Good evening! Partly clear and 71 degrees at the Finger Lakes National Forest. There is a west-northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 62 degrees. It’s rapidly becoming a nicer evening, even a bit cool as the dew point is dropping as is the mercury. I doubt I’ll be running the fan much if at all tonight.

It was a fun day first hanging out at camp, laying back in the hammock under the deep blue skies and then making a nice breakfast. Then I kind of procrastined in securing camp 🔒 and getting firewood before heading out for the day.

I spent most of the afternoon at the pool 🏊 at Watkins Glen State Park until around six o’clock when the kicked everyone out because of a high reading of chlorine in the pool. Probably with so many people in the pool and less than expected evaporation, things got overdosed. Earlier in the day people mentioned a chlorine smell in the locker room but I did not notice it. My nose 👃 also was a bit sore, I’m wondering if it was irritated by the chlorine. But it was fine, I was already on my final swim of the evening and was going to get to shower 🚿 in before they closed and it got too late. The only thing that sucked is everybody was trying to get a shower at once in the end because everybody got out of the pool at once and the lifeguards highly recommended everyone take a shower as soon as possible to avoid skin irritation from the chlorine. It probably is just standard procedure when there is a technical violation of the chlorine standard.

I love the Adirondack chairs and the terrace above the swimming pool for sitting out in the sun ☀ up there but at 84 degrees the pool was uncomfortably warm and crowded. I think on Tuesday, my final day full day in the Finger Lakes, I might do Robert Treman one more time as Enfield Glen is so refreshing if not cold then end the day in Watkins Glen. Probably hike both glens too besides swimming. .

After I finally got a shower, I drove down to Glen Dairy Bar and got a large butternut soft ice cream sundae. I was pretty happy with it. 🍨They always have good ice cream. On Tuesday when I’m thinking I’ll get their hot apple pie sundae. 🍏 That’s also a very good treat. I then went Walmart and ended up turning over to Clute Park and watching the sunset. I also pulled over at Hector Falls and took a few pictures. I got the groceries and supplies I need so I can stay at camp tomorrow and just hike to Foster or Potomac Pond to do some fishing 🎣 on what should be the most cloudy and cool day of vacation.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 66 degrees at 2am. Four degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 62 at 10pm. West wind 3 to 5 mph. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It became sticky as the night progressed. It got down to 64 degrees. The record low of 47 occurred back in 1970.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon 🌖 with 68% illuminated. The Last Quarter Moon is on Tuesday night with mostly clear skies. The Strugeon Moon 🌝 is on Wednesday, August 14th. The sun will rise at 5:48 am with the first light at 5:15 am, which is 56 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours and 12 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 46 seconds over last night.

In a little bit I’m going to hike back over to Foster Pond for some star gazing and hopefully to see the actual moon rising tonight. 🎑 It’s clearer than I had expected and I’m on vacation so I can hang out there as late as I want. Tomorrow isn’t going to be a real nice day so I might as well sleep on as late as possible.

Tomorrow will have showers likely, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after noon. 🌦 High of 70 degrees at 5pm. 13 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 21st. Kind of like the first day of autumn, although it’s always colder on the Finger Lakes. Maximum dew point of 66 at 6pm. 🏖️ Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 87 degrees. The record high of 102 was set in 1926.

As I previously mentioned, I am planning to stick around the Finger Lakes National Forest tomorrow, maybe doing some hiking and fishing 🎣. I get tired of driving all the time and I feel like the best way to get to know the land is at times to stay close to where you are camping. I should have plenty of power for tomorrow at camp even if the solar power is limited due to the clouds. ☁ I mean that’s the whole purpose of the extra battery 🔋 in the bed of my truck. I have the rest of the week with ample sun ☀ to recharge things. For a while when the sun was out I was getting 85 watts which over an hour is 85 watt hours. It might take a while to fully recharge things if I’m down 1.2 kWh combined capacity at 50% discharged but the sun shines more than one hour each day and I can always use the alternator when driving to make up some of difference. I’m hoping tomorrow won’t be a wash out but if it’s really wet I could hang a tarp or hide out in the tent or truck cap and might consider driving down to the Watkins Glen library to use the Wi-Fi. 📚

In four weeks on August 18 the sun will be setting at 8:03 pm,🌄 which is 34 minutes and 16 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had humid, partly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 77 and 68 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 80 and 60 degrees. The record high of 95 degrees was set back in 1913.

While getting my ice cream I passed one of the many long haul garbage trucks that go through Watkins Glen 🚮 delivering waste most likely to Ontario County Landfill on US 20 in Geneva or maybe Seneca Meadows. I know folks are out there doing political things to reduce waste but most of the time they are pretty silly like banning Styrofoam take out containers or plastic bags. Little is done about big picture things.💨 If anything, politics is used to make people feel virtuous and do little in their own lives. I look forward to when I have that off grid property and can take my own actions but for now I avoid eating out or being big into that comsimeristic thing. I don’t like politics when it becomes an excuse for people not to change their own lives. 💭

Looking ahead, State Fair Opens 🎡 is a month away, Sunset Before 7:30 PM 🌆 is in 6 weeks, Average High 70 🎑 is in 2 months, Autumn 🍂 is in 9 weeks and Average High is 60 🍂 is in 12 weeks.