April 15, 2019 Night

|

Good evening! I hope you survived this most taxing of days. I certainly did, but it was as awful as I thought. Partly clear, a blustery 40 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ Stiff breeze at 30 mph the west-northwest 💨 with gusts up to 52 mph 💨💨💨. Wind at times is really roaring around tonight. The skies will clear tomorrow around noontime.

I survived another three-years worth of defensive driving class.😳 It was as awful as usual, nothing has really changed, but I guess it’s good to freshen up on things. I doubt the class really makes people much safer drivers, but acts a selection mechanism for the safest drivers on block.🚙 I almost didn’t take it when I heard they raised the rate for the class to $25 from $10 three years ago, but that 10% discount on insurance over three years adds up. Taxes and fines are high in New York, so don’t speed, don’t drink and drive, don’t touch your phone while driving.

I do use my cruise control a lot more these days, and keep my speed down on on the highways. Driving without speeding is a lot less stressful and saves gas. I do sometimes suffer from road rage when I see a cop, doing something I don’t think is fair, but the best thing is to just keep driving in a mostly law-abiding fashion and ignore it. 👊 I really shouldn’t take calls while driving, even with the hands free, but at least now with the latest version of Waze I don’t have to touch the phone to run most commands like report a police trap — and anything that is more then simple to do — I just pull off at the next safe spot.

I’ve never texted anyone while driving, but I do read text messages and email headers when they pop up on my phone in the hands-holder,📱 in big text, which is near my line of sight. If I need to respond, I will pull over where lawful, or call back on the hands-free phone. I’m much more careful with the CB radio, which to operate it, being mounted as low as it is, can be difficult to operate.

After the 6-hour class, I decided to go into work for the final two hours of the day. 📝As I have an hour paid lunch, I only ended up having to use 5-hours of personal time, and honestly I don’t have that much personal time, and I’ve earned a lot of comp time over the past few months. 💼 Work was a bit of clusterduck when I got there, I kind of picked a busy day to be out. But things that got done happened, and life moves on. Probably good that I decided to go to the office for a few hours this afternoon. I’m still thinking about taking a day or two off next week.

Wireless headphones weren’t working on my phone 🔇 today which made for a long bus ride home. 🎧 I think I just needed to update the software on my phone. 📱 Now they work perfectly after I updated the firmware.

I was pretty tired after all that happened today, as that defensive driver class is pretty intense while also being superboring, as the videos haven’t changed in 30 years. I did walk down to the library for a while, 📚and worked on some stuff down there for a while. Mostly just a lot of catching up, some fixing a nasty little bug I discovered in my blog. At least the rain is gone for now, but it’s cooled down a lot. I’m going to turn off the lights and head to bed in a bit. 😴

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers before midnight. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear 🌧, with a low of 35 degrees at 6am. Three degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around April 10th. Windy, with a northwest wind 22 to 31 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2018, we had light rain in the evening, which became rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 22 occurred back in 1981.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 92% illuminated. The moon will set at 5:01 am. The 🌕 is on Thursday night with a slight chance of showers then chance of showers. The sun will rise at 6:12 am with the first light at 5:43 am, which is one minute and 37 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 10 hours and 33 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 44 seconds over last night.

Much nicer weather tomorrow. It will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 59 degrees at 3pm. Typical for mid April. Breezy, with a northwest wind 20 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy in the morning, which became light drizzle by afternoon. The high last year was 49 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 2012. 5.3 inches of snow fell back in 1983.❄

I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow. I’ll be getting paid tomorrow which is good, 💸although much of those funds have already been allocated for various purposes. But I should have enough money to do an end of the month road trip, although I’m thinking it may be just to the East Branch through I’m considering still going up to the Adirondacks North Country.

Easter weekend continues to look wet and cloudy. 😞 Saturday, rain likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 70. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Maximum dew point of 57 at 6am. Sunday, a chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 63. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 46 at 6am. Typical average high for the weekend is 61 degrees.

This next weekend I’m going to most likely stick around town although if I get a nice day I might go down to the Catskills and hike up Platte Clove Road. 🚶 Or maybe do some fishing on the Eight Mile Creek. 🎣 I’m not sure, it all depends on the weather. I also have projects that I can work on at home. Obviously staying home is the cheapest option but it might be fun to get out of town.

The weekend after next I’m definitely looking to get out of town. By then it looks like the weather will moderate and it could be quite sunny and warm. ☀ I would camp, ⛺ fishing 🎣, and maybe some hiking. 🚶 It should be a great weekend to kick off the 2019 camping season. Probably take off Friday of that week and maybe also Thursday. I’m not going to take any time off though although until it gets closer and the forecast is more certain but the 8-14 day outlook looks good for now.

In four weeks on May 13 the sun will be setting at 8:09 pm,🌄 which is 31 minutes and 19 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 68 and 48 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 69 and 46 degrees. The record high of 86 degrees was set back in 2004.

Looking ahead, Earth Day 🌎 is in 1 week, Memorial Day 🇺🇸 is in 6 weeks, Latest Sunset 🌆 is in 10 weeks, July 🏊🏿 is in 11 weeks, Cow Appreciation Day 🐂 is in 3 months, Last Sunset After 8 PM 🌆 is in 17 weeks, Labor Day 👨‍🏭 is in 20 weeks and Columbus Day 🛥️ is in 25 weeks.

Pattern

Motoring is Awful

|

Every time I take Defensive Driving, I have to think how awful the motoring experience really is.

Big Red

Motoring is expensive, environmentally destructive, polluting, puts you at constant risk of jail, prison 👮 and fines and often involves dealing with scams and questionable individuals.👺

The assumption is that when I retire Big Red in five years, I’ll go out and buy another car or truck. 🚙 I don’t know though. I could go personal-automobile free and save a lot of money. Use transit and rent only when I really need. Possibly save as much as $100,000 over the next decade by not having auto expenses and greatly reduce my carbon footprint. 👣

I wouldn’t give up my drivers license per se, and I would still rent a car for a week in the summer for a long camping trip. ⛺ But I would instead get a good bicycle 🚲 and hike and bike around town, experiencing more that’s closer to home. Nice weekends I could bike out to the Heldebergs to hammock camp. There are many local parks I overlook for shiner locations in the distance. ⛲

The extra money 💵 saved could go towards saving money to own land and the off grid property I eventually want to own. I’m making steps in that direction but motoring 🏁 not only is expensive it poses a grave safety risk to my future. One mistake behind the wheel and it could all be over.

There may not be much of a future 🌎with climate change but I could make a dramatic change in my life by giving up motoring except for the few times a year I rent a car. Renting is expensive but it’s still a lot cheaper than having a vehicle that is parked a good portion of the year.

I have some time. ⌚ I probably will have Big Red for a few more years, but what comes next isn’t totally clear. But I do see motoring as an expensive threat to my future, something that I should reconsider in the coming years especially if I eventually want to have the resources to own my own land and live the life I actually want to live.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez left Facebook. Just like me – CNN

|

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez left Facebook. Just like me – CNN

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the most prolific and powerful politicians on social media, with millions of followers who hang on her every post and tweet. She's said goodbye to Facebook, though. On Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez, 29, told Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery that she had given up her personal account on the world's largest social network (the Democratic representative still has a professional presence, with a verified profile and plenty of political ads running on Facebook). She called social media a "public health risk" that results in issues like increased isolation, depression, addiction, escapism and anxiety. "I think it poses these issues to everyone," the New York congresswoman said. She said she's started to impose "little rules" on herself in other social domains such as Twitter, which she tries to stay off on the weekends. She didn't elaborate on why, precisely, she left Facebook (FB) specifically. But the website has come to embody many of the ills of social media.

Bill McKibben Book ‘Falter’ Details Possibility of Human Extinction – Rolling Stone

|

Bill McKibben Book ‘Falter’ Details Possibility of Human Extinction – Rolling Stone

Oh, it could get very bad.

In 2015, a study in the Journal of Mathematical Biology pointed out that if the world’s oceans kept warming, by 2100 they might become hot enough to “stop oxygen production by phyto-plankton by disrupting the process of photosynthesis.” Given that two-thirds of the Earth’s oxygen comes from phytoplankton, that would “likely result in the mass mortality of animals and humans.”

I think the politicians aren't taking the threat of Climate Change seriously, because it would require difficult choices in the short-term, that aren't popular. In democracies, it's very difficult for elected officials to do things that will get them unelected by enacting policies that the public doesn't really like. Most people are focused on what "feels good today", with ignorance of the long-term consequences of their actions. It's actually, pretty damn scary where we as a globe are rapidly plunging towards.

Next Time – Monday April 15

|

Today’s sunrise was at 6:12 am. The next time the sun will rise later then today 🌄 is in 132 days on Sunday, August 25.

The average high for today is 58 degrees. 🌡 The next time it will be on average cooler then today is in 190 days on Tuesday, October 22 when the average temperature will be 57 degrees.

Today’s sunset will be at 7:37 pm. The next time the sun will set earlier then today 🌆 is in 135 days on Wednesday, August 28.

The average low for today is 37 degrees. 🌡 The next night it will be on average cooler then tonight is in 195 days on Sunday, October 27 when the average temperature will be 36 degrees.

Canada Goose