Good morning! Happy Independence Day 🇺🇸! Not the greatest morning ever to celebrate America’s birthday, kind of cloudy and damp. Now is a good time to count all ten fingers, to confirm all are there before you loose a few tonight. 🤲  Next Sunday is World Population Day 👩‍👩‍👧‍👧. I don’t think that’s a pretty politically correct topic these days. Probably going to celebrate that occasion up north in the Adirondacks, as I am heading north on Friday I think after my eye appointment. Clouds, drizzle and 59 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌧 Calm wind. The dew point is 58 degrees. The skies will clear around noontime. It would not have been a real nice holiday weekend up north.

Yesterday despite the drizzle, was super nice up at Thacher Park. 🌧 I think I liked it particularly because there wasn’t any crowds. If there wasn’t the free bus, I wouldn’t have gone, but I figured it was something to do and was free. 🚶‍♀️ I am always looking for low-cost and free things to do that don’t involve burning any gas, ⛽ because money is always so tight especially in the summer months. Plus I have to make that quarterly tax payment in two weeks. At least my cellphone bill is paid for next month, although I’m not happy about the reduced service plan I ended up deciding to get, to cut down my use.

Independence Day will have isolated showers. Patchy fog before 10am. Otherwise, partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 73 degrees at 5pm. 10 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 23rd. Maximum dew point of 59 at 2pm. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 89 degrees. The record high of 104 was set in 1911.

No big plans for today, ✍ I might want to do some blogging, working on some data and some minor improvements to the blog and some research regarding the industrial solar facilities that are the newest form of sprawl inflicting our state. 🏙 I also want to watch some of the videos I downloaded the other day and maybe go for a walk out to Five Rivers later if it gets nicer, and maybe do some more cleaning around in the apartment. No plans to drive anywhere today. 📚 I also want to get reading some of the library books I got on Friday at library.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:00 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.2° from the due south horizon (-0.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:54 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (296°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (303°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:37 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 9:10 pm, which is 15 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:56 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 68 degrees. The dew point will be 59 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 15 hours and 12 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 51 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌆 , with a low of 57 degrees at 5am. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around June 15th. Maximum dew point of 59 at 8pm. Calm wind. Kind of a cool night to balance out for earlier in the week.  In 2020, we had mostly clear skies. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1982.

On this day in 1776, The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress. 🇺🇸 Happy Birthday, America! Starting the day after Independence Day 1967, you would be able to FOIL the Federal Government, 🎆 after U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into law on July 4, 1966. Then citizens could request information on how much the federal government spent on fireworks the night before.

While this weekend was a stay in town weekend, 🏕 I am planning on heading to the Adirondacks after eye doctor’s appointment. 👀 It will be at least a three day weekend, although I might either take off Monday or maybe more likely work remote from Speculator on Monday and Tuesday, heading home Tuesday night and to the town meeting to speak out against even more development in the Albany Pine Bush. 🌲 It would have been fun to head out of town this weekend, but it’s been so cold and rainy, and it would have been even cold weather.

As previously noted, next Sunday is World Population Day 👩‍👩‍👧‍👧 when the sun will be setting at 8:33 pm with dusk at 9:07 pm. On that day in 2020, we had hot and humid weather which was partly sunny with a few rain showers and temperatures between 90 and 74 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 84 degrees. We hit a record high of 98 back in 1936. I think that was right after I got back from the week I spent working remote from a very remote part of the Green Mountains.