I was looking forward until the first clap of thunder happened about the time I was ready to get in pool. At least once the storm passes the pool will be open until 7.
Taken on Monday August 10, 2020 at Watkins Glen State Park.
Best time to go is in the evening, after most people have left for dinner after a good rainfall when you can really observe the glen without the crowds.
Taken on Thursday July 29, 2021 at Watkins Glen State Park.
It turns out it is possible to do a short -- 3/4 mile paddle on the marsh from the Airport Road parking area along part of the drainage canal and creek, however when water levels are higher supposedly you can get out to the center part of the marsh. Lots of birds and wildlife!
Taken on Monday August 2, 2021 at Catharine Creek WMA.Maybe now that my summer vacation is ending, we will get some real heat. Maybe that calls for a trip to the Potholers for a long weekend as the dog days of summer get really doggy. 🐶
It’s a beautiful day and time is tight. ⏳ Last full day of vacation. I think the plan should be to explore the Connecticut Hill WMA 🚶🏻 with walking some of the dirt roads and the Finger Lakes Trail. That said, I’m seriously considering paddling Seneca Lake first 🛶 as it’s so calm this morning although with the sun rising ☀ I’m not sure if that will remain as such.
Later on I do want to paddle part of the Catharine Creek Marsh 🛶 and then go for a swim 🏊🏻♂️ one last time at Watkins Glen. The pool is open until seven 7⃣ on Saturday which gives me a little bit more time. Then maybe one more ice cream 🍧 at the Glen Dairy Bar. Maybe another night watching the sun set at Seneca Lake.
Tomorrow looks rainy ⛈️ but I’m in no rush to get home. 🏡I want to leave the Finger Lakes by five 5⃣ o’clock so I will have the bulk of the day but I can poke home on NY 23 or another back road 🚗 🐢 but be home by nine 9⃣ so I’m not driving in the dark and have time to get a bit unpacked and shower 🚿 before bed.
Then it’s back to work 🏢 downtown on Monday but I kept a set of clothes 👚 ready for that. I’ll probably do the laundromat after work, although technically Tuesday I still have the option to work remotely, so maybe I can work from the laundromat on my truck as they have Wi-Fi there. 📶
But I’m fine with that. 🏖 Vacation can’t last forever and I’m running low on money 💵. I also look forward to looking at and posting more vacation pictures and getting back home where I can use my laptop to learn more about python and all the data science and analysis things I’ve been learning about. 💻 Looking kind of forward to the normality of working back in the office downtown 🏢 and going to the library 📚 and park 🏞 after work. No more working from home or mixing fun camping with eight hours of work. Camping 🏕 will just be all about fun.
And the future 🔮 – my vacation in the autumn in West Virginia, learning a lot more python, figuring out my mental health needs, changing my life. 🐮 And then getting closer to the rural life, saving money 💵 so eventually I can have that off grid property 🏡 and own my own land where I can have my guns and fires whenever I want.
| Weather Summary | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| This Afternoon. Feels like … September 24th. |
Mostly Sunny | 71 degrees | 8:26 sunset | |
| Tonight. Feels like … September 14th. |
Mostly Cloudy | 53 degrees | 5:59 sunrise | |
| Sunday. Feels like … September 17th. |
Heavy Rain | 74 degrees | 53 max dew point | 8:26 sunset |
| Sunday Night. Feels like … September 9th. |
Showers then Chance of Showers | 55 degrees | 6:00 sunrise | |
| Monday. Feels like … September 30th. |
Mostly Sunny | 68 degrees | 59 max dew point | 8:25 sunset |
| Monday Night. Feels like … September 22nd. |
Mostly Clear | 50 degrees | 6:01 sunrise | |
| Tuesday. Feels like … September 19th. |
Mostly Sunny | 73 degrees | 53 max dew point | 8:24 sunset |
| Tuesday Night. Feels like … September 9th. |
Partly Cloudy | 55 degrees | 6:03 sunrise | |
| Wednesday. Feels like … September 14th. |
Mostly Sunny then Chance of Showers | 75 degrees | 56 max dew point | 8:22 sunset |
| Wednesday Night. Feels like … September 3rd. |
Chance of Showers then Partly Cloudy | 57 degrees | 6:04 sunrise | |
| Thursday. Feels like … September 8th. |
Mostly Sunny then Chance of Showers | 77 degrees | 58 max dew point | 8:21 sunset |
| Thursday Night. Feels like … August 30th. |
Chance of Showers then Partly Cloudy | 58 degrees | 6:05 sunrise | |
| Friday. Feels like … September 8th. |
Mostly Sunny | 77 degrees | 60 max dew point | 8:20 sunset |
I guess as they say, all good things must come to an end. 😔 But at least its a glorious day and a glorious end to vacation. 🏖 Super clear, beautiful country I’m in for sure.
Mostly sunny and 65 degrees at the Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area. There is a west breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 47 degrees.
This morning, I was thinking I could just lay back in my hammock and look at the beautiful blue skies ☀ all day with a book 📙 listening to the birds 🐦 and cows chew their cud and softly moo 🐮 but I’ve spent too much time during my vacation doing that, which is super relaxing but makes the time go by much too quickly.
But alas I’m moving, out hiking in the mountains. 🗻 Exploring Connecticut Hill WMA, once owned by the State of Connecticut and a vast public hunting grounds, the sound of the guns 🔫 silenced until autumn 🍂 🦌. Need to enjoy my last full day, there is time back home to lay in the hammock and read 📖 like during a future trip to the Adirondacks.
That
Today is the last full day of vacation. 🏖 I decided to make eggs 🥚 over a charcoal fire this morning. 🍳 The slow cooking of the charcoal plus the smoke makes things so good. Peppers I got from the farmers market in Auburn, eggs from Wally World, sausage and cheese. 🧀 I wish I could have gotten fresh eggs, I should have stopped at a farm stand along the way but I didn’t.
Last night I was tired 😴 so I retired to bed 🛏 in my truck fairly early. It was a nice day but lots of hiking and swimming 🏊🏻♂️ so I was tired. Had macaroni and cheese with diced tomatoes 🍅 and ham 🍲 for a filling meal for a somewhat chilly night. I had a small campfire 🔥 for a while last night to warm myself and burn up the accumulated garbage 🗑 from camping the past few days.
While I tried to keep the anxiety monster 👹 at bay yesterday, as I’m on vacation and trying to relax, both my credit and debit cards 💳 were denied at Walmart yesterday when I went shopping and bought styrofoam bowls, 🥣 along with cheese and diced tomatoes. That was annoying but I expect to have $100 in cash left over so I’ll at least have gas money 💵 to get home 🏡. Might be just a Walmart issue, I find my credit card 💳 doesn’t always work there but I don’t want to be locked 🔒 out and not have money ⛽ to get gas for the return trip. 😲
That said, I’m running a little low on money 💵. My bank account 🏦 is looking depleted after paying rent and the bills, I’m only $150 above the minimum for free banking. I can hopefully get some more money to put in their after I get paid on Tuesday. ☺ And put any residual cash from vacation back in the bank. Next month is a three paycheck month which will help but I also may need to reconsider my budget. But I really hate to steal from my future 🔮, but I keep expanding my weekly savings and maybe I’ve gotten to the point where my budget isn’t based on reality. Got to live today.
Spending time in the woods 🌲 and in the small town with all the hicks, cows and manure smells 🐮 makes me so dream of my future. It’s vacation now but I so eventually want to live off-grid simply in a small town like Watkins Glen or maybe more in the mountains ⛰️ but where I can own hand guns 🔫 without having to ask permission of the government, open carry and I can burn my trash rather than spending pointless time washing out plastic containers most of which are going to the landfill at any rate. ♻ Where I can heat with wood rather than dinosaur 🦕 bones and make all my own electricity rather then send checks to a multinational corporation that burns fracked natural gas and send me a bill weeks later. And not have to face 😔 all those urban problems. Kind of like vacation but permanently. 🚜 I fucking hate living in the city and in New York State where all my freedoms are restricted. 💰 But I sure like chasing that money I can save and invest, money that doesn’t exist but in the big city.
The two big ways I process data for the blog is using QGIS for mapping and spatial analysis and LibreOffice Calc spreadsheet for pivot tables, formulas and statistical analysis. Sometimes I also will use PHP to process data like for creating graphs with the help of ChartsJS.
It works but it’s somewhat clunky and slow, requiring the opening of large programs that use a lot of memory and a lot of pointing and clicking. For very large datasets, this can really push the software to its limits. That’s why I ended up looking into GeoPandas and python more generally. It’s kind of a gateway drug.
The GeoPandas library is great as you can do quickly with a few lines of code spatial joins of coordinates and shapefiles in a few lines of code. I’ve done a little with the Pandas library in the past but suddenly now I’m really interested in what I can do with data processing in Python. Seems like a much better option than those afformentioned libraries. So I got a book out of the library called Python data science essentials : become an efficient data science practitioner by thoroughly understanding the key concepts of Python / Alberto Boschetti, Luca Massaron, and suddenly I’m so fascinated by the topic of data science and what I can do with it, especially mixed with Geospatial data.
To be sure, I’m an open source and open data guy, I’m only interested in building things out of information that is freely available. But I’m interested in learning new tools and finding new ways to process data both for my blog and other purposes. And despite what the internet advertising suggests, I’m not interested in data science to get a job, I just want to be able to do quick and dirty things in python to build new ways for analysis of data and maps.