Delmar, NY

Good morning! A pretty nice morning.

I probably should have gone for a walk this morning but it was dark and I have trouble getting going in the dark.

Partly cloudy and 48 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ There is a south breeze at 5 mph. 🍃.

Made it to Tuesday. 🌄 Yesterday wasn’t too bad, I have my truck appointment for next Monday and in the meantime I’m not driving 🚘 Red lest I loose a wheel. I hate to keep dumping money into it but I don’t see an alternative with prices what they are with cars. And I don’t want a break down in remote country. 🐮 Plus I want to get at least another winter out of it with the deicing salt on the road before I throw it away.

The appointment is on Monday so I should be able to get away for Columbus Day Weekend 🍂. Autumn has been late this year so maybe there is a chance to get up to the Adirondacks one more time before the leaves have dropped or maybe I’m better off to do Burnt Rossman and the Western Catskills or Stoney Pond and Caz. ⛺ Not sure. Fuel prices ⛽ are coming down a lot and probably inflation is slowing with the hiking fed rate and stronger US dollar 💵.

It really is a good reason to plan more trips 🌲🌳assuming that we don’t get a ton of snow 🌨 too early in the autumn. That said, I am thinking increasingly about doing more winter trips to Rennselearville State Forest just because that road is plowed year round and there are good opportunities for winter camping and skiing 🎿 up there.

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. 🌫

Kind of a gray and foggy day out today. Very quiet around the High School this morning as it’s closed for Yon Kippur. I don’t know much about that holiday except for it being the start of the 1973 fuel crisis which changed everything in America until it didn’t.

Mostly cloudy and 55 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ Calm wind. The dew point is 54 degrees. The skies will clear around 6 pm.

Last week I didn’t do a very good job at getting my steps 👣 in. The mornings are so dark now and it was gray and rainy and I’ve been working late in the office 🏢 that is full of candy 🍬 and unhealthy stuff. Taking the earlier express bus 🚍 for walking 🚶 doesn’t work because it’s late so often and walking the Plaza is gross with all the homeless people who are kind of taking over the Plaza.

I am going to call this morning 🛠 about having an appointment made for Big Red to be repaired. 🛻 I’ve been noticing that something is loose in the suspension and I don’t want to find out what it is when I’m somehere in the wilderness 🌲 or a wheel falls off driving down the road at highway speed. Red turns eleven in two weeks but I don’t want to get a new vehicle before winter or until prices come down. Plus I don’t really know what I want to do after Red. Electric? Small sedan or truck?

My pantry is well stocked 🛒 so I’m good on that for now and I’m not sure if it’s going to be a nice weekend with the hurricane 🌀 heading up this way. I can always go for a walk to Five Rivers. I was kind of hoping to get north for the fall foliage 🍁 but it’s so late so I may wait. The best foliage locally is still a few weeks off.

I watch the stock market and bond market and just have to sigh. 📉 The truth is that both lower stock prices and bonds are to be expected with the fed rate rising. It means I’m getting a better price on new investments and growth will be steeper after the recession. Inflation will slow, gas prices will drop.

Good evening! The weekend comes to a close 🖐️

Time goes by so quickly these days it seems. I’m trying to learn and make good use my time for I know it’s not going to be around forever.

Rain and 61 degrees in Delmar. ☔ There is a south breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 56 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 6 am.

Somehow I was reading 📖 and listening to Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Autumn album 🎶 and was devastated to learn he died at age 47 from a massive heart ♥ attack with basically no warning. Makes you think a lot about time. ⏳ It really is something you think about more, especially when your pushing forty and time goes by so quickly.

Yesterday, though was a enjoyable day. 👪 I spent it with Mom and Dad on the gondola ride up to the top of Bellayare. I haven’t ridden a gondola since I was a little kid. 🚠 We drove through the Western Catskills then up to through the Northern Catskills. It was a very clear, blue sky day but not a lot of color except a few of trees along the north-facing slope towards the top of Bellayare. 🌄 Maybe not the greatest views ever, but it was a nice trip. I enjoy spending time with my parents, as I’m well aware it won’t be forever. The days are going by so quickly.

I really should get down to the Catskills more ⛰ but with my big jacked up truck, it’s kind of a pain to park and uses a lot of fuel. I more prefer these days to go places where I can set up camp, park for several days and hike and do activities from my base camp. Plus I keep hearing how popular hiking and the trails are these days 🚵‍♀️ compared to days of yore when you could hike, especially on weekdays, and never see another person.

I also hiked up Bennett Hill in the afternoon yesterday. 🚶‍♀️ It was remarkably crowded but then again Bennett Hill is always popular. 🏙 Remarkably clear though today, you could see the Adirondacks and Green Mountains and the city like it was next door. Much nicer then today which is quite gloomy to say the least.

Today I’ve been doing a lot of study of algorithms to classify map data, 🗺 into roughly equal population sections. I don’t know what fascinates me about this, often trying to do this forces data into ways it shouldn’t be. I’ve tried both the GAN approach by the redist library and the SKATER algorithm. I don’t love the results either produces. Maybe it’s silly to try to aggregate and group together diverse populations, like this but I always find those maps you see on Reddit and other sites where they show how a small portion of the land represents most of the people to be so interesting. 👨‍💻 Lately, I’ve grown much more into the analysis side of GIS since I’ve been doing more R work.

Next weekend I might go up to the Adirondacks 🏕 which was my original plan for this weekend, but I am not sure with a hurricane heading up this way. Initial forecasts look good for the weekend but I’m not convinced of that being the fact. Plus I am thinking I want to get the suspension looked over on my truck — I’ve noticed that is wandering a lot on the curves and I think lower ball joints may be ready to kick the bucket.