John Boyd Thacher State Park, is situated along the Helderberg Escarpment, one of the richest fossil-bearing formations in the world. Even as it safeguards six miles of limestone cliff-face, rock-strewn slopes, woodland and open fields, the park provides a marvelous panorama of the Hudson-Mohawk Valleys and the Adirondack and Green Mountains. The park has volleyball courts, playgrounds, ball fields and numerous picnic areas with nine reservable shelters. Interpretive programs are offered year-round, including guided tours of the famous Indian Ladder Trail. There are over 25 additional miles of trails for summer hiking and mountain biking, and winter cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and snowmobiling.
There isn’t a plausible explanation in my mind why Donald Trump thinks he can realistically expect to win the 2024 Presidential election. Even on his most simplistic explanation – his claim that he lost due to massive fraud in 2020, there is little reason to believe there would be less fraud in 2024.
You can debate what counts as election fraud but ultimately the rules of elections are defined primarily by incumbents and few changes to election law favorable to Republicans have occurred in blue states. If anything with Democrats winning several state legislatures in 2022 post-Dobbs decision, the terrain has become more unfavorable to Republicans. If Trump wants to win back the presidency in 2024, he obviously has to win back states he lost in 2020.
Incumbents often win re-election because they have previously perfected the strategy to win election plus have had several years of the state’s apparatus to further their candidacy. Doesn’t always happen that way, incumbents either do a bad job or are of unfortunate circumstances and get voted out of office, witness Donald Trump. But all things the same, a re-run of the 2020 election against Trump in 2024 only is likely to produce the same result – Biden re-elected.
Like it or not, the most likely thing to happen in a Trump – Biden rematch is just another 2020 election. Same result in most states, same amount of fraud and voter turnout. States that were blue in 2020 are likely just to be as blue in 2024. If anything, Biden might pick up additional states assuming that Trump is even less popular after his multiple felony indictments and trials.
Biden himself doesn’t have an automatic ride to the presidency though, he does own the economy and everything else that has happened in the past four years in the country. Inflation and crime are down slightly after peaking in the first years of his presidency after COVID-19 but they are still leaving a sting in voters minds, especially as gas prices creep back up. Recession fears continue even if they’ve slowed lately too.
I don’t know but I don’t think Trump is a good candidate at all for 2024 – but I could be wrong. Not the first time.
A stupid thing, but annoying. Lots of squeaking on the bumps, potentially reduced luggage load. No grocery shopping with the bicycle until fixed.
Lost one of the braze on attachment bolts on the rack, seems to have vibrated off along the rough roads of Piseco-Powley Road. Need to order a new bolt and a tool to reinstall the bolt. Shit happens not an expensive fix. Temporarily fixed using a zip tie but not sure how much weight I want to test that with for obvious reasons.
I’m guessing it’s probably due to the lack of balance from the lock being held on the opposite side. Maybe I need to find a way to better balance the load. Almost want to use a standard but slightly longer bolt with a lock washer.
It’s really starting to get noticeable how much earlier the sun is setting. 🌇 That said, that’s not a terrible thing it’s means I’m retiring to bed earlier, so I’m getting a full night’s sleep. 😴
Water when it freezes can’t get any colder. Ice in pure water is never colder then about 30 degrees. Add salt and you can reduce the freezing point to 20 or 25 degrees so the ice is colder. Colder ice keeps the cooler colder and therefore the cooler lasts longer.
Same principle of why they use salt in ice cream. Not just flavor but also to make ice cream extra cold.
I discovered the tabula-py library, which is an alternative to converting PDFs externally to Python using pdftotext -layout from the poppler set of utilities. This might be a good alternative to having to install and run a seperate command line program.
import tabula
import pandas as pd
pdf="/home/andy/nov16-Enrollment/AlbanyED_nov16.pdf"
df=pd.concat(tabula.read_pdf(pdf,pages='all', stream=True))
df.query("STATUS=='Active'")
Samdil Farm, Walmart, Roger’s Orchard, set up camp, swim and ride is the plan for today. Got to maximize it as tomorrow still looks fairly wet.
Good morning! Happy Thursday. Mostly cloudy and 67 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a south breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 65 degrees. The skies will clear around 1 pm.
Quick breakfast 🥣 of overnight oatmeal which doesn’t require any cooking and blueberries with yogurt and cold coffee ☕. Finish packing up now and get on the road early. Looking forward to some good sweet corn 🌽 and peaches 🍑 up at camp and floating on the tube ⭕. Looking forward to getting away from it for a while before a five day work week where I’ll be filling in for the role of the unit director in my office 🏢.
Today will have a slight chance of showers between 1pm and 2pm, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Patchy fog before 7am. Otherwise, partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 80 degrees at 4pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 28th. Maximum dew point of 69 at 11am. South wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became thunderstorm by afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 78 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1913.
I decided against bringing the kayak 🛶 as between swimming 🏊, hiking 🚶 and riding Blackie 🚵 I’ll have plenty to do. I don’t really feel that much like paddling in the Mohawk River and I’ve done the East Canada Creek a million times in the kayak. I’d rather just set up at House Pond Campsite ⛺ and float in the tube ⭕ from there.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:00 pm with sun having an altitude of 60.9° from the due south horizon (-10° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:18 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (283°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (289°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:56 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 8:24 pm, which is one minute and 30 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west (280°) at an altitude of 4° from the horizon, 251,522 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:03 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 76 degrees. The dew point will be 67 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 9 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 53 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 35 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8pm, then a slight chance of showers between 8pm and 11pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 66 degrees at 6am. Five degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 68 at 6pm. South wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 61 degrees. The record low of 40 occurred back in 1981.
Tomorrow showers and thunderstorms likely before 2pm, then a chance of showers. ☔ Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Southeast wind 7 to 14 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between three quarters and one inch possible.
Not gonna to be a real nice day 📙 but I have several books to read and I’ll have the heater in case I get chilled through. Do some cooking and handing out at camp. 🍳 Probably can still do some hikes or riding Blackie 🚵 along Piseco-Powley as it doesn’t look to be a complete soaker of a day.
On this day in 1977, the Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole. 💈And in 1982, the first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany. 💿 Seems like such an obsolete technology now with streaming.
Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, a slight chance of showers before 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 70. West wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Maximum dew point of 57 at 12pm. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 83. Maximum dew point of 63 at 7pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 82 degrees.
The weekend looks much better ☀ but Saturday might be too cold for swimming 🏊 but excellent weather for riding Piseco-Powley or may be Old Edick Road with Blackie 🚵. Could be muddy though on Old Edick. But also I just like laying in the hammock watching the clouds 🌥 float on by.
One month 📅 from now will be Constitution Day 📜 when the sun will be setting at 7:03 pm with dusk at 7:30 pm. The average high temperature is 34 degrees, with a record high of 61 in 1895.
