Why are the weekends such complete shit lately I have to ask myself? It’s kind of lame. Yesterday wasn’t bad and Friday was pretty nice, but if I had gone out of town this weekend, it would have been a pretty wet morning taking down gear and driving home in the rain.

Good morning! Rain and 54 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌧️ 15 mph southernly breeze. Not only is it wet, the wind is now whipping around. As they say, the sun ain’t going to shine anymore, at least not for two days straight on weekend.

This morning was eggs and hashbrowns 🍳 with lots of onions, garlic, and broccoli. Not a half bad breakfast. Last night was red lentil soup with loads of shredded carrot and spices, and a little bit of cornmeal just for that rich taste of cornmeal. Amazing how quickly a big pot of that can disappear. 🍲 Super tasty. Pantry is getting bare but I’ll go shopping soon after I shower. :🚿

Today will have showers before noon, then rain after noon. 🌦 High of 55 degrees at 9am. 14 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 5th. Maximum dew point of at 9am. 🏖️ South wind around 16 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 64 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 1944. There was a dusting of snow in 1900.❄

I honestly didn’t have high hopes for today, and the weather didn’t disappoint. 😔 I am putting off shopping for a bit 🛒 as I want to visit Steiner’s and get bike tires this morning and a spare tube, 🚲 so I can be back on road by Monday hopefully and be good if the weather isn’t as shitty as predicted for next weekend to ride the Catskill Scenic Trail without fear of getting a flat. I could probably get away with replacing just one tire but I think I’ll spring for two so they’re matching tires, plus even the one that isn’t totally shot is pretty worn. ⚫

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:53 pm with sun having an altitude of 63.8° from the due south horizon (-7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:21 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (287°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (294°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:01 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 9 seconds with dusk around 8:31 pm, which is one minute and 7 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:11 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 48 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 14 hours and 19 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 24 seconds over yesterday.

Going out to see the folks this afternoon, 👪 but probably won’t stay that late as I want to get the new tires mounted on the bike and the tube re-installed – – and the old tube patched if possible. Hopefully with the new tires I won’t have so many problems, but it’s been bad with the amount of broken glass there has been on the roads lately. Apparently spring comes, and everybody is tossing their beer bottles 🍾 out their car windows.

Tonight will have showers, mainly before midnight. 🌧 Low of 41 degrees at 9am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 20th. South wind 7 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 49 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1969.

I’ve just been doing a lot of reading 📚 and learning lately. A lot of it is as a distraction to pass time, but it’s also been as I’ve been trying to learn as much as possible about land and building a cabin. 📖 It was remarkably quiet 🤫 around here, no construction 🚧 on the unit next door yesterday at least while I was home – – I was at Five Rivers 🐦 from 8 AM through 4 PM – – and no sports games 🏈 being played at the school 🚸 next door. I was surprised how truly quiet it was yesterday around here. Even the evening was nice, took a nap 🛏 and enjoyed that red Lentil soup.

Still a bit bummed out about that cabin I saw go on sale on May 1st, it would have been perfect if not for the access issues. I’m not saying something like that wouldn’t need improvement, but it would have been a great start, but I would want the parcel connected to a public roadway, 🏡 so I wouldn’t have to ever worry about access or improving the road.

Looking ahead, next Sunday is Mothers Day 👩‍ when the sun will be setting at 8:09 pm with dusk at 8:40 pm. On that day in 2023, we had a pretty hot day for May, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 87 and 44 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 70 degrees. I bet the black flies liked that. We hit a record high of 91 back in 1881.

I am still hoping to take off next Friday and spend a long weekend in the woods, 🌲but the forecast can’t be as shitty as it currently looks for next weekend. I guess there is still five days for it to change but so far I’m not impressed.