Good evening! Mostly clear and 69 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. The dew point is 49 degrees. Not a half bad evening not really hot.

Today was a long day at work 💼 but I got two hours of overtime so I can’t complain too much. Working late though meant I couldn’t walk out to Five Rivers after work but I did get down to the park ⛲ and walked some of the trails in the ravine. A found a tick on my neck which I pulled. 🐜 It was a butch to remove. I got podcasts so I was happy about that. 🎧 I kind of wish I could have been on the wifi today as sometimes watching a movie picture in pictures can pass the time when I work, especially the more boring 💤 parts of the day.

Tonight will have patchy fog after 5am. Otherwise, mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 51 degrees at 5am. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 29th. Maximum dew point of 49 at 8pm. Light northwest wind. In 2019, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It became somewhat humid as the night progressed. It got down to 63 degrees. The record low of 40 occurred back in 1961.

Tonight will have a Waining Crescent 🌘 Moon with 24% illuminated. The darkest hour is at 12:57 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 27 seconds. Sunrise is one second 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 21 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 81 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around June 26th. Maximum dew point of 52 at 10am. Calm wind. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 68 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1967.

I couldn’t sit out back because Big Red 🚘 is still at the shop with my lawn chair out back. As usually is the case when you have alignment issues and tire wear, the tie rods and ball joints needed replacement to do the alignment but I’d rather replace them then have them break on the trail or road. When they snap sometimes they do body damage or cause the truck to roll depending on the speed they snap. And the internet is full of Chevy pictures with snapped tie rods, it’s a meme. 😭

Those Chevy’s have notoriously weak tie rods and with the lift kit they’re do for replacement at 90k miles. 🔧 But hopefully this will even out the tire wear and things will last at least through the inspection in November. ⚫ It was noticeable just looking at the front wheels over the past year – they’ve been looking fairly messed up for a while. Cheaper than new tires or renting a car when the wheel fell off. Not a lot of tire wear up front but it’s obvious looking at them they were a bit messed up and the classic popping noise of the ball joints could be heard at times.⚪ A little less than $1,200 later I’ll have the truck back tomorrow. But so be it – I’ve already budgeted for it when I bought the lift kit six years ago – figured $5,000 for the lift kit then $5,000 for repairs thereafter.

I did plan for this week as I knew I would work late several nights 💵 and earn some overtime which adds up at time and a half. This will be a good week for billable hours at my job. I’ll retire the debt tomorrow from savings and hopefully the rest of the summer will be trouble free with the trugk.

I want to get two more summers out of it and I’ll make a decision next year at the end of 2021 if I want to retire Big Red and go carless for a few years. 🚲 I think it would be fun to have a bicycle and ride around town, do more things in town, maybe get a drink somewhere or even have internet at home and just rent a car a few times a year for road trips. I’m ready for not having to deal with the automotive industry or car insurance for a few years. Even with Uber fees and car rentals it really is a big savings. A lot of my colleagues have gone carless – they rent a car, take a bus or train, or Uber everywhere. I know the reaction I get from people is I’m nuts.

That said, at least I shouldn’t have to worry so much about either of those things failing anytime soon 🚘 or saving miles at this point. I’ve been a bit concerned about the tie rods for a while, I knew they were getting bad. I’m probably still considering going north for the second half of the week ⛺ as even if I do work long days as long as I have power and cell service I can log the hours ⏳ and get the work done that needs to happen from my screen tent 🎪 it hammock or even by the campfire. 🔥

I run a tight budget and I’m always saving where I can 💸but I love 😍 being in the woods and I give up plenty of other things my colleagues enjoy like nicer apartments, air conditioning, wireless internet, cable television, haul my own trash to the transfer station and I take the bus to work. 🚘 Big Red is kind of my guilty pleasure but I paid cash for it so I’ve never paid any financing fees for it. And I’m investing a lot of money and saving for retirement. But I’m not perfect.

And while land and implements is expensive 🚜 I do expect by then to have more money and when you own land you don’t pay rent. 🏡 And if I live off grid there won’t be electric and gas bills, especially if I can harvest wood for heat. 🔌 I doubt I’ll ever have cable or wireless internet and I expect my trash will go up in smoke – that is besides the cans and glass for recycling ♻ .

In four weeks on July 13 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (301°) at 8:32 pm,🌄 which is 2 minutes and 42 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had hot, partly sunny and temperatures between 88 and 65 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 83 and 62 degrees. The record high of 96 degrees was set back in 1894.

Looking ahead, Average High is 80 🏖 is in 1 week.