Good morning on this day before Thanksgiving. 23 degrees and clear. Later sunny, with a high near 47. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon.
For the full moon tonight, mostly clear, with a low around 32. South wind 6 to 8 mph. Sunset at 4:26 PM. Should be a nice evening.
Put on a coat and enjoy the beautiful moonlight. A pleasant thirty degrees.
As we move through the 9 o’clock hour, we are at about the freezing temperature. I got somewhat of a late start this morning as I was not used to waking up to the cold and having to climb out of bed to turn up the heat. Camping can spoil you.
It was a beautiful trip up through the Adirondacks on Friday. I haven’t been up to Plattsburgh in years and haven’t driven the Adirondack Northway in late fall on a clear day in years. The Greens and Northern Adirondack Mountains were crystal clear, driving along the Northway. If there were more legal spots to stop along the Northway and I had more free time, I would have stopped and grabbed more pictures. Photos are nice, but I always have memories too.
Without my phone working I didn’t have have Waze, so no advanced warnings of police traps. I normally rely on the Waze speedometer, as the truck’s speedometer is off, especially as you increase in speed. I blew past of famous police traps in Keeseville, as you descend past Pok-o-Moonshine, around 64 mph on the Big Red speedometer which is over 70 in real speed. I saw cop glance at his radar unit but he didn’t stop me. I eased off the gas for the rest of the trip.
Finally make it to Plattsburgh a little after 12:30, then stopped at Gander Mountain to look around in buy some 20-gauge deer slugs. I knew I wasn’t necessarily going to drop a deer while I was up there, but figured it would be better to have them not. I was annoyed that they asked to see my drivers license and took down my license number when I bought them. Its just kind of creepy, especially as Cuomo hasn’t implemented his ammunition database, as I don’t really like the idea of government or a private business keeping track of what I’m buying. I don’t have to give them my drivers license to buy almost everything else like beer and cigarettes, especially now that I look well over 21 years of age.
Stopped at Plattsburgh State and walked around. Even with my jacked up truck, finding street parking was not difficult on Drapper Ave. There always seems to be parking there. A lot has changed and a lot has remained the same on campus. There was a new building on Drapper Avenue, which made me almost miss my turn to that road. Hawkins Hall is mostly the same. The Hudson Hall Annex is new but that was under construction. They are demolishing and rebuilding the elevated walkway around campus. I was hoping to stop by the Political Science department and see some of my old professors but the department was all closed up. They may have been teaching classes. It seemed like there was a lot more African Americans on campus then I remember from back when I went there. They recruit from all over the state, and recently have been offering free tuition to local students who have an ‘A’ average. Snapped a few pictures for memory’s sake.
Stopped at the Plattsburgh Municipal Library so I could get on the wifi to try to switch over phone to an old but partially working phone. While the StraightTalk website was up, it took a while to figure out how to make it work for that purpose. At first I could not figure out how to switch to an old phone, but eventually got it to work. Killed probably another half hour doing this, and by the time I was back to my truck it was quarter to 2 PM.
I had previously planned to leave Plattsburgh no later then 2 PM. This would get me to either the Deer River area or CC Dam Association / Brasher State Forest camping areas before 4 PM or somewhere there around depending if I had to make any stops. I did have enough time for a quick trip over to Point Au Rouche, but by then I was pushing 2 PM so basically I went to the beach, walked out on it too and snapped a quick few shots. Not having my phone to give me directions, I wanted to make sure I left plenty of time to get up there, lest I get lost or have to drive in the darkness. I was finding my way exclusively by memory of six years ago and the times I’ve made maps of state forests and studied road maps. Fortunately I have pretty good map memory.
NY 190 was as boring and congested route as always. There was two different speed traps on the road but I limited my speed and kept my truck a safe distance from cars ahead of me which were constantly stopping and turning. The sky turned gray over this super boring road in Indian and wild hillbilly country out by Altona. The wind and then snow squall picked up. It was frigid by the time I arrived in Malone. At least the snow wasn’t sticking at that point as the mercury still read about 35 degrees.
To be continued. I’m near my destination stop.
Good morning. A chilly start to this Tuesday at 22 degrees and clear this morning. Later partly sunny, with a high near 42. Southwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Should be a nice day as we get closer to turkey day. Sunset tonight is at 4:27 PM. Full moon tomorrow but we should be very close to full tonight.
Good evening. Currently 29 degrees this evening. Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low around 23. Light and variable wind. Tomorrow look for partly sunny, with a high near 42. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. Three minutes before seven for the sunrise.
It was a nice trip up to the North Country but with my phone dying after a freak accident with a dirty USB cable that got mud on the connector, I was out of touch for a while. It happened on my way out the door, so all weekend I had no access to my phone, which left me without a GPS, music, podcasts, and other apps in the woods. It was particularly annoying as I would have otherwise had excellent cell service while I was up there. It’s flat in the St. Lawrence Valley so ample service. Somehow the short wasn’t fatal, and now my phone is working again. I already ordered a second one that I’ll keep for the next disaster. Honest, I didn’t intentionally kill my phone just to become disconnected from social media.
Camped at Brasher State Forest and did some sight seeing, hiking, hunting, and exploring. It was cold outside and the days were short. I didn’t do as much of anything on that list as I wanted, because with the wind chill, I just wanted to spend time in the tent, curled up next to my propane heater. So be it. I survived and had some nice days in the woods, in a part of the state I hadn’t been in years.
Lots of stories and adventures to tell. But it’s getting late so I must head to bed. Good night and sleep well.
Good morning on this chilly morning. Currently 23 degrees and clear this morning. Feels colder this morning than your typical Republican who wants to deny refuge status to Syrian children fleeing war, only a month before Christmas. Turning on the heat will help warm up things a bit.
Later it will warm up a bit but still be chilly. Increasing clouds, with a high near 50. Light southeast wind becoming south 10 to 15 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 28 mph.
Good evening, folks. 25 degrees and clear this evening. Temperatures will continue to drop into the low 20s tonight with calm conditions. If you’re up early tomorrow, look for shooting stars. I didn’t see any on my evening walk but they expect more towards morning.
Tomorrow will be somewhat warmer mercury wise but with a brisk breeze will make it feel colder. It will be mostly sunny, with a high near 50. Light southeast wind becoming south 9 to 14 mph in the morning.
Caught four mice in mouse traps since I set them up yesterday. I guess I had a bigger mouse problem then I realized. I should have been more on top of it earlier but I just figured I keep my garbage locked up inside and out and try not to leave food around, so not a big deal. I don’t hear any more mice in the wall now but then again they burrow in the gap between where the wall doesn’t quite meet the slab foundation. I reset the traps and bated them again. It will be interesting come morning.
Upgraded my laptop to Xubuntu Linux 15.04. I was using 14.04 LTS but I wanted to get the Bluetooth speaker adapter I use with my speakers and phone camping to work with my laptop at home. That way when I want to listen to music or sound on my laptop it doesn’t have to be physically plugged into the speakers. Saves wear and tear on the cord and simplifies docking and undocking. The Bluetooth speaker driver on Ubuntu 14.04 seems broken, the reviews seem to suggest that the new version has better support. I was fine running the long term support version but the speaker issue plus the pain and problems of using lots of back ported software made the upgrade make sense. I thought I would have to upgrade 14.10 then 15.04 then to 15.10, but apparently I could go directly from 14.04 LTS right to 15.04 then 15.10, so it really only was two distribution upgrades. It took a while but the computer did most of the upgrades itself. Still running the final upgrade to 15.10 but I expect it will be fully upgraded by morning.
Good night! Sleep well.