Like many New Yorkers, I grumbled a lot about the plastic bag ban when I got to the store and didn’t bring enough bags in.
I don’t mind using reusable bags that much — I used to use them a lot when I first started out on my own — but then fell back into the habit of plastic bags. Disposable plastic bags don’t get dirty or worn out, you don’t have to remember to bring the multiple ones to the store, you can use them for storing camp trash before chucking them into the campfire or bringing them back to store for recycling.
I get the benefits of using less plastic bags on urban litter. Plastic bags blow out of landfills, out car windows, blow out trash cans and various other locations. The more I looked around over the past few months the more plastic bags I’ve seen blowing in the trees and in the bushes. They don’t break down well in the natural environment unless of course a landscape burns over in wildfire. They can clog sewer pipes, trap wildlife, provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes and certainly are unsightly in trees.
That said plastic shopping bags are such an inconsequential part of the waste stream. I’ve been researching buying a box myself and it looks like you can get a box of 1,000 grocery style plastic bags for under $20 and the box they come in has a shipping size of 6 inches deep including the cardboard packaging they come in. Even if a typical family uses and discards 1,500 bags a year it’s tiny compared to the rest of the plastic package discarded day to day or oil used to fuel the automobile on the way to and from the grocery store. Or even all the plastic that is landfill when you discard your old automobile.
I’m fine with using reusable bags but it’s a pain to have to know how many bags you will need before you go shopping. But I guess you just need to bring a few extra. I’ll probably get that box of plastic bags, and keep a bunch in my truck and toss some in my pocket so I have them. I think it’s silly but that’s just part of living in a silly state like New York.
At one o’clock today the sun will be at a 45 degree angle in the sky.
As the tangent of 45 degrees is one, it means all objects will cast a shadow to the north that is exactly the same as their height! A six foot person will have a six foot shadow, a 70.5 foot high building will have a 70.5 foot shadow.
Good morning! Happy Saturday. Finally the weekend! Two weeks to Average High is 50 🌸. Mostly cloudy ⛅ and 37 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 15 mph. 🍃 with gusts up to 25 mph 💨💨💨. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 3 am. ☃️
Its just not a particularly nice morning with the clouds ☁ and the wind 🍃. I decided to call off going to Schoharie or Madison County for this week because it doesn’t look really sunny out there for most of the weekend and the wind will make things kind of raw. Plus all the mud and fields covered with cow shit 🐮 and gray skies can be a bit depressing.
Today will be partly cloudy ⛅, with a high of 53 degrees at 4pm. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 3rd. West wind 15 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 59 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1946. 17 inches of snow fell back in 2017.❄
I am going to play it by ear 👂 but I don’t expect a real nice weather day although I’ll probably walk out to Five Rivers later. I have some mapping to do, and I am going to read the Rapp Road DEIS more but I’m not a scientist so I don’t know what to really object to but in general.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:05 pm with sun having an altitude of 45.1° from the due south horizon (-25.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:24 pm with the sun in the west (262°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (268°) starting at 6:59 pm and lasts for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:29 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:02 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 44 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 15 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 53 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 28 degrees at 6am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 22nd. Northwest wind 7 to 13 mph. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 44 degrees. The record low of 1 occurred back in 1993.
Today in 1900, the Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard. 💱 Historians and economists say it was a terrible policy because it hand cuffed the federal reserve to keep them from addressing the financial situation of the Great Depression.
🌹🌻🌼Only 5 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼
As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Average High is 50 🌸 when the sun will be setting at 7:17 pm with dusk at 7:45 pm. On that day in 2019, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 55 and 33 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 50 degrees. We hit a record high of 85 back in 1945.
