First off, I would like an “I survived the Taconic State Parkway in the beginning of a snowstorm” pin. Mountain roads in the beginning of a snowstorm? I have a running bit with both Hermana Weaselo and cellist best friend about the Taconic (the former because of where she works/worked/went to school, the latter because she’s from outside of Albany) and yeah, that was a “okay, be careful” moment from both of them. Especially in the Fahnestock Park area.

(I reserve the right to make a future post on the Taconic State Parkway.)

But second off I finally got to see a little bit of the West Point Foundry Preserve, ruins of buildings that made the guns that won the Civil War.

Buildings, almost all of them lost, removed brick by brick in the name of progress, save one, an office building that’s now kept and landmarked. A building from the 1860s, lost to time, left in the snow, and though I’d wanted to check it out for a couple trips now it did get me thinking. Because pardon me for sophomorically believing in a time where we, at the very least, had an ideal of America. Not that we’ve done a good job of actual equality over the years, as the execution has certainly led much to be desired considering slavery, Jim Crow, the suffrage movement, and now *points to destruction of rights because of “the drag queens,” as opposed to the destruction of rights for naked greed, cronyism, and the government equivalent of a private equity firm based on a Shiba Inu THAT DID NOT DESERVE THIS* all this shit, but at least for the idea that all men are born free and equal in the eyes of the law.

A concept passing us by like water in a brook…

Well, good thing I also got to saw this trail in the snow! It’s a state park so hopefully the state of New York won’t have lakes that were on people’s estates mined for whatever the fuck.

Sorry, Senorita Weaselo has the good pictures since my phone at any given moment has about 40 MB left. Mainly because I’m still trying to clean out my messages. (Mostly but not entirely Senorita Weaselo based, but like, I don’t want to delete some things she’s sent me over the years which means I need to be at the lappy to clear it out.) But this is a bit of trip, and at least something nice while we still have it.

We got college basketball and CONCACAF footy tonight, sorry. The good stuff’s tomorrow night’s open thread.

Hey Sharky? Boo the motherfucker. (Who’s now no longer going? I thought kings were powerful! SAD!)

Picture 1. 1865 Building, West Point Foundry Preserve, Cold Spring, NY; Picture 2. Foundry Brook, WPFP; Picture 3: Wonder Lake State Park, Holmes, NY. All pictures by me.