Good morning! What day is it? Two weeks to August 🌻. NY then my summer vacation will be nearly halfway over. Hopefully I will have nice weather for that. This morning is just delightful. Partly cloudy and 69 degrees in Delmar. ⛅ There is a north breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 58 degrees. No complaints about that.

Feeling a bit better this morning but I’m still a bit tired and my eyes are a bit irritated. 👀 But I’ll see how I feel once I get to the office and I can always turn around and head home.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞 , with a high of 82 degrees at 4pm. One degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 58 at 8am. Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. It might even feel a tad bit cool at least next to the pool with the breeze. That said I’m working making money for better tomorrow.💼 A year ago, we had cloudy skies, clearing in the afternoon. It was sticky. The high last year was 86 degrees. The record high of 100 was set in 1953.

The sun will set at 8:28 pm with dusk around 9:02 pm, which is 45 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for clear skies and 73 degrees. The dew point will be 51 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 8 mph. It should be a nice evening. Bring a long sleeve shirt? Today will have 14 hours and 54 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 38 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌞 , with a low of 52 degrees at 5am. 10 degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 51 at 6pm. Northwest wind 3 to 8 mph. In 2017, we had partly cloudy skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It was sticky. It got down to 69 degrees. The record low of 47 occurred back in 1875.

Today is the 200th Day of Year. Only 165 days remain. Time sure goes by quickly.

Still thinking about heading north for the weekend. So much to do in so little time. 😎 But it should be a nice weekend. Summer is rapidly heading to its logical conclusion, especially with August coming so quickly. Scheduling summer vacation for the last week of July always makes summer a blur.

I am going to see about reserving a replacement mini inverter at Walmart for the truck cap today. I should also replace the leaky propane line before summer vacation but lately I’ve not used the lantern much at camp because electricity is just easier. ⚡I should fix the short and the bare wire on the melted cable for my flag lamp before I either shock myself or damage another inverter.

It should be nice to hang up the hammock and use it for Hammock Day on Saturday. It should be nice laying back on the hammock especially during summer vacation. 😴 I have a few things to do before vacation like checking the oil and windshield washer fluid and cleaning out the truck but nothing major. After vacation I will take it up to DeNoyer Chevy and with the coupon I have get it changed for less than I normally do it myself at the auto parts store.

On this day in 1969, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives his car off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies. Don’t drink and drive, especially if you are a senator. Police officers also should not drive drunk as that sets a bad example, especially when they are not arrested. And in 1984, there were McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police. After that, California implemented strict new gun control in that state, and there have been no more mass shootings. You can quote me on that. I still think the solution to crime in our country is incineration and less review of crime where the facts are obvious and there are multiple witnesses.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until August 🌻 when the sun will be setting at 8:15 pm with dusk at 8:46 pm. On that day in 2017, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 87 and 62 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 82 degrees. We hit a record high of 101 back in 1933.

Good evening! Partly cloudy and 69 degrees in Delmar. ⛅ There is a west breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 67 degrees. The muggy weather ends tomorrow around 1 am. 😓 Somewhat less oppressive now but not great. Tomorrow should be much nicer. Skipped my evening walk as it got late early and I have a bit of a stomach bug.

Tonight will be partly cloudy ☁, with a low of 62 degrees at 4am. Two degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 9pm. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2017, we had thunderstorm rain and mist in the evening, which became patches of fog and mist by the early hours of the morning. It was humid. It got down to 64 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1939.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 33% illuminated with the moon setting at 11:43 pm. The First Quarter Moon will be tomorrow with mostly clear skies. The Buck Moon 🌝 is on Thursday, July 26th. The sun will rise at 5:33 am with the first light at 5:00 am, which is 53 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours and 4 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 36 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞 , with a high of 82 degrees at 3pm. One degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 58 at 6am. Northwest wind 7 to 11 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 86 degrees. The record high of 100 was set in 1953.

I went over to John Wolcott’s house tonight to record more video of him telling the story about Save the Pine Bush. 🌲 Interesting story but I was feeling tired and now I think I have a bit of a stomach bug, so we quit early. That or all the cherries and broccoli I’ve been eating have kind of wrecked my stomach. I don’t know, hopefully by morning I’ll feel better.😵 Bought a few supplies at Walmart but unfortunately they were out of the foot powder I use to keep my feet dry and non smelly. I should try maybe just using baby powder as I only use the basic talc solution as the scented stuff irritates my feet. 👞

On this day in 1944, Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320. Also on this day, another deadly tragedy 💣. In 1981, A structural failure leads to the collapse of a walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri killing 114 people and injuring more than 200. I kind of like Missouri. They have a great outdoors culture of hunting and fishing there, good gun laws, less zoning and code issues, few restrictions on open burning outside of drought season. Plus not all the road salt.

Day by day inching my way to the weekend. I’ll be glad when the heat and humidity is done later this evening. 💦 We definitely need the rain for sure. So far only a little bit of rain in Delmar although I did see some flashes of lighting walking down to the bus stop. I haven’t seen a good thunderstorm from my new office yet, maybe today I will get a chance to see one.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 85. Maximum dew point of 59 at 6am. Sunday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 80. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Maximum dew point of 65 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 83 degrees.

Saturday is the day I primarily care about for the weekend and it should be nice. I’m thinking of heading back to Piseco Powley Road and paddling from Stewart Landing along Lily Lake to West Canada Lake. 🌼 It should be nice on Saturday for that especially if the lilies are out. I really like the area around Piseco-Powley Road, not too crowded but a lot to do nearby. I might try to get there one more weekend before the season ends this year. I’m hoping the campsites I like will start having outhouses. That will certainly make things easier, especially if I bring friends up north.

The small mini inverter I use in my truck cap went pop and stopped working tonight. That is what I use primarily these days to power the camp lights. It’s quite efficient, convenient and silent, and honestly I prefer it over the bigger 800 watt inverter that rarely gets used in my truck cap these days. 🔌Cheap little thing, under 25 bucks, but perfect for powering low power non electronic devices like the Christmas lights I use. I don’t know if it was the short I had in the line or the heat and humidity that caused one of the capacitors to fail. I might just replace it at Walmart, they have several other cheap ones available for $15.

New low beams in my truck work well, 💡maybe a bit too well as somebody flashed me to dim them. But that’s fine, I don’t drive much after dark these days due to my poor vision 👓 but regardless it needed to be fixed in case of rain or quick trips in town after dark especially as the days get shorter. The low beams are already aimed fairly low. I could see about adding some kind of resistor or buck converter to dim the lights lower but from where I sit in the big jacked up truck, they are already too dim.

Bought a lightweight camping hammock for use while camping. I used a combination of my credit card rewards card and a 20% discount sale to get the $70 hammock for $5. I know I wouldn’t have paid full price but I wanted LL Bean quality so hopefully it won’t rip for a while. It’s rated 400 lbs and comes with the straps. No fly or bug net but I might get that later on – for now I plan to use it for lazy afternoons at camp, ⛺and if I like it I might use it as an easy way to camp in the back country, especially in places where I can’t use the truck camper. Saturday it should be noted is Hammock Day on the calendar. Hopefully it will hold up well and provide a new source for adventures. Certainly us small and light weight enough.

In four weeks on August 14 the sun will be setting at 7:57 pm,🌄 which is 31 minutes and 45 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 79 and 57 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 81 and 60 degrees. The record high of 97 degrees was set back in 1988.

There are 2 months until Consitution Day 📜 when the sun will be setting at 7:00 pm with dusk at 7:29 pm. You forget how quickly the sun starts setting earlier once August and September rolls around. The average high for Constitution Day is only 72 in Albany. Definitely almost autumn.

Looking ahead, More Night then Day 🌌 is in 10 weeks, Election Day 2018 🗳️ is in 16 weeks, Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 is in 17 weeks, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 is in 4 months, Christmas 🎅 is in 23 weeks, New Years Day 2019 🎉 is in 24 weeks, 36th Birthday 🎉 is in 28 weeks and Election Day 2020 🗳️ is in 120 weeks.