Delmar, NY

Good morning! The average high for today is 50 degrees but that’s just a cruel joke ❄

It seems like the mercury will struggle to reach 25 degrees with a stiff breeze. The lion 🦁 doesn’t seem to want to bite the bucket. I guess that’s what we get for the warm weather last week.

Cold and sunny 🌞 and 18 degrees in Delmar, NY. Breezy, ️16 mph breeze from the west-northwest 🌬 with gusts up to 28 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is 3. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 1 pm. 🌡️

A cold morning walk 🚶 though the wind 🍃 is giving me a bit of a break for now. That said, there were certainly colder days walking in February. The sun is still in my eyes 👀 this morning but I am running a bit later than usual. 🎶 Listening to Arlo Guthrie sing about the City of New Orleans. But all the towns and people seem to fall into a bad dream, and the steel rail hasn’t heard the news 📰.

Well the heat is back on. ♨️ I waited as long as I could but with the mercury dropping I switched it back on. It’s gas heat and the worse I’ve seen a a $110 bill for gas and electric but I don’t like paying more than I have to. Last month was only $95 as I kept thermostat down and didn’t use the space heater much. I think the heat will be off again come Wednesday once it’s back but above freezing and getting up to the fifties in the day time. Friday I might have the windows open 🔳 again. Average high is sixty in less than three 3⃣ weeks now.

Session day today, 👨🏻‍💼I’m going to try out that dress shirt that I patched the tare in the shoulder. This way I should have gone enough shirts for a five day session week. Some point I’ll get to JC Penny. Worse comes to worst, I’ll run to the laundromat mid week. I really need to research alternative places to get dress shirts, as some points the ones I have will wear out.

Went to Walmart and got $90 in groceries and supplies. 🛒 My pantry should be well stocked for the week. I did forget cooking oil and pan spray but I’ll just use butter I guess. I can’t complain that’s not bad for what is likely enough food 🍲 and supplies for the week. Maybe I worry too much about little things like that but over time things add up. Kind of mad I forgot oil, pancakes 🥞 are so much crisper and better with a little oil.

Car insurance, electricity bill and rent is due this week 💵 so even more bills but at least it’s a pay week. Having stayed home the past few weeks things aren’t so bad. I might head out to hit up a trout stream this weekend 🎣 and maybe an overnight, time and the forecast will tell. Hopefully, assuming I did my tax rebate in a week or two I’ll be getting my tax refund back, which will be good to buy gas and beer for my next trip up to the wilderness. 🌲 🏕 🏞

The markets are back up, 📈 so I guess I don’t have much to fret as investments continue to grow, though probably not the rate of inflation. But every day I get one closer to owning my own land. 🐷 I think my parents were impressed how much I know about pig farming, probably because I’ve read a few books about it. That said, pigs are great organic recyclers and reclaimers of land, especially after you’ve run a few ton of grain through them. Don’t recommend them too close, or upwind of your house though. But they can turn rock and sand into some good dirt for farming. 🚜 Looking at Zillow is fun, although there is nothing on that site that I am that interested into locally, but I want to wait a few more years before jumping in, and probably not in New York because you know gun restrictions and burn bans, taxes etc. Better to save and invest today for a better tomorrow. 💰

While I didn’t get my 10,000 steps in yesterday 👣 I did go for my evening walk. It was brisk, but lacking the cold of true winter. On my way to Walmart from my parents house I thought about doing a quick jog up Blodgett Hill but decided against it as it was a cold evening and I didn’t want to get to Walmart too late. Maybe I’ll hike Blodgett Hill after I go to the transfer station in a few weeks. ♻ It would be interesting to check up on the Pitch Pine up there. 🌲

I am thinking in a few weeks about what my next road trip will be. 🏕 With fuel prices maybe not so far away, although I’m leaning towards the Adirondacks. The fishing opportunities probably though would be better in Central NY. 🎣 But it’s been a long time since I’ve been up to the Adirondacks, so that would be fun too. I want to take off a few days from work, so I can camp at least 3 nights — maybe over the Easter Weekend or maybe the weekend before. I am not really sure at this point. It would be nice to sit in the hammock with a book, 📖 assuming that it’s not too cold out for that.

Good morning! The cold has arrived on this Sunday morning. ☁️

No snow here, but my buddy up in Summit has posted pictures of several inches of snow up in his place. ❄️ Maybe some snow here late tonight into tomorrow? Possibly, I want to try to be off the roads before the salt spreaders come out for the night.

Mostly cloudy and 37 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a southwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 6 pm. ☃️

It’s a Sunday, I have the normal things on tap. 😷 Wash and boil the muzzles, 🚿 scrub and clean around, ♻️ smash down the recycables and try to find more room for them 🗑 get clothes together and read to be taken out with me to the folks house to be washed in the afternoon. 👕 I was able to fix an old dress shirt with a rip, 👔 it’s not perfect, but under the blazer nobody can see the patched rip in the shoulder. I still need to get more dress shirts, but it’s tough with Sears closed and JC Penny open limited hours, and I’m afraid to order anything online — as you never know what you will get.

Going out to the folks house later today for Sunday dinner. 🍽 I’m thinking I might do a quick jot up Bennett Hill, though that’s not set in stone. 🚶‍♀️ It’s probably going to be super sloppy up there and I might want the farm boots. 👢 There in my truck if I need them. Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to wear them even if they are bit bulky and obnoxious for hiking, they do keep your feet dry. There’s a reason why farmer folk 👩‍🌾 wear ’em in those muddy cow pastures — and it’s not just to keep them out of the shit. 💩

It’s going to be a four or five day session week coming up. 👨‍💼 I expect I’ll probably be taking the local most of the week and will need five days worth of clean dress shirts and pants. I think I am good with that now that I patched that one shirt, but if need be I’ll run to laundromat mid-week. 👖 I thought about going to JC Penny yesterday but it was pouring rain, and I wanted to combine it with a walk in the Pine Bush plus I didn’t want to drive in the rain. 🌧

I do need to get groceries, 🏪 and are thinking about it after dinner with the folks, assuming it’s not snowing too much. ❄️ I need a lot of little things, I could probably go a few more days, but what happens if I get stuck working late most of the week? Not that I think it’s likely, they don’t have a lot of bills left on the debate list to take up this week. 🗣 I have no idea when the budget will get done, but I think it won’t be super over-due, plus in the department I work in, chances are good that I either won’t have to work late or I can work remotely.

It was a nice walk yesterday out to Five Rivers, 🐦 although I tell you that plastic plant in Fuera Bush stunk like ABS plastic. Think about the smell of that old record player or television set you tossed in the bonfire, kind of smell. 👃 It was pretty yucky. I’ve noticed the stink from time to time as far away as Five Rivers when the wind is blowing the right way. SABIC Plastic and it’s predecessor GE Plastics bought out and tore down the nearby houses, 🏚 probably because the neighbors complained about the being constantly fumigated by the plant. They still run the town compost plant right next to it, along with a large solar farm and hay and crop fields, but I don’t know about the toxicity of it all. 💀 I get that styrene and butadine can be pungent though in tiny amounts, leaking out of plant pipes and when unloaded from train cars. A few years back, a tanker car full of liquid styrene flipped over in the yard, though fortunately little leaked.

Besides the occasional stink, 👃 it wasn’t too bad a Five Rivers. 🐸 Lot of children 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 and others walking around but I still was able to find some solitude and got in 17,000 steps for the day. Usual birds, lots of Red-wing Black Birds, Robbins,  Canada Geese 🦆, Morning Doves, etc. Geese must be having babies soon, they were super aggressive around one of the ponds. Saw some deer exploring the Van Dyke Preserve earlier in the morning.

Got home around 12 AM and stayed home the rest of the day 🏠 as it poured and drizzled most of the afternoon. Every time I wanted to go for a walk or down to the library, it was raining too hard. 🚿 Plus it was a Saturday and I didn’t feel like showering or getting clean. I just wanted to be dirty.

Good morning! Happy Saturday, final one of March 🌷

Spring is coming or so we tell ourselves, they have the tulip gardens planted in Washington Park.

Partly cloudy and 38 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ Calm wind.Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 5 pm. ☃️

Made it to the weekend. ☺ I guess it really wasn’t that bad of a week though there was a lot of meetings and projects going on especially the second half of the week. But I expect a quiet weekend.

I decided to start the weekend with a walk 🚶 out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center 🐸 via Meads Road. 🐮 I doubt I’ll see a bald eagle 🦅 this week but you never know. I get more steps in that way and it’s a pleasant morning.

Got an early start 🌄 although by my standards not that early a little after seven 7⃣. The blue skies are expected to turn to rain 🌧️ by mid day and a fairly wet afternoon. I think I will skip getting another dress shirt in favor of just running to the laundromat mid week. 🚿 I can either wear a dress shirt twice or dig for an old dress shirt if I need to cover a day and I don’t have time to get to the laundry.

Did my usual evening walk and the spring peepers 🐸 were singing 🎶 their song. Got dark early with the cloudy skies although truth be told I like to push dusk at the park 🏞 to see more wildlife. Deer 🦌 and rabbit 🐰 about, also heard the owl 🦉 and saw some red wing black birds 🐦 which I know doesn’t surprise me or any one else in Delmar.

Had fish 🐠 last night and left my windows open 🔲 during my evening walk to air things on out. I like fish but I don’t like that fishy smell after you come back inside. I put the storm windows in as tomorrow I’m going to need the heat through Tuesday it looks. I’m hoping it’s the last time until October or maybe November now. Can’t believe the high on Monday will be around 27.

Three weeks until Easter weekend. 🐰 I’m thinking that would be a good weekend to head up to the Adirondacks ⛺ but like anything it depends on the weather. I might take off a few days to tack on to that weekend.