Good morning! Happy Sunday. ⛪ Nice morning and so far the black flies aren’t out in mass yet. 🐜 Four weeks to Fathers Day 👨 . Mostly sunny and 51 degrees in Speculator, NY. Light breeze from the west.

Yesterday I did a 3 mile hike along a bunch of dirt roads at Spectulator Tree Farm. 🌲I plan to upload those photos from my other camera 📸 later on probably after also hiking Watch Hill today. Lots of birds and wildlife and some nice quiet views. 🐦 I liked hiking for hours without seeing anyone, the breeze kept the black flies away 🐜 and the mix of timberland and woods meant there was much to see. Came back to camp, made up a big bowl of macaroni and cheese 🧀 with corn 🌽 and ham. Good dinner after a nice day, had a fire 🔥 and watched the stars ✨. Got a bit sunburnt and are a bit achy last night 🤕 but I figure that’s just summer coming on or skin cancer.

Today will have a slight chance of showers between noon and 2pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. ⚡ Mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 65 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 28th. Calm wind becoming west around 6 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 73 degrees. The record high of 89 was set in 1991.

My plan is to get a fairly early start – after my breakfast of eggs and coffee ☕ take down camp and head into town for ice. I haven’t turned my truck on since Thursday evening 🔋 but I know the starting battery is fully charged as the solar has done well, especially yesterday with the bright 🔆 sunshine.

I want to do a hike up Watch Hill 🚶🏻 before the thunderstorms ⛈ hit later. I don’t want tbe to be hiking in a thunderstorm especially with my quite worn boots 👢 that no longer have good traction in the rain. I’m going to order a new pair on Monday along with some jeans 👖. I need more clothes now that starting next week I’ll be working downtown a few days a week.

I thought about other hikes 🗻 but I like Watch Hill and I’m not expecting too many crowds off season but it should be pretty with everything greening up nicely. Easy hike, I should be off it by afternoon when the thunderstorms roll in. I like sitting down by the lake. 🐦 I’ll keep my eyes out for birds and wildlife.

Then camp off by Mason Lake tonight ⛺ and head back to town to work in Spectulator in the morning and head home thereafter. Technically, I don’t have to be in the office until Wednesday but I want a day home to unpack 💼 and plus I would rather do the Zoom Meetings from the library Wi-Fi than my phone 📱 as it looks bad to be zooming from camp when other colleagues are in the downtown office. Hybrid for now. It will be nice to see some of my colleagues in the office, 🏢 especially the ones I’ve Zoomed with mostly lately.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:55 pm with sun having an altitude of 65.7° from the due south horizon (-4.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:35 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (291°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (298°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:17 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 19 seconds with dusk around 8:49 pm, which is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the west (266°) at an altitude of 41° from the horizon, 244,296 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:32 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 57 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 14 hours and 45 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 6 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7pm, then a slight chance of showers between 7pm and 9pm. Partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 43 degrees at 5am. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 2nd. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2020, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 54 degrees. The record low of 30 occurred back in 1959.

Should be a decent evening. 🌃 I could stay until Tuesday but I think Monday night makes the most sense. Work from my actual apartment on Tuesday and get my suit ready for Wednesday. 👨🏻‍🏫 The good thing had to end with the pandemic ending and I kind of look forward to my own time on the bus 🚍. Plus it gets hot especially working from home without air conditioning. I’m just glad that the vaccine is so effective 💉 and they repaired Piseco-Powley Road, 🏊🏻‍♂️ meaning easy trips to the Potholers and the Mine Kill Pool will be open once again.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Fathers Day 👨 when the sun will be setting at 8:39 pm with dusk at 9:14 pm. On that day in 2020, we had a pretty cool but partly sunny day with temperatures between 66 and 46 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 79 degrees. We hit a record high of 94 back in 1892.