The weather has been absolutely fantastic, my days packed with adventures and cold ice cream and swimming holes. I’ve ridden like 250 miles through farm and forest land. Many nights with campfires, watermelon cold beer and fresh squeezed lemonade. Dinners with Vadellia onions and peppers, lemon pepper chicken and salmon, beer boiled clams with sweet corn, zucchini and tons of fresh fruit with Greek yogurt. Many amazing sunrises and sunsets. Just not nearly enough hours in the day.

Good morning! Happy Sunday. I do know what this means, after 10 days all good things must come to an end. 😔 Don’t look so sad, life goes on this world keeps turning. Summer 2024 is but a few winks 😉 of the eye away, as is a long weekend trip up to the Potholers maybe next weekend or in two weeks. Then maybe an extended Labor Day Weekend at Spectulator Tree Farm to close out the summer. Except for the hammock, flags, bucket shitter and the kayak on the roof of the truck my home for nine short nights has been taken down. 🛶

Stunningly beautiful morning like so many this past week. Mostly sunny and 68 degrees at the Finger Lakes National Forest. ☀ There is a southeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 57 degrees. I heard the seven o’clock chime 🎐 on my phone and it was followed by the eight, nine and ten o’clock chimes on my phone about five minutes later as I took down camp, carefully packing things for the return trip to Albany.

This morning was a delightful breakfast 🥣 of cream of wheat, freshly squeezed lemon, a bit of stevia to make it sweet plus chia seeds 🌱 for fiber and the remaining Greek yogurt I had so it wouldn’t go bad without ice. I also had the last hard boiled egg 🥚 a little while after for additional protein and as I wasn’t sure if it would survive to mid day without any more ice in the cooler. Plus two cups of cold black coffee ☕ not that I really needed it as I made sure to get my eight hours of sleep yesterday for the long drive home.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 79 degrees at 4pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 1st. Maximum dew point of 62 at 5pm. East wind around 7 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. It was very sticky. The high last year was 93 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1900.

I told myself that I should leave Ithaca by 4 pm to ensure my arrival home by 7 pm, 🏡 well before dark and so I have time to unpack and run to the laundromat and grocery store before bed 🛏 at 9 pm. I’d like to get back into the habit of rising at 6 am for the morning walk 🚶 and to bed nightly at nine, as I find that’s the most natural sleep pattern for me. Of course if I ride my bike 🚲 to work I can get a later start as I won’t need to do a morning walk before catching the express downtown. 🚍 Do plan to resume doing the stairs to the 18th floor twice a day at work 🏢 at least when I’m working downtown for that extra push of intensive cardio each day. Truth be told, I really should plan on leaving Ithaca at 3 pm knowing I’ll inevitably be running late, 🏃 stopping at farm stands 🌽 and pee breaks 🚻, parks and scenic vistas. 📸

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:14 pm with sun having an altitude of 64.2° from the due south horizon (-6.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:43 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (287°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (294°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:23 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 9 seconds with dusk around 8:52 pm, which is one minute and 16 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:33 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 73 degrees. The dew point will be 63 degrees. There will be a east-southeast breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 20 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 20 seconds over yesterday.

Thinking 💭 today I’ll go to Buttermilk Falls State Park 🏞 and hike the gorge and swim. 🏊‍♂️ I don’t love the idea of parking 🅿 in that tight little parking lot so I might find a city park to park at or on street, and ride some of the Ithaca bike 🚲 trails to get there, bypassing delays at the toll booth to boot not that it matters as I have an Empire Passport 🛂.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 1am and 5am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5am. Increasing clouds 🌧, with a low of 66 degrees at 6am. Four degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 66 at 5am. South wind 6 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was very sticky. It got down to 76 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1994.

Yesterday I mountain biked 🚵 riding both gravel and trails at Sugar Hill State Forest. Posted many pictures to Facebook some on the blog. About a fifteen mile loop. Swam at Watkins Glen pool 🏊‍♂️ but didn’t ultimately go floating on my tube ⭕ on Seneca Lake as it was too cool and the lake choppy 🌊 by afternoon. Rode another ten miles down Rock Cabin Road, 🚲 along old Airport Road at Catharine Valley WMA, then down to Montour Falls. Rode over to Glen Dairy Bar 🍧 via the Catharine Valley Trail and the Watkins Glen High School 🚸 and had a great hot apple pie 🥧 sundae with vanilla soft ice cream. Rode over to the Watkins Glen Pier and watched the sun set ⛵ and then through Clute Park 🏞 back to my truck and back to camp by nine. Dinner was sweet corn 🌽, peppers and peaches 🍑 that I got at the Burdett Exchange 💱 along with a hard boiled egg 🥚. Night rode over to Foster Pond, sat and looked at the stars ✨ for a while but didn’t see any shooting stars but I didn’t stay that long as it was chilly and I wanted to get back to camp ⛺ as it was after 10:30 PM for a small campfire to warm up 🔥 before lights out.

Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until 6:30 Sunrise 🌇 when the sun will be setting at 7:27 pm with dusk at 7:54 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny, patches of fog and temperatures between 83 and 56 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 77 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1931.