Good evening! Partly clear and 82 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 62 degrees. Back home again, as John Denver once sung. 🎶 Remarkably hot, especially now that I am back home after having a nice Sunday dinner at the folks house. 👕 Slowly unpacking my gear from camping, taking steps to drink and cool down.

Well, happy summer folks. ☺ The next ten weeks through Labor Day Weekend are considered real summer when the state parks pools are open and the days are relatively long. 🏖 Nice hot summer days to spend at the pool or swimming hole. 🏊🏻‍♂️ Do some fishing 🎣 late into the night.

It was a beautiful trip back across the Mohawk Valley and through the Schoharie Valley. Everything was very green and lush.  It was a nice weekend up north, although Friday night was very wet. ☔ It drizzled for a while and then when I went for a good walk up to the Potholers it poured and I got completely soaked. 💦 It was decent all three days up north although I have to say that today was the best of the week. That said, much too short. 🐇 Time flies, especially when it’s rare that I am not out of town for four or more nights, in the era of remote work. But I decided I should come home tonight, because I need to at minimum move to a new campsite.

It was three nights up in the wilderness, 🏕 camping up at House Pond, spending much of Friday during the day drinking, 🍺 reading, 📕 writing, ✍ and hanging down at the Swimming Hole by the House Pond Campsite. 🏊‍♀️ It was nice but the water was a bit cold to say the least. 🛶 Saturday, was kayaking from Stewart Landing up to Lily Lake. I didn’t go much into West Lake because I wanted to be close to back to Stewart Landing by 2 pm as they were threatening severe storms by afternoon, which never materialized. Instead, I spent the evening reading, and then down at the same swimming hole on the East Canada Creek. 🏊‍♀️ Most of Sunday was spent slowly taking down camp after a nice breakfast 🥞 then the majority of the day the Potholers. I forgot how much nicer the Potholers are with the flowing water and potholes compared to any ordinary swimming hole on a nice summer day. It’s good to be back there!

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 69 degrees at 5am. 10 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 66 at 3am. South wind around 8 mph. Probably need the fan on all evening. In 2020, we had mostly clear skies. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 69 degrees. The record low of 41 occurred back in 1970.

I thought about staying over the folks house, 👪 but I was tired and wanted to get home. It has been a nice weekend, but alas I should get ready for the work week and get my camping gear put away. I also want to get the volt meter out before dark, and try to figure out why the relay isn’t closing between the starting and accessory batteries when the engine is on or the solar is outputting enough to top off both batteries. 🔋 That was annoying that wasn’t working this weekend.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon with 81% illuminated. At 7 PM, the moon was in the southeast (139°) at an altitude of 26° from the horizon, some 226,818 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by December 9^th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The Strawberry 🍓 Moon is on Thursday, June 24. The darkest hour is at 12:58 am, followed by dawn at 4:43 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:18 am in the east-northeast (57°) and last for 3 minutes and 28 seconds. Sunrise is 11 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:01 am with sun in the east-northeast (64°). Tonight will have 8 hours and 41 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 4pm. Some of the storms could produce small hail, gusty winds, and heavy rain. Mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 89 degrees at 3pm. Eight degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 71 at 11am. South wind 10 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 92 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1938.

Friday turned out to be a very late start heading north. 🚍 I decided not to drive downtown as I’m out of practice with parallel parking and I hate dealing with rush hour traffic. 🚙 So I took the bus home and packed the coolers but ended up having to run to the grocery store to get all the things I didn’t previously pack. But at least the nights are long, and I had plenty of time to get set up, gather some firewood 🔥 and get things going.

The relay that connects the alternator – starting battery 🔋 to the accessory batteries quit working on the way up to camp. Not sure if it’s the exciter wire that broke or the relay is seized. It was fine, I had lots of sun ☀ for the solar so all was good. I stopped on Friday to try to get figure out the issue but nothing obvious. I’ll test this evening or tomorrow with the volt meter. ⚡ It’s possible that the big old can relay failed from the occasional clatter of the relay when clouds appear on a sunny day, although I think I have mostly arrested that by adjusting settings on the voltage control. I am betting the wire is just broken.

In four weeks on July 18 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (300°) at 8:29 pm,🌄 which is 7 minutes and 24 seconds earlier then today. In 2020 on that day, we had hot and sunny weather with shallow fog in the morning and temperatures between 87 and 59 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 84 and 63 degrees. The record high of 100 degrees was set back in 1953.

By then, I hope to be on my summer vacation. 😎 I am thinking the Finger Lakes National Forest and the state parks circuit I normally do, finding new places to hike or explore. I kind of like that campsite I stayed at last year without cell service, because I find do a lot more reading and thinking if I’m camping somewhere without cell service, 🤫 the quiet with no Facebook quite nice. 📱 I admit I am a bit of social media addict, even if my own postings to social media are a bit more asinine as I hate all the creepy commercial advertising that follows you around the internet, especially the green schemes.

Looking ahead, Independence Day 🇺🇸 is Next Sunday, World Population Day 👩‍👩‍👧‍👧 is in 3 weeks, Ugly Truck Day 🚚 is a month away, August 🌻 is in 6 weeks, Buck Moon 🌕 is in 9 weeks, Halloween 🎃 is in 19 weeks, Average High is 50 🍂 is in 21 weeks, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 is in 5 months, Repeal of Prohibition Day 🍺 is in 24 weeks, Cold Moon 🌕 is in 26 weeks and Boxing Day 🥊 is in 27 weeks.