Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Partly sunny and 72 degrees in Albany, NY. There is a north-northwest breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 59 degrees. A very pleasant morning today, and it should be a most excellent day, especially with the clouds clearing. I probably should have put the flag out 🇺🇸 before leaving for work but by the time I got the kayak off my truck, it was already starting to get fairly late. ⏰

I think I got a pretty good nights sleep last night despite the late night at work, 💤 although after turning off  the fan during the middle of the night, it got hot again, then I turned it back on. Things were a bit warm still in my bedroom come morning, but once I opened the blinds on the window 🔲 and the fresh, cool dry air flowed in, it was much nicer. 🌬 The rest of the week is expected to be quite nice for sleeping. ☕ I had a fresh pot off coffee, as I bought more coffee at the store over the weekend. I wish I had today off and was camping 🏕 and fishing. 🎣

That said it was a fairly smooth commute into the work, although there was a lot of bears along the road, 🐻especially obnoxious was one protecting and serving a motorist at the US 9W/NY 32 merge, 🚔 that had traffic all tied up as motorists were getting past it. You would think police would prioritize keeping traffic moving smoothly, so people can make money and pay taxes, over traffic enforcement. If people can’t get to work and make money to pay taxes, police officers will be out of a job as their won’t be any tax revenue to pay their salaries. 👮

I found a parking spot fairly easily, 🅿 although I will have to move my truck by midnight (which I planned to do at any rate), and it’s out in the bright sun. That might be problematic if I had the propane tank (which I always cover and pack with some ice to keep nice and cold) or coolers in the truck, before camping, but today it will be good as it will top off the accessory battery with a good charge. 🔋I’m sure at this point the solar controller is just in float mode. 😎 Especially because the alternator charged it for 20 minutes driving in, and it wasn’t exactly empty when I parked it yesterday. A good float charge for 10 hours or so, will put the battery in it’s real happy spot.

I really hate having to drive downtown, with all the traffic and my big jacked up truck, having to always hunt for blind spots.👀 Driving is a bunch of wasted time, you can’t play on your phone, getting the news or working on blog posts, like you can on the bus. 🚃 Even if I lived out in the country, I would probably use a park and ride for the last few miles downtown into the city center, to avoid having to fight city traffic every day. 🐮 At least locally, for the most part, I’ve been very happy with the local transit authority — CDTA — their smart card works pretty good and their current bus service is quite reliable and has gotten better in recent years. 🚍

Today will be sunny 🌞 , with a high of 80 degrees at 2pm. One degree above normal. Maximum dew point of 59 at 9am. North wind around 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies with more clouds in the afternoon. It was sticky. The high last year was 83 degrees. The record high of 94 was set in 1995.

The sun will set at 8:36 pm with dusk around 9:11 pm, which is 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 Pretty close to the latest sunset of the year, which will be Friday. At sunset, look for clear skies and 72 degrees. The dew point will be 49 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 19 minutes of daytime, an increase of 6 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌞 , with a low of 51 degrees at 5am. Seven degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 51 at 6pm. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2017, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the early hours of the next day. It was sticky. It got down to 64 degrees. The record low of 43 occurred back in 1918.

While I doubt I will get out early enough to enjoy the evening, it will be a good one for sleeping, and maybe I will have enough time to sit out back and have a glass of orange juice, 🍊 although I’m fine with legislative session going into the morning, if things can get wound down tomorrow, so I move on to bigger and better things come the summer. 🗳 That is spending time on the beach, 🏖 hiking,🚶 and of course camping 🏕. Summer vacation in late July should be fun as will all the other trips. I look forward to traveling more, 🏞 as it seems like I am stuck in city too much lately. That said, driving through Knox and Gallupville was nice last weekend. Pretty nice farm country. 🚜

I got the ESP32 microprocessor I ordered from China a few weeks back in the mail. 🤓 The thing is many times more powerful then 16-bit 8 MHz Arduino Nano processor and has many times more flash and regular memory then. It was $5. It does use 3.3 volt logic levels rather then 5 volt logic levels, so to use it with standard Arduino Nano components I’ll have to build voltage dividers using resistors or run output control lines through transistors fed 5 volts.⚡ I don’t like building things with different voltage levels — as it can be a bit dangerous for sensitive components if there is stray voltage running through them, but the 3.3 volt logic level is the future — the 5 volt logic Arduino Uno and Nano are quite obsolete technologies at this point.⌨

I am looking forward to getting back up to the Adirondacks and the Potholers once there is a nice weekend. 🏊 I keep seeing pictures from nice weekends in the past. This weekend forecast though is slipping downhill, especially Sunday. Plus maybe out to Schoharie County, although that’s not as fun as nice weekend in the wilderness. ⛺ I think the weekend of July 15th it would be fun to see the NYPA car show, then go swimming at Mine Kill.

Looking ahead, there are 20 weeks until Election Day 2018 🗳 when the sun will be setting at 4:41 pm with dusk at 5:11 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2017, we had rain, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 63 and 42 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 73 back in 2015.