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.
With all these complaints about the time change, I am somebody who actually likes getting up early. And with brighter mornings not that far away, especially coming in May, I am seriously considering getting up closer to 5 AM and getting out and walking and getting extra steps in before work. While I walk at 6:15 AM most of the year to kick off my mornings, when it’s getting bright out at 5 AM it sure seems to be a waste to be asleep. I could be spending my mornings down in the park, walking and enjoying more nature.
I guess that would have to be tempered against the fact that the nights soon will be getting much brighter later in the night. Come June I can easily spend my evenings down at the park until 9 PM and then by the time it’s really dark and I walk home it’s 9:30 PM. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to sleep, as I like to do nine hours of sleep a day, especially as some of that sleep isn’t perfect and Iike being well rested before work as I don’t preform well on a bad nights sleep. I used to stay up later, but I don’t see much benefit of wasting electricity on artificial light when I could be getting needed sleep, while enjoying the brighter parts of the day outdoors.
Don’t eat the rice, you’ll get arsenic poisoning! 🍚
White rice is unhealthy, fruits and vegetables are often contaminated with heavy metal, especially if you don’t get the special expensive organic type from the yuppie store, and you might as well not eat fruits and vegetables if you don’t eat kale.
And other bullshit along those lines.
I’m passing up on the free cake at work and I’m making sure to eat many pounds of fruits and vegetables every week now. I make rice a part of many meals — a mixture of white and brown rice. Brown rice is more filling and healthier but it takes longer to cook. So I do both, and make a big portion for multiple dinners and lunches. Cook it with lentils, which are another cheap food source that is quite healthy.
I often think the organic and pure healthy foods crowd really doesn’t want you to eat healthy but is just a shrill for the processed food industry. Let’s be honest — an apple or broccoli farmed with conventional methods is far healthier then any junk food you could find at the store. Cheaper too, as most processed food looks cheap but it’s not compared to fruits and vegetables bought in bulk, especially if they are flash frozen.
I was listening to a podcast the other day, and they had an advertising segment for Whole Foods. Yes, they did mention healthy foods, but quickly switched to reminding people they have a bakery full of cakes and desserts. I can’t help to think that many people go to Whole Foods to buy “fresh” kale to only allow it to rot on kitchen counter while they gorge on the brownies they bought while healthy shopping.
I’m quite happy to shop at Walmart and get my apples and frozen fruit and rice there, even if it is conventionally grown. There may be heavy metals residues in foods, we live in a world of modern chemistry. Milk, cheese and meat — and most processed foods have dioxins, PCBs, and other chemicals. But let’s be honest what kills most people, it’s not the trace levels of arsenic or even dioxins in food. It’s the fats and sugars that are part of our contemporary diets. Federal food safety standards provide a reasonable level of safety for eating healthy food, and any trace levels of toxins in healthy food are far surpassed compared to the unhealthy, common alternatives.
Good morning! Mostly sunny and 29 degrees at the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. There is a north breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. There are 1.5 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at around 9 am. 🌡️
Got a fairly early start this morning 🌅 to walk out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center to embrace as much of the time change as much as possible. I don’t want to get into the habit of sleeping in 🛏 but continuing to get up early and doing my walk. Plus it’s a nice morning with a giant sunrise about a half hour after I started my walk at 6:45 after having a good pan 🍳 of eggs 🥚 and lots of vegetables. I’m mostly out of fruit so it was eggs today. Little less healthy then recent days but I’ll get plenty of steps today. 👣
I figure it’s best to walk early before the woods is soft and muddy, 🌞 as I’m sure the case will be by afternoon. Yesterday afternoon was nicer than expected but I stuck to my plan of going to the library 📚 in the afternoon because with the melting snow and mud it wouldn’t be a good day to go to Five Rivers plus this morning looked so nice.
Today will have increasing clouds ☀ ➡ ☁, with a high of 45 degrees at 4pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 15th. North wind around 5 mph becoming east in the afternoon. A year ago, we had heavy snow in the morning, which became light snow by afternoon. The high last year was 42 degrees. The record high of 69 was set in 2012. 30.4 inches of snow fell back in 1888.❄
Red winged black birds 🐦 are out but not in real big numbers yet as are the morning doves 🕊 and red headed woodpeckers. It was early enough this morning that Meads cows 🐮 were all piled up in the cold sleeping and chewing their cud. No spring peepers 🐸 yet though ice is mostly off the ponds at this point.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 44° from the due south horizon (-26.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 6.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:21 pm with the sun in the west (260°). 📸
The sunset is in the west (266°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:58 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:26 pm, which is one minute and 11 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:59 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 41 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 11 hours and 48 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have a slight chance of snow after 3am. Mostly cloudy 🌨, with a low of 31 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 30th. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 10 mph in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2022, we had light snow in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 18 degrees. The record low of -6 occurred back in 1885.
Maybe snow 🌨 or rain ☔ come Monday night into Tuesday but I think it might be too warm in the city to add up to much. Plus it’s March and if it’s pushing fifty with rain come Friday it will be gone come the weekend. I’m fine with that. I have a family 👪 event to go to next weekend so I can’t get out of town this weekend but maybe the following weekend. My truck is due for service fairly soon – oil change, transmission fluid and tire rotation come April before I start doing any big trips but Rennselearville isn’t too far for a weekend trip.
Today in 1933, was the first of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats. 📻 Back when everybody listened to the radio for their news and entertainment. You can still listen to them on the interwebs if you are curious.
As previously noted, next Sunday is Last Day of Winter 🏂 when the sun will be setting at 7:07 pm with dusk at 7:34 pm. On that day in 2022, we had cloudy, warm, rain showers and temperatures between 63 and 43 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 46 degrees. We hit a record high of 78 back in 2012.
Here are the 155 races from the last 4 General Elections in Albany County, adjusted to the new EDs based on the Voter Age Population block data.
Actually it’s slightly less then 155 because a few of the vote for two races aren’t in the spreadsheet as my crunching program hasn’t implemented them. I’ve not done primaries, though at some point I will. I also haven’t done anything before 2019 as the State Board used to only posted enrollments in PDF which are more challenging to accurately export.
Good morning! Happy Saturday. Finally the weekend! Snow and 30 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌨 There is a north breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. There are 2 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at around 9 am. 🌡️
Out for the morning walk at 5:45 am today. 🚶 Dark at the start of the walk especially with snow coming down but pretty. I wanted to get used to getting up early and maximize my weekend – plus avoid walking in the rain ☔ should it warm up later in the day.
Today will rain showers and snow before 1pm, then a slight chance of rain showers between 1pm and 3pm. 🌧 High of 41 degrees at 2pm. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 8th. North wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 51 degrees. The record high of 70 was set in 1977. 4.1 inches of snow fell back in 1941.❄
Not sure how nice a day it’s going to be today ☔ so my plan is when I get home 🏡 from the morning walk 🚶 to explore some various things in code and maybe work on some blog content 🖥 and do some reading 📖. I also want to go down to the library 📚 before five 5⃣ and then my evening walk.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 43.6° from the due south horizon (-27.2° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 6.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:20 pm with the sun in the west (259°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (266°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:57 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 6:24 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:58 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 39 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 10 mph. Tomorrow will have 11 hours and 48 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over today.
Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 25 degrees at 5am. Typical for tonight. North wind 6 to 10 mph. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became heavy snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -12 occurred back in 1948.
Today in 1993, Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States. ⚖️ I’m not going to say anything more except to say history is her judge. I don’t have warm and fuzzy thoughts about the 1990s.
Looking ahead, there are 3 weeks until April Fools Day 🤡 when the sun will be setting at 7:22 pm with dusk at 7:49 pm (Daylight Savings Time). On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 53 and 36 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. State budget is due that day, I bet I will be as tired as shit that morning even if I can work from home. 🎣 Probably no hitting the trout hole that weekend. Maybe the following weekend. We hit a record high of 77 back in 1986.
Daylight Savings Time Begins – Sunrise on Sunday, March 12 is at 7:11 am
7:00 am sunrise – Saturday, March 18 6:45 am sunrise – Sunday, March 26 6:30 am sunrise – Tuesday, April 4 6:15 am sunrise – Thursday, April 13 6:00 am sunrise – Saturday, April 22 5:45 am sunrise – Wednesday, May 3 5:30 am sunrise – Tuesday, May 16 5:45 am sunrise – Saturday, July 15
