Made it to the end of year. Kind of a cloudy, gray, cool day to end out the year — certainly not the best day to be out doing outdoor activities, especially with the breeze and gray skies. Maybe it’s best that my planed camping trip didn’t work out after all.

I was originally planning to be out camping today, but when I got up to camp 🏕 the campsite was taken and everything up at Rensselaerville State Forest was a complete mosh pit, after all the rain we’ve had and above normal temperatures. I poked around the state forest for a while, thought about pitching a tent, but I would be setting up in the mud, and the other campsite — Campsite 3 was a mess because they’ve been logging off CCC Road. I think that red clay is as slick and muddy as I can remember due to it being such a mild, ice free winter. Maybe that black powder guy parked in the campsite did me a favor. I don’t think he was camping, though it seemed like he swapped off that site with another person, which makes me think maybe he had his stand up there and wanted to reserve the site. I’m not that heart broken 💔 about not camping this weekend. I might be back for Martin Luther King Day Weekend, ❄️ which believe it or not is only two weekend away this point. I’m hoping it will be cold enough at that point that I won’t be dealing with all that mud and slop. Some snow would be nice, and most of the big hunting seasons are done 🔫 though trapping is open and as small game.

Back to the table format on the weather, as my blog’s weather template always seems to break for the last day of the year. 🌆 There is a one-day-a-year bug which I should fix but it happens only once in 365 days. I didn’t blog yesterday, at least with a status update as I got a bit of a late start, and was planning to do it up by camp which didn’t happen. Instead, I came home, unpacked my gear 🎒 which didn’t take long as nothing was disorganized or dirty, made some lunch and spent the balance of the day reading and studying my machine learning course. 🤖 This morning I finished up the Udemy Neural Nwtworks for R course and started one on Support Vector Classification for R. 💭 I’ve been thinking I should also do some machine learning courses on Python so I get a full knowledge and various platforms. 👩‍💻 I’m not opposed to Python though I tend to use R more then Python.

Today for exercise 🚲 I think I’m going to ride out to Voorheesville 🚂 and maybe stop at Hannaford out there to get some baker’s vanilla which I like in my coffee and warm milk at the end of day, plus also some more apple cider vinger which I like in my glass of warm milk at the end of day.. That said, I’m still cringing after spending $200 at the grocery store on Friday, though fortunately I got paid early — I couldn’t believe I got my first 2024 pay check on Friday, when the official pay day is next Wednesday, January 3rd. Paychecks have been coming earlier and earlier, often on Monday mornings, and I know New Years Day or Monday is a holiday, but I just assumed the money would come in on Tuesday. 💵 It’s good though as I paid rent on Friday, 🏘 and I’ve been concerned about having the minimum in bank account.

I guess this sort of makes December, rather then January a three paycheck month, but as long as I keep things coming in and out consistently, I’m good. I just ended up buying a lot groceries, in part for camping but also there was a lot of things I wanted to keep my pantry stocked. That said, it should cut back on what I need in future weeks, as most of the more expensive things I stocked up are the kind of things that should last for a while. I don’t waste food, if things start to go bad, I cut off the bad parts and eat that first. 🍎 But I generally prefer frozen and vegatables, and aren’t afraid to use my freezer.

My parents have continued to be sick on and off 😣 so I’ve not been able to visit them in the few weeks 👪 and I’m not totally sure if we are going to do a get together for New Years Day, 🎆 though we’ve been talking about doing a holiday celebration 🎄 getting together next week for Mom’s birthday with my sister, niece and in-laws, assuming everybody is feeling better by then and the weather is good.

As you will note below, going to be a mild week to start out January, and we are definitely starting to pick up more daylight at end of each day.

The year is coming to a close. I decided to work from home today so I can run to the store midday to get the supplies and food I need for the New Years Eve trip and probably because we’ll get released early and frankly because I don’t expect a busy day today at work today. If I have downtime, might as well work from home. But first a quick ride out to Voorheesville to get some exercise before work starts.

Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Clouds and 42 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ Calm wind. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow night around 10 pm. ☃️ But first quite mild.

I was pleasantly surprised ☺ that there is no showers around this morning 🚲 and I can do a morning bike ride before work for some exercise and working at home. Some things to do today but should be a generally slow day. At lunch time I want to get propane 🏮 so my tank is full for camping 🏕 along with toothpaste and other things on my list at Walmart. 📃

Today will have a chance of showers. Patchy fog before noon. Otherwise, cloudy 🌦, with a high of 47 degrees at 1pm. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 22nd. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter 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 48 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1984. 6.0 inches of snow fell back in 1915.❄

I managed to set off the smoke alarm twice this morning while cooking. 🧑‍🚒 I I’m sure my neighbor loves me for that fortunately he works the early shift. 🍳 Shredded onions and spinach with eggs 🥚 made into a cake with mushrooms and peppers. Pretty good, fiber rich breakfast. I’ve also been enjoying that carrot 🥕 bread I made – the vital wheat gluten really helps improve the consistency 🍞 and between the shredded carrots and the baking soda it baked to a nice deep color, almost like pumpernickel bread moist with the consistency almost of cake. And this time it wasn’t so tough on my stomach. 🤰🏽

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:58 am with sun having an altitude of 24.1° from the due south horizon (-46.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:45 pm with the sun in the southwest (231°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (239°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:30 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 25 seconds with dusk around 5:01 pm, which is 44 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:38 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 46 degrees. There will be a west-southwest breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 8 minutes of daytime, an increase of 36 seconds over today.

Tonight will have a chance of showers. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 38 degrees at 6am. 19 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 27th. West wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 43 degrees. The record low of -21 occurred back in 1933.

Tomorrow will have a chance of rain showers before 4pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 43 degrees at 12pm. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 2nd. West wind 5 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 57 degrees. The record high of 53 was set in 1984. 10.9 inches of snow fell back in 2000.❄

I think I’ll probably head up to camp ⛺ mid-morning tomorrow for the New Years Holiday. 🎊 Not planning anything too fancy just two nights in the wilderness with a fire 🔥 and some sparklers 🎇 and try to stay up until midnight on NYE and toast in 2024. Maybe fry up some walnuts and cranberries. Listen to podcasts 📻 and enjoy the mild weather and probably mud. I’m going to ride some trails and roads 🚲 though probably a lot will be muddy.

Looking ahead to Sunday, New Years Eve, partly sunny, ☀ with a high near 38. Northwest wind 8 to 11 mph. Typical average high for the weekend is 35 degrees.