May 23, 2019 Night

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Good evening! There is a pretty good thunderstorm rolling through and 65 degrees in Delmar. ⚡ Not a lot of lightening here but lots of flashes to the north, some good gusts of breeze and rain. Raining hard enough to sound like a cow pissing. Breezy, ️16 mph breeze from the west-southwest 🌬 with gusts up to 28 mph 💨💨💨. The dew point is 58 degrees.

My truck is pretty much ready to go just the normal things to pack come morning. 🎒I went grocery shopping after work and then went to the Pine Bush meeting. Camp after work tomorrow in the Greens. ⛺ It would be nice if the bosses let us leave at 3 pm tomorrow but that’s probably unlikely although today was the slowest day at work in probably two months for me. Sexual harassment training was awful but I survived it. I treat women and my colleagues with respect, although I guess it’s good to have a refresher.

Tonight will have showers and thunderstorms likely before midnight, then a chance of showers between midnight and 1am. Partly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 57 degrees at 5am. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around June 15th. Maximum dew point of 58 at 10pm. West wind around 17 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 52 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1963.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon 🌖 with 64% illuminated with the moon rising at 12:43 am. The moon will rise at 1:00 am. The Last Quarter Moon is on Saturday night with scattered t-storms around. The Strawberry Moon 🌝 is on Sunday, June 16th. The sun will rise at 5:25 am with the first light at 4:52 am, which is 47 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours and 5 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 40 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have isolated showers after 1pm. Partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 70 degrees at 3pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 19th. Should be a nice day but watch for unstable weather in the evening. Maximum dew point of 52 at 2pm. Northwest wind around 18 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 80 degrees. The record high of 92 was set in 1964.

It’s off to the Green Mountains 🗻 tomorrow. Maybe Branch Pond Road, maybe closer to Grout Pond or Forest Road 73. I’m thinking about hiking to Downer Glen or maybe Lye Brook Falls or maybe I’ll just hang out at camp. ⛺ I do want to camp somewhere I have a bit of space so I don’t have to worry about making too much noise. 🔊

Memorial Day Weekend doesn’t look too bad. ☀ Just got to watch for thunderstorms and downpours on Saturday evening. Pretty good warm up come Sunday. Saturday, a chance of showers after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 73. Light south wind increasing to 8 to 13 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Maximum dew point of 55 at 9pm. Sunday, a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 82. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 61 at 10am. Typical average high for the weekend is 72 degrees.

In four weeks on June 20 the sun will be setting at 8:36 pm,🌄 which is 17 minutes and 35 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 76 and 56 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 79 and 58 degrees. The record high of 97 degrees was set back in 1953.

Looking ahead, Summer ️⛱️ is in 4 weeks, Independence Day 🇺🇸 is in 6 weeks, August 🌻 is in 10 weeks and Last Sunset After 7 PM 🌆 is in 19 weeks.

Cooking Dinner

NY Dems make it easier to vote in 2020 presidential primary

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NY Dems make it easier to vote in 2020 presidential primary

The New York State Democratic Party voted unanimously Wednesday to make it easier for registered independent voters to re-enroll as Democrats to vote in next year’s presidential primary — three years after Bernie Sanders slammed the state’s onerous election rules. Under the new rules, a voter not affiliated with a party can re-enroll as a Democrat up to 25 days before the April 28, 2020, election instead of months before. A member of another political party could re-register up to 60 days before the primary election instead of 200 days before.

I think that's really good news for the party, as I think Democrats should be a big tent party, welcoming new voters to their party, allowing them to participate in primary elections.

News Media Doesn’t Cover Sucide, So Why Crime.

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Last week, I suggested we tax advertising on local news, to pay for the law enforcement and crime costs that the local news media imposes on society, via their glorification of crime and criminal justice system. Stamp taxes aren’t a popular thing, ever since the British imposed it on the American colonies, but I think it may be a necessary thing to reduce crime and rein in the abuse of the first amendment by commercial media.

It’s well documented that the news media should not cover suicide, unless it’s a particularly suicide of a public figure or happens in a public place that impacts a large number of people — like somebody blowing off their head in a community gathering. But even there the news media treads carefully. But I have to wonder if those guidelines mostly exist, because advertisers don’t get the same value out of suicide coverage that they get out of crime. Suicide isn’t particularly scary to people, as only the suicidal individual dies. Without fear, there isn’t the profits.

Back of Buildings

Vermont WINS!

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After consulting the forecasts, I decided this weekend to go up to the Green Mountains of Vermont.

  1. Forecast looks slightly better in Vermont
  2. I can avoid congested expressways and local roads by taking the back-roads up to Vermont
  3. More dirt roads to explore in Vermont, as they aren’t seasonally closed like much of the Adirondacks
  4. I don’t have to necessarily camp at one of the sites on Branch Pond Road with nearby neighbors, so I can listen to music loud if I want
  5. I think I want to hike back to Lye Brook Falls or maybe Stratton Mountain (I checked it’s been 6 years since I last went up Stratton Mountain, and I remember great views).
  6. In a few weeks I’m planning to camp up on Jessup River Road, so I don’t want to drive NY 30 yet another time right away.

Sunday

Branch Pond Road

A Third Battery for Big Red?

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I’ve been thinking a bit about adding a second accessory battery, in the bed of my truck to double the battery reserve while camping. This would provide additional power for camping, especially camping multiple days during the winter when there is little solar radiation, or even camping at campsites with a lot of shade. I want to be able to camp multiple days with ample power.

Solar panel installed to top off battery when camping multiple days

I would probably get another matching Group 24 battery, stick it in the bed of my truck in a marine battery box, and just tap it into the system via the bus bar I have mounted in the shelf on my truck cap.

Second (Inverter) Battery, Battery Isolator (Relay), Second Fuse Tap

I could probably do it for around $120, as I have the wire and fuse, but would need the battery, a marine battery box, and a fuse holder.

A few things that give me pause …

  1. A Group 24 battery weights 45 lb.  While that’s not a lot of weight for a 7,000 lb pickup truck, it does add some weight, and could make things a bit further out of balance and require moving around the weight in the bed.
  2. The third battery would be mounted in the bed and take up space. While I have a fair of space, and things could put on top the battery box, it still more space taken up by the battery, plus additional wires, fuses, etc.
  3. Different age batteries could fight. I don’t really want to replace the other accessory battery, so fighting batteries could reduce the charge that they both would take. But I tend to think the advantage of the additional battery would be greater then losses from fighting.
  4. Batteries produces hydrogen when the they charge. I don’t want to be smelling hydrogen sulfide when I sleep, or have it be burning me. While I think the bed is fairly well ventilated, I don’t want hydrogen to build up in the cap and go bang like the Hindenburg blimp.
  5. The second accessory battery would be beyond the low voltage shut-off, as it would be connected directly to bus bar that powers the accessories in the truck cap. That means I wouldn’t have under-voltage protection for that battery, but with the two batteries for reserve, my very modest load, and the solar, I doubt I would have too many under-voltage conditions.
  6. It’s additional load on alternator and solar panel, which means it will take longer to charge two batteries even if it takes longer to discharge, and discharge cycles will be less deep.
  7. Plus it’s $120 bucks that wouldn’t be in my wallet anymore. While I would get a lot of use out of it, and I could use the battery box for other projects, batteries don’t last forever.

Big Red

I want to give this a bit more thought, but if I do set this up, I’d like to have it all working and fully tested before my Independence Weekend trip up to Moose River Plains.