Good evening! Partly clear and 42 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. Temperatures will drop below freezing on after Thanksgiving Dinner around 9 pm. ☃️ Should be dry so no worries about snow and ice.

So I got the Doxycline antibiotics and took the first one tonight. 💊 I’ve not noticed anything yet but I was a bit tired 😴 . I drive to work today after the doctor visit 🚙 and traffic was as bad as usual during rush hour but this time I had didn’t have the bus driver to drive me home while I played on my phone📱. I cooked fish 🐠 for dinner, rode the exercise bike 🚲 and went for my evening walk 🚶.

I was veey glad to see that the printed documentation from my doctor 😷 and the pharmacy 💊had no cold and hard rule against dairy 🐮 while on doxycline – I am pretty sure what the doctor said is just don’t consume a lot of yogurt or milk right around taking the pill – do it with water 💦 and an empty stomach. So I can continue to enjoy God’s beverage 🍵 – milk but I should plan to not take my evening pill around dinner if I’m planning to drink milk. I actually bought a box of ice cream 🍨 from Stewart’s to celebrate. 🎉 I don’t really have much milk with breakfast, maybe a splash in the coffee as I’m not a big cereal eater. ☕ Dairy is the best and a lot of it is made locally from crops 🌾 grown here and fed to cows milked and cared for locally. 🐄 I can also have alcohol in moderation, there is no interaction between that and the antibiotics. I don’t drink much any more but its always nice to have beer at camp. 🍻

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 36 degrees at 3am. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 30th. Calm wind. In 2018, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 23 degrees. The record low of 8 occurred back in 1957.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 2% illuminated. The moon will rise at 7:56 am. The First Quarter Moon is next Tuesday with rain is likely. The Cold Moon 🌝 is on Wednesday, December 11th. The sun will rise at 6:59 am with the first light at 6:28 am, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 35 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 41 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will rain likely, mainly after 3pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 49 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 14th. Light and variable wind becoming south 9 to 14 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 43 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1896. 4.8 inches of snow fell back in 1940.❄

I should have gone to the library 📚 today and gotten some books to read over the holiday weekend especially up at camp but instead I rode the bike and went for the walk. ☔ I was thinking about going after work – but the library closes at five tomorrow. Then I thought they usually release us early for the holiday weekend 🍗 but with the rain coming I might not want to walk down to the library in the rain.

I really hated that rush hour drive. 🚙 So much traffic getting out of the city at five. Plus while I have a space I could use in the lot at work, it was so tight getting in an out of it with my Big Jacked Up Truck. Highway merging with my truck though was easy. But tomorrow it’s back to taking the bus 🚍. Even if someday I move back out to the country if I work downtown I’m certain to do the Park and Ride alternative to urban driving 🚘. While small cars are easier to drive in the city I’d much rather leave it to the professionals.

The doctor visit cost $25 and the antibiotics $5 thanks to having great health insurance. 🏥 I actually think I owe the Urgent Care place five more bucks but I’m sure they’ll bill me if they screwed up the co-payment. Who knows, medical billing is so complicated. I really feel sorry for those at the clinic who had to pay a lot more than I did. I’m glad the Lyme was diagnosed right away 🐞and I shouldn’t get any sicker. No copay for the Lyme test which wasn’t needed as I have the rash. Only missed three hours of work, which come out of the combined leave pool – no dedicated sick time like when I worked for the state.

Got the replacement battery 🔋 for my radio 📻 in the mail. ✉ Mom ordered it from Amazon for me after I reimbursed her. Came UPS in an enormous box 🎁 that was stuffed way back on the neighbor’s porch. But at least my radio is working and holding a good charge. The old one was all puffed out and I just noticed leaking electrolytes. It was $10 for two batteries – nearly the cost of the radio itself – but now I should be set for a long time. I really like my little shelf top radio at home that I also use for camping. Great reception, digital tuning, records to SD card among other things.

I am pretty sure based on the latest forecast that I will go up to the Adirondacks starting Black Friday bright and early. ⛺ Going to be clear but cold. I’m fine with that. I will hot tent ♨ as I’m staying two nights and there shouldn’t be a lot of snow up north. Going to snow late Sunday into Monday but the latest track of the storm suggests I’ll be home before it starts snowing much. ⛄ We will see. 👀 I can have beer 🍻 and milk at camp which is nice too. That said, Somebody else I know who has had Lyme says doxycline can make you very tired but I don’t know if that’s from the Lyme or the drug. 😴 I had the really tired and sore period with headaches a while back I’m feeling better even before I started the antibiotics.

Stil need to dismantle the gas lantern 🏮 and find where it’s plugged or needs to be replaced. That said I’m seriously considering a rechargeable LED lantern going forward as they’re now quite bright and I wouldn’t have to worry about breaking the glass mantle or hooking up the hoses. The LED lantern could also be brought in the tent then charged on one of the many USB ports in my truck. 🔌

In four weeks on December 24 the sun will be setting at 4:26 pm,🌄 which is one minute and 10 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had mostly cloudy skies with snow showers and temperatures between 36 and 26 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 33 and 18 degrees. The record high of 72 degrees was set back in 2015. I remember that day. We had a pretty good rain storm, and I had to work Christmas until 3 pm. On Christmas Day I went out to Brookfield to camp ⛺.

Looking ahead, 7:15 AM Sunrise ⌛️ is in 2 weeks, Christmas Eve 🎅 is in 4 weeks, Boxing Day 🥊 is a month away, New Years Eve 🎆 is in 5 weeks, Coldest Week of the Year 🌬 is in 7 weeks, Martin Luther King Day 🖤 is in 8 weeks and 5:30 PM Dusk 🌆 is in 2 months.