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 morning on this October morning. Cool around 49 degrees and cloudy. Pretty typical for October weather in Albany. The air walking down to the bus stop has a slight sweet smell of manure, the farmer down the road must have recently chopped the corn silage and is now fertilizing their fields. Smells like fall.
The windows are closed in my apartment for the first time since last springtime. Chilly morning but I guess that is to be expected this time of year. October has a lot of cool morning and often rainy and cloudy days. But when it’s nice, it can be quite nice.
Today will be heading up to around 60 degrees with some clearing in the afternoon but clouds will predominant the sky. Ditto for Friday and the weekend, however a greater chance for rain come the weekend.
Decided I need to get a better map of Virginia before my trip. A state map is fine for George Washington National Forest as I can mark campgrounds myself on it and most of the National Forest is narrow enough to be not far from a major highway. I could use my phone GPS but it doesn’t always work where service is unreliable – and a map can be hard to read on a small screen. I have an atlas of the United States with each page or two having state naps but I need a little more details.
Good evening. This dark and chilly evening closes out September with temperatures around 51. Low around 45 degrees with some clearing later. Tomorrow will have considerable cloudiness and highs around 60. Similar weather for Friday and rain on Saturday evening.
While I’m watching Hurricane Joaquin, I’m not super worried. While I was out of town for both Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy but my apartment was free from damage from both storms. I don’t know if I lost power during either storm but I doubt it, and certainly was no more than a day at most. I am however going to eat frozen foods over refrigerated meals the next few days to clear the freezer put in advance. I can keep refrigerator items cold by the coolers I have plus the 5 gallons of ice I have in the freezer. I have a camp stove and my truck can provide lighting if I lose power. It’s warm enough to not have to worry about heat and I’m on city water.
If the rain stops this weekend going to take my shotgun out for a walk and see if I can shoot me some squirrels at that den that always seems full up at Partridge Run. Might be fun. If not, it’s still a nice walk in the woods.
Still haven’t taken off the week for my trip to West Virginia and Virginia but increasingly thinking of spending 2-3 days in Shenandoah National Park on Skyline Drive. The park is $20 to enter and camping is $15 a night but if I’m in that part of the country I really should visit it for amazing views. I probably will spend a few nights at Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia and have discovered there are some nice places to camp at George Washington National Forest. The National Forest store doesn’t sell a GW NF map but I have pieced together a lot from a state road map of Virginia along with information on the GW NF website on campgrounds, primitive and developed. Looks like beautiful country. I will probably request the time off tomorrow as long as I feel like my work project we will get wrapped up in time.
Walked around the state museum today, through the Concourse, down to the Bethlehem Public Library, and the big superblock around the High School. More than five miles walking today. I feel occasionally minor pain if I strain the ankle in the wrong way it finally I think my ankle injury is behind me. I have the boot and brace though if I should ever need it again. It was a long sucky last month of summer with my sprained ankle. Bit it’s now history.
Heavy rain this evening. Around 69 degrees. Temperatures will remain steady through daybreak and then drop to 59 degrees in the morning. Tomorrow will see the mercury stick around 58 degrees all day with heavy rain until evening. Then clearing and the temperature will drop to the mid-40s by nighttime. Hypothermia weather. I’m not closing my windows tonight but by morning I might.
Went grocery shopping and picked up some supplies. At Lowe’s got a replacement candler bulb for the one fixture over the stairs. Eight years ago I bought a 7.5 watt mini florescent 40 watt equivalent candler bulb for the fixture but eventually the mercury got used up inside and it either was producing very little light or none at all. I was worried about tripping on the stars. I replaced it with a 7.5 watt LED bulb which is super bright and equal to a 60 watt incandescent candler bulb. I don’t really need that much light but the fixture is only on occasionally and a 40 watt equivalent bulb would only save a watt per hour.
Also picked up a 3 pack of 60 watt equivalent LED bulbs which use 8.5 watts. Used them to replace a old CFL in the bathroom which had started to get dim. Put two of them in the fan upstairs to make my bedroom brighter in the morning – and kept the existing 60 watt florescent I had in there. I wanted brighter lights upstairs to make it easier to get up in the morning. I only really use that fixture briefly in the morning, and the brighter LED bulbs draw only as much power as the florescent bulbs they replace.
Lowe’s has a really good selection of LED light bulbs of all sizes, costing what compact florescent bulbs cost like five years ago but break resistant and nice and bright in cold weather. LED bulbs seem actually brighter in colder weather although their warm white color temperature seems to shift to closer to daylight color as phosphorous tends to be less effective. I bought my first LED bulb for camping during November 2013, to avoid the light loss from using compact florescent bulbs outdoors during cold weather of hunting season.
Speaking of LED bulbs I also got a set of mini LED spotlights to use a new my truck cap to better light up the gun rack and shelf at night when camping. The LED light bars I installed give a nice hue in red, green, or blue but I want to better spotlight my gun at camp as I think it would look cool. Also got a power bus with switches so I can control all the lights in my truck cap from one location. Will install when the rain stops.
Also bought a few groceries I needed.
Still researching amp meters for the accessory battery. The analog ones I looked at don’t work with external shunts. The digital ones do, however I’m under impressed with the quality and don’t like how most are unable to show a reverse current flowing out of the battery. I guess this is a low priority.
National Grid says I use 34% less energy than the most efficient neighbors in my neighborhood with similar size houses. Not surprised, because besides using energy efficient lighting I don’t have air conditioning or television and rarely use my laptop at home. Most of my energy use is the hot water heater, electric stove and refrigerator. As a renter those costs are largely fixed but I try to take short showers, keep ice in the freezer and use the microwave instead of oven whenever possible.
Got the maps of the Monongahela National Forest and Jefferson National Forest. I thought the George Washington National Forest was part of the Jefferson National Forest map but it’s not so I may have to order it. The maps seem very detailed with most of the major truck trails and recreational facilities on them. I would like to see the George Washington National Forest more likely than Jefferson if only because it’s more in northern Virginia rather than the southern part of state which I’m less likely to get to. Maybe I can find a map with both George Washington National Forest and the Shenandoah National Park, because I may also want to visit there.
Kind of excited about the trip, even though I haven’t actually requested the time off from work yet, and still really haven’t finalized the plans. I don’t really need to make that many plans though as camping in the woods avoids the need for reservations.
Kind of a dark and dreary Tuesday in Albany. At 69 degrees and a dewpoint at the same level, we feel fairly warm. It will climb to 76 degrees by 1 PM and drop through the afternoon, hitting 64 by 7 PM and heading back to 70 by midnight.
I hope you brought a raincoat or umbrella to work for this afternoon. While this morning is largely rain free, showers are expected today and heavy rain around rush hour. Take it easy on afternoon commute as wet roads are slick roads.
And enjoy today’s warmth. Tomorrow early in the morning will be 70 but the approach of the front will bring an Arctic blast – not cold enough for frost much less snow but still chilly. The days are so short in the fall.
At one level some fall colors would be nice but then again fall colors mean the end of the green woods and soon the trees will be free of leaves. Hunting season opens up for more species but even that seems brief before winter takes over.
As we progress through the 9 o’clock hour, we are at 62 degrees as we head up to 78 later. The fog is burning off and the sun is peaking through the clouds. Blue skies will prevail later then clouds for Tuesday. Enjoy today before Wednesday’s cold.
Last night’s lunar eclipse was nice but at the same time kind of unremarkable. Lunar eclipses happen a few times a year although not all are visible from Upstate NY and many fall early in the morning. The moon was slightly brighter than usual, according to the pundits, but I didn’t notice that much of a difference. It was neat how it fell into prime time. The next total eclipse visible from Albany is January 2018 before the break of dawn. The next super moon eclipse is 2033, which is when I turn 50.
Started looking at getting an ammeter to use with the second battery of my truck. Having the voltage meter is helpful in telling me how much charge is left in the battery but it doesn’t really give me a good idea how much load I have on the battery or how fully charged the battery is with the engine running. Digital ammeters tell you the rate of charge or discharge, and when a battery is fully charged the ammeter will drop close to zero. They aren’t real expensive and I like gauges.
Good morning, Happy Saturday. As they say, the weekend is here. 51 degrees and partly cloudy. Later look for about 70 degrees and clear at least in the Adirondacks with more clouds south of the Mohawk River. Should be a nice fall day.
Good evening. Currently 56 degrees under bright moonlight. The nights are definitely getting cooler as fall progresses. Frogs continue to sing their song as I sat over at my neighbor’s campfire. Tomorrow should be around 70 degrees and mostly sunny. Sunrise tomorrow is at 6:46 AM and sunset at 6:46 PM for exactly 12 hours of daylight.
Went down to the Elm Avenue Park for a while after dark when my laptop battery went dead. The battery is starting to go and will need replacement soon. Just wasting time on this dark evening, watching the Pennsylvania Elk Camera and researching my fall trip to West Virginia.
Off to bed early as tomorrow I’m going to the Indian Lake Moose Festival and leaf peeping at Moose River Plains with Mom and Dad. Going to be a long but fun day, hopefully with good color especially in the higher elevations. Certainly there are hints of color in the Albany area and hopefully much more in the Adirondacks. Should be great weather.
