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Back from Grandma Moses Country 👵🏽🎨

You know it was worth an exploration, I tell myself even if it didn’t have the right feel for me. Pointed Rocks on the Batten Kill had been on my bucket list for a long time to hike – it’s a surprisingly long and steep hike outside of Adirondack and Catskill Park and the whole area around the Batten Kill is quite spectacular, full of birds and nature if not a pungent this time of year from the manuring. Shits gotta grow come the summer.

Good morning! Rain and 44 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ There is a south breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 4 am. ☃️

Honest, I wasn’t planning on going to Washington County yesterday 🏞 but I ended up that way after looking at some houses, properties and land in Hoosic, Pittstown and Valley Falls. Rural country out that way but it didn’t have the right feel in my mind. I totally get why that former Research Services director used to live out in White Creek but that’s a bit too far away from work especially having to drive through Troy and all those other little speed traps and hick towns. 🚓 Of course he did move to Pennsylvania as soon as he could retire.

I had wanted to hike Pointed Rocks and explore the area along the Batten Kill for some time now. 🚶 🏞️ but somehow I never got up that way as there isn’t any place right nearby to camp, except maybe for the Green Mountain National Forest on the other side of Bennington. Nice country up along the Batten Kill State Forest and along NY 313, but certainly too far from Albany too commute. 🚦🚙🚗🚚🛻 There was an interesting property along NY 22 that was 20 acres of moutainside and woods, with a steep creek for micro-hydro that looked quite attractive from the road and on paper, if not for all those damn traffic lights, hick towns and NY 7 traffic cluster. Had a nice little mobile-home sized site on a ledge over the road, with a somewhat steep driveway but partially cleared. I think it was a former hunting camp. 🏠️ Looked like the neighbors would have been good, they’re distance away, have horses and a small pre-fab house. Price was good, but it’s all about the location.

And I didn’t have the natural attraction to Grandma Moses country that I have to the Heldebergs, and I don’t know anybody who currently lives out that way. 👨‍🚒 I’m sure if I got involved in the community, maybe became a volunteer firefighter I could make friends, but it’s still tough. Plus, despite all the kitsch Grandma Moses Painting, that area of state is quite poor. 🐐 But I kind of like that, those are probably good friendly people who work hard, not yuppies.

Today will have showers likely, mainly before 8am. Mostly cloudy with some clearing later on 🌦, with a high of 51 degrees at 4pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 29th. South wind 7 to 15 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 47 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1990. 4.1 inches of snow fell back in 1982.❄

The major plan for today is to go to the grocery store and get more groceries 🛒 fairly early on. I am as shocked as anyone that it’s already Sunday again and my pantry is fairly bare, although not as bad as some weeks in part because I stopped and got a few more things on the way home when driving in on Friday, as that was when I had my dentist appointment with that mean hygienist.🦷 I am not going to put up with her abuse, she was abusive in that dentist chair how she treated me. I am going to cancel my next appointment and see if I can reschedule with my usual dental hygentist Hamid.

I might head out to Coeymans to do some more poking around later on the back roads. 🛻 That said, I’ve checked out many of the listings, and I’m kind of tired after all the driving and exploring yesterday. Hell of it is because I decided to head up to Washington County to hike, 🚶 never made it down to southern Rensselaer County to explore some of the homes and properties around Lebanon Valley that are for sale. The thing is down there, you’re getting into the Taconics ⛰️ which are quite nice, but land prices go up there, and you start mixing with a lot NYC pukey-pukes down that way. Get south of the Berskshire Spur Thruway and there is some shit ton of NYC money that way, thanks to the Taconic Parkway. Not only is land is expensive, you know who is going to be living next door, people closer to Elliot Spitzer who is responsible for the burn ban, then some dirt-farming goat-rising good ol’ boy. 👛

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:04 pm with sun having an altitude of 46.3° from the due south horizon (-24.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:28 pm with the sun in the west (263°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (269°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:05 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:32 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the south (172°) at an altitude of 75° from the horizon, 241,964 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:06 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 45 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 4 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.

Another work week ahead, 👨‍💼 back to being a professional rather then a cowboy-hat wearing good ol’ boy or so I play on the weekends. One more week until the long Easter Weekend when I’m hoping to get to the Adirondacks to camp 🏕️ and have a big ol’ fire 🔥 with flames mostly less then 3 feet high and not too much plastic, because you know the burn ban and stuff. 🤣 Ah, New York State. I should bring my .22 rifle and make some noise too while I’m up in the wilderness. It’s been too long since I’ve spent much time in the woods. 🌲

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃 , with a low of 31 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 30th. West wind around 8 mph. In 2023, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 28 degrees. The record low of -08 occurred back in 1900.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until 7:30 PM Sunset 🌇 when the sun will be setting at 7:30 pm with dusk at 7:57 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 48 and 34 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 55 degrees. We hit a record high of 87 back in 2010.

So you can’t burn your garbage out in the country anymore in New York … 🛢️ 🔥

I concede maybe that’s a good thing, in he sense that too many people back in the day had burn barrels, tossed all their burnable trash in it, lit it with a match and walked away, allowing plastics and other chemicals in their trash to smolder away for half the day ruining many a nice country night for people who lived downwind.

There’s a reason why they call the smoke from smoldering burn barrels hillbilly incense, as you drive those back roads in Pennsylvania with those windows rolled down – or a million other back roads in Red States. It can be kind of nasty – as they say burning toxic trash is a national past time out in the country. Probably is, people like fire and not hauling all their burnable garbage to the transfer station and spending a bunch of money to get rid of it. It’s fun to watch things burn.

I always told myself for years when I moved back to the country, built my off-grid homestead I’d move to a free state where there wasn’t all those restrictions on open burning. But alas it seems like I’m settling in New York State with my good paying professional career. I’ll have land where I can have campfires and bonfires, and I’m thinking about becoming a volunteer firefighter.

The truth is I don’t want to burn toxic waste. I want to burn things that I can use the ash on my garden and to enhance my land and restore soil fertility. It’s not like I generate that much trash, especially now that I’m into healthy eating. A lot more of my trash now is compost, it belongs in a compost pile with manure, leaves and waste paper. I also am more concerned about fire risk, soon to be the owner of a homestead that I designed, built and put much of my hard earned money into. I don’t want my neighbors smoldering trash fire to become my wildfire.

It’s not to say I won’t burn things or have lots of fires. But it won’t be in a burning barrel or involve burning excessive amounts of toxic plastics, especially things like PVC lead coated wire or ABS plastics used in electronics and structural plastics. Somethings, unfortunately if you can’t reuse them are best for the landfill. And a lot of things don’t burn well at any rate, despite us rednecks of the world trying to burn everything we can.

I do think I’ll save most paper and cardboard to burn, along with film plastics, wrappers and feed bags. They’re excellent starters for campfires and bonfires and if you’re regularly having fires your unlikely to accumulate much. Burn it hot with minimal smell or smoke. Sit back and enjoy a cold beer while enjoying the fire. I figure if I’m building on raw land, going to have a lot of brush and leftover wood scrap to burn, providing many a nice summer night out in the country. Plus some junk mail is good for starting woodstove fires.

A combination of composting, eating healthy, producing my own food, burning non-toxic trash and compressing recyclables such a hard plastics and cans for taking to the transfer station, my hope is to get it down to the point where I can visit the transfer station maybe twice a year – to participate in urban recycling, get rid of broken appliances that can’t be repaired and other toxic trash. I don’t plan to produce a lot of trash nor do I plan to burn much – just papers and wrappers for starting fires.

The wind is roaring and the lights are out 🌬️

I’m still going to ride my bike to work as I’m crazy, lol. I may not be in my wilder years, but I like riding and I wish I had that off grid property about now that I was searching for yesterday about now. Hopefully my shaving in the dark wasn’t that bad. Probably be doing that more when I own that land, lol.

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. And it’s dark with the time change and no electricity. Mostly cloudy and 34 degrees in Delmar, the land without power, says the boy researching property for an off grid homestead. ☁ Breezy, ️25 mph breeze from the northwest 🌬 with gusts up to 46 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is 21. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 8 am. ☃️

I was up at 5 AM which was good because the power was out at 6:45 AM. 🔌 Fiber-rich carrot and oatmeal pancakes for breakfast today. 🥞 My breakfast was done and I was getting ready to shower, 🚿 when the power went out, so I ended up showering and shaving 🪒 in the dark. Fun times!

So yes, definately riding in this morning. 🚲 It’s windy as all get out, and probably will be cool riding alng Erie Boulevard, but surprisingly much of the commute isn’t bad as the deep gorge helps protect it the trail from cross winds. 🌬 Heck, I might even ride home, but it depends on how windy things are come the evening. Going to be sunny later on, and now with the time change, we have sunlight until 7:30 PM, well at least some daylight. Won’t be rushing against darkness tonight, which is great. 😀

Today will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny ☁, with a high of 40 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 2nd. Windy, with a northwest wind 25 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 49 mph. A year ago, we had light snow in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 70 was set in 1977. 4.1 inches of snow fell back in 1941.❄

Yesterday was nice seeing the folks, 👪 and cruising the back roads looking at property, 🛻 though some of the roads were quite muddy and one of the properties I wanted to check out is up a “currently” seasonal use only road, and was impassible as there was a few inches of snow in Berne, and with the mud I wasn’t going to get stuck. 🐐 I am most interested in imperfect property, as it’s likely more affordable and with the good ol’ boy neighbors 👩‍🌾 which I think would be most compatible with my way of living. I kind of really like the idea of living on a dirt road, though maybe in the winter and mud season I’ll have second thoughts, lol.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 43.9° from the due south horizon (-26.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 6.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:20 pm with the sun in the west (260°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (266°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:58 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:25 pm, which is one minute and 11 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west (263°) at an altitude of 15° from the horizon, 227,362 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:59 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 39 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 28. ☃️Blustery, 🌬 with a stiff breeze at 26 mph the northwest with gusts up to 44mph. Today will have 11 hours and 47 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.

It will be nice having daylight in the evening. 🏞 Probably too cold to go to the park after work but if the wind isn’t that bad I’ll try to ride home. But it will be nice having daylight in the evening, for a walk or even just doing some reading. 📚 Sure, it’s not truly spring time yet, and 7:30 PM dusk is still pretty early but you have to work with what you have.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 32 degrees at 6am. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 2nd. Breezy, with a northwest wind 16 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 21 degrees. The record low of -12 occurred back in 1948.

Today in 1993, Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States. ⚖ She was kind of a jerk but many people who get appointed to that job kind of are, even though Ramsey Clark was awesome in his later years.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 54. Sunday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 52. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Typical average high for the weekend is 45 degrees. Maybe I can finally get out camping this weekend. I guess it depends. If not, I do want to either poke around Coeymans and New Baltimore in search of land and properties, or maybe Rensslear County. It would be fun to do some hiking and camping with such an adventure. 🏃‍♀️ 🏕 🛻

Looking ahead, there are 3 weeks until April Fools Day 🤡 when the sun will be setting at 7:23 pm with dusk at 7:50 pm. Trout season opener. 🎣 On that day in 2023, we had rain and temperatures between 74 and 41 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 77 back in 1986.

Cruising the back roads, studying land, researching 🐐 🧭 🛻

The past few weekends I’ve been cruising the back roads, especially dirt roads, looking for land to build a small or very small off grid home or an abandoned smaller home on sufficient acreage. It’s a lot of fun just driving and exploring – it’s something I haven’t done much since my college and high school years – back then it had more to my interest as a fire bug but I always liked exploring the back roads often overlooked.

It is so much fun to cruise the back roads, especially this time of year when there is lot of mud to sling. I’ve been carefully studying the houses and how people live and relate to their land, at least the best I can from the window of my truck. I’ve been noting abandoned properties, which I then go up and pull the property record from ArcGIS MapServer. The plan is if I like what I see, to do more research into the property – why is it abandoned? I do some Google searches on the owner to see if I can find an obituary or news stories, and also if the property is in the news.

Then I start to look for potential red flags. I do a quick review of online deed filings from the County Clerk. Mostly to see what property transactions have occurred and if there are any noteworthy parties. I will pull LIDAR to look for dumps and cuts and fill, and will pull the list of state environmental remediation nearby. LIDAR also shows the stone walls, ledges and other ground features. Then I analyze the land cover, calculating the acreage of each land cover in the NLCD, pull up new and old aerial photos, if I’m really curious on the history, I can download the aerials from 1952. I also have code I’ve written to tell me the slope of the property and which way it’s sloped – and break it into acreage by percentage classes. I check the soil maps to get an overview of what types of soil cover the land and the acreage of each type. I also will check for the distance to nearby buildings, homes and other potential nuisances like being downwind of a barnyard, farm field or manure storage.

Often GIS data can be quite misleading. It tells part of the story and arms you with facts but it can’t tell you the whole story. This time of year is excellent for roadside surveys of land – the trees are bare allowing you to peer deeply into the woods, and the water table is high. Especially after all the rain we’ve had it gives you good chance to see what commonly floods, is vernal pools and how high swamps and creek beds rise in ordinary spring weather. While such a roadside view is limited – I would insist on a full walk through of the property once the conversation on purchasing has started – it’s one more data point to consider.

My plan is to learn as much as possible about various neighborhoods, locations, and the ways people live rural locally before starting to take the next steps — reaching out to property owners and their real estate agents. I want to have a comprehensive idea what’s out there, the costs, the pros-and-cons. I don’t want to be unduly persuaded by any seller or get a raw deal that won’t work for my homestead because of something I didn’t know about. Once I feel more comfortable with the process, I’ll follow up with owners of potential sites, using certified letter and telling them about my vision for their abandoned property — or in case of properties for sale, with the listed agent or owner. While I know sellers can be misleading, I want to make sure I have a clear vision and make sure what I am buying can work for my homestead, get appropiate permits and access and be built.

Ordered Artwork for My New Office 🎨

While I probably didn’t need the expense right now, my new office is so bland and the white walls needed something to cover them. I had a 24×36″ poster made up of an 2019 NAIP summer aerial photo of the Capital Region, a 11×16″ poster of the view from the Olson Firetower in West Virginia, and an 11×14″ poster of a waterfall in West Virginia surrounded by Mountain Laurel. I was going to do more, but I have only so much wall space and I still have to buy frames — and I’m $46 in the hole now without the frames. I also have some smaller photos I plan to move over from my old office, like my favorite photo of US 20 in Richfield Springs and a view off Crane Mountain. Then I will bring several of my plants into the new office.

An unnecessary expense, probably, but I will spend a lot of time in my office and I don’t have the wonderful views I once had over at the Alfred E Smith Building, but seeing pictures of West Virginia will put a smile on my face. Plus, the aerial photo will give me something to study when I’m talking on the phone or need something to distract me for a few seconds when the shit gets flying.

The thing I’m learning about looking at houses is there two kind of places, mold and mouse-infested with paint peeling and marble countertops and swanky shit. 🏘

The prior the intention is to get an FHA loan, tear out all of crap and send it to the landfill and replace with Home Depot cheap swank features, while the later is already covered with that marble crap and swank features, and already has had that tear out done. In some ways it makes me feel good knowing that I’m not totally responsible for trashing my apartment, as shit wears out if you not constantly repairing it. Things have a lot shorter lifespan and are designed to be sent to the mound on the outskirks of town much sooner then you might think. Maybe I’m too much of a horny buck goat myself, who sprays his beard with urine because it smells so good at least to a horny buck goat, and even though I don’t spray my own beard with urine, I find those to be such a spirit animal.

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Mostly cloudy and 35 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a south-southeast breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 10 pm. ☃️

I was listening to this audio book, Jennifer McGahan’s Flat Broke with Two Goats, 🎧 last week which of course had too many descriptions of goat sex and all things smelly and dirty about owning buck goats, listening while I ride to work, probably as I pass through the Delmar suburbs and the poverty South End, and people are horrified overhearing the audio with the often very descriptively smelly parts of goat farm life. But shit’s real, unlike those marble countertops they keep trying to push me towards when I look at Zillow ads. And vinyl siding. Have you ever seen how black that vinyl siding shit burns, like my childhood neighbors did with the scraps when they got their then new double-wide manufactured home? 🔥 Yuck. I’m cool with people burning shit out in the country, but vinyl siding is so toxic and nasty to burn. ☠

Today will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny ☁, with a high of 52 degrees at 3pm. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 31st. South wind 5 to 9 mph becoming north in the afternoon. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1976. 8.4 inches of snow fell back in 1972.❄

Going to be a great day for riding to work. 🚲 And maybe also at lunch time. That’s one of advantage of living in city, well the suburbs for now. Figure might as well take advantage of it while it’s a thing. 😀 Plus it’s a great cure for my anxiety. 🤪 Yesterday, I had multiple anxiety attacks as I’ve been incredibly stress about taking over management of the Data Services division 💻 all by myself this week, the whole situation about the rent check 📜, even though I know it will be fine as I mailed the paper check to my new landlord, as much as he doesn’t want a paper check, he has to accept it, 🤷‍♂️ and he pretty much agreed to it in writing. It should be in box by tomorrow at the latest, which is three days before it’s required. I know things will work out, but it’s really a tough time in my life, as I’m pulled in forty different directions. ◀️ ▶️ I am no longer in my twenties and thirties, the days of rambling in the wilderness 🌲 are probably coming to an end. But maybe becoming a hobby farmer is next, and heating with wood and having bonfires 🔥 out back in next.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:09 pm with sun having an altitude of 38.5° from the due south horizon (-32.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 7.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:03 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (252°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (259°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:41 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 58 seconds with dusk around 6:08 pm, which is one minute and 15 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:42 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 48 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 7 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 49 seconds over yesterday.

I was really hoping to meet my friend from Boy Scouts yesterday to learn more about he financed and secured his 10-acre homestead outside of Greenville 🐐 but he got stuck working late. He works really long hours, but then again I had to do some work adding accounts for the data system on Sunday too. Everybody is quite busy. Started to go through the list of properties in the hilltowns with back taxes owed to county, studying acreages, aerial photos, and LIDAR to glean what knowledge I can. 🔍 I am not saying this guarantees I’ll find the right land for me for cheap, that frees up funds for building the homestead of my dreams that smells like horney buck goat or hogs 🐷 and isn’t afraid of some mud, 👃 but pushing the paper — well actually the GIS databases and property tax information can provide insight into who to send certified letters in hopes I might find a willing seller for a reasonable price. 🤝

I’m not afraid to haul some garbage and tires for the perfect property without the marble counter tops that I have nothing but disdain for. 🏚 Maybe next weekend I can get together with him, I think he has a lot of good ideas I need to learn about, because I don’t think a real estate agent will be pushing me to the right property. I’ve also started reading a e-book 📖 from Libby about the process of building your own home, 🏠 or restoring an existing property. I can haul garbage but I don’t trust myself with a hammer, 🔨 especially anything structural or supposed to look the least bit purty, not that I give a duck 🦆 about being purty but functional. I am also studying possibly having a cabin built to my specifications — there is lots of acerage available locally but so many of homes for sale have marble countertops and probably aren’t appropriate for raising hogs or burning shit out back without the neighbors calling the jack-booted thugs on you. 👩‍🚒 As my farmer friends like to post, happiness has a smell and it smells like barnyard. 👨‍🌾 Silage can be so pungent.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 28 degrees at 2am. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 21st. North wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2023, we had light snow in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 23 degrees. The record low of -13 occurred back in 1940.

Awesome weekend on tap, with temperatures running 16 degrees above normal. 😎 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 53. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 59. Typical average high for the weekend is 40 degrees. Maybe I can go camping. 🏕 I need some time in the wilderness. Nothing like a good ol’ fire to soothe the soul 🔥 especially if we get some rain this week and it lowers the fire risk. March camping might be a challenge if we’re under red-flag conditions much of the month, especially if it’s windy as much of the spring often is. Honestly, I don’t mind a bit of snow in March, but hopefully at least we will get some needed rain. 🌧

Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until April Fools Day 🤡 when the sun will be setting at 7:23 pm with dusk at 7:50 pm (Daylight Savings Time). Day after Easter. 🐰 Early this year. On that day in 2023, we had rain and temperatures between 74 and 41 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 77 back in 1986.

Sunny and cold this President’s Day 🌞

After a rough night last including many trips too the bathroom after eating too much red lentil soup and beans, and then the smoke alarm going off at 3 AM, I’m up and going this morning. Started out my day stocking up my pantry with fruits, vegetables and other healthy eats for the week to come. A barely sub-$100 grocery bill, though not by much, but I’ve finally gotten to the point where my pantry had a few things left over from last week, and most of the unhealthy stuff from a year ago is now gone.

Good morning! Sunny and 26 degrees in Delmar, New York. 🌞 I wonder how many more times I’ll be saying that. It’s weird to think it might be coming to an end. Cool and blustery with a northwest breeze at 14 mph. 🍃. There is a dusting of snow on the ground. ☃ Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around noontime. 🌡️

It’s beautiful out today, but with the wind is fairly cold. 🌬 I’m actually not rushing to get out too soon, as I’m really hoping to speak to my new landlord again, about the questions and concerns I politely raised in an email on Saturday, ✉️ that he has not replied back to. I would feel much better if I had contact information, and if I could pay him via a mailed paper check, where the paper trail is clear in case of dispute of payment. 💵 Maybe I’m too fearful of him, but he reminds me of kid who beat the shit out of me in high school. 👊 You know, the kid who barely made it out of high school, and floats from job to job in the construction industry and on and off the unemployment rolls as his parents a dying from alcoholism and decades of chain of smoking. I feel rather sorry for him, as I think he’s become a really decent person even if he smashed my nose into the locker multiple times back in the day. I also am waiting for calls back from various mortgage loan officers, 📞 and want to talk to some friends out in the country 🐮 who have bought homes in recent years, and want to get their advice and tips.

Washington’s Birthday will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 31 degrees at 4pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical Northwest wind around 14 mph. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 47 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1981. 11.4 inches of snow fell back in 1972.❄

I do want to get out and do some hiking this afternoon, 🚶‍♀️hiking up Bennett Hill or maybe Wolf Hill. It’s sunny out but cold. But I need some of serenity of the wilderness, even if for only a few hours. 🌲Things are so crazy these days. 🤪 Then head out to the folks for Sunday dinner. 👪 It’s important to talk to as many people and listen to as much advice as possible. 👂 Time isn’t as tight and things aren’t as awful as I imagine them to be in my darker moments, but change is happening, and it’s happening much too fast. ⌛ With the stock market, my portfolio is good, and high interest rates may work in my favor, as I can offset more capital gains taxes from selling stocks in good market by using the mortgage tax exemption. 📜 God, that makes me feel old.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:10 pm with sun having an altitude of 36° from the due south horizon (-34.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:53 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (249°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (255°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:32 pm after setting for 3 minutes with dusk around 6:00 pm, which is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the east (100°) at an altitude of 54° from the horizon, 243,483 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:34 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 29 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 47 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 43 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 15 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 4th. Maximum wind chill around 17 at 6pm; Northwest wind 6 to 10 mph. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 35 degrees. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1966.

Tuesday it’s back to work. 👨‍💼 I may drive in so I can retreat to my truck should bankers call to discuss mortgages, as I don’t have my private office yet, as the retiring director has a few more weeks left, though not much. It will be quite the operation to take over, and while I’ve learned a lot in these past 6 weeks and I have the skills to be an excellent leader, it’s scary, not least to say, as I’m replacing 40 plus years of experience. 🙀 But I have an excellent team I’m working with who will support me, and the reason why they trust me in such a place of high authority, is because I’ve delivered 16 1/2 years of results for my business. Still, it’s a big jump from being Deputy Director to Director, in an agency that doesn’t have deputy to fall back on. My bosses will just be several miles of up the road, and always there to support me, email and phone aren’t the same as sitting down in a room together. 👔 I might wear a suit and tie, but still a redneck inside. But I believe in myself and my future. Things could go terribly wrong, but I have a track record of success, and preponderance of the evidence is that I will do exceptionally well in the new position, especially with my knowledge of the R programming language, Unix shell scripting, C programming and technical aspects of Data Services.

Looking ahead to next weekend, it could be real nice. 😎 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 31. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 39. It’s early in the week, so I’ll take a wait and see approach. Go camping? 🏕 Who knows how busy I will be with the next steps in my life. 👣 Typical average high for the weekend is 38 degrees. Now we’re in the second half of February, things warm up quickly.

One month 📅 from now will be Last Day of Winter 🏂 when the sun will be setting at 7:08 pm with dusk at 7:35 pm (Daylight Savings Time). The average high temperature is 47 degrees, with a record high of 78 in 2021.

Andy Arthur.org

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