I'm going to be interviewed for a thing that's going to be on one of the major streaming services. They haven't asked me not to discuss details but assume they don't want me to discuss details.

I helped a somewhat famous person find out someone had been reading their emails for years. I found a loose thread and gave it a little tug before handing it to their manager who I knew and had a good fan-famous person manager relationship with. That thread unraveled a pretty big sweater, way more than I would have ever guessed, but I was the right person in the right place to help them out. They're making a documentary on it and are interviewing me for it.

I accepted an offer on my condo. 99.9% excited to complete the sale, but a sliver is sad to let go of the home my old cats knew.

But then on to home projects.

I got an accepted offer on a house. Inspection tomorrow. Three bed, 1.5 bath, two car attached garage on 0.28 acres in a fairly generic (but not in a bad way) part of town. I close July 15. I want to make the backyard more natural and not just a bunch of grass.

The first triathlon of the year was Sunday. It felt great to be out, and it was the first race on my new race bike. I'm happy to report I was passed only by other tri bikes, but I'm steeling myself for the inevitable overtake by a road bike in three weeks on a hilly course.

I'm really happy with how bushy my habanero plant is. It's much happier in the bigger pot. I killed one not repotting it soon enough. A third was recently repotted, and I'm hopeful it will look stronger. One last one needs to get a new pot soon. The outdoor ones are going to need to come in this week as we have some overnight lows in the 30s coming.

I have some seeds from a super hot pepper, and I'm going to try to get them going over the winter once I free up some smaller pot space.

I'm no gardener, but this one pepper plant is going on two years old, and it's from a seed from a grocery store pepper. I'm pleased with myself.

Yesterday I ran a 6:57 mile, the first time I've seen below seven minutes in at least fifteen years.

On Sunday I hiked to the summit of Basin Mountain.

It's a 17.6 mile hike, round trip. The trail was nice and firm for seven miles, and then for the next 1.8 miles I didn't see a single sign of a human passing that way. I suspect nobody had for maybe two weeks. There was about 18-24" of uncompressed snow. Naturally on the return I only saw my own tracks. I'm still a little sore. It was brutal, and I fucking did it. I think I covered that 1.8 miles in nearly four hours, less than half a mile an hour. It took me 7.5 hours to make the summit and almost six hours to get down.

I think I got a little frostbite on my thumbs. I didn't feel cold until the sun was down. My mittens had gotten a little wet, and they started to freeze. I was down all the steep parts, so having little grip wasn't too bad. And my mittens were frozen in the shape to hold something, so that was good.

About once per week, maybe Sunday or Monday, something happens and I think "I should share that on pubski." Then Wednesday rolls around and I've forgotten what it was.

I'm going to go get a cup of coffee. 🍵

I've started passively looking for a new job. I've done this before, and it came to nothing. Last week was the culmination of a big project, months of work. It went beautifully. Customers that are notoriously hard to please expressed how well things went. The result internally? One mass email saying thanks. I know it's just the job I'm paid to do, but it feels like we could have done more. Literally two thirds of the group was directly involved. I see other groups do bigger celebrations for less.

To top that off, someone sent a related timeline of one part of that project and credited someone else rather than me for what was the hardest study I ever did and probably the most complex study we've ever done in-house. If anyone else noticed, they didn't say anything. I didn't have the heart to correct it to take credit for something nobody else apparently cares about enough to remember.

It feels like nobody cares. It makes me want to not be here.

There's a job in Holyoke, MA I'm qualified for. That's 3.5 hours to the Adirondack High Peaks and 4.5 hours to the White Mountains. There's another in Rensselaer, NY I could maybe get hired for. I wouldn't say I'm a slam dunk, but the differences could probably be explained in an interview.

I ran my fastest half marathon in Saturday beating my old time by over five minutes.

I'm on my way home from my New Mexico hiking trip. I saw some sheep.

I'll have you know, Business Insider, that it's my personality and not my financial or employment status that makes me unmarriageable.

Good morning, Hubski. I'm seated in an airplane, wearing tights under my hiking pants, unshaven, with dirty hiking boots. I got TSAPre today, which was awesome because I could keep my boots on.

A layover in Detroit, then land in Albany, fill up my water bottles at the airport, get my rental car, stop for stove fuel, get lunch, then two hours to a trailhead, three to four hours hiking to a campsite. If all goes to plan, I'll be spending the next two nights in a lean-to. Weather is cold overnight. We'll see how that goes. But no rain or wind are in the forecast.

If I'm being honest, I'm a little scared. I act a little tough, like nothing really phases me, but it's a facade. It'll be fine; I don't mean for that to sound alarming. I just wanted to say it out loud.

I weighed my backpack on Friday, and it was a hair over 40 pounds. I added a couple things since then, so I'm probably around 41-42 pounds. That's ten pounds more than the bag I used last summer, but I've also lost ten pounds since then. I'm optimistic. I think.

Today is the 30th, not the 31st.

I have a little display thing to hang medals on. It's by my door. Today while putting my shoes on I thought "I think I'd like to have another marathon finish." (ButterflyEffect wasoxygen).

These are my medals, plus my car key.

That's two five milers, one 10K, two 20Ks, six halfs, one marathon, and one 19.3 challenge (comprised of the 10K and one half). Outstanding is my 45.5 challenge medal for adding the full. It's coming in the mail. One of the five mile runs was my first finisher medal. At the time I thought it was kind of stupid and a waste of money, but now I'm kind of proud of it.

But I want to finish the Adirondack High Peaks before signing up for another full. If the weather next weekend keeps looking good, I'm going to give it a shot.

I've more or less decided to try hiking up East Pecos Baldy. 12.5 miles and 2600' ascent would be a piece of cake at 4000'. At 12,500', we'll see. It's official trail all the way to the summit, but if I get pooped there's a fantastic alpine lake at the base of the mountain. It'd still be worth the trip.

If that goes well I may follow up with Truchas Peak, the second highest point in New Mexico. One way to the summit follows a lot of the same trail as East Pecos, so there would be fewer surprises on the longer expedition with that trip behind me.

With the caveats of 1) I work for an electric utility and 2) my opinions here and elsewhere on hubski are mine and may not reflect those of my employer:

Change. The new paradigm, same as the old paradigm.

Change is nothing new for utilities. In the '90s it was de-regulation and open access. No longer could utilities deny access to independent generators to connect to their systems. If an IPP (independent power producer) had a lower priced product, state commissions would order regulated utilities to buy their power.

I have some criticisms of the article, mostly in tone, but there is one major truth here:

In all that bedlam, it’s easy to lose sight of an equally important (if less sexy) trend: Demand for electricity is stagnant.

3% annual growth used to be the norm. Today, everything I hear across the board is less than 1%. Some local areas might see more, some will see less or even negative growth (likely due to large industrial customers shutting down). But it averages out to positive but less than 1%.

Think for a moment about why a big utility like TVA (serving 9 million customers in seven states, with more than $11 billion in revenue) sets out to plan 20 years ahead. It is investing in extremely large and capital-intensive infrastructure like power plants and transmission lines, which cost billions of dollars and last for decades. These are not decisions to make lightly; the utility wants to be sure that they will still be needed, and will still pay off, for many years to come.

I think this paragraph misses something very important: failing to address a future need might mean that future need goes unmet. A little more bluntly, that might mean grandma's air conditioner in Nashville doesn't run when it's hot because there's no generation or no power lines to supply her and all her neighbors from what generation is available. Big power lines easily take ten years to build from inception to carrying power. Utilities have to be conservative because the alternative can have significant impacts to health, wellbeing, and the economy.

As I scroll through the article again, I want to note my general agreement. This:

it is good that US power demand has decoupled from GDP growth. As long as we’re getting the energy services we need, we want overall demand to decline. It saves money, reduces pollution, and avoids the need for expensive infrastructure.

is totally right.

The tone stuff I don't agree with is this:

Utilities have been frantically adjusting to this new normal.

and this:

utilities find themselves constantly surprised, caught flat-footed again and again by a trend they desperately want to believe is temporary

How does the author reconcile calling utilities frantic or surprised with TVA's constantly changing conclusions and their decision to start their integrated resource plan early? Guessing the future of energy is like trying to guess the future of the stock market. He might as well call stock traders surprised and frantic about the unprecedented market growth. He could be just as smug, and his conclusion would be just as pointless.

So apparently it snowed yesterday. Like four feet.

But I got a great hike in Monday!

I can never seem to get my panoramas straight. This is from Saddleback Mountain in Adirondack Park. Basin is the big mountain in front. Haystack is behind it to the left, and Marcy is just to the right.

The new Adirondack 46er numbers are posted, including mine. Each finisher (that registers) gets a roster number. Does the number change anything? No. But does it feel good? Oh yeah.

There was a pretty serious rescue last week. Hopefully more details come out, but it looks like they carried the injured hiker all the way out. Call to rescue was 37 hours with 34 rangers and 12 volunteers responding. There are some infamous cliffs there that I've actively avoided. I will continue to avoid them.

I paid off my mortgage and told no one. I recommend it.

I ran a 20K on Saturday and finished in 1:47:50. That's an 8:41/mile pace, a fast pace for me at that distance. I'm pleased. I then hiked another twelve miles Sunday, hill intervals Monday, and ran 4.7 more yesterday. I'm tired but pushing through.

A woman is trying to run the Ice Age Trail in 19 days. She's 405 miles in after nine days. Just 800 miles to go. She has the hardest stretches behind her. https://www.instagram.com/ani_weiss/

I'm thinking of trying to cross paths with her this weekend. She should be just a bit north of me by Sunday. I've completed 82 miles of the same trail.

After the historic snowfall out east, I bagged one more peak before coming home. People must have been out in droves Friday, because the trail to Mount Marcy was in fantastic shape.

This is the McIntyre Range as seen while coming down from Marcy. The flight is Air China CA819 Beijing to Newark.

I went hiking this week. I fucking crushed it, bagging five summits in three days. Four of those summits are among the most remote in the park, and a fifth is one I attempted unsuccessfully last December. I have two mountains left to complete the Adirondack 46ers.

Here's a picture from the summit of Skylight.

Good morning pubski. On Saturday I ran a 20K run, the longest race I've done and the second furthest I've ever run. I finished in 2:02:00. The first three 5Ks were incredibly consistent, but the fourth was 3 minutes off those times. My knee bothered me a little, but I also think my nutrition was off. I should have had a little more food before the start.

But I finished!

Last week I posted about going hiking and planning to back country camp. The camping was a bust as a bag was delayed on my flight. So I did day hikes Thursday and Saturday. This is a picture from Thursday:

Thanks to everyone who offered advice regarding an intern who didn't seem to "get" it. I tried some of your advice, and having him write out the process in his own words really seemed to help. I think it was useful to be able to provide feedback on his process rather than on his specific work. On the work I think he felt he had to perform right out the gate, so he'd nod and agree with the feedback we gave without really understanding or asking questions (which he may have seen as an admission of being unable, though that isn't how we'd have taken it). But by writing it down, the work product was a written explanation of him understanding, and I think it helped force him to overcome his need to perform and really think about the work.

I picked a hell of a day to quit sniffing glue.

I ran my first half marathon on Sunday. It was great. Perfect weather, and I felt good. My time was 2:05:20, so now my goal is to do one in under two hours. I think I can do it. My summer running plans will be to slowly and deliberately add training miles. I overdid it in March, and I'm still paying for it. But how I feel in late May versus early May says it's getting better. In early May I ran a 20K, and my right knee was painfully stiff at the end. After the half, it wasn't at all. I could have gone further.

As a personal achievement, I feel really good about this.

According to my watch I ran my fastest mile and my fastest 5k last night. Mile: 7:27. 5k: 23:57. My heart rate was too high and the course is as flat as a board, but I'll take it.

My brother is coming to town tomorrow, then Friday we're meeting our parents to go [look at airplanes in Oshkosh, WI](www.eaa.org). The weather should be good. My family is bad at plans and coordinating (which might explain why I do well at them). It'll be frustrating at times, but hopefully it all ends up well. My dad used to fly 35-40 years ago, just flying little Cessnas in a flying club. I occasionally think about trying to get a license.

I'm still running, training for a half marathon August 20. wasoxygen, what are you up to these days for runs? Saturday I had intended to do an 11 mile run, but the humidity was oppressive. At four miles I started walking and running on and off. I was completely soaked. My shoes were wet like I'd worn them in a lake. But the humidity is back down, and my hill intervals Monday felt really good.

I ordered a fire safe. It's more fire than safe, but I hope it'll help me organize things like my passport and birth certificate in a logical and safe place.

My September hiking trip is being reworked in my head. I was going to do six days/five nights in the woods, but I'm chickening out. Now I'm thinking two overnighters and one long day hike. It would be more miles but also more summits. It's also much safer. Since I'm hiking alone, if I had a bad fall on day 1, it would take a week before anyone missed me (phone service doesn't exist). The new plans bring that down to just two days.

Work is better than it was.

I'm here because the people who make up Hubski seem to read what I say. They might tell me I'm full of shit, but they'll read my side and then explain why I'm wrong. It's unlike other venues I have, and that's a good thing.

Travel old, too! Nobody is too young or too old to try something new.