More Americans are happy that President Donald Trump lost his reelection bid than are happy that President-elect Joe Biden won the election, according to a Monmouth University poll.
About one-third of the country said they are "happy" that Trump lost the Nov. 3 presidential election compared with one-quarter of Americans who say they are happy that Biden won.
With winter upon us, the pandemic raging towards us, it seems unlikely I’ll be working downtown full-time any time soon again. From spring to autumn, working at the library and using my phone for internet has worked, okay but I’m starting to think I’m going to need a better solution come December into January. It’s just going to be too cold to work at the library sitting in my truck plus it gets dark out early.
I can try to continue to use my phone for Internet but I’m not sure how well that will work, as I might run up into data caps and the fact that it’s small screen and limited processing power doesn’t work that great on all websites. This might particularly be an issue when I have to watch videos or do Zoom sessions. For editing documents, I can always transfer documents to my laptop using a USB cable. Plus I kind of wish I could participate in various Zoom community events that I am currently missing and other events that have been moved exclusively online.
The obvious answer would be to get my apartment wired and set up either with Spectrum Cable Internet or FIOS Internet. The benefit of that service is its virtually unlimited, no data caps to worry about. It’s not cheap though, although it looks like I could get FIOS basic service for $40 month for a minimum of 12 months after paying the installation charge which is probably a couple hundred bucks and for a $300 router. The FIOS service is probably cheaper and more reliable than the cable service especially because I don’t own a television and have no interest in watching any of that commercial programming.
That said, I’ve been very resistant to having Internet at home, because I enjoy walking down to the park or the library after work. If you are going to sit for a few hours and surf the web, then it’s good to stretch your legs for a few minutes of walking first. Prior to the pandemic, I would walk to the library several times a week, even when it was cold and snowy. I’d bundle up to fight the wind chill. I don’t like having a lot of commerical advertising in my apartment, and I worry if I had Internet at home, I’d spend all this time watching stupid Youtube videos or playing on social media. Not that I don’t do that already with my phone.
I started researching Wi-Fi Hotspots and found that I could upgrade my phone plan in mid December to add 10 gigabytes of Hotspot data for $10 extra bucks a month or 20 gigabytes of data for $20 extra a month. I conformed that my phone has that capability to serve as a hot spot for my laptop, so that’s the route I’ll probably take. Looking through my logs on my computer if I am careful – and don’t do much video streaming – I should be good with certainly the 20 gig plan. As it’s month to month, once the pandemic is over and I’m back working downtown and the library is a open again, I can drop the Hotspot plan.
While I’m sure it’s nice to not have a data cap and the speed and reliability of a wired connection, it sure is a lot cheaper in the short run and flexible to use my phone as a hot spot. If I decide to winter camp I could even work remotely from a heated tent and my laptop. If I upgrade my phone plan to include the extra Hotspot service it will be unlimited cellphone data (up to 60 GB), which would mean that I can do Zooms and watch videos on my phone without having to worry about too much data.
Honestly, I don’t like subscription fees. But I think I have found a solution that will work well enough for remote work during these cold months. The pandemic will be around for a while longer – maybe months but not years. There are two almost approved vaccines and come next spring into summer it will be warm enough to work in the park or library and then I can reevaluate each month what data plan I need going forward. I’m hopeful that by spring I’ll be working back downtown full-time again and the library re-opened so I won’t need the hot spot add on package anymore.
Right now I have a little more than a month left on my current phone service so I probably won’t upgrade the package until December. But that’s only a little over a month and if I end up needing it before then I’ll loose a little bit of my previously purchased service but it’s not a big deal. Still cheaper than getting a permanent wired connection at home.
Less exciting than I would have hoped. Apparently the rat didn't pass enough current. 💥🐀
There was a debate in the runup to this year's presidential election about whether it would be a base election or a persuasion one. In other words, what would matter more for a candidate — turning out one side's core voters, or winning over undecideds and wavering supporters of President Trump?
Based on an NPR analysis of the more than 3,000 counties, it was, in fact, mostly a base election with some key persuasion in Democratic-leaning suburbs that went for Joe Biden by wider margins than they did for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The voltage of the starting battery on my truck is 13.3 volts. I think it likes being parked in this cold sunny weather.
The George Stevenson Dam backs up the First Branch of the Sinnemahoning River for flood control purposes. A nice state park is located along the shoreline, nestled in the mountains.
Taken on Monday November 10, 2014 at Sinnemahoning State Park.Good morning! What day is it? A frigid Hump Day in Biden’s America, of course. 🐫 I bet camel teats are warm this time of year. 🥛 Three weeks to Earliest Sunset of the Year ⌛️. Dark times ahead at least for a few weeks. By Inauguration Day though, sunset will be around 5 pm again. Mostly sunny and 24 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a northwest breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at around 1 pm. 🌡️
Kind of a cold winters morning ❄ for my mornings walk. Playing California Dreaming as I go for my walk 🚶🏻. That wind 🍃 is pretty chilly but the sun feels nice. 🌠 I didn’t do my walk last night because it was pretty cold and damp out but today with the sun is a lot more reasonable. ♨ Heat is on in my apartment and it’s nice and warm and comfortable.
Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 33 degrees at 2pm. 14 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 23rd. Northwest wind 10 to 14 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became light snow by afternoon. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1928. 9.0 inches of snow fell back in 1980.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:42 am with sun having an altitude of 28° from the due south horizon (-42.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:49 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (237°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (244°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:31 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 14 seconds with dusk around 5:00 pm, which is 48 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the south-southwest (206°) at an altitude of 19° from the horizon, 234,230 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:36 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 30 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 13 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 36 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 58 seconds over today.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 20 degrees at 4am. 11 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 18th. Maximum wind chill around 18 at 6pm; Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming calm. In 2019, we had light snow. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of 12 occurred back in 1972.
Definitely much warmer for the weekend 🌥Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 51. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 47. Typical average high for the weekend is 46 degrees.
I decided this weekend to stay in town 🏡 just because I think it’s going to be cloudy and I think the weekend after Thanksgiving 🦃 will be nicer and it has the potential to be a three day weekend.
As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Earliest Sunset of the Year ⌛️ when the sun will be setting at 4:21 pm with dusk at 4:53 pm. On that day in 2019, we had rain showers, cloudy and temperatures between 47 and 37 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 38 degrees. We hit a record high of 62 back in 1966.
