Listening to Rich Men North of Richmond as I’m out for the morning walk, living in the new world with and old soul. A big pot of brown rice, red and green lentils are cooking down for the week – already had my first cup of coffee and looking forward to cream of wheat with chia seeds, yogurt and frozen fruit.
Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Dark and gray and 64 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ But when there is no hope, there is help – see today’s forecast in the third paragraph. It’s already clearing to the east. There is a south-southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 64 degrees.
I was hoping to ride home last night 🚲 but when I started down Madison it started raining ☔ and I ran over to Broadway in front of the old Union Train Station and put my bicycle on the bus 🚍 and rode home. I should remember that is always an option and riding even one way still burns calories and saves money 💵. Bike rides secure but bounces a lot on some of the bumps. Heck of it is was just a light drizzle I’d probably had been fine to ride home but whatever – my left eye 👁️ was kind of irritated at any rate.
Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 81 degrees at 4pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 27th. Maximum dew point of 67 at 6pm. Going to be sweating a bit on the ride out of Norman’s Kill. Maybe not a good day for making those spinach pizza things I’ve been thinking about cooking this afternoon. It will depend how hot and sweaty I am when I get home and if I want to ride out to Voorheesville in twilight of the day. Maybe tomorrow with the rain. South wind 5 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It was sticky. The high last year was 91 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 2018.
Wearing my glasses into work today 👓 so I can totally have the four-eyes are better then two eyes look today. I don’t l like my limited view from the glasses, but I also don’t want to do any more damage to my sore eyes. I am hopeful by mid-day and evening commute I can be back to contacts. Then assuming the weather doesn’t crap out, it will be back down the Madison Street Hill, and then to Albany County Rail Trail making the climb 😅 up through the Normans Kill George 🚲 to home.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:57 pm with sun having an altitude of 56.8° from the due south horizon (-14° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:59 pm with the sun in the west (277°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (284°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:37 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 58 seconds with dusk around 8:04 pm, which is one minute and 40 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Blue 🌝 Moon in the southeast (124°) at an altitude of 7° from the horizon, 226,316 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:42 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 76 degrees. The dew point will be 67 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 7 mph. Tomorrow will have 13 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 45 seconds over today.
Went to bed 🛏 early around 7:45 and I was asleep by eight. My left eye 👁️was very irritated as I forgot my contact solution when I went out to my parents house yesterday overnight and by afternoon it was a mess. Kind of a dark and rainy evening ☔ and because I get up so early it’s hard for me to stay up late. Had a great dinner of tofu – zucchini parmesan with the sauce made from delicious paste tomatoes that I got from my parents house. 🍅 Dessert was opening up that cantaloupe that I got at the store 🍈 on Sunday. Good stuff.
Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 4am. 🌧 Low of 66 degrees at 6am. Seven degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 6pm. 🏖️ South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half 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 became very sticky as the night progressed. It got down to 66 degrees. The record low of 38 occurred back in 1982.
Yesterday, I got a call from a friend who was a nurse 👩⚕️ in her younger years, concerned about all my recent weight loss. Apparently a lot of people have been talking about how much thinner I’ve gotten, concerned that I’m not eating enough. 📩 She sent me an article about the dangers of loosing weight too quickly, with fatty liver disease and other things that can happen if your crashing with your calorie intake. But truth be told, But the thing is when you don’t eat a lot of processed foods and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, 🍏 it’s hard to eat excessively and keep pounds on. 🤰Trust me, I’m often very stuffed after eating and keep filling my mouth throughout the day with quality food. I don’t just eat 3 times a day, but non-stop from morning to night.
The heck of it is despite all my weight loss, I am eating more then ever and spending more on food. 💸 Some of it’s inflation but also I’ve been trying to expand my pantry and keeping healthy eating interesting, with new and different foods every week. At first I was very picky about what should be in my diet 🐠🔍 but now I focus more on overall, doing a lot more home cooking with quality ingredients and very little sugar, saturated fats, and a reasonable amount of carbs. And lots of fruits and vegetables, consistent with Harvard guidelines for such things. 🍽 That said, I am surprised how much I’ve lost even since May. The 36×32 jeans I bought this weekend which I was afraid would be too tight, where almost too loose, almost necessitating a drop to 34. Figuring a year ago was I was primarily wearing 40 inch jeans, and even at times some of them were a bit tight, I’ve become so much thinner and healthier. I think it’s doing the stairs at work and lately bicycling to work. It’s not the limiting the plate size for sure.
I did do that physical back in late May, 👩⚕️ I’ve thought about reaching out to my Health Insurance’s nurses line to see if they have any advice on my recent weight loss. I am not concerned as I think it’s just I”m burning more calories then I’m taking in ⚖ but folks still seem to be very concerned. I am hearing that from a lot of people. Maybe I should see if my insurance covers the visiting of a dietitian to help me better understand my food choices, and come up with a better balanced meals, though I think my food choices are basically the consensus of what most of the health experts are saying, 🥑 and I’m NOT under in-taking healthy fats or proteins — or have some kind of undiagnosed disease. It’s not just that one nurse friend either, it’s relatives, co-workers and others.
On this day in 1966, the Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans 🎸 at Candlestick Park in a wicked thunderstorm ⛈ San Francisco. After this, if you wanted to hear the Beatles, you had to listen to them on vinyl records or AM radio. 📻 Their next album would be Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Club Heart band, and it would have a dramatically different sound then the Love, Love Me Do records. 🎶
I have Labor Day Weekend Off 🏕 including the Friday before so I can go up to camp bright and early. I probably will do like I did two week ago — pack Thursday night — leave very early, maybe before seven, get gas in Rotterdam, ⛽ then stop at Samdil Farm for sweet corn and vegetables and maybe meat, 🌽 🥩 Walmart for supplies 🛒 and then try to make Speculator as close to 9 AM as possible to get the campsite I want and get set up. Then hang out for a bit, have lunch, then maybe mountain bike 🚵♀️ in the afternoon and do some fishing. 🎣 Maybe kayak Indian Lake on Saturday, if not to choppy. 🛶 Saturday evening I might do an after-dark hike up Watch Hill to spot fire towers lit for the firetower light-the-night event. 🏃 🔦 Later in the weekend, probably Sunday or Labor Day I’ll have to go back down to Spectulator for some swimming. 🏊. Should be a wonderful weekend, especially with some fresh-locally sourced steak and shrimp. And so much delicious sweet corn and other good things to eat.
A picture perfect Labor Day Weekend 🇺🇸 weekend on tap. 😎 Friday, sunny high around 75 with a maximum dew point of 57 come 7 pm. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Maximum dew point of 61 at 4pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Maximum dew point of 65 at 1pm. Labor Day is going to warm, may hit 87 degrees with lots of sun. I’ll be on the kayak 🛶 on Lake Pleasant. Typical average high for the weekend is 79 degrees. Won’t be quite as warm up north.
Looking ahead, there are 9 weeks until Halloween 🎃 when the sun will be setting at 5:51 pm with dusk at 6:19 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 64 and 37 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 56 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 2019. Been interested in making some baked pumpkin dishes, come the autumn. Plus pumpkins are a lot of fun to shoot with the ol .22 rifle up in the woods.
Still have a little more belly fat I’d look to loose, not just because of the look but because outer fat is associated with inner muscle fat, especially in the heart 
which is rather bad. But I feel like I am starting to get in great shape, mostly from eating a nutritious diet but also because I’ve kept up with the walking and stairs. And hopefully cycling too. Steiner, you are biting me with this bicycle thing. 😠
If it’s hot and looks like thunderstorms will stay away, maybe go to the town pool. I would have to register though to get a pool fob, maybe I should do that and it’s $5.25 to enter. 
And you have to do that in advance. Seems like a pain. If I get the bike, 
ride out to Voorheesville and probably the Black Creek Marsh. If it’s hot and I don’t want to spend money, go to the library for a while 
with my computer, then come home, sit by the fan and get through some more of the stack of library books I have at home. 
Maybe the Potholers or Schoharie the second half of the week. 
which I will follow up probably with a long weekend. Maybe Schoharie or the Adirondacks. Have to be strategic at this point as there are only three weeks left in August at that point before Labor Day Weekend, and I want to have at least a few more long weekends before summer is done. 
That said, except for the Mine Kill Pool there is no reason I can’t take lots of long weekends come September and October. 
I am not doing a West Virginia trip — or even a week-long trip at this point this autumn, so that leaves other days to allocate. I would like to do some kayaking, fishing, hunting, and bike riding this autumn. Charles Baker State Forest roads probably would be wonderful for autumn bike riding, as would the Chenango Canal Trail and others. 
when the sun will be setting at 7:31 pm with dusk at 7:59 pm. That’s the start of Labor Day Weekend. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny skies with rain showers and temperatures between 73 and 55 degrees. Cool day. The average high is 79 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1953. I might do Spectulator that weekend, especially if they have fire tower lighting that I could observe from I don’t know, Watch Hill (?). 
Some of those truck trails through the Conservation Easement might be nice on the mountain bike, as would be camping up on Hardwood Hill, looking at the stars, lighting off ground fireworks and sparklers. 
