When I was younger, I tended to take more anti-vacations then vacations. Vacations, as least as I conceived in years past, are more about getting out and doing things. They are about days of hiking up mountains, kayaking, exploring new lands. They are about rush and hussling to get as much possible into a short period of time.
In contrast, an anti-vacation is about relaxation, camping, and doing as little possible. It’s about not watching the time every minute, but instead just de-stressing and allowing the time to fly by without care. It’s about sitting back, reading, drinking beer, and watching the wind blow through the trees.
An anti-vacation is not about new experiences. It’s not about going to great places, or doing remarkable things. It’s about being lazy, and just enjoying oneself without doing a lot of work. It’s a cold beer, it’s a campfire in the woods. It’s a true vacation, even if it seems more like an anti-vacation then a vacation.
You can draw your own conclusions on what living arrangement is more “green”, although I think this orthoimagetry from Google speaks louder then words alone.
Green Lakes State Park beautiful and unique state park featuring mineral rich waters, meromictic ecosystems, and old growth forest outside of Syracuse, NY. I went out for a 1.5 hour walk along these lakes on a beautiful fall morning around 7 AM.
It is a three mile walk around both Green Lakes and Round Lake, and is very popular for crazy suburbanite joggers, which will try to run you over when you go for an early morning walk. In the day time in the fall it’s even more crowed, though there is no entry charge after Labor Day Weekend
Watching the sun rise across the lake.
The colors along the trail as the sun rose where spectacular.
As I walk along the very colorful tree line along the lake.
As the fog rises on Green Lake and over green lake.
Walking over to Round Lake and watching the colors of the trees reflect on the lake’s surface.
On a brightly lit trail around Round Lake as the sun filters through the colors of fall.
And dozens of color reflect upon Round Lake.
Then I walk over to Green Lake with the colors at peak on a very beautiful fall morning.
From the southern edge of Green Lake, there is this pretty little point jetting out into the Lake.
I proceeded to walk along to the western Edge Of Green Lake to see the bright colors across the lake. This is from the point shown in the previous photo.
One last view of the colors, as I return back to my truck.
The Old Administration Building at Green Lakes (taken the previous afternoon).
The New Administration Building at Green Lakes.
Note: The best time for peak folliage at Green Lakes State Park is during the Columbus Day Weekend in October. This is when I was out hiking here. If you want to visit it during the most pretty part of the day, make sure to get here right at the crack of dawn, which occurs about 15 minutes later then surrounding areas, due to the low elevation of the lakes.
Here is a map of the walk around Green Lake and Round Lake. If you are doing it in the morning, it’s best to walk around the Eastern Shores first for the sunrise, and the Western Shores second to see the colors on the leaves.
It’s obvious that the summer is too short. Despite the fact that Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress, the White House, and the state legislature, they have failed to extend the summer months into the fall.
It’s not like it’s impossible to extend summer. All they would have to do is pass a law stating the summer extended past the fall eqiunox, and maybe change the days that school starts along with changing the date of elections.
To counter the shorter colder days, the Democrats could have created a second daylight savings time, that would kick in for the first three weeks of fall, along with offering tax breaks for the purchase of warmer clothing, such as insulated swim suits.
This could be of great economic benefit. It could create jobs and extend summer fun. But of course, the Democrats despite being in power chose not to extended summer another month or two.
I was wondering about how expensive it is to generate electricity with my pickup truck to power my accessories in the evening compared to the 16 cents a killowatt hour electricity I have at home from National Grid (including the 1.8 cent a killowatt hour surcharge for wind-hydro power).
Figuring…
The inverter and wiring has a maximum output of 800 watts. In an hour, it can produce up to 0.8 a kilowatt hours of electricty.
The truck battery has a reserve capacity of 120 minutes at 50 amps draw at 12 volts.
Gas is $2.75 a gallon. A Ford Ranger uses approximently 1/2 oz of gasoline per minute idle, and it takes 256 minutes or 4 hours, sixteen minutes idling per gallon.
Idle the truck 20 minutes an hour to keep the battery charged. That means each hour it uses 10 oz of gasoline, or 1/12 a gallon of gasoline.
Adds up to…
About $1.50 a kWh for electricity. While it takes more then hour to produce that killowatt hour energy, that’s what the net cost is. It’s 10 times the cost of utility plant, but that’s to be expected.
A pickup truck’s engine and alternator is not designed as a dynamo to efficently generate electricity. The primary goal of the alternator is keep the battery charged up, and the battery is designed mostly to provide a high amperage output to the starter, to quickly spin a cold engine with significant resistance from congealed oil in the winter.
Alternators are at best 50-60% efficent at converting engine power to electricity, and that’s on top of an engine that is probably about 20% efficent at putting power to drive line. That means the entire system is about 10% efficent, far below the 30-40% that most utilities can create electricity at.
Anybody who has read this blog for a little while knows I am at least a little bit of a pyromanic. I like starting campfires, watching them burn, and I really like watching trash burn. While I’m against destruction of valuable or useful property, burning waste material and campfires under controlled conditions is so much fun.
People say burning trash is bad, it pollutes and it smells pretty nasty, especially if you have a smoldering fire with lots of plastic. It’s hard to disagree, although after ones burns trash for a while, you hardly even notice the smell of trash smoke. Indeed, in our vast rural areas, the impact is pretty low.
And I still think it’s a lot of fun.
I love watching paper burn, the faces, the pictures, the text blacken up and burn with flashy yellow flames.
I love watching plastic deform in the fire, drip, melt, and burn, with bright and colorful flames. The color varies on the plastic, vinyl chlorides burn blue and green.
I love watching as the flames rip through the trash bags and chew their insides. Watching the destruction of waste, converted into soot and into smoke.
Hell, I’m such a pyromaniac. It gives me such an increadible high!
Burning wood and campfires is fun. The flicker of the flames and coals can mesmerise one. Yet, it lacks the drama and the fun of burning trash. Their simply aren’t the neat compounds and materials in wood, that make trash burning so interesting to watch. Their isn’t the statification of watching your waste material disappear before your eyes.
I really like watching trash burn. While no longer legal anywheres in NY State, I still burn trash when I’m camping in hot campfires. I also keep my “burnable” trash in summer, and burn it when camping. It’s destroyed almost instantly, but with all the beauty of a trash fire. I don’t litter, I carefully seperate unburnables and makes sure not leave any trace behind.
Some day I am going to own a place out in the country, and probably not in New York State. As a real country boy, I’m going to have my burn barrels, I will burn all of my burnable trash, far away from the neighbors who might otherwise complain about the smell that I actually kind of like. I’m not against recycling, and indeed I will seperate out cans and glass, but I sure love to watch and see my garbage burn.
They allow voters real choice in electing officials.
They allow for primaries to help select both party’s candidates.
You create a wall between lobbyists and elected officials.
They unprofessionalize legislative bodies.
Fresh Blood. When you prevent a person from spending a life time in office, it allows new people to serve in the office. New people have fresh ideas.
Real Choice in Elected Officials. People say that term limits prohibit people from choosing who they want to vote for. Yet, we know elections with incumbents are rarely a series of fair choices. Incumbents use their official duties to curry support with special interests, ensuring that they almost always win.
Legitmate Primaries to Select Both Parties Officials. There are rarely legitimate or even competitive primaries against incumbents. Incumbents enjoy so much financial support from the special interests and political parties, that most challengers can not unseat them.
Create a Wall Between Special Interests and Elected Officials. With long-term incumbents, they have much more time to get to know and trust special interests. With long-term incumbents, they are much more likely to have served in office the same time as the people who are trying to lobby them.
Unprofessionalize Legislative Bodies. While you probably want your denist or automobile repair shop technician to a professional, you don’t really want your politician to a be professional. You want people not to be stuck in their ways, and to try innovative things. Leave it to the professional and non-political bureaucracy to implement things.
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