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Maybe not the coldest Martin Luther King Day ever … ⛄

I could of and probably should have spent another night in the woods last night, but I didn’t. I was put off by the promise of high-winds, heavy snow squalls and my still fairly new camp stove that wasn’t working really well. Going to order a backup regulator and filter so going forward to avoid future problems. I might go back out camping in two weeks, if it warms up for my 41st birthday or maybe I’ll wait until Presidents Day Weekend.

Good morning! Mostly sunny and 18 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a southwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃.

Up at 5 AM 😀 making some pancakes with oatmeal, wheat flour and shredded carrots 🥕 to get that fiber-rich boost to my morning. Feeling good this morning, I thought I was starting to develop a cough yesterday, but I think I might have breathed into too much campfire smoke 🔥 in the cold on Saturday night. Blueberries, mango, honey and pure maple syrup to top the pancakes. 🥞 Probably have a bit of a sugar high today, and if not that, I definately did do that second pot of coffee. ☕ I’m up and going. Clear but cold this morning.

I do think it wouldn’t have been a bad day in woods, 🏕 but the forecast seemed so bad yesterday, plus I didn’t really pack enough food and I forgot to bring road salt to control the ice at camp. There will be future weekends, or so I tell myself. I do want to make sure I have that stove working well, at full output as I like my pipping hot coffee and eggs cooked quickly 🐣 especially on a cold day today. But it’s easier to get up at 5 AM with a heated apartment and electric stove to quickly heat up coffee on such a winter’s morning. I do wish I could be watching the sun rise at camp again.

M. L. King Day will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 28 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal. Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Not terrible for mid-January. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 33 degrees. The record high of 65 was set in 1995. Seems like a good day to be listening to Dion’s Abraham, Martin and John on this cold winter day, though it’s expected to warm up as the day progresses. 13.4 inches of snow fell back in 1983.❄ Maybe an inch or two of snow tomorrow. I could drive into my new office, but I think I’ll figure out a way to bus it was the transfers and or the shuttle as I don’t want to deal with snow or for that matter traffic.

Thinking about going for a bike ride this morning 🚴‍♀️ though the rail trail might be covered with snow. I could just ride the roads, maybe go out to Five Rivers or something. I also want to go to the library for a while, I’ve thought about making some Iowa caucus data from 2016 maps up to share on the blog. 🗺 Then later on this morning, going to head out to the folks house for a visit. 👪 Pork roast for dinner, should be yummy. 😋 Last night, I made some chicken soup up, 👩‍🍳 I was pretty good. I am guessing will be for lunch again too. Then I also want to make some bread up tonight, so I can put that in the oven for the morning. As I want to get in early tomorrow, as it’s the first day with the new position, I do need to be careful about cooking up soup or anything that takes too much time in the morning. Cold enough this morning I heard the heat kick on a few times, especially early on around 5 AM when I first got up to cook breakfast.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:05 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.2° from the due south horizon (-44.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:03 pm with the sun in the southwest (234°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (242°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:47 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 19 seconds with dusk around 5:17 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south-southwest (206°) at an altitude of 40° from the horizon, 226,535 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:53 pm. At sunset, look for partly sunny skies 🌃 and temperatures around 28 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 28 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 40 seconds over today.

At some point I got to wash my truck and mountain bike, 🚿 both which have a lot of salt and mud on them. But right now with the cold that’s probably pointless as the roads are likely completely encrusted with road salt. There were a handful of things I didn’t get at Hannaford like peppers and more sweet potatoes I’ll probably want to get to get when I run out to Glenmont next time. I could drive in mid-week, and do all of those things on my way home after work. It really depends on how cold it is.

Tonight will have a slight chance of snow showers between 2am and 3am, then a chance of snow after 3am. Mostly cloudy 🌨, with a low of 20 degrees at 3am. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 23rd. Maximum wind chill around 18 at 7pm; Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming light and variable. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1971.

I am excited about tomorrow with the new position. 👨‍🏫 I have so much to learn in my coming months, though everybody seems to think I will be a good fit for the position, with my knowledge of data science and public datasets. In other words, I am good at typing a lot of %>%, though I probably should brush up on Python and certainly COBOL in the coming months. But a lot of things it’s best to leave up to the actual programmers. It’s a big change, but it’s good to embrace change, and I look forward to doing good work and improving my own life. I’ll need to update my investments and tax deductions, but I first want to to slowly bring up the level in my checking account 💸 which has been so depleted in recent months, mostly due to inflation eating away at everything. I worry a lot, probably way too much, though I’ve had fewer and fewer problems with actual anxiety attacks since I’ve been eating healthier. 🥦 But as I note in one of today’s blog post, there are so many problems and risks in the world, 📉 that most important thing to do is to protect yourself against all the evils of the world today. They really are out to get you.

Cold and blustery weekend on tap. 🧤🧣 ⛄ It’s winter, what I can say. But it’s not expected to last with a warm up expected the following week. Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 17. Blustery. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 23. Probably filming my little part of Reszin documentary that week. Oh, really, as Reszin once said about my bullshitting. Probably too cold to ride over to the filming location, 🎬 which I am not actually sure where it is but it can be combined with a run to the store or Walmart. Always seem to need more food. 🍏 Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until my 41st Birthday 🎉 when the sun will be setting at 5:05 pm with dusk at 5:34 pm. That year of being forty went by like a flash. But it was good day, I mean year especially in the markets. How fast the days come and gone. On that day in 2023, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 44 and 22 degrees. I had a lot of fun camping that weekend, doing a bunch of cross country skiing. Maybe I should do again. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 54 back in 2002.

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

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. 🌧 There is a south-southeast breeze at 14 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 9 pm. ☃️

I slept in until 5:30 AM this morning ⏰ 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 🍰 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 🥕 and yes it was super sweet, as I no longer normally eat sugar. 🍭 😋 I was pretty wound up for the rest of the day, and I wish I ad been able to ride to work 🚲 to burn calories but that was not to be due to that loose bolt. I did have a nice walk last night. 🚶‍♀️I like yellow foods, note my obsession with turmeric, 💛 only followed by obsession with oranges, e.g. carrots and citrus like oranges and grape fruit. 🥕 But then again, Red is kind of my favorite color, ❤️ witness my big jacked up truck. 🛻 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, 💩 which I do poop a lot with my fiber rich diet. 🤣

Breakfast was onions, eggs, some spinach, canned tomato with some milled corn mixed in. 🍳 The result was pretty good, though I wish I had more fiber 💚 but by this morning my pantry was pretty bare. 🥫 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 🚿 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 🎫 I was able to knock $35 off of a $121 shopping bill, which got it down to $86. 💸 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. 🤬 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. 🤰 Shopping is so depressing 🙁 🛒 with inflation these days.

Got home from shopping and decided on an early lunch. 🍌 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. 😋 Now I’m feeling good. Probably still on that glycemic roller coaster 🎢 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 😇 especially when you don’t normally eat sugar. Of course now I have a big sweet tooth again, 😬 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. 🍰

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. 🌦 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.❄

What to do today is the question on my mind. 💭 I intentionally got up and early and to the grocery store a little after 8 AM so I could shop both before the crowds 👩‍👩‍👦‍👦 🛒 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, 📚 and maybe a bike ride on the rail trail 🚲. Another option would be to go to the Village of Colonie, check out clothes at the Salvation Army off of Central Avenue 👔, 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. 🌲🌲🌲 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. 🌲 🏕 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. 😎

Solar noon 🌞 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 🏅 starts at 4:00 pm with the sun in the southwest (233°). 📸 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. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the southwest (224°) at an altitude of 18° from the horizon, 226,726 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:51 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 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, 👨‍💼 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. 👨‍🏫 I won’t how much of the Job Control Language and COBOL I remember from back in those days. 📜 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. 🚌 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 👣 or visit with people in the Capitol Complex. 👥 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. 💵 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. 📈 But it’s still a good time in stock market after last year, even if this year is starting off soft. 🏦 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 🌥, 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, 🌲 🌲 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 🏕 and having a fire up in the woods 🔥 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. 🌬

Sunday will have a chance of snow showers, mainly after 9am. 🌨 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. 🦆 And for M. L. King Day, mostly sunny, 😎 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 🧹 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.

Waiting on the sun to ride after yesterday’s snow 🌅 🚲

Figured if it’s a dress-up day for work, I won’t be able to ride to work or want to take the stairs up to my office. So it best to get out riding early. It looks like the main roads will just be wet, not super icy though I might run into some snow on side-streets, like Meads Road and Orchard Street. I don’t expect it will be that bad of a ride this morning, and it’s not super cold. But first the sun needs to rise a bit more. I have lights on my bike but I don’t want to ride in the pitch black, especially past the street lights on NY 32 and Meads Road.

Good morning! Happy Monday on this Bubble Bath Day. 🛀 Back to work today, no time for bubble baths. 🧼Partly cloudy and 23 degrees in Delmar. ⛅ There is a northwest breeze at 14 mph. 🍃. The current wind chill is 11. There are 7 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at around 10 am. 🌡️ Probably want a bubble bath by the time I get home from the ride this morning. And more oil on the bike chain.

This morning I made cornmeal paddies with an egg, milk, red onions, garlic, spinach, red pepper and salt. 🍔 I think with the garlic, salt and red pepper I might next time dial back it back a bit, as they were a bit more punchy then I’d like in the morning, but they were good. The spinach helped boost the fiber content plus topping them with greek yogurt and the egg in them really boost the protein content. I was pretty happy with how they came out, and will make them again though I still think I’d want to tone them back a bit. Just too spicy for morning food. Is corn as healthy as oats or whole-wheat? Probably not, but it has the different sweeter and oiler taste. Don’t need to add any oil to the paddies for sure, and they were good.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 37 degrees at 1pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 18th. Northwest wind 7 to 14 mph. Between the warm weather, breeze and sun I don’t expect the snow to stick around. But we can really stick a fork in it come Wednesday with the rain expected. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 35 degrees. The record high of 60 was set in 2008. 8.3 inches of snow fell back in 1923.❄

Yesterday, I decided to make up some chicken soup 🍲 for dinner, which was followed by pea soup and a small bowl of cornmeal porridge. Interested in finding new ways to use cornmeal. Shredded a full orange in the food processor, to get all the flavor, taste and fiber of both the inside and outside of an orange. Didn’t make up any bread last night, I was kind of tired, but I probably will tonight when I get home.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:02 pm with sun having an altitude of 25.1° 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 🏅 starts at 3:54 pm with the sun in the southwest (232°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (240°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:39 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 21 seconds with dusk around 5:10 pm, which is one minute and 2 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:46 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌃 and temperatures around 34 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 7 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 14 seconds over today.

I’ll be the first to admit yesterday wasn’t the most productive day ever. Just a lot of reading, and watching Youtube and Udemy videos to learn more about machine learning and other topics. I probably should have gone out for a walk yesterday, but it was cold out and I wasn’t super interested in heading out. I kind of want to just get through winter at this point.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🏙, with a low of 22 degrees at 6am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 1st. Light and variable wind. Should be a nice night for the evening. In 2023, we had clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 18 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1968.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, rain. High near 45. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 32. Breezy. Typical average high for the weekend is 33 degrees. Things could evolve but Saturday isn’t looking great for heading out of town but Sunday into King’s Day might be good. I kind of would like to get at least one night in the woods, preferrably two if I decide to head up to the Adirondacks or Central NY. Rensselearville isn’t so bad for just one night, but it still requires quite a bit of packing.

Next Monday is Martin Luther King Day 🖤 when the sun will be setting at 4:48 pm with dusk at 5:17 pm. We are picking up quite a bit of time in the evening now, even if when I move to the Enterprise Drive office in the suburbs, there will be enough light in evening to ride back and catch the express bus home. The question now is just cold and snow. On that day in 2023, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 33 and 19 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 65 back in 1995.

And so this is… Merry Christmas 2023 🎅

After a rather misty, wet but mild Christmas Eve the sun is starting to peak through the clouds. It’s good, I decided I’ll stay an extra night as my family’s holiday party was canceled or more like postponed a week due to the cold that is going around. It’s fine, it’s going to be a fairly nice day to enjoy Christmas walking through the woods, enjoying the birds, wildlife and silence.

Good morning! Mostly cloudy and 37 degrees at the Moscow Hill Camping Area. ☁ There is a south-southeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Friday around 5 pm. ☃️

I’m enjoying the sun ☀ as it’s peaking through the clouds. My Christmas camping trip has been extended by another night after the family Christmas party was postponed. I’m not that disappointed with the nice weather expected today. Even the breeze will be good as it should help dry things out after the misty and muddy mess that was yesterday.

Christmas Day will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 45 degrees at 2pm. Nine degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 27th. South wind 6 to 10 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 27 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1889. 19.2 inches of snow fell back in 2002.❄

It should be a great day for Christmas 🤶 even if the snow is largely gone. I haven’t decided if I will ride some of the truck trails or just hike, the horse 🐴 trails are closed to mountain bikes for the season 🚵 but the signs are fairly clear that the hardened roads are fine though might be a bit icy. That said, I can always lock up the bike if I want to head off the truck trails.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:02 pm with sun having an altitude of 23.8° from the due south horizon (-46.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:47 pm with the sun in the southwest (230°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (238°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:33 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 5:04 pm, which is 37 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-northeast (68°) at an altitude of 17° from the horizon, 240,803 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:41 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 43 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 9 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 5 minutes of daytime, an increase of 14 seconds over yesterday.

Breakfast is done 🥚 and I’m feeling better after the Charlie Horse I had on my leg earlier in the morning. I might have been dehydrated, I drank a bunch of water. 💦 Gathered firewood for the night 🪵, mostly smaller stuff stacked high in hope the sun and breeze will help to dry things out. Last night the fire 🔥 was really smokey due to the wood being so wet. I actually retired to bed 🛏 on Christmas Eve a little after 8 pm as the fire was struggling and I was just kind of tired. Yesterday’s weather was a bit of a let down.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌃 , with a low of 34 degrees at 3am. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 9th. South wind 8 to 10 mph. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 16 degrees. The record low of -17 occurred back in 1914.

Looking ahead to New Years Weekend 2024. 🎇 Saturday, a chance of snow showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 32. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 34. New Years Day, 35 degrees and sunny. Typical average high for the weekend is 35 degrees.

It was the morning before Christmas 🤶 🎅 ❄️

One week until New Years Eve, might actually be cold and snowy for that. But foggy, damp and everything is kind of mush for this Christmas Eve up in the wilds of Madison County.

Good morning on this somewhat damp Christmas Eve ! 🎄 Cloudy, damp, foggy and 35 degrees at the Moscow Hill Camping Area. 🌥 There is a south breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. There is a dusting of snow on the ground. ☃ Temperatures will drop below freezing at Friday around 3 am. ☃️

It was drizzle when I first awoke 🌧️ after heading to bed 🛏 early last night due to the rain. It tapered off early this morning but left everything a damp slushy mess. Eggs for breakfast were good, I’ve been poking around camp ⛺ sitting by the heater and slowly gathering firewood and chopping it up for the night ahead. 🪵🪓

Today will have a chance of showers, mainly before 3pm. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 39 degrees at 5pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 14th. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. 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 15 degrees. The record high of 72 was set in 2015. 13.0 inches of snow fell back in 1966.❄

I swear there are two types of winter days when camping. 🌬️☃️ Bitterly cold but sunny and rainy and damp. Today is the later. It’s fine but the forecast was so much more optimistic a few days back. I was hoping for sun ☀ today for a nice walk 🚶 in the woods and some Christmas Eve bird 🐦 watching. Tomorrow, Christmas might be slightly better but I have my doubts. It’s still nice to be away and it’s not real cold.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:02 pm with sun having an altitude of 23.8° from the due south horizon (-46.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:47 pm with the sun in the southwest (230°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (238°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:33 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 5:04 pm, which is 34 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-northeast (78°) at an altitude of 25° from the horizon, 237,846 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:41 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 37 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 5 minutes of daytime, an increase of 9 seconds over yesterday.

Christmas Eve will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 33 degrees at 6am. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 12th. Light south wind. 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 11 degrees. The record low of -22 occurred back in 1969.

Yesterday I went down to Hamilton.🦆It was chilly at Woodman Pond and the Old Chenango Canal so I didn’t stay long or spend much time poking around the village. Instead I went to Price Chopper got a few extra groceries and headed over to Moscow Hill to set up camp ⛺, have a nice lunch and gather firewood for the night to come. Drizzled a bit midday then snow and sleet in the evening and rain around 8 pm.

Well, I Didn’t Expect that Rain this Morning 🌧

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. ☁ There is a southwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 5 am. ☃️

Despite the rain, it’s a super mild day. 😀 I noticed how warm it truly was when I got up during the night to go to the bathroom 🚽 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 🛌 after which about 5:20 I got up and got a jump on the day, tossing the bread and acorn squash 🍞 🎃 into the oven to cook, chopping up the carrots 🥕 and onions 🧅 for the soup 🍲, starting up a pot of rice, lentils and beans 🍚 for lunch and frying up onions, spinach, mushrooms and other vegetables 🍳 for breakfast.

I really wanted to ride in today, 🚲 and was glad that the rain stopped before it was time to leave after my shower. 🚿 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. 🎀 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 🚌 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. ⛄

Had a nice Sunday dinner with the folks 🍲 which was turkey soup 🦃 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 🤰 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. 😤 I didn’t get many steps in yesterday, as it rained so much 🌧 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 🌦, 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.❄

On my list of things to get done today is called the shop about getting my truck state inspected 🔎 🛻, 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 🚵‍♀️ 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, 👕 and to wash my truck, the relay that controls the CB radio and was clicking on and off. 🔘 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. ⚡ 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 📻 manually if I continue to have problems.

Last weekend when I was camping, I accidentally left one of the library books 📕 in back of my truck on the shelf on that rainy, snowy wet morning, 🌧 and the book got kind of wet from snow falling on it. 😭 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 🛌 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 👩‍🚒 🔋in my apartment, and now it’s been working properly without so many false alarms from the shower 🚿 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. 🛎 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 🌞 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 🏅 starts at 3:39 pm with the sun in the southwest (232°). 📸 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. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:30 pm. At sunset, look out for a chance of rain 🌧 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 🎆 to watch the fireworks and state “Empire Plaza” tree lighting 🎄 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, 🏢 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 🥤 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 🍓 or apples 🍎 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. ☕ I would do coffee, but in the evening, who wants to be up all night? Plus I like drinking milk 🐮 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 🌥, 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. 🌧️ 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 🎄 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 🍪 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.

Riding downtown early on this TGIF 🚲

I was on the fence about riding in today but I figured it would save a buck thirty and I figured even if the weather is crap for the evening I’m not going to be riding home as it’s dark out.

Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Partly cloudy and 46 degrees at the Empire State Plaza. ⛅ There is a south breeze at 13 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Monday around noontime. ☃️

That wind is really whipping around on the Plaza 🌬️ but the actual ride in was quite pleasant. I’d like to get in 10,000 steps for the day 👣 but that might be hard as I have a one o’clock meeting 🧑‍💼 and I’m not sure if it will be nice enough to walk in the evening. Plus it’s a Friday and I’m tired but the 7 ¾ mile bike ride from Delmar to the office downtown 🏢 and the eighteen flights of stairs to my office has to count for something.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 63 degrees at 1pm. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 13th. Maximum dew point of 50 at 4pm. South wind 13 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 44 degrees. The record high of 73 was set in 1928. 2.8 inches of snow fell back in 1992.❄

That’s a pretty impressive forecast to start the day out, and it was worth it to ride in. 🚲 I was a bit hesitant as the weather is going to be cool and windy 🌬 come the evening as the front pushes through that will bring rain for SZ opening day 🦌 and I’m planning on bringing my laptop home, 💻 and hauling the day pack with the laptop carrying case plus loading my bike on the bus 🚌 can be a bit of a armful but I’ve done it before. Bike will ride good on the bus even if it’s windy I’m sure, as there is plenty of wind pushing on the bike every other day I ride the bus with my bike on the expressway.

Yesterday I got sweet onions 🧅 and that was the first thing I chopped up this morning and fried up with spinach, mushrooms 🍄 tomatoes 🍅 and eggs 🥚. You know a good fiber and protein rich breakfast. 🍳 When I make up eggs, it’s rarely more than the eggs are glue to be used with all those delicious 😋 vegetables.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:41 am with sun having an altitude of 28.4° from the due south horizon (-42.4° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:50 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (237°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (245°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:32 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 13 seconds with dusk around 5:01 pm, which is 52 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south-southwest (198°) at an altitude of 18° from the horizon, 229,292 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:37 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 61 degrees. The dew point will be 50 degrees. Breezy, 18 mph breeze ⛅ from the south with gusts up to 30mph. Should be a pretty mild evening. But windy. Today will have 9 hours and 45 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 6 seconds over yesterday.

Maybe I will be able to do an evening walk 🚶‍♀️ after all. I will see on how cold and windy it is out this afternoon. I might also walk down to the library, and play with remote sensing data down at the library. But first more of that pea soup 🍲 and homemade bread that I made up yesterday and proved to be a good dinner. Plus maybe I’ll fry up more apples 🍎 and bananas with that avocado oil 🥑 which is great because I can use a ton of heat to cook and brown things without reaching the smoke point.

Tonight will have showers, mainly before 5am. 🌧 Low of 46 degrees at 6am. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 8th. South wind 8 to 16 mph becoming north after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2022, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 28 degrees. The record low of 10 occurred back in 1972.

Continuing that Udemy Course on Remote Sensing using the Semi Automatic Classification plugin 🗺. I’m not totally sure what I’m going to use my new found skills for but it’s something I’ve been interested in a while. 🖥 Raster math is kind of fun and interesting, especially when you use R to do it. Indeed while I may learn with QGIS I’d probably end up using R just because it’s faster to write code then click on all those dialogs.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers, mainly before 7am. Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing 🌞, with a high of 49 degrees at 12pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 16th. North wind 10 to 13 mph. Chilly with that wind though. 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 43 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1928. 9.0 inches of snow fell back in 1980.❄

Doesn’t look like a real great Saturday, ⛷ but I might go to the Bethlehem Sports Mart that the Boy Scouts host at the High School and look at Cross Country Skis. Then maybe ride out to Voorheesville, just to check out the new Slingerlands temporary rail trail bridge, 🌉 and maybe get apples 🍏 at Indian Ladder and other things at Hannaford Voorheesville. I’ll still probably get up at 5 o’clock to bake bread 🥖🍞 and Butternut Squash. 🍆

Looking ahead to Sunday, a slight chance of showers before 1pm. 😎 Partly sunny, with a high near 47. Southwest wind 8 to 15 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Another cool day with the wind, but being SZ season, I’ll probably not wander too far out in the woods. 🦌 But maybe ride out to Five Rivers. And also run to the grocery store for the big weekly shop 🛒 . Chance of precipitation is 20%. Typical average high for the weekend is 48 degrees.

Looking ahead, next Friday is Buy Nothing Day 🛍️ when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:56 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 49 and 24 degrees. I know you will miss all the sales but that plastic shit kind of stinks when you burn it. Typically, the high temperature is 46 degrees. We hit a record high of 70 back in 2014.

I’m still hoping to get out of town next Friday into next week ⛺ 🚵 but I’m watching the forecast and it seems like the Adirondacks might be getting it’s first good snow come the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. 🌨 It’s not to say I can’t hot tent though, as long as the snow banks aren’t too deep along NY 8. Maybe the bigger issue is that next weekend might be cold ❄ quite cold up north. It’s not the mercury I’m concerned about but if it’s windy out or not. That wind chill can really get to you.

Andy Arthur.org

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