Good morning! Happy October 🛥! Five weeks to Election Day 2019 🗳️. Heavy on the rain and 63 degrees in Delmar, NY. Got soaked picking up my truck. More rain though Wednesday and Thursday, might pull us out of the rain deficit. ☔ There is a south breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 55 degrees. The skies will clear around 3 pm.

Picked up Big Red from the shop. 🚙 Some of the pads were fairly worn one was pretty bad, I doubt I would have mad it back from West Virginia without some serious grinding. Plus the squeaking noise would have driven me to the loony bin well before then. I bet the mental health facilities in rural West Virginia probably aren’t that great. But the truck drives quiet now. I was thinking the old rotators would have been a good thing to stick under my camp stove to keep it from melting my table but they’re so heavy. Might make excellent weights for tying down a tarp. I might save the just for the scrap yard. I appreciate the estimate at the shop included all tax and fees, as lot of shops don’t include that. I got to learn to do my own brakes — they aren’t that difficult to do, but I often know it can be hard to free up really rusted, salt encrusted metal.

Wore the black boots 👢 today. With the rain and because of wearing my black shirt I thought they would look nice. I trying to reserve the black boots for work and the brown boots for wearing at home. I really got soaked picking up my truck. I could barely see out my windshield driving home, the new brakes got baptized by the rain. But they stop well and are very quiet. Squeak-squeak is gone, and it’s very quiet now. Looking at the pads, especially one, it’s obvious were the wear indicator was touching the rotator and making the shit ton of noise. Stones also over the years, got caught in the rotator and pad and chewed some good holes, but I guess that’s pretty normal especially

Going take Big Red out and a about a few nights this week. 🚗 Just to be safe and make sure everything is working fine, but I expect no problems. I also need to pick up some groceries and get various supplies for heading down to West Virginia. More MicroSD cards for my dash camera would be nice, especially now they are pretty cheap, especially at certain retailers.

Today will be cloudy ☁ and warm for October, with a high of 80 degrees at 4pm. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 23rd. Enjoy the warmth today, by the weekend it will be a plunge towards the cold side of things. Maximum dew point of 67 at 3pm. South wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became light drizzle by afternoon. The high last year was 59 degrees. The record high of 90 was set in 1927. There was a dusting of snow in 1946.❄

The sun will set at 6:37 pm with dusk around 7:05 pm, which is one minute and 46 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 77 degrees. The dew point will be 67 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 9 mph. Tomorrow will have 11 hours and 42 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over today.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after midnight. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 66 degrees at 6am. 21 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 6pm. South wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2018, we had light drizzle in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 52 degrees. The record low of 30 occurred back in 1972.

A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Saturday, patchy frost before 8am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 59. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 64. Maximum dew point of 51 at 7pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 64 degrees. I think it may be rainy driving through Pennsylvania down to West Virginia on Sunday, and Monday be a washout in the Canaan Heights, but the rest of the week looks nice. I’m bringing the heater and will have my tent so if it gets really miserable out, I’ll curl up next to the heater in the tent with a book, and stay warm and dry.

Ordered new jeans 👖 online and are quite happy with what I got. I used to buy jeans all the time at Walmart but they’d usually only have one pair in my size, so I’d end up making multiple trips. But as I usually end up buying a bunch of jeans at once — usually when I’m traveling for work — they all tend to wear out at once. It’s nice to have them be right at my door. They did come in a plastic shipping bag, but not much thicker then the usual ones you get a store. But I’m sure it will burn just fine. 🔥

I also bought a few prepper – don’t tread on me – pro second amendment t-shirts 👚 online. I just like being obnoxious on my days off from work, and I needed some more cheap shirts to wear out and about. 🐍 They were cheap. I was surprised they were shipped from Ballston Spa, NY. I thought it would come from some place out west like Arizona. I might order some more some point in the future — if I had ordered $5 I could have gotten free shipping but I didn’t want to spend quite so much.

I am very glad it’s a three paycheck month. Between the truck expense — which was more reasonable then I expected, vacation, needing some more clothes, and other things, it’s going to be an expensive month. 💰 Not that I expect vacation to be real expensive, but there is always fuel, some camping fees, food, and other supplies that get used up. Probably $500 at the end of day, but that’s not bad for a week in the wilds West Virginia — most of it will be gas.

Next month I’m leading the Save the Pine Bush hike along the Rapp Road. We are meeting by the West Doors of Macy’s and going to hike down Rapp Road to see the proposed Crossgates apartment complex site, along with some of the Rapp Road Historic Area and the Butterfly Corridor. 🦋 October 19th at 9 AM, meet by Macy’s West Entrance.  Yesterday, I noticed on my Facebook profile that I’ve been checked out by Robert Susse, district manager of Macy’s. I wonder who gave him the heads up? The print shop gave them my name? 🐛 I guess it doesn’t matter, were not there to protest, just some old folks and maybe some young folks meeting up at a convenient place. What are they going to do? Use facial recognition and tell us to leave? If we have to move our cars, so be it.🅿

West Virginia trip is mostly planned out.🏞 I think the big last detail was where I was going to camp down at New River Gorge, but I think I know now which primitive campgrounds down will be best — and a bit more about the timing of each day. But I have maps and to a certain extent can make it up as go along. I have pretty much a route figured out, although things may change based on the weather.

One month 📅 from now will be November 🥧 when the sun will be setting at 5:48 pm with dusk at 6:18 pm.