Stewart’s

A pleasant evening last night before the rain later today. 🌧️

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For the first time in a while I sat out back until late into the evening. After a hot day it was a very pleasant evening. Today is more cloudy and humid, a lot of rain is on tap for the next few days.

Good morning! Happy Sunday. Clouds and 70 degrees in Delmar for the morning walk out to Five. ☁ Calm wind. The dew point is 68 degrees. The skies will clear Tuesday around 2 am. But first, 4-6 inches of rain. ☔ Best to get my steps in early. 👣

Walking 🚶 out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center which may be one of the last times in the near future. Bicycling will be so much quicker, even if I take the long way to avoid traffic and hills. This morning to change it up, heading out Fisher Boulevard and will walk back Delaware Ave, though that way is a bit more narrow. Already when the sun is out I’m feeling the humidity. 😰 Really dripping in that sweat.

Today will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2pm, then rain and thunderstorms likely between 2pm and 5pm, then rain likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 5pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 81 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around June 23rd. Maximum dew point of 72 at 11am. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 80 degrees. The record high of 103 was set in 1936.

After I do my walk 🚶 I’ll probably cook up the chicken 🐔 for the week and lunch. Hot day for turning on the oven but I figure I’ll take a cold shower after cooking and then I’m heading out to the folks house in the evening which with the rain should give time for everything to cool down. 🍲 Home cooked chicken breast are so much healthier than the frozen ones and I can refreeze them. Also will toast the remaining chickpeas I have soaked. 🍘

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 69.8° from the due south horizon (-1.1° vs. 6/21). The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:53 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (295°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (302°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:36 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 25 seconds with dusk around 9:09 pm, which is 25 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:54 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 69 degrees. The dew point will be 69 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 11 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 8 seconds over yesterday.

Yesterday besides getting a bicycle 🚲 and going shopping 🛒 it was a very hot and humid kind of quiet day. Besides the morning walk around the park I ended going back to the town park 🏞 to watch the sun set and went to the library 📚 for a few hours to heat the heat. I thought about plinking down the seven or eight bucks to swim in the town park pool 🏊‍♂️ but being do hot and humid you never know when a thunderstorm ⛈ would come rolling through. One clap of thunder and the pool closes for a half hour. 💸 I tried making hummus and that was a disaster after buying expensive Tanani sauce. I paid good money for the ingredients, I’m going to have to try again. 😖

Tonight will rain and possibly a thunderstorm before 8pm, then rain and thunderstorms between 8pm and 11pm, then rain and possibly a thunderstorm after 11pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. 🌧 Low of 66 degrees at 12am. Four degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 70 at 6pm. 🏖️ West wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 52 degrees. The record low of 47 occurred back in 1963.

Looking, next Sunday is Last Sunset After 8:30 PM 🌆 with dusk at 9:04 pm. On that day in 2022, we had a rather hot day, that was mostly sunny and temperatures between 88 and 60 degrees. Did I spend it at the Potholers? Yes. Typically, the high temperature is 84 degrees. We hit a record high of 97 back in 1900.

Double X

A summer evening

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No bats 🦇 on Bypass Extension, maybe too early? They’re always there.

Lots of fireflies though 🐝 and the buck at the town park I saw is definitely starting to put on a rack. 🦌

77 days until the first day of autumn, 8 weekends from now is Labor Day Weekend (September 2nd). 🍂

Finally bought a bike 🚵🏻

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I test road a few bicycles and ultimately settled on a Trek Marlin 6 Gen 2. This is one of the most popular mountain bikes out there, and is easily upgradable and repairable. It’s in stock though not built in my size XXL so the shop is going to give me a call when the bicycle is built next week. Between Downtube and Steiner’s Sport in Glenmont I have options for parts and repairs, and there are also Trek dealers in Ithaca if I need parts while on vacation.

It’s heavy and slow. But it’s a real mountain bike from a good quality brand. It’s not a playing footsie-hybrid, “I’m a schizophrenic I’m not sure if I’m a road or mountain bike” like my old Gary Fisher and so many of the other bicycles I looked at it. I want to ride on many forest service roads and even some of the dirt pack mountain bike trails around, at least those without crazy jumps. I am not planning to abuse it on rough trails, but if I there is a short, relatively smooth trail back to a pond or scenic vista, I might ride the bike back there, like Foster Pond.

Will it be a wonderful commuter bicycle? Probably not. Will it be great for doing hundreds of miles on a bicycle trail like the Erie Canalway? Again, probably not. But can be used for such purposes, and will be faster and better then walking? Absolutely. I do plan to do a fair amount of riding on bike trails, and I’m willing to compromise a slower, heavier more difficult to ride bicycle for something that is better on forest roads. I am also adding a pannier rack to the bicycle, though I probably will use just a small milk crate on that I’ll add when I want to haul lunch or supplies while doing a day trip.

It should be good on state forest and national forest roads, with fairly aggressive, wider soft tires that can aired up or down, and a suspension lock-out to make it more efficient riding on pavement. The tires are more puncture resistant and the wheels stronger then a road bike. I’m sure if I tried I could knock the wheel out of true and break spokes, but I am going to be gentile on my new toy when I get it. I might shy away from most mountain bike trails, in favor of dirt roads, where I think safest to ride, especially until it’s well broken in.

Ultimately, when it came push come to shove, this was the bike I tried out that I liked best. I decided I care more about the ability to ride it in the forest then smog and traffic-choked streets through the ghetto to downtown, where I would have to worry more about theft, though with an XXL frame, a theft would have to be pretty tall to ride it off. I am getting a good quality U-lock and will bring it into my office rather then the bike rack as much as possible when I do take it downtown — which probably won’t be every day. But it will be great for a quick ride out to Five Rivers or Voorheesville via the rail trail, and being able to sit down by the Black Creek Marsh, watch the sun set and listen to the crickets. Or even Hollyhock or Blodgett Hill. The Nature Bus to Thacher Park has bike racks, so I could take it up there and ride some of the dirt roads and trails up there, along with the rural roads.

And if you are thinking of stealing it, remember I own lots of guns, and it’s not always obvious when I am home and when I’m out as I take the bus to work most days and some times work from home. Come smashing through the window, and you might see a rifle rammed up your ass, lol.