Search Results for: photo truck cap lights work well

Inspection day! ๐Ÿ”Ž ๐Ÿ›ป

It always makes me nervous but why I don’t know as Big Red is running well and AFAIK all the lights are working good. Oil change and tire rotation too today. Let the shop get all of those things done at once. I’ll just take off the hub caps.

Good morning! What day is it? Big Red, gets state inspected day, of course. Snow flurries, partly clear and 32 degrees in Delmar, NY. โ„ There is a west-southwest breeze at 8 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. Things will start to thaw out at around 8 am. ๐ŸŒก๏ธ

Up at 5 AM to have breakfast of eggs, onions, rice and corn and other veggies. ๐Ÿ‘จ‍๐Ÿณ The burner element failing this morning was a surprise as it arc flashed when it cracked and shorted, but I’ll replace the burner either today or this weekend. Last night I fried up sweet potatoes with onions and veggies with some left-over turkey from Thanksgiving. ๐Ÿฆƒ Finishing up that bread I had made up on Monday, I will bake a new loaf tomorrow morning along with cookies for work, and maybe that spaghetti squash. ๐Ÿ† Squash is really cheap at Hannaford this week, and I have $5 in points rewards expiring on Friday so I plan to go to Hannaford when I pick up my truck this afternoon.

Dropping the truck off at eight thirty. ๐Ÿ›ป Pulling the hub caps off now. I forgot to ask for synthetic oil but I’ll ask when I drop the truck off. ๐Ÿ›ข Doesn’t matter that much I don’t drive much in the winter. I used to do my own oil changes but by the time I got the oil, struggled to remove the oil filter it wasn’t worth it. Then I’ll walk ๐Ÿšถ home and get down to work. I’ll start my day working from home, have lunch then spend the remainder of the day working from the library ๐Ÿ“š where I don’t have to worry about using too much bandwidth. ๐Ÿ“ถ Rush projects continue today, so I’ll be busy. Also want to get to the store after picking my truck up from the shop. I need soap ๐Ÿ–๏ธ among other things.

Today will have a chance of snow showers, mainly after 11am. Mostly sunny ๐ŸŒฆ, with a high of 38 degrees at 12pm. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 15th. West wind 8 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. A year ago, we had sunny skies in the morning with sunny skies in the afternoon. The high last year was 34 degrees. The record high of 58 was set in 1984. 14.0 inches of snow fell back in 1915.โ„

While cooking ๐Ÿณ this morning the large burner quit working. No heat then it started to arc a bright white color where it broke. I could call the landlord ๐Ÿ“ž but I’m not going to bother him over a $10 to $20 electric stove element I can just pick up at Home Depot and plug it in. I can see were it cracked, it’s a plug-in and a very standard cheap part. Should also replace the catch basins on the stove too, they’re pretty burnt through again. ๐Ÿซ– Figure anytime I call the landlord he’s ultimately going to tack it on my rent so I don’t call unless it’s dire. ๐Ÿ’ต My apartment needs a lot of work but it’s inexpensive and I want to keep it that way for as long as possible. ๐Ÿก

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 11:50 am with sun having an altitude of 24.3° from the due south horizon (-46.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 3:38 pm with the sun in the southwest (231°). ๐Ÿ“ธ The sunset is in the west-southwest (239°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:23 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 24 seconds with dusk around 4:54 pm, which is 9 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ The best time to look at the stars is after 5:31 pm. At sunset, look for snow ๐ŸŒจ and temperatures around 36 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 14 mph with gusts up to 28mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 8 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 34 seconds over today.

As I do from time to time I check my net worth and retirement accounts. ๐Ÿ’ฐ They’re up 33% from three year ago in November. Not the pandemic low but things were still down a bit. I’ve been expanding my bond holdings in recent years but it’s really the stock that have been high flying โœˆ these days.๐Ÿ“ˆ That said, I do share people’s concerns that the stock market is overvalued, especially the high-flying seven corporations that dominate the S&P 500 but the way I look at it is while they may go down, and even the market may have a substantial correction, other stocks will be replace them eventually and ultimately the index will grow. I still think broad-spectrum indexing is the way to grow, along with regular steady automated purchases, without regard to any trend. Spread out the risk, stock funds, bond funds, broad-sector funds. I’ve lived through times of up and down on the market ๐Ÿ“Š — I am bad and don’t look at much at the market when things go down, but then again I don’t really act on any short term trend. Combined with my better paying job out in the suburbs, I look forward to a brighter tomorrow. I just want to build a secure future for myself, with so much instability in the world today.

Tonight will have a chance of snow showers before 9pm, then a slight chance of rain showers between 9pm and 10pm. Mostly clear ๐ŸŒƒ, with a low of 24 degrees at 5am. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 12th. Maximum wind chill around 14 at 5am; Northwest wind 10 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. In 2022, we had clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 17 degrees. The record low of -5 occurred back in 1898.

Took the later local bus home last night ๐ŸšŒ as I was working on that rush project. Gets me home a half hour later then I would otherwise get home. Not a super big difference, dinner was done by seven and I went out for a walk before coming home to a warm glass of milk with cinnamon and ginger and retiring to bed. โ˜• If I take the free shuttle back the plaza with my new job, I’ll be taking the bus home more often, but if I decide to take the Purple Express to downtown, I can probably catch 519 home at the regular time, though that will cost an extra $1.30 a day. Works out to an additional $300 a year, though my new job will pay far more extra then that. But I don’t know, I like saving money, and the free shuttle drops me off in the Plaza which I can spend the half hour getting steps in at the Plaza where it’s warm. I got options to mull over.

Back in 1962, NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit. ๐Ÿ›ฐ๏ธ Nowadays when you look up at night you occasionally see Starlink and that’s quite an impressive amount of satellites in the sky. I’ve heard it’s great for those who live in remote areas and need high speed internet. It’s expensive but if it provides work and puts food on the table it’s pretty neat.

Warm and fairly sunny ๐ŸŒž this weekend. Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 45. Still thinking ๐Ÿ’ญ about biking ๐Ÿšฒ down to French’s Mills on Saturday. Sunday, mostly cloudy especially late, with a high near 45. Nutcracker with the family ๐Ÿ‘ช them. Rain comes in for Monday. โ˜” Busing ๐Ÿš it to work Monday. Typical average high for the weekend is 38 degrees.

 Road Summit

February 20, 2023 Morning

Good morning! Cloudy and 36 degrees at the Moscow Hill Camping Area. ๐ŸŒฅ There is a south-southwest breeze at 9 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 5 pm. โ˜ƒ๏ธ

The past few days I’ve decided to take a break from social media and the blog ๐Ÿ“œ so I can spend more time in the woods hiking and thinking, ๐Ÿ‘‚ listening to podcasts and drinking ๐Ÿป beer and being away from it all. Two nights is never enough, especially since I got used to remote work from camp. I could have taken tomorrow off but rain is coming.

I was on the fence about where to this long weekend โ›บ but settled on Brookfield as there was more trails I wanted to explore and the forecast while cloudy for Sunday and today looked less wet. I had been at Rennselearville State Forest three weekends ago and wanted to mix things up especially so I didn’t burn up too much firewood. Plus I like the rural landscape ๐Ÿšœ heading out to Brookfield. Longer drive though but a pleasant one.

Saturday I walked around Glimmerglass State Park ๐Ÿž and it was cold by the lake but in the woods with the wind ๐Ÿƒ blocked by the mountains it wasn’t so bad. I didn’t stick around very long as such. Deep blue skies and a pretty sunset ๐ŸŒ‡. Got to Moscow Hill Horse Camp ๐Ÿด and set up camp then hiked over to Elmer’s Place and then bushwhacked over Grassy Hill trying to find a good view which didn’t exist but I did flush out a ton of grouse. ๐Ÿ•Š

By the time I got back to camp it was 6:10 and nearly pitch black but I had previously gathered firewood, set up the lights and propane, ๐Ÿฎ had everything ready to go so it was a pleasant night. Had a big fire ๐Ÿ”ฅ though it was smokey at times due to all the wet wood, wet stuff in the burnables as I’ve been eating healthier. Heard a local fire station whistle go of ๐Ÿš’๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿš’ and thought I might have some unplanned visitors but no it was some other call. This place isn’t as remote as some places I camp. โ›บ Forgot to buy lighter fluid but once I got the somewhat damp and frozen wood going it burned well but was sparky until the wind died out. Saturday was a star filled night โœจ and very mild which was nice.

Sunday was cloudy and breezy at times ๐ŸŒฌ๏ธ especially up on the hills. I hiked the bulk of the day, visiting most of the outer truck trails at Charles Baker State Forest ๐ŸŒฒ๐ŸŒณ๐ŸŒฒ as I didn’t want to hike muddy horse trails. Checked out the Elmer Spring Campsite which is remote but accessible by vehicle and is really nice and private. โ›บ Hiked the Ledges Trail which was kind of interesting as was Truck Trail 7 which is cut into a ledge on the side of the mountain โ›ฐ๏ธ. Icy in spots especially on the road but cold enough even the horse ๐Ÿด trails weren’t too icy.

For today, Washington’s Birthday will have showers likely, mainly before 11am. Cloudy ๐ŸŒฆ, with a high of 40 degrees at 11am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 28th. Not bad for the high country in in. Just wearing the vest. Southwest wind 9 to 13 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 28 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1930. 11.2 inches of snow fell back in 1977.โ„

While it hasn’t been sunny โ˜๏ธ the mid weather has been nice. Not having to deal with frozen water ๐Ÿ’ฆ, frozen food like milk ๐Ÿฅ› or eggs ๐Ÿฅš is good for a change. The batteries are healthy and happy ๐Ÿ˜Š in my truck ๐Ÿ”‹, I haven’t had to start the truck all weekend long. Used the propane heater โ™จ a lot less than I have in recent trips, no icy propane lines to deal with. But it’s been cold enough that things have remained generally frozen in the ground, keeping the trails from being too muddy.

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 12:16 pm with sun having an altitude of 36.2ยฐ from the due south horizon (-34.4ยฐ vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 5:01 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (249ยฐ). ๐Ÿ“ธ The sunset is in the west-southwest (256ยฐ) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:40 pm after setting for 3 minutes with dusk around 6:07 pm, which is one minute and 17 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent ๐ŸŒ’ Moon in the west-southwest (253ยฐ) at an altitude of 2ยฐ from the horizon, 228,419 miles away. ๐Ÿš€ The best time to look at the stars is after 6:41 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies โ˜ and temperatures around 34 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 50 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 47 seconds over yesterday.

Today I decided to hike back and explore a few more ponds ๐Ÿธ in the northern part of the state forest. Then midday head back home. I figure enjoy and explore as much of the land while I’m here. Then I’ll have to head home. I thought about taking Tuesday off but it looks like rain โ˜” and maybe snow here.

Tonight will have a slight chance of snow showers after 4am. Mostly cloudy ๐ŸŒง, with a low of 23 degrees at 2am. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 5th. Maximum wind chill around 17 at 4am; Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming calm. Chance of precipitation is 20%. 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 13 degrees. The record low of -10 occurred back in 2015.

Planning to go out and see the folks ๐Ÿ‘ช when I get home, that is after showering ๐Ÿšฟ and unpacking. Then I want to run to the car wash ๐Ÿš™ and then Walmart for fruit and vegetables for the upcoming week. ๐Ÿ

Brookfield looks cold and snowy for next weekend. ๐ŸŒจ But I got my fun in. Saturday, a chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 25. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Sunday, a chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 34. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Typical average high for the weekend is 39 degrees.

I don’t necessarily plan on being back to Brookfield anytime soon though I might do my April trip to Cazenovia rather than the Adirondacks East Branch Sacandaga River for a change. ๐Ÿ—ป Easter is late this year and depending on how mild the spring is things could be greening up by then. Probably few black flies up north ๐Ÿœ but I’ve been itching to do the Gorge Rail Trail is Cazenovia – Canestota for some time again. March maybe a camping trip โ›บ to Rennselearville State Forest again or Burnt Rossman. Depends on how much snow. It will be after the time change at this point.

Looking ahead, there are 7 weeks until 8 PM Dusk ๐ŸŒ† when the sun will be setting at 7:39 pm with dusk at 8:06 pm (Daylight Savings Time) in Brookfield. Earlier back in Albany. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, warm and temperatures between 74 and 49 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 57 degrees. Thinking spring thoughts ๐Ÿ’ญ on this cloudy but mild morning. We hit a record high of 86 back in 1922.

Red Trail Marker

Corridor H

Driving along Corridor “H” the new limited access highway that runs in the Northern Tier of West Virginia from Davis to Morehead past the strip mined coal fields and the big Storm Mountain Coal-fired Power Plant, I was thinking what a truly nasty way to be making electricity, especially in the 21st century, when much cleaner fuels have long been on the market, and when renewables are a growing part of the electricity industry.

 Coal Strip Mine Along Corridor H

In the early days of the industrial revolution, coal was the only on-demand source of energy that could be used virtually everywhere. You haul coal somewhere, you get coal lit on fire, it burns hot, often with a thick black smoke, boils water into steam which turns a turbine. More advanced controls were invented which got more heat energy turned into steam, captured more of the soot and chemical byproducts of coal, and generally made coal a better fuel. But from a chemical standpoint, coal can not compete with oil or natural gas, which is much easier to burn and control the output of the furnace. As oil and gas have fewer contaminates it can be burned with much fewer pollution controls. Mount Storm is a large coal-fired generating station. It has what appears to be two active units from the two large currently operating smoke stacks, but there may be multiple units attached to one stack. It produces an enormous cloud of water vapor visible from miles around — including from the Dolly Sods Wilderness and most elevated locations within 30 miles. Water vapor is a nice way to put it — the smoke is mostly carbon dioxide and water but it’s mixed with a wide variety of heavy metals, mercury, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrous oxides. Things that limit the amount of otherwise healthy fish they can safely consume out of streams even far away. It produces a steady output of “base-load” that lights wells over a million households, or a combination of households, factories, and commercial facilities. It’s one of the bigger power plants out there, but certainly not the biggest.

Mount Storm

Mount Storm a big industrial facility with a large cooling reservoir whose warm waters are popular for boating and fishing. The warm cooling water from the plant keeps the lake ice free for much of the year and provides good stable water temperature for fishing. It’s nice that they allow public access to the reservoir, one with impressive views of the plant from the boat launch. That’s great. But what’s no so great is the large open pit mines that surrounded the plant, laid bare for all to see by the construction of the Corridor H Expressway. Mountain top removal, and strip mining turn mountains into mounds that look like garbage dumps. Even “restored” landscapes make mountain look engineered, the hopes of getting new businesses in the area to locate in this remote area are slim — although somewhat improved by Corridor H. For every four tons of coal hauled to the plant, one tons of coal, limestone scrubber residue, and fly ash are landfilled near the plant. The coal fired plant itself is a small part of the landscape compared to the wastes that are disposed of at on-site landfills. You can only see some of the outer walls of the landfills from the WV 94 (the old road) and Corridor H. From satellite pictures you can see much more. Burning coal cuts enormous sections out of mountains, and creates new mountains of ash landfills.

 Coal Mine

Coal haters, myself included, will note that nothing is really clean about coal. Toxic coal air emissions, while a small part of what goes up the smoke stack, are enormous, because so much coal is burned every day, 365 days a year at Mount Storm and thousands of other coal fired plants across the country. The electricity produced lights millions of homes. Not only is mining ugly and restored landscapes are often just a glimmer of the once wild lands, cutting into the earth, especially in places where coal is common, release many toxic compounds.ย  Coal often is mixed with pyrite, commonly known as fools gold. You might get rich off the coal, but your still a fool. Pyrite when it’s exposed to water and rain releases it’s sulfuric compounds, the same ones that often go up the stack when coal is burned. The sulfuric compounds in pyrite mixed with water produce sulfuric acid mine discharge — sometimes as powerful as car battery acid and poison streams, especially hitting fish who are sensitive to even minor changes to pH levels in stream levels. To say nothing of the removed an rerouted streams, which bring sediment downstream, boost nutrient levels, and otherwise wreck formerly good trout streams. Of course if you read my blog, you probably are aware of all these things. That coal is a lot more evil then just the excess amounts of carbon dioxide it’s bleaching into air forever changing both our local and global climates, acidifying the oceans and lakes, changing the natural rhythms of moth earth. But seeing Mount Storm up close seemed to bring that all back home to me.

Mount Storm Lake

Now I also saw the nice rural houses in the neighborhoods, with the neatly maintained yards, beautiful 3/4 ton pickup trucks, a four wheeler or two, and maybe a horse, and a family cow or a hog. All most certainly paid by the good salaries for the engineers and technical people who use their advanced knowledge to keep Mount Storm humming along. Or they work with heavy equipment in the strip mines and below ground mines to feed the ever hungry coal furnaces at Mount Storm. They are doing what they need to do to feed their family and live the good life. I respect them, I might be even kind of jealous because I’d love to live in rural God’s country like this. West Virginia is a special place. Coal may be dirty and working with it may have life-long consequences, it’s a good source of jobs in these towns that don’t have much else to do — sure there are jobs in timber, road construction, local government, a few other industries, but the area is still incredibly rural, even if Corridor H is making it easier to get around. If Virginia finally agrees to extend Corridor H so it meets up with Interstate 81, this area will become even less remote. But even without the final extension, this superhighway — granted one that has grade intersections is making the whole area much better connected together and accessible. I can’t overstate how much Corridor H changes life in the Northern Tier of West Virginia, compared to the much inferior West Virigina 93.

I think it’s fully reasonable to predict that Corridor H will eventually become an interstate highway, connecting with Interstate 81 heading west from Davis to Interstate 79 outside of Morganstown. Mount Storm will probably eventually close. President Donald Trump may say coal will be great again, but it’s a dying, nasty technology, that is long in the tooth, especially as renewables grow on the grid. Probably many of younger generation will move away, rather then struggle with the hard life of Rural Appalachia. Some people will stay and carry on the values, working in other industries or being part of the growing renewable energy industry. As Mount Storm and the coal industry is in it’s twilight years, making as much of a mess as usual, more and more wind turbines are going up on the remote ridges of the pan handle of West Virginia. Areas mined for coal might still be high enough to site new turbines — to say nothing of solar. People will still hunt deer and bear, raise a hog or beef in their backyard, live the good rural life. Mount Storm and the coal industry may be on it’s last horrific breath, but it doesn’t mean Appalachia and it’s beautiful landscape must come to an end.

 Expressway

Despite all the blasting, the large bridges, and forever changed landscape, I think Corridor H is great. It shows the beauty and ugliness of West Virginia. It will move the whole area forward, make it less remote, and allow it to transition to the industry of tomorrow. The sheer distance from other population centers will limit high-end residential and commercial development, to say nothing of the steep mountains slopes, the rough rocky terrain, even if the distances aren’t as far thanks to the safe, modern road. I think everybody should drive Corridor H at least once.

 Carbon

January 26, 2020 Night

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 37 degrees in Delmar, NY. โ˜ There is a southwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The ground is mostly free of snow and tonight will remain above freezing. โ˜ƒ ๏ธTemperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 9 pm. โ˜ƒ๏ธ

Went to my parents house and they made stuffed shells 🐚 and carrot cake 🎂. It was good but I eat too much. I got home, hung up my shirts 👚 so they don’t have too many wrinkles. I went out for my evening walk 🚶 and are listening to the the Skeptics Guide to Universe and are about to kill the lights.

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain and snow showers between 10pm and 3am, then a slight chance of snow showers after 3am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 34 degrees at 5am. 20 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 6th. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 11 degrees. The record low of -23 occurred back in 1994.

The Snow โ„ Moon is on Sunday, February 9. The darkest hour is at 12:09 am, followed by dawn at 6:46 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:17 am in the east-southeast (115ยฐ) and last for 3 minutes and 12 seconds. Sunrise is 51 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:59 am with sun in the east-southeast (123ยฐ). Tonight will have 14 hours and 14 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 9 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of rain and snow showers before 10am, then a slight chance of rain showers between 10am and 11am. Partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 42 degrees at 2pm. 11 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 10th. South wind 5 to 14 mph becoming west in the afternoon. I like spring weather. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 40 degrees. It was pretty nice last year too. The record high of 62 was set in 1974. 9.3 inches of snow fell back in 1963.โ„

I am sure the solar panel will keep all the batteries 🔋 well charged with the higher sun angle 📐and the ample sun this week.🌞 On Saturday the batteries were well enough charged that the alternator shut off and ran entirely off the batteries for a short period of time like it will after an extended period driving. It should work great come the summer during an extended period of camping at one campsite in the woods.

Mom and Dad gave me a $100 check for my birthday 🎂. I am thinking about getting an enclosed canopy to use for camping, especially during black fly season on Memorial Day Weekend or during other extended trips when we might have rain โ˜” or bad bugs. It would be nice to have a protected area on a buggy or rainy day to camp be outdoors with a book, a meal or just listening to a podcast and not be trapped in the truck cap. It looks like they range from around $200 to $300 but they are quite popular out camping it seems and it would be great for extended weekends camping. That said, this year with work it might not be an issue – not sure if I’ll be able to get out of town for Memorial Day Weekend. But maybe for summer vacation?

Also this year I think I want to do more back country camping. โ›บ As much as I like truck cap camping with all the gear I have such a craving to do more nights in the wilderness alone. I want to do more different things this summer, I always camp in the same places year after year and it gets kind of boring 💤.

In four weeks on February 23 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (257ยฐ) at 5:36 pm,🌄 which is 36 minutes and 27 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly cloudy, sleet and temperatures between 38 and 20 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 37 and 19 degrees. The record high of 69 degrees was set back in 2017. In a month we will be creeping towards spring and starting to get a bit warmer.

Looking ahead, Ground Hog Day 🐻 is in 1 week, Snow Moon 🌕 is in 2 weeks, March 🌨 is in 5 weeks, Daylight Savings Time 🌆 is in 6 weeks, Ides of March โœ is in 7 weeks, Palm Sunday 🌴 is in 10 weeks, Easter 🐰 is in 11 weeks, Mothers Day 👩โ€ is in 15 weeks, Pack Rat Day 🐀 is in 16 weeks, Strawberry Moon 🌕 is in 19 weeks and Fathers Day 👨 is in 20 weeks.

🇺🇸🦅Only 116 days remain until the start of Memorial Day Weekend!🦅🇺🇸

Channel on the River

January 23, 2019 Morning

Good morning! Happy National Cheese Lovers Day ๐Ÿง€! I celebrated by putting some good munster cheese on my egg waffles this morning. Mostly cloudy and 21 degrees in Delmar. โ˜ There is a south breeze at 10 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. The current wind chill is 10. There are 10 inches of snow on the ground. โ˜ƒ Things will start to thaw out at around 1 pm, with rain aggressively tackling the snow by the evening. ๐ŸŒก๏ธ Hopefully you brought your umbrella, I know I did. โ˜”ย Might need to hold onto the umbrella top though with the wind, especially in the city later.ย ๐ŸŒช

This morning the bus was running relatively close to on time which was much better than the nine o’clock cluster duck when I was trying to get home last night. ๐ŸšŒAt this point a decade plus in the making I should be prepared for late nights at work and pack a dinner but alas I’m uneducated and haven’t learned my lesson. I just wish that snow wouldn’t cause such a cluster duck in the city and they could have orderly snow removal like they have in the suburbs.ย ๐Ÿš—๐Ÿš™๐Ÿš—๐Ÿš•๐ŸšŒ๐Ÿš™๐Ÿšš The sidewalks are almost bare in Delmar and the roads are free of obstruction from the snow banks, so the traffic problems aren’t in burbs. Just the city with the carsย abandoned mid street due to the snow banks. ๐Ÿ…ฟ

When I finally got home last night,ย I had a two beers which is unusual for me,ย ๐Ÿปย but I didn’t have any milk at homeย ๐Ÿฎย and I didn’t feel like going to the store at the late hour. I had a decent dinner, but I was bewildered about sitting in traffic delays on the bus that late at night. I got to bed relatively early, slept a good eight hours, and are back at work.ย ๐Ÿ˜ดย I got milk this morning at the store, made egg waffles with cheese, ironed my shirt,ย ๐Ÿ‘•ย and off I am back to work. I do feel like my cold has gotten worst again this morning, I probably should have skipped the beer in favor of getting the milk or drinking plain water, but that’s what I did.

Cloudy this morning then rain laterย ๐ŸŒง, reaching 36 degrees at 4pm and continuing to get warmer as the nights proceeds. Some freezing rain may mix in before it comes all rain for rush hour. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 19th. Kind of a January thaw with the rain really expected to hit the snow hard. South wind 10 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. A year ago, we had rain in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 48 degrees. The record high of 64 was set in 1906. 10.6 inches of snow fell back in 1963.โ„

The sun will set at 4:57 pm with dusk around 5:28 pm, which is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At sunset, look for rain ๐ŸŒง and temperatures around 35 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 14 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 40 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 3 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will rain. Temperature rising to around 44 by 5am. South wind 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. I turned my heat down to 52 degrees, I’ll probably cut it to 50 before bed to save energy of its going to be well above freezing. Saving energy is important especially of we are looking at a very cold February coming up. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2018, we had cloudy in the evening, which became mostly sunny by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 18 degrees. The record low of -17 occurred back in 1948.

I have to stress,ย I am not anti-automobile but I do think they are so problematic in our cities,ย ๐Ÿš—ย especially when the block up all the streets during winter weather and snow removal, delaying other motorists and transit services at least until the snow banks can be cut back adequately. In the suburbs, at least people have large enough properties that they can park them off the street. Eventually when I own land, I probably will probably be dependent on motoring to a certain extent, but if I worked downtown, I would certainly park at the Park and Ride lot and take the bus downtown, to avoid congestion and all the problems that motoring comes in a city. That said, for cheaper land, and a less stressful life, I think I’d prefer to work in a town more like Wellsboro/Mansfield Penna in the Penna Wilds then a big city like Albany.๐Ÿ™ย I kind of like that country, but I don’t know what I would do for work in a place like that (and Penna is kind of expensive with he taxes). I think maybe eventually get out of the snow belt, as I hate dealing with slick roads, and the road salt everywhere on the roads. I’ve fascinated by Missouri or maybe Arkanas and the Ozarks but there are also many other states .

Depending on when I get out of work, and how I feel by afternoon,ย I am hoping to get out my soldering iron and get the LED lights in my bedroom working again with the replacement transistor,ย without the alligator clips. I don’t care if the software is totally done, but I want to have them come back on the morning automaticallyย ๐Ÿ’กย as it will make getting out of bed easier, although today for the first time I noticed dawn was early enough that it wasn’t pitch black when I first awoke. Once things are fully wired back up again, I’ll write the most simple part of the code, and work on porting over the rest of the code in the coming days. I think it’s going to be too wet to walk down to the library tonight or do my evening walk, but who knows, it’s going to be pretty mild.๐ŸŒง I do like my evening walk. I thought about going over to John Wolcott’s house again to help with his files, but he doesn’t want me to come over until I’m feeling totally good again.

Looking ahead, there are 7 weeks until 7 PM Sunset ๐ŸŒ† with dusk at 7:27 pm (Daylight Savings Time). On that day in 2018, we had snow and temperatures between 34 and 30 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 43 degrees. We hit a record high of 70 back in 2012. A mild spring would be nice, I wouldn’t mind a night or two of truck cap campingโ›บ in early March assuming I’m not attached to my desk at work that month month. Who knows how long the snow will last, a few warm days with rain could easily kill the snow in early March, as winters don’t last as long these days as they did in years past.

Snowmobile Trail

January 17, 2019 Morning

Good morning! Happy Thursday. Four weeks to Valentines Day โค๏ธ. I love it with all the sun, as it makes it pleasant, even if it is cold. Sunny and 12 degrees in Delmar. ๐ŸŒž There is a northwest breeze at 6 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. Won’t need the lights on my in office until late. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 11 am. ๐ŸŒก๏ธ

With the sun and not much breeze it really doesn’t seem that bad. I walked down to the express park and ride with my coat unbuttoned but I was burning calories. ๐ŸšŒ Sitting in the woods I would probably have a different impression of the cold. I didn’t get a real early start, so I was skeptical about catching the bus, but somehow I managed to do that today. Traffic was heavy heading into the city, as the right lane was closed with a crash or a break down being assisted by the state police, and the left lane was closed ahead due to road-construction.๐Ÿ‘ท Another big commercial vehicle inspection thing going down today at the Park and Ride today.๐Ÿ‘ฎ

Today will be mostly sunny ๐ŸŒž, with a high of 25 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees below normal. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. A year ago, we had light snow in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 28 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1889. 10.9 inches of snow fell back in 1994.โ„

The sun will set at 4:50 pm with dusk around 5:21 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies ๐ŸŒƒ and temperatures around 24 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Reasonable for mid-January. Today will have 9 hours and 29 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 46 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will snow, mainly after 11pm. ๐ŸŒจ Low of 18 degrees at 8pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 17th. South wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 2 degrees. The record low of -19 occurred back in 1957.

Last night was the Save the Pine Bush Dinner.ย The history of the the Rapp Road Historical Association is always a fascinating, andย Anne Pope, Rev Sam Johnson and Stephanie Woodard had a great talk about it. ๐Ÿ—ฃ Good lasagna too, nobody left hungry or without their tastebuds full.ย ๐Ÿ Definitely listen to the podcast.๐ŸŽงย And also check out WMHT’s Crossroads: The History of the Rapp Road Community, if you are more into the video side of things and want a shorter introduction.

Definitely a good dinner, although like I do too often, I drank too much coffee and while I fell to sleep fairly early, ๐Ÿ’ค the quality of sleep I get after having so much coffee definitely suffers.ย โ˜• I also have a bit of a low-grade cold I’ve had on and off and by morning I had a bit of a sore throat and some aches. By the time I had my shower and was going, I was feeling a lot better, good enough to walk briskly down to the express bus stop this morning. ๐Ÿณ I made up egg waffles again, melted some cheese on them, although I got some egg shell in one, and it made it a bit crunchy.

Tonight is the sold-out lecture at the Pine Bush Commission about climate change.๐ŸŒ It should be a very interesting lecture. Going to be a cold night, so I hope I don’t have problems with the sensor not letting my get the truck out of park, but I think I figured out how to address that if I have problems — tap the brake a few times. After the first start and driving a bit, it seems fine. I probably should get it fixed, but if it’s fine once it’s warm, at least for now. I know driving a jacked-up truck to a global warming lecture is well, umm… but the Pine Bush center is out in the sticks and not easily accessible via public transportation. Depending on how willing I am to brave the cold, I might go for a short moonlit hike after the lecture.๐ŸŒ”

The other day, I watching the Steven Family Farm homesteading channel on YouTube. What a nice homestead they’ve built out of one of the shed-to-house conversions in the Ozarks of Arkansas.๐Ÿ  They’re really popular down south I’ve heard. I’ve actually never been to the south outside of Virginia, but I do like the laid back way of doing things down there, at least if your white and don’t live in a big city.ย I found the cultural norms in backwater Virginia to be just werid, kind of racist and repulsive.

Homesteading and off-grid shed-to-home seems like such an affordable way to do things, especially if you don’t want a big house and want to live out in the sticks with as minimal of material things as possible.๐Ÿท๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ  Sure, not much value retained in the building, but it also means you might be able to pick up something used real cheap. On the Stevens Family Farm use solar for electricity, heat with wood, raise a lot of their own food and livestock such as pigs, chickens, duck, hunt, burn their own trash and compost their poop and organic matter (so nearly zero landfill), use bulk propane for their refrigerator and stove. Kind of like my old neighborhood.๐Ÿšœ And they have a great view from their homestead. I don’t know though, 8 people living in a 800-foot structure must be tight especially in the winter, but they probably save a lot of money and resources, and don’t have to work nearly as hard for their lives. Living in the city and making a lot of money is fun,๐Ÿค‘ but I’d rather live a life based on reality rather then escape.

I’ve been also watching the cannabis debate in the state carefully, and what it will mean for people that want to grow their own marijuana.๐ŸŒฑ Not sure I would want to do that even if it was legal, but it’s an interesting discussion, and I think if they do legalize it I would hope home growing would be allowed. It’s a good crop from everything I read, and while I hardly have a green thumb or a desire to get stoned, it might be nice one day when I finally own land, and we come towards a rational national public policy as it related to cannabis. I could definitely see more low tax, conservative states allowing marijuana for on-farm growing and consumption. Like cigarette smoke, it marijuana isn’t pleasant to be around when others are smoking, but I feel like I should be able to do what I want on my own land. ๐Ÿšญ

Still watching the weather for the weekend, as it might be very snowy. Saturday going out for breakfast with my parents and then hopefully the snow will hold off until I get back home that evening. I have to return some library books ๐Ÿ“š, then Sunday I will probably strap on skis, and head over to the rail trail for some winter skiing in the fresh snow they expect.โ›ท I want to get that SSD drive installed and files moved over, and the software re-installed on the new drive. I will have to figure out if I should order a replacement sound connector for my laptop, and also if I want to get an enclosure so I can put my second old hard drive in the DVD bay now.๐Ÿ’ฟ

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Valentines Day โค๏ธ when the sun will be setting at 5:26 pm with dusk at 5:55 pm. On that day in 2018, we had mostly cloudy and temperatures between 45 and 28 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1946.

 Shadow

December 2, 2018 Night

Good evening. Foggy and 43 degrees in Delmar. 🌁 There is a south breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Finally fairly mild out for change. I had a nice walk around the superblock that has the high school. I’m back home, wash is put away watching a video with the lights dimmed to a red color for easy sleeping. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Tuesday around 1 am. โ˜ƒ๏ธ

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers after 3am. Areas of dense fog. 🌁Otherwise, mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 41 degrees at 1am. 15 degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around October 12th. South wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2017, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 25 degrees. The record low of -1 occurred back in 1976.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon 🌘 with 18% illuminated. The moon will rise at 2:57 am. The New Moon is on Thursday night with mostly cloudy skies. The Cold Moon 🌝 is on Friday, December 21st. The sun will rise at 7:07 am with the first light at 6:36 am, which is one minute and 2 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 45 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 18 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers, mainly before 7am. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 47 degrees at 12pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical day around November 19th. West wind 9 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. The high last year was 46 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 2009. 5.2 inches of snow fell back in 1893.โ„

On Saturday I went for a hike out at Schodack Island State Park. I hiked down the main trail to the old ice house smoke stack, then over to the Shodack Creek overlook. There was a ton of hunters in the woods so I stayed on the main trails not to bother the hunters. I don’t know I don’t think it’s fun to hunt when you can see two other hunters in the woods. While I’m sure it was good hunting being an island and there was a lot of deer prints around but at this point I’m sure most of bucks are harvested. I had blaze orange hoodie on but I probably would have gone somewhere else where there wasn’t so many hunters in the woods next time. At one point I spotted three hunters within a short distance there. Apparently it’s shotgun not just bow there.

I decided to buy the USB 3.0 Hub. As expected it worked fine. I think it was a good deal. Not too overpackaged, although I would have preferred a cardboard to a plastic tray inside and the recyclable online order bag it came in was a bit unnecessary.🔌 It does seem like the Bluetooth dongle though doesn’t work very well – I ended up plugging that into the laptop directly to get the headphones working well for the short time I was watching a pre downloaded YouTube video from bed. 🎥 I’m really not that much of a YouTube fan.

Stocked up on lots of groceries at Walmart. I ended up spending like $66 but then again I now have a lot of food, probably enough for two to three weeks with some additional things when I run out next week – probably no more than $20. 🍖🍍One thing I like about Walmart is that they have lots of bulk packages and things tend to be less packaged and less costly on a per serving basis than many of the regular grocery stores. As I don’t have trash pickup where I live and I have to pay as I throw at the transfer station, I always try to minimize my waste.🚮 Plus it’s good for the environment too. 🌎

Leaving Walmart a lady flagged me down with a stalled car in the middle of the road. I stopped and looked at her car and she asked me for a jump start. I pulled over and looked at it getting out and I looked and her car was pouring coolant on the pavement.😮 I think she may have siezed her engine. I guess I should have given her a jump but I said with that much coolant loss, she really should get it towed. Maybe it would have made her happier to jump it but I didn’t want to blow a fuse and being in the middle of the parking lot I was worried about getting hit myself with shoppers trying to pass me in the lot.💥 Maybe I should have tried jump it but I doubt it would have helped her but maybe I would have felt less guilty about leaving her while she waited for the tow truck. But it was getting dark, I was tired after hiking.

Despite buying a ton of food, I ended up just reheating lasagna leftovers that I had taken home from the previous weeks Sunday dinner.🍛 It was already thawed out from earlier and I was tired and really had no place for it in the freezer.

While I’ve installed Android Studio on my laptop before, this weekend on Saturday night I wrote my first actually useful Android app. 💻 Works great, once I figured out that you had to put your phone in PTP mode for it to be recognized by Android Studio and that there is a special setting you have to use to allow Android Studio to work off line, as I lack internet at home besides my phone which doesn’t teather to my laptop. ๐Ÿ’ก Writing my own app means that I can create auto pearing with the Bluetooth and big simple easy to use buttons to control the light and brightness in ways I find most useful. Next with be to do the colored warm white / cold white lights I have on the other side of the room once I get that board rebuilt with the ESP 32 microprocessor that has Bluetooth built in. Just waiting for more of those boards from AliExpress. Maybe I’ll work on that over the Christmas holiday.

Spent some more time reading about Off-Grid Living. Maybe I’m not quite willing to do tiny house but it’s interesting to learn more about the lifestyle. 🏡 As a tinkerer and somebody who enjoys working with electronics and camping in the wilderness, it has a lot of appeal to me.โšก Reading and dreaming makes it easier to save more money where ever I can. It would be great to be as energy independent as possible and live as close to nature with out all the modern ways of doing things.

Continuing to work on updating weather data on the blog. With the year coming to a close now that it’s December, โ˜” I’ve been working on updating and further automating the weather records for the blog. I need to update all the record highs for the year, etc. Plus NOAA has changed the format they are doing the past yeas days conditions in so I have to update that in the records too.

Thinking about heading out of town next week. I am thinking taking 4-5 days to head out either to Chenango County or maybe the Finger Lakes. Both areas with the recent warm weather are mostly snow free and next weekend and the days around it looks to be sunny but fairly cool but it’s December.โ›บ Probably hot tent with the heater which is always fun. Nothing like a very cold and still morning sitting out with a hot cup of coffee โ˜• next to the heater. Maybe leave Friday and return Tuesday, a that looks like the best weather days in the Finger Lakes but things often change for the worse. Monday and Tuesday the woods would be free of deer hunters so I could have more solitude for small game hunting and even just going for a walk especially if it’s nice and sunny. 😎 Plus lots of solar power for camping. It’s been so dark and gray lately, I’d love some time in the woods with some blue skies.

Had Sunday Dinner at the folks. Stuffed peppers were good. Probably ate too much but it was a treat. 🍝I’ve cut all sweets except for blueberries and natural fruits out from home, and no more alcohol so it’s not terrible for a treat once and while. It was a nice walk in the fog after getting home so I burned a few calories.🏃 I’ve been trying to walk more these days. Fog wasn’t terrible driving home, the headlights work so much better now they are adjusted. For the heck of it I left the truck cap light on in my truck while eating desert and I panicked as I thought the low voltage shutoff had kicked in but no it just very foggy at my parents house.

Continuing to work on my neice’s Christmas gift. After painting the glass marbles with glow in the dark paint the hardware part is done but I want to write more color routines before I seal it up and finish it. Maybe next weekend if I’m home. Only like four weeks or maybe less until Christmas now. 🎄

Looking ahead, next weekend may be somewhat cool with 7 degrees below normal but otherwise sunny. ๐Ÿ˜€ Next Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 29. Next Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 34. Typical average high for the weekend is 38 degrees. Still might be a great weekend to get out of town.

In four weeks on December 30 the sun will be setting at 4:31 pm,🌄 which is 8 minutes and 44 seconds later then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had snow, cloudy skies and temperatures between 16 and -3 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 32 and 16 degrees. The record high of 53 degrees was set back in 1984.

Looking ahead, Earliest Sunset of the Year โŒ›๏ธ is in 1 weeks, Festivus 🍖 is in 3 weeks, Ground Hog Day 🐻 is in 2 months, Daylight Savings Time 🌆 is in 14 weeks, St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 is in 15 weeks, 7:30 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 18 weeks, Palm Sunday 🌴 is in 19 weeks, Easter 🐰 is in 20 weeks, Cinco de Mayo 🤠 is in 22 weeks, Mothers Day 👩โ€ is in 23 weeks and Fathers Day 👨 is in 28 weeks. A lot of big Sunday holidays next year.

I’m tired. The red lights in my apartment have done their job making me sleepy. Good night.

Daylight Savings Time - Who observes it?