October 19, 2020 Night

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Good evening! Rain showers and 55 degrees in Delmar, NY. β˜” There is a south-southeast breeze at 9 mph. πŸƒ. The dew point is 53 degrees. The skies will clear Wednesday around 10 am.

Mild evening, I went for my evening walk 🚢🏻 and it was rain free and quite nice. After feeling a bit congested this afternoon πŸ‘ƒπŸ» it was nice to get out and get some fresh air.

Spent some time studying historical maps and geocoding them this evening. πŸ—Ί You can learn a lot by studying old maps and comparing them to modern maps. The topic really fascinates me.

Tonight will have patchy drizzle with a chance of rain. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 53 degrees at 3am. 15 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 13th. Maximum dew point of 53 at 11pm. South wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2019, we had clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1972.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent πŸŒ’ Moon with 14% illuminated. The Blue 🌝 Moon is on Saturday, October 31. The darkest hour is at 12:41 am, followed by dawn at 6:46 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:14 am in the east-southeast (103Β°) and last for 2 minutes and 59 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. πŸŒ„ The golden hour ends at 7:53 am with sun in the east-southeast (110Β°). Tonight will have 13 hours and 8 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have patchy drizzle with a chance of rain before 9am, then a chance of showers after 9am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 64 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 6th. Maximum dew point of 58 at 1pm. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 54 degrees. The record high of 80 was set in 1965. There was a dusting of snow in 1952.❄

In four weeks on November 16 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (245Β°) at 4:31 pm (Standard Time),πŸŒ„ which is one hour, 34 minutes and 43 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had cold, sunny and temperatures between 38 and 20 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 48 and 32 degrees. The record high of 71 degrees was set back in 2006.

Looking ahead, Cyber Monday πŸ›οΈ and Beaver Moon πŸŒ•| 0 is in 6 weeks, First Day of Winter β˜ƒοΈ is in 9 weeks, 4:30 PM Sunset πŸŒ† is in 10 weeks, Winnie the Pooh Day 🍯 is in 13 weeks, Martin Luther King Day πŸ–€ is in 13 weeks, 5 PM Sunset πŸŒ† is in 14 weeks and February 🌧 is in 15 weeks.

Lowlands Below Chateaugay

The Historic Bahia Honda Bridge

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Bahama Bob’s Rumstyles: The Historic Bahia Honda Bridge

 Between 1905 and 1912, Henry Flagler and his crews built the Florida East Coast Railway that ran from Miami to Key West. The Bahia Honda Channel was very deep compared to the other crossings and a different approach to bridging it was required. Flagler's engineers decided to us a truss construction method to traverse the channel.οΏ½The center span utilized a "Parker Truss"to connect the 247 foot opening, the 186 foot spans used "Pratt Trusses", and smaller 128 foot "Pratt Trusses" on the remaining 13 spans. All of these trusses were connected by pins making it the longest pin connected bridge in America.

The Railroad operated until the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 blew the train off of the track and did serious damage to the rail bed. The bridge was late sold to the Overseas Road and Toll Bridge District and converted to vehicle usage. Unlike the other bridges that the highway could just be widened and laid right on top of the existing rail bed, there was no way to widen the rail bed within the trusses. The answer was to build road bed on the top of the bridge. The Bahia Honda Bride was the first to be bypassed and by 1972 after the west end deck girder was removed.

COVID-19 trashed the recycling dream

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The Plastic Pandemic: COVID-19 trashed the recycling dream

he coronavirus pandemic has sparked a rush for plastic.

From Wuhan to New York, demand for face shields, gloves, takeaway food containers and bubble wrap for online shopping has surged. Since most of that cannot be recycled, so has the waste.

But there is another consequence. The pandemic has intensified a price war between recycled and new plastic, made by the oil industry. It’s a war recyclers worldwide are losing, price data and interviews with more than two dozen businesses across five continents show.

Melting Cans With The Mini Metal Foundry

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For as long as I can remember, I've been intrigued by the idea of melting metal and making things with it. The problem has always been that it was out of reach or required really expensive equipment.

In this project I experimented with 10 different prototypes, to develop a reusable backyard foundry that melts aluminum soda cans easily and safely. I tested different refractory recipes, different containers, different setting for blowing air, and different types of makeshift crucibles.

I tried various ratios of portland cement, sand, perlite, plaster of paris, water, and even kitty litter. For containers, I experimented with clay pots, plastic buckets, no container, cinderblocks, and a galvanized steel pail.

Road Drops

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You should select first or maybe second gear, because the next 5 miles is downhill, as you drop deep into the North Potomac Valley.

Taken on Friday October 11, 2019