Immigration

I was out knocking doors yesterday and a few people mentioned sanctuary cities and that they had strong opinions one way or another. I kind of shrugged and moved on.

Sanctuary cities isn’t a issue I’ve followed carefully, it’s not one I have much opinion on – nor do I think I should. Immigration isn’t a issue that effects my life much. I’m sure there are immigrants all around me but it’s not something that really has jumped out as important or interesting in my life.

Growing up I never thought of Hispanics being black or anything but white. Maybe there were some Hispanics working on farms and other local businesses but if anything they were used to being rural and pretty closely blended in with local culture and custom. They may have been poor but so were many people who clearly where white all where.

I certainly think that the wall is kind of a silly waste of money but in the grand scheme of things is pretty small potatoes. The ecological impacts are mixed – walling off some areas might mean fewer humans and more pockets of wilderness along the border. I’m certainly not crying for it not to built but I think there are better projects for taxpayers to spend their money on.

I don’t like the government treating people unfairly and for everything I’ve read our current immigration system is often unnecessarily cruel. If people are working hard, mostly following the rules and making life better for all Americans the we should welcome them and not arrest them or chase immigrants away.

Immigration isn’t a big issue for me. But I do think we should treat immigrants with fairness and respect, and welcome all who are willing to help make our country a better place to live.

Electric Heaters

Before you go out and buy an electric heater, be aware …

1) All electric heaters are 100% efficient — wasted energy becomes heat in an electric heater, which is useful heat.
2) All 120 volt electric heaters that plug into the wall are 1,500 watts or 12.5 amps or 5,115 BTU.
3) Occasionally, you’ll see less then 5,000 BTU electric heaters, but they are rare, as electric coils are cheap to make, and you want to heat the room as quickly as possible — 5,000 BTU is less heat then you think.
4) The maximum electricity you can safely pull from a 20 amp circuit constantly is 12.5 amps. Run any more then 12.5 amps through such a circuit constantly, your wiring may start a fire. The breaker is rated for 20 amps to provide enough current for induction current for starting electric motors.
5) Don’t plug anything but a electric heater in a 20 amp outlet at any one time.
6) Electricity is expensive, because electricity generating plants aren’t that energy efficient — the laws of thermodynamics keep coal and gas plants between 25-35% energy efficient at generating electricity. In contrast, a household gas furnace might be 95% energy efficient. It’s a lot more efficient to directly burn coal or gas to make heat then electricity.
7) Electric heaters with oil heat up slower and cool down slower. They don’t save energy, they just stretch out the time the unit is warm. A cheap 1,500 watt fan heater is going to be just as warm as an expensive unit with oil, but the prior will heat up faster and cool down faster.

Additional fun facts about pumping versus generating heat that Greenies want you to know:

A) Air source heat pumps (e.g. split unit air conditioners run backwards) are 250% efficient at pumping heat compared generating heat directly. As you are moving heat not creating it, takes less energy move it around then actually create it. A 250% energy efficient heat pump x 35% efficient coal electric power plant = 87.5% energy efficiency in heating = older oil burner in a house.

B) Ground source heat pumps (e.g. the misnomer I hate geothermal) are 400% efficient at pumping heat. That’s because the temperature in the ground is usually much closer to your desired temperature in the building in most climates — so less compression of the coolant to pump the heat compared to air-source heat pumps. Take that same 35% efficient coal electric power plant and heat your house with a ground source heat pump that is 400% efficient and you’ll reach total 140% energy efficiency — more efficient then even a natural gas burner in your house, directly burning the fuel.

This is my Big Buddy Heater in 18,000 BTU mode — aka 5,275 watt output.

Too warm

Cowpasture River

Cowpasture River

"The Native Americans had named the river Walatoola, which means "winding waters", describing the great bends in the river. However, when British settlers arrived in the 1720s they named it the Cowpasture."

"There is an interesting story about how the Cowpasture and neighboring rivers the Bullpasture River and Calfpasture River came to be so named. It is said that the Indians once had stolen a herd of settlers' cattle and were driving them westward into the mountains. The calves naturally tired first; they were left behind at the river which is now the Calfpasture. The cows were driven on farther, but they, too, had to be abandoned, the valley in which they were left became the valley of the Cowpasture. The bulls, being somewhat hardier, were still able to continue westward; they finally were left at the river which is known as the Bullpasture."

Early Voting States

Most states offer some form of Early Voting.

States without Early Voting: Alabama, Connecticut, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Carolina. Delaware and Virginia have Early Voting scheduled to start in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

Colorado, Oregon and Washington do not have polling places, they are entirely Vote by Mail.

Source: http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/early-voting-in-state-elections.aspx

October 27, 2019 Morning

Good morning! Happy Sunday. β›ͺNext Sunday is Regular Time πŸ›₯️. That means another perfectly good hour to waste. Does that mean I get burn it? πŸ”₯ Maybe the weather will be nice enough for me to go camping. β›Ί Heavy rain and 48 degrees in Delmar, NY. β˜” Breezy, ️16 mph breeze from the southeast 🌬 with gusts up to 29 mph πŸ’¨πŸ’¨πŸ’¨. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 4 am. β˜ƒοΈ

Feeling better today for the most part. ☺ Maybe not perfect but not aching or as sore as yesterday. A bit of congestion but hardly sick as I was only a few days ago. Slept in a bit today and will try to get to bed by 9 pm tonight. πŸ•˜ Going to be wet so if my neighbor is or I’ll probably ride the exercise bike 🚲 for a while to get some exercise in. I do need to get some YouTube videos to watch, maybe when I’m at my parents house later for Sunday dinner. πŸ“Ή

Today will rain. 🌧 Going to pick up midday so be aware then stop later on. πŸ’¦ High of 52 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 5th. Maximum dew point of 50 at 3pm. πŸ–οΈ Southeast wind 11 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 43 degrees. The record high of 79 was set in 1963. 1.7 inches of snow fell back in 2016.❄ I don’t remember that storm, we just had rain when I was in the old North Syracuse, a town most famous for the Plank Road that is just asphalt these days and mostly bypassed by Interstate 81.

Continuing to go through my pictures from Dolly Sods πŸ“· and have been wore on organizing some of the files πŸ“‚ on my computer πŸ’». I finally got around this morning to fixing the missing screw on the old hard drive and reformatting it so I can move some of my videos and other less speed critical stuff ⏳ like videos I’m just playing back or music files. I mean I got have to mean I have to have places to put my Dick Curless records 🎸 and videos of folks combining farm fields. 🚜

Heading out to the folks house 🏑 for Sunday dinner 🍲. Apparently they have the same cold that I have. Hopefully they are feeling better. I wonder if they got it from me or I got it from them. Hard to say, it’s not like I spent much time in their house while I was there housing their dog 🐢.

I still haven’t had a chance to Early Vote ❎ but I want to think a bit more about a few of the candidates πŸ’­ and will vote after dinner on Monday. I bet that will be a relatively quiet time at the polling place. Just have to be on line in the polling place by 8 pm but I’ll try to be there closer to seven. I don’t think poll workers like to have to work late.

The sun will set at 5:55 pm with dusk around 6:24 pm, which is one minute and 25 seconds earlier than yesterday. πŸŒ‡ At sunset, look for rain to be tapering off 🌧 and temperatures around 52 degrees. The dew point will be 50 degrees. There will be a southeast breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 32 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 39 seconds over yesterday.

Yesterday was quite a nice. πŸ—» I wish th sun β˜€ could have stayed out a little longer while I was at the tower but there was still a decent amount of color up there. It was not a mistake to head home after hiking – it would have been a pretty wet morning for taking down camp β›Ί and I would have to unpack this morning. Plus I had no idea how I would have felt by morning.

Tonight will be scattered showers, mainly before 9pm. Patchy fog after 2am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 48 degrees at 4am. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 25th. Northwest wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 41 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1974.

I got to think about getting Big Red inspected now that’s its November. πŸ” My tires will pass inspection this year but probably not next year. ⚫ Not sure if need an oil change I should check Big Red’s DIC. I did add a half quart of oil which is not unreasonable consumption over two thousand miles. Been doing a lot of travel.

Governor Ronald Reagan in 1964 delivers a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. πŸ’¬ The speech launches his political career and comes to be known as “A Time for Choosing”.🏯 Politics is such silly business but it pays good and beats shoveling shit for little money. πŸ’° Plus now I get to go home now from my new windowless office at five each day now.

As previously noted, next Sunday is Daylight Savings Time Ends πŸ›₯️ when the sun will be setting at 4:46 pm with dusk at 5:15 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2018, we had rain and temperatures between 57 and 41 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 53 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 1990.

 East

October 27, 2019 – Looking Ahead This Week

This upcoming week should be quite mild with some sunny days and some showers. Today is the wettest day of week.

Weather Summary
Today.
Feels like …
November 5th.

Rain and 52 degrees , 5:55 sunset.
Tonight.
Feels like …
September 24th.

Scattered Showers then Patchy Fog and 48 degrees , 7:24 sunrise.
Monday.
Feels like …
October 12th.

Patchy Fog then Partly Sunny and 61 degrees , 50 max dew point, 5:54 sunset.
Monday Night.
Feels like …
September 30th.

Mostly Cloudy and 45 degrees , 7:25 sunrise.
Tuesday.
Feels like …
October 10th.

Patchy Drizzle and 62 degrees , 51 max dew point, 5:52 sunset.
Tuesday Night.
Feels like …
September 24th.

Mostly Cloudy and 48 degrees , 7:26 sunrise.
Wednesday.
Feels like …
October 7th.

Partly Sunny and 63 degrees , 53 max dew point, 5:51 sunset.
Wednesday Night.
Feels like …
October 5th.

Mostly Cloudy then Chance of Showers and 43 degrees , 7:27 sunrise.
Thursday.
Feels like …
October 28th.

Chance of Showers and 55 degrees , 5:50 sunset.
Thursday Night.
Feels like …
October 5th.

Showers is likely and 43 degrees , 7:29 sunrise.
Friday.
Feels like …
October 22nd.

Showers is likely and 57 degrees , 5:48 sunset.
Friday Night.
Feels like …
October 27th.

Chance of Showers then Partly Cloudy and 36 degrees , 7:30 sunrise.
Saturday.
Feels like …
November 10th.

Mostly Sunny and 50 degrees , 5:47 sunset.

East