Balsam Swamp State Forest

I am still planning on riding to work as I like the exercise and with the sun it won’t be that cold if I am fully bundled up. Erie Boulevard will be a refrigerator, but by the time I figure I will have worked up a bit of a sweat and be warm enough. The ride against the wind will be good cardio. The afternoon commute will be more difficult, climbing the hill in the face of the wind, but if all else fails, I’ll ride down to the Old Train Station and catch the express bus home from there.

Good morning! Partly sunny and 23 degrees at the Delmar, NY. 🌞 Breezy, ️20 mph breeze from the west-northwest 🌬 with gusts up to 31 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is 9. Things will start to thaw out at around 2 pm. 🌡️

Finished up the first 5 chapters of the Power Broker, 📖 though I’ve been skipping around a bit as I miss a few sections when I fall asleep listening to it. 🎧️ I want to catch up on the parts I missed before returning it, maybe tonight. Listening to the Power Broker is one of many ways I’ve been procrastinating later, as to avoid my anxiety about my housing situation. 😩 That and scrolling through Facebook and complaining about how anxious I am and how I’m avoiding doing research. Maybe because I’m undecided.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 34 degrees at 4pm. 13 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 8th. Breezy, with a northwest wind 20 to 24 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph. A year ago, we had sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 59 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 1921. 6.0 inches of snow fell back in 1905.❄

More fillbustering last night. 🍞 I decided to bake two loafs of bread, one with lots of herbs and spices and other with canned pumpkin, ginger and pumpkin spice and a bit of stevia for added sweetness. Both were baked this morning, after rising in the oven overnight. It’s funny, I think the mice have managed to chew a hole through the rotted oven insulation and firebox, but I have no evidence that they’ve made it up the oven walls to nibble on the rising bread overnight. The two loafs of bread were delicious when baked this morning.

I don’t know why I fear information so much. 📜 It doesn’t cost anything to watch Youtube videos or read library books about buying land and building a house. Maybe it’s not the option I ultimately want to do, but research will make me a more informed consumer if I’m not hiding from it. 🧭 I just got to be very careful about giving my information to sales people, or the harassing phone calls and emails were start, every day. 📞 At least the mortgage officers have abandoned me for now, as I’ve expressed no further interest since them running the credit checks and submitting the paperwork for pre-qualification and most of it for pre-approval.

Starting to learning about some of the downsides of modular construction 🛖 namely how it doesn’t necessarily increase in value, which is good for you when it comes to the taxman but not so much if you plan to sell it. The speed and simplicity of permitting is a big upside, but the downside is the quality of building materials can be less, though often modular buildings have better insulation and fewer air-leaks. Plus far less of a risk of theft of materials on site. But that got me thinking more about whether or not I want to stay in New York State and if I really want the long commute. 🚘️ It’s not like it’s that long before I’m eligible for early retirement at age 55 — 13 years, 10 months, 8 days. The winter of 2011 was further away then that. To build would tie me to New York beyond that date.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:03 pm with sun having an altitude of 47.8° from the due south horizon (-23° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:32 pm with the sun in the west (265°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (272°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:09 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:37 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-southeast (106°) at an altitude of 41° from the horizon, 250,980 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:11 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 30 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 17. ☃️ Breezy, 18 mph breeze ⛅ from the west-northwest with gusts up to 29mph. Tomorrow will have 12 hours and 19 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 55 seconds over today.

All I can say it’s a hell of a situation that I am in these days. ❤️‍🔥 Every dollar I spend today is one that takes away from tomorrow, it’s stealing from my future. The thing about it is I am still living in that dumpy apartment that I’ve had since graduating college, 16 1/2 years ago now, even though I have that swanky office and good salary, that I’ve worked hard to obtain. 13 years and 10 months and 8 days isn’t that long, and it’s a chance to advance my career more, save more money and increase my pension. Then at age 55, I am free to move to a place like the Ozarks of Missouri where I’m free to have whatever fires I want 🔥 and have lots of money for land and stock 🐮 and really build a nice off-grid house, without the somewhat large budgetary restrictions I have. If I have $250k to build now, I’ll probably have a $1 million to buy land and build then, which goes far father outside of New York or any metropolitan area. And then to keep busy, I can find a job shoveling shit 🧹or something along those lines for the health insurance.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 19 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 22nd. Maximum wind chill around 19 at 6pm; Northwest wind 13 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.  Pretty damn cold. I am going to have to turn on the heat I am afraid. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of 2 occurred back in 1875.

Nothing has happened with my neighbor’s garbage pile 🗑️ except some paper litter blowing along my door stop, but I haven’t been able to talk to him about it as he usually leaves before sunrise and doesn’t return until late into the night. I don’t care if he were just to get some trash cans, or stick in his car. At some point I would imagine the slumlord would notice. We should talk more but he works really long hours. I’m just up early, because I choose to go to bed early,  🛌 but he’s up early to work.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, rain and snow, becoming all rain after 11am. High near 42. South wind 6 to 13 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 42. Typical average high for the weekend is 48 degrees.

As previously noted, next Thursday is Average High is 50 🌸 when the sun will be setting at 7:18 pm with dusk at 7:45 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 53 and 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 85 back in 1945.