July 13, 2015 evening

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Good evening on this summer evening. It’s somewhat sticky this evening with dewpoints creeping up to 65 or 66 but there are a million stars above and dozens of fireflies lighting up the trees. 76 currently, 65 late.

Tommorow is expected to be another hot one with dewpoints in the upper 60s and temperatures around 85. One moderating factor will be the clouds and the likelihood of rain from thunderstorms. This means it may cool off at times. It’s mid-summer so the heat and humidity is to be expected.

I swapped the battery on my phone and I’m back in business. The moisture just killed the battery when kayaking. Without my smartphone I’m totally lost. It has all my music and podcasts, along with GPS apps, real time bus info, Waze, WordPress, social media, photos, and of course email. I don’t know how I survived before last October when I first got a smartphone. Looking at waterproof cellphone cases now.

This month my phone plan was upgraded for free from 3 gigabytes of data to 5 gigabytes. That makes me happy as I sometimes would run low on data on the winter months when I was stuck home a lot, playing on my phone. Getting throttled sucks. It used to be I averaged about 100 megs per day, so the new 170 average means I have a lot more data to play with. I can listen to WAMC online while taking the bus home at 5 pm to catch up on the news with the extra data.

Misplaced my backpack and I couldn’t find my good headphones, so I went to Walmart and picked up another pair. I just wear cheap ones at any rate, and I had to get to the store to buy some lunch meat. I also broke down and bought a big box fan. I have for years used a small desk fan but I figured that the bigger fan would keep things cooler upstairs on hot evenings. I don’t have air conditioning at home and I have zero interest in getting it. Air conditioning is really bad for the environment using oodles of energy and toxic gases, makes one lazy, and avoiding the outdoors on hot evenings and weekends. I doubt when I eventually own an off-grid house that I’ll ever have the voltage supply ample enough for air conditioning, so no reason to get used to having the artificial cool at home. The Potholers can keep me cool on the weekends.

While I concede the smartphone is nice I still don’t think I will ever have Internet or television at home. It’s just not something I believe in. When I want to get podcasts or do any kind of heavy Internet use with my laptop there are public libraries with Internet connections vastly faster than I can get at home. But for checking social media, the phone is fine. I also am quite fine with taking the bus to work everyday and avoiding fancy purchases except of course for my jacked up truck. Big Red wouldn’t fit into any parking garages in the city. I also don’t normally have junk food at home except for the occasional box of cookies and take the trash and recycling I don’t use for fire starting when camping to the transfer station myself. I just like the simplicity and I find television to be kind of glitzy and confusing. Spending time in the woods is my entertainment.

I just saw a bunch of cops cars and firetrucks heading up the road with full sirens and lights. That’s unusual as they usually turn off the sirens in this residential area. It must be quite the emergency.

Oh well. It’s getting late. Sleep well.

July 13, 2015 early evening

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I don’t know if the heat bothers me less in my thirties then when I was younger, but despite warnings this evening doesn’t seem that oppressive.

Warm and a bit sticky but not oppressive with the breeze.  Mercury says 78 degrees and a 66 dewpoint but I’m not feeling it down at Elm Avenue Park. 

July 13, 2015 morning

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Good morning! Happy Monday. It looks like we are at 77 degrees with the mercury looking to push 90 and a heat index that might beat that with a few degrees, with a dewpoint a sticky 65. It will be fairly oppressive out by afternoon, as is expected for mid-July in the greater Albany-area. Tomorrow will have a little less mercury but more humidity and a higher dewpoint to compensate for it. More rain showers and thunderstorms are possible on Tuesday and Wednesday then today. Thursday showers and somewhat cooler. Friday should be quite nice with Saturday and Sunday the mercury cranking back up.

Still looking for my old phone so I can stick the battery from it into my current Smartphone, so I can hopefully get it back up and working. I know it got kind of wet in the kayak on Saturday, but I would like to see it back working again, as I depend on it for many things every day. Fortunately, it’s not a real expensive phone with prices coming down, but I can’t keep killing these stupid phones. If I hadn’t been so smart to put the phone in a plastic bag – which got damp internally, it would have been fine. I’ve brought my phone plenty of times in past, but this idea to keep it extra dry didn’t exactly work on Canada Lake.

If this weekend forecast looks as nice it currently does, I’ll have to think about where I want to go. I guess I could go back up to Piseco-Powley Road, as the potholers are really nice in oppressively hot summer weather, although it seems kind of silly to go to the same place twice in two weeks. But the potholers feel so nice in really warm weather. I might alternatively head out to the Finger Lakes if I can get a part or most of next week off. It would be fun to camp at the Finger Lakes National Forest and check out the gorges and pools in the day time. The long range does seem somewhat stormy for next week.

Been thinking about getting a truck intertube for cooling off in the lakes and creeks. I was thinking with the kayak paddle tied to it to help in getting around, I could have a lot of fun in various lakes. Those little plastic ones probably aren’t great on the rocks, so I want to get the same thing I had as a kid. The kayak is fun but it doesn’t really get you wet like sitting a tube. I am probably going to look and see what is available on the Internet or maybe what shops are available locally.

Enjoy this warm Monday, and remember in six months from now we will be in the coldest weather of the year. Don’t complain about the oppressive heat, when you can be complaining about your heating bills and the road salt. Hazy, hot, humid weather exists for the world’s swimming holes. Plus this weather gives all those old coal and oil fired power plants a chance to run, so they can keep your air conditioning running well. That means a lot of jobs in little hicktowns, running power plants which were built a generation before anybody operating them.