Good afternoon. Currently mostly cloudy and 39 degrees in Delmar. This afternoon will be partly sunny, with a high near 42. Southwest wind around 9 mph.

Sunset will be at 5:15 pm with twilight at 5:45 pm which is one minute and 19 seconds later then yesterday. Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 25. South wind 5 to 7 mph. Tonight we will have a Waining Crescent Moon with 9% illuminated. It will rise at 5:51 am. If you get up before dawn, look east for that tiny little sliver of a moon before daybreak. I won’t probably be up that early.

Did my oil change this morning, putting a nice fresh filter and six fresh quarts of oil in my truck. Big Red’s DIC said 19% oil life left but I always like to change it a bit early because I drive on a lot of dirt roads, and honestly the last time I changed it was August 8th or 8,000 miles ago. I put a lot of miles on my truck during the West Virginia trip. Regardless, it was an awesome adventure. I wanted to change the oil as soon as possible, as I had noticed last week the oil was low, so I added a quart. I figured that probably stirred up sludge in the bottom – and I wasn’t hundred percent sure what the dipstick read last week, so to be safe I changed it. Dang synthetic oil is hard to read on the dipstick as its such a light color, even after many miles. Not the jet black used oil color of the old school oil.

This is probably the last time I’ll change the oil myself. It’s such a dirty job. But beyond that I always can’t find a tool or have trouble getting the filter off. I had to borrow dad’s socket set today, which involved driving out there because my socket set was missing. No idea where I put the dang set. I don’t like how the lube pits only have cheap oil and filters, but if I go to my regular mechanic, I’m sure he’ll use good quality parts. The truck roof is too high to get into most of the lube pits too. I thought about going to Walmart oil change place, though as I think they’ll use whatever filter they have in stock, and have a higher roof. But I did it myself. It’s not that hard to do an oil change on my truck, especially with the lift kit that makes it easy to crawl under.

I have to admit I like changing my own oil. I might not be a mechanic or do most of my own repairs, but I can do the oil change easily. Makes me feel like a man. Kind of being a gun owner, having a lifted truck, and bringing my own garbage to the transfer station. Burning it fun too but like shooting guns I can’t do that in the city either. I’m probably on some kind of terrorist list for changing my own oil in the suburbs.

In thinking about going for a hike for a few hours at Schodack Island State Park once I take a shower. That said, the fact that it’s getting cloudy out now sure is disappointing. It was an amazingly nice morning for sure.