Good morning! Happy Armistice Day! The holiday was commemorate the ending of World War I, the war to end all wars. Except it wasn’t the war to end all wars, as we had World War II then the Korean War, Vietnam, ans several wars thereafter. 

Idealism shattered like a infant burning in napalm, the Republican Congress renamed Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954 to commerate those who have served in the many foolish conflicts the United States has found themselves dragged into by their elected political leaders. I guess because the United States is rich and powerful we have to be the world’s policeman and stop evil doers the world over, but I have to ask, do we need to be involved in so many conflicts, leaving so many dead and broken individuals both of American and other enthicities? Is it too little to ask for peace, and to focus on the problems that are facing our country back here at home? There are a lot of folks struggling in the hills and hollows, quality healthcare remains unafforable and we still have a climate crisis to face — money that is too often being burnt up as bombs, ammunition, and caring for those who return. Serving our nation is a noable cause. I thank our nation’s veterans and I pray for peace. I’ve said this many times, as have millions of Americans, but it seems like at times no one in Washington is listening.

Cold but sunny this morning. Partly sunny and 20 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a northwest breeze at 6 mph. 61 degrees inside and I’m considering going out hiking and camping tonight, but the evening might sure be cold. I worry a bit about ice and snow tonight, not to mention difficulties getting started in the morning with the mercury around 10 degrees or lower in the mountains. It might also be cold by the fire, even with the heater and again in the morning. 

Today, Veterans Day will be sunny, with a high of 33 degrees at 1pm. 16 degrees below normal. North wind 3 to 8 mph.  Pretty bitterly cold for mid-November but not as windy as yesterday. After walking back from the library yesterday, I decided to retire to my bedroom and work on maps it was so cold. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. The high last year was 54 degrees. The record high of 70 was set in 2002. 3 inches of snow fell back in 1906.

The sun will set at 4:35 pm with dusk around 5:05 pm, which is one minute and one second earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for mostly clear conditions and 31 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 9 hours and 52 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 17 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 11 degrees at 6am. 22 degrees below normal. Calm wind. In 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies with some clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 27 degrees. The record low of 15 occurred back in 1976. It will likely be the coldest Veterans Day on record, especially this evening going into tomorrow.

This morning with the sun and minimal breeze in Delmar, it probably feels a lot warmer then the mercury would suggest, even though it’s only about 20 degrees. Just a lot of bright sun out there to make it feel warmer, especially behind a window with the greenhouse effect. Or in a heated room. My bedroom doesn’t have any south facing windows, so it seems remarkably dark out there, because of the sun angle at this time of year in November.

Assuming the barber shop is open on Veterans Day, which it may not be, I plan to get a hair cut. That’s my major thing to do today. I also want to stop by the library and upload the 15 or so maps I made up. I am back to making New York State DEC land maps, mostly of state forests, becauses that’s where I have best and most refined GIS data for. I also need to go grocery shopping, whether or not I stay home or go hiking then camping.

I looked at several places to go hiking today in Southern Vermont. I don’t want to go much farther then that. If I go hiking this moring into the afternoon, I would probably camp after that, but it sure it going to be quite cold for this time of year. Sure I’ve camped in colder weather, but I don’t really like to do it that much, in part because I worry about getting started in the morning, after opening and closing the doors. 

I can idle the truck in the evening to bring the battery voltage up, but honestly it doesn’t charge that well at idle. The battery is fine, and I’ve never had problems since I replaced it and no longer use it for listening to the radio with the engine off, but still I am not that much of a fan of camping when it’s this cold. Of course I say that and I will go camping in the Adirondacks in mid-January when things are much colder. I also worry about ice and snow, even though if I were to go to Vermont I probably wouldn’t camp that far from all-year maintained roads. 

I also don’t want to spend the money on beer, food, gasoline and other camping supplies today if I can avoid it. I’ve had a lot of expenses lately, including paying down my vacation and maintance to the truck and would rather conserve money. But it is a fairly nice day, and it might turn to snow by next weekend. On the other hand, if it’s nice next weekend I might take a long weekend, and either head for a big trip up to the North Country or maybe just the Adirondacks.

I guess I probably should stay in town this weekend. It’s a lot of work to pack and unpack things for just one night camping, and opening and closing the door will let a lot of heat out of my apartment. And it is pretty darn cold out there — even with the heated tent it will be cold start tomorrow. And cold by the fire even with the Big Buddy heater. I don’t like the cold as much as I once did. I really should save money, my bank account is kind of in rough shape after vacation. I could take money out of savings but I’m avoiding that. Plus heating costs with this cold weather. Winter isn’t over yet. 

I order the LED strips I will need for building my Arduino powered room lighting. I also ordered the MOSFET tranistors and a 10 amp power supply. The later is over kill — I had read that the 2,700 lumen RGB 5050 LED strips require 6 amps but that’s for both of them that come in the box. I will likely use only one. The Arduino itself only uses less then 50 milliamps. Each strip is 15 feet and has 150 5050 LEDs, each of which puts out around 18 lumen or 2,700 lumen total, which at maximum brightness is more then a 150 watt light bulb. I doubt I will drive them anywhere near maximum brightness, which is good because that will help maximize their lives.

The strips are about 15 feet each, which is much too long for my purposes. I may cut them into three 5 foot strips and mount them in parallel. LED tape can be easily cut. I will eventually use the sticky tape to mount them to the wall. If a little paint peels off when I eventually remove them, that’s fine, I’m sure the landlord will be repainting my apartment once I move out as paint has pealed in multiple locations over the past ten years. Right now I am going to use the breadboard to wire them up for testing but eventually I will use perf board and 28 gauge (control) or 20 gauge wire (power) and solder things together. I will use a hot glue gun and eventually mount everything into a small plastic box. Then hook up a button to trigger the various mode — warm white for reading, a red fading mode for getting to sleep and a red to yellow to blue-white mode for waking int he morning. I’ve sketeched the basic code to make this work in Arduino IDE, but I have to have the actual strip to make it all work. This will be one of many projects I plan to build. The generic non-name Arduino Unos are under $5, so I can use these microcontroller boards for many projects.

Good morning! Happy Blustery Friday. Today for many people is Veterans Day holiday observed, although tomorrow is actually Veterans Day aka Armstice Day. That’s a day we hope for peace and honor those who have served in our military — and pray for an end to war. War really is a horrific thing, destroying lives and communities, it steals billions from our economy that could be better spent addressing real human needs in our community, and the climate crisis. But while the climate is being cooked by increasing levels of carbon it’s freaking cold out today.

Right now, it’s mostly cloudy and 31 degrees in Delmar, NY. I am not sure if we will be above freezing today. November sometimes sure feels like winter. I got the heat on before the big cool down yesterday, so it’s a comfortable 60 odd degrees inside. I don’t think I would want it any warmer. Outside it’s quite blustery, with a stiff breeze at 26 mph the west-northwest with gusts up to 51 mph. I saw one of the garbage can tops belowing away. I ran outside without any more then a t-shirt on to grab it. Fortunately none of the milk bottles in that bin I use for recycling didn’t blow anywhere. I may have to get the transfer station soon though, because I’m starting to run low on room at least in recycling contianer. The current wind chill is 16. It’s freaking cold out. At least I’m not so sick today as I’ve been the past few days with a horrific sinus infection.

Partly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, and we are at today’s high of 31 degrees. Only going to get colder as the day progresses. 19 degrees below normal. Windy, with a northwest wind 20 to 26 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. We might have some snow today. Not a big deal but it’s cold enough that the roads may have snow on them and get slick briefly. Snow squalls are around. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. The high last year was 50 degrees. Nothing like today. The record high of 72 was set in 1931. 3.2 inches of snow fell back in 1987.

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 mostly clear conditions and 27 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 14. Yuck. Breezy, 20 mph breeze from the northwest with gusts up to 33mph. Today will have 9 hours and 55 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 17 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be clear, with a low of 11 degrees at 6am. 22 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 8 at 6pm; Northwest wind 9 to 15 mph. In 2016, we had mostly clear skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 35 degrees. The record low of 15 occurred back in 1956. I think it’s safe to say we will break that 1956 record with that arctic cold blasting in this morning.

Finally feeling better. I was so sick on Wednesday night from a sinus infection. I don’t know how I made it through Wednesday at work, but somehow I did. I closed my eyes on the bus ride home on Wednesday night, and set an alarm so I would be awake by my stop. For a while on Wednesday I literally felt like I was going to die. I was about a sick as one could get. Then I slept for 12 hours, and pulled myself out of bed for Thursday mainly because I wanted to get my truck fixed. The Sudafed made Thursday barable at work, but several people at work noticed I was pretty sick. But I think it was just mildew in my nose passage, not something I was likely to spread to others. By Thursday evening I was feeling better, maybe in part because the fix to my truck was only $90. That noise was really bothering me, and stressing me out even though it wasn’t a big fix. I’m tired of feeding Big Red $1,000 bills. 

Big Red is back from the off-road shop. It turns out that one of the shock absorber bushings had failed. It was $90 plus tax to replace the bushing. I probably could have done that myself for a quarter of the price, but I don’t do my own repairs anymore, and apparently things were corroded as fuck down there. I would probably bugger shit up trying to get the rust off, and that’s why I am not a mechanic.  But now it doesn’t ride as rough as shit over the bumps, and doesn’t make that obnoxious noise. I think it probably the best $90 I’ve ever spent, because that noise was literally driving me insane and made it pretty undrivable over washboarded roads. I actually am shocked that it passed state inspection. I guess they really don’t look that carefully.

If you hadn’t noticed by this point in the blog post, it’s very cold out today with that whipping wind and temperatures below freezing. I think the library is open until 9 PM, so I will probably walk down there to update the blog and play on the Internet. I do need to make up some more maps, but I don’t know if I neccessarily need Internet for that. I will need that though to do more West Virigina maps. I don’t know if I will do much too hiking, although I guess if it clears out I might go out to Five Rivers.  I should also think about getting a hair cut.

I am toying with the idea of going up to the Adirondacks tomorrow, but I’m afraid it might be quite cold. I would like to do some hiking though, maybe Moxham Mountain or somewhere else, but it might quite cold. If I did go up north, I would camp out over Saturday nigth with the heated tent. But I may skip that with the cold coming. But I do want to get out before there is a lot of snow up there for the winter. The La Nina pattern suggests we could have a rather snowy winter. 

I am toying with the idea of next weekend taking a long weekend and going up to the North Country. That is if it’s not too cold, and most importantly that there isn’t a major threat of lake effect snow. It’s the opening weekend of gun season inthe southern zone, but it’s open for a while up north. Probably camp up at Brasher Falls State Forest, visit the usual Massena places. There is something so charming about the rough country of the North Country. I haven’t been up there in two years, and it’s trip I like taking. Maybe take off two days next week. Although I don’t know, it might be difficult if a lot of people are taking a long week with the Thanksigving holiday.

My neighbor is gone to work today, so I’m able to listen to music using my desk speakers. I have misplaced my headphones after coming home. I think they are somewhere in Big Red. I’ll have to look around a bit. Not being able to listen to music at home except through the headphones kind of sucks being in an apartment. That’s one big advantage about camping out in the wilderness — you can listen to music and shoot guns and nobody gives a fuck. For the most part. Occassionally a ranger will stop by to confirm your not destroying state property but other then that, it’s great. Owning my own land and property would be great for that reason among many others.

I tell you on a day today, I sure wish Ihad a small cabin in the wilderness with a wood stove. It would be so cozy rather then this undersize gas heat in a somewhat drafty apartment. Wood is nice, especically if you can harvest it off your own land. Honestly, I hate all the trappings of modern living, although I definately would want some kind of 12 volt power supply from solar for LEDlighting and running my smartphone, which is what I’m typing on. Plus probably a propane instant-on heating for a hot shower. I don’t care about dumping out a shitter bucket, and I certainly wouldn’t mind not having television or Internet at home, because those last to things I’ve never had. Smartphones make it easy to live without Internet today. And they work great with a 12 volt supply, and don’t consume much power.

The other day, at work we were talking about buying homes and all that stuff. But honestly I’m quite happy with my mildew infested cheap apartment in the suburbs and taking the bus to work. Bleach keeps things under control. I hate driving in the city, especially with my big jacked up truck. It’s too difficult navigating around those little cars folks drive in the city. I would rather save my money, buy a lot of land eventually so I can shoot guns whenver and burn whatever I want. Having neighbors that don’t give a fuck as long as you leave them alone are the best. I just hate vinyl siding, marble counter tops, big houses with fancy lighting and all those trappings of suburban living, even with those plug-in hybrid cars and solar panels and big recycling bin next to their full landfill trash bin that are supposed to make you green. I’m just too much of an rough, country boy to support any of that upper middle class living. I’m quite happy for the federal government to take a swipe at those yuppies with by taking away their precious SALT exemption. 

And if you think today is cold, there are 2 months until Coldest Day of Year (Avg. 14-30 degrees) when the sun will be setting at 4:42 pm with dusk at 5:13 pm. Then again, that is pratically the weather forecast today. Hopefully we won’t have wind chills like today in January. But if we do that’s not shocking, because it’s January in Albany when it’s cold.