June 5, 2018 11 PM Update

Good evening! Overcast, dreary and 55 degrees in Delmar, NY. β˜” There is a northwest breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 47 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 7 pm.

Sitting out back watching the firefly lights after my evening walk, but honestly it’s a bit chilly with the breeze. 💨I did see a real firefly out in the farm field on my evening walk, and actually ran into more people than usual on my walk but I wouldn’t rate it as a super nice June evening. Maybe not record breaking cold or wet but only so so. I still rather be outside than in. With the clouds the accessory battery is mostly fully charged but the voltage dropped on load faster than it would have the battery been well charged after a full day in the sun.

Wasn’t a half bad day at work, went by quickly and I got my steps in. 🏃 Lots of running between buildings. I got my green VMS display up and running at my desk at work. It’s just like the one I have at home but the messages are far less political and controversial for obvious reasons. Haha.

Tonight will have isolated showers. Mostly cloudy 💦, with a low of 45 degrees at 4am. Four degrees below normal. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2017, we had light rain and mist. It got down to 50 degrees. The record low of 38 occurred back in 1971.

Tonight will have a Last Quarter Moon with 56% illuminated. The moon will rise at 1:25 am. The Strawberry Moon 🌝 is on Wednesday, June 27th. The sun will rise at 5:18 am with the first light at 4:43 am, which is 20 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 8 hours and 48 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 58 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy ☁, with a high of 70 degrees at 6pm. Five degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 51 at 12pm. North wind around 7 mph. A bit warmer than today but hardly a great improvement. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 56 degrees. The record high of 94 was set in 1925.

A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 77. Maximum dew point of 57 at 7pm. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 75. Maximum dew point of 54 at 6am. Typical average high for the weekend is 76 degrees.

See, that forecast looks not so bad. β›ΊI’m not going to take off Friday but come Thursday if the weather looks good I’ll probably pack for going out to Schoharie County on Friday to camp I guess then maybe check out the Gas Up on Saturday, fish and hike. Or I might still change my mind. Not totally sure what I want to do. Too cool for swimming, although I’m sure we will eventually get weather nice enough for the potholers.

I’m kind of worried that if I don’t get my adventures in soon, 🗻 I will get busy with work and summer will be over. God only knows where I will end up this fall for work but even if it’s in a wonderful small town or the mountains I won’t have a lot of time for adventures. November though I’m thinking about including a leg of my trip to see more of Pennsylvania and may be go back to West Virginia. I do love the mountain state and I kind of want see the New River Gorge Bridge. 🌉 Or maybe just do some more hunting this fall in Western New York. I don’t know.

In four weeks on July 3 the sun will be setting at 8:36 pm,🌄 which is 6 minutes and 42 seconds later then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 81 and 59 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 82 and 61 degrees. The record high of 102 degrees was set back in 1911.

Looking ahead, Election Day 2018 🗳️ is in 22 weeks, Christmas 🎅 is in 29 weeks, New Years Day 2019 🎉 is in 30 weeks, 36th Birthday 🎉 is in 34 weeks and Election Day 2020 🗳️ is in 126 weeks.

Have a great night. I’m off to bed.

Thoughts 50 years after the death of Bobby Kennedy

Born in 1983, it was some 15 years after the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy on June 5, 1968. But I’m a keen observer of sixties and seventies history because I know how impactful of that era is on today’s times. What happened fifty years ago is still relevant as mistakes made then and lessons not learned are still impacting modern mankind.

One observation I can make being of the younger generation is how awful those times where compared today. People can look back at nostalgic black and white photos of era, but they are ignoring the hate and violence that tore through the country during those most terrible of days.

You can listen to the AM radio Shock Jock that is in the White House or his partisan critics but we live in a time that is a whole lot less awful. Politicians are not getting assassinated left and right, our ghettos are not inflame, riots aren’t commonplace in cities, there is no major war or the draft going on, crime is failing today rather than spiking, unemployment is rock bottom and inflation is low.

Life is good and a heck of a lot better today by objective standard than fifty years ago when Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy lie on the floor dying. Sure there are some scary dark clouds in the future but the arc of justice continues to bend forward. Most of the progress of earlier generations will not be undone, although it will certainly be tweaked. And there is more to do, but there always is.