Happy Earth Day! 🌎

Going to be a beautiful day for riding to work. Carrot pancakes, need to stop at Hannaford to get bananas on the way in as a snack as I’ve not been shopping this week. Felt good to toss that empty plastic milk bottle in the trash on Earth Day knowing soon enough I’ll get it burnt, lol. Makes an excellent fire starter. Gotta celebrate Vladmir Lennin’s birthday with a little black smoke, as you turn the dirt with your plow or spreading manure on this Earth Day.

Good morning! Mostly sunny and 39 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 3 am. ☃️

Didn’t get a real early start 🛏 as when I first awoke I had a bit of nausea like I had been spinning. 🤯But once I finally got out of bed, got some coffee and carrot 🥕 pancakes 🥞 in me I was feeling better. I think I just have a bad case of the Monday’s. I am looking forward to the ride to work today, going to be a nice day. The weekend was cloudy, colder and wetter then expected but I had a lot of fun in the woods and a nice fire 🔥, rode some trail 🚵 and went for a nice five mile hike at Huyck Preserve.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 55 degrees at 5pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 7th. Northwest wind around 10 mph. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 68 degrees. The record high of 86 was set in 1985. 1.0 inches of snow fell back in 1928.❄

Going to stop on the way to work and get some bananas and apples at Hannaford 🍎 🍌 Got to fuel up for the busy week ahead, and I like having lots of fresh fruits and veggies to snack on when I’m in the office.  🤤 On the bike ride home I will stop and get more onions 🧅 and frozen fruit and veggies, and try to use up what I have around the apartment rather then doing a full grocery shop 🛒 until at least Wednesday, as I want to get down to the park after work to walk and read.  🚶📚️ I figure why fire up Red and spend a bunch of money on groceries 🛻 when I have a fair amount bar the fruit and vegetables, 🐄 which I can pick up riding to and from work. Also need to get more milk at Stewart’s. I know more plastic! 

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:54 pm with sun having an altitude of 59.8° from the due south horizon (-11.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:07 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (282°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (288°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:46 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 2 seconds with dusk around 8:15 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-southeast (119°) at an altitude of 16° from the horizon, 250,219 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:52 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 51 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 46 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 40 seconds over yesterday.

I think it’s interesting how the greenies this year are focusing on single use plastics 💚 on Earth Day. Gets a little bit silly but I think they needed a new issue as they got their climate legislation through on the state level 🌎 but only time will tell what the effect is beyond using a lot of farm land and forest for massive solar farms. I’d be more concerned about the really toxic things in garbage today like all the electronics commonly discarded. ☠️ Or all the wasted building materials not the silly little plastic water bottles that are a tiny part of waste production made out of the least toxic forms of plastic – polyethylene. ♻ I really should get milk 🥛 delivery set up with Meadow Brook but it’s a pain having to call as they don’t have a website, and at least in the winter months I do recycle most of the discarded Stewart’s milk bottles. I wish they still had milk in glass for less trash like Byrne Dairy does. 🐮 I don’t drink as much milk as I once did since getting into healthy eating, preferring to drink more water from the tap, 🚰 but I still think those milk bottles take up much too much room in the trash or the recycle  ♻️ when so inclined.

Tonight will be clear 🌃, with a low of 31 degrees at 4am. Nine degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 1st. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming south after midnight. In 2023, we had thunderstorm in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 43 degrees. The record low of 26 occurred back in 1975.

First half of the weekend looks decent Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 62. Maximum dew point of 41 at 4pm. ☀ Not too bad but certainly can change. Sunday, a chance of showers. 🌦️ Mostly cloudy, with a high near 68. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 53 at 3pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 65 degrees. It is what it is, good I got out last weekend.

I am not opposed to doing a three-day weekend and heading up to the Adirondacks  🏕️  but only f the weather looks good. It would be nice to spend some time in the wilderness, have a good fire  🔥 and ride trail or explore the back country  🚵 before black flies are out in mass, 🦟 but only if the weather ain’t shit. 💩 I kind of want to wait until things green up  🌱 before heading out to Schoharie County to camp, and eat fresh ramps I found in the woods, and ride the Catskill Scenic Trail from Stamford to Bloomville 🚵‍♂️ and back again, enjoying the colors of spring and the smell of all that freshly turned dirt.🚜 Maybe that will be Mother’s Day Weekend.

Looking ahead, there are 9 weeks until Latest Sunset 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 8:38 pm with dusk at 9:12 pm. On that day in 2023, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 86 and 61 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 82 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1943.

Red, White, and Blue

Austin, PA

Not far from the Austin Dam, the historic dam that collapsed and flooded out a community. I remember smelling the coal smoke and hearing the gun shots ring out from the hills as I explored this little hick town with a general store and some fairly run-down houses deep in Appalachia.