Not Looking Forward to Being Stuck at Home

I am not looking forward to remote work this winter … 💻

 Cold Afternoon

While I am the first to admit that remote work during the summer months was kind of fun when I could camp and work out of Spectulator or other parts of the state, with winter underway, I am not looking forward to being cooped up, alone in my small, cold apartment.

I decided against getting wired Internet – for now I am using my phone for most of my work – transferring files to the laptop, but I plan to add hot spot service to my phone for things best done on the laptop.. Sure, I do play and work a lot on my phone but it’s not the same as computer internet with the smaller screen and processor. I should spend more time reading, or doing data analysis and soldering, working on Arduino projects, rather then wasting it browsing the web or using social media.

While the long, cold dark winter days are never fun, working downtown tended to break up the days, especially when I was busy in the office. I enjoyed going for walks on the Plaza on sunny and reasonably warm winter days, and having the Concourse to walk at lunch time even on the coldest a snowy days. Work in office always involved days around the office, bullshitting, interacting with people. You loose a lot of the human touch over Zoom and email. It’s easier to understand people in person.

Sometimes I do plan to be in my office. There are just some things that can’t be done remotely from a practical standpoint. Those days, broken up by the bus ride back and forth and the quiet time, will be a nice change, but still it’s a lot of gray, cold, and cramped days at home.

November 8, 2020 Morning

Good morning! Happy Sunday. Four weeks to First Sunday of Advent ✝️. Sunny and 45 degrees at the Stoney Pond State Forest. 🌞 There is a west breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Mist is evaporating off the land, going to feel more like summer than late summer later. The sun feels quite warm.

Camp is all taken down ⛺ and I’m sitting down by Stoney Pond. In a little bit I’m going to head to Bouckville and hike some of the canal trail before heading home. The pond is very still but with a lot of people up this way, there isn’t really the solitude I would hope for. I don’t like hearing a bunch of voices in the woods. Usually it’s quiet 🤫 up here in November but the weather is exceptionally nice.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 68 degrees at 2pm. 17 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 27th. West wind 3 to 6 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 37 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1975. 1.7 inches of snow fell back in 1894.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:47 am with sun having an altitude of 30.4° from the due south horizon (-40.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:06 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (241°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (248°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:48 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 9 seconds with dusk around 5:16 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:51 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 67 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 9 hours and 59 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 25 seconds over yesterday.

After I head home, I’ll get unpacked and head out to the folks house for Sunday dinner. 🍲 At one level I wish I could extend the weekend but I have a busy Monday on tap at work and I might end up having to go downtown. 🏢 With winter coming, I expect things to return more back to normal but I’m also aware that spring will always return again 🌼 that is after a long harsh winter. ❄

Tonight will be clear 🌃, with a low of 47 degrees at 6am. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 27th. Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2019, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 18 degrees. The record low of 11 occurred back in 1971.

I will miss Madison County 🐮 and the farm country but while things may continue to change its going to be here much like it was a decade ago when I was here. I might not like everything I see in our country and our state but it’s good to get away. 🇺🇸 I might not agree with everything happening in this world 🌎 but I’m mostly focused on improving my own life and not changing things beyond my control.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until First Sunday of Advent ✝️ when the sun will be setting at 4:28 pm with dusk at 5:00 pm. On that day in 2019, we had snow showers, cloudy skies and temperatures between 34 and 26 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 39 degrees. We hit a record high of 68 back in 2001.

Snowing