Thursday, as the weekend clocks soon and end of summer approaches ⌛
How fast those days come and go. I was pretty disappointed about the condition of the black berries at Norman’s Kill West Preserve last night after work but I got listening to Revisionist History’s Staten Island Podcast series about Dan Singleton and the Staten Island successionist movement. The cowboy-hat wearing Staten Islander artist with a big old mustache who ended up buying cows and moving to Jefferson in Schoharie County. Sounds like fun.
Staten Island Politics are crazy, 🤪 as are most of the people I’ve known from there over the years, though my only time I’ve ever been to Staten Island is heading cross the Staten Island Expressway and Verazano Bridge back and forth from New Jersey to Brooklyn to avoid the Manhattan and Bronx traffic on work trips. But yeah, I think if I lived in Staten Island I would want to move to Schoharie County and buy cows. 🐮 And maybe grow a mustache. Honestly, I do love New York politics and reading about the stories of how the power brokers got things done. 👩⚖️ I do want my own land, but I’m not quite ready to hang up my hat.
Riding the bike to work today, 🚵♂️ still having some shifting issues but I am continue to tweak that on the bike. I have a 1 PM meeting downtown, so I’ll ride downtown, and then a Happy Hour in Warehouse District, 🍻 although I don’t know if I’ll attend because I don’t necessarily feel like riding back up the State Street Hill or the Norman’s Kill Gorge a second time today. Last night was nice down at the Normans Kill Ravine West Preserve, though not a lot of good sized blackberries 🍓
Undecided about the weekend. 🌧️ Cloudy and quite possibly rainy on Sunday, though Saturday looks nice. ☀️ But there are only three weekends left in summer, 📆 and next week I am thinking off Friday for my last actual day off through November – to go up to the House Pond Campsite to float and swim in the Potholers. 🏊♂️ But my checking account is going to be pretty depleted after summer vacation and paying off my credit card, and I still need to buy my investments and Roth IRA for this week. All despite being paid on Monday, and no paycheck for another two weeks, though that should be enough to cover the rent. Maybe I should get away, what would it cost, maybe $50 in gas? ⛽ I don’t really need supplies and it would be nice to get away at least a few more times before summer is done. 😎 Maybe it does depend a lot on the timing of the rain. 🌂
I’ve been continuing to explore my thoughts about mental illness using Google Gemini, 🧠 burn barrels, off-grid living, and general life choices more generally. 🔥 I do like my fires, and it was great to see all those blackened burn barrels when I was down in Pennsylvania. I just kind of like taboo things like burning shit, and who really cares if some day I want to own land, and not recycle ♻️ every stupid piece of paper and plastic that crosses my desk. 🛢️ Still, there is something so comforting about AI agreeing to whatever you think, without all the judgment and negative tone of the the licensed mental therapist I saw now several years back. Judgement free on paper but you can always know what people are thinking when you talk to them in person compared to an anonymous algorithm. It’s not to say though you shouldn’t question what an AI algorithm spits back – often it is wrong – but it gives you a place to start your explorations into an issue, think about things in new angles. 📐 And that’s kind of comforting and gives you context. Maybe I do dream too much about that off-grid cabin with the burn barrel out back, but hardly a serious concern when I am a pretty successful professional.
Rain for Sunday? 🌧️
Maybe the days of wilderness smoking weed, and hick towns that smell like cow shit are coming to an end at least for this weekend as it looks like weekend is trending wet. So no going to Schoharie? Saturday still looks okay but we know how this all changes.
Kind of unfortunate as there is only three summer weekends left before Labor Day Weekend 📆 working remote from Hardwood Hill. Maybe I’ll check out the firetower lighting when I am up there that weekend, but I also know that’s kind of the end of summer and things rapidly get cooler in the autumn, though this might be a fairly cool autumn regardless. Hoping the following weekend to this weekend, or maybe that least weekend of summer before Labor Day to do one last trip to the Potholers. 🏊♂️ If I’m not heading out into the mud and muck this weekend, maybe I should at least wash the mud off the SuperDuty from camp.
Things are getting caught up at work, 🧑💻 though I am still tired. 🥱 I am having a lot of trouble adjusting back to city life. Continuing to work on trying to sell Big Red, people express interest but I’m struggling to close the deal. 🤝 I was tired last night, bike derailuer cable was sticky, I got that freed up, headed to bed and laid back, I had zero energy. Rode to work and back home yesterday, 🚵♂️ but that’s all I could do. I actually thought I had event to go to last night and meetings downtown, but I got the day wrong on the calendar. 🗓️ I guess sI was confused as the email came in during vacation, I glanced at it but mostly ignored it. Truth is I’m really struggling at the city 🏙️ life again. I miss those days in the woods, camping out with the cows 🐮 in the National Forest.
Eggs for for breakfast 🥚 finishing off the last of the big bottle of salsa I had and adding it to the white bag to turn into smoke and fire soon enough. 🔥 I glanced on the label and saw it was No. 7 plastic ♻️ not that matters much for me. Actually started talking to Google Gemini about my thoughts about trash burning and freedom, 🗑️ found it to be a much more insightful conservation that made me think far more then my analyst I hired like 5 years ago and paid $25 bucks for nearly each wasted session. After $125 plus all that time spent in his basement, I got nothing out of it besides being looked down as a knuckle-dragging redneck who illegally burns his garbage 🛢️ and drives an enormous creaky old pickup, and how wonderful liberalism is if I only came around the corner to join him. 🩺 I kind of don’t love doctors at all, though on my list to have done is my yearly physical. Could be Lyme disease or something worse, but I think it’s just the struggle to get back on the schedule. I was about 15 minutes late to work yesterday, 🚲 but whatever I’m the big boss man around that place. It’s just been so busy. 🤖 The great thing about AI is it usually comes around to your way of thinking, and will provide you evidence to reinforce your existing beliefs after challenging you a bit. I see a blog post coming on.
The bike shift cable sticking is annoying me, ⚙ but hopefully with some lubrication and adjustment I will have a smooth ride in. Started having issues on vacation, 🚲 but there is always something a bit broken or off on the bike. Maybe come winter when it’s really bad for riding and the bike shop mechanic is slow, I should have the gears and cables all tuned up and the wheels trued up. Won’t get me a new bike, but would make riding much more pleasant. Sometimes I defer maintenance too long. 🤷♂️ It just seems like everything is an expense these days, and money goes out a lot faster then it comes in.
Shadows of the Finger Lakes, Echoes of the City
Eleven days in the open country disappear the moment you cross back into the urban grid. Behind me, the Finger Lakes are fading into memory, leaving only the ghost of a camp routine that feels entirely detached from the world I woke up to on Monday morning. Out there, the days had a rhythm dictated by the sun and the weather. I remember the slow, heavy movement of grazing cows in the distance, their deep moos drifting lazily across the grass into camp. Evenings belonged to the soft, rhythmic flicker of the campfire against the dark canopy of trees, and afternoons were spent plunging into the icy, clear water of the gorge, washing away the summer heat.
Monday brought a jarring end to the quiet. The transition back to the office was amplified by the cold frustration of a crumbling infrastructure. Checking the new schedules revealed yet another round of service cuts from the transit authority, making the city bus even more inconvenient for a working commute. It is an exhausting reminder of public neglect, leaving passengers to wait longer on hot pavement just to get to a job. The work itself offered no soft landing—just a relentless rush of unpacking data, setting targets, and trying to steady a ship that kept moving while I was away.
By Tuesday, the weight of the city felt heavier. There is a deep, bone-weary fatigue that comes from trading the sweet, rich farm smells of the open country for the grime of city life. The contrast is sharpest in the small, mundane tasks. Instead of swimming in a pristine gorge, I am back at the local laundromat, watching clothes spin in a plastic tub, surrounded by the rumble of industrial dryers and the harsh glare of fluorescent bulbs. Outside, the air is thick with the noise of backfiring cars, rumbling trucks, and the endless hiss of traffic.
Riding the mountain bike into work today offered a brief reprieve, a small way to clear the head and keep the pollution down. Having additional staff on hand helped tame the chaos at the office, too. The remaining days of summer are slipping away quickly, and the high cost of fueling up the SuperDuty means future trips will stay closer to home. But the pull of the woods is still there. Plans are already spinning for a Friday escape—maybe a weekend run out to Schoharie to dive into the Mine Kill Pool, to hike, to ride the trails, and to sit by a fire under a wide-open sky once more.