May 2022 – MOONTABS

Spring moves forward with a mixed bag of weather it seems. Super dry in the St. Lawrence valley until recently. The rains followed days of unseasonably hot weather. Hot. Cool. Cold. Hmmm. Just like the days of life. But always moving forward and counting the positive blessings. Task fills the hours and I wonder how I ever managed to keep up prior to retirement. Such thoughts fill these posts. Time the avenger The Pretenders called it. Last post May 7th. A lot has happened!

Camping season came up fast and found me totally behind schedule. A smoked out water heater control board in the Airstream that I blew off since it failed last October. Happy ending to cut that story short! I purchased an American made replacement from Dinosaur and tossed the junk “made in China” one that has plagued so many Airstream owners. After that things ramped up rather smoothly. No leaks in the travel coach fortunately. But I had blown the lines down per specifications. It pays off usually when we follow advice and procedure. Other than cleaning it was ready to roll. So it was back up, hitch, and roll. Well maybe a little more than that! The camping location had been booked months before so it was destination bound. Camping season was off and running! Pretty wild considering that one year ago we were staying in a rented camper! What to say about the drive? A 2022 Ford F-150 Powerboost for a tow vehicle ready to test. 417 ponies out front and only a 2 hour trip to the campsite. No problem!

As far as the details of hitting the campsite? Tested and tried out last season. Easy money on our large Adirondack water site. Backing into the sites has gotten much easier for me with experience. Zane,Jen, and I made short work of it at any rate. Parked under the pines the camper quickly became home. The chores done and a simple dinner consumed it was campfire time! A beautiful night for a fire once the early arriving black flies went to bed. A light breeze and the sounds of the other Happy Campers around the ponds added to the mood of settling into life on the ADK clock as I so often call it. I sat back in my chair under the stars and watched for orbiting satellites. Always a fixture of the modern night sky these days they have become a constant. I think back to the days of my youth and the first time I ever saw one as dawn was breaking over a North Gouverneur sky. We were bringing in my cousin’s dairy herd for morning milking and searching for a new born calf. Decades ago now and the satellites are much more common in the heavens. Change was gradual I suppose.

We hit it hard that first day of camping. Paddling and a little fishing. Super hot and buggy. Unseasonal and intense I soon realized as my uncovered skin burned. Damn! Forgot the sunscreen! The calm water was great for paddling but the dogs Stella and Gracie were frying so it was beach time. We had done two short canoe carries to reach a somewhat remote pond with a nice beach. We chilled for some time and Zane waded in the shallows chasing tadpoles. Not me! This pond of beautiful sand contains large leeches! No thx! We began to notice increasing black clouds and distant thunder so we decided to head back over the carries. Good decision on our part as we soon encountered whitecaps on the bigger lake we needed to cross. We barely made the camp and secured everything before the rains hit with considerable force.We hunkered down in the Airstream and made preparations for dinner while we waited for the storm to pass. Eventually Zane got the campfire going and we cooked a rack of pork ribs over the coals. Yum! Camp life was in full swing! The rains returned and we dined inside while the Honda generator charged our batteries in advance of the night to come. Boondocking keeps us busy at this campground of no hookups.But we were the Happy Campers once again! It was on and in motion with minimal glitches! The weather is unpredictable and part of it all. In our cozy Airstream it causes us no concern as we call it a day and go to sleep! The adventures wait for us to discover them!The spirit energy soars in the exhaustion of memorable days! Morning coffee will seal the deal! Loaded with maple syrup and waiting for the buzz of the new day! More to come of this trip! ✍️

It’s been a fast paced blur these past few weeks to say the least! I tapped out a couple posts while on a trip to West Virginia delivering a U-Haul full of furniture and miscellaneous things. At the home where we were staying I would typically find some free time after my morning coffee to begin a rough draft for a post. Honestly, my rough drafts typically remain just that! Coffee infused ramblings that I toss into cyberspace with little regard for editing or loading with carefully controlled correctness. What’s this got to do with nature or natural connections? That’s a question that may remain unanswered for now! Research Pinnacle State Park in West Virginia. I spent a day hiking and exploring the region. Well worth the visit!

It all started with the drive itself as we left for Bluefield,West Virginia the Saturday before Easter Sunday. It had been a whirlwind week. I had been struggling with a warranty issue on my 2021 Ford F-150 truck for over two weeks. The problem was a faulty wiper motor that worked occasionally or not at all. No time in northern New York is a good time not have fully functioning windshield wipers! April is no exception! It seemed that it should have been an easy fix but that was not the case in this particular circumstance! Rather than bore you with the details of the entire situation I will simply say that Ford Motor Corp. and my local dealer wished to continue a business relationship with me. As such, on the morning of our departure I was behind the wheel of a brand new 2022 Ford F-150 Powerboost hybrid. As fine a piece of machinery as I have ever climbed into I must add. I had loved my 2021 so had chosen this one due to its similar features. The hybrid option was a nice upgrade and had sealed the deal with my salesperson at the dealer. The technology was mind numbing with the synch 4 system on board as I would soon learn. Perfectly synched to my phone and music preferences. Voice activated controls that awaited my every beck and call.Why it could practically drive itself! Oh wait! Did I not mention that it almost can accomplish that task? It seems my highly sophisticated truck has a mind of its own. My super smart truck does much of my thinking for me I soon realized as I set the cruise control at a comfortable 63 mph. It keeps itself perfectly in my traffic lane at all times. I can release the steering wheel but it gets irritated after a bit and then eventually scolds me with a slightly annoying tone complete with a visual prompt. It’s was a little unnerving to let it take the corners for me but I began to trust its highly attentive sensors and cameras after a while. Distracted driving? Never! If we (yes the truck and I) came up behind another vehicle a safe distance would be maintained at a constant speed. But the truck is ever cognitive and conscious of my feelings so I am allowed to override everything by hitting the gas or tapping the brakes. I think it wants to keep me happy and content at all times so I don’t pull over and disable its many parameters. It’s a friendly relationship after all. One that we quite literally raced into when we hit the high speed game of interstate travel on I-81 south. But why wouldn’t I be happy? She happily shares the responsibility of my self indulgent driving with Siri. Siri handles the entertainment and navigation functions as well as incoming calls and texts. They seem to work well together these two friends of mine. Siri once got upset when Zane called her stupid so I don’t allow him to insult her anymore. She’s shy though and won’t respond when I tell her that I love her. That’s ok! The miles are many and I can wait for her to come around. Maybe she’s just playing hard to get. And just like that I fall under the comfortable allure of technology. It’s been years in the making I suppose. A little nudge here and a big shove there have brought me to this blissful destination of thought free oblivion. I do get angry with the truck when she slams on the brakes thinking we are about to collide with another vehicle. But she gets upset when I start dodging potholes and asks me to rest. No she doesn’t have a name and I don’t plan on giving her one. That would just be too weird! It’s life in the fast lane circa 2022.

So did the trip go? Safe and uneventful. Lots of music and muses. Driving (rarely riding) on the busy interstates I find myself making many observations and drawing a fair number of conclusions. 12 hours of driving can do that to a person after all. The endless strings of cars,trucks,and tractor trailers. Campers and contractors with heavily laden cargo racks. Military convoys and motorcycles. They all blend together in a metallic blur of potential threats and constant obstacles. The end of the day finds me fried with a nerve state I call the road buzz. No fear though Siri comes through with the destination spot on. Mission accomplished! Cargo delivered intact! The bigger story of interstate travel will need to wait for now.It truly shares a twisted connection to nature. Technology is the name of the game in this story.

Day three of our stay in West Virginia found me introduced to some home security equipment. I had experience with old school hard wire security sensors,cameras,and card swipe systems in a commercial setting but this was something new. Sure I had seen it advertised on television but I pretty much had toned it out. Home security for me is a German Shepherd most of the time. A trip to the a local Bluefield hardware franchise was the ticket to modern security technology. Wi-Fi controlled cameras and doorbells. Wireless sensors for windows and doors. Easy to install with minimal power requirements. I gained some useful knowledge helping getting it all online. The old dog and a bag of new tricks. Do we need them back home?

The final leg of my techno-filled trip involved a short 2 hour drive to Forest, Virginia to visit a cousin of mine. He also just happens to be the man behind the technology that runs and perpetuates this blog! Call him administrator! It’s been a fun project and one that time will evolve into a larger vision. I got to spend some quality time outside with him and his family. They live in a wooded tract of well constructed homes with numerous birds and wandering deer right in their backyard. At night we could hear a coyote chorus from the undeveloped property nearby. We traveled about 50 minutes the Saturday I was there to hike at Crabtree Falls.It’s a beautiful location and a stunning set of falls. It’s a 1.7 mile hike to the top and the views are spectacular.You can find it on the All Trails app. It was a busy location with a steady surge of polite hikers. Parking was challenging and there’s a $3 parking fee. One of the highlights of my visit was talking to my cousin’s boys Andrew and Christian. Tech savvy to the maximum and full of information. We were discussing my blog and my writing techniques when the subject of AI came up. They showed me some interesting websites to visit where the aspiring writer could walk a landscape of perfect grammar and rock solid structure. Feed the AI your thoughts and stand back! Perfectly written like a professional! I found this most intriguing and somewhat alarming at the same time! Does anyone still remember the old Memorex commercials for cassette tapes? “Is it live or is it Memorex?” Something like that. The conversation with Andrew and Christian got rather animated at that point! I began to speculate on the ramifications of AI and how it could be used to “enhance” my posts. To become professional under the invisible shroud of technology sure might sound tempting I explained to them but at what point would my footprints disappear? Would MOONTABS still be me or become some artificial (albeit perfect) version of me? Could AI get it correct? It takes experience and emotion for some stories. It’s important to tell the story in my own words. It’s the backbone of all my work. Rawness in the story follows rawness in nature. That’s the connection. Maybe I will visit Grammarly though just to test the proverbial waters. Perhaps someday it could become yet another techno friend in the truck. Writing the blog while driving by simply speaking. Perfection and purpose together.Will you need to ponder on any given day is it GW or AI? I seriously doubt the best AI can navigate the forests of Taz-mania. This is the new reality for us. It’s a wild ride they once described as future shock. I plan on having some more fun with this subject as I follow where all this leads. I am headed back up to the Adirondacks soon for some disconnected life on the ADK clock. It’s a little overdue.Nature eroded the mountain that became Pinnacle Rock. Will technology erode the essence of creative writing and transform the author’s message? Nature has few shortcuts. That’s a solid place to stand. ✍️

Monthly Archives: May 2022

It’s On!

AI or GW?