February 19, 2017 Night

Good evening! Partly clear and 44 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 13 mph. 

Not a half bad evening after a nice warm and sunny day. If I wasn’t so tired and watching Columbo, I might be sitting out back on the tailgate of my pickup. But it looks like next week will have many nice evenings, with evenings throughout the week in the mid to upper 40s. I don’t expect to have to work late this week. 

This afternoon I went up to Rensselaerville State Forest and cross country skied for about an hour and a half. It was a nice afternoon a bit chilly at first with the breeze but once I put sweater it wasn’t too bad. A lot of logging going on up there as they clear out some of the big old white timber stands in favor of a better wildlife habitat, especially for things like grouse and turkey. Because of one of the strip cuts, there is a nice new view of the Catskills. CCC Road was pretty sloppy with the ice melting on it and I was careful parking but it was fine. I didn’t want to sink out of sight on the fragile soft shoulders. My truck is so muddy. After sking, drove down to Preston Hollow via Cheese Hill Road. Pretty drive. Not a half bad evening. 

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 32 degrees at 6am. 14 degrees above normal. Northwest wind 9 to 13 mph. In 2016, it got down to 35 degrees with periods of rain and snow. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1966.

Waning Crescent Moon tonight with 41% illuminated. The moon will rise around 12:16 am. The New Moon is next Sunday. The Full β€œWorm” Moon is in 3 weeks. The sun will rise at 6:44 am with the first light at 6:16 am, which is 1 minutes and 29 seconds earlier then yesterday. Tonight will have 13 hours and 9 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 47 seconds over last night.

Washington’s Birthday tomorrow will be sunny, with a high of 46 degrees at 2pm. 10 degrees above normal. Northwest wind 9 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had rain, snow and a high of 62 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1930. 11.2 inches of snow fell back in 1977. It will be a nice day. 

Tomorrow I’m thinking of going up to Kaaterskill Falls then along the rail trail with my cross country skis, and maybe then to the escarptment. Today I didn’t do any damage to my pinkey on my foot, so I’m hopeful that with the blister bandaged up I will be fine in the ski boots. 

Dashboard camera still had some issues with cutting out on rough roads but it are least switched on and off easily. I might not have fixed all of issues but I caught the video I cared about. And hopefully I won’t be losing video when I least expect it. 

In four weeks on March 19 the sun will be setting at 7:07 pm (Daylight Savings Time), which is 1 hour and 33 minutes later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had sunny skies and temperatures between 42 and 23 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 46 and 27 degrees. The record high of 78 degrees was set back in 2012.

Looking ahead, Daylight Savings Time is in 3 weeks, Palm Sunday is in 7 weeks, Easter is in 8 weeks, Average High is 60 is in 2 months, Mother’s Day is in 12 weeks and Father’s Day is in 17 weeks.

I’m off to bed. I want to get out skiing relatively early tomorrow. Good night! 

February 19, 2017 Afternoon

Good afternoon! Talk about a beautiful Sunday.Β Β Mostly sunny and 49 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 11 mph. It’s a super afternoon, especially after this relatively cold winter. I am heading out cross country skiing or maybe snowshoeing at Partridge Run or maybe just Wolf Hill later on. The sun is definitely setting later, and only three weeks until Daylight Savings Starts in the second week of March.

This afternoon will be sunny, with a high of 50 degrees at 3pm. 15 degrees above normal. Northwest wind 11 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had snow and a high of 37 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1981. 11.4 inches of snow fell back in 1972.Β But it’s certainly not 1972 today, although i guess you could compare Richard Nixon to Donald Trump.

The sun will set at 5:33 pm with dusk around 6:02 pm, which is 1 minute and 17 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 10 hours and 48 minutes of daylight, an increase of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over yesterday. Nice long days.

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 31 degrees at 6am. 13 degrees above normal. West wind 7 to 10 mph. In 2016, it got down to 35 degrees with periods of rain and snow. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1966. Maybe more tailgate drinking tonight?

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Daylight Savings Time when the sun will be setting at 6:59 pm with dusk at 7:27 pm (Daylight Savings Time). On that day in 2016, we had partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 62 and 25 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 43 degrees. We hit a record high of 69 back in 2012.

Yesterday I went out to Schodack Island State Park, and cross country skied around the preserve for a number of hours. It was quite nice skiing, but I managed to blister my pinky toe once again, and my foot was a bloody mess when I got home. The darn ski boots don’t fit my left correctly anymore – I don’t know but it seems like my left foot has a problem with getting blisters every time I ski. I’m going to bandage it up before skiing today, so hopefully my foot doesn’t get too infected. I hate going to the doctor.

Didn’t get any dash camera video on my trip to Schodack Island because I left the camera pointing towards the sky when I installed it. Today before I go anywhere, I’m going to check where the camera is pointed. So be it. I always like to have video to share of my road trip, but I don’t think the sky and bridges overhead going over the Dunn Memorial interchange is particularly exciting. And I was hoping to preserve my trip. But hell, I should get more video on the backroads, now that I fixed the power feed, by connecting it up with the switched power that also operates the CB radio. Now if we have more clear days. It will be nice when things green up and I can get video from going up to the Adirondacks.

Washed one of the most dirty walls in my apartment, and vacuumed both upstairs and downstairs. Did some cleaning in the kitchen and miscellaneous cleaning throughout the apartment. I need to keep to working on this, but I get busy during the weekdays, and honestly it’s not my favorite thing to do. I can’t wait until I have a place without carpets because they are a pain to have around. I also took the garbage and recyclables, but I do need to get the transfer station sooner then later because my cans are pretty well packed. I’m still a dirty hick, but at least that one spot on the wall, along with the light switch overhead, ain’t as dirty. That was bugging me this morning to no end.

Ended Up Going to Price Chopper at Nine O’Clock Last Night, because hell, it was fairly warm out last night and after I went for my evening walk, I really wanted a cold Corona or two to drink on the tailgate of my pickup truck. Bought the beer and peanuts, along with cake mix for tomorrow. I was going to stop to at Walmart or Price Chopper on the way home for skiing, but I was kind of tired at that point, so I said f*ck. I didn’t want to spend the money at any rate. I got to get to Wally World at some point though, as I really need to get a decent wallet that isn’t all ripped up, so I can leave my CDTA Navigator card in it and tap the bus to pay my fare. This means I am less likely to drop or lose the card, especially after a night out drinking. Going to be warm all week, so I have the 18 rack

I thought about going camping at Cole Hill or somewhere else nearby, but I decided hell, it’s still pretty cold out, the nights are long, and we are only three weeks from the time change at this point, when the sun will set at 7 PM or later. I am not convinced we are going to have much more snow at this point, and March is expected to be quite mild. There have been several years when I’ve been able to truck camp at Burnt-Rossman without snow in March. That’s always fun to do. Or I might wait to April, especially if I get busy with state budget sh*t. All I can say about state government is it sure keeps me entertained, although not as much Donald Trump. I’ve been saving a lot of miles on my truck this winter, in part because I don’t want to have to deal with the snow or winter anymore. It’s nice and warm at home.

Wired Up the Dash Camera to the CB Radio Switch. Finally got warm enough to make this relatively minor change, but this hopefully will keep the power from cutting off on rough roads to the dash camera. It’s also one quick switch to turn off the dash camera and CB radio when I park. If for some reason I want to keep the dash camera operating when the truck is turned off, I can just switch the CB radio off by the radio. But for the most part, I don’t need recording of where I’m parked all of the time. I also disconnected the solar controller. No need for it to be wasting electricity when the solar panel is disconnected form the truck. I might eventually permanently install the solar panel on my truck, but I’m more then a bit nervous about drilling through the fiberglass for good reason. It would be cool to charge my battery just by parking and not having to hook up the panel.

Cleaned A Lot of Crap Out of the Back of My Pickup. Just camping gear. But now I can finally take my garbage and bottles to the transfer station next weekend. Which is good because those cans are full. I drink a lot of milk, and all those plastic milk bottles take up room, especially because I’m not out camping, where admittingly a lot of them probably get burned or something like that. I do miss summer and those long nights around the campfire. Fortunately, camping season ain’t far away. My truck will be well organized and ready to load up camping gear once the snow melts. I am going to install a fresh accessory battery along with a low voltage cut-off in a few weeks, so I should have a long battery life for many nice nights camping.

Superglued the Hole in My Water Bottle. Camping on Christmas Day this year, it got a little too close to the heater and melted a small hole into it. I noticed it when I was snowshoeing and kind of got soaked through my backpack. Hopefully the super-glue when well dry will fix the hole and not poison me to death immediately. I could order another one, but I prefer to repair to turn things into firewood, I mean recycle the plastic.

February 19, 2017 Morning

“It looks like today will be another nice day.” 

Good morning! Happy Sunday. Three weeks to Daylight Savings Time. Partly cloudy and 37 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 6 mph.

Today will be mostly sunny, with a high of 47 degrees at 1pm. 13 degrees above normal. West wind 6 to 14 mph. A year ago, we had snow and a high of 37 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1981. 11.4 inches of snow fell back in 1972.

The sun will set at 5:33 pm with dusk around 6:02 pm, which is 1 minutes and 17 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 10 hours and 48 minutes of daylight, an increase of 1 minutes and 46 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 31 degrees at 6am. 13 degrees above normal. Northwest wind 8 to 10 mph. In 2016, it got down to 35 degrees with periods of rain and snow. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1966.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Daylight Savings Time when the sun will be setting at 6:59 pm with dusk at 7:27 pm (Daylight Savings Time). On that day in 2016, we had partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 62 and 25 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 43 degrees. We hit a record high of 69 back in 2012.