April 4, 2020 Night

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 53 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ Calm wind. The dew point is 43 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 10 pm.

It’s a nice evening, sitting out in the bed of my truck after the evening walk 🚶. I opened the container of Christmas ale 🍻 that I got at Christmas and it’s good and 9 percent alcohol. I won’t need a sleeping pill 💊 tonight after two good size mug fulls. First alcohol I’ve had since my birthday 🎂 .

It turned out to be a lot more sunny ⛅ and nice day then previously predicted. Walked about ten miles at Partridge Run. Started at Bradt Hollow Road and Beaver Road to Sickle Hill Road to High Point Road to the Long Path past the big swamp to a snowmobile trail that runs southerly to a clearing that runs along the property line up to Cook Hill and the newer part of Partridge Run Game Management Area then bushwhacked down to a stream and deep Ravine to Cook Hill Road to Bradt Hollow Road than took the gated southerly section that goes back to field that overlooks a hollow, North Hill in Rensselaerville and the Catskills. I also tried bushwhacking back to a large pond – actually a swamp back that way and I spotted several geese and wood duck. 🐜 Fortunately didn’t find any ticks on me when I got home but I did find one crawling on me when I was hiking.

At the end of the day I was thinking it would be a nice night to camp ⛺ overnight but I didn’t bring any food with me and had eaten my lunch already and it was getting dark. Plus I knew tonight would be a fairly cool and long night. But I was tempted to just get my hammock out, swing by one of the nearby state forests, grab some blankets and hoodie, start a small fire, 🔥 put on some music 🎶 and then in a few hours all it a night in the hammock. But I knew by morning that I’d awake and be cold and have to try getting back to sleep 😴 until daybreak. It’s still early April and while the low in Albany is 45 degrees, it would be a fair bit colder done morning. I haven’t hung out in the hammock since autumn, I wouldn’t mind breaking it out for a good nap in the woods, especially when it gets a bit warmer, agree all two weeks until the average day is in the sixties. It’s actually a bit surprising how do far this year we haven’t had any real warm days. Maybe during the long weekend. Certainly there are some state forests in the western part of Albany County that are good for hammock camping.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers between 11pm and midnight. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 43 degrees at 6am. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 1st. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 25 degrees. The record low of 14 occurred back in 2016.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbons Moon with 88% illuminated. At 10 PM, the moon was in the south-southeast (162°) at an altitude of 60° from the horizon, some 227,975 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 September 24th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 Ursa pretty bright moon lit night. The Pink 🌸 Moon is on Tuesday, April 7. The darkest hour is at 12:59 am, followed by dawn at 6:04 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:32 am in the east (81°) and last for 2 minutes and 56 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 43 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:10 am with sun in the east (88°). Tonight will have 11 hours and 4 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 50 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers, mainly after 4pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 60 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 18th. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 42 degrees. The record high of 82 was set in 1928. 2.1 inches of snow fell back in 2019.❄

Maybe tomorrow will turn out relatively nice like today. ⛅ That said no big plans for tomorrow, just early to the laundromat and get groceries than back home. Maybe go for a walk around town, we will see or down to the park ⛲. That said, between the ticks on the grass and the possibility of picking up COVID-19 from the park bench, it will be more of a walk 🚶 there to get podcast than an extended stay. I do want to try to get the revised blog theme done and some fixes to my photo upload code.

Monday looks quite nice, 😎 I plan to do my morning shift from my backyard and then go out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center to save bandwidth on my employers network card and be able to use my personal laptop for downloading videos and maybe activating the new blog theme.

No certain plans for the long weekend 🐰but truth be told I have some ideas. Nothing in stone yet but I’m watching the forecast and if things suck Thursday night I might leave early on Good Friday. To be safe I’ll get gas and all supplies ⛽ before I leave to ensure that I can wash my hands well. That said I’m a bit concerned that the forecast is trending cloudy ☁ and cooler for the Easter holiday.

In four weeks on May 2 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (292°) at 7:57 pm,🌄 which is 31 minutes and 49 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had partly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 65 and 50 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 65 and 43 degrees. The record high of 90 degrees was set back in 2018.

Looking ahead, Average High is 60 🌼 is in 2 weeks, 8 PM Sunset 🌇 is a month away, Average High is 70 🐮 is in 6 weeks, Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ is in 7 weeks, Last Day of Session 🏛 is in 11 weeks and Summer ️⛱️ is in 11 weeks.

🇺🇸🦅Only 47 days remain until the start of Memorial Day Weekend!🦅🇺🇸

Dairies Along Clauverwie Road

Mercury vapor lights

I am impressed that Clarksville still has a handful of mercury vapor street lights, a technology that’s been obsolete for 50 years now (high pressure sodium lights have been the norm in since 1970). I think some of the fixtures date back to the 1930s.

Cook Hill

Part of my walk today was up on Cook Hill in the back part of Partridge Run. 🌲🌳🌳

One of the newer state acquisitions up here – maybe thirty years ago, it’s full of trash species, namely black loctus and brambles. Maybe it’s intentional managed that way for the grouse but even for them it doesn’t seem like the kind of land they’d like.

Full of ticks too I’m sure. I’ll have to make sure to check myself over when I get home. Maybe shower too. Hate to get Lyme Disease during the middle of the pandemic, especially as I don’t have internet at home for telemedicine. And I know when I have land, if it comes with trash forest like that, they’re going to be a lot of chain saw action for firewood and some big ol brush pile burnings.

Hazy Top of Good Luck Cliffs

It was hazy, hot, and gray looking out, due south from Good Luck Cliffs. The lake in the distance is Spectacle Lake, just over the Fulton County Line.

Taken on Saturday April 24, 2010 at Good Luck Lake.