orange file got wetter than I thought but we got it apart drying. It will be saved. And while, maybe the history books write differently, certainly it was John Wolcott who helped to take down Jim Coyne through alerting the FBI to Coyne’s crooked deal over the Knickerbocker Arena, although like with Fort Orange and Paul Huey, the credit can’t necessarily be just his own.
And then as I was going through the papers, putting dried ones away I heard a screech and bang, and a car crashed into the traffic light pole at South Swan and Morton Avenue, causing the 100 plus lb traffic light to break free of the wire. The clearly fleeing car then took off leaking what appeared to be coolant. Police showed up, hauled the broken stop light off the road, talked to the neighbors and took off. Not sure what happened to the fleeting crashed car, I was too busy sorting papers. Albany is going downhill rapidly, things were looking up in the city not that long ago. I’m just glad I’ve been taking the bus there rather than driving especially with the neighborhoods getting so rough. I still remember that last time I walked down to Sheridan Hollow to visit John, a firearm rang out as somebody shot out a car window.
While working on John’s papers, I’ve been going through the EIS for a project in Troy and some Pine Bush issues in Guilderland with some tax data and GIS Mapping. People have gotten to know all the amazing things that I can do and I get more and more requests. It seems like everywhere I’m going I’m getting sucked into fights against City Hall everywhere, me with public records and free software, going up against million dollar reports with expensive professional software, internal only data and decades of training and experience. But if we don’t raise questions and fight development then who will? It’s tough as these professionals have big budgets and skills, but if house wife Jane Jacobs could stop Robert Moses, then so can ordinary people like myself. Not going to win every fight but it’s good to raise questions and stop bad development where we can. Even if it’s a pain to the local Bob Moses of today. It’s important we protect open space. Even if it involves some risk to myself and makes me not trust or respect most government workers.
Beyond all those wet and smokey papers and battling City Hall it’s been a crazy week for sure. The legislative session is wrapping up and I’ve been swamped with work, I was going through agendas for work well into the night on Saturday night. It’s been a crush at work and when I’m not in the office most of the time until late I’ve been drying out papers. I did get some bird watching in at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center this morning – saw a red tailed hawk being harassed by a few sparrows on the way out walking out there. I continue to back up, photograph and store important documents electronically in case of a disaster.
And then I’m also finally dealing with some of my own issues in my life. The counseling I’m getting is helping, it seems consistent with the advice I’m reading from trustworthy sources and publications on the internet. But change comes hard especially with bad habits of both negative thinking and repeated thoughts in thinking I’ve had ingrained for two decades now. I’m trying to change but it’s hard. I’m certainly learning a lot, becoming a better person because of counseling.
And I was doing better until the mixed emotions of Mr. Wolcott’s house fire – grief and sense of lostmy work sorting and carefully cataloging documents would be forever lost. But we saved a lot. But the shock and horror of it all, seeing that house in such disarray and burnt – that only a week ago before the fire when I was sorting and filing papers things looked so different. Plus all that stuff going to the Rensselaer landfill to be buried and forever viewed from my downtown office as a dirt and grass covered hill. Fire can be so bad, especially in the urban areas. Then I saw the other side tonight out in the country, the place I grew up. My parents neighbors, the ones who live in trailers and raise pigs and cows, were having a big ol bonfire, drinking beer burning an old couch, mattress and pallets with lots of black smoke. I’m so jealous of their homestead, even if they are what the government calls poor people who live in rundown trailers and barns. Kind of like that film about Appalachia I’ve been watching. But the country life is a life I’ll get to eventually, saving a bit each paycheck.
… Fire can destroy but it can cleanse too. That’s what my therapist reminds me.
It’s already under six inch of dirt in the Rennselear Landfill
And all I can taste and smell this evening is like smoldering garbage in a burning barrel. That kind of yuck.
This morning I started out my day trying to recover whatever historical documents I could from John Wolcott’s house which was severely burned and roof collapsed after a Sunday evening fire that jumped from a neighboring house, turning John’s archives in his attic into a raging inferno and leading to an emergency demolition at noontime today when the big diesel trucks lined up on Sheridan Street waiting to haul away the pulverized remains of 344 and 346 Sheridan Avenue rapidly removed by Di’Tonnonio and Sons’ Excavator. Another Dutch building pulverized with all its contents and covered with dirt at the Dunn Landfill in Rennselear.
I think we recovered a lot. Most of John’s files I had been going through over the past five years were saved, as much of the water damage occurred in other parts of the house. The Fort Orange and DASNY files were safe. Certainly the best of it wasn’t soaked. All the stuff upstairs was lost, as the fire was fed by decades of dry paper consisting of maps, photocopies, books and original research. Anything I hadn’t seen was lost and probably at this point with his failing memory is forever gone. That said, so much of it before the fire was faded photostat documents and with notes disjointed and memories faded its not clear how much was worth saving even before the fire. Even some of the fabled files that John Wolcott always talked about probably never existed or where just exaggerations of facts after talking with Jim Lafferty. It’s quite possible that the Democratic machine never wanted them found, although who really cares about the machinations of Dan O’Connell and Jim Coyne in 2020. Neither are likely to go to prison in the coming years even if they stole tax money and ran booze and prostitution rings more than a half century ago.
The city fire department retrieved a great deal of momentums that John and Linda had on their list to keep. Some of those boxes and books they hauled out where heavy with water. Very professional and caring. They also retrieved some of the files I had sorted, later on we were able to sneak in the back door and grab some more, along with a few other files that remain a mystery. The fire department grabbed the hard drive and computer so hopefully we can salvage the data off of that. Albany Historian and former Assemblyman John McEneny helped us salvage some materials and had some good ideas on how to save them. We are trying to dry what we can, they may take the papers to a freeze drier to salvage them. We stored them in a vacant apartment, they were going to figure out how to preserve later on.
One thing I couldn’t believe was the stink from the fire. I was prepared to go in the building, I knew it would be wet, smokey smelling. I wore old clothes, knowing that I would be covered with soot and ash by the time I had to leave – and planned to take a shower when I got home but I had no idea how pungent the smell would be, how I would track it home on my boots and my clothes. Despite taking a shower and washing my hands it’s still on them, it’s in my mouth and nose. Most just from handling documents and my brief run on doors to fetch more. It’s like everything had a sticky tar residue from the fire that reeked of smoldering plastic garbage. I wasn’t in the building more than five minutes and while I handled wet sooty boxes, I couldn’t believe how much rubbed off me.
Linda was very concerned about retrieving clothing and things like makeup from the building. That seemed so trivial to me when history was about to be forever pulverized and buried in the Dunn Landfill within a few hours. Her sister was very concerned about that but I couldn’t imagine even after washing you would want to wear any of the clothes. Certainly the fire department didn’t. Russell salvaged some of the bags of clothes but they were so wet and nasty. I thought it silly when there might have been more historical documents to save. Minutes before history lost, rather than trying to sneak in and save wet and terribly pungent clothing. Maybe it’s more salvageable then wet historical documents, and it’s better than it all going to the Rennselear Landfill this afternoon but nothing was historic or not easily purchased with money from the insurance settlement. Trying to save the new chair or chest freezer they had was pointless.
Truth be told, probably a lot more could have been salvaged from the landfill had we had a bit more time. The downstairs while water damaged especially in the back had very little fire damage. The first floor was in little risk of collapse even though the top floor was a mess. Probably in a rural or even suburban town the burned building would have sat for a while before demolition. And ultimately if labor was cheaper and material more expensive like 50 years ago, they could have saved the bottom floor while replacing the top. Assuming that they could get rid of that smell. It was so pungent! But today, the landfill is king, buildings are disposable, used for a few years to be thrown away like everything else.
They talk about all this green stuff and feel good recycling of tin cans and plastic bottles in front of every suburbanites house. But the truth is laid bare after a house fire when everything is pulverized and hauled to the landfill whether it was damaged by fire or water or not. Momentums are considered salvageable but nothing else is. Anything else you can remove is insurance fraud. And too risky, the building could collapse unexpected after the damage of the fire and water we are told. No time to seperate out the asbestos or the television or the vinyl records or the smokey, soaked rug or furniture before its buried in the landfill. The potent greenhouse gas HFC refrigerant in the refrigerator and air conditioner must be vented to the atmosphere as the building must come down, pulverized and be hauled to the landfill as soon as possible.
Maybe speed was of the essence and the building posed an immediate threat to public safety. The city engineer did and he understood better than any of us how a building could suddenly collapse. The building was old, the neighborhood had rapidly deteriorated since a drug rehab center had opened across the street. Gunfire rang out on the street minutes after I walked up it the last time I visited John to go through files. Plus the fire made everything stink so badly. Yuck. It would have been a job to restore such a mess. But in an era of greater material scarcity it probably would have happened. Probably not a lot of value at least on paper with today’s economy.
I’m just glad no one was hurt and we recovered a lot of important papers although certainly many others were lost. That house was a mess, it was full of papers and random junk. It inspired me to go on a purge of some of my own filing cabinets and discarding worn clothing so that I have less junk. Makes me even more resistant to getting more stuff. I didn’t grow up in the era before computers but I can’t imagine ever having nearly as much paper as Mr. Wolcott once had. If it’s important and I’m likely to use , scan it in. Otherwise, toss it. I know I won’t be saving nearly as much anytime random stuff in my future.
Walking around the Albany Pine Bush Preserve with the crowds of people and children, the roar of the traffic, and dark gray skies I have to wonder what I’m fighting for with so much wild, open country not all that far away, often with public lands totaling thousands of not tens of thousands of acres of contiguous acres.
But public lands close to home are important. The Pine Bush is a unique ecosystem that is critically endangered. Walk around it, especially late at night once the crowds have left and you will understand why it is special. It’s not the traffic noise or the crowds but the coyote and the deer, the mystical trees swaying above, the fields of lupine and Karner Blue when visited the right time of the year.
Now it’s unlikely in our lifetimes that the Albany Pine Bush Preserve will become the wilderness it once was before the train, streetcar and later the automobile, it sure is nice to preserve and fight for what is remaining. It’s something that I can fight for close to home, something that shows citizens like myself can make a difference in my own community.
While I love the mountains and the small town, like so many of us I must live in the city to make money and survive for now. The Pine Bush is a battle in my own backyard, a fight worth fighting for all those who can’t escape to distant wilderness or need a wild space close to home that protects several important endangered species.
Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. It’s Earth Week, a day where they celebrate spring tillage ๐ and that earthy smell of freshly tiled earth, diesel smoke and cow manure. ๐ฉ And rolling coal, ๐ป along with politicians lying about how they plan to save the earth ๐ by allowing polluters to pollute more and covering the earth with cadmium-infused glass. ๐ญ Four weeks to Average High is 70 ๐ฎ. June is dairy month, although we reach the 70s by mid-May, although the cows like that. Partly sunny and 43 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. ๐ Temperatures will drop below freezing at Thursday around 3 am. โ๏ธ
Cold start to the morning ๐ although that’s kind of my fault as I like sleeping with the windows open, so it feels more like January in my apartment then late April. But that’s fine, I’m enjoying my morning walk before work. ๐ถI just sleep so much better with the windows open ๐ณ breathing in the fresh air and diesel smoke. Lol. I remember when I had that neighbor with that big throaty diesel that would rumble each morning before he left for his construction ๐ง worker ๐ท job. Basically truck porn ๐ป. I did sleep like a baby so no complaints there. ๐ถ Probably because I whine so much there days on the blog.
Today will be scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Partly sunny ๐, with a high of 63 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 25th. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 67 degrees. The record high of 92 was set in 1976. 8.8 inches of snow fell back in 1983.โ
Such a nice morning โ that I really should work down at library today ๐ฅ but I don’t think the nice weather is expected to last much longer into the afternoon with rain โ showers pushing in. I have fair amount of bandwidth to use up by Friday so it’s not really necessary. At least wherever I work — at least for the morning, I can enjoy the fresh air and sunlight.
I keep watching for changes to bus schedules ๐ as an early indicator when to when work will be returning to downtown. ๐I feel like they will be restoring commuter service about the time they reopen the state buildings downtown ๐ข. Still the park and ride sits abandoned but maintained in pristine condition 13 months into the pandemic. At this point, like so many people I have very mixed emotions about returning back to the downtown office. ๐ After all we’ve built such a remote work ๐ป infrastructure. ๐ Come a week from Wednesday, it will be two weeks since my last COVID-19 shot so I am pretty unlikely to pick up COVID, at least not severe COVID-19, although I’m sure it will be many more months of mask wearing ๐ท at least on public transit and in places where people can’t keep 6 feet apart.
Solar noon ๐ is at 12:55 pm with sun having an altitude of 58.7ยฐ from the due south horizon (-12.1ยฐ vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐ starts at 7:04 pm with the sun in the west (280ยฐ). ๐ธ The sunset is in the west-northwest (286ยฐ) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:42 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 1 seconds with dusk around 8:11 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter ๐ Moon in the southwest (221ยฐ) at an altitude of 68ยฐ from the horizon, 242,820 miles away. ๐ The best time to look at the stars is after 8:48 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies ๐ and temperatures around 58 degrees. There will be a south-southwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 35 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 43 seconds over yesterday.
Cut my hair ๐๐ปโโ๏ธ and sideburns yesterday, as I wanted to be cooler and cleaner with summer coming around. I have that hair trimmer which works pretty good job. The hat fits better ๐งข and the hair won’t get so matted with mud and sweat up at camp. โบ
Been continuing to monitor my bank accounts ๐ณ to watch for any fraudulent activity but I don’t see any but I’m hoping that those attempted $1 charges drop off it and the problem is over. I don’t want to have to order yet another card from the bank. I really can’t figure out what happened, as I’ve not done any Internet or phone purchases, and everything else has been dip-style purchases with the secure chip that doesn’t pass your credit card number through the machine. Maybe I have to tape something over card number from watching cameras, or I guess something could have read the strip even on the dip machine. ๐คช PARANOIA! I just hate dealing with coins ๐ต and exact change, after all these years of swipes.
Tonight will be partly cloudy ๐, with a low of 42 degrees at 3am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 28th. Should be a decent evening once the rain showers pass this afternoon. South wind around 5 mph. In 2020, we had light drizzle in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 36 degrees. The record low of 19 occurred back in 1875.
Weekend forecast looks pretty decent for late April. โบ Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 64. Maximum dew point of 38 at 8pm. Sunday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 57. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Typical average high for the weekend is 62 degrees.
I really think this will be the weekend I make it to the Adirondacks. ๐ It certainly might be a nice weekend up north. I might then head out to Central New York in the following weeks, just because there isn’t as likely to have black flies every where. Depending on the status of remote work come May, I might go out there for a week. I think working down by Seneca Lake with my laptop could be quiet pleasant, doing some camping up in the National Forest. ๐ฒ I know, just wishful thinking. But I spent a lot of time last summer working from shore of Lake Pleasant and that dock on Sacanadaga Riverwalk. ๐ฑ Still undecided if I will drive up on Friday or Saturday. I noticed they’ve raised the price on pre-treated safe and legal firewood at Stewarts, but maybe I can find a pallet in town I can chop up and burn, and use my magnet to pick out any nails from the fire pit. ๐ฅ ๐งฒ
Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Pack Rat Day ๐ when the sun will be setting at 8:13 pm with dusk at 8:45 pm. By then the greenies’ burn ban will be over, so when you do your clean outs in country, make sure to pile enough pallets and try not to burn too much noxious rubber or PVC products. ๐ฅ How much a different world it could have been had not that redneck been burning garbage upwind of a former Governor and high-price John’s country home in Columbia County. ๐ข On that day in 2020, we had mostly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 74 and 54 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 70 degrees. We hit a record high of 92 back in 2017.