Search Results for: photo making pizza

Well that pizza crust reminded me of inexpensive Walmart whole wheat sandwich bread that was a bit soggy 🍕

Well it was an experiment but probably rushing it, making it undercooked with the wetness from the thawed 3/4 lb of frozen spinach and pulverized tomatoes left it soggy. I’m not saying it was bad as I eat all up but needs refinement. On that note…

Good morning! Clouds after the rain storm and 68 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁️ There is a south breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Some good bolts of lightening as I cooked breakfast with rain but then it stopped.  ⛈ The dew point is 66 degrees. The skies will clear around 11 am. Probably within a few hours I’ll need to drop the shades in my office so I can see my monitor. I don’t mind the sunlight, especially on a cooler day today.

I ended up deciding to ride to work after realizing I was too late to catch the early express downtown 🚵, as it wasn’t too wet this morning, after the storm pulled away and the radar showed all clear. But if we get rain this evening or it’s too hot, I can always throw Blackie back on bus and take it home — but it’s rather ride, burn the 500 calories and save my buck thirty. 🚌 I figure in most cases when it’s nicer out, it’s best to take Blackie at least one way, as before you know it there will be snow on the ground, I’ll have to dress up for work, or actually have a good excuse for not riding in. That said, I’m kind of looking forward to moving over to the new office in North Albany, as Erie Boulevard is a much easier, flatter ride then the Madison Street hill, past Hill Cafe. Plus none of the serious traffic like on Madison Avenue. Won’t get rid of the Normans Kill Gorge climb in the evening commute, but that’s part of the calorie burning exercise.

Got my 36 inch jeans on 👖 and they fit pretty darn nicely. I almost could have gotten 34s, but these will do for now, as who knows where things will be in a few months. With some of those nicely-fitting shirts I got from the Salvation Army, I look pretty sharp compared to the baggie jeans and oversized t-shirts I often wear, though I’m getting more fitting clothes, but most of that currently is just shorts and hand-me-down t-shirts from dad. 👕 I think now that I have better fitting clothes, it won’t look like I’ve lost an excessive amount of weight, and that will hush up the critics. Now the key is just keeping off the pounds, though I think I’ve learned enough about food and nutrition in recent months that I’m unlikely to go back to my old ways. Yet, it will be harder to ride to work when the snow flies ❄️ as eventually the rail trail will be impassible due to snow. Plus when I move to the Erie Boulevard office, I won’t have the 18 flights of stairs to climb or that hard climb up the Madison Street, not that I’ll necessarily miss the later especially with the traffic.

Today will have showers and thunderstorms before 11am, then a slight chance of showers between 11am and 2pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. 🌦 High of 77 degrees at 2pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 5th. Maximum dew point of 68 at 9am. 🏖️ South wind 5 to 13 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. It was very sticky. The high last year was 90 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1953.

I think yesterday’s pizza would have been better, 🍕 had I baked the crust even further — more then 8 or 10 minutes before adding the spinach and sauce, and maybe boiled down the pulverized tomatoes 🍅 before applying them as sauce. I didn’t think the crust was a garlicly as I had hoped, and maybe I could have added more olive oil to the mix, though I didn’t want lard it up with too much saturated fat or calories. The loads of spinach were good, and the cottage cheese added flavor, and it was good to use up many of the tomatoes I had where starting to get soft and in some cases moldy in part of them. I think next time I’ll try preparing in advance with the addition of yeast, 🍞 maybe a little of Stevia for sweetness and maybe less oil. And make sure the crust is fully baked before adding toppings, and as then boil down the sauce in advance to make it thicker. Definitely felt full after this meal though, and I went for a five mile bike ride 🚴‍♀️ after eating, around the Nature Trail in the park, 🐸 then down Glenmont Road to the other part of Elm Avenue and back home before it was completely dark out at eight. 🌃

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:57 pm with sun having an altitude of 56.4° from the due south horizon (-14.4° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:58 pm with the sun in the west (277°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (283°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:36 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 58 seconds with dusk around 8:03 pm, which is one minute and 41 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-southeast (110°) at an altitude of 3° from the horizon, 226,455 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:40 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 70 degrees. The dew point will be 60 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 13 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 45 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🎑 , with a low of 57 degrees at 5am. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 3rd. Maximum dew point of 61 at 6pm. Going to sweat this evening on the bike ride home, especially with long-sleeved shirt and jeans but I’ll take my time. 🚲 Northwest wind 8 to 10 mph. In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 66 degrees. The record low of 37 occurred back in 1965.

I put some red lentils to soak in the refrigerator today, 🍛 this evening I will drain, and try running them through the food processor again with some sea salt, for a second attempt at making red lentil wraps. I have generally avoided wraps as I think they’re extra calories and carbs for no reason, but I could see different things I could make up with them too. Somehow I don’t have turmeric in my pantry despite shopping at Farmer’s India Market on Saturday, but I should get some so I can make dhal up as it’s an healthy option. I need eggs, 🥚 I could get them with the Turmeric this afternoon commute, though I’m a bit hesitant to buy eggs and then ride home with the bumps, 🐣 as often it’s a bit rougher riding in the basket then in an an automobile. Plus if I wait until Friday I can get farm-fresh eggs at Samdil Farm, which I was surprised are only selling for $3 a dozen, probably because they mill their own chicken feed from farm-grown grain that is primarily for their dairy operation. 🐓 But then again, I don’t really need any more food, my refrigerator is full and I don’t want things to start going bad. Maybe next week when I back from camp I can try dhal.

Tonight I’m going to start packing for the Labor Day Weekend. 🏕 There is only so much I can do this soon but the more I have ready, the less to do tomorrow, and then I can get to bed early 🛌 and be up and on the road before seven come Friday. Then to Samdil Farm early, which is a bit out of the way but worth it, Johnstown Walmart for any other miscellaneous supplies and hopefully to that campsite I want by nine. 🎪

Then when I get up to camp, by mine, the plan is clear: 🎪 Set up the tent, then chill, as I have day off and I’m not remote working. 🚲 Spend the afternoon riding dirt and gravel, see how many bears 🐻 and wildlife I can see along the way. Cook up some shrimp, squash and other goodies, eat sweet corn. 🦐 🌽 Hammock time, and kayak and swim time, especially come Labor Day. No need to rush home on Labor Day, as I’m not visiting my parents this weekend though I want to be home by 8 PM so I’m not driving home in the dark. But that leaves a lot of day to poke around and have fun in the greater Speculator-area.

A picture perfect Labor Day Weekend on tap. 😎 Friday, sunny, with a high near 77. Light north wind. Max dew point of 53. Very nice. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Maximum dew point of 60 at 4pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 85. Maximum dew point of 66 at 4pm. Monday, sunny and 89 degrees with a maximum dew point of 69 at 4 pm. A bit sticky for sure. Typical average high for the weekend is 79 degrees. 🍂 That said, it won’t be long before we start seeing a lot of color up north. Not sure, I could be back up there in three or four weeks to take in autumn’s colors.

On this day in 1967, Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ⚖ Had to have been quite the step forward in the country at the time, but now seems so long ago, with Justice Clarence Thomas long ago now replacing him. And in 1974, a powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan. 💣 Eight are killed, 378 are injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested on May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities. Usually it’s right wingers these days blowing up shit. But who knows if Trump is reelected not that I think it’s likely to happen at this point.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until More Night then Day 🌌 when the sun will be setting at 6:46 pm with dusk at 7:12 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 68 and 50 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 70 degrees. We hit a record high of 89 back in 2017.

Pond

With the snow today I decided to stay around camp today, making baked garlic chicken tenders for lunch then reading for a few hours.

With the snow today I decided to stay around camp today, making baked garlic chicken tenders for lunch then reading for a few hours. I thought the snow had stopped but it picked up again. It was pretty thorough. I didn’t want to drive on snow covered roads as all of the roads around Watkins Glen are very steep both going down and up.

Later on I went for a 5 mile evening / night walk along the Interlaken Trail, stopping several times for like 10 minutes to just sit and observe the woods, and followed some fresh and rabbit tracks until I came to the barbed wire of one of pastures and turned back to the trail. Hiked back after dark along Potomac Road which was very icy from the days 1-2 inches snow being compacted by car tires. I’m kind of glad I didn’t drive anywhere. Going to finally get above freezing tomorrow and I’m sure the town will sand the road by morning, like they did today before the snow squalls. I made pizza and cookies in the camp oven then had hot coca next to the fire until retiring to bed around nine.

Photo.2012.12.04 15.30.33

They’re taking about frost in the North Country this morning 🍂

You can taste the fresh silage on the air and you know it won’t be long before the leaves will be full of color in the North Country. Up at five o’clock cooking down split pea soup to have with homemade bread.

Good morning! Happy Thursday. A cold start, you might need the choke on your motor. Mostly clear, the sun is rising and 47 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌅 Calm wind.

Up a little after five to cook 🍳 and get started on my day. Needed to run to the rest room and then I needed to have coffee ☕ and get that pea soup cooking down. A half pound of spinach, onions, stir fry vegetables, a crust of whole wheat flour and water plus two eggs, a bit of milk and corn starch topped with a bit of Parmesan was breakfast. Dinner last night was pizza 🍕 but not that American crap way. A simple whole wheat flour and water crust, several paste and other tomatoes that were starting to mold a bit run through the food processor with a garlic clove and a bunch of spices with flour to harden, topped with chopped onions and spinach and a bit of Parmesan. 🥦 I do eat a lot of spinach, I like fiber. Fills your stomach up fully without many calories.

Lately I’ve been a been a little nostalgic 🎶 and listening to a lot of country music from the early 2000s like back in college. Not that I’d ever want to go back to those days with all those trials and tribulations of youth and far less money but life was good before inflation kind of ruined everything. I think it’s September 11th and just the autumn weather that takes me back to the first year back at Hudson Valley Community College, my first experience with much urban life, and being on my own, having a car, being able to go up to the woods whenever I wanted to. 🎄

Out walking around 6:45 AM this morning. 🚶‍♀️ Definitely a beautiful morning for the walk, should be a great ride down through the gorge to work. 🚲 I tasted some of that pea soup, it’s delicious, I’ll bring some for work and probably have some more for dinner. Might end up freezing the rest so I can have it later in the weekend, obviously with some fresh bread. 🍵 Might be a good way to end Saturday after riding trail most of the day up at Thacher Park. 🚵‍♀️ I am starting to run low on bananas, 🍌 I might stop and get just them at Hannaford during the evening commute home. Other then that my pantry is pretty solid.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 70 degrees at 3pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 26th. Maximum dew point of 50 at 6pm. Calm wind becoming north around 6 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 76 degrees. The record high of 95 was set in 1895.

I called the General yesterday 🚚 and guess what I’m on call back list regarding when they can do the passenger airbag inflator recall work. I figured with all the notices and social media ads I’ve gotten about replacing the airbag inflator, they’d have a ton in stock at this point and I could just drop the truck off in a week or two and have it back the next day. Nope, they took down my information but couldn’t promise me an appointment at this time.

Called back the doctor, 📞 and after a bit of phone tag 👩‍⚕️ they want to do some more testing about my pissing problem.  Didn’t catch it right away, as my phone is set up to automatically go to voice mail. 📨 Heck of it is since I’ve not been eating so many zucchini and overnight oatmeal, I’ve not had such a pissing problem.🚽  I kind of don’t want to spend more money getting tests, as I think it’s mostly in my head at this point, to blame on my diet, but they said some of the initial rounds of test were inclusive. 📋They can’t schedule me until another two weeks, so at that point I’ll re-evaluate if I find myself needing to piss too much. I really think the key is stay away from coffee and overnight oatmeal before road trips, especially my October trip if I’m thinking West Virginia.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:49 pm with sun having an altitude of 48.2° from the due south horizon (-22.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:20 pm with the sun in the west (266°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (272°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:57 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:23 pm, which is one minute and 47 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south-southwest (198°) at an altitude of 18° from the horizon, 233,527 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:58 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 66 degrees. The dew point will be 50 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 16 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over yesterday.

Yesterday, I went for an evening walk 🚶‍♀️ and went through my dresser and pulled out most the XXL clothes and put them away in the crawl space, and started to go through the hand-me-downs I got from the late John W. Some are XXL unfortunately, I only meant to get XL but I’ll try them on. 👕 Going to wash them though before putting them with the other clothes, as some of them have a bit of an old man smell to them. The pizza I had was good 🍕, very filling, didn’t really need a desert. Lights were out before 8:15 PM though I did listen to a podcast or two on my phone before getting fully asleep but that’s fine, I’m usually up by 5 AM most mornings to start cooking and getting a jump start on my morning.

Totally getting sold on going down to Canaan Heights West Virginia sometime after Columbus Day Weekend 🍂 to mountain bike, hike, camp and see the sights. I mean I’m not 100% on this and it could change, but it would be fun. Probably start the week up Wellsboro PA-area to ride some of the Pine Creek Gorge Trail. Not sure how much farther south I’d go in West Viriginia, maybe Dolly Sods, but I would rather focus on Canaan Heights, Blackwater Falls State Park and the Canaan Wildlife Refuge as I haven’t spent nearly enough time up that way.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 46 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 1st. Light northwest wind. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 51 degrees. The record low of 31 occurred back in 1962.

I’ve been starting to look more deeply into the future of the blog. 📝 I can bitch about the cost of running it but it won’t make it go away. I kind of would miss not doing it, so it’s probably worth the money to me. I do want to re-work the data structure, make things more efficient and maybe remove more of the custom code and try to make it use as much of built-in WordPress code as possible. 👨‍💻 I could bring my laptop home and work on this over the weekend, especially if it’s going to be rainy. The big difficulty might be the transition — taking down the old data structure and replacing it with the new one, and getting all the URL rewrites perfected before going live. I don’t know any way to do this completely without taking at least part of the blog offline to do the change over. 🤷‍♂️ I might also look at implementing Google AdSense, so I can get some advertising revenue, to cover the costs of doing the blog. I don’t love that idea — there is too much advertising pollution already, but I get tired of ever inflating costs, even if it really is a smaller part of the budget that that I’m making more money at work. 💸

A chance of showers throughout the weekend with more sun on Sunday. 🌦 Saturday, a chance of showers, mainly after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 66. East wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Maximum dew point of 52 at 10am. Sunday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 68. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 56 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 72 degrees.

I won’t say it’s a banner weekend this weekend, 🌦 but maybe not a wash out. Still will be good enough to do the Nature Bus to Thacher Park. Saves some money and it’s a fun day, plus I went out camping last weekend. 🏕 Maybe next weekend I’ll get out again, though the very long-range forecast doesn’t look all that great in all honestly. Columbus Day Weekend, which is two weeks from Saturday might be better. ⛵ 🍂 Only time will tell, though it seems like autumn will be late this year.

South Along Lake George

A cloudy and dark Tuesday for rounding out August ☁️

Listening to Rich Men North of Richmond as I’m out for the morning walk, living in the new world with and old soul. A big pot of brown rice, red and green lentils are cooking down for the week – already had my first cup of coffee and looking forward to cream of wheat with chia seeds, yogurt and frozen fruit.

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Dark and gray and 64 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ But when there is no hope, there is help – see today’s forecast in the third paragraph. It’s already clearing to the east. There is a south-southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 64 degrees.

I was hoping to ride home last night 🚲 but when I started down Madison it started raining ☔ and I ran over to Broadway in front of the old Union Train Station and put my bicycle on the bus 🚍 and rode home. I should remember that is always an option and riding even one way still burns calories and saves money 💵. Bike rides secure but bounces a lot on some of the bumps. Heck of it is was just a light drizzle I’d probably had been fine to ride home but whatever – my left eye 👁️ was kind of irritated at any rate.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 81 degrees at 4pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 27th. Maximum dew point of 67 at 6pm. Going to be sweating a bit on the ride out of Norman’s Kill. Maybe not a good day for making those spinach pizza things I’ve been thinking about cooking this afternoon. It will depend how hot and sweaty I am when I get home and if I want to ride out to Voorheesville in twilight of the day. Maybe tomorrow with the rain. South wind 5 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It was sticky. The high last year was 91 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 2018.

Wearing my glasses into work today 👓 so I can totally have the four-eyes are better then two eyes look today. I don’t l like my limited view from the glasses, but I also don’t want to do any more damage to my sore eyes. I am hopeful by mid-day and evening commute I can be back to contacts. Then assuming the weather doesn’t crap out, it will be back down the Madison Street Hill, and then to Albany County Rail Trail making the climb 😅 up through the Normans Kill George 🚲 to home.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:57 pm with sun having an altitude of 56.8° from the due south horizon (-14° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:59 pm with the sun in the west (277°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (284°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:37 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 58 seconds with dusk around 8:04 pm, which is one minute and 40 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Blue 🌝 Moon in the southeast (124°) at an altitude of 7° from the horizon, 226,316 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:42 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 76 degrees. The dew point will be 67 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 7 mph. Tomorrow will have 13 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 45 seconds over today.

Went to bed 🛏 early around 7:45 and I was asleep by eight. My left eye 👁️was very irritated as I forgot my contact solution when I went out to my parents house yesterday overnight and by afternoon it was a mess. Kind of a dark and rainy evening ☔ and because I get up so early it’s hard for me to stay up late. Had a great dinner of tofu – zucchini parmesan with the sauce made from delicious paste tomatoes that I got from my parents house. 🍅 Dessert was opening up that cantaloupe that I got at the store 🍈 on Sunday. Good stuff.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 4am. 🌧 Low of 66 degrees at 6am. Seven degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 6pm. 🏖️ South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It became very sticky as the night progressed. It got down to 66 degrees. The record low of 38 occurred back in 1982.

Yesterday, I got a call from a friend who was a nurse 👩‍⚕️ in her younger years, concerned about all my recent weight loss. Apparently a lot of people have been talking about how much thinner I’ve gotten, concerned that I’m not eating enough. 📩 She sent me an article about the dangers of loosing weight too quickly, with fatty liver disease and other things that can happen if your crashing with your calorie intake. But truth be told, But the thing is when you don’t eat a lot of processed foods and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, 🍏 it’s hard to eat excessively and keep pounds on. 🤰Trust me, I’m often very stuffed after eating and keep filling my mouth throughout the day with quality food. I don’t just eat 3 times a day, but non-stop from morning to night.

The heck of it is despite all my weight loss, I am eating more then ever and spending more on food. 💸  Some of it’s inflation but also I’ve been trying to expand my pantry and keeping healthy eating interesting, with new and different foods every week. At first I was very picky about what should be in my diet 🐠🔍 but now I focus more on overall, doing a lot more home cooking with quality ingredients and very little sugar, saturated fats, and a reasonable amount of carbs. And lots of fruits and vegetables, consistent with Harvard guidelines for such things. 🍽 That said, I am surprised how much I’ve lost even since May. The 36×32 jeans I bought this weekend which I was afraid would be too tight, where almost too loose, almost necessitating a drop to 34. Figuring a year ago was I was primarily wearing 40 inch jeans, and even at times some of them were a bit tight, I’ve become so much thinner and healthier. I think it’s doing the stairs at work and lately bicycling to work. It’s not the limiting the plate size for sure.

I did do that physical back in late May, 👩‍⚕️ I’ve thought about reaching out to my Health Insurance’s nurses line to see if they have any advice on my recent weight loss. I am not concerned as I think it’s just I”m burning more calories then I’m taking in ⚖ but folks still seem to be very concerned. I am hearing that from a lot of people. Maybe I should see if my insurance covers the visiting of a dietitian to help me better understand my food choices, and come up with a better balanced meals, though I think my food choices are basically the consensus of what most of the health experts are saying, 🥑 and I’m NOT under in-taking healthy fats or proteins — or have some kind of undiagnosed disease. It’s not just that one nurse friend either, it’s relatives, co-workers and others.

On this day in 1966, the Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans 🎸 at Candlestick Park in a wicked thunderstorm ⛈ San Francisco. After this, if you wanted to hear the Beatles, you had to listen to them on vinyl records or AM radio. 📻 Their next album would be Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Club Heart band, and it would have a dramatically different sound then the Love, Love Me Do records. 🎶

I have Labor Day Weekend Off 🏕 including the Friday before so I can go up to camp bright and early. I probably will do like I did two week ago — pack Thursday night — leave very early, maybe before seven, get gas in Rotterdam, ⛽ then stop at Samdil Farm for sweet corn and vegetables and maybe meat, 🌽 🥩 Walmart for supplies 🛒 and then try to make Speculator as close to 9 AM as possible to get the campsite I want and get set up. Then hang out for a bit, have lunch, then maybe mountain bike 🚵‍♀️ in the afternoon and do some fishing. 🎣 Maybe kayak Indian Lake on Saturday, if not to choppy. 🛶 Saturday evening I might do an after-dark hike up Watch Hill to spot fire towers lit for the firetower light-the-night event. 🏃 🔦 Later in the weekend, probably Sunday or Labor Day I’ll have to go back down to Spectulator for some swimming. 🏊. Should be a wonderful weekend, especially with some fresh-locally sourced steak and shrimp. And so much delicious sweet corn and other good things to eat.

A picture perfect Labor Day Weekend 🇺🇸 weekend on tap. 😎 Friday, sunny high around 75 with a maximum dew point of 57 come 7 pm. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Maximum dew point of 61 at 4pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Maximum dew point of 65 at 1pm. Labor Day is going to warm, may hit 87 degrees with lots of sun. I’ll be on the kayak 🛶 on Lake Pleasant. Typical average high for the weekend is 79 degrees. Won’t be quite as warm up north.

Looking ahead, there are 9 weeks until Halloween 🎃 when the sun will be setting at 5:51 pm with dusk at 6:19 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 64 and 37 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 56 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 2019. Been interested in making some baked pumpkin dishes, come the autumn. Plus pumpkins are a lot of fun to shoot with the ol .22 rifle up in the woods.

Little Moose Lake

October 22, 2018 Afternoon

Good afternoon! It’s a Monday again. Two more after this before I get to back home. Definitely miss the routine of catching the bus to work. Driving to work is for the dawgs. Three weeks to Veterans Day Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸. Cloudy, damp, and 46 degrees in North Syracuse. ☁ There is a southwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃.

Not a real nice day for sure. Kind of bitterly cold and damp. Yuck. I guess not every day can be 75 degrees and sunny. It’s tough that this October is more typical then many we have had in recent years. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Thursday around 3 am. ☃️

“Wish I was a Kellogg’s Cornflake
Floatin’ in my bowl takin’ movies,
Relaxin’ awhile, livin’ in style,
Talkin’ to a raisin who ‘caisson’ly plays L.A.”

– Punkey’s Dilema, Simon and Garfunkel.

This afternoon will be mostly cloudy ☁, with a high of 50 degrees at 4pm. Seven degrees below normal. Southwest wind around 8 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 74 degrees. Back in the bad old days. 👹 Long ago they seem. The record high of 86 was set in 1979. There was a dusting of snow in 2005.❄ Not a real nice day, but you can’t control the weather but you can control your attitude towards it.

The sun will set at 6:09 pm with dusk around 6:38 pm, which is one minute and 32 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and 48 degrees. There will be a south-southwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 42 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of sprinkles after 5am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 41 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal. South wind around 5 mph. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 43 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1969.

Last night when I was heading home, I noticed the accessory battery looked a bit low. 🔋I was a bit concerned as I thought that meant I might have a loose wire or some other problem with the battery. Turns out I had left the starting and accessory batteries connected and forgot about it during the day, and the load of the headlights and unlocking the doors with the engine off made both batteries voltage sag a bit momentarily.

Not it was a problem, but my misreading of the gauges made me a bit worried for a few minutes until I figured out what was really going on. I got to be real careful with that switch when camping, ⏺ making sure it’s in the “I” rather then the “II” position when I’m using camp power. That said, I usually keep a close eye on both the starting and accessory battery voltages when I’m at camp.

Today in 1897, using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13 1/2 hours before burning out). 💡 Talk about some dated technology that had a long life-span, as vacuum tubes filled with various gases continue to light our buildings to this day. That said, light-emitting semiconductors,  have all but certainly replaced that this technology, although for existing fixtures many of the mercury-vapor florescent lights and some tungsten-filament energy hogging bulbs are used in rough-service areas like barns.🐄

I was reading about solar power converters, ⬛ last night, which are used in some multi-panel solar systems to boost or buck current from individual solar panels to increase efficiency. Basically, solar panels put out a wide range of voltages depending on how much power is coming out of them. You need a certain voltage to charge a battery, and if the voltage is too low the battery won’t charge well, while if the voltage is too high, the battery will off-gas and eventually explode. Likewise, solar panels are most efficient if you apply some resistance on them so you get the right balance of amps and voltage. It’s a bit complicated, I don’t fully understand the technology, and it’s hard to explain, but it’s interesting to learn more about it. 📟

Honestly, when I own land and a cabin up in the wilderness, I don’t care about all that fancy technology, and aren’t really that interested in having high-voltage 120 volt, grid-style electricity. 🔌 Maybe use a few small inverters to power a few appliances, but my goal is to use as little electricity as possible, and stay with 12 volts or maybe 24 volts with buck converters. I guess things like water pumps, refrigerators, etc. often require more power, which easier delivered with a higher voltage and lower amperage.

But that’s some time off. I need to continue to save and invest for another decade, as I figure I will need at least a quarter million to pay for relocation costs, land, and a small cabin. Land is expensive, and while a smallish cabin is more affordable, I want something that is well insulated and protected from the rain. 🏠 I don’t mind doing low-voltage electrical stuff and basic maintance, but I want something decent to start out. Oh, and a good job once I relocate. But I think with some saving, careful investing, and planning I can make it a reality sometime after 2030. That seems like a long time away, but it’s really not that far out, and I’ll only be 47 years old at that point, and still lots of my life left.

There are 15 days, 7 hours and 45 minutes until the poll close on Election Day in New York. 🗳 Two weeks tomorrow. Three weeks, my vacation will be well underway, god-willing that is. I am still very carefully watching the North Atlantic Oscillation to see how it will impact my trip. I am hoping the weather won’t be too bitterly cold, snowy or rainy. Who knows though, things can certainly change.

Regardless, it will be nice sipping the cup off coffee in the morning next to the heater ☕ and having a rip-roaring fire at night. 🔥 Cooking some decent food in the camp oven — fresh bread, muffins,  pizza. Yum. Sitting back, feeling the chill at night. Hanging out in the woods with a shotgun, going for a hike, seen the land. Just not rushing around, not so busy lie i’ve been lately. I’ll be glad once that time comes around.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Veterans Day Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 4:43 pm with dusk at 5:13 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2017, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 44 and 22 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 49 degrees. We hit a record high of 68 back in 1909.

House and Pond