They are in a strange time of year, the middle of May, as many of us are thinking more about our summer plans, rather then critical questions of local government spending. School board elections, as local elections, are poorly covered by the news, and often are uninteresting. You may no longer attend high school, and you may not have kids in school. Yet those are not good reasons for not voting.
School Board Elections, School Budget Vote, and Library Budget Vote are all important things to vote on for several reasons including:
Low turn out, local elections mean your vote can change results easily.
Your decision hits your pocketbook directly, especially if pay property taxes.
Only chance to directly comment on government spending — should we invest more in our public schools or further increase the crushing tax burden on working folk?
None of us have perfect information. Many years when I vote in school board elections, I don’t even know whose running for school board, and leave those ballots blank. If your concerned about government spending and waste, or think schools and the students being educated are getting cut too much, then either vote Yes or No. It’s that simple.
I don’t know how many times I’ve told people that if you want to play with fire, never mess with gasoline. Diesel. Fine. Plastic. Whatever, just don’t burn yourself when you get melting and burning plastic on your skin. Blowing up aerosol cans. Fine, just make sure not to start a brush fire when you send partially burnt trash over your head. But gasoline — be aware!
What makes gasoline such a dangerous product is that it’s vapours are very explosive. Gasoline is relatively easy to vaporise as a fuel — you can vaporise it just by pouring it out of a container. And that vapour is very explosive. That’s why we use it as an engine fuel. It’s really easy to burn, and to burn cleanly under controlled conditions.
Yet, you figure out the sheer amount of power that a gasoline engine gets out of minuscule amounts of gasoline, you can understand why it’s so readily explosive. The explosion can not only provide controlled propulsion, but it can also blow up and send objects in towards your face, and that can be quite painful, to say nothing about the burns from the flash of fire.
Few common things are as dangerous as gasoline. Diesel doesn’t vaporise under normal conditions. You have to heat up diesel and apply compression to it for an explosion to occur. It’s relatively safe to pour diesel on some trash to get it burning. Diesel will burn, and it will burn hot, once it’s caught from something else burning, but it won’t explode.
Gasoline in contrast does vaporise under normal conditions. It’s vapors will explode with an incredible amount of force. Pour gasoline on some trash, let it sit for a few seconds, toss a match at it from a half a dozen feet away, and boom. Hope you don’t have anything that will act as shrapnel coming towards you. And don’t do it in any kind of enclosed space that is likely to contain the explosion — as much fun as it is to watch.
If your ever working on anything that burns gasoline or similar fuel like Coleman fuel. Be very careful, if you care about your life, and don’t like visiting the Westchester Burn Unit.
Always check for fuel leaks with soap before lighting a white gas stove or other similar device
Don’t use gasoline to start fires, especially in enclosed spaces, or with anything you don’t want to hit you when it explodes.
Never pour gas in anything near flame or spark.
These are all things we’ve learned as children. Yet the sheer fun of watching shit burn and explode, sometimes gets the best of us as adults. Just please remember, that gasoline goes boom and you don’t want to be in path of boom.
There seems to be a magic line that separates the country from the cities. There is a point where you get far enough from the city, where farms aren’t surrounded by suburbia or concerned with the suburban way of life. There might still be long distance exburbian commuters out in these parts, but they are essentially rural and free of the control of the big city.
There are several things that come to mind when you are truly in a rural place:
Speed Limit as 55 MPH. The state speed limit starts in almost all non-hamlet parts of rural towns. If the vast majority of roads in the town can be driven essentially as fast as you dare, then your in a rural place.
No Local Police Enforcing Local Laws. Rural communities may still have their own code inspectors and assistance from state police, but there is not the police presence that exists in the big cities. There simply is not the crime in the country, and lots of people leave their keys in their ignition.
Agriculture Not a Quaint Part of the Past. In most truly rural towns agriculture is not just a quaint hobby of people, but is a professional occupation of a number of citizens. In many rural towns there are far more hobby farmers then professionals, but the agriculture preformed on both farms is different then closer to suburbia, and often involves big animals.
People Burn Their Trash. While fewer and fewer people still have burn barrels, particularly in exurbian areas, in truly rural areas the vast majority of people still take their trash out back and burn it. Trash pickup simply is incompatible with the way of life of Rural America.
Big Pickups and Quads. People out in the country are more likely to own pickup trucks and quads. There is a need for vehicles that can haul things, and there is a culture that supports the pickup truck way of life. And people like playing our in nature with their snowmobiles and quads. Not to mention it’s fun to chase cows around on the quad.
Large Segments of Population Don’t Go to the City. The exburban and suburban commuter regularly drives to the city, rural people do not. There may be some exceptions, and most people do come together in a community regardless of where they live, but more often then not it’s a small city of less then 30,000 people.
In other words, a large segment of the rural population is wild and free, and not controlled like people in the big city. They aren’t limited in their possibilies or their land, or how they must live their life.
The Town of Greenville is 39 sq miles, the Bourgh of Manhattan is 33 sq miles. A few more cows in Greenville though then Manhattan.
Staten Island about the size of Altona in Clinton County at 101 square miles. A few less wind turbines in Staten Island, and far less hot air.
All of New York City would fit into the area of Town of Long Lake, Webb, or Brookhaven.
The Town of Westerlo is approximately the same size as the Borough of Bronx at 58 square miles. Yes, but do they have Dick Rapp as their town supervisor?
The biggest town area-wise in New York State is Brookhaven on Long Island at 532 sq miles. Town of Webb (Old Forge) has 483 sq miles.
The difference between the year-round population of the Town of Webb and Town of Brookhaven is about the population of Albany County at 295,000 persons.
Yonkers is about the same size as Albany, NY at 21 square miles.
The typical town in Western NY is 36 square miles and is a nice square shape. Not all though as geography sometimes over rides that nice square shape.
The largest town in Western NY is Bath, NY at 101 square miles, or about the size of Staten Island.
Owego, near Binghamton is the largest Central New York town at 101 square miles. It should not be confused with Oswego which is near Syracuse.
Yesterday, I gave you some of my thoughts about the urban life — what I like about it — and the key elements that I think I find enjoyable about it from connectivity and accessibility of products and services nearby by walking or taking public transit.
Yet, I’m in my heart a country boy, and I love spending time in the woods.
Live in a small community, with a small city (of around 20,000 persons) within 15-30 miles.
Own inexpensive land in hilly, rocky area, maybe 25-50 acres of woodland/pasture that I could run a couple head of cattle on, ride ATVs around.
Hobby farm a little bit, grow some of my own food, kill and eat my own animals.
Have no neighbors right nearby to bother me, be able to have fires, and burn my garbage (love fire!).
Be able to shoot targets and play with guns in my backyard.
Relatively low property taxes and fees so I could afford the land.
Have ATVs and snowmobiles, handguns and more long-guns, that I could ride around own land.
A big 3/4 ton or 1 ton 4×4 off-road pickup truck with cap.
State or federal public forest land nearby to hunt and fish on, along with ride ATVs and snowmobiles on.
Places in the boondocks nearby where I can truck camp or tent camp for free.
Hilltops and ridges to climb up on, look at wilderness and valleys below.
Lakes and ponds to swim and paddle around on, and fish.
Low taxes, friendly and helpful government agencies.
There is a lot to celebrate about living in a quality urban community and living the urban life, I sure do love the wild nature of Rural America and the folks who spend every day of their lives in the wood.
More and more companies are offering so-called green products, that are biodegradable, organically farmed, or are natural. They all promise that they not only will make your life better, but are also easy on the planet. But the truth is most of them are pretty bad for our environment.
The truth it’s always better to buy nothing at all and minimize consumption then buy green products. Any time you purchase something it is a product that has been produced and made out of products from our environment. Most products contain a variety of non-renewable resources, that will never be replaced once you consume them.
Do you really need that new television or computer? How about that sofa bed or other piece of furniture?
Our biggest source of solid waste is from the consumption and disposal of the big objects in our lives: our furniture, our housing. Indeed, if you could learn to live with older furniture and older equipment you could do much to reduce your impact on the earth. While we can often buy new at low prices, we should think twice and consider our impact on the planet.
Instead, we should focus on investing more and buying less. If you save money, and buy only things you need that will have a lasting benefit on your life, but a relatively minor environmental impact. Reduce expenditures on things that depreciate quickly in value, and invest in things that either depreciate slowly or gain value.
Why smile? There is so much hate in our society, and so much evil. Why be happy? The reasons are summed up in one word: hope. We must love each other and hope for a better tomorrow, and our smile is one way to reflect that hope for a better tomorrow.
There is so much good in our world today that we should all celebrate as individuals. There are beautiful green forests and farm fields all around, cities that offer exciting opportunities to individuals, and a world that is already amazingly technologically advanced. This is only a picture of what is to come in our beautiful world that surrounds us.
A smile is a celebration of life in what it is and what it is becoming. It is a reaction to a feeling of ecstasy that dominates us from world around us. How can you not react positively to a world of happy faces and so much color? Smile a little bit more.
