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August 5, 2020 Night

Good evening! Mostly clear and 70 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌌 There is a northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 57 degrees. It’s a very pleasant evening. Lots of stars ✨ out back and the crickets 🦗 are singing 🎶 their song.

I went over to John Wolcott’s house 🔎and we went through the most interesting file 📂 of old photos and documents relating to preservation or lack therefore of the Fort Orange site now buried ⚰ under Interstate 787. 🌉 I took some pictures of the files and I’ve posted some and will continue to post more in coming days. 🖼

It was a pretty quiet day at work 💻and I was able to get the quick photo 📸 uploader up and working. This allows me to quickly upload photos from my smartphone 📱 to the blog and some of the other content as an alternative to the traditional uploader which is better for uploading several maps or photos at once. 👆 Combined with the better camera on my new phone I should be able to post high quality pictures from my trips on the fly.

I got next week off from work 🏖️ and I’m heading out to the Finger Lakes this weekend for a week or socially distant vacationing. It’s a real vacation, none of this remote work from the wilderness. 💻🌲🌲 This year I don’t expect to spend every day at a state park 🏞 but instead will do more hiking and kayaking 🛶 away from the crowds. The first half of the week looks pretty nice ☀ but if the second half kind of is rainy ☔ I have lots of books to read 📖.

Might try to camp at that site with more limited cell reception as I kind of want more quiet. 🔕 I’m not saying I won’t visit the Glen Dairy Bar 🍨🍦 a few times or maybe get up early one or two mornings and get a spot to swim 🏊 at the Watkins Glen pool but it’s not going to be the focus of some years. 🌻I want to do different things, more hiking and paddling and less crowded gorges or touristy places during the pandemic. 👾 Nothing wrong with staying in camp a few days with a book 📙 or watching the cows graze on the pastures 🐮. I really do get tired of all the emails 📧 and social media 😜 especially the trolls send emails that are downright harassing.🤬

I picked up most of the supplies and food 🍲 I will need for the first few days of my Finger Lakes trip. I also got two waterproof cases for my phone and camera 📸 should I decide to bring them kayaking 🛶. I also have a knock off Go Pro camera 📹 which I should figure out how to attach to my kayak. I’ll need some night crawlers 🐛 for fishing 🎣 but I’ll get them once I get out there. I’m also looking at getting another water container with a spigot that I can put on a table and turn the spout 💧 for water.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 56 degrees at 4am. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 3rd. Maximum dew point of 57 at 9pm. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies. It became sticky as the night progressed. It got down to 63 degrees. The record low of 45 occurred back in 1994.

Tonight will have a Waining Gibbous 🌖 Moon with 93% illuminated. The darkest hour is at 1:02 am, followed by dawn at 5:21 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:53 am in the east-northeast (66°) and last for 3 minutes and 10 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 3 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:32 am with sun in the east-northeast (73°). Tonight will have 9 hours and 42 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 19 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 80 degrees at 3pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 18th. Maximum dew point of 58 at 8am. Light northwest wind. Hell, that’s going to feel like a an autumn day. 🍂 Low due point, cool temperatures and deep blue skies. 🗻 A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 84 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1900.

Tomorrow as downtime allows I’m going to pack 💼 and clean my apartment 🚿getting ready to leave probably early Friday and working remotely from camp in Madison County. I could change my mind depending on how busy Thursday and Friday are but actually prefer to get up early rather than making the evening slog especially with the sun setting earlier now. 🌇 I also need to go to the laundromat, 👚 probably work from my truck there plus the atm 🏧 although I guess I could do that in Friday morning.

I got two more books out of the library today. 📙 Some how with the online ordering I ended up with more books than expected – I kept ordering things I thought I wanted to read 📖 and with delays I kept ordering more. Kind of like AliExpress 📦 but only free. Most of the books are on farming and homesteading – it’s a topic I’ve been doing a lot of reading about this summer plus one book on solar power and off grid living. 🏡 Also got Storey’s Guide to Raising Pigs 🐖. My fascination with pig farming started with Cam Edwards and maybe my neighbors raising pigs growing up and has only grown since learning about the grazing breeds like this Idaho Pasture Pig 🐽 that is so trendy these days at least on the internet.

In four weeks on September 2 the sun will be setting in the west (281°) at 7:27 pm,🌄 which is 42 minutes and 51 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had rain and temperatures between 76 and 62 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 77 and 57 degrees. The record high of 100 degrees was set back in 1953. It’s funny to think we’re talking about September so soon. I should see about updating the countdown clock, it’s been a while since I’ve done that. 🕒 Maybe tomorrow – got to find the dates of all the upcoming autumn holidays. 🍂

July 4, 2020 Night

Good evening! Mostly clear and 78 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. The dew point is 60 degrees. Still pretty warm in my bedroom tonight but not as muggy as last night.

Kind of an odd forth of July this year 🎇 to spend the evening home. A lot of people lit fireworks though off in town and there was a lot I could see looking out to the mountains this evening. Probably saw more that what I would have seen camping up in Moose River Plains but it gets pretty crazy up there 😜 come the forth of July. I have a bunch of sparklers and fountains but I’m saving then for a future trip and or New Years Eve 2021.

I did some fishing 🎣 at Lawson Lake but didn’t catch anything. Nice down by the lake, sitting on the dock with my feet in the water 💦 . I kind of wish though I had a Vermont fishing license for the week but I have plenty of other things to eat and pass the time.

Had a nice outside barbecue with the folks. 🍔🍟 It was good to see them its been a few weeks. 🐶 I hear they are getting a puppy. Their neighbors were having a big party. As I’ve said before, I’ve always thought their neighbors were a bit too close 🐽 because I’m more of a wilderness person.

I have started to pack gear and will be heading out to Vermont 🚙 for the forseeable future until the heat breaks or I get tired of camping. I can spend up to 14 days camping in the National Forest but I bet I will tire if it before then. ⛺ I am working Ali next week remotely but I expect my evenings to vw free to hit a swimming hole 🏊 or maybe even Grout Pond. Not bringing my kayak this time as I’m going to be busy with work and it’s a pain to take it on and off so I can get solar to keep the battery 🔋 bank full.

With the heat and probably sleeping fairly undressed I woke up to bad jock itch this morning. 🍆 Super itchy hot sticky balls are no fun. I know what your thinking gross. That said athlete’s foot cream, the cheap mega bottle 🍶 at Wally World works good. I think with the heat and humidity, especially when I’m home I need to plan on daily showers and changing my underwear regularly. I think in the morning I’ll stop at Wally World and get another mega container if athletes foot cream 👣and make sure I keep my privates well coated when I camp and wear clean socks to bed. 👟 Fortunately, itchy privates doesn’t make you subject to the Vermont quarantine order. I expect the cream to continue to work well.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 62 degrees at 5am. One degree above normal. Maximum dew point of 60 at 11pm. Light west wind. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies. It was humid. It got down to 69 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1982.

Tonight will have the Full 🌝 , Buck 🦌 Moon. At 11 PM, the moon was in the south-southeast (150°) at an altitude of 18° from the horizon, some 237,007 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by December 31^st. Buckle up for safety! 💺 . The darkest hour is at 1:01 am, followed by dawn at 4:49 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:24 am in the east-northeast (57°) and last for 3 minutes and 26 seconds. Sunrise is 37 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:07 am with sun in the east-northeast (64°). Tonight will have 8 hours and 47 minutes of darkness, an increase of 53 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 89 degrees at 4pm. Seven degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 61 at 6pm. West wind 3 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 92 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1919. Honestly, I think that will be quite pleasant in Vermont.

In four weeks on August 1 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (295°) at 8:15 pm,🌄 which is 20 minutes and 59 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 85 and 61 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 82 and 62 degrees. The record high of 101 degrees was set back in 1933.

Looking ahead,

October 11, 2019 Morning

Good morning! Absolutely beautiful Friday morning with the leaves turning and deep blue skies. Off in a little bit to head to Dolly Sods for a nice hike. 🚶 Three weeks to November 🥧. Mostly sunny and 47 degrees at the Monongahela National Forest. There is a east-southeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃.

I checked ☑ and the fire ban is over ⛔ for the Monongahela National Forest. I am going to have to rearrange camp tonight and gather firewood so I can have a nice fire tonight. I won’t have to worry about moldy cans or accumulating to much garbage, attracting wildlife too which is another benefit of having a fire. 🚮🔥It surprisingly wet 💦 up here, there is water running through the roadside ditches and the ground is damp. A bit of a breeze but I’ll fill my water container so I can drown the fire before bed. They must have repealed it before the holiday weekend, or maybe earlier in the week and the website wasn’t updated. Regardless, Pennsylvania was nice. 👍😁

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 65 degrees at 2pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 4th. Maximum dew point of 48 at 10am. Southeast wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the morning. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. It was sticky. The high last year was 72 degrees. The record high of 86 was set in 1949. There was a dusting of snow in 1987.❄

The sun will set at 6:45 pm with dusk around 7:12 pm, which is one minute and 31 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 59 degrees. The dew point will be 47 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Tomorrow will have 11 hours and 19 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 29 seconds over today.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 51 degrees at 11pm. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 18th. Maximum dew point of 47 at 6pm. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 7 mph in the evening. In 2018, we had light drizzle in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 45 degrees. The record low of 22 occurred back in 1964.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers, mainly between 9am and 4pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 57 degrees at 11am. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 22nd. Maximum dew point of 53 at 11am. West wind 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Not going to be a real great day but if it’s cold and wet I’ll hang out in the tent for a while in the morning and then in the afternoon explore Blackwater State Park and maybe Cannan Valley Refuge, although the later would be better to do early Sunday. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. It was sticky. The high last year was 61 degrees. The record high of 85 was set in 1954. There was a dusting of snow in 1904.❄

Looking ahead to Sunday, mostly sunny ☀ , with a high near 58. South wind 6 to 8 mph. Typical average high for the weekend is 61 degrees. Going to be a beautiful day for driving back up through Pennsylvania and visiting Mount Pisgah State Park. Should be great colors there too. 🍁Overnight at County Bridge Pennsylvania and leave before dawn Columbus Day for home 🏡 in Albany.

Already starting to think about November and December trips. I’m not sure if I can get another full week off before the end of the year but I’ll probably take some long weekends off to head to the Adirondacks, hike and hunt. 🔫 I’m also thinking about a trip out to the Finger Lakes National Forest to hot tent again in December – depends on the weather but it was a lot of fun camping for that week in the snow ⛄.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until November 🥧 when the sun will be setting at 6:17 pm with dusk at 6:45 pm. On that day in 2018, we had rain showers, mostly cloudy and temperatures between 59 and 48 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 54 degrees. We hit a record high of 78 back in 1950.

July 3, 2019 Morning

Good morning! What day is it? Get Away Day before Independence Day, of course. Four weeks to Teeth Cleaning Day 😃. I figure that way I’ll remember the appointment. Partly sunny and 68 degrees at the Elm Ave Park & Ride – CDTA. That said, the driver ain’t waiting, she left the station 🚉 a minute early, dropped the hammer 🔨 at the green light 🚦 and has powered through at least one red light. Must be her last trip of the day. Calm wind. The dew point is 64 degrees. Hot and humid.

That said maybe she was flying ✈ because she knew how bad the traffic would be in the Empire State Plaza. 🚕🚓🚗🚐🚌 Things are so pokey this morning. With the traffic delays going through I’m kind of glad I didn’t drive in, as it’s a lot more fun to be blogging on my phone, sitting on the air conditioned bus then wrangling my way through bumper to bumper traffic. I’m sure I’ll have my share to deal with this afternoon.

Things are packed except for the cooler and the propane but I’ll get those things after work and be off by six or maybe earlier if they close the office down early. 🏢 I expect a slow commute for the first half hour but the air conditioning works well in the truck and it’s not like it gets real dark until like 9:15 pm or later in the Adirondacks this time of year. Google Maps estimates with traffic, I’ll be to Wakely Dam by 8:40. 🌄

I expect it will be a nice weekend at Moose River Plains, but certainly a hot one too. I heard it was going to be buggy, 🐜so I bought a container of DEET, Picardin and Oil of Eucalyptus insect repellents. All but the Picardin came in plastic spray bottles, which is handy for when they run out — don’t have to save and bring to transfer station. Hopefully that will control the bugs well.

I am bringing the kayak, as one night I’ll probably take it out on Helldiver Pond for some evening fishing and enjoying the sunset. 🎣 I doubt I’ll go out on Cedar River Flow this year, but my mind could change. Or maybe I’ll take it out on one of Chain Lakes or even Moss Lake. I’m thinking of on Saturday doing the Stillwater Firetower — or maybe Sunday, it depends on what the weather looks like come Saturday and how soon the front come through.🚶

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 89 degrees at 4pm. Seven degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 8am. Light north wind. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. It was humid. The high last year was 94 degrees. The record high of 102 was set in 1911. The real humidity builds on after I’m up in the Adirondacks.

The sun will set at 8:36 pm with dusk around 9:11 pm, which is 13 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 81 degrees. The dew point will be 62 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 15 hours and 13 minutes of daytime, an increase of 48 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 63 degrees at 5am. Two degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 62 at 8pm. Calm wind. In 2018, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It became very sticky as the night progressed. It got down to 71 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1971.

On this day in 1886, the New-York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, 💻 eliminating typesetting by hand ✋. I am pretty sure that like a computer only a little bit more primative. Now they probably use computers but not at Tribune because they don’t exist any more.

Independence Day will be sunny and hot, with a high near 91. ☀ Calm wind becoming southeast around 6 mph in the afternoon. Muggy as duck with dew points approaching or exceeding seventy. Even in Pennsylvania you can get a ticket for going that fast. I’m glad I’ll be up in the Adirondacks sipping and ice cold beer. 🍻 I just hope that I won’t run out beer but they probably sell that in Inlet.

Friday starts the dog days of summer. 🐶 Hot and muggy. Scattered showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. ☀ Partly sunny, with a high near 89. South wind 7 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Summer weather, with the muggers in full force.

Saturday looks pretty unstable but Sunday will be absolutely beautiful. 😕 Saturday, showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 8am, then showers likely between 8am and noon, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after noon. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Maximum dew point of 72 at 10am.

Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Maximum dew point of 60 at 6am. Typical average high for the weekend is 82 degrees. Sunday will be really nice, I should try to maximize the most of the day. I might do some hiking on one of the shorter trails along NY 28 south of Old Forge, as that’s the way I plan to come home.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until *MY* Teeth Cleaning Day 😃 when the sun will be setting at 8:16 pm with dusk at 8:48 pm. On that day in 2018, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 86 and 67 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 82 degrees. We hit a record high of 98 back in 1917.

January 31, 2019 9 AM Update

Good morning! January is almost done. It froze its you know what off. Two weeks to Valentines Day ❤️. Mostly sunny and -4 degrees in Delmar. Light breeze. 🍃. It would be a lot colder if there was a breeze but there is none in the burbs but I’m sure it’s breezy in the city. There are 9 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ Things will start to thaw out at Sunday around noontime. 🌡️ But then again, I hurried to the bus stop and timed it so I didn’t wait long outside at all. 🚏 I also knocked the snow off the solar panel on my truck, so to top the accessory battery off in my truck, both to protect it from the cold and to have it as a boost when I start my truck up this evening.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 13 degrees at 3pm. 19 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -22 at 8am; West wind 13 to 15 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 30 degrees. The record high of 58 was set in 1913. 6.9 inches of snow fell back in 2000.❄ Definitely a cold day. I left the heat turned up again, and the cabinets open to make sure I have hot water when I get home, as that’s the pipe that’s least insulated in my apartment. But honestly, we’ve had colder days, and assuming the heat keeps up, I don’t anticipate much cold when I get home.

The sun will set at 5:08 pm with dusk around 5:37 pm, which is one minute and 19 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 11 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be -3. ☃️ There will be a west breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 58 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 20 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of -2 degrees at 6am. 17 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -8 at 5am; Southwest wind 3 to 8 mph. In 2018, we had mostly clear in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 28 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1920.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 16 degrees at 3pm. 16 degrees below normal. West wind 3 to 5 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 65 was set in 1989. 15.0 inches of snow fell back in 1898.❄

Yesterday was a busy but much more sane day at work, in part because everything in the Buffalo offices was shut down from the blizzard. The relative quiet was nice. 💼

I left the heat relatively high yesterday when I went to work so it was very comfortable after I got home after my frigid commute.🔥 It was very cold at the bus stop in the evening with the wind whipping around but everybody mostly piled into the shelter and was warm so close together. Roads were a bit slick but I had the speedy driver so we weren’t held up much. ❄Very comfortable at bedtime but cool in the morning upstairs. I thought about turning the electric heat on but I figured I was getting ready for work downstairs in the kitchen and I could accept the coolness until I headed out to Siberia for work. Even Siberia wasn’t that bad as there is a lot of sun and not much wind in Delmar.

Fixed the VMS display in my apartment. There was a loose connection between one of modules that was causing invalid data and errors to pop up on the display.♒ Generally the SPI interface is pretty reliable but if you have noise in the line from a bad connection it can cause all kinds of problems. I just like having random climate and sunset stats being displayed in my bedroom. 💻I should hook the one back up in my office too, although I’d like to make that one also ESP32 based so I can have more messages and displays just like at home.

I had a hard time soldering at first last night. I thought I might have had some defective solder, as I used a roll that I’d never used before, but it turns out the iron just wasn’t hot enough. 🔬 That and I was a bit tired, so my handling wasn’t great when I soldered some pins onto another Arduino Nano board that I was using for testing purposes with the VMS display, but I was able to clean up the solder bridges, and get things working well once the iron got up to temperature.

Still thinking about painting over the indicator LEDs on the buck converter and maybe a few others on driver boards across my apartment. The light from the glow of the LEDs is annoying even if all they draw is measured in nano watts. 💡I thought about trying to bridge them out with solder but that might allow to much power through or trying to desolder them but that would be difficult due to the size. I realized that I also forgot to turn them off before I left but its not that big of deal, maybe a half a kilowatt or less will be wasted before I get home. Maybe I should add a line of code to shut them off automatically when it’s a weekday after 9 AM.

Discovered that for some reason I can no longer edit files in the Arduino IDE. Something locked, I’ll have to search the internet🔏. I’m planning on doing more programming going forward though using my favorite Geany text editor with the Arduino app’s command line mode. The Arduino IDE ain’t awful but I prefer the native GTK look of Geany and it’s also a bit quicker to load and has better syntax highlighting in my book. Also, I’m having trouble getting mysql for development work restored on my laptop, it’s a permissions issue I’m still trying to fix.

Cooked up macaroni and cheese using some macaroni and grated cheese I bought from the store last week. Tossed in a large bag of mixed vegetables in the mix and some hot sauce. Pretty good meal.🍛 Breakfast was waffles with frozen pineapple chunks and blueberries again.

I’m not sure what happened to the ants I kept finding on the counter. The first time I cleaned the counter well with soap than bleach they came back but now their gone. I did stick an old container of ant bait I had up there but I doubt that worked.🐜 Stuff was old, from a previous tenant over a decade ago. I’m still going to get some ant bait to ensure they’re all killed off, probably after I go and visit Mr. Wolcott tonight.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Valentines Day ❤️ when the sun will be setting at 5:26 pm with dusk at 5:55 pm. On that day in 2018, we had mostly cloudy and temperatures between 45 and 28 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1946.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 32. Southwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 35. Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees. Still not so cold and come later February the average high for weekends is above freezing.

In four weeks on February 28 the sun will be setting at 5:44 pm,🌄 which is 36 minutes and 7 seconds later then today. In 2018 on that day, we had rain and temperatures between 60 and 32 degrees. I’ll take that. Typically, you have temperatures between 38 and 20 degrees. The record high of 63 degrees was set back in 1903. Didn’t break the record last year.

Looking ahead, Valentines Day ❤️ is in 2 weeks, Spring 🌷 is in 7 weeks, Average High is 50 🌸 is in 8 weeks, Average High is 60 🌼 is in 11 weeks, Average High is 70 🐮 is in 15 weeks, Independence Day 🇺🇸 is in 22 weeks and August 🌻 is in 26 weeks.

Topped off the propane tank.

Topped off the propane tank. Bought an axe, went grocery shopping, packed the dry goods, gased up the truck, filled water containers. Tomorrow after work, run to the laundromat and grocery store to pick up a few more things. Things are coming together nicely, plan to leave at day break Saturday, start setting up camp at least through Thursday in the Finger Lakes, maybe longer or maybe less depending on the weather.

The Faucet

So I was pretty pissed to see my landlord removed the bathtub faucet from my shower when he fixed the leaky bathtub faucet. Not because I ever took baths, but that was how I filled my water containers for camping. As he ended up replacing the entire faucet and ripping out the wall while making the he also installed a cheap waterproof wall over the sheet rock, that doesn’t match the rest of the shower stall which is yellowed plastic. I guess it doesn’t really matter, as the rest of my low rent apartment is falling apart, and honestly I’d rather pay less in rent then have a fancy bathroom. I did figure out how to use my kitchen sink to fill the water container. I’m not sure if my landlord would be happy to find I’m taking 3 or 6 gallons of water each time I camp, but I figure it’s probably a net savings to him, because I’m not flushing toilets or taking a shower while I camp. My lease (which has long been on an auto-extender clause) bans outdoor watering and car washing, but is silent on filling water jugs for camping.

I know a lot of my colleagues have much nicer apartments then I do. But I like my location and like how it’s cheap. I can get free Internet by walking down to the library or the park, I have public transit to take to work, and plenty of places to walk to get some exercise. While things are wearing out in my apartment due to age and somewhat my neglect after living there for ten years, renters don’t normally fix up their buildings themselves, and landlords only fix what is critical when a tenant resides there. No need to nice appearances when you not renting to a new person. I’m fine where I live, and in recent years have gotten the mold under control by using excessive amounts of concentrated bleach.

Some people dream of owning a house with marble kitchen tops, a big screen television, and hardwood floors. I’d rather own a house where I can burn my own trash, heat with wood I harvested, and power things with wind, sun, or micro-hydro. I also don’t mind firing up a gas powered generator – I’d rather burn gasoline that I bought for actual electricity used then send a check to an invisible entity plus a bunch of connection fees, that are bulk of my bill. Raise animals for meat, hunt and shoot on my own land. Sending your garbage to landfills and expensive trash fees suck. I hate sending my check every month to some distant utility, where they burn large quantities of natural gas, coal, and nuclear material to keep the lights on. I do pay a surcharge for so-called green energy like wind and small-scale hydro, but ultimately I recognize it all comes from the same big industrial pool known as the grid. I do support greening the grid and fixing urban problems like increasing recycling – but in the mean time, I’m all for making my own life more sustainable and less reliant on the urban systems.

My apartment is just a cheap place to stay when I’m making money in the city. I rarely spend time there except to sleep at night. I keep investing and saving money that will ultimately be used for buying land, and an inexpensive cabin or micro-home, somewhere that is low tax and regulation. I really prefer to spend my weekends in the wilderness, camping by a fire, listening to the birds and the wind. I like the colorful lights and music, and just enjoying those long summer nights – or the cold winter nights which seem to be eight months out of the year. I look at camping as my temporary home, a place where I can practice for my future to be.

Andy Arthur.org

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