Good morning! What day is it? The real question is whether or not Ford and GM would have a hump in their trucks should they merge. 🚚 There is pros and cons to the approaches of both companies. Next Wednesday is 8:30 PM Sunset ️⛱️. By then it’s Dairy and Pride month where we drink milk 🐮 and celebrate the Freemartins of the world. Cloudy and 52 degrees in Bethlehem, NY. ☁ There is a north breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 50 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 10 am.

Feeling quite a bit better this morning. 🏥 May all I did was just get stiff and sore over hiking this weekend. I don’t know. Or maybe it was a cold or something. But at any rate, I am not the least bit stiff or sore today. But the weather still sucks outside, just kind of gray and cloudy as so many days lately seem to be.

It looks like I left my lunch at home, but I have a can of soup at work 🍛I can heat up at lunch. Next week is dairy day at the Capitol so at least in a week I can have ice cream 🍦for lunch. Dairy day is not a holiday celebrated by the Freemartins of the world. But dairy products are the best, even if you aren’t fertile.

Today will have a chance of showers, mainly after 4pm. Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 69 degrees at 5pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 15th. Maximum dew point of 55 at 2pm. North wind around 6 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 85 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1931.

I didn’t get a chance to pick up my dry cleaning 👔as I need to get money at the ATM 🏧. I don’t like having a lot of cash burning a hole in my pocket. I probably will just get my jacket tomorrow and take the express in. The old jacket I found in the closet is tired and old but I have a good one in the office. 🏢 I don’t have to look pretty on the bus.

I really should think about scheduling an oil change for Big Red. 🛢 I think I can do that online. I am thinking June 10th is the best option for me to do that with work. I am below 20% oil life left — I did my last oil change in September. Having the shop do it is much less of a hassle of me having to get the oil myself, then having to to take the used oil back — or in some cases burning it — which turned out to be pretty nasty smelling, even if that synthetic oil really flashes well on the fire up in the woods. 🔥 LOL.

The sun will set at 8:24 pm with dusk around 8:58 pm, which is 51 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 66 degrees. The dew point will be 57 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 3 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 26 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly before 10pm. Patchy fog after 2am. Otherwise, cloudy 🌧, with a low of 54 degrees at 6am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around June 6th. Maximum dew point of 57 at 7pm. South wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 60 degrees. The record low of 33 occurred back in 1967.

Now if we would finally have nice weather, and I had some more free-time, I would be able to go down to the park with a book after work. 📖 Friday evening, which actually might be nice, I am going to walk over to John Wolcott’s house, to help him with his history project, so I won’t be able to go to park then. This weekend I plan to stay in town, so maybe Saturday night I’ll go to the park — I’ll need to get some more books out of the library. Hoping to get the truck cleaned out, and the battery hooked up and charging via the panel.🔋 I probably will not use the alternator to provide camp power much anymore this summer, and should be good for multiple days camping even in the shade or cloudy weather without starting up the truck. Plus I have to deal with that hammock — if LL Bean doesn’t replace it, I might look at buying another one, as I sure like laying back when I’m in the woods at camp.

As previously noted, next Wednesday is 8:30 PM Sunset ️⛱️ when the sun will be setting at 8:29 pm with dusk at 9:04 pm. On that day in 2018, we had partly sunny skies, but generally cool with rain showers in eening and temperatures between 64 and 48 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 75 degrees. We hit a record high of 97 back in 1925.

I am looking forward to my next trip, probably in two or three weeks, up to the Adirondacks. 🏕 Heck in four weekends, the Mine Kill Pool will re-open, and I could consider going out to Schoharie County, doing some hiking and fishing, then hop in the pool for a good swim, before spending at night up in Burnt Rossman. Looking forward to those times not that far away.🏊

I ended up rescheduling my dentist appointment for July 31st, as that’s the first day that would work for me with work.😺 June is a busy month. I guess that’s fine, but if I want to take a week off for vacation this summer, I’ll have to take off a week earlier then that later week I usually take. The days are longer earlier in July, and there is no reason I have to take it the last week off in July into August. I am thinking of taking off the week October 19 – 27th to go down to West Virigina, one week later then last as my parents are out of town the previous week, and usually the leaves have only started to turn down south at that point. This year, if I go to West Virigina, I probably won’t spend time on Blue Ridge Parkway but will instead check out of more WV.

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 61 degrees ☁ in Delmar. Calm wind. The dew point is 45 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 9 am.

It was a nice day, the Lupine Festival went well and I followed it up with a couple miles walking 🚶 around Blueberry Hill. Not a lot of lupine in bloom now but some is starting and I think I saw a couple of Karner Blue Butterflies on my walk but they are sure tiny, fast moving and hard to capture on the camera. 📷

Yes, I had a lot of fun with the crayons ✏and coloring our coloring book. I really like coloring. Maybe it’s a kid thing but it’s a fun way to pass the time. I’m actually thinking about getting some colored pencils and printing out some pictures, maybe using the trace edges function in Inkscape and playing with coloring like up at camp. It could be very therapeutic. Might be fun with nature study, another activity I really enjoy but not in black fly season.

The Pine Bush is such an asset to Albany 🌲that so many people overlook. A wilderness in a city. It is a bit noisy in parts though due to the traffic. They are really doing a good job of maintaining the beautiful unique ecosystem – they are burning 🔥 250 acres a year with a hope of getting closer to 500 acres although it’d tough to get favorable enough conditions and days when they can control the smoke from the burn. That’s a lot of acreage for sure. I don’t know about how they do it in the preserve but it’s fascinating to watch videos 📹 of farmers and ranchers burn pastures out west. Fire is a powerful tool when used respectfully.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers before 4am, then a slight chance of showers after 5am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 52 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 30th. Maximum dew point of 47 at 6am. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 49 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1981.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon 🌖 with 98% illuminated. The moon will set at 6:14 am. The Last Quarter Moon is next Saturday with partly cloudy skies. The Strawberry Moon 🌝 is on Sunday, June 16th. The sun will rise at 5:29 am with the first light at 4:56 am, which is 56 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours and 14 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 55 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers, mainly after noon. Partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 78 degrees at 3pm. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around June 14th. I’ll take some June weather. Best weather of the day tomorrow is expected in the morning. A touch of humidity tomorrow too. Maximum dew point of 62 at 5pm. South wind 13 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 58 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 1989. There was a dusting of snow in 1976.❄

I got two more HC-05 Bluetooth modules in the mail from China today. ✉ They came so quickly. Hopefully I can get these to talk together properly. I’ll use the current ones for other projects like the smart solar panel charge relay I want to build for my truck eventually. It would be nice to check the voltage of my batteries right from my phone. 🔋 Hopefully I’ll find some time to work on those projects in the near future.

Speaking of batteries, I brought my extra battery and swapped it in my phone which kept it going all day strong 💪. I’m thinking of getting one of those battery banks to use while wilderness camping but just swapping out the battery in my phone is a nice lightweight alternative. 📱

The long range for Memorial Day Weekend looks to be fairly sunny ☀ with temperatures that are seasonable. A few chances for rain but generally the forecast for next weekend is quite positive but not real warm. But that’s to be expected in late May. Remember, the weather in late May is closest to mid September in Albany. 🌸

In four weeks on June 15 the sun will be setting at 8:35 pm,🌄 which is 20 minutes and 54 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had partly sunny, rain showers and temperatures between 75 and 56 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 78 and 57 degrees. The record high of 96 degrees was set back in 1988.

Looking ahead, June 🍹 is in 2 weeks, Average High is 80 🏖 is in 5 weeks, Hottest Time of the Year 😅 is in 8 weeks, Ugly Truck Day 🚚 is in 9 weeks, Average High Falls To 79 ️Degrees ⛱️️️ is in 14 weeks and Average High 70 🎑 is in 18 weeks.

Good evening! Partly clear and 62 degrees Calm wind.🎑 The dew point is 41 degrees. A fairly nice spring evening but the air is a bit pungent with manure with the farm down the road spreading. 💩Been tough on anyone that does field work this spring. It’s just been so wet, in most of the country. 💦 Rain again om Friday and probably Sunday too. Go figure.

I was quite concerned about delays getting home with the Corporation Challenge Run. 🏃 It was a beautiful day for the run for sure, but often it messed up the buses a lot. But this year, the express bus was only about 10 or 15 minutes late, and I was home by six, so not a big deal.🚌 Traffic on the outbound was lighter then expected, and all and it, it’s a very nice evening.

But tonight is nice. 👍 Sitting out back with the almost full moon. I hooked up the laser firefly light show out back. Kind of pretty watching the flicker on the ground although the real thing is even better. 🐝 Been such a cold spring that I bet the real fireflies will be late this year. I hear deer in the woods, a bird chirping in the distance and lots of motor vehicles. 🏁 I live on the outskirts of the city but still close enough for transit.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 49 degrees at 5am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 21st. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph after midnight. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 59 degrees. The record low of 30 occurred back in 1959.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 99% illuminated. The moon will set at 5:05 am. The 🌕 will be tomorrow with a chance of showers. The sun will rise at 5:31 am with the first light at 4:58 am, which is 59 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours and 18 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes over last night.

Tomorrow will have showers likely, mainly between 10am and 3pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 72 degrees at 5pm. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 23rd. Maximum dew point of 58 at 4pm. South wind 6 to 11 mph becoming light and variable. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Well, it was a nice break in the rain for a change. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 80 degrees. The record high of 92 was set in 2017.

The Pine Bush display was much more ready to go then I expected this year. 🌲I did send some handouts to be made up at the copy shop. Hopefully I made up enough, it’s kind of expensive to do the copying even on lightweight paper. At least its all ordered and I can pick it up tomorrow. 📑 Then it’s the long day at the Lupine Festival but hopefully I’ll have some help. I just hate to spend money 💵 on something that’s going to be thrown away.

So much for that super nice weekend. 😕 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 67. Northwest wind around 8 mph. Maximum dew point of 46 at 7pm. Sunday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 79. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 64 at 4pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 70 degrees.

After the Lupine Festival I’ll probably go for a walk and head home. 🚶 If Sunday doesn’t look good I’ll just stay in town, run to the store then out to my parents house. Save gas for next weekend. ⛽ Not that I have super big plans for Memorial Day Weekend, at best it’s back up to the East Branch to spend a few days swatting black flies. 🐜

Definitely looking forward to warmer weather and nights in the wilderness. ⛺ I’ve already gotten two weekends in this year but there are more to come. This might be my second to last year of doing these trips if I decide to go car less in 2021, but I want to wait and see what tomorrow brings. I like traveling but I hate the scams, awful people on the automobile industry. I could save so much money by going car lees for a few years and reduce my carbon footprint 👣 enormously.

In four weeks on June 13 the sun will be setting at 8:34 pm,🌄 which is 22 minutes and 6 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had rain and temperatures between 75 and 60 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 77 and 56 degrees. The record high of 94 degrees was set back in 1892.

I still can’t believe what an idiot Trump 🎺 is with his tarrifs. In the mid term the presidents actions are eventually going to be be so bad for the economy. 📉 We should be building bonds with other countries, tearing down trade barriers and walls, bringing the globe together not splitting it apart. 🌐 Ignoring our global problems aren’t going to make them go away.

Looking ahead, Fathers Day 👨 is a month away, Summer ️⛱️ is in 5 weeks, Independence Day 🇺🇸 is in 7 weeks, Last Sunset After 8:30 PM 🌆 is in 2 months, August 🌻 is in 11 weeks and Last Sunset After 7 PM 🌆 is in 20 weeks.

Good morning! Happy Saturday. Finally the weekend! The Sunday before Mother’s Day. 🚺 Next Saturday is Flower Moon 🌕. Partly cloudy, but clearing and 53 degrees ⛅ up at Stewart Landing campsites in the Adirondacks. 🗻 There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. A bit chilly when the sun dips under the clouds, laying back in the hammock with the breeze blowing around. The skies will clear around 11 am.

At 4:15 pm Friday I decided to come up camping. ⛺ I had nothing packed or bought for food 🍲 but I decided to leave work, grab my camping gear and head out. I figured I would beat the severe thunderstorm getting home ⚡ and then get packed while it was ongoing and from there after it was over, after rush hour head out of town. I stopped for some groceries and gas and went out to Stewart Landing. I got caught off at the same exit on the Crosstown Arterial in Albany I got rear ended on five years ago but this time I was able to avoid an crash though horns were mashed and brakes slammed. I may have urinated a bit in my pants over that. Yikes. 😮 People ask why I ducking hate motoring so much. The Thruway was completely blocked for a while due to a motorcycle crash, according to the CB radio 📻 but after 15 minutes it freed up and I was moving. It such a ducking bad drive up here with smearing rain the whole way.

Because I had to shop, get gas and get packed, despite leaving work early, I didn’t get to camp until close to 8:15 around dusk 🌆 but the campsite was fine except for the litter 🚮, broken glass and thumb tack 📍 I had to clean up. A lot of litter around here I had to pick up which was annoying but the campsite is mostly cleaned up and I fixed up the fire pit. I’ll bring some of the litter home but the bigger stuff – burnt chair frame, burnt out car radio, lots of burnt wire – I’ll just toss in the pile of other debris back in the woods. It’s at least out of the way for now. I wish people wouldn’t litter – pack out your garbage. If something doesn’t burn fully, haul it out. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t scrap the burnt wire at least that was all over the campsite. Nobody wants to be tripping over wire or broken glass in the darkness.

Things are fairly dry up here 👢but there is a pretty deep and rocky mud hole on the driveway to the campsite ⛺ so I don’t want to drive through it unnecessarily to visit Little Falls today and I’m kind of annoyed about what happened yesterday driving up here. I just don’t want to hit one of those big rocks and bend or break a suspension component. Instead I’ll probably hike back to Hildervaldnt Vly from camp and enjoy the beautiful day in the wilderness. The sun is already charging the battery 🔋 and I expect a good charge with all of the sun.

After I started setting up, somebody took the campsite just down the road, started a big fire 🔥 then packed up and left. Odd. That’s one of the reasons I’ve never camped down here as there isn’t a lot of space between the campsites – the nearest one is about 250 ft away. Not the mile plus of many of the Pisceo Powley sites. But quiet up here today, I can certainly listen to my music later on without bothering folks.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 57 degrees at 2pm. 11 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 13th. Northwest wind around 10 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 66 degrees. The record high of 90 was set in 1911. .5 inches of snow fell back in 1907.❄

The sun will set at 8:11 pm with dusk around 8:44 pm, which is one minute and 6 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 52 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 32 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 15 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 38 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 18th. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming light and variable in the evening. In 2018, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 48 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1969.

As previously noted, next Saturday is Flower Moon 🌕 when the sun will be setting at 8:19 pm with dusk at 8:52 pm. On that day in 2018, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 73 and 51 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 70 degrees. We hit a record high of 94 back in 2017.

I should probably finish securing camp and head out on the trail. The hammock, sun and breeze are nice although I did just see my first black fly 🐜 of the year…..

Good evening! Rain showers and 57 degrees ☔ Breezy, ️18 mph breeze from the south-southeast 🌬 with gusts up to 29 mph 💨💨💨. You can hear the wind blowing around. The skies will clear Saturday around 2 am.

I went over to John Wolcott’s house for a while to keep going through his files. 📂 I found a few interesting tidbits and a lot of other random stuff that both of us struggled to figure out. Never know what you will find in the archives. I’m more interested in contemporary history although lately I’ve not seen much of that in the boxes.

John was saying Another Save the Pine Bush person is donating their family land to conservation. 🌳I think that’s a wonderful thing to do. If some day I own 50 or 100 acres of a mountain somewhere it would be nice to donate it to a state forest preserve after my time has gone and the house is burned to the ground and the foundation backfilled in. It’s not like I’m going to need it when my time is thru.

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly after midnight. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 52 degrees at 3am. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 30th. South wind 15 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 56 degrees. The record low of 28 occurred back in 1958.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 39% illuminated with the moon setting at 12:58 am. The moon will set at 1:00 am. The First Quarter Moon will be tomorrow with mostly cloudy skies. The Flower Moon 🌝 is on Friday, May 17th. The sun will rise at 5:38 am with the first light at 5:07 am, which is one minute and 11 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours and 33 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 15 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 5pm. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 66 degrees at 5pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 5th. Maximum dew point of 57 at 4pm. South wind around 14 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. I think the Western Adirondacks may have more. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 73 degrees. The record high of 92 was set in 1970. 5.0 inches of snow fell back in 1945.❄

I decided to call off the weekend trip. Saturday may be half decent but the inch plus of rain we may get tomorrow – especially in the Western Adirondacks – doesn’t sound real nice. ⛺ Unless a campsite is well drained, it’s going to be saturated as will all the wood for burning. 🔥 I am a little worried about the campsites at Stewart Landing being really wet, as I don’t think they are particularly well drained and there always is some big mud puddles back there, and honestly the ground is not really firm as snow has been gone from that area less than a month now. Plus parking tomorrow in the city with the tulip festival 🌷 would be a female dog 🐶.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 62. Northwest wind 14 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Saturday doesn’t look bad but the woods will be so wet. Maximum dew point of 41 at 6am. Maybe I could hike Platte Kill Road in West Saugerties through the gorge? Sunday, a slight chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 58. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Typical average high for the weekend is 68 degrees. I’ll take it one day at a time I guess. I’m hoping now for better weather come Memorial Day Weekend.

I’d love to have a big ass fire 🔥 and drink some beer 🍻 but things can wait until Memorial Day Weekend. Probably black flies will be bad that weekend ant 🐜 but that’s what staying up late is all about. Hopefully the ground will dry out by then. If

After reading that Bloomberg article 📰 on wealthy hermits without wills I’m actually kind of fascinated by the topic – and hermits more generally. I know that I at some point should write a will 📝, especially as I acquire property and would like it eventually to be public land 🌲for hunting and recreation. I really like the idea of the simple life, living in the backwoods without all the material crap of modernity. Maybe a 4×4 truck, al tractor 🚜 and an ATV but duck a television 📺 or home internet.

In four weeks on June 6 the sun will be setting at 8:30 pm,🌄 which is 25 minutes and 38 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 72 and 48 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 75 and 54 degrees. The record high of 94 degrees was set back in 1925.

I am thinking now about a June trip to Moss Island. 🌼 It will be warmer than and maybe more wildflowers at that point. I believe Green Acres dairy bar 🍦will be open and I can grab a burger 🍔 after hiking and then camp ⛺ up on Piseco Powley Road and if it’s warm enough out cool off in the potholers.

Looking ahead, Average High is 70 🐮 is in 1 weeks, Summer ️⛱️ is in 6 weeks, Independence Day 🇺🇸 is in 8 weeks, August 🌻 is in 12 weeks and Last Sunset After 7 PM 🌆 is in 21 weeks.