Final Saturday in February 📆

My view is good riddens to this month. Certainly not my favorite, and this has been one of the harshest ones in recent years with cold, then snow and then a lot of ice.

It’s not at terrible day today, but I decided not to head out of town this weekend , as there is still a lot of snow around and ice. I was more then a bit worried about ice on Cheese Hill Road past the pond and state park police headquarters and how much of a snowbank there would be between the road and campsite, made up of hard to break pack ice.

The other issue I had was the solar was not charging the battery on my truck, due to a loose lead on the connector. I noticed that last weekend, and I tried to tighten it up but it was cold and I needed to restrip one of the connectors to get a good connection, and I didn’t spend the time to do it properly. While the low-voltage disconnect helped to protect the battery, I wish I had left it set higher up. Honestly though, in this cold and gray weather, I probably should be manually overriding it and shutting it off when the truck is off — there is no need to keep powered up the relays and monitoring equipment when the truck is off, though I guess that needs to be operating to send charge to starting battery, plus it will reset once there is high enough state of charge / voltage on the battery.

Made a pot of rice, red lentils, onions and tumeric for lunch. I was hoping I would have enough food through Monday I could avoid going to store. It looks like though I will need to get groceries in the mean-time though. Turns out my pantry is a bit more bare then I first though, so I might on Sunday ride down to Hannaford to pick up a few things. Dad is sick so no visiting this week but I’m thinking Monday after work, wash my truck, refill the propane tank, do wash, and stock up at Walmart for the balance of the week.

Heading riding for the balance of day most likely. I’m sure the bike trail will be shit, but the roads are fine, not too windy and lots of sun. Finally warmed up enough for some snow melt, though it’s so icy back around my truck and anywhere that hasn’t been blasted the past few days with road salt. Next week most days will be close to normal — low forties — so that should help with the ice. The following weekend, who knows, it’s really too far out but I’m hoping to get away. I really could use some time out in the wilderness.

March used to be really bad with work, but now with my new position that isn’t so much of an issue as I don’t usually work nights or weekends. So I can get away, though I won’t have as much vacation time, as I don’t work those crazy extra hours nor do I get all that extra comp time I used to. Maybe that’s one of the downsides of my current position, that said, it’s kind of nice to be away from some of Albany’s craziness up in Menands.