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Rain is starting to clear on this start to the Martin Luther King Weekend ๐ŸŒฆ

After much of the summer having rainy Sundays, this winter seems to be dominated by rainy Saturdays. And it will get cold come tomorrow, for an extended time period, though that’s somewhat to be expected this time of January. I bet by my birthday at the end of the month things will start to warm up again. Maybe that’s when I take that left-over carrot cake in my freezer and camp then. Who knows!

Good morning! Rain and 48 degrees in Delmar, NY. ๐ŸŒง There is a south-southeast breeze at 14 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 9 pm. โ˜ƒ๏ธ

I slept in until 5:30 AM this morning โฐ which was late for me, and I was in bed by 8 PM but I think the net result was I got a good night’s sleep. Probably was the excessive amount of sugar ๐Ÿฐ I had yesterday. I didn’t want any parties, but they still threw me two different parties for my going away at work. One of them had carrot cake ๐Ÿฅ• and yes it was super sweet, as I no longer normally eat sugar. ๐Ÿญ ๐Ÿ˜‹ I was pretty wound up for the rest of the day, and I wish I ad been able to ride to work ๐Ÿšฒ to burn calories but that was not to be due to that loose bolt. I did have a nice walk last night. ๐Ÿšถ‍โ™€๏ธI like yellow foods, note my obsession with turmeric, ๐Ÿ’› only followed by obsession with oranges, e.g. carrots and citrus like oranges and grape fruit. ๐Ÿฅ• But then again, Red is kind of my favorite color, โค๏ธ witness my big jacked up truck. ๐Ÿ›ป It’s not like I don’t love smoked paprika and red peppers especially when good and sweet too. And then dark orange, which is another word for brown, ๐Ÿ’ฉ which I do poop a lot with my fiber rich diet. ๐Ÿคฃ

Breakfast was onions, eggs, some spinach, canned tomato with some milled corn mixed in. ๐Ÿณ The result was pretty good, though I wish I had more fiber ๐Ÿ’š but by this morning my pantry was pretty bare. ๐Ÿฅซ I like carbs a bit too much, but at least I always try to include lots of fiber with my carbs, and almost always whole-wheat carbs. First this this morning after showering ๐Ÿšฟ and breakfast I went to Hannaford. I don’t love shopping there, they have a small spice selection, and while their produce selection is higher quality it’s also more expensive. But with coupons ๐ŸŽซ I was able to knock $35 off of a $121 shopping bill, which got it down to $86. ๐Ÿ’ธ Still things are more expensive then Walmart and of course I had to settle for regular plain yogurt, as they didn’t have non-fat Greek yogurt. That did not make me happy, and included a few cuss words. ๐Ÿคฌ I probably should have given the full-fat yogurt a try. Some fat isn’t bad, even if it is omega-6 saturated fat, and it fills you up quicker then no-fat, or so I’m told by the dairy farmers, who want to get a better price on their milk fat. ๐Ÿคฐ Shopping is so depressing ๐Ÿ™ ๐Ÿ›’ with inflation these days.

Got home from shopping and decided on an early lunch. ๐ŸŒ The banana I had wasn’t satisfying enough, so I decided to fry up one of those wonderful sweet onions from Hannaford along with a bunch of peas, broccoli, and some tofu with lots of turmeric and red-chili spices, plus a dash of salt and black pepper to maximize vitamin up tick. That finally got me filled up. ๐Ÿ˜‹ Now I’m feeling good. Probably still on that glycemic roller coaster ๐ŸŽข from all that sweet and wonderful carrot cake yesterday. I actually took home a quarter of that carrot cake, and promptly stuck in the freezer for some time down the road, after licking down the box. The frosting they use at Cookie Factory in Troy is just pure cane sugar and egg whites. Pretty heavenly ๐Ÿ˜‡ especially when you don’t normally eat sugar. Of course now I have a big sweet tooth again, ๐Ÿ˜ฌ but I’ll keep it filled apples, bananas, and especially that mango I got. I am so happy to have bananas again this week, last week was sad without them. The carrot cake is locked away in back of the freezer. ๐Ÿฐ

Today will rain likely before noon, then a chance of showers, mainly between noon and 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a temperature rising to near 51 by 11am, then falling to around 39 during the remainder of the day. ๐ŸŒฆ South wind 11 to 16 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 43 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1932. 13.1 inches of snow fell back in 1964.โ„

What to do today is the question on my mind. ๐Ÿ’ญ I intentionally got up and early and to the grocery store a little after 8 AM so I could shop both before the crowds ๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿ‘ฆ‍๐Ÿ‘ฆ ๐Ÿ›’ and so I could have the balance of my day free. Really I could see today going in three ways. Stay close to home, go to the library, ๐Ÿ“š and maybe a bike ride on the rail trail ๐Ÿšฒ. Another option would be to go to the Village of Colonie, check out clothes at the Salvation Army off of Central Avenue ๐Ÿ‘”, and then ride trail in the Pine Bush. I do get best clothes from Salvation Army, so much of the new stuff is China-made fancy-label crap. For riding trail this afternoon though, even with the sand though, the trails might be soft. But if it clears out later, might be nice to watch the sun set from Albany Pine Bush. ๐ŸŒฒ๐ŸŒฒ๐ŸŒฒ The third option would be to get my stuff together, do a night or two up in the woods, though I’m sure after all this rain things would be soft. ๐ŸŒฒ ๐Ÿ• Tomorrow everything will be frozen, and it will be sunny, but it’s going to be cold with the wind. Maybe one night in woods freezing my ass would be refreshing though if the balance of day is sunny. ๐Ÿ˜Ž

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 12:04 pm with sun having an altitude of 25.8° from the due south horizon (-45° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 4:00 pm with the sun in the southwest (233°). ๐Ÿ“ธ The sunset is in the west-southwest (241°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:44 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 20 seconds with dusk around 5:15 pm, which is one minute and 7 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent ๐ŸŒ’ Moon in the southwest (224°) at an altitude of 18° from the horizon, 226,726 miles away. ๐Ÿš€ The best time to look at the stars is after 5:51 pm. At sunset, look for rain ๐ŸŒง and temperatures around 42 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 15 mph with gusts up to 28mph. Today will have 9 hours and 23 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 28 seconds over yesterday.

Tuesday I finally start out my new position in earnest, ๐Ÿ‘จ‍๐Ÿ’ผ moving up to the office in North Albany. Looking to put my data science experience and knowledge to work at new Director of Data Services. And be the keeper of the LOL book, the list of lists, as they called them when I worked at Higher Education Services Corporation years ago. ๐Ÿ‘จ‍๐Ÿซ I won’t how much of the Job Control Language and COBOL I remember from back in those days. ๐Ÿ“œ I’m sure it will come back quickly, it’s sort of Unix like, and programming is ultimately just programming. COBOL is just extra verbose. And operators and programmers probably do most of that anyways.. I could drive, but I think I’ll take the express bus in then transfer to the shuttle. ๐ŸšŒ Everybody says it’s not worth the effort to transfer buses, but it really won’t impact my morning commute much, and maybe I’ll get home later on days I don’t ride my bike in, but it’s a chance to walk laps in the Empire Plaza ๐Ÿ‘ฃ or visit with people in the Capitol Complex. ๐Ÿ‘ฅ It’s important to be seen at events, and meet up with people. Honestly, in person I’m not as obnoxious as on the blog where my slogan is, “All My Heroes Burn Their Trash and Smell a Little Like Cow Shit”.

I finally learned my new salary, it is a bit less then I hoped, especially these days with inflation, but if I work hard to get the bonuses, it will be find and with next year’s inflation adjustment and step increases, it will be the nice round number I was hoping for. ๐Ÿ’ต It’s just tough with inflation, but I’m doing better then a lot of people. And I got paid early this week, so I no longer have $162 in my bank account, though come next week when the auto investing is done, it’s probably be hovering around $1,000 again. ๐Ÿ“ˆ But it’s still a good time in stock market after last year, even if this year is starting off soft. ๐Ÿฆ I do worry about some damage being caused in economy by pay-now-pay later’s exploding popularity, though I don’t think it’s likely to be as damaging as the housing crisis of 2008.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy ๐ŸŒฅ, with a low of 28 degrees at 3am. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 21st. Southwest wind 11 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. In 2023, we had light snow. It got down to 26 degrees. The record low of -24 occurred back in 1957.

I’d loved to spend the night in the woods, ๐ŸŒฒ ๐ŸŒฒ and it’s not going to be super cold but that wind will be cold, as will the dampness of things after that inch of rain we got last night. Who knows my urge for camping ๐Ÿ• and having a fire up in the woods ๐Ÿ”ฅ might get the best of me and I’ll be huddled over the propane heater either tonight or tomorrow. At least there is no fire risk, even with the wind. Kind of wish there was some snow and less mud. It’s that wind that’s what will get you. ๐ŸŒฌ

Sunday will have a chance of snow showers, mainly after 9am. ๐ŸŒจ Partly sunny, with a high near 35. Breezy, with a south wind 11 to 20 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Then Sunday night, partly cloudy, with a low around 16. West wind 10 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Going to be ducking cold. ๐Ÿฆ† And for M. L. King Day, mostly sunny, ๐Ÿ˜Ž with a high near 26. West wind 7 to 9 mph. Still rather old.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Clean Your Computer Day ๐Ÿงน when the sun will be setting at 5:21 pm with dusk at 5:49 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly cloudy, mild, rain showers and temperatures between 51 and 34 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 35 degrees. We hit a record high of 53 back in 1955.

Low Clouds Over the Field

Before the rain, a week before Christmas and two before New Years Eve ๐ŸŽ…๐ŸŽ๐ŸŒฒ๐ŸŽŠ๐ŸŽ‡๐ŸŽ†๐Ÿงจ

Good morning! Happy Sunday. Cloudy and 42 degrees this morning but will warm up later on. โ˜ There is a south-southeast breeze at 9 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. The current wind chill is 30. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Tuesday around 6 pm. โ˜ƒ๏ธ

Up and cooking this morning at 5 o’clock after running to the rest room. ๐Ÿง‘๐Ÿปโ€๐Ÿณ Just eggs ๐Ÿฅš for breakfast and a grapefruit. ๐ŸŸ  Also cooking down chickpeas for hummus. Plan to get to the store fairly early this morning, including home depot to get the stove burner first. โ›ฝ I need to gas up the truck, first time since before my Thanksgiving Black Friday trip to the Adirondacks. ๐ŸŒฒI could get propane but I’ll probably wait until heading out of town on Thursday or Friday.

Today will have a slight chance of drizzle or light rain between 11am and 2pm, then a chance of rain after 2pm. Cloudy ๐ŸŒง, with a high of 49 degrees at 4pm. 11 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 17th. Southeast wind 7 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth 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 39 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1984. 19.7 inches of snow fell back in 2020.โ„

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 11:52 am with sun having an altitude of 24ยฐ from the due south horizon (-46.8ยฐ vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 3:38 pm with the sun in the southwest (231ยฐ). ๐Ÿ“ธ The sunset is in the west-southwest (238ยฐ) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:24 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 25 seconds with dusk around 4:55 pm, which is 18 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter ๐ŸŒ“ Moon in the south (189ยฐ) at an altitude of 32ยฐ from the horizon, 226,410 miles away. ๐Ÿš€ The best time to look at the stars is after 5:32 pm. At sunset, look for rain ๐ŸŒง and temperatures around 48 degrees. There will be a southeast breeze at 7 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 6 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 17 seconds over today.

Tonight will rain. The rain could be heavy at times. ๐ŸŒง Low of 48 degrees at 6pm. 24 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 3rd. Southeast wind 7 to 9 mph becoming east after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 25 degrees. The record low of -9 occurred back in 1919.

Today in 1777 during the American Revolution, โ›ฒ France formally recognizes the United States.

As previously noted, next Sunday is Christmas Eve ๐ŸŽ… when the sun will be setting at 4:28 pm with dusk at 4:58 pm. On that day in 2022, we had cold day, partly cloudy skies, snow showers and temperatures between 15 and 7 degrees. This Christmas Eve looks to be a lot warmer but then again it’s an El Niรฑo winter much like 2005. Typically, the high temperature is 36 degrees. We hit a record high of 72 back in 2015.

 The Letter S

Beaver Kill in Albany

Beaver Kill in Albany_resize_25

Today if you went Downtown you would be hard pressed to find much of the Beaver Kill or Beaver Creek. Most of it is buried in the Big C Pipe, although they are proposing to daylight part of it in Lincoln Park during the coming years. Probably the best place to see it would be in what is now Washington Park Lake.

Data Source: 1866 Beers Map of Albany from the New York Public Library, georefrenced, traced and overlaid on a contemporary aerial photo and LIDAR hillshade.

Well, I Didn’t Expect that Rain this Morning ๐ŸŒง

After cooking the rice-beans-lentils, along with the sweet potatoes and the acorn squash, I stuck them outside to cool down. Then I heard the rain starting to pound down the roof. Not a problem as the dishes were in sealed containers but it was a surprise. By the time I put the pea soup out I had been cooking, the rain had let up and by the time I took out the overflowing compost inside to dump into the biggest bucket, it wasn’t raining at all. And despite being a little bit damp, and having some sprinkles when I was riding in along the South End Railyards, it turned out to be a super nice day for a ride in.

Good morning! Mostly cloudy and 41 degrees in Delmar, NY. โ˜ There is a southwest breeze at 7 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 5 am. โ˜ƒ๏ธ

Despite the rain, it’s a super mild day. ๐Ÿ˜€ I noticed how warm it truly was when I got up during the night to go to the bathroom ๐Ÿšฝ and started cooking a little before 5 AM. Started out by rinsing the peas that had been soaking overnight and cooking them, and then went back to bed for a little more R&R ๐Ÿ›Œ after which about 5:20 I got up and got a jump on the day, tossing the bread and acorn squash ๐Ÿž ๐ŸŽƒ into the oven to cook, chopping up the carrots ๐Ÿฅ• and onions ๐Ÿง… for the soup ๐Ÿฒ, starting up a pot of rice, lentils and beans ๐Ÿš for lunch and frying up onions, spinach, mushrooms and other vegetables ๐Ÿณ for breakfast.

I really wanted to ride in today, ๐Ÿšฒ and was glad that the rain stopped before it was time to leave after my shower. ๐Ÿšฟ Running kind of late after all that cooking, but it’s fine, it’s going to be a quiet day in the office to at least start out the morning, but depending which projects come in things could pick up. Kind of in an transitory time now, things are winding down a bit at my current position but I haven’t moved on to my new position. Just trying to get loose ends cleaned up. ๐ŸŽ€ I figure once I move to the new office, at least until late January or early February I’m not going to be able to ride in as it will be too dark to ride from the office to Peter Kiernan Plaza to catch the express home ๐ŸšŒ so I’m going to have to take the shuttle which lacks a rack for my bike. But not riding in January probably isn’t a big loss as probably much of the month the bike path will be snow covered, and not to mention it will be cold. โ›„

Had a nice Sunday dinner with the folks ๐Ÿฒ which was turkey soup ๐Ÿฆƒ left over from Thanksgiving. It was pretty good with dinner rolls and lots of egg noodles. Maybe less vegetables and fiber then what I would have at a meal at home, along with more fat ๐Ÿคฐ but it was still good and had a good big bowl of soup. I figure there is only a few more chances to have mom’s home cooking while it’s still good, as she’s getting up there in the years. I can eat healthy the rest of the week, and indeed for lunch, I had red lentil soup with spinach, mushrooms, broccoli and lots of spices. I’ve been noticing lately that my gut has been adjusting to the higher fiber loads, and things have been good though I do try to break up meals so not every night is loaded with beans and lentils, which can be particularly hard a times. ๐Ÿ˜ค I didn’t get many steps in yesterday, as it rained so much ๐ŸŒง so I was glad to ride to work today, and take the 17 flights of stairs up to my office.

Today will have a slight chance of showers after 9am. Mostly cloudy ๐ŸŒฆ, with a high of 47 degrees at 12pm. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 22nd. Southwest wind 7 to 11 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 38 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1998. 6.0 inches of snow fell back in 1901.โ„

On my list of things to get done today is called the shop about getting my truck state inspected ๐Ÿ”Ž ๐Ÿ›ป, tires rotated and oil changed. It’s been nearly 8 months since the last oil change, but with synthetic oil, the fact my truck quit it’s oil burning habit, and the general lack of miles driven over the past few months — especially the early summer when I was looking at mountain bikes ๐Ÿšต‍โ™€๏ธ I still have plenty of time left on the oil, but I figure get it all done at one shot. Truck’s been running good, all the tail lights are working fine, so I expect the state inspection should go smoothly.

Last Monday when I was driving to the laundromat, ๐Ÿ‘• and to wash my truck, the relay that controls the CB radio and was clicking on and off.  ๐Ÿ”˜ Not sure what the issue was but I ended up knocking the over-ride switch connector off, fiddling around with it in the dark. Strangely enough, when I was driving the truck on Sunday I didn’t have any more problems. I do need to replace that crimp connector I broke but I’m not sure where the loose wire was or why the relay was acting up, switching on and off repeatably. โšก It’s not such a big deal right now, as I’m not doing too much driving, and the worse thing that can happen is the relay gets burnt up, and it’s not expensive relay — I can always turn off the CB radio ๐Ÿ“ป manually if I continue to have problems.

Last weekend when I was camping, I accidentally left one of the library books ๐Ÿ“• in back of my truck on the shelf on that rainy, snowy wet morning, ๐ŸŒง and the book got kind of wet from snow falling on it. ๐Ÿ˜ญ After some careful drying over the past week in the oven — using residual heat from cooking or pre-warming the oven, I got the book mostly dry, and now have it propped up between some other books, and weighted down under my bed ๐Ÿ›Œ putting a lot of weight on to flatten it out, almost back to the original shape and size. I’m hopeful I can return the book in close to original condition and not get dinged for damaging the library book. Also warped the cover of another library book using it as a wait to dry out that book in the oven when the broiler had just been ton, so that cover has been taken off the book and is drying out.

I replaced the smoke detector battery ๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿš’ ๐Ÿ”‹in my apartment, and now it’s been working properly without so many false alarms from the shower ๐Ÿšฟ steam and cooking. I’ve gotten in the habit now of just taking it down off the wall before cooking in the morning, because inevitably cooking involves smoke, even if it’s just crap I’ve split on the stove. I’ve been thinking of upgrading to a photoelectric detector, because I’m getting really fed up with false alarms from cooking or even the shower. This time of year, especially as I keep the heat turned down in my apartment, the smoke detector is so easily triggered by both shower steam and stove cooking. And as my bedroom is upstairs were smoke detector resides, it’s so easy to set off accidentally. ๐Ÿ›Ž It doesn’t do any good to have a smoke detector if I’m constantly resetting it or taking it off the wall for cooking or showering, and then accidentally forgetting it reset it before bed.

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 11:47 am with sun having an altitude of 25.2° from the due south horizon (-45.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 3:39 pm with the sun in the southwest (232°). ๐Ÿ“ธ The sunset is in the west-southwest (240°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:23 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 21 seconds with dusk around 4:53 pm, which is 13 seconds earlier than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ The best time to look at the stars is after 5:30 pm. At sunset, look out for a chance of rain ๐ŸŒง and temperatures around 45 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 16 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 14 seconds over yesterday.

I am thinking of staying late today at work ๐ŸŽ† to watch the fireworks and state “Empire Plaza” tree lighting ๐ŸŽ„ at 6:15 PM either from my office or down on the plaza. I think this would be my last chance to see the fireworks from my downtown office, ๐Ÿข as I’m not going to be here that much longer. I packed a dinner so I can have it at the end of day. I’ll probably clock out a five, but we’ll see how things go and how much work there is to do.

After being so opposed to smoothies ๐Ÿฅค I ended up discovering how much I like a warm glass of milk with some shredded fruit in it and lots of cinnamon, ginger or pumpkin pie spice to warm myself up as a healthier replacement for hot coca in the evening. I do think a lot of smoothie recipes you find on the internet or at your local health spa are still junk-food, but a warm glass of skim milk with cinnamon and ginger, along with shredded strawberries ๐Ÿ“ or apples ๐ŸŽ with nothing additional added (i.e. no added sugar) really isn’t any worse then having a glass of milk with an apple. And it tastes good, and a good way to warm yourself up. โ˜• I would do coffee, but in the evening, who wants to be up all night? Plus I like drinking milk ๐Ÿฎ and supporting the dairy industry, plus all that good Vitamin A & D. I’ve become a lot less of an ideologue when it comes to eating healthy these days, but I still work to stay away from excessive fat and sugar, though I do give myself a break a times.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy ๐ŸŒฅ, with a low of 31 degrees at 6am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 19th. Northwest wind 8 to 11 mph. In 2022, we had clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 26 degrees. The record low of 2 occurred back in 1989.

Next weekend reminds me of the weekend that was. ๐ŸŒง๏ธ Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 49. Sunday, showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 52. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Typical average high for the weekend is 40 degrees. Probably another stay home weekend, it’s the last weekend of regular deer season after which the woods should empty out for exploration. I am still thinking about those days leading up to Christmas to head out to Madison County ๐ŸŽ„ but the week before then I am planning on attending a family Christmas event.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Bake Cookies Day ๐Ÿช when the sun will be setting at 4:25 pm with dusk at 4:55 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 35 and 25 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 37 degrees. We hit a record high of 60 back in 1921. I actually need to to think about what kind of cookies to bake or buy. Saw a good recipe for sugar cookies, I might try to implement using whole wheat flour and stevia, and maybe bananas or honey rather then sugar, though I’m not crazy about how much butter it uses, though butter is kind of necessary to provide shortening to break the gluten bonds and give that wonderful cookie taste. Maybe work in some oatmeal into recipe, for soluble fiber. Or just get some cookies at the grocery store, and the cookies they don’t eat leave for other people.

Darkness Sets In Over Siamese Pond Wilderness

A Rainy Sunday Ahead ๐ŸŒง๏ธ

It could be snow but not with El Niño and the jet stream in its current position. At least we’re not expecting to get as socked by rain as the southern states in the coming weeks.

Good morning! Happy Wet Sunday. Yes, clouds โ˜๏ธand 40 degrees in Delmar. Rain coming soon. โ˜” There is a north-northeast breeze at 5 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Tuesday around 9 pm. โ˜ƒ๏ธ Still another pretty mild day, saving on the heat being off. I don’t know why I worry so much about heating bills, as they only work out in the coldest months to be like $30 over the normal non-heating bills, but I do. โ™จ๏ธ It’s not like I don’t make good money, though I’m always broke as I’m stashing so much in the market and for retirement. But I just don’t like seeing my money go up into smoke, ๐Ÿ’จ says the boy who drives a big jacked up truck that has a drinking problem. โ›ฝ

Yesterday wasn’t a real productive day, ๐Ÿ“š the biggest thing I did was go down to the library for a while to work on my laptop ๐Ÿ’ป and then reheat some chilli and cook some kidney beans. Like yesterday, this morning I baked a breakfast cake with oatmeal, whole-wheat flour, an egg, stevia, two bananas and cranberries. Good breakfast, super moist, really like a cake. ๐Ÿฐ Been doing a lot more cooking with cranberries as they’re dirt cheap this time of year — $1.50 for a large bag, and quite delicious. Been continuing on that machine learning course, ๐Ÿค– now that I’m in the deep dive into principal component analysis, really starting to learn a lot more. The course I’m learning is primarily about using R packages for machine learning, but most of the techniques could be used with Python. I probably would learn Python and scikitlearn for machine learning, but I feel like I know R better these days as that’s what I constantly use, as like the maggitr pipes and ggplot graphics output.

Today will have showers likely before 8am, then rain, mainly after 8am. ๐ŸŒง High of 44 degrees at 2pm. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 29th. Northeast wind around 6 mph becoming east in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had rain in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 53 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 2009. 5.2 inches of snow fell back in 1893.โ„

After showering this morning, ๐Ÿ›€ heading to Walmart to get groceries for the week, probably around 9 AM before the crowds get there. The big thing is spices, but also frozen fruits and vegetables, plus the usual like another container of oatmeal as I used that up making breakfasts, pancakes and bread. ๐Ÿ›’ Making a list this time in hope that I won’t forget things, though chances are good at least some of things on my list won’t be in stock, as it always happens. Then I want to wash the kitchen floor, do some cleaning and straightening up. 

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 11:46 am with sun having an altitude of 25.3° from the due south horizon (-45.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 3:39 pm with the sun in the southwest (233°). ๐Ÿ“ธ The sunset is in the west-southwest (240°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:24 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 21 seconds with dusk around 4:54 pm, which is 16 seconds earlier than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ The best time to look at the stars is after 5:30 pm. At sunset, look for rain ๐ŸŒง and temperatures around 43 degrees. There will be a east breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 16 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 14 seconds over today.

This afternoon heading out to the folks house ๐Ÿฒ for some turkey soup and the Sunday dinner. Just going to be kind of a rainy day, but I figure get home early then I’ll have time to make up bread ๐Ÿž and soak beans or maybe peas in preparation for making soup come the morning. Then that will be Monday’s dinner. Been working on slowly but surely eating up some of the food I previously frozen but also making sure to maintain balanced meals each day. And maybe some time to read ๐Ÿ“– before heading to bed pretty early. No need to stay up late on such a dreary day.

Tonight will rain, mainly before midnight. ๐ŸŒง Low of 39 degrees at 6am. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 23rd. South wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 25 degrees. The record low of -9 occurred back in 1940.

Yesterday I was thumbing through some properties and land on Zillow. ๐Ÿ˜ So much is that suburban crap with marble countertops and neighbors. It’s hard to find nice pieces of land with acreage. Not that I’m seriously thinking of buying at this point but it can be fun during downtime. That said, moving to the suburban office with free parking, makes it more tempting to think about moving back out to country. Plus I’ll be making more money at my new job, but I think that’s putting the cart before the wagon, because who knows how it will work out or how I’ll like it. It’s a big step forward though. But for now, I’ll probably stay in my apartment. It’s inexpensive, even if it is run down. I have my fun getting away and camping in the wilderness. ๐Ÿ• Looking forward to getting away again in two and a half weeks on the run up to the Christmas holiday.

As previously noted, next Sunday is 7:15 AM Sunrise โŒ›๏ธ when the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm with dusk at 4:53 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 31 and 20 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 40 degrees. We hit a record high of 64 back in 1966.

House Pond is Getting Icy ?

Rainy start to for Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone ๐ŸฆŒ

I bet those people sitting in their deer stands this morning are shivering, fighting off hypothermia thinking they probably won’t get their big buck despite the statistics that show two thirds are harvested today. I’m quite okay being inside this morning, enjoying my eggs and spinach, along with the homemade bread, sweet potatoes and butternut squash that I baked starting a little after 5 AM this morning.

Good morning! Rain and 45 degrees in Delmar, NY. โ˜” There is a north-northwest breeze at 9 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around midnight tonight. โ˜ƒ๏ธ Kind of a yucky morning, temperature is going to drift downwards as more sun appears later with a steady breeze to keep things good and cool for the balance of the day. That said it’s mild enough, that the heat is off, though I have plenty of warmth inside after all that cooking this morning. ๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿณ

While I don’t really need to get up at 5 AM on my day off โฐ I wake up that hour, especially as I was asleep before 8 PM last night as it was such a dreary night and I lacked the energy to do my evening walk, ๐Ÿƒ‍โ™€๏ธ though to be fair, I did get in 10,000 steps ๐Ÿ‘ฃ for the day, rode my bike 7 3/4 miles to work via the rail trail ๐Ÿšฒ, walked laps at lunch time on the Plaza and then did the stairs up and down to my 18th floor office downtown. I do note that once I move to the suburban North Albany office in a few weeks though it’s going to be more difficult to do the stairs, though I am thinking I’ll probably transfer buses a the Empire Plaza and can walk laps there or days I ride in it’s a bit longer of a ride then downtown, though not the Madison Avenue Hill, though lately I’ve been using Arch Street/Warren Street past the Albany City Jail ๐Ÿ‘ฎ‍โ™€๏ธ and then heading up Park Avenue and Museum Road (yes, the wrong way on a one way street) to the Plaza to avoid the worse of the hill. ๐Ÿคท‍โ™‚๏ธ ๐Ÿคฃ

I was thinking blueberry pancakes this morning ๐Ÿฅž ๐Ÿ‘Ž ๐Ÿณ but ended up deciding I so love the onions, tomatoes, spinach and eggs for a more protein packed day that will keep me going all day. Also cooked up some kidney beans, I am thinking of making homemade spaghetti sauce from canned tomatoes, chop up some onions, cumin and red pepper with peas and spinach thrown over some chickpea pasta ๐Ÿ for dinner tonight. Along with a generous side of butternut squash and maybe some of the sweet potatoes. ๐Ÿ  ๐Ÿ†

Lunch is going to be some leftover beef stew I got from my parents house about two or three weeks ago that’s been frozen, tossed over some peas and sweet potatoes. ๐Ÿ˜‹ I need to use up some of the leftovers I keep taking home from my parents house. I often forget about left overs. Mom makes good food, even if it is more calorie dense then I would prefer, but then again maybe I’ve gotten a bit extreme with my own cooking. ๐Ÿ‘จ‍๐Ÿณ I just don’t want slip back into the old life of being so heavy and out of shape. The left over stew should be real tasty. ๐Ÿฒ I can’t complain, mom’s home cooking won’t be around forever, as she’s getting up there in the years, and it’s something you can only enjoy until you no longer can.

Having that extra pot of coffee โ˜• this morning, with the cinnamon and ginger. I am not planning on heading out until a while, and only to the library, so if I spend my day pissing it away, I don’t care. I just like an extra cup or three on this cold morning, with that rich tangy taste of cinnamon and ginger. Plus yesterday when I was walking I started to feel a bit achy, ๐Ÿ˜ฃ first time in a long time, apparently the turmeric with the spinach, onions and eggs isn’t enough to overcome all those stairs I’ve climbed ๐Ÿง—‍โ™€๏ธ over the past week, lol. ๐Ÿคฃ What can I say, I’m getting ducking old ๐Ÿฆ† in a few weeks I’ll be 41. That means two decades have passed since I can legally drink and that first time I went out to the bar with the Young Democrats.  I just remember that night at the Lionheart Cafe downtown, and how much that bar stunk of alcohol ๐Ÿป I think because it was right after they had banned smoking at bars ๐Ÿšญ and they hadn’t gotten good at cleaning all that spilled beer. Or maybe the Lionheart was more of a dive college bar back in the day.

Today will have showers likely, mainly before 7am. Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing ๐ŸŒง ๐Ÿ‘‰ ๐ŸŒž, with a high of 45 degrees at 6am. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 25th. North wind 9 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 43 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1928. 9.0 inches of snow fell back in 1980.โ„

I am thinking I’ll watch and do some more of the Udemeny Course on Remote Sensing ๐Ÿ›ฐ and then shower and go down to the library ๐Ÿ“š so I can use the internet on my laptop this morning without working about data use at 10 AM. Then maybe check out the Bethlehem Sportsmart at 1 PM for skis, โ›ท and then in the afternoon ride out to Voorheesville, maybe visiting Indian Ladder Farms for apples. ๐ŸŽ Or I could just get apples at Price Chopper on Sunday. Also want to see if I can repair my broken vacuum cleaner. Also thinking about doing some soldering and working on an electronics project this evening. I haven’t done much electronics in a while now. ๐Ÿค“

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 11:41 am with sun having an altitude of 28.2° from the due south horizon (-42.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 3:49 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (237°). ๐Ÿ“ธ The sunset is in the west-southwest (244°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:32 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 14 seconds with dusk around 5:01 pm, which is 49 seconds earlier than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter ๐ŸŒ“ Moon in the south (185°) at an altitude of 24° from the horizon, 227,672 miles away. ๐Ÿš€ The best time to look at the stars is after 5:37 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies ๐ŸŒ„ and temperatures around 42 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 11 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 43 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 3 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear ๐ŸŒƒ, with a low of 31 degrees at 3am. Typical for tonight. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light and variable. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 21 degrees. The record low of 12 occurred back in 1972.

Pretty much typical weather for this evening. ๐Ÿ›Œ I’ll probably head to bed pretty early as it gets dark out so early, and I prefer an earlier start. I want to get to Price Chopper tomorrow morning before the crowds ๐Ÿ›’ and get the groceries I need for the week with my coupons. ๐ŸŽซ And then get up and going on the day. Maybe ride out to Five Rivers ๐Ÿฆ to enjoy the sunshine and cold before heading out to the folks house for Sunday dinner. ๐Ÿฒ They are making chilli which should be good.

Going to shop at Price Chopper come Sunday as I have two $5 off $50 coupons, ๐ŸŽซ giving one to mom and one for my own use. Plus I have a $2 off $10 in meat or fish coupon to use, I’ll probably stock up on frozen salmon for the next time I decide to bake up some salmon. ๐Ÿ  I haven’t had salmon in a few weeks, and I think I don’t have any more in my freezer currently but its an excellent source of omega-3 fats. ๐Ÿ˜‹

Looking ahead, next Saturday is Small Business Saturday ๐Ÿ›๏ธ when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:56 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 49 and 40 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 45 degrees. We hit a record high of 64 back in 2004.

I am watching the forecast, ๐ŸŒจ especially to see how much snow they get up north on Wednesday, but I’m hopeful to head up to the Adirondacks come Friday, to camp and maybe hike or possibly ski along the East Branch more likely. ๐Ÿ• I would probably take off Cyber Monday so I can have a three-day weekend, as I’ve been planning for some time now, though I am running a bit low on vacation time for the year, and don’t want to drop below 210 hours for the year if I can avoid it to maximize my roll over into next year, where I may need the extra hours to cover time spent working at the campaign committee along with trips I plan for the summer and autumn. ๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿ’ป That said, I’m hopeful to do remote work at times next year, so maybe I can extend some of my camping trips while working from the Spectulator Library or the hotspot and my laptop in a hammock from camp. But not until spring time, as it’s too cold and not enough solar in autumn.

Gray Day

The great autumn road trip ends much like it started in the rain โ˜”

Good morning! Happy Sunday. Time to get up in a bit before it’s real wet then head home. Rain showers and 46 degrees at Long Pond State Forest in Smithfield Flats, NY. โ˜ There is a north breeze at 8 mph. ๐Ÿƒ.

Back in New York State. I decided to drive all the way back to New York yesterday from Paw Paw as I figured it would mean back tracking to get back to Interstate 99 and heading north. ๐Ÿ›ฃ๏ธ Rain is expected before day break in Wellsboro so I figured that at any rate, not worth the back tracking and the $10 fee to camp in Pennsylvania. โ›บ At Long Pond State Forest which is two hours from home l figured that the rain would start later so maybe a quick breakfast and coffee โ˜• ๐Ÿฅฃ before the rain picked up.

Figured it would be interesting to come back via 81 and see at least the skyline of Hagerstown Maryland, Harrisburg, Wilkes Barre and Scranton Penna ๐ŸŒ† but truth be told by the time I reached Hazleton it was dark, and from Hagerstown to the I-78 and I-81 split in Jonestown, traffic was much too heavy for ones eyes ๐Ÿ‘€ to leave the road for much scenic viewing. People often suggest taking Interstate 81 to West Virginia but I have to say at this point I don’t recommend it. ๐Ÿš™ Too much traffic, especially truck ๐Ÿšš traffic compared to the leisurely drive along Interstate 99.

Truth is though I was bored with taking Interstate 99, I’ve done it several times in the past years to West Virginia. ๐Ÿ—ป It’s scenic but after a while the towns are all the same. Somehow I was hoping that 81 would change things up. Same thing with US 6 in Penna. It’s slow, and long, the farms ๐Ÿšœ and rural homesteads ๐Ÿก ๐Ÿ are still the same but with fewer burn barrels ๐Ÿ›ข as a decade or so ago. All that plastic shit stinks when you burn it, lol ๐Ÿ˜‚.

Somehow I just had it in my mind that Interstate 81 would shave miles and hours off the trip. ๐Ÿš˜ But it’s really not that much of a time or milage savings. And while I’m only two hours from home compared to 3 1/2 that extra hour and a half got tacked onto yesterday’s drive, ๐ŸŒƒ meaning several hours of driving in the darkness and arriving at Long Pond State Forest at 8:30 pm rather than before six o’clock as I had planned. I had no cell service ๐Ÿ“ถ in Paw Paw so it was just a wild assed guess on the distance to Asaph Run or County Bridge compared to Long Pond.

The moonlight helped, as did getting up and walking ๐Ÿšถ around the rest area near Wilkes Barre and ultimately getting a box of five hour energy shots ๐Ÿคช which not only made me awake for driving kept me up half the night. Almost stopped and got dinner at Dennys in Hazleton but I decided I was running so far behind schedule, best to have some energy shots, hard boiled eggs and bananas and push forward. โ˜• Regardless, I made it to camp safely and expect a nice drive the rest of the way home. ๐Ÿ™

I was pretty wired from the energy shot โšก last night and it was a pretty evening with the full moon ๐ŸŒ• so I stayed up to midnight.๐Ÿฆ† Listened to the geese well into the night honking and every time I walked to the lake the beaver ๐Ÿฆซ would jump back in with a big splash ๐Ÿ’ฆ.

Today will have showers through 9 am, then rain after 10am. ๐ŸŒง High of 46 degrees at 6am. 10 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 23rd. North wind 6 to 8 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 63 degrees. The record high of 77 was set in 1946. 3.8 inches of snow fell back in 2011.โ„

Coffee โ˜• and cream of wheat is cooking on the stove. It’s now just the final two hours home ๐Ÿก. Probably need to get a bit more fuel โ›ฝ and I’m likely going to stop and get apples ๐Ÿ at Annuto’s in Oneonta. They open at nine 9โƒฃ but I don’t necessarily have to be there right at nine. And maybe other produce like Butternut Squash. ๐Ÿ† They have quite the selection of farm products. No doughnuts ๐Ÿฉ though, even though they were good to start off vacation as a special treat. ๐Ÿ˜‹

Then get home, unpack, shower ๐Ÿšฟ for the first time in nine days ๐Ÿ‘ƒ and knead bread ๐Ÿž and soak peas for pea soup. Maybe go to the laundromat and buy produce at Hannaford, or that could wait until Monday.

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 12:40 pm with sun having an altitude of 34ยฐ from the due south horizon (-36.8ยฐ vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 5:14 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (246ยฐ). ๐Ÿ“ธ The sunset is in the west-southwest (253ยฐ) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:54 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 2 seconds with dusk around 6:21 pm, which is one minute and 22 seconds earlier than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At dusk you’ll see the Waining Gibbous ๐ŸŒ– Moon in the east-northeast (63ยฐ) at an altitude of 0ยฐ from the horizon, 235,306 miles away. ๐Ÿš€ The best time to look at the stars is after 6:56 pm. At sunset, look for rain ๐ŸŒง and temperatures around 43 degrees. There will be a north-northeast breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 10 hours and 27 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 36 seconds over today.

Rode about twenty miles of the Chesapeake and Ohio outside Paw Paw and then went into the village on my bike yesterday. Not a lot of note in the village that I saw but maybe I rode the wrong road. ๐Ÿšฒ That said, the Paw Paw Tunnel is really neat. ๐Ÿš‰ Not only can you hike – bike the canal tunnel when I was there people were kayaking in it. ๐Ÿ›ถ Rode 19 miles or about three hours including breaks. Stopped at the Capacon Overlook ๐Ÿž after driving WV 9 which is as curvy as you might expect any good ol West Virginia road to be going through the mountains. Phil Ochs wasn’t wrong when he sung about the roads would wind and wind through the hills of West Virginia.

Tonight will have showers before 2am, then rain likely after 2am. Cloudy ๐ŸŒง, with a low of 42 degrees at 7pm. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 14th. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 28 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1969.

Next it’s watching the forecast for next week. ๐Ÿฎ I’m still thinking about a trip out to Madison County either next week or the weekend after for four days, tacking a day onto the Election Day Weekend or Veterans Day Weekend. โ›บ I know it seems like it’s coming on right after vacation but rifle season ๐ŸฆŒ and Thanksgiving is right around the corner and who knows when we’ll get our first snowfall and those areas inaccessible. ๐ŸŒจ Winter’s coming.

Looking ahead, there are 6 weeks until 7:15 AM Sunrise โŒ›๏ธ when the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm with dusk at 4:53 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 31 and 20 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 40 degrees. Winter’s coming. We hit a record high of 64 back in 1966.

The blog for the first month made a little over $80 a month or so worth in advertising. ๐Ÿ–ฅ Figuring th hosting and domains work out to $17 a month, its a nice little check. Won’t make me rich and it’s possible that I could potentially squeeze additional revenue by more obnoxious ads or changing the content on my blog but I want to maintain absolute editorial control over my blog. ๐Ÿ“ That’s one of the reasons I maintain a personal blog and don’t just do social media.

 James River