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Riding downtown early on this TGIF 🚲

I was on the fence about riding in today but I figured it would save a buck thirty and I figured even if the weather is crap for the evening I’m not going to be riding home as it’s dark out.

Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Partly cloudy and 46 degrees at the Empire State Plaza. ⛅ There is a south breeze at 13 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Monday around noontime. ☃️

That wind is really whipping around on the Plaza 🌬️ but the actual ride in was quite pleasant. I’d like to get in 10,000 steps for the day 👣 but that might be hard as I have a one o’clock meeting 🧑‍💼 and I’m not sure if it will be nice enough to walk in the evening. Plus it’s a Friday and I’m tired but the 7 ¾ mile bike ride from Delmar to the office downtown 🏢 and the eighteen flights of stairs to my office has to count for something.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 63 degrees at 1pm. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 13th. Maximum dew point of 50 at 4pm. South wind 13 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 44 degrees. The record high of 73 was set in 1928. 2.8 inches of snow fell back in 1992.❄

That’s a pretty impressive forecast to start the day out, and it was worth it to ride in. 🚲 I was a bit hesitant as the weather is going to be cool and windy 🌬 come the evening as the front pushes through that will bring rain for SZ opening day 🦌 and I’m planning on bringing my laptop home, 💻 and hauling the day pack with the laptop carrying case plus loading my bike on the bus 🚌 can be a bit of a armful but I’ve done it before. Bike will ride good on the bus even if it’s windy I’m sure, as there is plenty of wind pushing on the bike every other day I ride the bus with my bike on the expressway.

Yesterday I got sweet onions 🧅 and that was the first thing I chopped up this morning and fried up with spinach, mushrooms 🍄 tomatoes 🍅 and eggs 🥚. You know a good fiber and protein rich breakfast. 🍳 When I make up eggs, it’s rarely more than the eggs are glue to be used with all those delicious 😋 vegetables.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:41 am with sun having an altitude of 28.4° from the due south horizon (-42.4° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:50 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (237°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (245°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:32 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 13 seconds with dusk around 5:01 pm, which is 52 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south-southwest (198°) at an altitude of 18° from the horizon, 229,292 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:37 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 61 degrees. The dew point will be 50 degrees. Breezy, 18 mph breeze ⛅ from the south with gusts up to 30mph. Should be a pretty mild evening. But windy. Today will have 9 hours and 45 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 6 seconds over yesterday.

Maybe I will be able to do an evening walk 🚶‍♀️ after all. I will see on how cold and windy it is out this afternoon. I might also walk down to the library, and play with remote sensing data down at the library. But first more of that pea soup 🍲 and homemade bread that I made up yesterday and proved to be a good dinner. Plus maybe I’ll fry up more apples 🍎 and bananas with that avocado oil 🥑 which is great because I can use a ton of heat to cook and brown things without reaching the smoke point.

Tonight will have showers, mainly before 5am. 🌧 Low of 46 degrees at 6am. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 8th. South wind 8 to 16 mph becoming north after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2022, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 28 degrees. The record low of 10 occurred back in 1972.

Continuing that Udemy Course on Remote Sensing using the Semi Automatic Classification plugin 🗺. I’m not totally sure what I’m going to use my new found skills for but it’s something I’ve been interested in a while. 🖥 Raster math is kind of fun and interesting, especially when you use R to do it. Indeed while I may learn with QGIS I’d probably end up using R just because it’s faster to write code then click on all those dialogs.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers, mainly before 7am. Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing 🌞, with a high of 49 degrees at 12pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 16th. North wind 10 to 13 mph. Chilly with that wind though. 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 in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 43 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1928. 9.0 inches of snow fell back in 1980.❄

Doesn’t look like a real great Saturday, ⛷ but I might go to the Bethlehem Sports Mart that the Boy Scouts host at the High School and look at Cross Country Skis. Then maybe ride out to Voorheesville, just to check out the new Slingerlands temporary rail trail bridge, 🌉 and maybe get apples 🍏 at Indian Ladder and other things at Hannaford Voorheesville. I’ll still probably get up at 5 o’clock to bake bread 🥖🍞 and Butternut Squash. 🍆

Looking ahead to Sunday, a slight chance of showers before 1pm. 😎 Partly sunny, with a high near 47. Southwest wind 8 to 15 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Another cool day with the wind, but being SZ season, I’ll probably not wander too far out in the woods. 🦌 But maybe ride out to Five Rivers. And also run to the grocery store for the big weekly shop 🛒 . Chance of precipitation is 20%. Typical average high for the weekend is 48 degrees.

Looking ahead, next Friday is Buy Nothing Day 🛍️ when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:56 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 49 and 24 degrees. I know you will miss all the sales but that plastic shit kind of stinks when you burn it. Typically, the high temperature is 46 degrees. We hit a record high of 70 back in 2014.

I’m still hoping to get out of town next Friday into next week ⛺ 🚵 but I’m watching the forecast and it seems like the Adirondacks might be getting it’s first good snow come the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. 🌨 It’s not to say I can’t hot tent though, as long as the snow banks aren’t too deep along NY 8. Maybe the bigger issue is that next weekend might be cold ❄ quite cold up north. It’s not the mercury I’m concerned about but if it’s windy out or not. That wind chill can really get to you.

View from Rest Area

A day to remind us of October days gone by ☀

Making a run at sixty degrees this afternoon but don’t worry the sun will be setting in the four o’clock hour so no bike ride home.

Good morning! Happy Thursday. Sunny and 31 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌞 Calm wind. Things will start to thaw out at around 7 am. 🌡️

Kind of a cold start to the morning, ❄️ for my morning walk. I was up at 5 AM to start the pea soup 🥘 but went back to bed until around 6 AM when I went out for my walk. Oatmeal pancakes, this time experimenting with an egg in the batter, some cider vinegar and baking soda to see if I can make them more fluffy. 🥞 Honestly, they were somewhat better. I should play with whole-wheat flour and a more conventional pancake recipe, though I don’t like the idea of adding sugar or oil to the mix. Plenty of sugar from the blueberries 🫐 I used in the mix.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 57 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 28th. Light and variable wind becoming southeast around 5 mph. A year ago, we had light drizzle in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 42 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 2006. 3.4 inches of snow fell back in 2002.❄

Riding to work today, 🚲 should be a nice one for that. If not so dark in the evening, it would be excellent for a bike ride home too. Going to be certainly mild enough, I’ll take October weather in mid-November. I’m hoping for a pretty mild winter, ⛄ being an El Nino year. So far no snow or even salt on the roads, as we’ve not had any icing or snow this year as it’s been mild and relatively dry. Probably the best chance for them calling out the salters in the mountains is that Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but even I’m skeptical about that. They’ve had them out a lot more in the highlands of West Virginia this year.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:41 am with sun having an altitude of 28.7° from the due south horizon (-42.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:51 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (238°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (245°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:34 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 13 seconds with dusk around 5:02 pm, which is 53 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the south-southwest (211°) at an altitude of 12° from the horizon, 231,427 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:38 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 53 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 45 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 6 seconds over today.

Dinner last night was 15-bean soup 🥘 but as I didn’t have enough soup, I cut up some spinach, celery, carrots, onions and added some smoked paprika to make it a meal, dipped in with lots homemade bread, this way the loaf without the shredded carrots. 🥕 As much as I like my bread with the carrots 🍞 I find it really tough on my stomach and guts, so I might end up cutting that out for just whole-wheat bread with some oatmeal put in the mix. Or just only whole-wheat flour, if I want things to be fluffier. Dessert was Greek yogurt with too much canned 100% pumpkin and some pumpkin pie spice. Tasted good but I probably eat too much. I keep telling myself I need to get pie pumpkins 🎃 and make my own pumpkin up at home. It would save the can ♻️ that I otherwise have to save for recycling. Rather compost then recycle, then tin cans usually still have a good market.

Last night I returned my library books 📚 to the library. I had a stack of books I haven’t read but I keep putting off returning them. I am spending my free time with the Udemy classes on Remote Sensing, so it’s not that I’m not learning, but it’s not with books. Most of the library books I get out are pretty out of date, and I am lazy and I just like watching video lectures, especially now that I get Udemy through my library for free. 📱 There are so many great online resources I’m learning I can access with my library card, physical books aren’t the only way to keep up with the world. 🌎 Plus I like being able to snuggle under my heated blanket with the phone, rather then a book. That said, I’m usually dog tired by 8 or 8:30 PM as I get up at 5 AM each day, to start cooking. 👩‍🍳

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 34 degrees at 1am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 9th. South wind 3 to 7 mph. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 7 occurred back in 1972.

Looking forward to that pea soup when I get home 🍵 re-heated up with lots of good homemade bread and some balsamic vinegar. Just writing that makes me hungry. Not a real cool evening but it’s not exactly warm and with the sun set so early, it should be plenty cool by later in the evening.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, a chance of showers before 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 47. Northwest wind 10 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 45. Typical average high for the weekend is 48 degrees.

Turkey fans and turkey farmers will note that next Thursday is Thanksgiving 🦃 when the sun will be setting at 4:28 pm with dusk at 4:57 pm. So early! On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 49 and 24 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 46 degrees. We hit a record high of 72 back in 1931.

Escarpment

Happy GIS Day! 🗺 ♻

Draw me a map by Deirks Bentley might be an appropiate song for today. I mean that’s what everybody expects the people in Buffalo to order LATFOR nee IRC to do. I’ll try to post new maps today, not those type, though I might be too busy but I can always recycle one on this America Recycles Day. Cause as any good redneck will tell you, ya can’t burn everything though many have tried.

Good morning! What day is it? Quite an introduction to GIS Day, of course. 🗺 Partly clear and 34 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. 🌅 Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 5 am. ☃️ Not that it’s much warmer than that this morning but the salters ain’t out yet.

Slept into almost six o’clock this morning 🛏 as I didn’t get to bed 🛏 until close to nine due to attending that public meeting in Colonie over more development in the Albany Pine Bush. Endless hearings it seems like and most of it wasn’t even about the Pine Bush. 🦋🌲🌲🦋 More of that bean soup last night and carrot 🥕 bread. That electric⚡blanket felt so good this morning 🛏 especially as I don’t have the heat on yet so it’s fairly cool in my bedroom. But I like cool, makes the coffee ☕ and the hot shower 🚿 better in the morning. ☺

Decided on French Toast 🍞 this morning to with the loaf of non carrot homemade bread I pulled out of the freezer topped with blueberries and lots of cinnamon and ginger. Good breakfast, the eggs 🥚 in the French Toast add protein to hopefully resist the blood sugar crash from the blueberries 🫐. Haven’t done French Toast in a long time.

Figured it would be good to cut back on the FODMAPS at least temporarily🍚😲 as I’ve been so gassy lately that all the knock off Gas X ain’t helping. It’s just been a lot of fiber and beans and lentils. Healthy but tough on the guts. 💩My love of all things carrot 🥕 is tiring me out, got to change it up.

Heading in early this morning as it’s pretty nice and I’m up and going. 🚲 I’ll ride in and save the bus fare 💵 and then put my bike on the bus 🚍 for the trip back home. It’s too bad the evenings are so dark with the time change. I probably could have done a morning walk but I figure I’ll get to the Plaza early on my bike then walk 🚶 the Concourse until quarter to nine then climb the eighteen flights of the stairs to my office 🏢.

I’m hoping to get squash of some kind at the Farmers Market 🍆 🎃 today. I would like to bake it up with bread on Friday and probably pea soup 🍲 and chickpeas for the weekend to make hummus. Been thinking about making pancakes 🥞 from scratch using whole wheat 🌾 flour rather than oats and banana as a way to change things up and get more protein in breakfast as most pancake recipes involve eggs. 🥚 Change is good, oats are healthy but not the only option.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 48 degrees at 1pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 18th. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 9 mph in the morning. Not a half bad day for mid November. 🦃 A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 40 degrees. The record high of 74 was set in 1993. 4.8 inches of snow fell back in 1906.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:41 am with sun having an altitude of 29° from the due south horizon (-41.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:52 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (238°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (246°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:34 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 12 seconds with dusk around 5:03 pm, which is 55 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the southwest (222°) at an altitude of 6° from the horizon, 233,969 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:39 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 47 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 9 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 47 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 7 seconds over today.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming clear ☁, with a low of 32 degrees at 6am. Typical for tonight. South wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight. In 2022, we had light snow in the evening, which became light drizzle by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 7 occurred back in 1972.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, a chance of showers before 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 48. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 45. Typical average high for the weekend is 48 degrees.

The Slingerlands Rail Trail Bridge 🌉 is finally done so that’s an excuse to ride out to Voorheesville this weekend. 🍏 Maybe get apples. The Bethlehem Sportsmart is Saturday might go and look at getting cross country skis 🎿 as one of mine cracked last year. Also considering going to the Pine Bush to ride trail and visit the Salvation Army for clothes along with Aldis and India Farmers Market. Options exist for the coming weekend though I’m hoping to get away the following weekend to the Adirondacks.

Looking ahead, there are 3 weeks until Saint Nicholas Day 🎅 when the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm with dusk at 4:53 pm. On that day in 2022, we had rain showers, partly cloudy, mild and temperatures between 54 and 39 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 41 degrees. We hit a record high of 68 back in 2001.

Vista Off Cedar Mountain

Cold start to the morning but sunny ☀

Two loafs of bread, rice and lentils, beans soup cooking down on the stove. It’s good that I have so much food cooking on the stove this morning as I haven’t turned the heat on except for the electric blanket. Kind of a cold morning but I’m enjoying it and are out for my morning walk.

Good morning! Clear and 21 degrees at the Delmar, NY. 🌅 Calm wind. Things will start to thaw out at around 9 am. 🌡️Seven weeks until 2024.

I’m out walking 🚶 this morning, kind of enjoying the cold ❄. It’s a rather crisp morning but a nice sunrise. I think I’ll enjoy the coffee ☕ even more when I get home. I am going to be wearing my gloves 🧤 when I ride to work. 🚲 I kind of like the cold. It’s good as who knows how many more days I’ll be riding to work, though if it’s snow-free or rain-free I’ll try to do the mornings. In the evenings, I’ll be taking the express home. 🚌

Today will have increasing clouds ☀ 👉 ☁, with a high of 42 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 3rd. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 10 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 49 degrees. The record high of 69 was set in 1964. 6.0 inches of snow fell back in 1886.❄

I am not super disappointed with staying in town this past weekend. 🌥 It was definitely cloudier and cooler then they had at first predicted. 🏘 Plus I had a great bike ride on Saturday, heading from home in Delmar to outside of Halfmoon on the Champlain Canal Trip. Sometimes you don’t have to spend a lot of money for a great weekend adventure. 😀 That said, I’m hoping for good weather come Black Friday, to get to back to the Adirondacks at least one more time for the year.

I did forget however to get squash when I was at the grocery store this past weekend. 🎃 Not a big thing but I would have liked some fresh baked squash of some sort this morning when I was baking. Instead, I ended up cooking up two loafs of bread. 🍞 It kept the oven full but I do like squash. Maybe I should run at lunch time some point this week to Price Chopper Downtown and get some squash — or Hannaford on the bike ride 🚴‍♀️ but the thing is I have enough food cooked up for now, that I don’t really need squash. Been a few weeks since I’ve had spaghetti squash, maybe that’s what I should get. Wednesday is farmer’s market day, might be a good day to get some. 🍆

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:41 am with sun having an altitude of 29.5° from the due south horizon (-41.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10.6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:54 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (239°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (246°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:36 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 11 seconds with dusk around 5:05 pm, which is 59 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:40 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 41 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 9 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 51 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 11 seconds over today.

Getting up at 5 AM this morning to bake bread ⏰ means I’m tired, especially as I didn’t get to bed until a little after 9 PM 🛌 and then I awoke a few times during the night to run to the rest room. 🚽 It’s fine, I am often in a bit of a haze on a Monday but I think the cold air is helping a bit 🌬 as I ride my bike downtown. I figure I have the rest of the week to wake myself up. 😴 I’ll just hide behind my desk, slog through more cap grants.

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain and snow showers before 3am, then a chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 32 degrees at 4am. Typical for tonight. South wind 5 to 8 mph becoming west after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. Sounds like it will hold off for the evening walk. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 27 degrees. The record low of 12 occurred back in 1996.

Seasonably cool and sunny for opening weekend in the SZ. 😎 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 50. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 46. Typical average high for the weekend is 48 degrees. Probably not what the hunters want but I’m not complaining. The following Monday or maybe Tuesday is pay day for me, which then hopefully I can start to pay back the loan I made from my various savings accounts to cover my credit card balance. 💳 I hate robbing Peter to Pay Paul but I’m a lot better off then many people. Between the car insurance, the blog hosting contract, summer and autumn vacations, needing better fitting clothes and healthier foods, money has just been flying out the doors lately — and don’t forget inflation. 💸 It’s really bad the way my budget looks currently.

With rifle season underway in the Southern Zone I’ll be staying close to home, but the following weekend I’m thinking of heading up to either the East Branch Sacanadaga or maybe Piseco-Powley if the snow risk seems low. 🏕 Probably the prior, even though I don’t like the noise there from the highway, I do like the fact I haven’t been there in years, the snow risk is relatively low, and it will be quiet people wise, especially as many hunters filter down to SZ for more action there. Probably also do a NZ hike, wearing blaze orange, on a more remote trail but one less likely to have much hunter pressure. 🚶‍♀️ 🦌 But that’s still two weekends away and weather could change.

Maybe this upcoming weekend though I’ll go mountain biking in the Albany Pine Bush 🚵‍♀️ hit up Aldi’s up that way and check out India Farmer’s Market for food and Salvation Army for more good-fitting clothes, especially dress clothes for work. 👔 I’ve gotten some nice stuff from the Salvation Army, but you have to watch out for stains and other imperfections. But being so much lighter these days 🤰 I fit into a lot more used clothing that is often quite good quality if you know what to look for.

Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until Cyber Monday 🛍️ when the sun will be setting at 4:26 pm with dusk at 4:55 pm. On that day in 2022, we had rain and temperatures between 48 and 29 degrees. I might take that day off from work, to be as far away from Cybering as possible. Typically, the high temperature is 45 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1896.

Clarksville

Made it to Sunday on this 3-day Veterans Day Weekend ⛪

Yesterday was fun with that 46 mile bike ride up to Halfmoon. Lots of interesting history, learning about the Old Champlain Canal and GE Silicone as I rode over the old Waterford dump and the past the massive slag piles from GE Silicone. The Champlain Canal was very quiet though Peebles Island was packed so I didn’t dwell there.

Good morning! Happy Sunday. Up bright and early, ran to Stewart’s around 5:30 to get milk 🐮 for my coffee. ☕ Partly clear and 29 degrees in Delmar. 🌅 There is a northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Still a while until the sun rises, but at least things will start to thaw out at around 7 am. 🌡️ That said, not going to be a real warm day today.

Fried up two onions this morning 🍳 with lots of delicious turmeric, mushrooms, spinach, kidney beans and of course two eggs scrambled up and topped with Parmesan cheese and nutritional yeast and hot sauce. I am like yum and quite healthy to boot. With that banana I had for a side, 🍌 I should be good for a while. Which is good as my pantry is getting a bit bare, going to go shopping relatively early this morning to avoid the crowds — maybe around 9 AM. Probably go to Walmart but I’ll follow up with a visit to Price Chopper as I’ll want to get King Arthur Whole Wheat flour for baking bread this week — and maybe make flatbread wraps too. 🍞 I figure shower 🚿 and get a good early start today. 😴 I’ve been up since a little after 5 AM.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 43 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 30th. North wind around 6 mph. Kind of a cool day, it would have been even cooler if I had gone to Vermont. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 71 degrees. The record high of 68 was set in 1909. 7.3 inches of snow fell back in 1968.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:40 am with sun having an altitude of 29.7° from the due south horizon (-41.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:56 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (239°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (247°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:37 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 10 seconds with dusk around 5:06 pm, which is one minute and one second earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:41 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 40 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 53 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 15 seconds over today.

So yesterday was a fun day. 🚲 The ride to Peebles Island wasn’t bad, though I didn’t particularly enjoy the part through Green Island as that section is entirely on-road though the rest of the trail is segregated from highway traffic. It’s good, I’ll keep this in mind for future weekends, maybe explore some of Troy or Peebles Island when it’s hopefully less crowded. It was a good bit of exercise.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 22 degrees at 6am. 10 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 17th. Calm wind. Might have to even turn on the heat tonight. ♨️ In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 36 degrees. The record low of 13 occurred back in 1981.

Tomorrow going to start another 5-day work week, 🏢 working downtown in the office but I expect a relatively busy weekend, and it should go by quickly. Might be nice enough to ride to work several days next week, saving on bus fare and benefiting health 🚲 though obviously I’ll be busing it home at end of the day as it will be dark by a little after four. The following week is a 3-day week

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until 7:15 AM Sunrise ⌛️ when the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm with dusk at 4:53 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 31 and 20 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 40 degrees. We hit a record high of 64 back in 1966.

Vast

November is my favorite time of the year 🦃

November is my favorite time of the year 🦃

Wetlands Across the Canal

If you ask most people, outside of the most dedicated deer hunters, probably November wouldn’t rank on their short list of the best months of the year. But it really is my favorite.

November is that time of year typically before snow is on the ground and things are icy and slippery. It’s a time when the leaves are off the trees and the woods lays bare for all to see. Wildlife is busy gathering food in preparation for the long winter ahead – or simply heading south as is the case with the birds and geese.

The trees gone bare reveal many a vista hidden by the leaves of summer. You can see contours of the woods once hidden, the old farm garbage dump in the gully. The deer are in their rut, carelessly wandering around the woods mostly looking for does to impregnate. The air has such a nice cool but refreshing feel. It’s so nice to be able to put that vest back on again.

With colder weather upon us, folks fire up their woodstoves and outdoor wood boilers, giving small towns across the area that very homey back woods smell of wood smoke. Farmers who have harvested their crops are busy applying manure, hoping to fertilize the ground before its frozen. It can be tangy and pungent but it’s part of the season.

I like the cool long nights of November in the woods. I like wearing my vest, sitting down by the campfire. I like how quiet the woods is, the starry nights that start early and how the moonlight shines through the trees. Or the deep blue skies and the browns and grays of the autumn months.

The great autumn road trip ends much like it started in the rain ☔

Good morning! Happy Sunday. Time to get up in a bit before it’s real wet then head home. Rain showers and 46 degrees at Long Pond State Forest in Smithfield Flats, NY. ☁ There is a north breeze at 8 mph. 🍃.

Back in New York State. I decided to drive all the way back to New York yesterday from Paw Paw as I figured it would mean back tracking to get back to Interstate 99 and heading north. 🛣️ Rain is expected before day break in Wellsboro so I figured that at any rate, not worth the back tracking and the $10 fee to camp in Pennsylvania. ⛺ At Long Pond State Forest which is two hours from home l figured that the rain would start later so maybe a quick breakfast and coffee ☕ 🥣 before the rain picked up.

Figured it would be interesting to come back via 81 and see at least the skyline of Hagerstown Maryland, Harrisburg, Wilkes Barre and Scranton Penna 🌆 but truth be told by the time I reached Hazleton it was dark, and from Hagerstown to the I-78 and I-81 split in Jonestown, traffic was much too heavy for ones eyes 👀 to leave the road for much scenic viewing. People often suggest taking Interstate 81 to West Virginia but I have to say at this point I don’t recommend it. 🚙 Too much traffic, especially truck 🚚 traffic compared to the leisurely drive along Interstate 99.

Truth is though I was bored with taking Interstate 99, I’ve done it several times in the past years to West Virginia. 🗻 It’s scenic but after a while the towns are all the same. Somehow I was hoping that 81 would change things up. Same thing with US 6 in Penna. It’s slow, and long, the farms 🚜 and rural homesteads 🏡 🐐 are still the same but with fewer burn barrels 🛢 as a decade or so ago. All that plastic shit stinks when you burn it, lol 😂.

Somehow I just had it in my mind that Interstate 81 would shave miles and hours off the trip. 🚘 But it’s really not that much of a time or milage savings. And while I’m only two hours from home compared to 3 1/2 that extra hour and a half got tacked onto yesterday’s drive, 🌃 meaning several hours of driving in the darkness and arriving at Long Pond State Forest at 8:30 pm rather than before six o’clock as I had planned. I had no cell service 📶 in Paw Paw so it was just a wild assed guess on the distance to Asaph Run or County Bridge compared to Long Pond.

The moonlight helped, as did getting up and walking 🚶 around the rest area near Wilkes Barre and ultimately getting a box of five hour energy shots 🤪 which not only made me awake for driving kept me up half the night. Almost stopped and got dinner at Dennys in Hazleton but I decided I was running so far behind schedule, best to have some energy shots, hard boiled eggs and bananas and push forward. ☕ Regardless, I made it to camp safely and expect a nice drive the rest of the way home. 🙏

I was pretty wired from the energy shot ⚡ last night and it was a pretty evening with the full moon 🌕 so I stayed up to midnight.🦆 Listened to the geese well into the night honking and every time I walked to the lake the beaver 🦫 would jump back in with a big splash 💦.

Today will have showers through 9 am, then rain after 10am. 🌧 High of 46 degrees at 6am. 10 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 23rd. North wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 63 degrees. The record high of 77 was set in 1946. 3.8 inches of snow fell back in 2011.❄

Coffee ☕ and cream of wheat is cooking on the stove. It’s now just the final two hours home 🏡. Probably need to get a bit more fuel ⛽ and I’m likely going to stop and get apples 🍏 at Annuto’s in Oneonta. They open at nine 9⃣ but I don’t necessarily have to be there right at nine. And maybe other produce like Butternut Squash. 🍆 They have quite the selection of farm products. No doughnuts 🍩 though, even though they were good to start off vacation as a special treat. 😋

Then get home, unpack, shower 🚿 for the first time in nine days 👃 and knead bread 🍞 and soak peas for pea soup. Maybe go to the laundromat and buy produce at Hannaford, or that could wait until Monday.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:40 pm with sun having an altitude of 34° from the due south horizon (-36.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:14 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (246°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (253°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:54 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 2 seconds with dusk around 6:21 pm, which is one minute and 22 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waining Gibbous 🌖 Moon in the east-northeast (63°) at an altitude of 0° from the horizon, 235,306 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:56 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 43 degrees. There will be a north-northeast breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 10 hours and 27 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 36 seconds over today.

Rode about twenty miles of the Chesapeake and Ohio outside Paw Paw and then went into the village on my bike yesterday. Not a lot of note in the village that I saw but maybe I rode the wrong road. 🚲 That said, the Paw Paw Tunnel is really neat. 🚉 Not only can you hike – bike the canal tunnel when I was there people were kayaking in it. 🛶 Rode 19 miles or about three hours including breaks. Stopped at the Capacon Overlook 🏞 after driving WV 9 which is as curvy as you might expect any good ol West Virginia road to be going through the mountains. Phil Ochs wasn’t wrong when he sung about the roads would wind and wind through the hills of West Virginia.

Tonight will have showers before 2am, then rain likely after 2am. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 42 degrees at 7pm. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 14th. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 28 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1969.

Next it’s watching the forecast for next week. 🐮 I’m still thinking about a trip out to Madison County either next week or the weekend after for four days, tacking a day onto the Election Day Weekend or Veterans Day Weekend. ⛺ I know it seems like it’s coming on right after vacation but rifle season 🦌 and Thanksgiving is right around the corner and who knows when we’ll get our first snowfall and those areas inaccessible. 🌨 Winter’s coming.

Looking ahead, there are 6 weeks until 7:15 AM Sunrise ⌛️ when the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm with dusk at 4:53 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 31 and 20 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 40 degrees. Winter’s coming. We hit a record high of 64 back in 1966.

The blog for the first month made a little over $80 a month or so worth in advertising. 🖥 Figuring th hosting and domains work out to $17 a month, its a nice little check. Won’t make me rich and it’s possible that I could potentially squeeze additional revenue by more obnoxious ads or changing the content on my blog but I want to maintain absolute editorial control over my blog. 📝 That’s one of the reasons I maintain a personal blog and don’t just do social media.

James River