Delmar is a hamlet in the Town of Bethlehem, in Albany County, New York, United States. It is a suburb of the neighboring city of Albany. The community is bisected by NY Route 443 (Delaware Avenue), a major thoroughfare, main street, and route to Albany.
A census-designated place (CDP) has been established since 1980 by the U.S. Census Bureau for tabulating the population of what the census has defined as the boundaries of the urbanized area in and around Delmar. The population was 8,292 at the 2000 census, but it was not included as a CDP in the 2010 census.
In 2005, CNN/Money Magazine named the Delmar ZIP Code (an area larger than the Delmar hamlet or CDP) as one of the “Best Places to Live” in America, rating it the 22nd best place to live among what it called “Great American Towns.
Good evening as the long weekend comes to it’s logical conclusion. Currently 38 degrees and partly cloudy. The nearly full moon is quite pretty tonight. Looking for a low around 29 degrees, the first freezing temperature in a while. It will remain below freezing through Tuesday.
Right now the storm forecast for Monday Evening into Tuesday is calling for more ice and rain then snow. Monday will be sunny and a seasonable 30 degrees for a high. That’s normal for late December, despite recent warm weather. Tuesday night the storm comes in. It would start out as snow, turn to ice for a miserable Tuesday morning commute then be rain by afternoon. This is certainly still subject to change and it may be an all rain event or less likely, an all snow event.
Last night was nice in the woods, not too cold and the rain held off until 10 PM which allowed me to take down most of my camping gear and lights before heading to bed, so nothing that would need drying out got wet. I wanted to get a quick start in the morning, in case it was pouring rain when I awoke.
It was a nice campfire although the wood I gathered in the woods was damp and at times the fire was pokey. But it was a nice evening, listening to a Prairie Home Companion and then some podcasts until a quarter before 10. Took down as much of camp as possible and retired to the back of the truck. The rain started just as I killed the latern for the night.
It was nice in the truck. Not a cold evening, so I didn’t really miss not having the heated tent. Camping in the truck is nice on rainy nights because your up high and it was plenty dry. It never poured last night, just a steady refreshing sound of rain on the truck cap. By morning the rain had stopped. I had already drained the fuel out of my camp stove, so I skipped making coffee and picked up some at McDonald’s in Richfield Springs. Tearing down camp was easy, as everything was already down, so all I had to do was load the food box and cooler from the front of truck to the back and fold up my folding table and load things like the camp grill and buckets.
I had trouble bleeding out the propane lines with just the lantern attached – it burns too little propane to easily clean out the lines and kept burning for 3 minutes after I switched the tank off and an additional 30 seconds after I unplugged the line from the tank! With the heater connected, the lines bleed out in like 10 seconds.
The drive home was rainy and foggy at times. The Cherry Valley Bypass was particularly bad for fog. I need to replace my windshield wiper on the driver side or at least clean the blade good. It was tough seeing out the windshield at times, especially with the heavy rain. But I made it home safely.
Unpacked my camping gear and made breakfast. Spent some time researching propane camping stoves. Relaxed a bit because I’m still recovering from my cold. Went to my parent’s house for Sunday Dinner. Did my wash, put my clothes away. Went grocery shopping. Lots of rainy day tasks.
Good morning. Merry Christmas. Currently 39 degrees and partly clear. Looks like a nice day with some sun on tap and around 55 degrees.
Just finishing up breakfast and I have a few more things to pack, and I’m off to Glimmerglass to go hiking. A bit of a cold but I’m surviving. Saturday now doesn’t look to be a washout, so I might end up staying an additional day at Cherry Ridge. We will see. All I know is it sure looks like a nice day for late December.
Good Evening. Warm enough to sit out back with nothing more than a short sleeve shirt and an unzipped vest. Sipping on a cold one. Did I mention it’s 52 degrees with the bright full moon on the day before Christmas. The clouds are somewhat shrouding out the stars but the land is still pretty bright from the moonlight.
This year’s Christmas Eve reached 72 degrees which is the warmest temperature ever reached in Albany during the month of December. A strong El Nino plus the North Atlantic Oscillation meant warm air predominated, leading to toasty temperatures. The gradual but steady warming of the planet means on average, the winters aren’t as cold as they once were back in earlier decades.
I relocated the USB port in the cab of my truck to the front seat for ease of plugging in my phone. This way it runs on the accessory battery in case I accidentally leave it plugged in. Also packed for camping and bought food. I went for a short hike at Five Rivers Education Center but didn’t spend a lot of time there because I feel like I’m getting a cold and are trying to rest up. All packed for leaving early for hiking and camping tomorrow.
Had a nice Christmas Dinner at the parents house and we exchanged gifts. We had ham with all the fixings. I received several fishing lures. Nice little Christmas Eve with the family. Went for my evening walk and filled up the water containers. Beautiful full moon.
I can feel a fairly bad cold coming on but I still plan on going hiking tomorrow morning and camping on Christmas. It will be a beautiful day and I think the fresh air and exercise will help. I plan to get a good night’s sleep tonight and hopefully I will be feeling better.
That big full moon will be beautiful tomorrow. I am excited about seeing Glimmerglass State Park and doing some hiking. The pictures look nice and there are several miles of trail to explore. It should be a nice day and night. It really is unfortunate that I’ll have to head back Saturday in advance of the pouring rain.
One week from tonight is New Year’s Eve. I find it hard to believe that 2016 is just around the corner. If the night is snow and rain free, I plan to spend it in the Adirondacks, counting down the end of the year by a nice campfire. Hopefully then the weather will be nice enough to spend a couple of days in the woods. We will see. All and all, I think 2015 was a good year.
Sleep well. I’m heading inside for a long winter nap, to hopefully recover from my Christmas Cold.
Good evening folks. Merry Christmas! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Rain and 53 degrees tonight. Rain will last a few more hours before stopping. Tomorrow is going to be a hot one, at least by December standards with Christmas Eve expected to reach the upper 60s or low 70s depending upon how much the clouds break. Christmas Day will be not as quite warm, with highs looking to reach the mid to upper 50s. Saturday afternoon the rain comes, and we will see low 50s then. More rain Sunday, then Monday into Tuesday, Albany may finally get its first snowfall of the year 1-3 inches of snow and ice. The snowfall if it happens on Tuesday will be the latest ever recorded in the history of Albany.
Went down to the library for a bit, uploaded some maps and content to the blog. I haven’t done many for a while, but soon some Google Maps will be coming to the blog. Technically, they’re KML maps but they’re interactive, full-screen maps overlaid on Google Maps. I could and may eventually switch them to Open Street Map or something from the US Government that is totally free to use. Some are census data and some are political data. Neat stuff, but sometimes static maps are better, especially for simpler maps.
I checked the truck and the battery looks good per the voltage meter. All my battery problems were fixed by just disabling the accessory battery while starting or so I think. We will see but I’m feeling fairly confident at this point.
Packing tomorrow for camping. Christmas Day looks to have fantastic weather. If not for the family dinner tomorrow, I’d leave tomorrow as both Christmas Eve after dark and Christmas Day look to be spectacular.
Christmas Day, I’m going to explore Basswood Pond State Forest and hike some of the trails there. It’s only 750 acres up on a mountain but looks nice based on what I’ve read. Probably just camp one night at Charles Baker State Forest and come back with the rain expected Saturday evening. I was going to stay the full weekend but not if Saturday is going to be a soaker. No snow up there, and the campsites are hardened with gravel, so they shouldn’t be too muddy. They also have good cellphone service up there for emergencies and entertainment at night. Lot less road noise than NY 8 in the . I’d love to do more hiking but I don’t know how to make it work with camping plans.
Christmas Day looks so nice I thought about hiking in the Adirondacks and camping along Route 8 on the East Branch, but I might do that next week for the New Years Eve celebration. Same distance almost as Charles Baker. NY 8 is a blacktop state road, maintained all winter, so I can camp there even if there is a fair amount of snow. The campsites are all pretty close to the road. Which is nice, except it does mean a lot of road noise when the big trucks come through at night. I want to get some sparklers and fountains to light off, which are supposed to be on sale this time of year. Plinking would be fun too. Originally planned to camp at the lean-to on Beebe Hill but I doubt we’ll have sufficient snow by New Years to drag my sled with gear up it. Beebe Hill has that great fire tower up top.
Good morning on this first day of Spring. Rain and 46 degrees on this morning. Did I mention Christmas Eve is only two days away?
The windshield wipers on the bus are slapping the time while I listen to Janis Joplin’s Me and Bobby McGee, heading downtown on a later bus. I expect a slow day at work today.
Despite the April like conditions of today, last night was the longest day of the year and today will have the least amount of daylight. With the rain, it certainly is a dark and dreary morning. Only 9 hours and 2 minutes between sunrise and sunset.
The weekend forecast remains a split verdict with the National Weather Service and Wunderground swapping sides on the forecast but pretty typical weather for warm December weather – clouds, rain showers, and some sun. I don’t think a washout but if it leans that way, my plans might change.
Been thinking about getting a small, inexpensive space heater with a fan to set by night stand, so I can turn it on in the morning and not have to get up to turn up the heat. The Big Buddy Heater has me spoiled with camping. I know electric heat is expensive but it’s kind of a moot point because I have baseboard electric heat upstairs which gets turned on normally when I awake. I keep the main gas heat downstairs turned to 50 degrees except in very cold weather at night. A small space heater is just as energy efficient as any electric radiator, as all electric resistance heat is 100% efficient per watt consumed. Electricity production and distribution is fairly thermally inefficient, which is why gas heating is so much cheaper. I pay for renewable electricity, which raises my electric bill further. Not owning a television, home Internet, few appliances, and using energy efficient light bulbs kept low does keep my energy bills in check.
Time to get off the bus. Have a great day. Stay dry!
Good evening. Another very pleasant evening around 46 degrees. I seriously though about sitting out back with a cold beer but I don’t have none. I was going to buy some but I decided I’ll just wait for Christmas Eve when I go shopping to pick some up. Laying on my bed is pretty comfortable too.
I have a feeling that camping on Christmas Day will be unbelievably nice for Christmas in New York State. Down south a lot of folks go out camping for Christmas but usually it’s cold and snowy around here this time of year. Full moon to boot. The weather in Brookfield looks to be clear on the evening of Christmas Day which will mean a beautiful full moon and the stars. I’ll have the Christmas lights going and will be listening to John Denver’s Rocky Mountain Christmas with my cowboy hat on.
Eight PM on Christmas Day in Brookfield is expected to be 42 degrees which is chilly for the city in mid-summer but unheard of in the mountains at the end of December. Between a roaring campfire and the Big Buddy heater keeping my back toasty, it will be a delightful evening, probably the most wonderful Christmas I’ve ever experienced in my life.
Good morning on this Monday. Thirty-six and mostly cloudy. Calling for 47 degrees with a chance of rain as the mild weather continues. Rain becomes more likely on Tuesday. Christmas Day may be the warmest on record in Albany with temperatures expected to reach a spring like 67 degrees but with a chance of rain.
With the mild weather and no snow expected I’m looking to head out camping on Christmas weekend. I could head out to Route 8 in the Adirondack but with the long nights and my residual questions about the battery, I’m leaning towards Charles Baker in Madison County. The dusting of snow there will be mud by Friday. I hooked up the propane lantern and have a full tank of propane, so I shouldn’t run out of propane for a while.
Probably go out to the folks house for Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve. Then head home and leave early on Christmas morning, assuming it’s not a total washout. It will be nice to be spending Christmas in the woods.
