Places I Camped in 2020

This year with COVID-19, I stayed closer to home but did spend a record 62 nights out in the wilderness this year -- all back country camping -- mostly away from other people. It was an interesting year with remote work, but it worked out to be a lot of fun, camping and then working at various libraries or using a hotspot and my cellphone.

Governor Cuomo Announces Initiatives to Electrify Transit Buses, Boosting Access to Clean Transportation and Building Healthier Communities | Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Governor Cuomo Announces Initiatives to Electrify Transit Buses, Boosting Access to Clean Transportation and Building Healthier Communities | Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a series of initiatives to increase the number of electric buses in New York as part of the State's efforts to mitigate climate change, create healthier communities, improve air quality, and boost access to clean transportation in underserved communities. Specifically, this effort includes $16.4 million in incentives for the expansion of electric bus usage amongst public transportation authorities, as well as $2.5 million for school bus operators to acquire cleaner forms of transportation with lower emissions. These measures will help take polluting vehicles out of service across the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality in support of Governor Cuomo's nation-leading clean energy and climate goals in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

"Electrifying transit and school buses at scale is an important step in our fight against climate change and is essential in helping us reach our ambitious goals to create a greener New York State," Governor Cuomo said. "Through these initiatives, bus operators will now have the support and resources they need to modernize their fleets, reduce emissions and ensure underserved communities have cleaner public transit options as we work to further reduce our carbon footprint."

 

December 29, 2020 Morning

Good morning! Happy Cold Moon πŸŒ•! Couldn’t see the moon last night because of the clouds. Next Tuesday is National Bird Day 🐧. Snow showers, mostly cloudy and 28 degrees in Delmar, NY. ❄ There is a west-northwest breeze at 6 mph. πŸƒ. I heard though it’s supposed to clear out later. There is a dusting of snow on the ground. β˜ƒ Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 2 pm. 🌑️

I went out for my morning walk, 🚢and while it wasn’t terrible warm or nice, it got nicer as the morning progressed. πŸŒ„ Also did my evening walk. Feeling a better today, although still some tightness in my throat. But I plan to mask up 😷 and run to the store today as I need to get some supplies. I think I just have a bit of a cold, πŸ€’ but the Day Quill helps. Good to use it up now, as it has an expiration of next month I guess. Always seem to get a bit of a cold this time of year. No fever or loss of smell, so I’m not real concerned. πŸ‘Ύ Not the topic the politicians like to publicly expose themselves about to get on camera. The pancakes for breakfast were good, πŸ₯ž although I wasn’t happy about the coffee being weak, β˜• as I reused the beans from yesterday, as I ran out of coffee. I really need to get to the store today, as I miss my coffee and hot coca in the evening.πŸ› I realize I’ve been kind of wasteful with coffee lately — been putting too much in the peculator and could be reusing the beans more. For me caffeine is just a drug, and I drink a shit ton more from home.

I also want to get to the library, πŸ“š as I accidentally messed up the projections library on my computer so I can’t do much in the way of map making. I was trying to process LiDAR point clouds into digital terrain models for measuring tree height, and when I added the extra software, I managed to cause a conflict in the projections library. I am going to have to purge that library and then reinstall it and all of the supporting software, and that will take a lot of bandwidth, so best do down at the library. πŸ’»Β  With the sun it shouldn’t be too cold down there.

Today will have a slight chance of snow showers before 10am. Mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 31 degrees at 10am. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical Northwest wind 6 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1984. 6.0 inches of snow fell back in 1915.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:58 am with sun having an altitude of 24.2Β° from the due south horizon (-46.6Β° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour πŸ… starts at 3:45 pm with the sun in the southwest (231Β°). πŸ“Έ The sunset is in the west-southwest (239Β°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:31 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 25 seconds with dusk around 5:02 pm, which is 46 seconds later than yesterday. πŸŒ‡ At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-northeast (65Β°) at an altitude of 10Β° from the horizon, 245,218 miles away. πŸš€ The best time to look at the stars is after 5:38 pm. At sunset, look for mostly sunny skies πŸŒƒ and temperatures around 28 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 17. β˜ƒοΈ There will be a northwest breeze at 14 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 5 minutes of daytime, an increase of 34 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear πŸŒƒ, with a low of 16 degrees at 4am. Typical for tonight. Maximum wind chill around 14 at 6pm; Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. In 2019, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of -21 occurred back in 1933.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. πŸ˜• Saturday, rain likely before 10am, then a chance of showers between 10am and 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 36. Typical average high for the weekend is 31 degrees.

Based on the latest forecast, I am inclined to go up to the Adirondacks this long weekend. πŸ•Β It does like we might get a few or maybe several inches of snow on Friday, but I’ll park close to the road, and then drag my gear back. That way if we get a ton of snow, I can just shovel out the driveway and around the tent. I don’t really need to buy any food or supplies for camping, so I am good if I decide to head north on New Years Eve.πŸ“² I’d prefer to camp somewhere I have cell reception but it’s hard to know where I am going to be. But with unlimited mobile data, it might be fun to be able to watch a Youtube when I’m in the tent during the long nights.

Been working on a year on review video for the blog, πŸ–Ό basically just a picture series that goes through all of the photos that I posted over the year. It is mostly done now, I’ll probably try to get it uploaded ⬆ when I’m all the library. Also, I am working on adding some new types of interactives based on leafletjs — namely side-by-sides and overlays. Right now with the historical comparisons the blog, you can’t zoom in and out, and that’s something I’d like to change.

As previously noted, next Tuesday is National Bird Day 🐧 when the sun will be setting at 4:36 pm with dusk at 5:08 pm. On that day in 2020, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 37 and 24 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 31 degrees. We hit a record high of 64 back in 1950.

My idea of festive decorations. Turn the CB radio colors to red