Daylight on First Day of Summer
Scripts for Making Voting Maps (Birds and Bees Act) – Senate and Assembly and supporting scripts and data
Delmar, NY
You may leave here for five days in space – but when you return, it’s the same old place 🗻
Tuesday after the Long Weekend that I extended for a few days on ol Piseco-Powley. Not much has changed both up in the wilderness and from listening to the morning news. They’re just vamping for time, but then aren’t we all. There are summer days spent at Potholers and the rest of year.
Good morning! It’s cloudy and 56 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁️ Calm wind. The dew point is 55 degrees. The air quality is index is a good 28. The skies will clear around 9 am.
I guess there is no Week at a Glance 🧑🏻💼but it’s a, session day today and tomorrow so after breakfast and showering, i need to put on my suit and tie and head off to work. 📧 My email didn’t seem like in a rush to sync last night and I didn’t push it until this morning to refresh. Really nothing happened when I was gone, the only thing changed less in the world over the weekend was Piseco-Powley Road since last summer. Actually, I think today was supposed to be wetter per last Thursdays forecast.
Today will be scattered showers between 1pm and 2pm, then scattered showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 79 degrees at 4pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around June 15th. Maximum dew point of 61 at 1pm. Light and variable wind becoming south around 5 mph in the afternoon. Shrug 🤷♂️. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 82 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1953.
Left the Potholers around 5 pm yesterday 🏊 and headed home via NY 29 to NY 10 Canajoharie to NY 162 to US 20. NY 29 was closed heading into Johnstown and taking this other route home avoids most of the cities besides Canajoharie and let’s you see much of the Mohawk Valley Farm Country. 🚜 It was a nice long weekend, very quiet but like always ended too quickly and I wish it had been warmer out. ☀
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:58 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.8° from the due south horizon. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:54 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (297°). 📸 The sunset is in the borthwest (304°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:37 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 28 seconds with dusk around 9:11 pm, which is 15 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-northwest (287°) at an altitude of 19° from the horizon, 251,651 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:58 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 73 degrees. The dew point will be 60 degrees. There will be a east breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 22 minutes of daytime, an increase of 5 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃 , with a low of 57 degrees at 6am. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around June 15th. Maximum dew point of 60 at 8pm. South wind around 6 mph. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 51 degrees. The record low of 41 occurred back in 1970.
Cloudy but at least mild for the coming weekend. 🌥 Saturday, a chance of showers, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Maximum dew point of 71 at 1pm. Sunday, showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 81. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Maximum dew point of 71 at 12pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 82 degrees.
This weekend I want to look some more at used bicycles 🚲 as I want to start soon riding my bike to work and it would be great for getting around at camp ⛺. I especially want a bicycle come summer vacation 🏊♂️ of which I haven’t decided yet on a week but I have to discuss with the other director and figure out which weeks the Watkins Glen race 🏎 track is dark.
Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until Independence Day 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 8:38 pm with dusk at 9:11 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 84 and 54 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 83 degrees. We hit a record high of 104 back in 1911. I wonder if they will give us off the Monday before the 4th of July this year as a holiday. That might be a nice perk and a good excuse to get I town again. Maybe the Green Mountains this year? Just a thought.
The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth | National Museum of African American History and Culture
On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the south reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in Confederate States. Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation end slavery throughout the United States.
But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as "Juneteenth," by the newly freed people in Texas.
What Is Juneteenth? – The New York Times
Juneteenth, an annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States after the Civil War, has been celebrated by African Americans since the late 1800s.
President Biden signed legislation in 2021 that made Juneteenth, which falls on June 19, a federal holiday, after interest in the day was renewed during the summer of 2020 and the nationwide protests that followed the police killings of Black Americans including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
There has been a noticeable increase in Juneteenth celebrations across the United States over the past few years.
Happy Juneteenth 🏖️
Happy Juneteenth! What a beautiful morning I would seem. After a cool and at sometimes rainy weekend, the best day is the day I have to go home. That said I’m in no rush to make that happen, I plan to leave to head home at five o’clock or when the clouds and rain come ⛈️ whichever comes first. A little hammock time for me, watching the butterflies 🦋 and flags 🏳️🌈 flutter in the wind. A lazy day for me 😴 recognizing that the time is short for this trip so I need to maximize my time hear before I return to civilization.
Started out my morning with oatmeal banana 🍌 pancakes 🥞 using up the remaining blackberries, blueberries and strawberries I had. Started out the morning floating on the tube ⭕ and then slowly have been taking down camp ⛺. I know I just moved the campsite last night. Got up at seven which is very late for me, but I was up until 11 pm last night.
Truth is this time of year, 11 o’clock isn’t really late when out camping 🌃 especially in the open canopy like Powley Place where it doesn’t get real dark until after 10 pm. With the lights, the campfire and shooting fireworks 🎇 off the rail of the bridge, eleven o’clock came quickly. I probably could have done midnight but I didn’t want to sleep all of today.
Hiked back to Goldmine Stream Falls yesterday. 🚶 Nice walk from the bridge site along more of Powley Road. Between yesterday and Saturday I pretty much walked half of Powley Road over the weekend. Also hiked beyond the falls a ways until I reached the clearing where you get a good of Big Alderbed Mountain ⛰ in the distance. In the evening floated on the East Canada Creek under Powley Bridge for 45 minutes then paddled for about an hour down to the second beaver dam south of the bridge.
Today I am going to paddle 🛶 along the East Canada Creek, same route as yesterday then do a little more floating in the tube ⭕ on the East Canada Creek 🏊 and end my day at the Potholers. Leave at five, weather depending, get home at seven 7⃣ and unpack then go for the evening walk 🚶. Did little bit of walking around Powley Place this morning and back along the trail at Campsite 7 to the East Branch so my hope is by afternoon to be two thirds done with the step goal 🥅 of five miles and be at least at six ny the end of the day. I will need groceries but will make due with what I have for Tuesday and hope not too late of a night at work for shopping 🛒 that evening. My pantry is pretty bare and I used up most of my camp food 🍲 but I have rice, lentils and beans and will try to save an apple 🍏 or something to get through the day tomorrow. I guess I could stop somewhere on my way home 🏡.
What You Need to Know | History
A time to take down camp ⛺
My three nights are done at this campsite. ⛺ I’m undecided if I will head down to Stewart Landing or head up to Powley Place though I admit my mind is made up for the later as I’m not ready to head back to civilization where there is cell 📱 service, email 📧 and news 📰 all around. I’ve been quite happy 😊 not having a working radio 📻 this weekend.
If I go to Powley Place I think 🤔 I would prefer campsite 10 out in the Plains but if not available then the bridge site. Or maybe I want the bridge site so I can kayak 🛶 and tube directly from the site. Not a lot of solar power opportunity there due to the trees but I’m not sure how sunny it’s going to be but I’m hoping it clears out so I can look at the vast starry 🤩 skies from there.
I might hike back to Goldmine Stream Falls this afternoon to get my steps 👣 in and enjoy the solitude by the falls. One of my favorite things is just a quiet walk 🚶 through the woods on a dirt road with gentile hills where I can enjoy nature.
Just one more night 🌃 before I have to return to the craziness of it all 🤪, legislative session included on Tuesday but I’d rather not focus on that or how many urgent emails 📧 will be in my box come Monday afternoon. I want to take down camp before the rain tomorrow but I’m quite okay spending as much time as possible at the Potholers 🏊 before the sunny and warm conditions turn to thunderstorms and rain. ⛈️
As none of my undershirts and boxers fit now that I’ve lost so much weight, and being it’s a session day Tuesday and Wednesday, 🩲 I’m thinking I might just buy more underwear as I’m going to need it rather than go to laundromat as I think otherwise I should be okay for a four day week. Plus my oversized clothes are wearing out and the remaining good stuff I have I’ll have as extra for summer vacation to avoid having to go to the laundromat on vacation. 🏖 It’s embarrassing how sometimes I feel my boxes sliding down loose in my pants. 👖