Those lazy, hazy crazy days of summer are here minus maybe the hot dogs, pretzels and beer. Time is marching on the world changes in your forties.

Good morning! Happy Hot Thursday. To be predicted, it’s the hottest time of the year. Mostly sunny 😎with fog 🌫 around and 69 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. The dew point is 67 degrees. The muggy weather ends Wednesday around 7 pm. 😓

Another hot summer day ahead 🏖 though I’ll be spending it my air conditioned office and usually it will be cooling down by evening when I get home. Out for the morning walk before it gets too hot out. 10 1/2 miles walked yesterday, climbed up and down 36 flights of stairs in the office as usual.

Red kidney are cooking down in the kitchen, 🍲 they will be good with maple 🍁 syrup in the evening when it’s hot out. I got fresh blueberries at the farmers market which where $7 which seems much too expensive but inflation. 🔵 I’m running low on food and supplies but I don’t know what I want to buy and eat with the heat. 🛒 Next time I go shopping, I do want to get some freezer bags, as they’re good for freezing rice and also things like black beans for compact carrying while camping. They can be reused a few times too.

This morning I’m thinking just black coffee ☕ cream of wheat with the fresh blueberries for breakfast 🥣. I do need to get milk 🥛 as what I have in the refrigerator has spoiled. But not this morning. I’m also out of cottage cheese and Greek yogurt and frozen fruit.

Yesterday’s meals where too bland. Too much kale and brown rice. 🍚 Easy and healthy but bleh. Makes it easy and healthy but not so easy to keep on the diet going forward. I was really into kale for a while eating multiple pounds of week, but I’m getting tired of it, much like the tofu. Today I am doing chicken, peas, corn, black beans and red peppers for lunch. Pre-cooked shrimp 🦐 are thawing in the fridge, I’m going to mix with the brown rice and tomatoes for dinner and have red kidney beans with maple syrup for dessert. I put chickpeas in the fridge for soaking, I’ll either roast them to toss in with fresh blueberries, strawberries and raspberries with walnuts with a snack. Walnuts are good but loaded with fat, though at least it has a decent ratio of Omega 3. I might also make hummus, which I’ll either need to get tahini or sesame seeds to cook up.

Today will be sunny and hot ☀ , with a high of 91 degrees at 2pm. Seven degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 71 at 9am. Heat index values as high as 95. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 81 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1886.

As I’m back on the Trek FX 2 bicycle as my choice, I might try to get up to the Downtube to talk to them about potentially buying that bicycle 🚲 and doing a test ride. I’m getting tired of studying the pros and cons of bicycles and want to commit sooner than later so I can take delivery of the bike and finally be on the road, both for commuting and getting around town. I want to break the bicycle in well before heading out to the Finger Lakes in three weeks. An additional expense I overlooked was a good quality U-lock that resists bolt cutters ✂️ which is going to add $75-100 go the cost, but I might be better off getting that on the internet rather than at the bike shop. I also want to get a rear luggage rack so I can tie a small milk crate style storage containers for keeping lunch and supplies on me when doing day trips on the bicycle 🚲 in the Finger Lakes. 💸 Looking at around or maybe slightly below $50 for that. Then another under $50 for the combination of buying a very basic digit speedometer / odometers and lights both for safety and do night riding in the National Forest after watching the sun set. 🌇

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.1° from the due south horizon (-0.7° vs. 6/21). 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 19 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 82 degrees. The dew point will be 69 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 14 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 57 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃 , with a low of 68 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 69 at 7pm. South wind 5 to 7 mph. Another sticky night sleeping 😴 with the fan roaring. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 58 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1979.

On this day in 1947, The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union. Even after almost seven decades, the model and its variants remain the most popular and widely used assault rifles in the world 🪖 because of their substantial reliability under harsh conditions, low production costs compared to contemporary Western weapons, availability in virtually every geographic region and ease of use. ⚔ I bet it would be fun to own one someday, in a freer state when I own my own land. Probably fun for ventilating a burn barrel, lol.

A hot summer weekend ahead. 🏖 Saturday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 69 at 9am. Sunday, a chance of showers, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 81. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Maximum dew point of 70 at 10am. Typical average high for the weekend is 84 degrees.

That said, maybe not the nicest weekend ever especially Sunday with the clouds. 🤷‍♂️ One more weekend to decide and acquire a bicycle 🚲 then hopefully get out camping 🏕 the following weekend after my dentist appointment 🦷 assuming that the weather is decent. I’m thinking Schoharie County, the Mine Kill Pool, the Catskill Scenic Trail from Grand Gorge to Stamford it maybe even beyond there. 🚲 Also maybe on the Saturday bike from Old Blenheim Bridge up and over Bear Ladder Road 🐻 then down to Fultonhsm by Shauls to get ice cream. 🍦 If I have the rack on the bicycle by then not only can I carry lunch but also get some veggies. If not both of these things are good for the following week or after summer vacation. 🏖 Pool closes Labor Day but the best bicycling and farm stand finds are certainly in September and October. 🎃

Summer vacation starts Friday July 29th 🏖 with plans to head straight out to the Finger Lakes National Forest and set up camp ⛺ by noon time. Then have all afternoon to unpack and do a nice bicycle 🚲 ride and enjoy the afternoon from the forest maybe with some fishing 🎣 and a sunset 🌇 to a start things off. Watkins Glen on Saturday to paddle and swim 🏊‍♂️, though I may want to get to the park 🏞 early to ensure parking 🅿.

Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until Ugly Truck Day 🚚 when the sun will be setting at 8:29 pm with dusk at 9:01 pm. On that day in 2022, we had hot, humid, mostly sunny, thunderstorm and temperatures between 97 and 72 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 84 degrees. We hit a record high of 97 back in 1991.