Good evening. While the evening started fairly clear the clouds are creeping in and temperatures around 52. Monday is definitely going to be a cloudy one. Rain comes for Tuesday, maybe a half inch or maybe a bit more. We could certainly use it.

Definitely starting to green up in Delmar and most certainly in the city. Tuesday’s rain will help. Tonight is going to be cool at 36 degrees, but at least in the lower elevations we aren’t looking at frost. Tomorrow look for 60 degrees and cloudy with rain late. It looks like the best chance for rain at this point is Tuesday before dawn through midday.

I definitely want rain to reduce the fire risk. While I’m always careful with fire and will keep it in the ring, you can’t be too careful these days. We have fallen behind somewhat in rain, and while small campfires aren’t banned unlike brush burning, common sense has to prevail. I am bringing the Big Buddy heater, so I can use that to stay warm in the evening but I would prefer a good fire.

It looks like the rain will be mostly if not entirely gone for the first night of my trip. I have the tarp but I don’t expect to use it the first night. I’m going to buy firewood so I’m not worried about the woods being wet. I want to leave work on Tuesday at 2 pm, but I know that ain’t that realistic. I do hope to leave before 5 but I don’t know.

I am going to pack a lot of the clothes I will need tonight and have the kayak on the roof of the truck tomorrow night. Then it’s just that perishable and personal care items to pack for Tuesday morning. I’ll stop at Stewart’s on the way out to buy Night Crawlers and kiln dried wood. I have lighter fluid and will bring paper to get the fire started. I should be to camp by dusk and I’ll have my lights to get set up. I’ll set up the camp stove and coffee pot for morning, so I’ll have coffee ready bright and early for Wednesday at camp.

It’s a bit difficult sorting clothes under the red light in my bedroom. They all look strange. Very little color recognition. But I’m avoiding using white light bulbs that can throw off sleep. I’ve started to draw my curtains at night to keep the blue LED or high intensity discharge lighting from the gas station down the way out of view. I think I’m going to eventually swap out one of the lights in the overhead fixture in the bathroom with a red bulb and put the white bulb in the empty socket on the mirror so I have red light for night time bathroom use but good bright white light for shaving in the morning. The light in the shower might be a little red but I don’t care. As long as I don’t trip and have adequate light, I don’t care if things are a bit red. Red light is so much easier on the eyes at night. I swear by it.

Speaking of light bulbs, I bought a new 3 watt LED light to light up the flag. Hopefully it will be bright enough to do its job and be easier on the battery when camping. The 7 watt bulb I currently use still works but I figured why not try some more up to date technology that will help the battery last longer and provide some more direct light. It was only like $5.

I’m off to bed. Good night. Dawn tomorrow is at 5:26 and sunrise at 5:57 am.