Some mornings I wake to the smell of pollution from the plastics plant in Fuera Bush. This morning I woke up early thinking about the Green Building book which seemed to be more concerned about building McMansion’s with green features, and things like closets and how many outlets you need for your smart television. I don’t want a television, I don’t care about schools or how many bedrooms. I just want a cozy little cabin with a lot of land.

Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Cloudy and 43 degrees in Delmar. ☁ Calm wind. Totally inappropriate but I have my windows wide open in my apartment. But I like the fresh air, and I’ve become increasingly feral after all these years wearing the suit and playing director for eight hours a day, with a dour but easy going nature it so I tell myself. As long as shit gets done and I don’t get a call from Capitol Hill, I’m good. will drop below freezing at Friday around 4 am. ☃️ I guess at that point I’ll have to close my windows for a few days.

Woke up at 4:30 AM or so this morning and couldn’t get back to bed, 🛌 so I started cooking down the 15-bean soup on the stove and a little after 5 AM got making some bananas and oatmeal, 🍌 then some pancakes with mango and honey. 🥞🍍🍯  Good stuff, the egg in the homemade pancake mix added some protein, and with the oats and wholewheat flour plus mango lots of fiber. Maybe not as much as Johnnycakes with spinach but still pretty good. 🥦

I get a chuckle when they send a 115 person articulated bus with seats for 59 out to Voorheesville, 🚍 but this morning it was remarkably full at 7 am. Probably standees wouldn’t be appropriate on a rural / suburban route and they needed to get the bus downtown at any rate for the next run. 🤷‍♂️ I do wish I could have ridden my bike to work 🚲 as the time on the bus seems like such a time suck. Better use of my time though then driving. 🚘 Those days will be here before you know it, but hopefully by then I’ll have a fuel-efficient easy to drive vehicle.

As it’s going to be raining by evening 🌧️ I’m walking the Plaza. 🚶 I don’t do as much walking as I used to do being that most days I ride to work. 🚲 I mean I thought about doing the Meads Lane loop on my bike this morning but it’s kind of misting and foggy out. So I’m busing it and taking the shuttle 🚀 out to the suburban office. I heard the normal shuttle got in a wreck so it’s been a state pool car lately. I don’t mind, as long as we can all squeeze in and I can get to work. Worse comes to worse, I can hop on the CDTA Route 22, though that’s another bus fare. It seems so petty when I’m planning to buy land and build a house, but every little bit helps. That’s how I got as far as I got.

Today will rain likely, mainly after 5pm. Patchy fog between 9am and 10am. Otherwise, cloudy 🌧, with a high of 55 degrees at 3pm. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 6th. Maximum dew point of 49 at 2pm. South wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 44 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1974. 10.5 inches of snow fell back in 1887.❄

At times I get so fustrated looking at land, 🚜 though I shoudn’t be as there are definitely options out there. The one I looked at yesterday, after studying the LIDAR and running the stats is really too sloped to build on. Another one has a nice price, but I’m not convinced it’s an all-season road, despite what the seller says, and there is other parcels proposed to be sold nearby. 🔍 None of them is perfect, but I am developing a plan on what is important, learning what is out there, piece by piece. And I can’t fall too much in love with any one parcel, as it could disappear from the market before I’m ready to buy. ❤️ I do worry a bit about winter driving, but if it’s bad, I can always call in or work from home. ❄️ People may be pushing me towards things I don’t care about, like plastic houses and good school districts, or marble counter tops and closet size, but I know what I want — that basic cabin that complies with town codes — but is simple to maintain and uses wood and solar energy produced on site,  and provides land for homesteading and having fires. 🐐 🔥 I get many people care about marble countertops and looking pretty, but that’s not on my list.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:08 pm with sun having an altitude of 41.9° from the due south horizon (-28.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 6.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:14 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (257°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (264°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:52 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 55 seconds with dusk around 6:19 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:53 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 53 degrees. The dew point will be 49 degrees. There will be a southeast breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 33 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 53 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will rain. 🌧 Low of 39 degrees at 5am. 16 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 20th. North wind 5 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between three quarters and one inch possible. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 27 degrees. The record low of -6 occurred back in 1950.

Today in 1857, Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. 👩‍⚖️ Often said to be one of the worse decisions ever, conservatives cling to the idea that so-called bad liberal rulings like Row v Wade can be overturned by future courts. Honestly, I think the court should be getting the government off people’s backs, if anything overruling cases that limit liberty rather then expanding the police state by making it easier for the government to pass new laws. I don’t celebrate baby murder like some people do, but I also don’t think we should be in the business of ban everything.

Not going camping this weekend either. 😞 The sun ain’t going to shine anymore. At least on the weekends. Saturday, a chance of rain after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 47. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Sunday, rain likely before 1pm, then showers likely after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 45. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Typical average high for the weekend is 43 degrees. Still at least it’s mild and not much of a fire risk.

Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until 8 PM Dusk 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 7:33 pm with dusk at 8:01 pm (Daylight Savings Time). On that day in 2023, we had sunny and temperatures between 67 and 30 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 57 degrees. We hit a record high of 86 back in 1922.