Good evening! Mostly clear and 40 degrees in North Syracuse.🌌 Calm wind.

It’s actually a really nice evening after a really nice weather wise day for a change, 😎 although it was a busy day so I was trapped all day in the office, only escaping long enough to get a can of some kind of Chef Boy-r-dee from my truck.🍛 I think I could see the stars through the suburbanite streetlights. 🌃 I’m so sick and tired of being kind of missing my autumn. In a week though, it will all be just a memory. Hopefully a good one.

Tonight will have increasing clouds , ☁ with a low of 39 degrees at 11pm. Four degrees above normal. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph after midnight. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 40 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1988.

Tonight will is the Last Quarter Moon with 56% illuminated. The moon will set at 2:14 pm. The Last Quarter Moon will be tonight with showers. The Beaver Moon 🌝 is on Thursday, November 22nd. The sun will rise at 7:37 am with the first light at 7:08 am, which is one minute and 17 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 13 hours and 40 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 37 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have some breaks of sun then showers, mainly after 2pm. High of 59 degrees at 2pm. 💧 Five degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 52 at 4pm. 🏖️ Southwest wind 7 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies, clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 54 degrees. The record high of 73 was set in 1946. 0.1 inches of snow fell back in 1913.❄

Lately I’ve just become more and more discontented with the suburbanite lifestyle that I see every day on television and my travels for work. 🏡 I’m making the good middle class income now but I don’t want marble countertops or vinyl siding, I’d rather save and invest and have something much more modest with lots of land paid in cash. I know I say that a lot here, but I’m just so discontented with the suburbanite, disposable lifestyle with the big fancy houses. Give me back my mildewy, run down apartment, public transit busses and my weekend adventures in the wilderness. 🚌 I just find so little of that other lifestyle appealing with the debt and the waste.

Maybe it’s just a reflection of having worked so many hours for nearly fifty daywin a place far from home,😴 but these suburbs really aren’t a place I’d ever want to set down roots.🌲The quite rural Oswego County to the north and parts of the southern half of the county are nice but I have nothing good to say about the big suburbs and their fancy houses.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 48. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 50. Typical average high for the weekend is 53 degrees. Sunday sounds really nice and with the time change if I get up really early, maybe I’ll be able to get some fresh air before work. Doubt though that I’ll have time to head down to Labrador Hollow one more time. Maybe during my November road trip in a little over a week? 🚗 Although finding a place to camp nearby there is kind of difficult and I’m thinking about a more northerly route for this year’s trip, including visiting Chimney Bluffs State Park.

In four weeks on November 27 the sun will be setting at 4:31 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 26 minutes and 30 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had rain, snow, partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 43 and 23 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 43 and 28 degrees. The record high of 66 degrees was set back in 1896. Depending how much snow we get in November, I may do some late season camping and hunting on NY 8 over the Thanksgiving weekend. ⛺There’s that one site that has lots of clearing for solar power, has marginal but working cellphone reception and is near hiking trails to boot. But not if it’s snowy or another hunting party had taken it. 🐻

Looking ahead, Election Day 2018 🗳️ is in 1 week, Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 is in 2 weeks, Christmas 🎅 is in 8 weeks, New Years Day 2019 🎉 is in 9 weeks, 36th Birthday 🎉 is in 13 weeks and Election Day 2020 🗳️ is in 105 weeks. The year is rapidly coming to a close. Almost time to say Goodbye 2018. Tomorrow is the final day of October. 🍂

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Next Tuesday is Election Day 2018 🗳️. Yes it is. Mostly sunny and 39 degrees in North Syracuse. ⛅ There is a west breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. Yes, I see the sun and blue skies, for the first time in weeks. Maybe this is good omen.It’s been a long time since we last saw the sun. 😎  Sun is making some good power on the solar panel, although I wish I had the meter wired to see how much. But rain and clouds is then expected Wednesday through Saturday.🌧

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞 , with a high of 47 degrees at 2pm. Seven degrees below normal. West wind 9 to 11 mph. Kind of a cool but sunny day. That will be good for charging my batteries in the truck, because all these dark and rainy days, with the short trips doesn’t keep things as solidly charged as I would like. A year ago, we had cloudy skies, clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 70 degrees. The record high of 80 was set in 1946. 0.1 inches of snow fell back in 1925.❄

The sun will set at 5:58 pm with dusk around 6:27 pm, which is one minute and 21 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly clear skies and 47 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 20 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 38 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers after 3am. Increasing clouds ☁, with a low of 39 degrees at 11pm. Four degrees above normal. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 40 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1988. Pretty much a standard late October evening. Tomorrow, if you didn’t notice is Halloween. Trick or Treat? 🍬🎃

There are 7 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes until the poll close on Election Day in New York. 🗳 It’s coming closer. One step at a time. It will be over before you know it, and I will be back on vacation. Looking forward to some nice time camping.🏕

As previously noted, next Tuesday is Election Day 2018 🗳️ when the sun will be setting at 4:49 pm with dusk at 5:19 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2017, we had rain, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 63 and 42 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 73 back in 2015.

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Two weeks to Veterans Day Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸. Rain showers and 41 degrees in North Syracuse. ☔ There is a west breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. With the late sunrise, dark clouds, and dreary conditions, not a nice morning.

Still some UV light coming through the skies on to my solar panel on the truck creating some voltage, ⬛ but until I install the amp meter on my truck next week, it’s a little hard to know how much power as voltage is only one half of the equation, and but there is enough clearly to maintain the charge on the batteries at 13.1 volts.🔋 The rain takes an intermission tomorrow, with the skies clearing tomorrow around 7 am.

Today will have showers. High of 45 degrees at 1pm. 10 degrees below normal. West wind 5 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 65 degrees. The record high of 77 was set in 1946. 3.8 inches of snow fell back in 2011.❄ I remember that snow storm, we got closer to a foot at my parents house, it was when I had Big Red and he was brand new. Amazing to think a seven years has passed by since that time. After seven years, the rust is really starting to show up, but I hope to get another 3-5 years out of it, assuming the oil consumption and other minor annoyances don’t get worse.

The sun will set at 5:59 pm with dusk around 6:29 pm, which is one minute and 24 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and 43 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 13 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 23 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 40 seconds over yesterday. Days have really gotten short quickly. They always do this time of year. That said, I kind of like the long nights in the wilderness, especially next to a hot fire and the big buddy heater, having a nice dinner.

Tonight will rain showers likely before 4am, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Cloudy ☔ , with a low of 37 degrees at 4am. One degree above normal. West wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. In 2017, we had light rain and mist in the evening, remaining overcast into the early morning. It got down to 47 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1969. Chilly but not as cold as it will be getting in a month ago.

Next Thursday I plan to wire up the shunts and meters to monitoring the voltage and amperage on produced by the solar panel and battery on my truck. 🔋 I don’t expect this to be a big deal, it involves only relocating a handful of ground wires with the shunts, and providing power to the meter itself. For now, I think I may just mount the physical meters in the cab of the truck, although eventually I want to have them back in the cap where I can read them while camping. Probably use like a telephone wire to run power back there. I’ll have to look around to see if I have some telephone wire around, otherwise, I think my best bet may be a dollar store or maybe Wally World.🛍

The plan is on next Thursday, to get packed for the camping trip, check the oil and make other minor adjustments to the truck. 🚛 I will check for loose wires, make sure everything it working, and get all the junk out of my truck after 2 months out here in North Syracuse. Everything is well organized in the attic, so hopefully getting things set up shouldn’t be too hard, although being that it will be mid to late November when I return from my road trip, I should make sure to have plenty of warm stuff, the propane heater ready, etc. I will also want to go shopping, as I probably won’t get by a grocery store for the first few nights camping, although I may visit that new Aldi’s when I’m camping at Stoney Pond in Nelson.

There are 8 days, 12 hours and 52 minutes until the poll close on Election Day in New York. 🗳 It’s creeping closer each day. Tomorrow will be a week out from Election Day. I’ve done my civic duty or whatever you want to call it, filling out the scan-tron slip and mailing it back to Albany, to be counted assuming there is a very close election. 📬 I honestly don’t get all the hubbub about elections, because when it comes down it’s just a slip of paper with a bunch of bubbles filled out on it. I am not convinced that voting makes all that much of a difference in most people’s lives, but it’s a relatively low cost thing for most people — probably around $10-20 when you figure the cost of your time, gas to drive or bus fare to get to the polling place, or postage for the absentee ballot.💰

Probably the only place it really matters is the Town Board, with Maureen Cunningham running for a vacant seat. 🌲I think she will be a good town board person, and I think a Democratic board will be a good thing for the town — somewhat slowing the sprawl, and certainly making Delmar more pedestrian-friendly.🚴 Despite the complaints of rush hour commuters, making Delaware Avenue into a three-lane road with parking and bicycle lanes, will be great for the community, especially if they add more plantings and trees, to absorb some of the noise and pollution. We have to get beyond out dated thinking about urban planning. 🚃

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Veterans Day Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 4:43 pm with dusk at 5:13 pm (Standard Time). 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 evening! A rainy night around 38 degrees in North Syracuse. ☔ There is a north-northeast breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. 0.61 inches of rain is expected before it ends around 7 am. The commute back home wasn’t too bad, as the rain was modest plus my headlights are so much better aimed on the truck then they were before.

Tonight will rain likely before 2am, then showers likely after 2am. Cloudy ☔ , with a low of 37 degrees at 4am. Typical for tonight. North wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 37 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1974. It looks like the rain will taper off later on tonight.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon 🌖 with 86% illuminated. The moon will set at 11:27 am. The Last Quarter Moon is on Tuesday night with a chance of showers. The Beaver Moon 🌝 is on Thursday, November 22nd. The sun will rise at 7:34 am with the first light at 7:04 am, which is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 13 hours and 32 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 41 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of rain showers before 7am, then a chance of rain and snow showers between 7am and 8am, then a chance of rain showers after 8am. Cloudy ☔ , with a high of 44 degrees at 4pm. 11 degrees below normal. West wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 67 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 1971. 2 inches of snow fell back in 1952.❄

I thought today was a good one. Busy and somewhat controlled chaos but that is expected. You can’t get to heaven without going through hell, or something like that is lyric to the country music song. One week left until the time change. ⏲ It will definitely be dark in the evening when that change occurs, but that’s necessary as the mornings are so dark at this point. Lots of time in the woods in the evening to cook though, which is nice, and I kind of like looking at the Christmas lights. With the solar panel doing a good job topping off the battery, I doubt the low voltage disconnect will kick in much even in the cold of November.

Single digits now until Election Day. 🗳 It was 50 days when it all got underway, with nearly 6 months of planning. But all I can say is I will be glad when it is over and I can focus on my road trip and camping without distraction. 🏕 Today there wasn’t a lot of sun to excite the solar panel, although most of the day the battery voltage was kept above 13 volts, so that was good. I have the meter I ordered from China, so it will be interesting to see how much amperage is flowing through the panel once I get the meter wired up. ♒️

In four weeks on November 24 the sun will be setting at 4:33 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 29 minutes and 6 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 48 and 29 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 44 and 29 degrees. The record high of 70 degrees was set back in 2014.

Looking ahead, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 is in 3 weeks.

Good morning! Happy Saturday. Definitely a cold and rainy weekend.🌧 Three weeks to Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌. A cold rain is falling, but no snow or ice, around 38 degrees in North Syracuse. ☔ There is a east breeze at 13 mph. 🍃. The skies will clear Tuesday around 10 am.

Today will rain and rain. ☔ High of 41 degrees at 4pm. 15 degrees below normal. East wind 10 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Definitely a cold and wet day. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 60 degrees. The record high of 79 was set in 1963. 1.7 inches of snow fell back in 2016.❄

The sun will set at 6:02 pm with dusk around 6:31 pm, which is one minute and 26 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and 40 degrees. There will be a northeast breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 28 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 42 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will rain. ☔ Low of 35 degrees at 4am. One degrees below normal. North wind 3 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 37 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1974.

Governor Ronald Reagan in 1964 delivers a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launches his political career and comes to be known as “A Time for Choosing”. 🙉 Eventually he would become president in the 1980s, a time known for plastic and making a lot of money and being a good consumer.

There are 10 days, 10 hours and 36 minutes until the poll close on Election Day in New York. 🗳 This is the final weekend before GOTV starts next weekend. Busy times, but so be it. It’s just one more step in the whole process, that is playing out for another year. I got my absentee ballot today, and I will study it later, fill it out, and sending it back to Albany. I’m still leaning towards Larry Sharpe the libertarian dude for governor, then mostly Democrats down-ticket by voting on the Working Families line. Maybe a few people on the conservative line too. I’ll have to think about it. I try to keep my ballot interesting.📬

Last night, I went to Walmart and picked up some supplies. 🛍 I got another shirt and more canned goods to eat in the office. 🥫 I can’t wait until I am back home again and can eat normal food. Sure I could get take out or eat somewhere, but I hate all the packaging and waste. 🗑 I’d rather just have something in a recyclable can. Plus it’s hard to get time away from the office. It will be so much different when I’m out camping. 🏕 I can do so much more cooking on my great camp stove 🍳 and the camp oven. 🍞

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 when the sun will be setting at 4:38 pm with dusk at 5:09 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2017, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 40 and 25 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 47 degrees. We hit a record high of 73 back in 1928.

Good afternoon! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Next Wednesday is Halloween 🎃👻. Cloudy, damp with maybe a few drops of light drizzle and 46 degrees in North Syracuse. ☁ There is a northwest breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. It looks like we won’t have to worry about any ice for a while, as temperatures are not expected to drop below freezing until Friday around 4 am. ☃️

Not a real nice day, but so it seems like we’ve had a lot of unsettled gray, cool days lately. ☁ Just damp and not real nice. i guess that’s not real uncommon in late October, although I would hope for at least a few nice days. 🌥 Maybe later in the week? Then light snow this weekend? 🌨 Fortunately though, the snow seems to be trending further east that this point. I hope we have better weather come November for camping. The 8-14 day outlook issued yesterday, points to warmer but wetter weather. Probably not going to be dealing with snow, but some sun would be nice.

This afternoon will have a chance of showers. Cloudy and damp, with us now reaching the high of 48 degrees. ☁Nine degrees below normal. Northwest wind 8 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the afternoon. It was sticky. The high last year was 75 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 2017. There was a dusting of snow in 1962.❄

The sun will set at 6:06 pm with dusk around 6:36 pm, which is one minute and 30 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and 45 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 36 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 44 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of rain showers before 1am, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Cloudy ☔ , with a low of 33 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal. Northwest wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 53 degrees. The record low of 19 occurred back in 1981.

Today in 1977, pursuant to National Holiday Law, Veterans Day is observed on the fourth Monday in October for the seventh and last time. 🇺🇸 The holiday is once again observed on Armistice Day, November 11 beginning the following year. The change was prompted by World War I Veterans and anti-war groups who thought it was more meaningful to celebrate the holiday during the commemoration of Armistice Day, which was supposed to represent the end of all war.

There are 13 days, 8 hours and 57 minutes until the poll close on Election Day in New York. 🗳 Today my feeling is I’m just tired. I kind of miss home, and most of all the miss the wilderness. It will be nice to get back into the Albany routine, catching the bus to work every day, enjoying the relaxing bus ride in while I work on my daily blog post. 🚌 I really hate driving to work, and dealing with the traffic, especially now that the temperature has cooled down and my cruise control doesn’t work until the engine is warmed up (this has been an issue in recent years). I also miss my regular office and the nice view from my office at work. ⛰

So it won’t be that long until my big November trip. I am really looking forward to it. 😃 I just hope it’s not as bitterly cold as it’s been the past few days in Syracuse with the gray skies. That said between the driving around and the UV light that’s getting through the clouds, the accessory battery in the truck remains really healthy, 🔋almost always most of the day at a maintenance voltage of 13.1 volts or higher. Many days it has been at float by mid-morning. This is good because, last cycle traveling for work, I kind of trashed the battery, although I also didn’t have the low-voltage disconnect hooked up back then to protect the battery.

Still thinking about heading up to check out the Chimney Bluffs State Park in November, 🌊although not until to my vacation. I just don’t think I will be a good nice day to do it before then. On vacation, I would do it the same day as I visit Montezuma, 🐦 so it would be a pretty busy day, as I have to be to the Finger Lakes National Forest probably by 4 PM to start getting set up before dusk concludes, as I don’t want to drive after dark. I would probably get up before dawn camping at Stony Pond State Forest, to make sure I have the time to do both. Montezuma is basically just 30 miles south of Chimney Bluffs. It’ will be fun to see more of rural Wayne county. 🚜 Each night for camping, I am planning to spend at least two nights, so there is less taking down and setting up, especially with the solar panel to help keep things charged up, especially if I have a reasonable amount of sun. This will give me more time to explore the land, get to know it better and feel less rushed between sunrise and sunset.

I ordered a few more electronic project components from AliExpress. I got some 5mm (large) Ultra Violet and Warm White LEDs, and a $8 basic Bluetooth to FM transmitter to use in the truck. 📡While my truck has bluetooth for the phone,🔷 it does not have it for the radio, and I would like to be able to listen to podcasts and maybe music through my phone on the radio. Sure I could use a headphone wire, but that’s a pain to hook up every time and having buttons to control my phone without touching it is a good thing. I normally use my USB stick drive for playing music in the truck, but it’s not up-to-date or has all the podcasts I like to listen on long trips, especially boring ones on the expressway.

The LEDs are going to be used for various projects. This winter I want to build some signs with LEDs. 💡Last year, I tried doing it with foam board without much luck — the results just sucked. I am going to invest in a quality corded drill and use drilled press board to make the signs and fixatures. It would be fund to have an animated sign for camp and other projects. The UV LEDs would be fun to use for various projects — UV-A light on anything florescent glows brightly and shows things you might not otherwise see glowing under normal light. It’s 390-400 NM LEDs so they aren’t real harmful to skin or eyes, although you wouldn’t want to stare into them or hold your hands under them for many hours at end.

As previously noted, next Wednesday is Halloween 🎃👻 when the sun will be setting at 5:57 pm with dusk at 6:26 pm. On that day in 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 54 and 40 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 54 degrees. We hit a record high of 73 back in 1946.

Good afternoon! It’s a Monday again. Two more after this before I get to back home. Definitely miss the routine of catching the bus to work. Driving to work is for the dawgs. Three weeks to Veterans Day Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸. Cloudy, damp, and 46 degrees in North Syracuse. ☁ There is a southwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃.

Not a real nice day for sure. Kind of bitterly cold and damp. Yuck. I guess not every day can be 75 degrees and sunny. It’s tough that this October is more typical then many we have had in recent years. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Thursday around 3 am. ☃️

“Wish I was a Kellogg’s Cornflake
Floatin’ in my bowl takin’ movies,
Relaxin’ awhile, livin’ in style,
Talkin’ to a raisin who ‘caisson’ly plays L.A.”

– Punkey’s Dilema, Simon and Garfunkel.

This afternoon will be mostly cloudy ☁, with a high of 50 degrees at 4pm. Seven degrees below normal. Southwest wind around 8 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 74 degrees. Back in the bad old days. 👹 Long ago they seem. The record high of 86 was set in 1979. There was a dusting of snow in 2005.❄ Not a real nice day, but you can’t control the weather but you can control your attitude towards it.

The sun will set at 6:09 pm with dusk around 6:38 pm, which is one minute and 32 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and 48 degrees. There will be a south-southwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 42 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of sprinkles after 5am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 41 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal. South wind around 5 mph. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 43 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1969.

Last night when I was heading home, I noticed the accessory battery looked a bit low. 🔋I was a bit concerned as I thought that meant I might have a loose wire or some other problem with the battery. Turns out I had left the starting and accessory batteries connected and forgot about it during the day, and the load of the headlights and unlocking the doors with the engine off made both batteries voltage sag a bit momentarily.

Not it was a problem, but my misreading of the gauges made me a bit worried for a few minutes until I figured out what was really going on. I got to be real careful with that switch when camping, ⏺ making sure it’s in the “I” rather then the “II” position when I’m using camp power. That said, I usually keep a close eye on both the starting and accessory battery voltages when I’m at camp.

Today in 1897, using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13 1/2 hours before burning out). 💡 Talk about some dated technology that had a long life-span, as vacuum tubes filled with various gases continue to light our buildings to this day. That said, light-emitting semiconductors,  have all but certainly replaced that this technology, although for existing fixtures many of the mercury-vapor florescent lights and some tungsten-filament energy hogging bulbs are used in rough-service areas like barns.🐄

I was reading about solar power converters, ⬛ last night, which are used in some multi-panel solar systems to boost or buck current from individual solar panels to increase efficiency. Basically, solar panels put out a wide range of voltages depending on how much power is coming out of them. You need a certain voltage to charge a battery, and if the voltage is too low the battery won’t charge well, while if the voltage is too high, the battery will off-gas and eventually explode. Likewise, solar panels are most efficient if you apply some resistance on them so you get the right balance of amps and voltage. It’s a bit complicated, I don’t fully understand the technology, and it’s hard to explain, but it’s interesting to learn more about it. 📟

Honestly, when I own land and a cabin up in the wilderness, I don’t care about all that fancy technology, and aren’t really that interested in having high-voltage 120 volt, grid-style electricity. 🔌 Maybe use a few small inverters to power a few appliances, but my goal is to use as little electricity as possible, and stay with 12 volts or maybe 24 volts with buck converters. I guess things like water pumps, refrigerators, etc. often require more power, which easier delivered with a higher voltage and lower amperage.

But that’s some time off. I need to continue to save and invest for another decade, as I figure I will need at least a quarter million to pay for relocation costs, land, and a small cabin. Land is expensive, and while a smallish cabin is more affordable, I want something that is well insulated and protected from the rain. 🏠 I don’t mind doing low-voltage electrical stuff and basic maintance, but I want something decent to start out. Oh, and a good job once I relocate. But I think with some saving, careful investing, and planning I can make it a reality sometime after 2030. That seems like a long time away, but it’s really not that far out, and I’ll only be 47 years old at that point, and still lots of my life left.

There are 15 days, 7 hours and 45 minutes until the poll close on Election Day in New York. 🗳 Two weeks tomorrow. Three weeks, my vacation will be well underway, god-willing that is. I am still very carefully watching the North Atlantic Oscillation to see how it will impact my trip. I am hoping the weather won’t be too bitterly cold, snowy or rainy. Who knows though, things can certainly change.

Regardless, it will be nice sipping the cup off coffee in the morning next to the heater ☕ and having a rip-roaring fire at night. 🔥 Cooking some decent food in the camp oven — fresh bread, muffins,  pizza. Yum. Sitting back, feeling the chill at night. Hanging out in the woods with a shotgun, going for a hike, seen the land. Just not rushing around, not so busy lie i’ve been lately. I’ll be glad once that time comes around.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Veterans Day Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 4:43 pm with dusk at 5:13 pm (Standard Time). 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.