October 1, 2020 Night

Good evening! Partly clear and 58 degrees in Delmar, NY. ๐ŸŒ• Calm wind. Sitting out back, although a few clouds are pushing in. Nice evening not super cold. Bright out with the Harvest Moon ๐ŸŽ‘ but already the clouds are pushing in. ๐ŸŒฌ๏ธ

First day of October ๐ŸŽƒ came and went quickly. Busy but rather uneventful and it was nice enough I could sit outside and work for a while. ๐Ÿ’ป Remote work has its benefits when the weather is nice for sure. I was looking at the back of my truck thinking it would be nice to get out camping soon โ›บ but not this weekend, I have too much going on and I don’t think it will be that nice of a weekend.

Finally got shopping ๐Ÿ›’ this evening but I came close to getting into a crash on my way home. ๐Ÿ’ฅ Never saw the car coming ๐Ÿš˜ until both of us slammed on our brakes. It was a busy day and I hadn’t had dinner yet and I was tired ๐Ÿ˜ด and distracted. Such a busy day and my mind was wandering. I shouldn’t have been driving. ๐Ÿก I am glad when I work downtown there is the bus ๐Ÿš to take me home.

It’s been such a busy past few days at work. ๐Ÿ’ผ It doesn’t help that I’ve gotten into the naughty habit of staying up much too late so I’m not preforming my best and I’ve struggling to keep my eyes open ๐Ÿ‘€ between the emails. ๐Ÿ“ง My phone ๐Ÿ“ฑ first rang at 9:01 am and kept ringing except for a few minutes when my phone pinging from email. ๐Ÿ”ข. Some of the stuff today was painfully difficult number crunching too. Tonight I’m in bed ๐Ÿ› and will be sleeping by 11 tonight. I’ve been making the excuse that I can sleep in the mornings as I don’t have a bus ๐Ÿš to catch but that’s a lousey excuse because I still wake up early with the sun. ๐ŸŒ…

I went for my evening walk ๐Ÿšถ๐Ÿป and that was non eventful except for a car I walked past that was pulled over with a headlight out. ๐Ÿ‘ฎ๐Ÿผโ€โ™‚๏ธ I wonder how many police officers will be without a job come Election Day. ๐Ÿšจ While politicians can’t fire civil servants that endorse their opponents I think it’s obnoxious that so many of the units are going so strongly for Trump and the fear of crime thing. ๐Ÿ˜จ It’s stupid messaging when crime is so low and local government budgets are so tight. ๐Ÿ’ต

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly after 4am. Increasing clouds ๐ŸŒง, with a low of 48 degrees at 4am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 25th. Light northwest wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It was humid. It got down to 49 degrees. The record low of 30 occurred back in 1972.

Tonight is the Harvest Full ๐ŸŒ Moon. At 10 PM, the moon was in the east-southeast (123ยฐ) at an altitude of 31ยฐ from the horizon, some 251,648 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. ๐Ÿš€ At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by April 10th. Buckle up for safety! ๐Ÿ’บ The Hunter ๐Ÿน Moon is on Saturday, October 17. The darkest hour is at 12:46 am, followed by dawn at 6:26 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:54 am in the east (94ยฐ) and last for 2 minutes and 54 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 7 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ„ The golden hour ends at 7:31 am with sun in the east (100ยฐ). Tonight will have 12 hours and 18 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 51 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have showers likely, mainly before noon. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny ๐ŸŒฆ, with a high of 60 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 15th. Maximum dew point of 50 at 11am. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. It became humid as the day progressed. The high last year was 75 degrees. The record high of 85 was set in 1927. There was a dusting of snow in 1899.โ„

I have a Zoom Meeting tomorrow so I’ll probably work from the library. ๐Ÿ“™ It’s pleasant now that the weather is cooler. I also have an updated theme and look and feel for the blog that I will make live tomorrow. I’ve been testing it for a week now. ๐Ÿ’ฃ It’s mostly just CSS style sheet changes but I think you’ll like it.

Think I heard the first mouse in my apartment this year. ๐Ÿ Nights are getting cold. With the mice as bad as they are in the woods maybe I should try a drowning bucket trap this year to see how many I can catch. Or get a cat. ๐Ÿ™€ My last neighbor had a cat, never had any mice then. I don’t like pets but when I have a hobby farm I could see having a cat to control rodents in the barnyard ๐Ÿ but I do worry about the impact on the birds ๐Ÿฆ.

In four weeks on October 29 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (252ยฐ) at 5:51 pm,๐ŸŒ„ which is 44 minutes and 29 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly cloudy, warm, rain showers and temperatures between 64 and 53 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 55 and 36 degrees. The record high of 77 degrees was set back in 1946.

And only 13 weeks until we say goodbye to 2020. It’s been a fun year, as John Lindsey would say.

Looking ahead, Average High is 60 ๐Ÿ‚ is in 2 weeks, November ๐Ÿฅง is a month away, Thanksgiving ๐Ÿฆƒ is in 8 weeks, December ๐ŸŽ„ is in 2 months, 7:15 AM Sunrise โŒ›๏ธ is in 10 weeks, Christmas Eve ๐ŸŽ… is in 12 weeks, New Years Eve ๐ŸŽ† is in 13 weeks, New Years Day 2020 ๐ŸŽ‰ is in 3 months, Coldest Week of the Year ๐ŸŒฌ is in 15 weeks, Wolf Moon ๐ŸŒ• is in 17 weeks, February ๐ŸŒง is in 4 months, Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day ๐Ÿฅ› is in 19 weeks and National Drink Wine Day ๐Ÿท is in 20 weeks.

Scenic Driving Last Friday

I was reading that Stanley Milgram died at age 51 of a heart attack ๐Ÿ’”

I was reading that Stanley Milgram died at age 51 of a heart attack ๐Ÿ’”

At one level I have to laugh because his most famous experiment involved pretend shocking people to see if people would be willing to cause pain to other people when told to do so.

But on the other hand that’s a terribly young age to die at. I mean I’m going to be 38 in a few more months from now and that is only 13 years away from now – I can remember 13 years ago and that wasn’t that long ago – heck I was living in the same apartment back then.

Welcome to the Long Emergency. ๐Ÿš”

Welcome to the Long Emergency. ๐Ÿš”

The turbine in the Big Allis Power Plant spun for one hour after loosing all power and lubrication to its bearings during the 1965 black out. It was running at full output when all four substations feeding the plants oil pressure pumps failed during the city wide black out.

It turns out it’s nearly impossible to stop the forward motion of a gigawatt power turbine in an emergency. At least it was just a fossil plant.

A lot of big institutions are like Big Allis. They can fail catastrophically and keep going for years if not decades all while their burning up inside. It’s hard to stop momentum even when things go catastrophically wrong. Big institutions don’t stop on a dime.

The stagflation monster we are building right now with Coronavirus is some point going to break free and it’s anybody guess if it can be broken without a lot of pain.