essays | Page 11 | Andy Arthur.org

My So Called Place in Delmar

Andy | September 26, 2012

The other day I was scrubbing down my kitchen for mildew. My apartment and my kitchen has perputual mildew problems, requiring a heavy bleach treatment from time to time. Due to bleach and mildew, the refigerator and stove are starting to rust. The kitchen is always damp due apartment having faulty design, and probably because my neighbor keeps her unit well air conditioned in the summer and well heated in the winter.

So is life. My apartment is pretty awful, but it is relatively cheap, it’s on the bus line, within walking distance to the library and the town park. There is a bike trail/segegrated sidewalk around the Bethlehem High School, which makes for safe walking at night, which I almost do every night. I’ve never bothered to get home internet here, or spend much time at home, because this rather miserable awful apartment, really isn’t as much a home, as much a place to “stay” in the city.

I tell myself, as awful as it may seem at times especially compared to some of places my friends and colleagues live in, it’s okay. The money I’ve saved on this dumpy old apartment was enough to buy a very nice pickup truck, and keep the tank full enough, and cooler full of cold beer for almost every weekend trips to Adirondacks or somewheres else up in woods. In many ways, I consider the woods to be my home.

I like camping out a lot. While it may not like being have roots in a place one can really call home, it’s good enough for now. Up at camp, I can have campfires, play with fire, burn camp trash, drink beer, see some beautiful landscapes, and have a good time. I can be in the country around country-folk (most of people who go to woods), even if I continue to keep my place in Delmar as my mail address, and place I crash at night after work.

At some point I will find a real place to call home, outside of the stupidity known as New York State. A career I actually find respectable. A real place in cou ntry, not a place I go to hide out in woods during the weekends, as an escape from my urban place. A place where I can have animals, maybe do a little hobby farming, heat with wood, and have fires to burn my trash. Maybe have a four-wheeler and play in the dirt out back. A place without stupid restrictions on gun control, or where all the public lands are tied up by red tape and stupid policies persued as part of environmentalist agenda.

Some times, living in New York State, in the suburbs, working for the government makes me kind of bitter. I know there are so many better options, but I sure like that secure job, and the public lands in NY State aren’t half bad. Certainly, the Adirondack Park, despite all it’s limitations and restrictions has not totally yet been destroyed by the activist-types, trying to keep man away from his woods.

True Believers

Andy | September 20, 2012

I was looking at the coal company advertisements that the “Quit Coal” project put up. Basically, those advertisements criticize “aggressive” regulations put forward by the government, and policies pursued by Congress to control air pollution. Not surprisingly, the folks that worked in corporations did not want to be told how to run their business, much less do something that would put uncertainty in their business.

Some will say that coal companies were actively spreading lies and falsehoods. Or did they actually believe in what they were advertising — a statement of belief of reality as it appeared to a coal power plant operator? Certainly many of the pollution control technologies of early 1970s were not to the point where well tested or even scaled up. A coal power plant operator, who always operated their plant one way, did not want to deal with the risk of changing operating methods and technologies.

Some will claim that coal-fired power plant operators were mostly motivated by greed. Yet, if you look at historically, did the clean air equipment on power plants actually cost that much — especially compared to existing revenue? Most upgrades to power plants were covered by small increases in electric rates, granted by public service commissions. If anything, more pollution controls meant more employees, and more opportunities for companies to profit because now operated more complex power plants in a regulated market that fixed their profit above cost.

In retrospect, the coal power industry is run by people who believe their mission — to provide inexpensive electricity, using proven technologies. These people who are resistant to change, because they don’t always understand what it will mean in the future.

The lessons of coal advertising is three fold:

Most people don’t actively lie due to moral conscience, nor do the corporations that represent the aggregation of people lie due to threat to litigation
People and corporations that make them up are highly resistant to change, because they fear the unknown and potential costs of unknown, even if the costs really don’t prove to be significant over the long run.
Government has an important role in setting emissions and efficiency standards, to force corporations, which represent large aggregations of people, to take calculated risks to improve their environmental preformance.

The Case for Quiet Climate Change Adaption

Andy | September 18, 2012

Often when people talk about “Climate Change Adaption”, they open discuss mega-projects that prevent theorical stresses that face our cities and urbanized areas. They often discuss large flood walls and other reduncency that would not exist if not for climate modeling.

Yet, there is a more sensible alternative. It’s the minor project and tweaks that can help societies adapt to climate change, that cost far less. Rather then looking at the worst case scenario, planners and engineers can consider likely threats using climate models, and when building new infrastrucuture make tweaks to make them more resilant to weather and flooding that might not have existed even a generation before.

A lot of climate change adaption will happen quietly without much public notice. Simply said, engineers are already that taking notice of recent events, and have to consider future models. Many of the changes, such as bridges designed for greater stream flow, are occuring quietly, without much public consideration.

As get we farther down the path of the changing climate, more infrastructure will fail. Settlement patterns will quietly change, as will land use. But there will be no press release or global stragety. People will adapt to what is right for them, just as infrastructure quietly adapts to a changing climate.

Why Jones Hill is One of My Favorite Fall Hikes

Andy | September 17, 2012

One of my favorite fall hikes when I am out in Syracuse is to hike Jones Hill, which is about 10 miles east of Tully. It’s a quick hop down I-81, as you climb into the mountains, and then take NY 80 through some farm land, and south past Labrador Hollow and Labrador Pond.

You should probably do the hike in the morning, for the best views of country east of here. The fall leaves up here turn earler then in Syracuse.

What makes Jones Hill so unique is what you see in the vista. Below you is Labrador Pond, a 101 acre lake with many unique and endangered species. Across the way is Labrador Hill, and to the north to the farm country around Tully.

The leaves are always quite spectulator up here, especially if you catch them at peak, which is usually a week prior to Columbus Day Weekend. On Columbus Day Weekend, in contrast, you should go to Green Lake State Park — preferably at sunrise, before the crowds arrive.

Why Jones Pond is One of My Favorite Campsites

Andy | September 16, 2012

Jones Pond has 5 drive-in campsites on Jones Pond, a small public-private lake a little ways from Paul Smiths. A popular area on weekends, on weeknights, it is little used, but right on this beautiful lake.

View Larger Map

All of the campsites have “filtered” views of Jones Pond with tall white pines growing throughout the campground. The sun, year round sets on the lake, with views of Saint Regis Mountain te background. There is much beauty at all of campsites, with high sand dunes a little ways behind campsites, and sand dunes providing sound and light barriers between campsites.

Part of the generalized St Regis Canoe Area, it one of many nearby lakes. It provides a great place to make the night after a long day paddling, after watching the sunset, and the fire burn as the night progresses. Walk down to the shoreline, and look at the stars sparkle in the sky.

It’s not perfect. There is some road noise from Jones Pond Road, and certainly part of lake shore is privately owned, so there are some power boats occassionally on the lake. But still, it’s a wonderful experience.

It’s Not Fair That They Get To Burn Things

Andy | September 15, 2012

Pennsylvania has some of the loosest restrictions on open burning in most of it’s rural communities in the Northeastern states. People can and do have fires, and burn brush, trash, and all matters of things on their rural acerage.

Most folks down there heat with wood or coal. They burn there trash daily — and all of it including plastics — and dump out the unburnable bottles and cans in woods. Life is a non-stop opporunity to play with fire.

From the blackened trash burning barrels, to the black smoke rising behind the houses, to the flicker of flames, the smell of burnt plastic rising in air. Good ol’ fire.

I wish I could burn things like they do get to down in rural PA…

Campgrounds are Gross

Andy | September 14, 2012

I got this book out of the library the other day titled, “The Best of Tent Camping: A guide for car campers who hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos” and thought it was a perfect read until I actually opened the book and found out it was a book expounding the virtues of state campgrounds, rather then back country and roadside locations for camping.

I once stayed in a state campground. It had to be the most miserable day in my life. I really don’t need to be told by some jackbooted thug how to operate my campsite, when I must turn down the music or dim the camp lights, or otherwise restrict what I want to do. I want shoot guns at midnight, then that should be my right.

Campgrounds are tightly packed locations, versus the typical 1/4 mile plus spacing between most roadside and backcountry campsites, where you are out of eyeshot and earshot of other campers, so you are pretty much free to do what you want without restriction of the government or annoyance of others.

If you need the kind of services that campgrounds you probably shouldn’t go up to woods. Especially if your tent camping, a developed campground just seems kind of silly and wasteful. You can always burn and pack out your garbage, and there are creeks to swim in to clean yourself out.