October 13, 2020 Night

Good evening! Partly clear and 50 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌌 There is a northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The skies will clear around 9 pm.

It was a pretty cloudy when I started out on my evening walk 🚶🏻 but now it’s a pretty nice starry evening not bad for mid October. Its hard to believe in less than three weeks it will be November and Election Day will have come and gone. I’m going to have to get my truck inspected 🔎 then. I don’t know, it’s rapidly get cold outside so I might go inside and watch one of those YouTube videos that I downloaded earlier. 📺

I thought about going to John Wolcott’s house this evening after work 🏡 but truth be told I was pretty tired 😴 again and soon after I left the office 🏢 I got a bunch of emails 📧 to work on from home. Memos and more. But I’m fine for the night. 📖 We are also making good progress on his files 📂 and while I’m sure there is more of interest, the Fort Orange file is mostly done. The more recent files are far less interesting to me, mainly because while they are historical research, the fights to save history aren’t yet historic like the things from the Erastus Corning years. 🧓

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌙, with a low of 43 degrees at 5am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 7th. Northwest wind around 7 mph. In 2019, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 38 degrees. The record low of 21 occurred back in 1958.

Tonight will have a Waining Crescent 🌘 Moon with 10% illuminated. The darkest hour is at 12:42 am, followed by dawn at 6:39 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:07 am in the east (100°) and last for 2 minutes and 57 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:45 am with sun in the east-southeast (107°). Tonight will have 12 hours and 52 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 48 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 65 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 4th. Maximum dew point of 46 at 11am. Calm wind becoming west 5 to 9 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 71 degrees. The record high of 81 was set in 1920.

I got the new boots 👢 I ordered in the mail today. ✉ That’s good. I wore the black leather boots I got today to work but I’d rather wear the regular boots around home or casually. I also ordered lantern 🏮 mantles but they’re back ordered. I want to clean the lantern well and replace the mantles before I go camping next. ⛺

In four weeks on November 10 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (247°) at 4:37 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 38 minutes and 35 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly cloudy and temperatures between 47 and 33 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 50 and 33 degrees. The record high of 72 degrees was set back in 1931.

Looking ahead, Election Day 2019 🗳️ is in 3 weeks, Average High is 50 🍂 is in 4 weeks, Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 is a month away, December 🎄 is in 7 weeks, Bill of Rights Day 📜 is in 9 weeks, Days are Getting Longer ☀️ is in 10 weeks, Cold Moon 🌕 is in 11 weeks, National Bird Day 🐧 is in 12 weeks, Make Your Dream Come True Day 🏡 is in 3 months, 5:30 PM Dusk 🌆 is in 15 weeks and Ground Hog Day 🐻 is in 16 weeks.

Morning at Jones Pond

Monthly fees

I have always had an aversion to monthly fees.

Anything you do repeatly adds up. As I noted the other day, subscribing to the trash pickup when I own my off-grid home might only cost $30 a month but it adds up to over $400 when you include taxes and fees. Good excuse to have fires, burn shit and haul your tin cans to the recycling center when you live in a sticks in a freer state. Indeed, even living in the suburbs now, I haul my own to the town transfer station and recycling center.

I’ve never had internet or television at home. If you think trash pickup is expensive look at the brochures they send to you all the time. On the way to trash, you’ll see they always have an offer for $60 or $80 a month if you willing to piss away $1,000 bucks a way a year, be my guest. I know I’ll never have internet at my off-grid place besides what I have on my phone. I can always plan my internet access around when I’m in town and can stop at a public hot spot for large downloads like YouTube videos.

I do have my basic smartphone subscription but I always buy time one year in advance, plunk down a big wad of cash to save money and get the best deal. It does lock me into the service but I’m happy with it and don’t have to worry about setting aside money each month. Beats paying monthly fees.

I do pay utilities and rent at my current place but when I have my off-grid home I’ll only have a yearly tax payment and propane and gasoline will be purchased on an as needed basis, along with various off-grid products like panels or batteries. I hope to buy land with cash and avoid mortgages all together. I’d save a ton of money that way, just like it did with my truck.

That said, there is one form of monthly expense that I approve of – automatic investing.

I’ve always taken a big chunk of every pay check for either my high interest, FDIC insured online only savings account or low fees index, bond and sector funds. While cable television might make you poorer, investing gets you closer to your long term goals.

With modern technology it’s so easy and, just involves doing a little research, filling out some forms and just acting like the money never was there. This is a really good thing to do after raises and promotions – pretend that most of the money doesn’t even exist.

Lessons For A Post-Pandemic World

Lessons For A Post-Pandemic World

10/13/20 by NPR

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/113777409
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-381444908/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/npr/fa/2020/10/20201013_fa_fapodtues_adjusted-5501f053-1cbe-4fc7-bd80-04adb0460380.mp3?awCollectionId=381444908&awEpisodeId=923269858&orgId=1&d=2941&p=381444908&story=923269858&t=podcast&e=923269858&size=46958576&ft=pod&f=381444908

CNN host and ‘Washington Post’ columnist Fareed Zakaria says COVID-19 presents a chance to make positive changes: “We could well look back on these times 10 or 20 years from now and say, ‘This was the turning point.'” His new book, ‘Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World’ examines the way COVID-19 will change everything from our trust in government to our relationship with technology.

This is a very interesting podcast. You should listen to it.