I got my time-off request approved. I’m planning on heading out early on Friday July 28th to the Finger Lakes, preferably being on the road by no later then 8 AM so I can start setting up camp before noon. I prefer to drive out on a Friday as traffic will be much lighter on the dreaded NY 79 into Ithaca, though I expect to grind to stop heading through the city, but it’s mostly unavoidable. Setting up camp early on Friday, maximizes my chances of getting a good campsite in the Finger Lakes National Forest, most likely my old standby the Chicken Co-Op site or maybe the Potamac Road Field Campsite.
They have pros and cons. The first one can be tight to get in and out from my truck but it’s closer to Foster Pond for night hikes and fishing, and has cell service for streaming videos and audio. On the other hand, the field campsite is father back off the road, so less dust and noise, it has good sun for solar power, and no cell service, unless I walk down the road. Sometimes it’s nice to have a good excuse to put down the phone, not listen to the radio and stream audio non-stop. Be off-the-grid more.
Once camp is set up for the first day, my hope is to have a bicycle and use it to get around to more of the National Forest quickly, for hikes, fishing and watching sunsets. While it’s a bit of a drop down off the backbone to Burdett, Trumansburg or Lodi, I could see doing some day bicycle trips to those villages to pick up light groceries and supplies or get an ice cream cone. But primarily I will bicycle around the National Forest on the dirt roads, heading out to trailheads where I could lock up my bicycle before hiking or fishing.
Then during the day times, I want to do several of the bike trails and or hiking, followed by swimming. I definitely want to do the full length of Cayuta Valley Trail from Watkins Glen to Elmira, as I’ve hiked a lot of it but not seen it all. Also, probably the Black Diamond Trail from Taughannock Falls and Ithaca. Two years ago I did the Kueka Outlook Trail on foot, and it might be worthwhile to do a day trip up there again this year, especially with gas prices down a bit and because I’m planning on a direct-drive out to Finger Lakes this year.
I also want to find a day to park somewhere in Downtown Ithaca and then either take a TCAT bus up to Cornell or ride my bike up that hill — which will be a bitch — but would be fun going back down. I want to explore Triphammer Falls which I’ve always stayed away from because of the difficulty of finding parking on campus. Also maybe Wells Falls. It’s funny how most years I avoid Ithaca.
Then also some calm days paddling and fishing on Seneca Lake. I will bring the rubber tube so I can inflate that out in the Finger Lakes and float on Seneca Lake. That new kayak launch on NY 79 Seneca Lake is fantastic, plus that end of the lake is shallow and sandy which is great for floating. Last year, I had some great days doing both.
I plan to set up camp and stay at the same site for all nine-nights. Some days will be at camp, riding around the National Forest. I plan to return home on August 6th, doing mostly a straight shot home, but weather depending I might spend that final day exploring places around Ithaca before getting on the road by 3 or 4 PM for arrival back home at around 7 PM to unpack.
At its former headquarters in eastern Pennsylvania, Air Products had a neatly manicured lawn and boxwood hedges. But when the industrial gases company moved to nearby Allentown recently and erected a new office building, it tried something different.
Rather than plant grass that would need constant watering, mowing and fertilizing, it turned to native plants that pretty much took care of themselves. Today, shoulder-high grasses wave in the wind and attract wildlife.
Most of the booms last night weren’t fireworks but the thunderstorms that came rolling through that got me a bit wet heading down Bennett Hill but wasn’t the terribly violent storms they predicted from the radar. Odd how they pushed south from the north.
Good morning! Mostly foggy 🌁 and 63 degrees in Delmar for the morning walk 🚶. Calm wind. It’s foggy a with a dew point of 63 degrees. The air quality is a moderate 55.
Normally we’d call today HumpDay 🐫 but it’s more of psudeo Monday as the work week is ahead. Should be a quiet three 3⃣ day week, the other director is on vacation but so is a lot of staff and the work load light. The past few days have been very hot and lazy at home, 🏡 it’s tough to get up and going. 18 flights of stairs await me to climb at my office 🏢. While I do worry having eggs this morning after a hamburger 🍔 on the forth means I’ll be over on the saturated fats, eggs 🍳 have loads of protein and it’s good as I will include about two cups of ground spinach, plus tomatoes 🍅, peppers and onions plus maybe mix in some cottage cheese for even more protein. Walked 🚶 7.8 miles yesterday.
Today will have fog before 7am. Otherwise, sunny and hot 🌞, with a high of 90 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 70 at 10am. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 7 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had rain in the morning, which became rain by afternoon. It became sticky as the day progressed. The high last year was 74 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1919.
Yesterday was fun, spent some time with the folks before climbing Bennett Hill and getting chased down it ⛈ when a sort of freak thunderstorm pushed down from the north, lighting the radar up with a dense red cell heading right towards me. I was hoping to watch the canceled Albany State Plaza fireworks 🎇 from the hill and all the unofficial ones people were lighting off in their backyards but not during a severe electrical storm with hail, torrential downpours, strong winds. 🍃 I stayed up top for a while but hearing thunder ⚡ and seeing lightening I rushed down the hill only getting a little wet 💧 by the time I reached my truck. It rained somewhat hard on my drive home and the underpass on 443 was fairly flooded but no hail and I made it home safely, spending the last 15 minutes of the storm watching it from my truck. 🛻
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.2° from the due south horizon (-0.6° vs. 6/21). The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:54 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (296°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (303°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:37 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 9:10 pm, which is 16 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:56 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 83 degrees. The dew point will be 68 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 15 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 53 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 68 degrees at 4am. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 69 at 9pm. Last night was pretty sticky, so will tonight be. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 63 degrees. The record low of 47 occurred back in 1962.
On this day in 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton imposes trade and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. ⚔ 25 years later and a few trillion spent not sure we have a lot to show for it besides bass boats for military contractors, a bunch of dead and injured Americans and Muslims rounded up in racist prosecution. It was pretty bad but then the American government doesn’t have that good reputation of treating Americans fairly, remember COINTELPRO and before that the Red Scare. Old J. Edgar Hoover might be long gone, but his agency sticks around.
Hot and summer like for the weekend. 😎 More clouds for Sunday then Saturday but that’s getting ahead of myself. Saturday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 87. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Maximum dew point of 67 at 8pm. Sunday, a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Maximum dew point of 68 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 84 degrees.
It truthfully would be a great weekend to spend out in Schoharie 🏕 at the Mine Kill Pool but I really want to figure out the bicycle thing this weekend. 🚲 I think I am really zeroing in the bicycle I want, a place where I can pay and take delivery potentially as soon as Saturday, so I could be back out on the road as soon as Saturday afternoon or maybe Sunday. I may end up having to drive down Hudson to take delivery of the bicycle but I could combine that with some beach time at Lake Taghkanic or ride some of the Albany Hudson Electric Trail. Or maybe some of both?
One month 📅 from now will be Work Like a Dog Day 🐩 when the sun will be setting at 8:12 pm with dusk at 8:42 pm. I bet, in August. Maybe more like nap like a dog day. 🐶
Fun fact: In some large apartment buildings in America, kitchen stoves cook 14% percent slower than single family homes.
These buildings use 208 volt wye, which provide on each leg 120 volts to ground. Which is economical for wiring purposes but leaves 240 volt electric stoves with only 208 volts or 14% less heating ability. Not a big deal but slower boiling of a pot of water or more time bringing the oven up to temperature.
The best show in the night sky this week may not be fireworks.
Monday's night sky will be lit by the first supermoon of the year — so-called because it will be both full and located close to Earth on its elliptical orbit around our planet.
