Snow Covered Trees
Snowing on the rail trail.
Last week out hiking along the rail trail as the snow really started to come down.
Is This the End of Recycling?
As the trash piles up, American cities are scrambling to figure out what to do with everything they had previously sent to China. But few businesses want it domestically, for one very big reason: Despite all those advertising campaigns, Americans are terrible at recycling. About 25 percent of what ends up in the blue bins is contaminated, according to the National Waste & Recycling Association. For decades, we’ve been throwing just about whatever we wanted—wire hangers and pizza boxes and ketchup bottles and yogurt containers—into the bin and sending it to China, where low-paid workers sorted through it and cleaned it up. That’s no longer an option. And in the United States, at least, it rarely makes sense to employ people to sort through our recycling so that it can be made into new material, because virgin plastics and paper are still cheaper in comparison.
I think that it's good that glimmer of recycling is wearing off, and people are becoming more conscience of material and waste. I always try to avoid purchases as much as possible, especially with excess packaging. I know when I own my own land, I'll probably use a lot of junk mail for livestock bedding, reuse containers feed scoups and other uses, use feed bags for trash bags, and ultimately burn a lot of paper and plastic -- taking the metals and few glass things I have to the recycling center every year or two.
Bridge across one of the branches of the Hunger Kill
December 10, 2019 Morning
Good morning! Happy 7:15 AM Sunrise βοΈ! It was such a dark morning I had trouble getting out of bed so I took the local to work, which I had to run for because it was running early π and I was running late as one of my contacts π was irritating me. π Darn auto refill isn’t working on my card π³ so I ended up paying $2 in cash for the bus ride downtown. I’ll take care of that when I get to the office, maybe putting a bunch on the card so I won’t have to refill right away. Two weeks to Christmas Eve π .
Dark and rainy with fog, around 41 degrees in Delmar, NY. π Kind of what you call a generic December not nice day. There is a south breeze at 10 mph. π. Rain made me feel a bit stiff when I first got up. There are 8 inches of snow on the ground. β οΈTemperatures will drop below freezing at around 10 pm. Warm weather and the dampness.
First time I’ve taken the local downtown in a while. π I noticed that they’re doing more remidation of the old dry cleaner again. PERC is pretty nasty stuff. π΅I am glad they are banning 1,4-dioxane in common cleaning products — it’s another nasty chemical. While it’s true most of the 1,4-dioxane in the drinking water is decades old from manufacturing chlorinated solvents, even trace amounts are a problem with it’s affinity for water. π That said, I think my current dry cleaner uses PERC, although these days PERC is much more heavily regulated and spills are less common then in years ago. Delaware Avenue is good and clear now that the snow emergency came and went and the rain has melted back the snow banks. π§I prefer the express just because that gets me to work a bit earlier plus it’s a nicer ride in on the expressway.π
Today will have a chance of rain. Cloudy π§, with a high of 47 degrees at 1pm. Nine degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 19th. South wind 8 to 10 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 64 was set in 1966. 6.1 inches of snow fell back in 2014.β
The sun will set at 4:22 pm with dusk around 4:53 pm, which is 2 seconds later than yesterday. π At sunset, look for rain π§ and temperatures around 40 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 6 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 48 seconds over yesterday.
Over to John Wolcott house π after work. I don’t plan to go over again this month between the holidays, my planned end of the year road trip and other things to do including Save the Pine Bush π²events. Plus I want to save some time to work on electronics projects. π¬ He really doesn’t have that many more boxes to go through, or so I tell myself. π
Tonight will have a slight chance of rain and snow before 7pm, then a slight chance of snow. Cloudy π§, with a low of 26 degrees at 5am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 4th. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2018, we had clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 13 degrees. The record low of -8 occurred back in 1988.
Today in 1978, Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work ending the Arab-Isreali conflictβ. Also, in 1817 Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state, and the only one that still has the rebel flag on it’s state flag. π΄σ ΅σ ³σ σ ³σ Ώ I’ve never given Mississippi much of a thought π but I bet it’s hot there in the summer. I bet it’s weird and southern like Virginia and not as Appalachian as Wild and Wonderful West Virignia.
Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. π Saturday, rain likely. Cloudy, with a high near 44. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Sunday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 42. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Typical average high for the weekend is 36 degrees.
This weekend my parents are having a holiday tree decorating party, π and on Sunday is the Save the Pine Bush benefit event for fighting the apartment complex that want to building in the Pine Bush. ποΈποΈπ³π² I also want to work on some electronics projects over the weekend.
I need to refill my phone. π² The past few years I’ve been doing the StraightTalk 1-year plan, that costs like $540 a year (including the $50 in taxes) to do. I am happy with the service, and are fine with laying out the money, as then I don’t have to worry about monthly payments or refills. Then my phone will have service until Christmas Evening 2020, which is the next time it will expire. I could get a cheaper plan, but I find that the 25 gigabyte of data is necessary as I don’t have internet at home — I don’t use the full 25 gigabytes but when your throttled to 2G it is so slow.π’
Looking ahead, there are 3 weeks until New Years Eve π when the sun will be setting at 4:31 pm with dusk at 5:03 pm. On that day in 2018, we had rain and temperatures between 41 and 29 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 1895.
