Here is a list of all the towns in New York that are called -burg or -burgh.
No not that kind of cold! I am done with respiratory illness for now, the COVID wasn’t fun and I’m glad I am over it. I will be back in the office on Monday, though today I decided it best to work remote either from the cab of my truck at the library or back home over the mobile data.
That COVID sure hung around much longer that was necessary in my mind. 🤒 Never got a fever but did my ears fill up with fluid and did those COVID headaches suck. It feels good not to be so sick for a change, and I am looking forward to getting back to the office on Monday and back into the routine. It will be a few days of wearing the muzzle indoors, but after that things should be normal.
Today I’m working remote, 👩💻 but I don’t mind. Sun is nice for sitting in my truck and the WI-FI works good. I don’t love the VPN or using Windows on my laptop as it’s on the slow external hard drive, but I need access to VPN. I need to run to store mid-day to pick up some things, so I guess it’s not a bad thing to be remote today.
Tomorrow I want to get up to the Albany Pine Bush and do some hiking, 🏃♀️ and maybe up to Salvation Army to look at some nice new shirts. Well second hand, but new to me. I figure being after the holidays, they probably have gotten in some good donations, and there is a good chance I can score some good deals. I should also visit Good Will, though usually they’re kind of overpriced and I’ve never been that impressed with their selection. Probably tomorrow will be cold for hiking, but I will bundle up. 🚲 I could throw the bicycle in my truck and ride, but truth be told, I can wait on that. I have the parts but I’ve been sick, but I need to bleed and top off the brakes on my bike.
Lately, there has been a growing interest in people investing in various Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG) funds. They are usually sector funds, that only invest in businesses that have been selected based on their environmental, social, and corporate governance performance or actions. The idea is you invest in things that make the world a better place, rather then a worse place.
ESG funds are heavily marketed. It’s hard to open Facebook without a targeted ad, trying to play on your emotions and feel good about investing in these kind of businesses. But often if you look more then skin deep, they are highly scammy with few environmental and social benefits, despite the marketing hype. Often the products sold by ESG companies are hardly better then sold by those businesses not chosen by the ESG fund marketers.
But a bigger problem is that ESG companies aren’t well diversified compared to most market indexes, and that investing doesn’t actually decide which businesses have good business models and make money. Ultimately, it consumers, not investors that decide if a business is profitable and make sense. By buying an index fund, you end up with both ESG and non-ESG, and will profit when either one makes money. Risk is lower, because you have a wider range of stocks then only the ESG funds.
At least among registered voters in New York State …
Today it’s off to see the Nutcracker that my niece is preforming at down at SUNY then having a dinner with my parents at a local Mexican restaurant. It’s nice to spend family time together, as you never know how much longer this going to last.
In some ways, it’s nice to dream that these days will last forever, 👪 that your parents aren’t getting older and gray even faster then you are yourself. I do spend a fair amount of time with the parents, and while we all agree there will be a next time, you never really know if that will be the case. That’s why I am also planning to visit with them on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day — still deciding when I want to leave for my adventure for the week off.
I am considering going out to the Finger Lakes on Christmas Day through New Years Day 🎊 but I worry about the weather, and its a long trip out there. I also am thinking about a Central NY trip, but if it’s seven days and I can only camp in one location ⛺ for three so I’d be looking at different locations every few nights. I thought about doing Long Pond and then heading up to the Horse Camp for New Years Eve, 🐴 but that’s only six nights unless maybe I camp at Beaver Creek. Also, have to consider snow depth, and the issue of staying parked too long in one location and not being able to keep the battery charge up. 🔋 And just that winter nights are often cold and long — do I want to spend 6 or 7 nights alone in wilderness? 🐺 And the whole issue that next weekend might rain. 🌧 I need to decide by Monday so I can get propane and supplies as grocery stores are closed on Christmas, and to tell my folks when I plan to visit for Christmas. 🎅
It’s good to be back home, 🥶 it was so cold on Saturday morning at Rensselaerville State Forest. It’s was a beautiful night with the snow Friday night ❄️ but it was so frigid with the wind come the morning. That’s one of things that has me reconsidering camping on for a full seven days starting Christmas Day. 🎅 I am not saying I won’t go down to Long Pond and maybe the horse camp for a few days, but a full trip out to the Finger Lakes seems a bit much for this time of year, especially if we get that heavy rain next week.
Tomorrow I’d like to ride my bike to work, 🚲 but I haven’t had a chance to service the brakes, it’s going to be quite cold, and I’m concerned there will be a lot of ice on the bike trail. I might instead bus it to work. I have black beans soaking to cook up in the morning, and I’m thinking of baking bread. 🍞 We will see, it’s a cold night. Plus I should thinking about doing my wash.
I hate it when I find litter in the wilderness.
A lot of junk can be burned and I’m sure a lot of it is ultimately burned by campers up in the woods. But the rest of it should be taken home for recycling. Steel cans and aluminum cans are marketable commodities, a raw material for the same kind of industrial processes that brought them onto this earth in the first place. I’m fine with people burning out cans to clean them out but they should be crushed and taken home for recycling. Glass shouldn’t really be burnt in the back country as all it does is turn into smaller fragments, and is hard to clean up.
I don’t like landfills and municipal incinerators as the respiratory for waste. Things should be recycled rather than littered – especially if it’s not going to burn up completely or rot away. Gut piles and food scraps left in the woods are fine but they shouldn’t be left in areas where they are a nuisance by attracting wildlife to trails and campsites.
I like the wilderness, and I use some of its resources. I use paper plates, have a propane heater and electric lights, and I might even burn some of my trash. But I always pick up any bottles and cans I find in the woods and try to remove as much litter as practical. Larger things I’ve found left from other I’ll leave out by roads for municipal clean up as that stuff isn’t always practical to take home.
While I think it’s foolish to pretend to be leaving no trace – camping, hiking, hunting and fishing all have impacts on the land – I do try to tread lightly and use the land responsibly so it remains usable for generations to come.
I bet the authorities in Boston wouldn’t approve of dumping source separated organic waste into the Boston harbor these days.
Good morning! Snow flurries and 32 degrees at the Elm Ave Park and Ride. ❄ There is a south-southeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. There are 2 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️The skies will clear tomorrow around 7 am.
I decided that I would take the bus 🚍 in as it’s pretty wet with the fresh snow 🌨️ we got last night and I don’t know if it will turn to rain ☔ by evening. It wouldn’t matter that much if I didn’t have a two mile ride back downtown at the end of the day. Tomorrow is going to be a much better day for riding to work 🚴.
Today will have a chance of snow before 9am, then a chance of rain and snow between 9am and 11am, then a chance of drizzle after 11am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 41 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 8th. South wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became light snow by afternoon. The high last year was 35 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 2021. 9.5 inches of snow fell back in 1981.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:52 am with sun having an altitude of 24.1° from the due south horizon (-46.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:38 pm with the sun in the southwest (231°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (238°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:24 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 25 seconds with dusk around 4:55 pm, which is 18 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:32 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 40 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 7 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 22 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will rain likely with a chance of drizzle before 1am, then rain, mainly between 1am and 5am. ☔ Temperature rising to around 47 by 2am. South wind 9 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2023, we had light snow in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 31 degrees. The record low of 8 occurred back in 1942.
Today in 1965, the Vietnam War would escalate. 🪖General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966. 🇻🇳And in Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression. 🏭 But Kusinach saved public power in the city, even if it didn’t make the creditors very happy.
Cool this weekend with temperatures running 14 degrees below normal but otherwise sunny. 🥶 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 27. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 19. Typical average high for the weekend is 37 degrees.
Looking ahead, next Monday is Festivus 🍖 when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:58 pm. On that day in 2023, we had rain and temperatures between 53 and 9 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 36 degrees. We hit a record high of 64 back in 1990.
