Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Five weeks to Christmas 🎅. Wet sloppy snow, one degree above freezing in our favorite socialist Delmar. ❄ There is a north-northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. There is a dusting of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Frosty is having a melt down with the warmer temperatures. At least the roads aren’t super shitty this morning but every driveway is a slushy wet mess. It’s climate change, stupid. And I’m blaming Trump.

Today will rain showers and snow likely before 11am, then a chance of rain showers between 11am and 4pm. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 39 degrees at 1pm. Seven degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 6th. Northwest wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Yuck. When we will get nice weather? Maybe in six months with the hundreds of black flies. A year ago, we had light snow in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 42 degrees. The record high of 72 was set in 1991. 3.4 inches of snow fell back in 1961.❄

Yeap, today is a pretty cold, wet and gray day. ☁ Only going to get worse come Thanksgiving although we will have lots of sun come those days. But very cold. At least the roads are fine locally.

The sun will set at 4:28 pm with dusk around 4:59 pm, which is 43 seconds earlier than yesterday. Not even losing a minute at this point. 🌇 Remember the latest sunset of the year is around December 9th I believe. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 38 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 6 mph. Melty, melt snow. Today will have 9 hours and 34 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 56 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 24 degrees at 6am. Six degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around December 8th. West wind 6 to 9 mph. Shits going to freeze up tonight. In 2017, we had cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 33 degrees. The record low of 7 occurred back in 1879.

This morning I want to call about getting my truck state inspected on Saturday or maybe Friday morning. I figure I would drop it off and then get breakfast with my parents. 🍳 That’s all that is needed for now, I did the oil change and tire rotation in a September. It’s horse shit that New York requires inspections when relatively few states do anymore. Smog inspections yes in smog areas but safety inspections are rare because modern cars are rarely unsafe ✔ and things like broken tail lights are generally enforced by police.

I need to go to the store after work today, 🍞and buy a handful of supplies before the big rush of Thanksgiving grocery shoppers and Black Friday shoppers are underway. Not a lot of things I need but I’m missing certain ingredients that I need for cooking. I don’t plan to shop again until next week as I’m trying to use whatever I have at home right now to save money.

Today I’m going to look at getting a 12 volt power supply for the smart light over my bed that I’m building. I’m going to get a good quality power supply that is UL or Intertek certified because if it’s going to be plugged in all of the time I want something safe that’s unlikely to cause a fire, waste power or fail. 🔌 It’s really not that much more expensive to buy a safe model compared to a cheap one.

I’m also continuing to experiment with Bluetooth and the Arduino Nano. I’ve built a working model now at least I think, I just need to download the software I need for my laptop and phone to control it. 📺 Once I do that I will work on the code and eventually building the board that will control the lamp over my bed. I don’t expect it to be complicated, it will basically be a slave to the other LED strip across the room, and just be able to accept Bluetooth commands to turn on and off (with a nice fade or course) and dim to a certain value. As it’s a warm white, it is only one channel so the PWM commands are simple. The colored led strips across the room will manage timing and reading the remote, sending over Bluetooth to turn on and off.

Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until Christmas 🎅 when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:59 pm. Fat man comes down the chimney and leaves all that pretty wrapping paper to burn. On that day in 2017, we had snow, heavy fog, freezing fog, mist, squalls, partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 33 and 17 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1889. Well before my time.

Good morning! Tonight is first Average Nightly Temperature Below Freezing 🌌. Six weeks to Christmas 🎅. Maybe it will warm up again and I can spend Christmas camping in Brookfield again. That was wild that year in 2015, warm and no snow. Hiking Glimmerglass State Park on Christmas morning was wonderful. With the heat dome in the mid west and west, I could see it pushing east by December. I’d take a 45 degree day with lots of sun for mid-December. 🌞 Climate change has its upside in the winter if you’re not a snowmobiler right now and your on the hot side of the increasingly wavy jet stream.

Heavy rain and 36 degrees in Delmar. ☔ No snow here but very cold and wet. There is a north breeze at 5 mph. 🍃.

Temperatures locally will drop below freezing at around 10 pm. ☃️ Up north I’ve heard it’s an all snow event. Yep there getting more snow there, although I don’t think the snowmobile trails open until the end of Big Game Season.🐻

Today will rain, mainly before noon, then a slight chance of showers after 4pm. 🌧 High of 40 degrees at 3pm. Nine degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 4th. Definitely not a warm day. Northwest wind 5 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 69 was set in 1964. 6 inches of snow fell back in 1886.❄

The sun will set at 4:34 pm with dusk around 5:04 pm, which is 58 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 39 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 11 mph with gusts up to 21mph. Today will have 9 hours and 48 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 13 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain showers before 8pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow showers between 8pm and 9pm, then a chance of snow showers after 9pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 24 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around December 8th. Northwest wind 11 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2017, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 12 occurred back in 1996.

Finally bought coffee. ☕ It was good having a nice strong cup of coffee this morning. Percolator pot on the stove still works great. Simple technology is the best. Helped with getting up and heading out to the bus stop on this rather rainy and cold morning.🚏Nice and warm on the bus during this rainy morning, as I listen to Hollies heading down. I’m glad they built a bus shelter 🚍 near where I live on rainy mornings like today. Plus the heated bus shelter in the plaza for the evening trip home, now. That’s so awesome.

It’s good to be back in the routine, although it’s not going to last as I’m back in the field for work for a few more days this week 🌽 but soon it will be the normal routine where I can leave Big Red parked hooked up to the solar panel for a full week or more. 🚌That’s winter, I like to save as much gasoline and money as possible until traveling season returns, especially as my utility bills increase with the heat being turned on.⛽

When I went shopping yesterday, I forgot to buy more waffle mix. I did buy frozen cherries to top them off. 🍒 I have eggs from my parents for breakfast today. Bought cheese and sausage to complement them. 🍳 Very filling meal, I packed lunch but I’ll probably skip it in favor of having an early dinner around four.

When I’m at Walmart, I usually try to buy the biggest family sized packages of food just because it saves money and reduce waste,💰 especially during the winter when I don’t have a fire to chuck the packaging into like is so handy when camping. Plus the waffle mix boxes are just paper so I can recycle them for free, no hauling to the transfer station. Saves a lot of money also buying bulk and means fewer times of running low on supplies. I think I have the same jumbo bottle of shampoo that I bought at the beginning of the year because it’s lasted so long. Every dollar saved is one closer to owning my off-grid cabin. 🏡 It’s good to have a savings goal in life. Oh, and today is pay day.

Looking ahead, there are 6 weeks until Christmas 🎅 when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:59 pm. On that day in 2017, we had snow, heavy fog, freezing fog, mist, squalls, partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 33 and 17 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. That was no 2015 that year. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1889. It was even warmer I believe on Christmas Eve 2015.

Good morning! Veterans Day (Sunday, November 11th) 🇺🇸. Three weeks to First Sunday of Advent ✝️. Partly cloudy and 36 degrees in Delmar. ❄ There is a west-northwest breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. Fifty more days left in the year. Not a lot. 🎇

Today, Veterans Day will have a slight chance of snow showers before 9am. Partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 40 degrees at 1pm. 10 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 4th. West wind 8 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 33 degrees. The record high of 70 was set in 2002. 3 inches of snow fell back in 1906.❄

I thought about heading up north to camp but honestly it’s a long drive for just one night and I’m not a real fan of camping in the snow. ⛺There isn’t a ton of snow along the East Branch but it’s still a fairly cold day for mid November. It’s not expected to get above freezing up north. I figure we might get a thaw before winter really sets in.

I kind of get tired of driving up NY 30 all the time too – it seems like am always heading up that way. Most of the firewood is likely buried under the snow and the campsite is like to camp in probably has too much snow to drive back too. So I’d have to drag things back and shovel out a parking spot. Plus it’s cheaper to just stay home. I might instead go for a walk down the rail trail and then go to the store for more supplies and maybe stop at the library for my internet fix. 💻

The sun will set at 4:36 pm with dusk around 5:06 pm, which is one minute and 2 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 39 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 53 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 17 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 25 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around December 5th. West wind 5 to 8 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2017, we had mostly clear skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 22 degrees. The record low of 15 occurred back in 1976.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until First Sunday of Advent ✝️ when the sun will be setting at 4:22 pm with dusk at 4:54 pm. On that day in 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 41 and 26 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 41 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1998.

Good evening! Rain and 40 degrees in Delmar. ☔ There is a east-southeast breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. Kind of a cold and wet night tonight, I turned on the heat after coming home. Above freezing here, and it will warm as the night progresses, then cool down over as the weekend progresses. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Sunday around noontime. ☃️

Tonight will rain, mainly before 3am. 🌧 Low of 39 degrees at 3am. With the rain, fairly mild. It will be six degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around October 18th. Southeast wind 6 to 10 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2017, we had light rain in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 21 degrees. The record low of 16 occurred back in 1965.

Kind of a lazy Friday night, laying in bed listening to some Christmas music 🎄with the lights dimmed, writing down my thoughts on the blog. I’m going to kill the lights soon and go to bed, setting my alarm⏰ so I get started at a reasonable hour tomorrow. I still lack coffee but I think I will make waffles in the morning.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 7% illuminated. The moon will rise at 9:27 am. Not going to see much through the clouds tonight, although it has already set. The First Quarter Moon is on Wednesday night with partly cloudy skies. The Beaver Moon 🌝 is on Thursday, November 22nd. Thanksgiving! The sun will rise at 6:40 am with the first light at 6:10 am, which is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 3 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 19 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of rain before 7am, then a slight chance of showers between 7am and 11am. Mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 39 degrees at 6am. 11 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 6th. West wind 8 to 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Pretty darn chilly but I still think I will bundle up and head up north and enjoy the sunshine. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. The high last year was 45 degrees. The record high of 72 was set in 1931. 3.2 inches of snow fell back in 1987.❄

The moldy, musty smell has mostly disappeared from my apartment, since I cleaned up the mildew under the stove and behind it. Most of the rest of the kitchen has was mildew free once I got it cleaned up but it was a tough year fighting the mildew with it being such a hot and wet summer. 💦 Fortunately, full strength bleach works wonders on the walls. It’s been an ongoing battle in my apartment but it’s a cheap place and I love location near the library, parks, and express and local busses.

Continuing to design the flashing start I’m building for my niece for her night stand, but I expect I have a design that is nice. ✨ Powered by an Ardiuno board it uses RGB leds to turn marbles various colors.

I’m going to play it by ear but I fully expect to head up to the Adirondacks by mid morning tomorrow. ⛺ I am hoping to get the campsite I like that has cell service and a good clearing to flood the solar panel with sunlight during the daylight hours. Sunday I will hike back along the Stewart Creek most likely, and Monday (Veterans Day) I will head home as I have to work Tuesday. I think with the rain, most of the snow they got earlier today will be melted away but I’ll bring my sled in case I have to drag gear back to the site. At some point, maybe Monday I’ll hike back to Auger Falls, or maybe drive up to Speculator and hike the nature trail boardwalk, as it would be interesting to see in the winter.

I skipped buying groceries today, I’ll get them on the way up. 🍖I bought my hunting license today although the town clerk charged me an extra $1.95 for using my credit card, as I lacked $22 in cash. Saved money by skipping my trapping privileges this year although I could get that later. Next time I will just go to the DEC license bureau and buy it. I can’t believe they charge for that. I can understand charging for extra fees for a town license on a credit card but a hunting license where Walmart or every other place doesn’t seems silly 💳. It’s not like they aren’t getting paid by the state as a retailer like $2. Buying a license at Walmart is a pain because there never is a clerk there. But I know I won’t be buying a license again from the town clerk. I should go to the bank tomorrow and deposit the expense check I have from work and get some cash as it’s handy to have as a few places don’t take cards.

I went to the library and borrowed several books and got caught up on things on the internet. 📚 Looking forward to doing some reading up at camp and just sitting back by the fire during the long winter nights. I hope we have lots of blue skies as it will make things feel much more cheery and keep the batteries well topped off. Even a cold day, the sun can make things much better.

In four weeks on December 7 the sun will be setting at 4:21 pm,🌄 which is 16 minutes and 16 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had snow, cloudy skies and temperatures between 41 and 26 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 39 and 25 degrees. Basically tomorrow’s weather. The record high of 65 degrees was set back in 1998.

Looking ahead, Buy Nothing Day 🛍️ is in 2 weeks.

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Final Monday before vacation,🏕 and coincidentally Election Day. 🗳 Next Monday, Veterans Day is Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸. Heavy rain this morning and 44 degrees in North Syracuse. 🌧 There is a southeast breeze at 14 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Saturday around 3 am. ☃️

Today will have showers likely, mainly between 10am and 1pm. Cloudy ☔, with a high of 51 degrees at 1pm. I dunno, it’s raining pretty hard now. One degrees below normal. Southeast wind 11 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 57 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1994. 3 inches of snow fell back in 1894.❄

The sun will set at 4:50 pm with dusk around 5:20 pm, which is one minute and 13 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain showers ☔ and 51 degrees. There will be a east-southeast breeze at 11 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 5 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 30 seconds over yesterday. The days keep getting shorter, even in Trump’s America.

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly before midnight. Mostly cloudy , with a low of 44 degrees at 5am. 10 degrees above normal. Southeast wind 9 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2017, we had light rain in the evening, remaining overcast into the early morning. It got down to 42 degrees. The record low of 15 occurred back in 1951.

I am working on putting together my packing list for the camping trip. 🏕 The forecast is generally looking drier but cold. I can deal with the cold, as long as it doesn’t look like snow and ice. I don’t want to risk sliding off a road or dealing with bad roads especially with the many steep hills and rough terrian I expect to be in over the next week and half camping. I will pack my heater, have lots of coffee and hot-coca, ☕ and will hot tent if it gets really cold. Not to mention a big fire, stew, and other good eats. 🌬 I can also build a wind-shelter to block the wind should that start to pick up in the afternoon. It’s still only early to mid-October, so an exceptionally cold night gets down into the teens, so it’s not that cold, as long as we don’t get any sow.❄ My goal is spend more nights at one camp, to save gas and miles on the truck, to get to know the land, with less driving, so I will have the time to build a fairly elaborate shelter.

There is 1 day, 12 hours and 9 minutes until the poll close on Election Day in New York. 🗳 It’s going to be a wet one today, then tomorrow is the day to vote, if you haven’t done it yet, via absentee ballots. I’m quite happy with my choice to vote for Libertarian Larry Sharpe for governor, as I didn’t think Molinaro really had a chance, despite my friends on social media saying I shouldn’t vote for a spoiler.  I am a liberal, and I believe in big-picture issues, but I have no tolerance for over-regulation of private citizen’s lives, 🚨 something that current incumbent who I’ve never voted for has made a hallmark of his eight years in the governorship.🏚 I do worry we aren’t doing enough to control government waste and spending more general, with the government finding new ways to extract more money out of ordinary people through new fees and fines. At the same time ,more needs to be done to address the climate change crisis and spiraling out of control healthcare costs.

I like to cast a protest vote, especially if my vote ain’t going to change a thing. ✊ Honestly though, I don’t really care that much, as I’m planning to move out of New York in a decade or so, and everybody knows our state is a shit-hole. 💩 I am not holding my breath on big reforms proposed by the Democrats like affordable, sensible healthcare or climate change action, despite all the nibbling around these issues and the many press releases they put out.🏦 Cuomo is basically the Donald Trump of the left, making our state more and more fascist. He’s no progressive leader, I have little hope of him fixing healthcare with a strong single-payer system or taking bold steps on climate change.

As previously noted, next Monday is Veterans Day Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 4:42 pm with dusk at 5:12 pm. On that day in 2017, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 44 and 22 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 49 degrees. We hit a record high of 68 back in 1909.

Good morning! Happy November 🥧. Yeap, it’s the month of deer season, elections, and thanksgiving dinners. On that note, only three weeks to Turkey Day, aka Thanksgiving 🦃. I am thinking maybe I can get camping after that, like maybe on the East Branch of the Sacandaga River as long as the snow holds off. Light rain and drizzle, rough 46 degrees in North Syracuse. ☔ Calm wind.

Today will rain. ☔ Hope you brought your umbrella. Let’s get to the point. It’s going to be relatively mild, but still not nice. High of 48 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees below normal but near constant temperature for the day, actually warming through sunset. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 49 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 1950. 3.9 inches of snow fell back in 1951.❄

The sun will set at 5:55 pm with dusk around 6:25 pm, which is one minute and 19 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and 47 degrees. There will be a northeast breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 15 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 36 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will rain. ☔ Low of 44 degrees at 8pm. Nine degrees above normal. East wind 5 to 7 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2017, we had light rain in the evening, remaining overcast into the early morning. It got down to 48 degrees. The record low of 19 occurred back in 2002.

There are 5 days, 13 hours and 35 minutes until the poll close on Election Day in New York. 🗳 GOTV weekend starts well on Saturday,then it’s the election day, and like all that it just comes to an end. Then vacation. I can’t wait. If only for the good food that I can cook in the woods that doesn’t come out of a can and be cooked in a microwave. Or those long nights by the fire.🔥

I keep watching the 8-14 day outlook, and it’s been steadily been improving.🌪 Now it looks like seasonal weather with a normal chance of precipitation. I can take a day of rain, as long as the bulk of the days are bright and sunny and not too cold. Maybe it will prove to be a mistake to not get a camping permit at Hicks Run 🏕 but there is always that developed state campground about 10 miles away if I want to go down that way or I could just stop by the DCNR office during normal business hours. It looks like their office is located in Emporium, down PA 155 from Port Allegany. It would be also neat to see the Glass Block display now that it’s completely done. I could drive either down from Olean or head back over from the Allegheny National Forest.

But first I plan to spend several days in New York, specifically focusing on state forests in Allegany and maybe Cattaragus County. I might do a night or two in the Allegheny National Forest 🌲but probably not that many days, as I lack as Pennsylvania hunting license and I’m not going to pay a bunch of money for just a couple of days.🔫 Plus I want to see more of Allegany County — I’ve not spent much time there, instead spending the bulk of my time in Cattaragus County. I look forward to seeing the new arched railroad bridge at Letchworth State Park. It looks beautiful. And so much more. I haven’t decided exactly which state forests I will camp at but I have been to some of the sites in the past, and others I have maps for them. I just want sites with vehicle access, a decent amount of sunshine for the solar panel, fairly protected from wind, and with cellphone service for entertainment purposes during the long nights.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Thanksgiving 🦃 when the sun will be setting at 4:34 pm with dusk at 5:05 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2017, we had rain, cloudy skies and temperatures between 46 and 34 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 45 degrees. We hit a record high of 70 back in 1931.