Balsam Swamp State Forest

I could of and probably should have spent another night in the woods last night, but I didn’t. I was put off by the promise of high-winds, heavy snow squalls and my still fairly new camp stove that wasn’t working really well. Going to order a backup regulator and filter so going forward to avoid future problems. I might go back out camping in two weeks, if it warms up for my 41st birthday or maybe I’ll wait until Presidents Day Weekend.

Good morning! Mostly sunny and 18 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a southwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃.

Up at 5 AM 😀 making some pancakes with oatmeal, wheat flour and shredded carrots 🥕 to get that fiber-rich boost to my morning. Feeling good this morning, I thought I was starting to develop a cough yesterday, but I think I might have breathed into too much campfire smoke 🔥 in the cold on Saturday night. Blueberries, mango, honey and pure maple syrup to top the pancakes. 🥞 Probably have a bit of a sugar high today, and if not that, I definately did do that second pot of coffee. ☕ I’m up and going. Clear but cold this morning.

I do think it wouldn’t have been a bad day in woods, 🏕 but the forecast seemed so bad yesterday, plus I didn’t really pack enough food and I forgot to bring road salt to control the ice at camp. There will be future weekends, or so I tell myself. I do want to make sure I have that stove working well, at full output as I like my pipping hot coffee and eggs cooked quickly 🐣 especially on a cold day today. But it’s easier to get up at 5 AM with a heated apartment and electric stove to quickly heat up coffee on such a winter’s morning. I do wish I could be watching the sun rise at camp again.

M. L. King Day will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 28 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal. Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Not terrible for mid-January. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 33 degrees. The record high of 65 was set in 1995. Seems like a good day to be listening to Dion’s Abraham, Martin and John on this cold winter day, though it’s expected to warm up as the day progresses. 13.4 inches of snow fell back in 1983.❄ Maybe an inch or two of snow tomorrow. I could drive into my new office, but I think I’ll figure out a way to bus it was the transfers and or the shuttle as I don’t want to deal with snow or for that matter traffic.

Thinking about going for a bike ride this morning 🚴‍♀️ though the rail trail might be covered with snow. I could just ride the roads, maybe go out to Five Rivers or something. I also want to go to the library for a while, I’ve thought about making some Iowa caucus data from 2016 maps up to share on the blog. 🗺 Then later on this morning, going to head out to the folks house for a visit. 👪 Pork roast for dinner, should be yummy. 😋 Last night, I made some chicken soup up, 👩‍🍳 I was pretty good. I am guessing will be for lunch again too. Then I also want to make some bread up tonight, so I can put that in the oven for the morning. As I want to get in early tomorrow, as it’s the first day with the new position, I do need to be careful about cooking up soup or anything that takes too much time in the morning. Cold enough this morning I heard the heat kick on a few times, especially early on around 5 AM when I first got up to cook breakfast.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:05 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.2° from the due south horizon (-44.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:03 pm with the sun in the southwest (234°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (242°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:47 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 19 seconds with dusk around 5:17 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south-southwest (206°) at an altitude of 40° from the horizon, 226,535 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:53 pm. At sunset, look for partly sunny skies 🌃 and temperatures around 28 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 28 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 40 seconds over today.

At some point I got to wash my truck and mountain bike, 🚿 both which have a lot of salt and mud on them. But right now with the cold that’s probably pointless as the roads are likely completely encrusted with road salt. There were a handful of things I didn’t get at Hannaford like peppers and more sweet potatoes I’ll probably want to get to get when I run out to Glenmont next time. I could drive in mid-week, and do all of those things on my way home after work. It really depends on how cold it is.

Tonight will have a slight chance of snow showers between 2am and 3am, then a chance of snow after 3am. Mostly cloudy 🌨, with a low of 20 degrees at 3am. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 23rd. Maximum wind chill around 18 at 7pm; Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming light and variable. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1971.

I am excited about tomorrow with the new position. 👨‍🏫 I have so much to learn in my coming months, though everybody seems to think I will be a good fit for the position, with my knowledge of data science and public datasets. In other words, I am good at typing a lot of %>%, though I probably should brush up on Python and certainly COBOL in the coming months. But a lot of things it’s best to leave up to the actual programmers. It’s a big change, but it’s good to embrace change, and I look forward to doing good work and improving my own life. I’ll need to update my investments and tax deductions, but I first want to to slowly bring up the level in my checking account 💸 which has been so depleted in recent months, mostly due to inflation eating away at everything. I worry a lot, probably way too much, though I’ve had fewer and fewer problems with actual anxiety attacks since I’ve been eating healthier. 🥦 But as I note in one of today’s blog post, there are so many problems and risks in the world, 📉 that most important thing to do is to protect yourself against all the evils of the world today. They really are out to get you.

Cold and blustery weekend on tap. 🧤🧣 ⛄ It’s winter, what I can say. But it’s not expected to last with a warm up expected the following week. Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 17. Blustery. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 23. Probably filming my little part of Reszin documentary that week. Oh, really, as Reszin once said about my bullshitting. Probably too cold to ride over to the filming location, 🎬 which I am not actually sure where it is but it can be combined with a run to the store or Walmart. Always seem to need more food. 🍏 Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until my 41st Birthday 🎉 when the sun will be setting at 5:05 pm with dusk at 5:34 pm. That year of being forty went by like a flash. But it was good day, I mean year especially in the markets. How fast the days come and gone. On that day in 2023, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 44 and 22 degrees. I had a lot of fun camping that weekend, doing a bunch of cross country skiing. Maybe I should do again. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 54 back in 2002.