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hauling rocks, wood, and lumber in a Chevy Bolt
Monday, June 8 2026
location: 940 feet west of Woodworth Lake, Fulton County, NY
I was so sucked into that Diego Rivera jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table that I actually had trouble starting my day. If the dogs had been there, they would've guilted me away and I would've taken them for a walk. But I had absolutely nothing else that I really needed to do. I'd break away for a time (it was a beautiful sunny day, after all) but then just get sucked back in wanting to place just one more piece. When she's working on the puzzle, Gretchen refers a lot to a picture of the complete mural. But my approach mostly ignores that picture and instead tries to find individual puzzle pieces with certain features on them aligned in certain ways based only on the pieces it will fit adjacent to. This technique often has me scanning the loose pieces in search of a particular color, such as blue, which is one of the least-prevalent colors in Pan-American Unity, though individual dollops of it occur throughout. I was finding the right-brain engagement with the puzzle was easily as fun as other addictive activities I've participated in, such as playing video games.
When I got around to doing something, it was driving the Bolt down off the Adirondack escarpment into Johnstown. I first went to Ace Noble to get more half inch carriage bolts and lag bolts (as well as smaller screws of various kinds). Then I returned to my new favorite lumber store, Builders FirstSource, which, it being a Monday, I knew would be open. Since I only had the Bolt to haul lumber with, I only bought two eight-foot four by fours, both of which fit entiely inside the car. If I want to haul anything longer, it will have to stick out of the passenger window (and possibly rest on the fragile rearview mirror).
On the drive back in on Woodworth Lake Road, I found yet more loose boulders to bring back and add to my nascent stone wall near where our driveway enters our parcel. That also happens to be where I'd piled up the firewood I'd processed Saturday night. So after removing those rocks, I then piled all that wood into the Bolt and rolled it down to the cabin, where I split a small amount and left most of the rest to be split later.
[REDACTED]
Before doing the final cabin cleanup and leaving for Hurley, I made a quick run down to the dock to inventory what treated lumber I still had down there. There was a 12 foot two by eight, a ten foot two by six, and an eight foot two by four. That was everything.
I began the drive homeward a little after 7:00pm with about 160 miles of range in the Bolt's battery. Initially I was listening to WEXT, which plays a mix of roots-rock and alternative. I'm not much into roots-rock, but the alternative material is good and exposes me to music I would not otherwise know about. Today's discovery was Beabadoobee and their song "All I Did Was Dream of You." The lyrics aren't great, but the singing is haunting and beats along with the drums through swirling guitars that act like searchlight sunbeams on the melancholy summery mood it conjures.
As I drove, I kept nearly colliding with black birds and grackles that had apparently nested in swamp grasses along the roadway. Somewhere between Schoharie and Middleburgh, an awkwardly-flying bird that was probably a juvenile seemed really intent on hitting my windshield. While I was distracted by that, a big rabbit came bounding across the roadway from the left and there was nothing I could do. I thing he or she dove under my car from the side and I felt a sickening ba-bumb that told me I didn't even need to look in my rearview mirror. It was such an idiotic act that I didn't even feel that bad about it. But I still felt horrible. I never want to be the cause of anyone's death.
Later in the same drive, after the sun had set and it was completely dark on Route 32 south of Cairo, a deer crossed the road about a 100 feet in front of me, and I slammed on my brakes. There was someone following me at the time, but he'd been keeping a good distance (as one always should in deer country), so nobody was injured and no property was destroyed.
I'd been drinking kratom tea for the second half of my drive home, and had a good kratom buzz going by the time the drive was over. It gives me a mild euphoria and a few issues with my perception of space, which might not be the best when driving a vehicle. Later this evening, though, the buzz tipped over into a bad thing, which I rarely have with kratom these days. It made me upper arms feel tense and I couldn't get comfortable seated in front of my computer. But when I lay next to Neville on the laboratory bean bag, the unpleasantness dissipated.
[REDACTED]
The state of my legs after the many insect bites, hiking in the Adirondack woods, and at least two decades of toenail fungus. Can your AI do that? Click to enlarge.
A painted turtle trying to cross Woodworth Lake Road just inside the Woodworth Lake gate (visible in the background), which I encountered early in my drive back to Hurley. I carried this turtle to a safer place in the grass in the direction he was going. Perhaps if this turtle hadn't delayed me, I wouldn't've subsequently run over that rabbit. Click to enlarge.
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