Search Results for: photo looking back across the field

September 5, 2020 Night

Good evening! Clear and 56 degrees at the Green Mountain National Forest. 🌃 There is a west breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 48 degrees. The skies will clear around 10 pm.

It was a nice day but pretty quiet. 😴 This morning was pretty darn cold for sure. Having the heater was nice to warm the hands 👐🏻 up. Did some number crunching 🔢 this morning for work and then laid back in the hammock listening to music. 🔊 Somebody moved into the campsite across the street so I have to be careful how loud the music is especially as I think they have a toddler. 👶🏻 Not sure if they could hear the podcast about butchering and processing livestock 🐮 but its Vermont and an educational experience. Kid will probably be quartering a deer 🦌 in a year or two. 🔪

Those campsites on Forest Road 83 are nice but somewhat poorly spaced in my opinion so on a busy summer weekend you might have neighbors. ⛺ Pretty areas down there but no cell service for remote work. But I enjoyed my walk and sitting down by the Deerfield River.

Not a lot of sun this morning 🌥️ when this campsite is best for solar ⬛ and because the starting battery voltage had sagged, I started my truck and moved it to where the sun is better, idling it for a while to charge ⚡ but honestly my battery bank is a bit low. I should be fine until Monday but I could start the truck up tomorrow or go for a drive to top things off tomorrow if it’s really cloudy. It’s been less sunny than I expected this weekend from the forecast.

This evening has a brief rain shower 💧but it really didn’t add up to much but it made things dark early. But then again sunset is quite early in the autumn months. 🍂 Lantern 🏮 is burning quite bright tonight but I still think it could benefit from a good cleaning. But thats going to require carburetor cleaner and probably new mantles. I’ve still not figured out how to get things good and working well in the lantern, I should research more on the internet.

Finished off the sausage paddies 🍔 I bought with provolone cheese 🧀 and ketchup. They’re always so good washed down with a bunch of beer 🍻 and cookies. 🍪 I don’t do much day drinking but it was fun this afternoon getting a little drunk in the hammock after my walk. Been so busy in recent weeks, I feel like I deserve a quiet afternoon off 📴.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers before 11pm, then a slight chance of showers after midnight. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 50 degrees at 4am. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 19th. West wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2019, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 52 degrees. The record low of 38 occurred back in 1938.

Tonight will have a Waining Gibbous 🌖 Moon with 86% illuminated. The Harvest 🌽 Moon is on Sunday, September 20. The darkest hour is at 12:52 am, followed by dawn at 5:53 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:22 am in the east (80°) and last for 2 minutes and 58 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 6 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:00 am with sun in the east (87°). Tonight will have 11 hours and 3 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 50 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 64 degrees at 3pm. 12 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 5th. Maximum dew point of 49 at 6am. West wind around 8 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 72 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 2018.

That will be my last full day 🀼/strong>󐰠as I’m going to drive home in the afternoon Labor Day. While it will be sunny next week with the shorter days maintaining enough solar power for the laptop is a challenge, ☀ and I’m sure there will be multiple hours of Zoom Meetings on Tuesday that I best do from the library Wi-Fi to save bandwidth. 📶 With it starting to get dark in the woods at 7 pm, by the time you work until 5, there ain’t a lot of time to enjoy things after work. Plus I’ll need ice by then and I’m a long drive from town on dirt roads so I don’t want to make that big long trip and then have to head back. ❄ But four nights camping ain’t bad. I plan to do at least a few more trips before winter including at least one more weekend plus trip before the end of September. Maybe the Spectulator area so I can go to the library there for the obnoxiously long Zoom Meetings.

In four weeks on October 3 the sun will be setting in the west (265°) at 6:29 pm,🌄 which is 50 minutes and 10 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had rain showers, mostly cloudy and temperatures between 52 and 46 degrees. Chilly day. Typically, you have temperatures between 65 and 44 degrees. The record high of 83 degrees was set back in 1967.

Did some digging around in the truck cap and looking around under the truck 🔦 and I didn’t see any evidence of a mouse nest or eceb mice droppings. 🐁 My guess was it just a random field mouse that crawled in smelling the granola bar. Mice have been bad all summer in the woods – they’re always being found in the camp garbage rustling around after dark, under the camp stove and running around in the woods. This summer my truck has been driven nearly every day or two as I’ve been remote working either from the woods or going down to the library or park. 🚘 With the rough roads I drive I can’t imagine a nest would stay intact for long. The truck cap can’t be too air tight as I have a lead acid battery 🔋 in the bed which vents out explosive hydrogen has – I have large rubber grommets around the battery pulled for extra air flow.

It looked like a wrecker was towing away a Chevy Silverado like mine 🚙 that rolled on one of dirt roads up here when the tie rod broke – one of the wheels was pointed the wrong way on the wreck. I’m glad I replaced the tie rods on my truck – they were causing alignment issues causing uneven tire wear ⚫ and are notorious on snapping and sometimes causing the vehicle to roll as that truck did. I’m sure that’s off to the scrap yard at this point – although I guess it is drivable of they replaced the mirror and tie rod a bit totally smashed up on the driver side. Also passed somebody with a flat tire that they were changing after what appeared to be a rock or root they put through it going to a rough campsite. ⛺ I try to stay away from those sites and always check for glass 🍸 or nails 🔩before backing into the site. I also find myself driving a lot slower and being cautious and easy on my trucks suspension on the dirt roads.

Looking ahead, Northern Zone Regular Season 🦌 is in 6 weeks, Halloween 🦇 and the Blue Moon 🌕 is in 8 weeks, Small Business Saturday 🛍️ is in 12 weeks, Repeal of Prohibition Day 🍺 is in 3 months, Boxing Day 🥊 is in 16 weeks, National Bird Day 🐧 is in 4 months, Static Electric Shock Day 🧼 is in 18 weeks, National Cheese Lovers Day 🧀 is in 20 weeks, Save the Pine Bush Turns 43 🦋 is in 22 weeks, 5:30 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 24 weeks, and Snow Moon 🌕 is in 25 weeks.

Vlomans Kill shadows

January 13, 2020 Night

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 37 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ Calm wind. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 5 am. ☃️

It was a nice mild evening for my evening walk 🚶. I also road the exercise bike 🚲 for nearly an hour after dinner. 🍲 Read 📖 for about an hour. Now I’m getting ready for lights out as it’s nearly ten 🔟 o’clock.

Dinner was macaroni and cheese with frozen sweet corn 🌽 and diced tomatoes 🍅. Those canned diced tomatoes add a lot of kick to macaroni and cheese, top it all off with some grated cheese up top. 🐮 Plus serve it with a good glass of milk and its dairyific! Gotta love them cows. Not a lot of waste in packaging and an inexpensive meal.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 31 degrees at 6am. 17 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 29th. Light southwest wind. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 8 degrees. The record low of -24 occurred back in 1957.

Tonight will have a Waining Gibbous 🌒 Moon with 86% illuminated. The darkest hour is at 12:05 am, followed by dawn at 6:53 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:24 am in the east-southeast (119°) and last for 3 minutes and 19 seconds. Sunrise is 22 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 8:09 am with sun in the southeast (127°) at an altitude of 6°. Tonight will have 14 hours and 38 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 32 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers, mainly after 3pm. Partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 39 degrees at 2pm. Nine degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 1st. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 28 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1932. 9 inches of snow fell back in 1999.❄

In four weeks on February 10 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (251°) at 5:20 pm,🌄 which is 35 minutes and 37 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 33 and 17 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 33 and 16 degrees. By then things will be warming up a bit, well in theory. The record high of 53 degrees was set back in 1955. Who knows, this year we could best that but it seems like soon we will be in a cold spell. But the warm weather so far this season has made up for higher heating bills later in the year I guess.

Looking more and more like a big snowstorm ❄ next weekend but we will wait and see. No guarantees but I still see a cooling trend by next weekend. I really doubt my trip to Brookfield will be an reality but I could camp after the snow storm somewhere locally. Or just stay home.

Looking ahead, Martin Luther King Day 🖤 is in 1 week, Clean Your Computer Day 🧹 is in 4 weeks, Presidents Day 👴 is in 5 weeks, Read Across America Day 📚 is in 7 weeks, Worm Moon 🌕 is in 8 weeks, 7 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 2 months, Arbor Day 🌳 is in 15 weeks, 8 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 16 weeks, Flower Moon 🌕 is in 18 weeks, Memorial Day 🇺🇸 is in 19 weeks, June 🍹 is in 20 weeks and Average High is 80 🏖 is in 23 weeks.

Panton

January 6, 2020 Night

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 30 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a south-southwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. There is a dusting of snow on the grass and some black ice around – be aware. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 10 am. 🌡️

I rode the exercise bike for a while, having a late dinner with a pork roast in the oven. 🚲 The nice thing is I’ll have a good dinner again later in, maybe two hours earlier than today. I also went for my evening walk and caught up on the YouTube videos that I had downloaded. Yeah, I probably watch too many hours of Westin Champlain, mostly because I was watching a stupid tractor 🚜 video and I got hooked. Then there was that video about field dressing a deer. Never cut up anything that large 🔪but at least YouTube made it look easy. After reading that book 📙 on butchering it makes a whole lot more sense now. Meat science is fascinating 🍖, you really learn a lot more about what makes up an animal.

Tonight will have isolated snow showers between 1am and 2am. Partly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 25 degrees at 5am. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 14th. Maximum wind chill around 22 at 3am; Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2019, we had light snow in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 14 degrees. The record low of -12 occurred back in 1878.

Tonight will have a Waxing 🌖 Moon with 84% illuminated. At dusk you’ll see the moon in the east-southeast (104°) at an altitude of 39° from the horizon, some 244,649 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀A bit farther away tonight. The Wolf 🐺 Moon is on Friday, January 10. Kind of pretty when I was out on my walk. The darkest hour is at 12:02 am, followed by dawn at 6:54 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:26 am in the east-southeast (121°) and last for 3 minutes and 23 seconds. Sunrise is 6 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 8:11 am with sun in the southeast (128°) at an altitude of 6°. Tonight will have 14 hours and 48 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 7 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have increasing clouds ☁, with a high of 37 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 23rd. Calm wind. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 29 degrees. The record high of 56 was set in 1915. 7.2 inches of snow fell back in 1994.❄

I ordered a small USB hub from China to use with my laptop at work a month ago but it still hasn’t arrived. 🔌 I probably didn’t save much over ebay or even Walmart but I figured I could wait by the end I’m a bit frustrated about it now. Only two bucks and usually I have good luck with AliExpress but maybe not this time. Now that they are charging tax and shipping prices are going up on things from China thanks to Trump 🎺 I might not use them so much although it’s at still the best site for random, lightly packaged basic electronics components from China. I was thinking I should get out my soldering iron and do more electronics projects at home again.

In four weeks on February 3 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (248°) at 5:10 pm,🌄 which is 33 minutes and 52 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly cloudy weather, with mild temperatures between 45 and 31 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 32 and 15 degrees. The record high of 57 degrees was set back in 2016.

Looking ahead, Make Your Dream Come True Day 🏡 is in 1 week, National Popcorn Day 🍿 is in 2 weeks, National Pie Day 🍰 is in 2 weeks, Clean Your Computer Day 🧹 is in 5 weeks, Presidents Day 👴 is in 6 weeks, Read Across America Day 📚 is in 8 weeks, Worm Moon 🌕 is in 9 weeks, Arbor Day 🌳 is in 16 weeks, 8 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 17 weeks, Flower Moon 🌕 is in 19 weeks, Memorial Day 🇺🇸 is in 20 weeks, June 🍹 is in 21 weeks and Average High is 80 🏖 is in 24 weeks.

I better get some sleep. Goodnight. 😴

 America On A Sunny Morning

The Race for (Automobile) Space

Today’s essay is from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in December 1969, penned by Mayor Erastus Corning in 1969. I share this simply for the convenience of reading it online, I can claim no copyright except to point out it should be in the public domain due to being a speech given by a public figure to a public body.

When city officials meet with highway engineers, there is a familiar theme. Where is the automobile leading us? Here is the way one official of a metropolitan center looks at the problem of autos and more autos. Mr. Corning is the mayor of Albany, New York. His comments are adapted from an address to New York Highway Department engineers, April 17, 1969.

For something over half a century, few people gave even the slight thought to the question: Is the automobile here to stay? In the sixties, however there have more and more haunting doubts–more and more question raises. Have we the necessary space for all the automobiles we are buying, using and discarding so freely? Have we the space for the great scotch-tape kind of ribbons of concrete and blacktop that we are pasting on the land? Have we the space to congest and clog up our city streets so that they can neither be cleaned properly in the summer nor have the snow removed in the winter? Have we the space for monumental parking garages and vast parking lots of in prime areas in our cities?

While I have used the word “space” and not spoken of the cost or economics, the relationship between space and economics and becomes and more intimate each year that our earth becomes more and more crowded. When one can reflect that total number of people on the earth today is greater than the number of all members of human race that have walked the earth before us since the dawn of history, we can see dramatically that we are getting pretty crowded.

Parking

Speaking of being crowded — brings to mind a number of pretty dramatic statistics. The vastness of the oceans of the world is no longer limitless. Pesticides, hydrocarbons, lead, to mention but a few, are becoming cause for serious alarm as to the universal polluting affect they are already having on our oceans. On a more local scale two-thirds of downtown Los Angeles is devoted to either — highways, arterials, or parking lots. One-half of all the air pollution that exists in the entire world comes from automobiles, carbon monoxide amounting in just the United States alone to some 230,000 tons each and every day.

It sad thing to have to take comfort from the fact while the amount of carbon dioxide that is going into the atmosphere increases the tendency of the atmosphere to act as an a greenhouse trapping the heat of the sunlight and raising the world’s temperature, this balanced by other forms of air pollution that come between us and the sun, cutting down on the amount of actual solar heat that reaches the earth and reducing the temperature to back where it was.

While the medical advances in the last quarter of a century are greater than all such advances that have occurred throughout human history, a less pleasant fact is that in the last 30 years we have used up more minerals and fuels than in all of history, and that use will double again in the next 25 years. It is another sad fact that in half a century we will have increased our per capita use of water in this country twenty-five fold.

In addition to the population explosion, everything else is exploding too. Our use of water, minerals, and fuels has increased even more than our population. Our manufacture of automobiles, packaging materials, bottles, tin cans — these too have increased by geometric proportions.

We are getting crowded; air and water and land becoming more and more at a premium.

You may very well wonder what in the world all this has to do with highways and highway engineering. The plain fact is that we are in a competitive race for space and land and haven’t come even remotely close to realizing it as yet. The hue and cry that we hear on all sides on the disposal of solid wastes is an indication of the start of that realization. The almost complete about-face on the question of thermal pollution resulting from the operation of atomic power plants is but a few months old. The popular appeal of bond issues and vast spending program to combat air and water pollution is a further step along the road realization of the conditions around us.

The day of laying out the basis of pure engineering and plain economics is gone. Today your problems are infinitely more complex than they were ten years ago. I do not know much of what is in store for us in the future, but I do know this for certain. If our population continues to climb at its present rate we are not going to have room for both people and automobiles as we know them today. Looking at the State Campus office complex in Albany, one is overwhelmed by the vast sea of automobiles covering a far greater area then all the office buildings. When you come from the Thruway and the Northway to go to this same State office complex, the amount of land covered and surrounded by curliques and cloverleafs seems greater again than all the campus office buildings. There just isn’t going to be enough space for this kind of a thing to continue. The competition is going to be too great, and the automobile, I hope and believe, is going to lose the fight to just plain people.

What can be done about? What can you who are so closely associated with the automobile and where it goes and where it sits quietly most of the time, what can you do? I don’t know but I do have a few suggestions.

The amount of space that automobiles take up just waiting to be used is tremendously wasteful. In our cities, waiting automobiles make it impossible to clean our streets of dirt in the summer and snow and ice in the winter. Perhaps private ownerships of automobiles will become a thing of the past in our cities. We may end up with a fleet of mini-autos, self-driven taxis, owned by the city, autos without keys that can be driven by anyone to anywhere he wants to go and then left for the next person who wants to go someplace else. This would eliminate much of the waste of autos just sitting in one at least 90 per cent of the time.

Certainly mass transportation is going to become more and more important. Our passenger carrying railroads to contrary notwithstanding, the possibilities of innovations and great break-thoughts in mass transportation are infinite and must be found, monorails, moving sidewalks, mini-buses, high speed trains. These are all with us now, but we cannot stop there. We must have a great variety of new ideas in the field of mass transportation. Our locations for bus stations, and what services are provided in these bus stations must be new, must be treated both with imagination and that we have a long, long, way to go in this field.

Multiple uses of our highway properties, particularly in and around our cities are already with us, but here again it must be expanded. Every highway planned from now on must be designed with multiple uses in mind. The use of air rights will become more and commonplace, and highways will have all the features built into them at the outset that will make it easy to use the air rights. Every cloverleaf eventually will be designed so that its interior land can be used for surface parking and, to go one step further, will be designed for two- and three-deck parking garages either over or under, and perhaps both.

Chemical engineering is going to be more and more important. The air over our highways our highways can no longer continue to be filled to suffocation with the wastes from our automobiles.

Note: The rest of the speech was not printed in the article.

Erastus Corning's classic 1969 essay from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on the many problems urban communities face across the nation. This essay may be a half century old, but few things have changed in the past 50 years.

June 2, 2019 Night

Good evening! Partly cloudy and 61 degrees in Dormansville, NY. ⛅ There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 56 degrees. Not a terrible evening but the temperature is dropping quickly after a pretty warm day, especially mid-day. It didn’t get up to 80 degrees in my apartment today, but it did play around 79.5 degrees or so. Close enough, I guess. It wasn’t a bad weekend for sticking in town, and I got done the things that I needed to get done this weekend. Tonight, I’m staying over at the parents house with my truck camper. It’s a bit chilly of an evening, but not that bad.

It was kind of a busy weekend for me with all my projects, so I didn’t get out and do much big hikes,🚶in part because every time I wanted to go out it looked like the sky could open up any minute.⛈ I kind of got wet last night doing my evening walk, but it was nice earlier in the day on Saturday hiking in the Pine Bush, despite all of the stress of figuring out the battery thing and trying to return the hammock. 🌲 Those fields of lupine where beautiful! I accomplished most of my goals for the weekend. A few work things too, but  they weren’t a big hassle and are just part of doing business this time of year.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 48 degrees at 5am. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 20th. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming calm after midnight. In 2018, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 58 degrees. The record low of 36 occurred back in 1986.

Tonight will have a New Moon.🌑 The Strawberry Moon 🌝 is in 2 weeks. The sun will rise at 5:20 am with the first light at 4:46 am, which is 26 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 8 hours and 52 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 9 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have isolated showers after 2pm. Mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 61 degrees at 1pm. 14 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 22nd. West wind 8 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 76 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1925.

Today I added EEPROM functions to my display in my bedroom, adding the ability to record the daily high temperature and low temperature, along with maximum dew point and all time high and low. I also finished soldering on the waterproof temperature probe which I hooked up outside my bedroom 🌡– and downloaded the libraries that I will need to make it work.⚙ I’m hoping to find some time to write code to add those functions to my display. I also ordered a few barometric pressure sensors from China (42 cents a piece!) as it would be nice to have that on my display in my bedroom — I”d like to be warned when a storm is approaching and the pressure is dropping, and likewise when fair conditions are expected. Sure I could get that information from the Internet and feed it into the display, except I choose not to have Internet at home except for my smartphone. Could I write an Android app to beam that up to my display — probably — but I don’t feel like digging that deep into the API.💻 It’s kind of a crude display, but I find it entertaining to have all kinds of facts and silly quotes and the alike beaming across my room to my bed.

I didn’t have a lot of new and exciting content for the blog, although I did post a bunch of essays I’ve been working on over time, some of them a bit more political, but that’s fine. Tonight I tried to catch up, with a bunch of new content. I like to share my thoughts, and if they aren’t for you, that’s fine, feel free to skip on past them for other content or filter out just the maps and photos. I installed that second battery in my truck, which should make for much better results when doing extended camping trips, especially in shaded campsites. I probably should re-work or make some more maps up, but I’m kind of running out of ideas for maps for New York and I don’t really want to gather all the data necessary to make maps up of other states, especially places I don’t know well.🗺

I am very happy with how things are preforming with the second accessory battery in the truck, as I noted earlier. 🔋 While I haven’t really stressed the system yet with a heavy load at camp, it does seem like things are working really well, with stable voltages in the truck cap, and lots of storage so I should be able to go multiple nights, even in cloudy or rainy weather without having to start up the truck. Many times, especially when driving on nice days with the kayak off the roof of my truck, I think I’ll be able to leave the accessory power for the truck cap, CB radio, phone, and dashcam entirely disconnected from the alternator — solar does everything. That will keep the batteries from being overcharged or unbalanced and minimize the load on the alternator. I’ve notice no odors or issues from the battery being located in my sleeping unit.

Next weekend looks like it might be perfect weather-wise. 😎 Next Saturday, sunny, with a high near 76. Maximum dew point of 52 at 7pm. Next Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 75. Maximum dew point of 56 at 5pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 76 degrees. I’m not planning to head out of town next weekend but I could change my mind. I’m thinking in participating in one of the trail day events, and maybe the Gas Up on Sunday. I could go out camping but I think I’d rather wait. I’ll have o think about it some more, but I expect a busy week this week, so I don’t want to be running around to head out of town this weekend. Plus, I honestly don’t trust we will have real nice weather by next weekend, as the forecast will certainly shift downward, as so often happens with the weekend forecasts lately. I guess I could head out of town next weekend, but I just don’t see it likely, as I kind of want to be home early on Sunday as Monday is my oil change/tire rotation day (NOT a SESSION DAY!).

I’ll have to research some hammocks to replace the ripped one. I’m very disappointed about the quality of the LL Bean one I bought but I’ve seen a lot of affordable options on the Internet — affordable for me being sub-$50. If you pay premium, you’d hope they stand behind their products. But corporate profits are more important now. I probably would like to have to relax and maybe camp in by the next time I head out of town in two weeks or so.💤 The one I had was a disaster ever since I bought it, so I’m going to look at alternatives. I have the straps and the carbineners, so I just need the hammock itself. And I like the hammocks enough, that even if I have to replace them time to time, I guess it’s worth it. Maybe I’ll be gentler on my next one. Figuring gasing up my truck costs over $60, I can’t complain that much about other ordinary camping expenses.

The stuff I’ve bought from LL Bean lately has been all crap lately,💩 so I’m thinking I’ll probably just cancel my credit card with them, and take full advantage of the bank rewards card I currently use with the cash back. I’ve earned like $200 in statement credits over the past year with that card — just buying the normal things I buy like gas, food and supplies, and I don’t spend a lot of money.💳 It’s not a lot of money, but it’s still nice to gather a few pennies for things I was going to buy at rate. I don’t go out of the way to get rewards, I just buy the ordinary stuff I need to live. It’s nice it’s just points that I can convert to statement credit on my card — and it’s real money used to pay my purchases. Not a lot, but every buck helps.

In four weeks on June 30 the sun will be setting at 8:37 pm,🌄 which is 9 minutes and 36 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had hot, humid weather with mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 94 and 64 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 81 and 60 degrees. The record high of 98 degrees was set back in 1964.

Looking ahead, Fathers Day 👨 is in 2 weeks, National Nude Day 👱 is in 6 weeks (skinny dipping is fun), Sunset Before 7:30 PM 🌆 is in 13 weeks, Labor Day 👨‍🏭 is in 3 months, Autumn 🍂 is in 16 weeks (yeap, it’s coming) and Average High is 60 🍂 is in 19 weeks.

Sandy Bank of Cheney Pond

August 3, 2018 Morning

Good morning! Already it’s Friday! Two more days before I take down camp and head back to Albany. It’s been a very cloudy week but relatively rain free, at least compared to the previous week or even last year. With the end of vacation coming up on Sunday, we will already be in August, today marks three weeks to Average High Falls To 79 ️Degrees ⛱️️️.

The rain had stopped, but now it’s restarted and around 69 degrees at the Finger Lakes National Forest in Hector. ☁ There is a south breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 66 degrees. The second half of this week has been quite muggy and cloudy although each day we’ve had a bit of clearing skies. The cowboys, or a guess graizers or farmers are out on the pasture across the street rounding up cows using four wheelers on this somewhat wet morning. 🐂🐃🐄

Today will have showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after noon. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Cloudy ☔ , with a high of 74 degrees at 2pm. Seven degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 6pm. South wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. It was humid. The high last year was 86 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1975.

Today’s plans will be similar to Wednesday, probably head into Watkins Glen later to get on the internet and then for a hike in the gorge and a swim in the pool. 🏊 I’m hoping for more sun later, but I’ll take it hour by hour. I need paper towels, matches and gasoline too. ⛽This morning, I’ll probably hang out at camp for a while, laying in the hammock listening to the radio, maybe going for a short walk later on.

Tonight in the Finger Lakes, the sun will set at 8:24 pm with dusk around 8:55 pm, which is one minute and 13 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for clouds ☁with a chance of thunderstorms ⚡ and 70 degrees. The dew point will be 67 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 21 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 15 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Mostly cloudy ☔ , with a low of 66 degrees at 6am. Four degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 6pm. South wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies. It was sticky. It got down to 70 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1966.

As I brought my kayak all the way out to Watkins Glen, I really should put it to use at least once. 🚣 Especially as Saturday will be one of the most beautiful days of vacation. One option I’ve been thinking about is backtracking to Montezuma for a day and paddling along the Seneca Canal. That’s about an hour each way. Another option, is to put in on Seneca Lake in Watkins Glen and paddle the Montour Falls Canal, assuming that the lake isn’t too choppy and the canal isn’t flooding and mucky from today’s rain. After I did that I could hit up the Watkins Glen pool and deck one last time to soak up the rays before its done as far as I’m concerned for the year. Then obviously, one last hit of the Glen Dairy Bar.🍦🍧🍨 Another fall back is paddle and fish Lamoka Lake after visiting the Sugar Hill Firetower. Going to be such a beautiful and hot day on Saturday.

Come Sunday it’s the tear down that campsite day. ⛺ Yeap, vacation is coming to an end and I’ll have to head back to the old Albany to make more money, 🏢 so I can continue to invest in my future. 💰Going to be such a nice day, I’m thinking maybe I should get an early start taking down camp on Sunday, maybe hike Enfield Glen before eleven,🏊 then go swimming in the Gorge pool until 12:30 or one, then be back to Albany NY by four. 🕔

Despite the lack of sun, it’s been a good vacation. 😥I’m sure I will probably have a few more opportunities for weekend trips this summer, and I look forward to hunting season and my November road trip, which I’m thinking will have a day or two in the Finger Lakes, although the focus will be primarily more on the Western New York and probably Pennsylvania. West Virginia remains a possibility but not a certainty at this point, I’m still evaluating my options. 🗻

I love being out in the wilderness, and look forward to owning my own land and living off grid in a low tax high freedom state. 🔥🔫🐂 I wish everyday could be as much fun as my camping adventures, and not just be the daily grind in the city, with the toilet and refrigerator I’m always struggling with at home, or all the restrictions that come with living in the city. The rural landscapes and the hills and valleys really stir my soul and remind me there are things to life beyond that dirty, rundown apartment in the city that the rent keeps going up on.

When I get back home, I have to schedule an oil change for Big Red and I have an eye appointment on Thursday.👀 I have a coupon from the General for a $50 synthetic oil change and tire rotation, which is a good deal but it does mean having to bring it all the way back up to DeNoyer in Colonie.🚗 But then I shouldn’t need an oil change until late winter or early spring, and I’ll have contacts for the year.

I am going to create a new Facebook Page for my blog over the next few weeks. 📰 The new changes to Facebook API makes it impossible to automatically post from my blog to my Facebook profile, but if I have a page I can continue to easily post all my posts and photos to Facebook. I’ll probably share some of what I post on blog and Facebook Page to my personal profile but looking at the tools and options available for Facebook Pages, I think I make the switch sooner rather than later.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Average High Falls To 79 ️Degrees ⛱️️️ when the sun will be setting at 7:54 pm with dusk at 8:23 pm in the Finger Lakes. Figure about 15 minutes earlier back in Albany. On that day in 2017, we had partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 75 and 56 degrees. We hit a record high of 95 back in 1947.