Good afternoon! Partly sunny and 76 degrees in Mayfield at the Northampton State Beach. There is a south-southwest breeze at 7 mph. The dew point is 66 degrees. The muggy weather ends tomorrow around 8 pm.

This afternoon will have a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high of 83 degrees at 4pm. Five degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 69 at 5pm. Southwest wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. The record high of 98 was set in 1948. 

The sun will set at 7:37 pm with dusk around 8:06 pm, which is 1 minutes and 42 seconds earlier than yesterday. Today will have 13 hours and 19 minutes of daylight, a decrease of 2 minutes and 48 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 3am, then a slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 67 degrees at 4am. Nine degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 69 at 6pm. Southwest wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. The record low of 34 occurred back in 1982.

On this day in 1968, where the riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

There are 2 weeks until September 11th when the sun will be setting at 7:12 pm with dusk at 7:40 pm. The average high temperature is 74 degrees, with a record high of 98 in 1931.

Stayed on up until around one AM reading John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charlie. Got that book out of the library before vacation last month, but really didn’t spend much time reading it until last night. A good story, a time capsule into America circa 1960. Of course now it makes me want to get a cow caller for my truck – so I can pull a lever and all the ladies look at you. It would be fun at the Walmart parking lot. America was a beautiful place at the time but very much changing in the era of tail fins and a bit scary down south. 

The wood I found around camp for the most part was rather punky. Some had a lot of sap and burned quite smokey. It really wasn’t all much of a fire and I had to keep perking it up. At least it kept the mosquitoes away. Didn’t matter that much, I was totally captivated by reading Travels with Charlie. I really enjoyed Steinbeck’s work. I wonder if I should read some of his earlier works like his most famous Grapes of Wrath. I really like reading books about people traveling the back roads of America in pick up trucks. I wonder why? 

Eggs again for breakfast. Melted more of the glass dome on my percolator. Darn camp stove gets so hot at times. It’s great for boiling water as long as I don’t melt the pots. Last night making pasta I also overheated the aluminum pot a bit and started to smell the aluminum cooking. Turned it down and had some good pasta and meatballs with a good pesto sauce. Same thing I had last weekend but fortunately the meatballs were still good despite forgetting to freeze them. 

Nice breeze and quiet in the woods this morning. Slowly getting packed up. I  guess I should hurry but I’m just enjoying the morning.