Good morning! Today is a nice start to November. Partly sunny and 39 degrees in Cicero, NY. There is a east-southeast breeze at 7 mph. Hopefully this weather will last, but alas November is the cloudiest month of the year in Upstate New York, and a lot of cloudy days are ahead on the calendar. Rain is quite likely for the weekend with lots of clouds. The good news is it’s not snow.

Today is going to mostly sunny with a high of 59 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 43 at 5pm. South wind 7 to 13 mph. Last year, mostly cloudy with a high around 62. The record high of 78 was set in 1950. There was 3.9 inches of snow back in 1951.

Dropped Big Red off to have new brakes put on and tires rotated. I was on the fence about the brakes, but I wanted them done before I go on vacation next week. They had some life left on them, but as the shop noted and visual inspection also concluded, the pads are almost down to the wear indicators. While I’m in North Syracuse, I’d rather have my truck worked on rather then breaking down on vacation due to worn brakes.

I’ve waited too long on the brakes  in the past, and then it gets a lot more expensive. Brakes really are a simple job, and while they’ll charge an arm and leg to do it, I’d rather just leave the experts do it rather then bugger up the  bolts or break hardware. A shop can do it while I work, or I can I can waste a morning in the cold freeing up stuck bolts, and possibly messing up the brakes. I’ve wrecked many a vacation trip with brake worries or problems.

I’ll top off the oil and windshield washer fluid and should be ready for vacation. I’m thinking Western NY and Pennsylvania this year. I was going to go to West Virgina and Blue Ridge Parkway, but it seems like most of the campgrounds are closed this time of year down that way, and the days are so darn short. I have a list of some little known state forests I think I want to visit in Western NY this year. I have my New York hunting license, so I might put it use while I’m out there. All the equipment should be working well on my truck including the batteries and electric, and it should be a good trip. I will bring the Big Buddy Heater to keep warm, especially around the fire. I am looking forward to getting out.

Thinking that Black Friday is only three weeks from Friday, and my old laptop is chugging along quite well now that I have access to my files. That way I can get the Christmas specials. I’m still really liking that Lenovo Ideapad R14 I saw at the store but with the SSD drive for $620 that Staples had on sale last week. The touch screen and tablet mode would be ideal for making up maps. I love the 1920×1080 resolution too — it just gives a lot more room for map making on screen with all the toolbars I use. But I ain’t paying the $750-800 for it when it recently was on sale for much less.

I haven’t set up the new version of QGIS on my old laptop, but I have enough maps in reserve on my blog that I don’t really need to make up ones. I guess I could install QGIS so I could make up some Google Maps in particular. I’ll be on vacation through the start of deer season, which this falls the weekend before Thanksgiving — so I won’t really need a laptop. Southern Zone deer season is early compared to Election Day but that’s because Election Day is late, and Thanksgiving is early because December 1st is a Thursday.

I drove to the sketchy North Syracuse Chinese Restaurant in my jacked up pickup truck last night. The food was sketchy. But I tried it. I’ve been wondering for a long time if it was as bad as it looked. It is. Overpriced too. I actually liked the Chinese food I got in Canastota. That place was more sketchy than North Syracuse. You never know what hick town Chinese places are like until you try them. Hick towns can be fun places.

As we head into November, days are rapidly getting shorter. The sunset is earlier, but it will be much earlier come next Sunday. Look for a sunset at 5:55 pm with dusk around 6:24 pm, which is 1 minutes and 18 seconds earlier than yesterday. On Sunday, with the time change, the sun will set at 4:48 pm. I hate commuting home in the dark on the express bus this time of year. It’s so dark in Glenmont on the Delmar Bypass. Today will have 10 hours and 14 minutes of daylight, a decrease of 2 minutes and 35 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers between 9pm and midnight. More clouds as the evening progresses. Low of 51 degrees at 3am. 16 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 49 at 6am. Southeast wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. One year ago, partly cloudy with a  low around 39. The record low of 19 occurred back in 2002.

We are now one week out from  Election Day when the sun will be setting at 4:46 pm with dusk at 5:16 pm (Standard Time). The average high temperature is 51 degrees, with a record high of 75 in 1975. There are 6 days, 12 hours and 21 minutes until the polls close in NY State on Election Day.