After cooking the rice-beans-lentils, along with the sweet potatoes and the acorn squash, I stuck them outside to cool down. Then I heard the rain starting to pound down the roof. Not a problem as the dishes were in sealed containers but it was a surprise. By the time I put the pea soup out I had been cooking, the rain had let up and by the time I took out the overflowing compost inside to dump into the biggest bucket, it wasn’t raining at all. And despite being a little bit damp, and having some sprinkles when I was riding in along the South End Railyards, it turned out to be a super nice day for a ride in.

Good morning! Mostly cloudy and 41 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a southwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 5 am. ☃️

Despite the rain, it’s a super mild day. 😀 I noticed how warm it truly was when I got up during the night to go to the bathroom 🚽 and started cooking a little before 5 AM. Started out by rinsing the peas that had been soaking overnight and cooking them, and then went back to bed for a little more R&R 🛌 after which about 5:20 I got up and got a jump on the day, tossing the bread and acorn squash 🍞 🎃 into the oven to cook, chopping up the carrots 🥕 and onions 🧅 for the soup 🍲, starting up a pot of rice, lentils and beans 🍚 for lunch and frying up onions, spinach, mushrooms and other vegetables 🍳 for breakfast.

I really wanted to ride in today, 🚲 and was glad that the rain stopped before it was time to leave after my shower. 🚿 Running kind of late after all that cooking, but it’s fine, it’s going to be a quiet day in the office to at least start out the morning, but depending which projects come in things could pick up. Kind of in an transitory time now, things are winding down a bit at my current position but I haven’t moved on to my new position. Just trying to get loose ends cleaned up. 🎀 I figure once I move to the new office, at least until late January or early February I’m not going to be able to ride in as it will be too dark to ride from the office to Peter Kiernan Plaza to catch the express home 🚌 so I’m going to have to take the shuttle which lacks a rack for my bike. But not riding in January probably isn’t a big loss as probably much of the month the bike path will be snow covered, and not to mention it will be cold. ⛄

Had a nice Sunday dinner with the folks 🍲 which was turkey soup 🦃 left over from Thanksgiving. It was pretty good with dinner rolls and lots of egg noodles. Maybe less vegetables and fiber then what I would have at a meal at home, along with more fat 🤰 but it was still good and had a good big bowl of soup. I figure there is only a few more chances to have mom’s home cooking while it’s still good, as she’s getting up there in the years. I can eat healthy the rest of the week, and indeed for lunch, I had red lentil soup with spinach, mushrooms, broccoli and lots of spices. I’ve been noticing lately that my gut has been adjusting to the higher fiber loads, and things have been good though I do try to break up meals so not every night is loaded with beans and lentils, which can be particularly hard a times. 😤 I didn’t get many steps in yesterday, as it rained so much 🌧 so I was glad to ride to work today, and take the 17 flights of stairs up to my office.

Today will have a slight chance of showers after 9am. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 47 degrees at 12pm. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 22nd. Southwest wind 7 to 11 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 38 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1998. 6.0 inches of snow fell back in 1901.❄

On my list of things to get done today is called the shop about getting my truck state inspected 🔎 🛻, tires rotated and oil changed. It’s been nearly 8 months since the last oil change, but with synthetic oil, the fact my truck quit it’s oil burning habit, and the general lack of miles driven over the past few months — especially the early summer when I was looking at mountain bikes 🚵‍♀️ I still have plenty of time left on the oil, but I figure get it all done at one shot. Truck’s been running good, all the tail lights are working fine, so I expect the state inspection should go smoothly.

Last Monday when I was driving to the laundromat, 👕 and to wash my truck, the relay that controls the CB radio and was clicking on and off.  🔘 Not sure what the issue was but I ended up knocking the over-ride switch connector off, fiddling around with it in the dark. Strangely enough, when I was driving the truck on Sunday I didn’t have any more problems. I do need to replace that crimp connector I broke but I’m not sure where the loose wire was or why the relay was acting up, switching on and off repeatably. ⚡ It’s not such a big deal right now, as I’m not doing too much driving, and the worse thing that can happen is the relay gets burnt up, and it’s not expensive relay — I can always turn off the CB radio 📻 manually if I continue to have problems.

Last weekend when I was camping, I accidentally left one of the library books 📕 in back of my truck on the shelf on that rainy, snowy wet morning, 🌧 and the book got kind of wet from snow falling on it. 😭 After some careful drying over the past week in the oven — using residual heat from cooking or pre-warming the oven, I got the book mostly dry, and now have it propped up between some other books, and weighted down under my bed 🛌 putting a lot of weight on to flatten it out, almost back to the original shape and size. I’m hopeful I can return the book in close to original condition and not get dinged for damaging the library book. Also warped the cover of another library book using it as a wait to dry out that book in the oven when the broiler had just been ton, so that cover has been taken off the book and is drying out.

I replaced the smoke detector battery 👩‍🚒 🔋in my apartment, and now it’s been working properly without so many false alarms from the shower 🚿 steam and cooking. I’ve gotten in the habit now of just taking it down off the wall before cooking in the morning, because inevitably cooking involves smoke, even if it’s just crap I’ve split on the stove. I’ve been thinking of upgrading to a photoelectric detector, because I’m getting really fed up with false alarms from cooking or even the shower. This time of year, especially as I keep the heat turned down in my apartment, the smoke detector is so easily triggered by both shower steam and stove cooking. And as my bedroom is upstairs were smoke detector resides, it’s so easy to set off accidentally. 🛎 It doesn’t do any good to have a smoke detector if I’m constantly resetting it or taking it off the wall for cooking or showering, and then accidentally forgetting it reset it before bed.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:47 am with sun having an altitude of 25.2° from the due south horizon (-45.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:39 pm with the sun in the southwest (232°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (240°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:23 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 21 seconds with dusk around 4:53 pm, which is 13 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:30 pm. At sunset, look out for a chance of rain 🌧 and temperatures around 45 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 16 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 14 seconds over yesterday.

I am thinking of staying late today at work 🎆 to watch the fireworks and state “Empire Plaza” tree lighting 🎄 at 6:15 PM either from my office or down on the plaza. I think this would be my last chance to see the fireworks from my downtown office, 🏢 as I’m not going to be here that much longer. I packed a dinner so I can have it at the end of day. I’ll probably clock out a five, but we’ll see how things go and how much work there is to do.

After being so opposed to smoothies 🥤 I ended up discovering how much I like a warm glass of milk with some shredded fruit in it and lots of cinnamon, ginger or pumpkin pie spice to warm myself up as a healthier replacement for hot coca in the evening. I do think a lot of smoothie recipes you find on the internet or at your local health spa are still junk-food, but a warm glass of skim milk with cinnamon and ginger, along with shredded strawberries 🍓 or apples 🍎 with nothing additional added (i.e. no added sugar) really isn’t any worse then having a glass of milk with an apple. And it tastes good, and a good way to warm yourself up. ☕ I would do coffee, but in the evening, who wants to be up all night? Plus I like drinking milk 🐮 and supporting the dairy industry, plus all that good Vitamin A & D. I’ve become a lot less of an ideologue when it comes to eating healthy these days, but I still work to stay away from excessive fat and sugar, though I do give myself a break a times.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 31 degrees at 6am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 19th. Northwest wind 8 to 11 mph. In 2022, we had clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 26 degrees. The record low of 2 occurred back in 1989.

Next weekend reminds me of the weekend that was. 🌧️ Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 49. Sunday, showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 52. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Typical average high for the weekend is 40 degrees. Probably another stay home weekend, it’s the last weekend of regular deer season after which the woods should empty out for exploration. I am still thinking about those days leading up to Christmas to head out to Madison County 🎄 but the week before then I am planning on attending a family Christmas event.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Bake Cookies Day 🍪 when the sun will be setting at 4:25 pm with dusk at 4:55 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 35 and 25 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 37 degrees. We hit a record high of 60 back in 1921. I actually need to to think about what kind of cookies to bake or buy. Saw a good recipe for sugar cookies, I might try to implement using whole wheat flour and stevia, and maybe bananas or honey rather then sugar, though I’m not crazy about how much butter it uses, though butter is kind of necessary to provide shortening to break the gluten bonds and give that wonderful cookie taste. Maybe work in some oatmeal into recipe, for soluble fiber. Or just get some cookies at the grocery store, and the cookies they don’t eat leave for other people.