Delmar, NY

Good morning! It’s as they say, it’s Wednesday, everything looks worse in black and white. 📷

I’ve always wished I could get that nice rich color of Kodachrome with my digital camera. That said, the vivid mode does produce some pretty vibrant colors. You can guess what Paul Simon song is on the radio this morning.

Clear and 12 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌞 There is a west-northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. There are 3 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at Tuesday around 1 pm. 🌡️

I guess it’s cold outside, 🌨 but I left the heat turned down and I’m plenty warm in my apartment. I swear usually December is the worse month of the year for heating bills, as after I get my bill I suddenly don’t notice the cold at all. I did leave the cabinets open last night under the sink though, not that I’ve ever had any problems. Cold the next few days though none of that real negative shit we had last weekend.

I forgot my muzzle at home 😷 and had to run back to get it. With a few f bombs 💣 I missed the bus 🚍 and had to take the later one in. Unlike recent mornings I don’t think this will be a really busy morning. Hell of it was I’ve been up since 5:30 but I’m dragging my ass into the office by 9:30. The muzzle is fine except when you forget it. And the politicians 🤡 wonder why nobody likes them – the COVID 👾 been around for two years and they still seem not to have it under control despite the regular shots 💉 and all muzzle mandates and pontificating.

I washed my big jacked up truck last night at the car wash, 🚿 which I have to do manually because I drive my big old truck that won’t fit in the super automatic 2000 car wash. So I do it by hand in the nine foot wash. 🛻 There was actually not that much salt on the truck, as I haven’t been driving it much on salty roads, mainly because I don’t think I’ve driven 100 miles over the past month, with my biggest trip so far this year out to Gifford Hollow in Berne to look at the birdies 🐦 and jealously at the rednecks burn barrels. 🛢  I’ve been wanting to do this for about a week and a half, but every time I want to go to car wash the roads are either super caked with salt, or even worse they are wet from snow and even more deicing chemicals. Rust belt life. 🏚 At least the rust hasn’t grown that bad since the last wash, although I want to give the running boards and the passenger side of my truck 🖌 a good coating of primer and maybe even some matching paint over the exposed parts come the spring. And touch up the wheel well paint I did last autumn.

I also got more groceries, 🍎 🍗 ☕ which were again obnoxiously expensive, but we live in inflationary times. But apparently not for granola eaters, as there haven’t been any price hikes for granola, or so I’ve been told. Probably Biden snuck in a big tax rebate for manufacturers of granola and PFOA-drenched clothing sold at socialist retailers like REI. Actual food and fuel though has gone through the roof. That said, part of the thing is I’ve been trying to keep my pantry a little better stocked because of the COVID and because I realize that I’m not always as broke as I used to be although I probably should try to save more money 💵 rather then blowing it on burnable cardboard and plastic packaging and the food it contains inside.

Now I don’t have any plans to drive anywhere before Sunday. 🏡 I’ll take the bus to work and around town or otherwise walk.🚶 It will save money 💰and it looks like the weekend will either be bitterly cold or snowy or more likely both. Saturday is my 39th birthday but maybe the most special thing I plan for it is to walk out to Five Rivers 🐦 if it’s not too snowy or the library. 📚 I rarely go down to the library as I don’t like wearing the muzzle. 😷 I’ll wear it on the bus and in the office downtown 🏢 but I’m no fan of the muzzle. Plus I get tired of being down at the library, spent too much time down there during that year and a half of remote work 💻.

Good morning! Happy National Cheese Lovers Day 🧀 !

I mean who can be opposed to globs of dairy fat? I mean, you know all those chubby dairymen who burn like 5,000 calories a day shoveling manure and feed, but still are chubby over all that muscle.

Mostly cloudy and 20 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a south-southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. There are 2 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at Tuesday around noontime. 🌡️

I was hoping to get out to Five Rivers yesterday afternoon, 🐦 but after it finally warmed up a bit, I was summoned to the office downtown to do some work. It’s just been a busy time with work, a lot of research and numbers they’ve been asking for lately. 🤖

So yes, I was downtown most of the afternoon. 👩‍💼 I could have gone to Five Rivers in the morning, but it was so bitterly cold. Sunny, but the mercury around negative 8. But at least I got the heat turned up in my apartment before it got cold out, so it’s been fairly comfortable in my apartment — I have barely turned my space heater over the past two days. I also find that the best way to use the heated blanket is to turn it on briefly before bed, get it nice and warm, then turn it off until I wake either in the morning or night when I’m cold. Actually keeping my bed cooler makes it easier to sleep. 💤

Finally took out the trash downstairs. 🗑 I’ve been regularly taking out the recycling ♻️ and the food waste 🍏 but hadn’t bothered with the actual trash, as over the past month it could barely fill a small plastic shopping bag, back when such things were common. I tend to have more trash in the summer months when I don’t bother with separating out things that are burnable except for paper to keep it dry. 🔥 But then again, it rarely accumulates more then two or three weeks and in many cases, when I’m up in the woods, it’s gone within an hour or two of being created.