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Andy Arthur

Already it's the second half of the month. 🍁 September is rapidly fading into October, with lots of color and cooler weather for the coming weeks and months. I'm so busy these days, but look forward to many adventures in changing seasons.

Anxiety 🙄

I really know it’s dangerous to label oneself as it pigeon holes oneself. But yesterday was crazy in so many ways, 41 days before Election Day, getting ready to head up to the Adirondacks for a long weekend of color, that is cannabis-enhanced, 12-hour working days into the darkness with my laptop, writing and running R scripts like a crazed monkey, did I mention it’s all so beautiful.

The internet advertisers absolutely love 😍 the fact that I am researching topics like anxiety, paranoia, and schizophrenia. 🧠 Mostly because I fear bad trip, more then anything else. But still, they just see dollar signs. 🤘My gawd the neighbor is smoking 🚬 some of that burnt rubber cannabis today and that shit stinks like a hunk of rubber smoldering in a burning barrel. Why smoke such stuff when there is so much more enjoyable cannabis out there these days? 🤮I guess everybody has their own way. Truth is I’m just curious and interested in ways to enhance my mind and psychoactive substances and what a load of bull crap much of the psychological industry really. Mental health is a lot like smoking pot – it’s all what you put into it. Things have no meaning unless you put meaning into it. 🤪 Giggling is a good thing.

The earlier bus 🚍 downtown was running early and I missed it and the later bus was really late so I missed the shuttle 🚀 over to the Enterprise. Oh well. I don’t have anything super pressing to do in the office and I was there early on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tomorrow and Monday I’ll be remote from the Adirondacks. 🍁 Looking forward to the beautiful weekend up north. I got my hose last night for the heater, actually two five foot sections of hose. ♨️ Going to be cool up north so the heater will be nice on those chilly mornings 🌅 for sure!

Maybe I’m not such a good driver as I like to tell myself. 💥 I actually I rate myself below average, and yesterday was a well below average day at any rate with multiple hard braking incidents. I almost smacked another car, or at least I had to hard brake, trying to make the left turn out of the cannabis dispensary in Menands, and then there was that traffic light I hard braked for on Western Avenue, and I hope I didn’t go too fast through the unfamiliar construction site – school zone 🚸 now with speed cameras along Western. I doubt I was doing 20, though I think you have like a 10 or 12 MPH margin, and I was certainly not going that far, as there is also a red light 🚦 camera there, so I was driving carefully. Then there was that stop sign on Erie Boulevard I almost ran, 🛑 as I was focused on carefully crossing though rough as duck railroad tracks 🚉 and that text message that came in.  It’s not been a good week on my motoring record, no tickets (at least assuming I didn’t blow through that school zone too fast) 🚨 but also not going to save that $50 over 6 months on my insurance based on my current driving score.

Traffic was so bad on Interstate 90 trying to get to the Pine Bush Dinner, and when I ran to the SEFCU bank at the State Office Campus 🏦 it was backed up with tons of people in the Drive-Through ATM trying to get cash out. 🏧 Hell of it is, they didn’t even have $1 and $5s at that ATM, so I got $60 out but the bills are too large, and I’ll have to go to the bank when I’m downtown this afternoon for my meeting to exchange for smaller much more useful bills. Whatever.

Decided to reduce my take home-pay by another $140 a paycheck to pay more in state and federal taxes, 💸 as realizing how much my net worth has increased over the past year, the money paid in interest  and how much I made on the blog, I am concerned I paid way too little in taxes. I could do quarterly tax payments, but they are bitch to estimate and seem more painful compared to just having them deduct more from paycheck. I would have lower tax bills if I had a brain and had put more in stocks but I was so sure this was the year I was going to buy a home or a homestead, or build my off-grid cabin. 🏡 As still one of these days I am getting closer to my eviction notice for my apartment. I worry a lot about homelessness, and I’ve actually been studying what it’s like to live on the street, but it’s kind of silly with that kind of money I have saved and invested, even after capital gains taxes and a pretty deep recession.  But good things come to people who wait, or at least the coffin does. ⚰

Should be a great weekend 🛶 still chewing over if I should bring my kayak. I think the answer is probably no as I need the solar power to work with all the time I’ll be putting in working. It’s going to be another busy weekend 🖥 but I am thinking I’ll probably drive up to the Moose Festival 🦌 on Saturday in Indian Lake and hike Watch Hill and probably Sawyer Mountain ⛰. Of course, I could park my truck in Indian Lake and ride my bike 🚲 back into the Essex Chain of Lakes. 🐸 Never been back there – would be very interesting especially with the autumn colors. 🍂

MedlinePlus

Anxiety: MedlinePlus

Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness. It might cause you to sweat, feel restless and tense, and have a rapid heartbeat. It can be a normal reaction to stress. For example, you might feel anxious when faced with a difficult problem at work, before taking a test, or before making an important decision. It can help you to cope. The anxiety may give you a boost of energy or help you focus. But for people with anxiety disorders, the fear is not temporary and can be overwhelming.

Age of Buildings in Grand Gorge

I was a bit surprised to see Grand Gorge isn't as old as I thought - there is a central core with buildings from the post Civil War period but many parts of the town were built out in the 20th century. 

Spruce Lake

Visiting Spruce Lake in the West Canada Wilderness.