July 13, 2017 Night

Good evening! Cloudy and 67 degrees in Delmar. Calm wind. The dew point is 61 degrees. The skies will clear Saturday around noontime. My bags are packed, my propane tank is full and my kayak is on the roof of the truck in preparation for heading up to the Adirondacks at 5 pm. 

I kind of lucked out that the rain stopped by evening. Midday I realized that I hadn’t gotten around to refilling my propane tank and that would be a problem should it be pouring. I don’t think the guy at the hardware store would be happy to fill the tank in the pouring rain. I like going to the Delmar Hardware Store as it’s convenient but fairly pricey but I figure I’m supporting a local business and refilling the tank is still much cheaper than disposable tanks and even those gas station exchange programs. Plus you get more propane for the buck. I only buy propane a few times of year and it goes slowly when I’m not using the heater. Despite being the hottest part of summer tomorrow night in the Adirondacks I might want the heater with the cold rain but I think I will live without it. The high tomorrow in Albany is only 72. I’m actually hoping the rain will break early but if it doesn’t I’ll string up a tarp and buy dry firewood from Stewart’s. I don’t mind a roaring campfire from under a tarp. I have some burnables to get the fire starting. 

Tonight will be scattered showers. Cloudy, with a low of 62 degrees at 4am. Typical for tonight. Maximum dew point of 61 at 10pm. Light and variable wind. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 73 degrees. The record low of 49 occurred back in 1940.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon. The Last Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with partly cloudy skies. The Strugeon Moon is on Monday, August 7th. The sun will rise at 5:29 am with the first light at 4:56 am, which is 49 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 8 hours and 58 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 25 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers before 9am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 9am and 10am, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 10am. Cloudy, with a high of 70 degrees at 2pm. 13 degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 3pm. Southeast wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 87 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1995.

Looks like a very summer like forecast for the weekend. Saturday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 83. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 66 at 5pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 85. Maximum dew point of 66 at 7pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 83 degrees.

I have a nice weekend planned for the Adirondacks. Camping at White House or Pumpkin Hollow Road then swim and fish in Speculator. I also plan to paddle the flat water just a little ways above Auger Falls and maybe up in Speculator on Lake Pleasant and Sacandaga River down towards the old Kunjamunk. Hopefully this year if I paddle the Kunjamunk I won’t take a bath climbing the Beaver Dams. I’m just hoping the weather cooperates. The forecast models vary a lot on Saturday and they keep changing. 

Got the $2.78 USB OTG adapter in the mail that I thought might work with my phone but it doesn’t. I guess that’s fine. I can almost type faster on my phone then with an external keyboard. It was worth a try. I couldn’t find a definite answer on the internet.  I figured I’ll keep it for the future. 

Next weekend it’s off the Finger Lakes so it will be a repeat next week. I decided to bring the kayak out to the Finger Lakes but I’ll keep it locked up at camp when I’m not paddling around. That way I on a calm summer day I can paddle out in the coves around Ithaca or Taughannock State Park and do some fishing. Just another way to enjoy summer vacation. 

In four weeks on August 10 the sun will be setting at 8:02 pm, which is 28 minutes and 57 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had rain, shallow fog, mist, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 84 and 70 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 81 and 61 degrees. The record high of 96 degrees was set back in 1949.

Looking ahead, Ugly Truck Day is Next Thursday, State Fair Opens is in 6 weeks, 7:30 PM Sunset is in 7 weeks, Average High is 70 is in 10 weeks, Hunter’s Moon is in 12 weeks and Thanksgiving is in 19 weeks.

The rise of the McModern

The rise of the McModern

I never understood the appeal of McMansions. If you want to build a house of modern materials, why wouldn't you do a modern design rather then pretending to be old fashioned look make out of vinyl? Why wouldn't a modern home look more like Frank Lloyd Wright's designs, with lots of plate glass and long roof lines and lush landscaping around?

Mountain Lions Don’t Like Politics

Mountain Lions Don’t Like Politics

"Scientists at the University of California at Santa Cruz wanted to gauge the reactions of mountain lions in a unique kind of way so they installed motion-sensitive cameras at locations where the predators stash their prey."

"When a lion entered the area, that movement triggered both a camera video recording as well as the release of an audio recording of a political talk show host. More than eighty percent of lions high-tailed it out of there. And there was no favoritism for either political party, whether Rachel Maddow, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or Amy Goodman."

Rockefeller announces new peace proposal

Rockefeller announces new peace proposal

"On July 13, 1968, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, a Republican presidential candidate, reveals a four-stage peace plan that, he argues, could end the war in six months if North Vietnam assented to it. The proposal called for a mutual troop pullback and interposition of a neutral peacekeeping force, followed by the withdrawal of all North Vietnamese and most Allied units from South Vietnam; free elections under international supervision; and direct negotiations between North and South Vietnam on reunification."