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Cass Park
I really like my weekends in the wilderness 🌲
You know one of the hardest things about thinking about buying a house is that it would mean my time and money would be tied up in the place I call home but really isn’t my home. While I get tired of the long drives out to the wilderness, there is something special about the days I spend lhouses and plots of land I’ve looked at.
The truth is that I need to get out of the Albany area where things are so thickly settled to actually find home. But in the meantime I can travel on weekends, spend my time in the wilderness and enjoy the freedom I so crave. Camping at a roadside site in the wilderness is a chance to be away from it all. With nobody in ear sight or eye sight so I can have my privacy and freedom.
Poor nutrition and mental health 🤪
I was thinking that maybe a big part of the declining mental health of many Americans may be their diet. At one level that seems kind of silly and trivial but diet is the fuel for the human body, and if you are eating poorly not only are you more likely to be bullied and get worse opportunities in life, the quality of your thought processes decline and your ability to think clearly isn’t as strong as one with a good diet.
Now it seems silly to blame serious things like depression or even suicide or homicides on eating too many cookies or hamburgers. I don’t buy the unhealthy chemicals argument but I do think there is a lot of evidence that poor blood sugar levels can lead to poor decision making and impulsive behavior. I’ve seen that in my life. Low blood sugar makes me cranky and angry, while high blood sugar can put me in euraphic state, taking unnecessary risks. Insufficient protein levels not only makes you weak but gives you unclear thinking and vitamin deficiency can cause all kinds of issues.
When the ice cream makes you sick 🍨😔
Getting those large maple walnut sundaes at the Glen Dairy Bar is quite a tradition for me. But maybe not so much in my forties. All that sugar made me feel so sick and kept me up half the night. I might get ice cream later in the week but it won’t be a large portion for sure! I still feel kind of sick today from all that sugar. Soft ice cream has so much.
Good morning! Where did July go? Lost to vacationland I guess. Today is Ithaca day, exploring the city and the gorges on my bicycle. Beautiful day, partly sunny and 72 degrees at the Cass Park 🏞 on Cayuga Lake. There is a northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 58 degrees. Big day ahead. Monday, Monday on vacation. 🏖 It really doesn’t seem too bad.
As I noted, Today is Ithaca Day, that is I plan to do Ithaca is Gorges. Start out at Stewart Park 🏞 this time starting closer to 9 am then 11:30 am. I need to stop and get ice on the way back to camp, the Enfield Dandy’s should be good for that. Mostly for the coolers but I’ll also fill one of the water bottles with ice so as it melts down in the evening I can use it for lemonade with Stevia. 🍋
I don’t have cell service up at camp so I’ve been slow at uploading photos to the blog 📸 as it requires a lot of data, and even when I bike or hike where I have good service 📶 it seems like it’s still pretty weak up on the backbone and in parts of Watkins Glen. Ithaca today I should have better service but too much blogging 📝 takes time away from adventures. 🧗♂️ Ain’t got no time for that!
Today will have a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Partly sunny , with a high of 77 degrees at 4pm. Seven degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 8th. Maximum dew point of 59 at 12pm. Northwest wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 86 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1917.
That sugar from the ice cream was so bad. 🤮 I thought I was going to have the runs all night spraying poop 💩 off the tailgate of my pickup, having to shovel it come the morning. Wasn’t that bad but I was bouncing off the walls well after midnight, riding the Forest Service roads after dark on my mountain bike 🚵,, hanging out at Foster Pond well into the moonlit hours of Monday early hours with no desire to sleep. Sugar is a narcotic when your not used to eating it. Hell of it was I was still a bit hungry when I got back to camp but frying up an onion 🧅 with some fresh spinach more than filled me up fine. No alcohol yesterday, and only other thing I eat all day was a banana 🍌 or two, the remainder of pancake 🥞 mix and sausage I had bought last winter. But they’re done now and I’m done with that chapter of my life in the thirties. I’m forty now.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:13 pm with sun having an altitude of 65.8° from the due south horizon (-5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:48 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (289°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (296°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:29 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 13 seconds with dusk around 8:59 pm, which is one minute and 7 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the southeast (133°) at an altitude of 6° from the horizon, 227,253 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:41 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 69 degrees. The dew point will be 58 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 33 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 8 seconds over yesterday.
This morning I avoided anything with sugar and instead fried up spring onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers with a bunch of spinach and an egg or two. 🍳 Added some parm cheese 🧀 and MSG plus pepper. It was good. No desire for anything sweet at this point. 🤮 My stomach still is rumbling from the sugar. I also hard boiled eggs 🥚 for protein later. Probably eat dinner on the run this evening.
Swimming 🏊 in Cayuta Lake at Taughannock, Buttermilk Falls swimming and Enfield Glen swimming are open until seven. That is after exploring the Casacadilla Glen at Cornell University and other bike 🚲 paths and trails in the city. Figuring a light snacky dinner when I get back, probably sugar free syrup plus kidney beans, or maybe I’ll cut into the watermelon 🍉 I got on Friday. That should be good but I know as soon as I cut into the watermelon the clock will be ticking ⏳and I’ll be eating a lot of water melon. Just like if I get clams 🦪 later in the week. Eat eat eat! Just hopefully not get sick like all that ice cream.
Tonight will have a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10pm. Partly cloudy 🌃 with a low of 54 degrees at 5am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 12th. Maximum dew point of 58 at 6pm. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 69 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1964.
Yesterday besides my adventures in eating and ice cream sickness it was a busy day, bicycled 🚲 30 miles, hiked 4 ½, 🚶 swam for about a half hour. 🏊♂️ Did all of the Catharine Valley Trail from Watkins Glen to Montour Falls to the end outside of Horsesheads in Pine Valley at the Mark Twain Golf Course ⛳. Rode in the evening along Rock Dam Road, you can really fly down there on a mountain bike. 🚵 Then along Airport Road 🛬 at the Catharine Valley WMA to Boat 🛥 Launch Lane, then over through the village to the Watkins Glen pier on Seneca Lake. Walked out on the pier, it was colorful evening 🌃 but the sunset was kind of blocked by clouds that came in late. Went back through Clute Park then rode back to my truck around dusk disappointed by the lack of a classic sunset. On the whole it was a beautiful day!
Going to close out vacation next weekend with good swimming weather. 🏊♂️ Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 79. Maximum dew point of 66 at 11am. Maybe paddle Seneca Lake then swim at the Watkins Glen pool. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 83. Maximum dew point of 64 at 11am. Swimming in Cayuga Lake? Then head home around 4 pm or so to be home by dark? 🏡 That’s a long way off, no need to think about it. Typical average high for the weekend is 83 degrees.
Looking ahead, there are 3 weeks until World Mosquito Day 🐞 when the sun will be setting at 8:00 pm with dusk at 8:28 pm. Bugs seem worse this year then normal but no so bad now that the front came through and cooler. On that day in 2022, we had hot, partly sunny and temperatures between 88 and 70 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 82 degrees. We hit a record high of 98 back in 1916.
