Good evening! Partly sunny and 81 degrees in Westerlo. There is a northwest breeze at 13 mph. The dew point is 58 degrees. Definitely a nice evening.

All and all, today was nice day with some big fluffy clouds. It’s really hard to complain about partly to mostly sunny skies except occasionally when the sun goes behind the clouds. That dew point around 60 is pretty nice.

Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low of 60 degrees at 5am. One degrees below normal. Northwest wind 8 to 13 mph becoming light after midnight. Maximum dew point of 58 at 6pm. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1948. The sun will set at 8:07 pm with dusk around 8:38 pm, which is 1 minutes and 19 seconds earlier than yesterday. Waxing Crescent Moon tonight with 30% illuminated. The moon will set around 12:34 am. The First Quarter Moon is on Wednesday with mostly cloudy skies expected. The Full “Sturgeon” Moon is on Thursday, August 18th.

Tomorrow will be sunny, with a high of 83 degrees at 3pm. One degrees above normal. Calm wind becoming northwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Very low humidity. Maximum dew point of 59 at 8am. The record high of 95 was set in 1983.

In four weeks on September 4 the sun will be setting at 7:23 pm, which is 43 minutes earlier then today. The average high is 77 degrees, and the record for that date is 97 degrees was set back in 1929.

I’m sad the weekend is coming to an end. I like to think of the weekdays as that awful brief pause between the weekends. You got to pay for the toys and gasoline after all. But life is still good.

I finally got everything working well with the truck and the camping gear. The inverter regularly makes it through the night without having to start the truck during the night. The big bulbs Christmas lights stopped working  but the other ones work well. They tend to fail after a while and I’ve had this set for a number of years. Camp use is tough on them.

I got this cheap sunscreen in a big bottle in Pennsylvania on vacation. It’s SPF 50 and works well but is super greasy to apply. It does seem to soak in well work fine after you sweat a bit. But a first you look like a white greasy pig.  But so be it. It does it job.

I’m going to  be very sad when summer comes to an end. I think this weekend will be the last time I swim at Mine Kill before the summer is done. True it will be open for three more weeks but I don’t envision camping in Schoharie again before the end of summer. I still want to hit up the Potholers at least one more time before summer unofficially closes with Labor Day Weekend. The summer season is such a short one.

I’m actually looking forward to the fall. This November, I am going to drive more of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The leaves will be well past peak, but I figure it will be a lot warmer down south, and there will be little to no traffic. I also plan to spend some time hunting and traveling in the Adirondacks this fall, including another North Country trip. With the heater and propane lantern, the long fall nights really aren’t that bad at all. Set up camp and enjoy myself.