Balsam Swamp State Forest

After much of the summer having rainy Sundays, this winter seems to be dominated by rainy Saturdays. And it will get cold come tomorrow, for an extended time period, though that’s somewhat to be expected this time of January. I bet by my birthday at the end of the month things will start to warm up again. Maybe that’s when I take that left-over carrot cake in my freezer and camp then. Who knows!

Good morning! Rain and 48 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌧 There is a south-southeast breeze at 14 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 9 pm. ☃️

I slept in until 5:30 AM this morning ⏰ which was late for me, and I was in bed by 8 PM but I think the net result was I got a good night’s sleep. Probably was the excessive amount of sugar 🍰 I had yesterday. I didn’t want any parties, but they still threw me two different parties for my going away at work. One of them had carrot cake 🥕 and yes it was super sweet, as I no longer normally eat sugar. 🍭 😋 I was pretty wound up for the rest of the day, and I wish I ad been able to ride to work 🚲 to burn calories but that was not to be due to that loose bolt. I did have a nice walk last night. 🚶‍♀️I like yellow foods, note my obsession with turmeric, 💛 only followed by obsession with oranges, e.g. carrots and citrus like oranges and grape fruit. 🥕 But then again, Red is kind of my favorite color, ❤️ witness my big jacked up truck. 🛻 It’s not like I don’t love smoked paprika and red peppers especially when good and sweet too. And then dark orange, which is another word for brown, 💩 which I do poop a lot with my fiber rich diet. 🤣

Breakfast was onions, eggs, some spinach, canned tomato with some milled corn mixed in. 🍳 The result was pretty good, though I wish I had more fiber 💚 but by this morning my pantry was pretty bare. 🥫 I like carbs a bit too much, but at least I always try to include lots of fiber with my carbs, and almost always whole-wheat carbs. First this this morning after showering 🚿 and breakfast I went to Hannaford. I don’t love shopping there, they have a small spice selection, and while their produce selection is higher quality it’s also more expensive. But with coupons 🎫 I was able to knock $35 off of a $121 shopping bill, which got it down to $86. 💸 Still things are more expensive then Walmart and of course I had to settle for regular plain yogurt, as they didn’t have non-fat Greek yogurt. That did not make me happy, and included a few cuss words. 🤬 I probably should have given the full-fat yogurt a try. Some fat isn’t bad, even if it is omega-6 saturated fat, and it fills you up quicker then no-fat, or so I’m told by the dairy farmers, who want to get a better price on their milk fat. 🤰 Shopping is so depressing 🙁 🛒 with inflation these days.

Got home from shopping and decided on an early lunch. 🍌 The banana I had wasn’t satisfying enough, so I decided to fry up one of those wonderful sweet onions from Hannaford along with a bunch of peas, broccoli, and some tofu with lots of turmeric and red-chili spices, plus a dash of salt and black pepper to maximize vitamin up tick. That finally got me filled up. 😋 Now I’m feeling good. Probably still on that glycemic roller coaster 🎢 from all that sweet and wonderful carrot cake yesterday. I actually took home a quarter of that carrot cake, and promptly stuck in the freezer for some time down the road, after licking down the box. The frosting they use at Cookie Factory in Troy is just pure cane sugar and egg whites. Pretty heavenly 😇 especially when you don’t normally eat sugar. Of course now I have a big sweet tooth again, 😬 but I’ll keep it filled apples, bananas, and especially that mango I got. I am so happy to have bananas again this week, last week was sad without them. The carrot cake is locked away in back of the freezer. 🍰

Today will rain likely before noon, then a chance of showers, mainly between noon and 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a temperature rising to near 51 by 11am, then falling to around 39 during the remainder of the day. 🌦 South wind 11 to 16 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 43 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1932. 13.1 inches of snow fell back in 1964.❄

What to do today is the question on my mind. 💭 I intentionally got up and early and to the grocery store a little after 8 AM so I could shop both before the crowds 👩‍👩‍👦‍👦 🛒 and so I could have the balance of my day free. Really I could see today going in three ways. Stay close to home, go to the library, 📚 and maybe a bike ride on the rail trail 🚲. Another option would be to go to the Village of Colonie, check out clothes at the Salvation Army off of Central Avenue 👔, and then ride trail in the Pine Bush. I do get best clothes from Salvation Army, so much of the new stuff is China-made fancy-label crap. For riding trail this afternoon though, even with the sand though, the trails might be soft. But if it clears out later, might be nice to watch the sun set from Albany Pine Bush. 🌲🌲🌲 The third option would be to get my stuff together, do a night or two up in the woods, though I’m sure after all this rain things would be soft. 🌲 🏕 Tomorrow everything will be frozen, and it will be sunny, but it’s going to be cold with the wind. Maybe one night in woods freezing my ass would be refreshing though if the balance of day is sunny. 😎

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:04 pm with sun having an altitude of 25.8° from the due south horizon (-45° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:00 pm with the sun in the southwest (233°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (241°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:44 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 20 seconds with dusk around 5:15 pm, which is one minute and 7 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the southwest (224°) at an altitude of 18° from the horizon, 226,726 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:51 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 42 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 15 mph with gusts up to 28mph. Today will have 9 hours and 23 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 28 seconds over yesterday.

Tuesday I finally start out my new position in earnest, 👨‍💼 moving up to the office in North Albany. Looking to put my data science experience and knowledge to work at new Director of Data Services. And be the keeper of the LOL book, the list of lists, as they called them when I worked at Higher Education Services Corporation years ago. 👨‍🏫 I won’t how much of the Job Control Language and COBOL I remember from back in those days. 📜 I’m sure it will come back quickly, it’s sort of Unix like, and programming is ultimately just programming. COBOL is just extra verbose. And operators and programmers probably do most of that anyways.. I could drive, but I think I’ll take the express bus in then transfer to the shuttle. 🚌 Everybody says it’s not worth the effort to transfer buses, but it really won’t impact my morning commute much, and maybe I’ll get home later on days I don’t ride my bike in, but it’s a chance to walk laps in the Empire Plaza 👣 or visit with people in the Capitol Complex. 👥 It’s important to be seen at events, and meet up with people. Honestly, in person I’m not as obnoxious as on the blog where my slogan is, “All My Heroes Burn Their Trash and Smell a Little Like Cow Shit”.

I finally learned my new salary, it is a bit less then I hoped, especially these days with inflation, but if I work hard to get the bonuses, it will be find and with next year’s inflation adjustment and step increases, it will be the nice round number I was hoping for. 💵 It’s just tough with inflation, but I’m doing better then a lot of people. And I got paid early this week, so I no longer have $162 in my bank account, though come next week when the auto investing is done, it’s probably be hovering around $1,000 again. 📈 But it’s still a good time in stock market after last year, even if this year is starting off soft. 🏦 I do worry about some damage being caused in economy by pay-now-pay later’s exploding popularity, though I don’t think it’s likely to be as damaging as the housing crisis of 2008.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 28 degrees at 3am. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 21st. Southwest wind 11 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. In 2023, we had light snow. It got down to 26 degrees. The record low of -24 occurred back in 1957.

I’d loved to spend the night in the woods, 🌲 🌲 and it’s not going to be super cold but that wind will be cold, as will the dampness of things after that inch of rain we got last night. Who knows my urge for camping 🏕 and having a fire up in the woods 🔥 might get the best of me and I’ll be huddled over the propane heater either tonight or tomorrow. At least there is no fire risk, even with the wind. Kind of wish there was some snow and less mud. It’s that wind that’s what will get you. 🌬

Sunday will have a chance of snow showers, mainly after 9am. 🌨 Partly sunny, with a high near 35. Breezy, with a south wind 11 to 20 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Then Sunday night, partly cloudy, with a low around 16. West wind 10 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Going to be ducking cold. 🦆 And for M. L. King Day, mostly sunny, 😎 with a high near 26. West wind 7 to 9 mph. Still rather old.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Clean Your Computer Day 🧹 when the sun will be setting at 5:21 pm with dusk at 5:49 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly cloudy, mild, rain showers and temperatures between 51 and 34 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 35 degrees. We hit a record high of 53 back in 1955.