May 9, 2020 Night

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Good evening! Cloudy and cold 37 degrees in Delmar, NY. ❄ Breezy, ️21 mph breeze from the west 🌬 with gusts up to 31 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is 26. That wind is really cutting when you go outside.

Mostly stayed home except for my evening walk. 🏡 Did some cleaning, some reading 📖, too much time on Facebook and researching binoculars. Birding 🐦 has become a hobby of mine not just on Facebook.

I’ve spent too much money on guns over the years, I really need to get some quality glass so I can see the woods better. Good glass ain’t cheap. At least you don’t have to wait for a background check to buy binoculars, yet. 🔫 Of course this comes at the time I also want to buy the screen house for camping. 🎪 Maybe I can do both, I’d have to give it some thought with the stimulus check coming although I really should invest most of that so I have it for the future. 💵 Plus if I adopt my alternative Adirondack vacation this summer I’ll save a lot of money and hopefully I’ll have a chance to make some good overtime at work come the fall.

Tonight will have isolated snow showers before 10pm. Reminds me of that Funny Bin Outing Isolation group on Facebook where people dress 👗 up during the quartine to take out their trash to the street or burn barrel as it’s the only time they’re getting out. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 33 degrees at 4am. 12 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 5th. Cold night. Breezy, with a west wind 13 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. No heat but the windows are closed and it’s chilly enough in my bedroom I’m wearing long sleeve. That wind really makes it chilly but at least their was good sun today. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2019, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 52 degrees. The record low of 28 occurred back in 1958.

Tonight will have a Waining Gibbous 🌖 Moon with 90% illuminated. The moon will rise at 10:54 pm. The darkest hour is at 12:53 am, followed by dawn at 5:08 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:40 am in the east-northeast (65°) and last for 3 minutes and 12 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 10 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:20 am with sun in the east-northeast (72°). Tonight will have 9 hours and 32 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 15 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 57 degrees at 4pm. 11 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 13th. Breezy, with a west wind 14 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 69 degrees. The record high of 92 was set in 1970. 5 inches of snow fell back in 1945.❄

I’m thinking about hiking at Thatcher Park tomorrow 🚶 but I’m a bit worried about the crowds. I don’t know but I haven’t been out there in a while and it might be pretty with the valley greening up below. Spent too much time at Partridge Run lately so I need a change. I guess if it’s cloudy tomorrow I could just stay home again. 🏡

It looks like based on what the region’s plan for reopening 🏢that probably in two weeks after Memorial Day Weekend I’ll be back to working downtown. 🚍 Back to getting up early and taking the bus to work. I kind of got used to sleeping in. That said I much prefer to work in a proper office. But it might impact my plans to take a long weekend the week after Memorial Day Weekend. Who knows things could change, but I tend to think slowly but surely things will be much closer to normal after June 1st. 😊 Maybe by Independence Day I can get a hair cut 💈 but who knows – and I fear I might have to find a new barber if my old one decides the pandemic means tossing in the towel for good. He has a GE Pension and he strikes me as frugal mostly being a barber for the social side of things. To keep the side burns or not? Might have to go if summer is hot.

In four weeks on June 6 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (303°) at 8:30 pm,🌄 which is 25 minutes and 36 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had mist and temperatures between 76 and 61 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 75 and 54 degrees. The record high of 94 degrees was set back in 1925.

Looking ahead, Average High is 70 🐮 is in 1 week, Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ is in 2 weeks, Last Day of Session 🏛 is in 6 weeks and Summer ️⛱️ is in 6 weeks.

🇺🇸🦅Only 13 days remain until the start of Memorial Day Weekend!🦅🇺🇸

Very Shallow and Marshy Here

The War on Coal

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In August 2009, the US produced 190 terrawatt hours of coal electricity. By GWB’s last day in office it was January 2009, 171 terrawatt hours, January 2013 at Obama second term 138 terrawatt hours, at the dawn Trump’s first term in January 2017 it was 115 terrawatt hours. In January 2020 only 65 terrawatt hours were produced, February 2020 only 56 terrawatt hours of coal electricity were produced.

I think President Trump is loosing the War on Coal.

It’s not a plandemic, but don’t think policy makers on all levels don’t suffer from motivated reasoning.

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It’s not a plandemic, but don’t think policy makers on all levels don’t suffer from motivated reasoning. 👾

People often do things both consciously and subconsciously because they think something will benefit themselves or their in group. They will take a look at numbers and data a certain way, through a certain value prism because they perceive a personal or in group benefit.

All the evidence points to Coronavirus being rather bad, killing tens of not hundreds of thousands Americans in a national crisis that is spinning out of control. Not that it was intentionally meant to be this way – killing tens or possibly soon hundreds thousands of Americans – but became that way due to the particularity of the human species, the interaction of the problematic RNA with the culture, norms and mores of our American society.

I am sure most scientists and policymakers are pushing for the best outcome but their choices and biases are not always explicit in what they say. In many cases, these people aren’t even aware of their bias, they’re just pushing for what they believe is right.

Are public health experts and politicians pushing for overly protective measures, not needed in all communities? Yes, probably. Certainly, emphasizing the crisis brings in more money and prestige to public health agencies. Nobody is cutting public health agencies these days. Plus workers at public health agencies genuinely care about people’s health even if their bias is to be overly cautious about disease.

Do politicians love getting all the lime light and showing their raw power? Of course. Daily press briefings make people feel important, stroke egos. Many believe they’re doing a public service but good poll numbers feel good.

Do politicians love picking winners and losers during the shutdown, all while being showered with campaign contributions and wining and dinning with lobbyists? You betcha. It’s expensive to get your campaign message out.

Every industry with money and clout has to be pushing for an exemption so they can open up sooner and resume making profit. Coronavirus gives politicians unique power of business that they’ve not ever had before. That means contributions towards future campaign communication efforts.

Ideologues and partisans are not exempted…

Liberals like Coronavirus as it gives them a chance to highlight the good things that a strong central government can do. It highlights the unemployment system, the welfare benefits, the role of government in supporting and partnering with hospitals. If there ever was a case for universal health care, now is the time. Maybe we can get more renewable energy in a future stimulus package? Or bring back revenue sharing for the wealthy blue states?

Conservatives like Coronavirus too. It’s a case to rail against the government for limiting our civil liberties. It’s a chance to point out the failures of the social safety net and raise awareness of the problems of picking winners and loosers in who can be open. Plus think about the pro-business message of opening up the economy again. Blame the left for mass unemployment say conservatives.

It’s not a conspiracy. But I don’t think there are many honest non-biased brokers. People don’t have to see the personally beneficial outcomes to be motivated by them. Everybody has something to gain or lose from government policies and they’ll be advocating for things that they think are most beneficial for their in group.

More thoughts about summer vacation on Piseco Powley Road ⛺

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More thoughts about summer vacation on Piseco Powley Road ⛺

I really like the idea of setting up a camp for a week and staying there all week as a base camp so I have less gear to take down and set back up again. I also like the idea of camping somewhere I can stay parked and use the solar to keep the batteries topped off.

Happy Place

I think the House Pond campsite on Piseco Powley Road would fit that bill well. There is that nice swimming hole across the road so no need to drive anywhere on a sultry mid summer afternoon. Probably do some fishing too. Of course getting that site might be easier said than done. I could head up there on a Thursday stay for nine or ten nights.

Camp

That site also has an outhouse, good places to hang a hammock and in and it would be large enough to put up my screen house. The site also has good sun exposure in the morning which is important for topping off the batteries and is close enough to asphalt roads so day trips down to Little Falls and Dolgeville will be quite possible.

Chilling

I would have to get a camping permit and who knows if they’ll be issuing them come the summer. My general feeling is things will start to calm down and get back to normal by then – but who knows this whole Coronavirus thing has been going on a lot longer than I had originally expected.

Alternatively, I guess my summer vacation could be more of a traveling experience – stay at no campsite more than three nights. I’ve done that plenty before but I do get tired of having to constantly take down and set back up camp.