Notes

Friday, Friday! 🌅

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Good morning! Happy Friday! Foggy 🌁 and cloudy and 46 degrees in Delmar. Many of my windows were closed earlier but they’re back open now. There is a south-southeast breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The skies will clear around 10 am.

Carrot pancakes 🥕 with Greek yogurt and strawberries 🍓 were breakfast today. Up a little before 5 am, after breakfast did a bit of reading 📖 about custom house 🏡 building. I keep studying building plots. I need to seriously study CPAs and how to create a plan for managing my money 💵 as part of the building plan. And I keep varying how much land I want.

Today will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 59 degrees at 3pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 15th. South wind 9 to 17 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 47 degrees. The record high of 92 was set in 1976. 8.8 inches of snow fell back in 1983.❄

Going to ride to work today, 🚲 might bus it home in the evening depending on the weather. It might rain ☔ again this evening and is expected to rain during the overnight so not going camping 🏕 tonight. Maybe tomorrow I’m undecided.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:55 pm with sun having an altitude of 58.8° from the due south horizon (-12.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:04 pm with the sun in the west (280°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (287°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:42 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 1 seconds with dusk around 8:12 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the southeast (133°) at an altitude of 46° from the horizon, 252,187 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:48 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 54 degrees. Breezy, 18 mph breeze ⛅ from the south with gusts up to 28mph. Tomorrow will have 13 hours and 41 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 42 seconds over today.

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly between 9pm and 5am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 45 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 5th. South wind 13 to 18 mph decreasing to 7 to 12 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 37 degrees. The record low of 19 occurred back in 1875.

Tomorrow will be cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny ☁👉 ☀ , with a high of 58 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 13th. Northwest wind 9 to 15 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 66 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1941. 5.8 inches of snow fell back in 1947.❄

I might do a quick overnight camping 🏕 tomorrow but it depends on the morning tomorrow though maybe I should decide by evening so I can get gear together 🎒🥾 and maybe run to the store and top off the propane tank. 🏮 It looks like tomorrow evening and night would be good for a fire 🔥 and Sunday would be nice for a spring time hike.

Looking ahead to Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 55. ☀ West wind 10 to 15 mph. A bit breezy it would seem. But nice if not a bit cool. But at at least things are greening up. Typical average high for the weekend is 62 degrees.

Looking ahead, there are 3 weeks until Average High is 70 🐮 when the sun will be setting at 8:07 pm with dusk at 8:37 pm. On that day in 2023, we had sunny and temperatures between 77 and 39 degrees. Maybe that weekend I’ll do the Catskill Scenic Trail with everything green and spring like then. We hit a record high of 92 back in 1970.

Schroon Lake

Watching with growing unease as they continue to completely gut the next door apartment 🚧

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It’s quite the renovation of the unit next door. They’re ripping the wall down to the studs, replacing all the plumbing and wiring. It’s like they’re the tnew landlord is taking out everything but the shell of the building, indeed he did even pull out one of doors from the other unit. He’s even jack hammering and cutting through the slab floor. It’s been a while since I’ve been to the other unit but I didn’t think it was that bad, though fairly worn and dated interior.

I guess I don’t have to feel guilty about anything that I’ve broken or worn out in the 16 ½ years I’ve lived here. I don’t have to worry about the mold and rust or the 30 year old refrigerator handle that pulled loose , cracked floors from the perpetual wetness, the mud tracked in over the years or the holes worn in the carpet if it’s lik ely everything in my unit is going to end up in the dump in Rensselaer once I move out.

Of course who knows how much longer I can stay here. One line of thought is that as long as I pay the increased rent starting June I’ll be able to stay here as long as I want – as the new landlord will lack the budget to heavily renovate a second unit. Or does he plan to continue to gentrify the rest of the building complex? I guess moving isn’t the end of the world, there are other places I can live for the next year and few rental agreements are for more than a year.

I could and maybe should have looked more seriously at the handful of rather generic suburban houses that have come on the market lately. I could certainly have financed them or even paid with cash. I have excellent credit after all. Some are quite pretty and some fairly small and affordable if suburbanite living for the next thirty years is what I want with a green lawn, a picket fence and a Toyota Corolla. But that seems so plastic much like the plastic siding their covered on their sides.

I am continuing to study and research building an off grid homestead but it’s complicated and expensive so I don’t want to rush too quickly and get stuck with land or a life that I don’t want. It’s fascinating to study the land that’s coming on the market, off grid technologies and building techniques. Plus I’m still very undecided about building in New York State. Not only are politics toxic and don’t reflect my values, it’s really hard to find land anywhere near the city that is the rural experience that I crave. But I do worry I’m just wasting time when there Are more direct paths to action even if none of them are quite what I want.

Another Rainy Thursday ☔

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Seems like this week is following the exact same pattern as last week, rain Wednesday evening, rain Thursday and Friday with showers and clouds and cool come Saturday. Kind of obnoxious in my book as I like riding into work and I would like to head out of town for the weekend at least the overnight.

Good morning! Happy Rainy Thursday. I know, again, really? Rain and 45 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌧️ There is a south-southeast breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. I can’t control the weather but I can my attitude. 🤬 It would definitely would be a cold and wet day if I was out camping.

Started the morning with shredded oatmeal and some canned pumpkin 🎃 with a bunch of fried yellow onions🧅 with cornmeal, broccoli 🥦 and eggs 🥚and some garlic. A few cups of coffee ☕ and I’m up and off early to walk laps on the Concourse. 🚶 If it’s going to rain ☔ best to get my steps in early.

Today will have showers before noon, then showers likely with a chance of drizzle, mainly between noon and 1pm. 🌦 High of 46 degrees at 8am. 15 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 19th. Southeast wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 51 degrees. The record high of 90 was set in 1976. 2.7 inches of snow fell back in 1887.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:55 pm with sun having an altitude of 58.4° from the due south horizon (-12.4° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:03 pm with the sun in the west (280°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (286°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:41 pm after setting for 3 minutes with dusk around 8:10 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the southeast (141°) at an altitude of 55° from the horizon, 251,515 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:47 pm. At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 46 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Tomorrow will have 13 hours and 38 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 42 seconds over today.

Last night I took the bus 🚍 home, made up Johnny cakes 🥞 and oatmeal with pumpkin 🎃 and then went upstairs to do some reading 📖. Ended up stumbling upon a very well narrated video series on statistics and spatial analysis using R by Great Courses on Kanopy from my local library for free 🆓. While I’m fairly experienced in R there is always more to learn. Spatial correlation is something I’m quite interested in but I find it’s a bit of a complicated theory to understand.

Tonight will have a chance of drizzle with a slight chance of showers before 1am. Mostly cloudy 🌧️ , with a low of 41 degrees at 3am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 25th. Light south wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2023, we had light rain in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 35 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1875.

Blustery and cool this weekend but not so wet. ☀️🌬️Saturday, a slight chance of showers before 8am, then scattered showers after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 60. West wind 9 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 56. Typical average high for the weekend is 62 degrees.

I am thinking about camping 🏕 locally this weekend if Saturday is half decent so I don’t have to listen to them working on construction 🚧 at the unit next door, even though the new landlord has been good about not running the jack hammer or loud equipment in the weekend and evenings. Still it’s annoying as often they have a lot of equipment on the driveway and I have to ask for them to move it to get our so it might be nice to do a quick overnight. I’m thinking the first or second week of May to do trip out to Schoharie 🚲 and ride the Catskill Scenic Trail once things green up, especially the greener farm section down in Delaware County assuming that it’s not so wet the trail is completely bogged down.

Winding Road