Good morning! Happy Monday. It looks like we are at 77 degrees with the mercury looking to push 90 and a heat index that might beat that with a few degrees, with a dewpoint a sticky 65. It will be fairly oppressive out by afternoon, as is expected for mid-July in the greater Albany-area. Tomorrow will have a little less mercury but more humidity and a higher dewpoint to compensate for it. More rain showers and thunderstorms are possible on Tuesday and Wednesday then today. Thursday showers and somewhat cooler. Friday should be quite nice with Saturday and Sunday the mercury cranking back up.

Still looking for my old phone so I can stick the battery from it into my current Smartphone, so I can hopefully get it back up and working. I know it got kind of wet in the kayak on Saturday, but I would like to see it back working again, as I depend on it for many things every day. Fortunately, it’s not a real expensive phone with prices coming down, but I can’t keep killing these stupid phones. If I hadn’t been so smart to put the phone in a plastic bag – which got damp internally, it would have been fine. I’ve brought my phone plenty of times in past, but this idea to keep it extra dry didn’t exactly work on Canada Lake.

If this weekend forecast looks as nice it currently does, I’ll have to think about where I want to go. I guess I could go back up to Piseco-Powley Road, as the potholers are really nice in oppressively hot summer weather, although it seems kind of silly to go to the same place twice in two weeks. But the potholers feel so nice in really warm weather. I might alternatively head out to the Finger Lakes if I can get a part or most of next week off. It would be fun to camp at the Finger Lakes National Forest and check out the gorges and pools in the day time. The long range does seem somewhat stormy for next week.

Been thinking about getting a truck intertube for cooling off in the lakes and creeks. I was thinking with the kayak paddle tied to it to help in getting around, I could have a lot of fun in various lakes. Those little plastic ones probably aren’t great on the rocks, so I want to get the same thing I had as a kid. The kayak is fun but it doesn’t really get you wet like sitting a tube. I am probably going to look and see what is available on the Internet or maybe what shops are available locally.

Enjoy this warm Monday, and remember in six months from now we will be in the coldest weather of the year. Don’t complain about the oppressive heat, when you can be complaining about your heating bills and the road salt. Hazy, hot, humid weather exists for the world’s swimming holes. Plus this weather gives all those old coal and oil fired power plants a chance to run, so they can keep your air conditioning running well. That means a lot of jobs in little hicktowns, running power plants which were built a generation before anybody operating them.