Rain squall blew in all the way from Lake Erie. It was actually somewhat decent out before the rain came in but windy. Earlier with the sun it was windy but not too cold.

I’ve just been taking it slow the past few days, 🖥️ recovering from the first five day work week in the office in person in months. I think I was chilled through yesterday but that wind 💨 was roaring away for much of the day. I mean I should have gone out for a ride yesterday 🚲 or maybe walked the block but I’m totally ready to just sleep through winter. ❄️

It’s not looking good for camping 🏕️ next weekend like I often do on Black Friday. It’s not the cold weather that bothers me, it’s the wind. 🌬️ I don’t mind 20 degrees days, especially if it’s sunny ☀️, they can be quite beautiful and the snow and ice tends to be well frozen. This year looks cold. Plus who knows about the burn ban, I don’t think it really applies to campfires but no info is on the DEC website but if there is snow ☃️ on the ground and it’s remote country who really cares. Ain’t never seen anyone up there at camp 🔥 after all these years. It’s like smoking pot on federal lands. Or burning a little plastic trash.

I still want to get up to the East Branch Scandaga and Newcomb 🗻 but it increasingly looks like that will have to wait another weekend. I have the time to use up before the end of the year at work so I should just plan hopefully on the next week. It’s gets tricky though schedule wise for me in December – work Christmas Party 🎉 on Friday December 13th and then I am seeing my niece at the ballet on Sunday December 22nd. So those weeks are bad. 🎅

Dropped off a bunch of mostly worn out, poorly fitting clothing at the clothes 👕 recycling ♻️ dumpster and returned a bunch of beer cans from camping 🏕️. Put most of my summer clothes away. Also got the electric space heater and the electric blanket out of the crawl space and put away the second cooler. Went to the grocery store 🏬, actually Walmart. Going to drop off the recyclables – cans 🥫 and bottles at my parents bin. Maybe some of the recycle plastics too, be green 💚 for once plus burning all that plastic can be kind of nasty. 🍊 Got grapefruit when shopping 🛒, I’m kind of excited about that.

Been doing a lot of studying of the C++ language and writing code. 📝 Along with practicing with linked libraries and build environments. Of I ever want to be a real developer, somebody who both excels at my job as Data Services Director and can use code to build anything I need to use C and C++ every day. I understand concepts but I want to excel at writing actual useful code. People ask how I go so damn good at R or even making maps 🗺️ – it’s that I did it every day for years.

Sunday dinner with the folks 👨‍👩‍👦 then maybe I’ll do my evening walk. I think it will be nice enough to ride in tomorrow 🚲 as I’m trying to boost my exercise levels after a pretty lazy 💤 Saturday that spent writing and studying code. I’ll keep an eye 👁️ on the forecast for next weekend but I’m okay waiting another weekend to head out of town. Really could save some money, 💵 things will be tight once the rent check clears plus I have a lot already on my credit card 💳. I’d like to have a warmer nicer stretch to get up to Newcomb.