Interstate 88
August 3, 2020 Morning
Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Partly sunny and 72 degrees at the Swift Wetland Preserve. There is a west-southwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 65 degrees. The muggy weather ends Wednesday around 7 pm. 😓
It certainly is a real muggy day. 😰 Last night was much worse, especially before dinner time. I ended up going to Tractor Supply and getting my propane tank filled, along with washing Big Red and getting groceries and two flash drives 💾 to replace the one that I lost that had all my music 🎶 on for listening in the truck and was using to move files 📂 between my personal and work laptop.
I thought yesterday was going to be a lot cooler and rainy ☔ then it turned out to be. After packing up hammock camp on Irish Hill I fished at White Birch Pond. 🎣 It was cloudy to start out the morning but it cleared and got hot and sunny. Caught two rock bass, one was big enough it would have filled a large frying 🍳 pan but I tossed it back in because they’re all bones. I saw a red tailed hawk overhead a couple of times then I looked up and noticed one of the hawks had a white head and some white tail feathers and realized it was a Bald Eagle. Neat!
Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 86 degrees at 3pm. Four degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 65 at 8am. West wind 7 to 9 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. It was humid. The high last year was 85 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1975.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:02 pm with sun having an altitude of 64.7° from the due south horizon (-6.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:34 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (288°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (295°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:14 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 11 seconds with dusk around 8:44 pm, which is one minute and 13 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waining Gibbous 🌖 Moon in the east-southeast (117°) at an altitude of 0° from the horizon, 243,864 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:25 pm. At sunset, watch out thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 80 degrees. The dew point will be 66 degrees. Another super muggy evening There will be a west-southwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 22 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 15 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 4am. Increasing clouds 🌧, with a low of 69 degrees at 4am. Eight degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 4am. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was humid. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1966.
I got my new cellphone in the mail ✉ yesterday. 📱 I was surprised it came on a Saturday. I have yet to activate it but my old phone is barely holding a charge and once I get the case today I’ll switch over to it. 🔋 The new phone is charging now and once I get the case today I’ll move the SIM card 💳 and SD card over to the new phone and download apps that I normally use at the library 📚 this afternoon.
Going to be a nice, hot summer weekend. 🏊 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Maximum dew point of 63 at 9am. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 87. Maximum dew point of 65 at 11am. Typical average high for the weekend is 82 degrees.
I am going to request next week off for vacation. ⛺ Not totally sure if I will get it but maybe I can work remotely part of the week if necessary. I think I’m going to my old standby of the Finger Lakes National Forest. Not going to spend a lot of time at the state parks but maybe a day or two I’ll go to the pool and swim but I’m sure parking 🅿 will be severely limited so I’ll have to get up early to swim 🏊. My oil change is tomorrow and after that I should be good to go.
There are 3 months until Election Day 2020 🗳️ when the sun will be setting at 4:45 pm with dusk at 5:14 pm (Standard Time).
Saw quite a bit of Partridge Run today…
Saw quite a bit of Partridge Run today… 🚶
Its really good to get away from the craziness of it all. Well except for the dog bite, that wasn’t cool. But I did get to see a lot of nature and not a lot of people outside of the area around the ponds.
Started on Gifford Hollow Road, took Old Partridge Run Road to Woodcock Truck Trail, hiked back to the Gulf, then up Ravine Road to Sickle Hill Road to Beaver Truck Trail past Upper and Lower Beaver Ponds to the Long Path to Tubbs Pond to Fawn Lake to White Birch Pond to an imaginary line bushwhacking over to Upper Switz Kill Falls to Old Partridge Run Road and eventually back to where I parked on Gifford Hollow. Those are some impressive metes! I had enough time I probably could have headed a little farther west in Partridge Run but I wanted to stay on gravel roads so I wouldn’t sink out of sight and have soggy, blistered feet for the hike back to the truck.
And no I still don’t like Baxter the Pit Bull on Sickle Hill Road. At least he didn’t draw blood.
A few thoughts
Well I didn’t expect to get bit by a pit bull named Baxter on Sickle Hill Road. Good ol rednecks dog, protecting the family homestead out onto the road. The jeans I was wearing was soon to be trash at any rate. Maybe I’ll use them for mopping up my messes for a while before donating them. Cold with the big hole in the pants.
I saw that trailer that is off grid on Ravine Road has a bunch of solar panels rigged up for electricity. Bet it works good for them. Probably a really nice homestead too.
Lots of people hanging out at Partridge Run, fishing and scoping out turkey. Good for them, it’s a great place for solitary, wild recreation and you might even bring home dinner in an era when it’s getting harder to find food on the grocery shelves with Corona crazies everywhere.
Better keep moving. I am about three hours away from my truck and sunset is in three hours. At least the days are long with the time change.
Cold but sunny this afternoon
Cold but sunny this afternoon… 😎
It makes for nice hiking with the frozen ground and the sun is bright but everything has that early spring brown to it. Kind of wish I had sunglasses to wear and brought sunscreen as March sunburns can be bad as there is very little shade.