The best autumn days are often cool and crisp with lots of blue skies. It may be cool, especially when the sun first rises but soon there after you can start to feel the warmth of the sun and the beauty of day as it gets underway.
Monday here in the land of the Delmaritian 🏡
You can guess what I’m doing this morning with every burner on my stove top occupied. Occupy breakfast, lunch and dinner as they say on the stove. God willing a week from now I’ll be waking up in the Mountain State in the Mountain Laurel at 4,100 feet.
Good morning! Monday’s back and I’m not in West Virginia. Maybe next week at this time. Partly cloudy and 48 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ There is a northwest breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. The skies will clear tomorrow around 1 pm.
Heading in early today on the bike 🚲, I might do some walking 🚶 at the Plaza before work but it’s really too dark and damp to walk around the high school 🚸 plus I had a second cup of coffee with ginger and cinnamon ☕ this morning so it’s not advisable, lol. Big pan 🍳 of eggs with onions, mushrooms, lots of spices this morning, also rice and lentils with chipotle spice and a big pot of kidney beans cooked up. I have quite a bit of food 🍲 in my fridge at this point but variety is good plus what I don’t eat immediately I can freeze and have as quick meals if I decide to head down to Pennsylvania and ultimately West Virginia this weekend. 🗻 Figure hard boiled eggs and maybe a banana 🍌 with a five hour energy shot 🤯 for those days I’m on the road so I don’t over consume coffee or spicy eggs and need a million piss breaks.
Today will have scattered showers, mainly between 1pm and 5pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 58 degrees at 4pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 24th. Maximum dew point of 47 at 10am. North wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. I’m going to ride in today but if necessary I’ll toss my bike on the bus for the evening commute. 🚍 A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 61 degrees. The record high of 88 was set in 1947. There was a dusting of snow in 2009.❄
I would like to get some carrots today 🥕, I could stop either on the bike ride home or ride up to Price Chopper at lunch time 🚲. I guess it depends on how busy I am. Carrots are good, I not only like them for a snack in the office I found they add a nice little bit of crunch to pancakes 🥞 and bread — and aren’t too overpowering in their taste to boot, especially with all the spices and seasoning that I end up using. I find since I have been eating healthier and a lot more carrots, my eye sight at night is far better, I don’t have problems with glare from other car headlights. 😋 It is amazing how a good diet improves all things in life.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:42 pm with sun having an altitude of 38.6° from the due south horizon (-32.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 7.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:35 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (252°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (259°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:13 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 58 seconds with dusk around 6:40 pm, which is one minute and 37 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-southwest (240°) at an altitude of 3° from the horizon, 240,972 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:15 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 56 degrees. The dew point will be 47 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 8 mph. Tomorrow will have 11 hours and 2 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 47 seconds over today.
Tonight will have isolated showers before 9pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 46 degrees at 4am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 3rd. North wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2022, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 37 degrees. The record low of 21 occurred back in 1940.
Yesterday, I went out to Five Rivers for a bit, 🐸 and it was cold with the wind blowing against my face, especially the ride along Meads Road. Then I went out to the folks house for Sunday dinner. 🥘 The beef stew my made was pretty good — she kept emphasizing how much vegetables it had in it, though I probably will add more when I cook up the left overs in the future. First meat I’ve had in like in two weeks — I’m not against meat 🥩 but it’s kind of expensive, has a lot of saturated fats in it. 👕 I did laundry at their house, and like usual the drier didn’t do much at drying out my jeans so I ended up hanging them up when I got home. Still it was nice time to spend some time with my parents. Time is so precious these days.
Another rainy weekend on tap but hopefully improving by next week. 😞 Saturday, showers likely. Cloudy, with a high near 60. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Sunday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 55. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 50%. I was thinking I need to replace that wiper blade before heading to Best Virginia. Typical average high for the weekend is 60 degrees.
I am going to make a decision about next week on Tuesday 🏕 and then commit to it by taking off next week on Wednesday. We might be a bit short staffed in the office if the other director leaves early a few days next week, but I think we can make it work. And if the longer range forecast doesn’t change, next week could be an exceptionally nice week in West Virginia. 🌲🌲🌲🌲
Looking ahead but maybe not forward, there are 4 weeks until Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 when the sun will be setting at 4:36 pm with dusk at 5:05 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 49 and 36 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 50 degrees. We hit a record high of 69 back in 1964. Before my time for sure.
With three weeks until the time change not many more evenings riding my bike home from work 🏢 👉 🚲 👉 🏡
I always enjoy that trip. Gives me something to look forward to at the end of the day, the fresh air and the scenic gorge, even if it means that big uphill climbing out of the Norman’s Kill Ravine. But come the time change, it will be dark by the time I get out of work most days, so I won’t be able to ride home from work. That said, I do plan to ride on in on mornings when it’s still decent out and can take my bicycle home on the bus.
Turmeric, Ginger and Less Omega 6 Fats 🧑🍳
Lately I’ve noticed how much less achy I find myself. I am thinking it’s mostly due to my better choices in eating but also because of all the turmeric, ginger I eat and how much less omega 6 fatty acids I’m consuming by eating less meat.
Watching next week’s forecast for Tucker County like a hawk 🦉
Or is it that an owl? I am studying it so carefully, but once we get beyond next week it looks pretty good but things could change, but I’m hopeful. I mean I’ve all but got my truck into drive and heading due to Tucker County. But maybe it will actually happen next weekend.
Good morning! Happy Sunday. Partly cloudy and 50 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ There is a north-northwest breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. The skies will clear around 7 pm.
Working on some maps 🗺 this morning and then I’ll go for a bike ride 🚲 out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center for a while. Might then bike out to New Scotland and then who knows where. 💨 A bit windy this morning for sure. Decided on a simple breakfast 🥣 of cream of wheat, chia seeds, shredded apple and Greek yogurt. 🍏 With lots of cinnamon and ginger of course. I was up before six this morning and it was super dark like usual and I’m not super motivated this morning. 🤷♂️ Nice sunny day ☀ but with the wind, kind of cold.
Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 57 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 27th. Northwest wind 8 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 69 degrees. The record high of 86 was set in 1897. There was a dusting of snow in 1939.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:42 pm with sun having an altitude of 38.9° from the due south horizon (-31.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 7.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:37 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (253°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (259°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:15 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 57 seconds with dusk around 6:42 pm, which is one minute and 37 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:16 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 53 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 8 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 47 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have isolated showers after midnight. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 44 degrees at 2am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 8th. Northwest wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 38 degrees. The record low of 25 occurred back in 1978.
Not too bad of an afternoon … 🚲 🍎🛒 🍞 🥘 👨🍳
Do I wish I was in Pennsylvania tonight, over-nighting at County Bridge Campground on my way down to West Virginia tomorrow? Sort of yes, though it would be wet and miserable tonight in Penna., but I still made the most of the afternoon into the evening.
Most of the afternoon I was dragging my butt, showered and aired up the tires on my bike to 50 PSI as they had gone below 40 PSI. Boy, oh boy do they ride rougher at 50 PSI. And I wonder why my truck rides like shit running the tires at 42-45 PSI. I run them hard too, a lot of people run them closer to 35 PSI but I’d rather reduce fuel consumption and tire wear, though that doesn’t help with the natural toe out that those big tires have. At any rate, hard tires ride hard even if they are more efficient.
Sort of raced out to Indian Ladder Farms along the bike trail, though traffic was fairly light due to the cloudy and cool weather. I heard the 4 PM chime as I was heading into Font Grove so I knew time was tight. But when I got to Indian Ladder Farms, it didn’t seem like they were packing shop up at 5 PM it was packed, with a swinging rock band and crowds at the hard-cider place. Me on the bicycle just locked up my bike on the split-log fence next to the entrance and walked. Disappointed with the selection of apples, it seems like more and more of the store has been taken over by gifts and knick-knacks, and they only have a tiny selection of what-seemed like overpriced-apples and even less of vegetables.
I was so spoiled by Golden Harvest Orchards in Kinderhook what now was almost two weeks ago with their cheap prices and wide selection of fruits and vegetables. Excuse to ride the Albany Electric Trail and spend more time poking around that O-K town! Though I probably have to drive at least part of the way there. At any rate, I got my half-peck of apples for eleven bucks at Indian Ladder,, got in line and got out of there craziness. I had no interest in the cider doughnuts, in part because of the line but also because it’s just not my thing anymore. I’d much rather savor good apples, fresh, shredded with lots of cinnamon and ginger or fried in some olive oil with aforementioned spices and maybe a dash of stevia in the friyng pan. I want to enjoy my fruit, not have it bathed with so much sugar and saturated fats, even if occasionally a little sweetness doesn’t hurt. I think next time in a week I might just get apples that are on sale in bag at Hannaford rather then ride out to Indian Ladder, though it was a very scenic ride towards the end by the orchard, despite the gray skies, heavy traffic and piss poor leaf color this year. Good ride though, 17 miles round trip.
Stopped at Hannaford on way back to stock up on brown rice and green lentils again as I’m almost out, and that’s an essential as the work week is coming up sooner then I want to admit. After I got back home, put the oatmeal-whole wheat bread in the oven, along with spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes, a couple of chopped up apples in a separate pan. Baked for 40 minutes to an hour, the bread was done first. I kneaded the bread this morning after breakfast — another good simple wholesome bread containing just whole-wheat flower, water, yeast, oatmeal (not ground) and some sea salt, topped with a bit of sea salt and several flakes of oatmeal — allowed to rise all day.
To serve over the spaghetti squash I made red lentil soup — probably the Indians would call it curry though not following any recipe in particular. It was made by boiling the heck out of a bad red lentils until they were basically mush, frying up some onions, tossing them in, along with a bunch of frozen spinach, and frozen stir fry vegetables. Added a bunch of turmeric and smoked paprika and cooked it down, it was amazing over that spaghetti squash with that oatmeal bread dipped in, some sweet potatoes on the side, and baked apple for dessert. I won’t say it was an instant TV dinner though I did have a Youtube streaming on my phone in the kitchen, but I doubt I spent an hour cooking and I was very happy with the results and have many more good meals to eat in the coming days just ready to be pulled out of the cupboard or the refrigerator.
Maybe it’s not real food or something normal people would call dinner without tons of sugar and saturated fat, but it filled me up quickly and was yummy by my weird sense of taste that goes for earthy, flavorful and healthy over sweet and fatty. I’m happy, even if your not!
Georefrencing! 🌐
Georefrencing is the creation of control points on map and using georefrencing software like what is built into QGIS to project an old or otherwise unprojected map onto a modern map using GIS software.
Lately I’ve been doing more and more of it. I started learning it for reprojecting historical aerial photos but lately I’ve discovered how powerful the software is projecting both historical maps and maps that are in government reports and permits.