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Hello, my name is Judas Gutenberg and this is my blaag (pronounced as you would the vomit noise "hyroop-bleuach").



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   Powerful leaves for Albany
Friday, August 5 2022

location: rural Hurley Township, Ulster County, NY

Yesterday in the remote workplace, I made great progress understanding some code for a random feature I was tasked with altering. But today Joe the lead developer showed me this whole level of complexity I'd been unaware of: the "rules engine," which was what I was supposed to use to achieve what I was certain I could easily achieve yesterday. It was such a deluge of new information, not all of which I could follow, that I was left completely demotivated. I'll force myself back into the task again, but a Friday didn't feel like a good day for it (even if I had taken a semi-recreational 150 mg dose of pseudoephedrine this morning).
At lunchtime when I was trying to get the air conditioning working on the Forester, Powerful packed the last of his things into his Prius and drove off to his new life in Albany. He doesn't have a job there yet, though he says he's certain to get a youth mentorship job he applied for a couple months ago, and his rent is only $400/month. Gretchen and I stood in the driveway waving goodbye, looking a little like the couple made famous in "American Gothic" (oh wait, it was a father and daughter in that painting). About a year ago Powerful left for Albany the first time, with the plan to pursue a masters degree at a university there (I forget which one). But his plans were soon dashed by heart failure and months in the hospital, followed by most of a year back living in our basement. But this time he's gone for good; we're not keeping a room for him this time. His living here had never been much of a problem for me, but Gretchen (who makes more complete use of the house than I do) had grown weary of his lingering presence.
Usually when air conditioning doesn't work on a vehicle, it just needs coolant. But adding coolant did no good, and I soon determined that the pump's clutch wasn't being engaged when the 12v signal appeared at the coil (I tested the wire and found that it had a good signal. I wonder if I can just replace the coil and not the whole pump.
A little before the end of the workday, I packed up the Bolt, loaded up the dogs, and began my drive up to the cabin. Gretchen didn't have anything she needed to be doing this weekend and could've come with me and the dogs, but since this was the first weekend of Powerful's absence, Gretchen wanted to take advantage of the alone-time opportunity.
Early in the drive I wanted to pay attention to the ongoing banter in Teams, but (as always seems to be the case), whenever I need my cellphone for something, it finds a way to fail me. In this case, though, it wasn't the phone that was the problem. It was Microsoft, which was now demanding that I re-enter my credentials, which I pulled over on the side of the US 209 to do. But of course my credentials didn't work (and unlike Google, Apple, and thousands of other companies, Microsoft makes viewing what one has actually typed into a password form item mostly impossible), so I said fuck it.
Driving to the cabin, I was listening to WGY, which seems to be a radio station geared to right-wing extremists. I happened to catch some of Sean Hannity's radio show and listened to get a sense of how the idiots in this country are being led. The thing that struck me was that Hannity is big on making speculative assertions as if they are extablished fact, and never providing evidence to support these assertions. One such assertion was that China has kompromat on Joe Biden, and this accounts for his "weak" stand towards China. ("Weak" is just another unsupported assertion, and is only ever applied to Democrats). To me, this just sounds likes projection, given all the readily-viewed evidence that Russia must have something keeping Donald Trump cringe-inducingly obsequious.
As always when driving to the cabin with just the dogs, I stopped for a Burger King Impossible Burger and two large orders of fries, which I got at the Gloversville Burger King, the one across Comrie Avenue from Walmart.
When I arrived the cabin, a UPS driver had just delivered four flatpacks and a large circular carpet. The driver was friendly and even encouraged Ramona to climb up in his truck with him. (Neville wasn't so sure and kept barking at him.)

I walked down to the lake by myself and eventually went out in the canoe a short distance with no particular purpose. At some point a beaver started trolling me. He or she would approach fairly closely and then weave back and forth (50 feet left or right or more, per cycle) without getting much closer.
Back at the cabin, I ate some cannabis and drank a bit too much.


Gretchen threw some random flower seeds on a barren patch near the east end of our front "yard" and now we have poppies and other flowers growing there.


The dock from out in the lake to its east. Click to enlarge.


For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?220805

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