It’s just climate change is such a cruel joke as it’s going to be so cold and rainy come the Columbus Day Weekend. I can’t believe another shitty weekend is ahead.
Good morning! Fog 🌫 and 55 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. The dew point is 55 degrees. Makes sense. I swear I woke up and was hot in the middle of the night.
Cream of wheat with warmed shredded apples 🍏, cinnamon, ginger, Greek yogurt and chia seeds for breakfast this morning. Out for the morning walk 🚶 and then I’ll shower 🚿 and ride to work. 🚲 Also made up some rice and lentils for lunch the rest of the week.
Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 83 degrees at 2pm. 16 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 13th. Maximum dew point of 65 at 12pm. Yeah that’s pretty August like with the humidity. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 60 degrees. The record high of 86 was set in 1891. 6.5 inches of snow fell back in 1987.❄
Yesterday was a nice day and so will today. 🏢 But alas it’s back to the office today. Yesterday I Rode 35 miles along the Albany – Hudson Electric Trail today from the hamlet of Rossman (South of Stuyvesant Falls) to Nassau including Kinderhook, Valatie, North Chatham. 🚲 Also visited Martin Van Buren Historical Site, the only bad part of that was riding along NY 9H which is very busy 🚘 and narrow in parts, and that very tangy smell of the slurry 🐮 they’re spreading on the fields now that high moisture corn is mostly done, 🌽though some are still chopping. Also visited the Lewis Sywer Preserve on the Hudson River and NY 9J which was pretty nice. 🐦
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:45 pm with sun having an altitude of 43.1° from the due south horizon (-27.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 6.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:56 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (259°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (265°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:34 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:00 pm, which is one minute and 45 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:34 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 78 degrees. The dew point will be 65 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 5 mph. Tomorrow will have 11 hours and 36 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 50 seconds over today.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 59 degrees at 6am. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around August 29th. Maximum dew point of 65 at 6pm. South wind 3 to 5 mph. In 2022, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 46 degrees. The record low of 26 occurred back in 1965.
Cold and wet for the Columbus Day Weekend. ☔ Saturday, showers before 8am, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm between 8am and 2pm, then showers after 2pm. High near 67. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Maximum dew point of 63 at 10am. Sunday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny but breezy, with a high near 56. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Columbus Day mostly cloudy and breezy, maybe 55 degrees. Typical average high for the weekend is 65 degrees.
I was hoping to get out of town for the long weekend 🍂to enjoy the colors of autumn but with the increasingly wet weather and cold with wind I’m not sure it’s going to happen. Heck of it is the cold rain and wind will do a number on the leaves. Wanted to see some New York color before I went to Pennsylvania and ultimately West Virginia next week. I heard they may get snow in the high country of West Virigina this weekend, though not expected to last. But for this weekend, mMaybe I’ll do a one or two night overnight close to home if Saturday isn’t that wet. 🏡.
Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Average High is 55 🍂 when the sun will be setting at 5:50 pm with dusk at 6:18 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly sunny, warm, mist and temperatures between 69 and 54 degrees. We hit a record high of 78 back in 1950. It’s an El Niño year, we could break it again this year.
There is a north breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 53 degrees. I am not complaining, it’s October out there. Mornings could be a lot cooler and wetter, as we experienced yesterday. I couldn’t believe how long we got stuck in that rainy pattern yesterday. But it was good to stay home and indulge in too much 15 bean soup 
and slightly stale whole-wheat homemade bread. 
The rumblings of my stomach tell me that the bean soup and bread are done. 
But it was good. Apparently I don’t have enough gas currently, I am cooking up more red kidney beans up this morning. 
It finally cleared late, and I got down to the library and ended up returning home at 5 PM with a stack of nine books. Lots of good reading material. 
Of course, the book I had to open first was one about food and health and nutrition. I don’t know why I am so into cooking and eating healthy these day, but it’s just fascinating to learn new things. I like good fuel for my body as it keeps me going to when I go out for bike rides and hiking.
and then around the neighborhood doing about 14 1/2 miles for the day, which wasn’t bad before it started to get dark out, when I sat out back and had some cottage cheese with mango, strawberries and pineapple and some ginger. 
I really have been into ginger lately, I like the zing, and the fact that it makes you at less achy at least in one’s mind. Not sure if that’s completely scientific, but it’s way to give boring foods a lot more taste, like most spices, without adding a lot of sugar, salt or fat. Other then that, it was a pretty lazy day, eating way too much bean soup with a rumbling stomach from all those beans. But between the bean soup and eggs this morning 
with some help from the food processor, I got rid of a lot of vegetables that would otherwise become compost. 
which is good as opens up more vacation options, including heading down to Table Rock / Blackwater Falls area of West Virginia. 
Kind of a long trip though, and gas prices are going up through the roof once again 
and I know it puts a lot of load on my old truck 
but it might be a fun trip. I could still change my mind, I figure I will start out in Pennsylvania doing the rail trail, and if the weather or anything else changes my mind I can always go to the Allegheny National Forest or back north to New York State like the Southern Tier and the Finger Lakes. 
and I’m above the minimum balance, though I don’t get paid until a week from Tuesday, aka the day after Columbus Day, and soon after that my credit card bill is due. 
You know, rent, car insurance, retirement, and investing. I guess technically the last two things aren’t expenses, but they are money gone for now. I might have to dip into the rainy day fund, especially if I decide to retire some extra credit card debt early prior to vacation, especially as the web hosting bill goes out next Sunday. 
That said, it looks like I will be close to $16 for the first week of running ads, and it looks like there is ways I can further optimize the blog for additional revenue. It won’t make me rich 
but it should cover the cost of blog hosting, allowing me to continue to tell my story and have fun posting maps and other useful information. 
I’ll have to look on Amazon and Ebay. I want to have good lights before going on vacation, as while I don’t plan to ride after dark, it gets dark so early this time of year, and it’s important for safety to be seen with dusk coming so early. Also need to top off the windshield washer fluid in my truck, and then I might go up to Wolf Hill to ride this afternoon on the bike trails up there. Hopefully not get my bike too muddy in the process, but worse comes to worse, I can watch it off.
