Day: February 4, 2026

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That F-150 I ride past on my way home with Missouri plates 🛻

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You know, I find it quite odd to pass by that pickup truck I ride past most days on my bike with Missouri plates. Why on earth would anybody choose to move to New York from Missouri? The cold winter tundra, the expensive and highly regulated state?

Now I get that my notion of Missouri probably isn’t the lived experience of many if not most Missourians. Probably most are not off-gridders, don’t have burn barrels, cattle or hogs, own lots of guns, don’t live in little shacks, sheds-to-houses and other minimal ways of living close to the land.

Still it strains my imagination to think why anybody would move from Missouri to New York, especially Albany, NY. Especially somebody who own a pickup truck.

IBM Kingston

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Back when companies relied on mainframe computers to crunch their numbers and process their words, times were good at IBM’s Kingston, NY, plant. Workers were well paid, families were invited to picnics on the company’s sprawling campus, and prosperity was real for thousands of hardworking Ulster County residents. As technology changed, so too did the demand for mainframe computers and IBM’s sales plummeted, taking with them the jobs, benefits and economic security many IBMers thought would last forever. Layoffs started in 1993, creating a seismic shift in the economy of the Hudson Valley – one from which we have yet to fully recover. These days, visitors to the grounds that once housed IBM see little more than vestiges of what once was. The massive buildings are still there and the grass is freshly cut. A few new tenants have even moved in. But the IBM workforce and the hum of machines pressing out mainframes, are long gone.

https://abandonedhudsonvalley.com/kingston-ibm-years/

Ice

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It was truly a winter wonderland hiking last week at the Holt Preserve, especially as one reached the higher elevations.

Saturday February 8, 2020 — Holt Preserve

South

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I believe you see Ashokhan High Point in the distance.

Sunday February 21, 2010 — Hunter Mountain

Black Moon Months 🌑

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Because the lunar cycle is approximately 29.5 days, it is occasionally possible for February—which has only 28 or 29 days—to pass without a single full moon. This phenomenon is known as a Black Moon.

Between 1900 and 2100, the years without a full moon in February are:

– 1915
– 1934
– 1961
– 1999
– 2018
– 2037 (Next occurrence)
– 2094

The Metonic Cycle: This event typically occurs once every 19 years but not always due to leap years.

Double Blue Moons: Years with no full moon in February are almost always marked by having two full moons in both January and March (a “Double Blue Moon” year).

Time Zone Sensitivity: Because a full moon occurs at a specific global instant, a year might lack a full moon in one time zone (like the Americas) while still having one in another (like Europe or Asia).

Leap Year Rarity: It is extremely rare for a leap year (29 days) to miss a full moon; the last time was in 1608, and it won’t happen again until 2572.