I am glad it’s cloudy today. It makes it so much more comfortable, sitting in my truck, writing my report at the library wi-fi. Not getting a lot of solar power, but my battery bank is close to full, and my laptop is charged.
Delmar, New York
July 28, 2020 10 AM Update
Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Clouds, occasional rain showers and 72 degrees at the Bethlehem Public Library. ☔ There is a west breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 66 degrees. Still kind of muggy. The skies will clear around 11 am.
This morning started out with the most pleasant of rains, 🌦 a good soaker but not so hard that it was likely to cause flooding. It’s been a hot few days and we need the rain. I heard the woods was burning up again in the Altona Flatlands up in the North Country, and certainly stream levels are quite low — as seen by the picture of the Potholers that I posted the other day.🏞️
Today will have a slight chance of showers before noon, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between noon and 2pm. Some of the storms could produce gusty winds and heavy rain. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny 🌦, with a high of 81 degrees at 2pm. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 10th. Maximum dew point of 66 at 10am. West wind 8 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became mostly sunny by afternoon. It was sticky. The high last year was 90 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1929.
I started out my morning get my teeth cleaned. 🦷 I have to admit I haven’t been brushing as much as I should regularly, but I didn’t get balled out too much by the dental hygentist. I should do better but I ran out of toothpaste while camping, 🤓 and forgot to pick some of what would have probably been $10 tube of toothpaste at Charlie Johns. I almost missed this appointment, had my dental hygentist not called me on Friday afternoon. So now you know the real reason for me coming back home.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:03 pm with sun having an altitude of 66.2° from the due south horizon (-4.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:40 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (290°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (297°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:21 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 15 seconds with dusk around 8:52 pm, which is one minute and 3 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the south-southwest (193°) at an altitude of 30° from the horizon, 228,302 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:34 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 70 degrees. The dew point will be 56 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 35 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 3 seconds over yesterday.
I got my teeth cleaned. 🦷🦷🦷🦷🤓 It was relatively painless, and I didn’t get called out that badly for being as bad at flossing and brushing as I have been this past summer. I’ve been a bad boy, but when you work remotely, nobody knows if you have dirty teeth or don’t use deodorant — and unless you have a zoom meeting they don’t know if you don’t shave, wash, or comb your hair.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 57 degrees at 3am. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around August 31st. Maximum dew point of 57 at 6pm. West wind 5 to 8 mph. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies. It was very sticky. It got down to 67 degrees. The record low of 47 occurred back in 1987.
A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 78. Maximum dew point of 60 at 8am. Sunday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 78. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 61 at 7pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 82 degrees.
This weekend I’ll probably stay in town. 🦉 I have some things that I need to do in town, and I might take the following week off for work, for some kind of real summer vacation. No idea where I will go, although I’m leaning towards the Finger Lakes. Yeah, I’m hardly excited about visiting state parks with all the social distancing, but it would be nice to set up camp for the week, and just be able to hang out at the National Forest all week, doing some hiking, fishing, and paddling on some of the lakes.🚤🚶⛺ I was thinking originally about going to the Western Adirondacks and Saint Lawrence County, but I’m getting tired of the Adirondacks after my “workacation” up there to beat the heat for so much of the summer.
Looking ahead, there are 14 weeks until Election Day 2020 🗳️ when the sun will be setting at 4:45 pm with dusk at 5:14 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2019, we had partly sunny skies, rain showers and temperatures between 53 and 30 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 53 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 1990.
June 18, 2020 Night
Good evening! Mostly clear and 66 degrees at Mason Lake. 🌃 Calm wind. The dew point is 59 degrees.
Not right on the lake like last time I camped up here but so be it. ⛺ This campsite has decent sunshine and okay cell service so I’m hoping to work all day here tomorrow but it will depend on if I need high speed internet for work and how hot it gets and how much I want to go to Spectulator Beach for a swim. 🏊
Kept camp simple for the night 🌃 as I just wanted to hang out and relax and I wanted to avoid draining the battery bank 🔋 so I have plenty of energy ⚡ for work tomorrow. The truth is the propane lantern 🏮 in the screen tent plus the ordinary 12 volt lamp in the truck cap is plenty.
Gathering wood for the fire 🔥 I think I wandered into a patch of poison ivy. 🌿Not sure if I got any of the urushol on my legs but I washed them down with water 💦 and soap and changed my socks. I also washed my hands. ✋ Hoping I won’t break out later in the weekend. I knew about the poison ivy in the area and I spotted several three leaf plants near the campsite but most of them where black berry. The poison ivy was down the road from camp.
Tonight will have patchy fog after 3am. Otherwise, partly cloudy , with a low of 58 degrees at 5am. Typical for tonight. Maximum dew point of 59 at 11pm. Calm wind. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was humid. It got down to 66 degrees. The record low of 38 occurred back in 1950.
Tired 😴 and it was relatively late by the time I got up here as I worked from home and had a few loose ends so I didn’t get to leave right at five. Plus this area is a bit longer drive than Piseco Powley Road which not only is closed on the south end but lacks the essential cell service I need for work. 📝
Tonight will have a Waining Crescent 🌘 Moon with 5% illuminated. Really good for observing 🔭 the stars tonight – quite clear. The Buck 🦌 Moon is on Thursday, July 2. The darkest hour is at 1:00 am, followed by dawn at 4:41 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:17 am in the northeast (56°) and last for 3 minutes and 32 seconds. Sunrise is 7 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:01 am with sun in the east-northeast (63°). Tonight will have 8 hours and 34 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 9 seconds over last night.
Tomorrow will have isolated showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny , with a high of 80 degrees at 3pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around June 22nd. Maximum dew point of 61 at 7am. ☀ Light south wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 79 degrees. The record high of 94 was set in 1995.
So at the meeting today we were told we had to work a half day on Saturday 💻 and to plan on working late Monday and Tuesday. That said, I’ll probably just work from camp. Going to have to change sites on Sunday but I have a plan. If I can’t get the site I want I might head home Sunday night. Otherwise I’ll stay up until Wednesday – and the who knows. I was thinking I could head up north of Tupper Lake or even up to Saint Lawrence County or maybe the places in the Tug Hill where I have good reception 📶. From the meeting this morning it sounds like our physical office 🏢 won’t be reopening anytime soon. I just hope the bus service is back up and running before then. 🚍
Big Red drives nice with the new ball joints and tie rod ends. 🚘 It wasn’t cheap and while if I was a mechanic I could have saved a bucket of money 🔧 I shouldn’t have to worry about either failing in the life of the vehicle at this point. I can cringe at the cost but I knew it would be necessary after a number of years with the lift kit – which has been on the truck for five and a half years now. I’m much more able to get in and out of tight turns and it rides quieter and steers a hell of a lot better. Hopefully the uneven tire wear will be arrested too. I had budgeted for it when I bought the lift kit and it’s not like I’ve not destroyed them on every other car I’ve owned with the shitty roads I drive. Price the shop quoted me was basically the same price as when I had a similar job quoted on my old truck years ago.
My truck may be pissing a lot of money away 💸 but having a fun car at least once when you are young is worth it if only for the lifetime of memories. I’ve learned so much about batteries 🔋, electricity and solar power and its lead to many nights in the wilderness. 🐺 Could I have given the money away to feed needy children 🚸 or invested it?💰 Sure but it was luxury I could afford and I go without plenty of things like air conditioning, or high speed internet at home. I don’t take expensive vacations, I’m happier wilderness camping ⛺.
The fan I bought yesterday 💨seems to be quite powerful and when the motor heats up uses a little under 35 watts and a bit more when cold. It’s alternating current so there will be greater inverter and reactance loses than my DC fan I use in my truck cap but it’s a lot easier to run 120 volt AC line back to the screen tent 🎪 especially if I’m also charging my laptop and phone 📱 for work.
In four weeks on July 16 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (301°) at 8:35 pm,🌄 which is 6 minutes and 4 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had hot, humid, partly sunny, thunderstorm and temperatures between 92 and 60 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 83 and 62 degrees. The record high of 97 degrees was set back in 1900.
The Plastic Problem – Rendezvous Mountain Farm
Today’s Almanac for Thursday June 18
Today’s Almanac
Night before dawn is 4 hours and 40 minutes,
Dawn starts at 4:40 am and runs for 35 minutes,
Sunrise is at 5:16 am which is 6 hours and 43 minutes before noon,
High noon, the transit of the sun, is at 12:58 pm,
From twelve noon to the sunset at 8:41 pm is 8 hours and 41 minutes,
Dusk lasts for 24 minutes concluding at 9:17 pm,
Leaving 2 hours and 42 minutes until midnight.
Experts Urge People All Over the World to Stop Killing Bats out of Fears of Coronavirus | NRDC
You know I wonder why more police don’t use mail summons rather than arrest 👮
You know I wonder why more police don’t use mail summons rather than arrest 👮
One of the most dangerous things for a law enforcement officer to do is to stop somebody on the street or intervene in a situation. It’s much safer to observe, secure evidence and when a criminal case is fully developed mail a court summons to an alleged offender.
Rather than intervening in crime, law enforcement would focus on documenting it and providing the evidence to court. Let the criminal do the harm he or she is going to do but make sure that they fully pay for their actions later on in court by collecting good evidence.
The fact is law enforcement has never had as much ability as now to record the public in public places, check various databases, preform facial recognition. An alleged crime can be documented and presented to a judge and a summons issued by mail.
Many people might just pay the fine and there would be no actual physical interaction between law enforcement and the offenders. But for more serious charges, the alleged violation would be adjudicated in a secure court room with metal detectors and other security devices.
A more passive approach to law enforcement may be more effective. People wouldn’t know when they are being surveilled or if they were going to get summoned to court for wrong doing. This would encourage more compliance with the law.
Some might argue that not everybody would voluntarily comply with a summons, especially for a serious crime that could involve a lengthy prison sentence. But that ignores the ability of government to impound paychecks and assets and severely limit access to various government services like the DMV. And where necessary, issue an arrest warrant and execute it in the safest possible environment – like an office, a courthouse or secure public building.