Search Results for: photo making breakfast 3

Happy Halloween! 🦇 🎃 🍬

I don’t partake in candy anymore but I do like using canned pumpkin in several recipes and I should cook up sugar pumpkins for recipes in the coming weeks.

Good morning! Clear and 37 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌅 Calm wind. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Thursday around midnight. ☃️ But after all of yesterday’s and Sunday’s rain, it’s

Rode to work today 🚲 and let me tell you, it was cold ❄ especially on the fingers. 🖐️ I need to get some good riding gloves 🧤. Not just for the cold but to keep from putting too much pressure on the nerves in my hand and causing numbness in my finger tips. That said, lately it’s not been so bad, but I’ve also been more careful how I ride my bike. The walk up the 18 floors of stairs to the office 🏢 is helping to warm me up. Only a few more days when there will be daylight to ride home after work, though when the mornings aren’t too cold, I’ll ride in and then put my bike on the bus for the trip home. 🚵‍♀️ Still cuts my bus fare in half and provides valuable exercise.

This morning with the fresh groceries I got from the store, 🍳 this morning started out with some onions fried up, broccoli, mushrooms, scrambled eggs with smoked paprika, topped with cottage cheese and nutritional yeast. It was a remarkably good breakfast, though not dissimilar to what I last had in West Virginia. Also made up some brown rice with red lentils for a nice creamy mix spiced by chipotle sauce mix. Good for a change from other types of brown rice.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 48 degrees at 3pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 18th. Light north wind. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 64 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 2019. 0.1 inches of snow fell back in 1913.❄

I accidentally lost my headphones 🎧 last night but this morning re-tracing my steps, riding to work I was able to find them at the steps of the laundromat. Checked the polling place first, then the laundromat. I was glad to find them. While the earbuds are getting old and probably will need to be replaced in a few weeks or months, I didn’t look forward to making a special trip to Walmart to replace them. I lost my other set a few weeks back too, though I did find an nasty cheap wired pair at home if I absolutely needed tunes 🎼 while working. I should get a second pair, lest these break or get lost.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:40 pm with sun having an altitude of 33.3° from the due south horizon (-37.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 9.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:11 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (245°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (252°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:51 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 6:19 pm, which is one minute and 20 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:54 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 45 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Tomorrow will have 10 hours and 22 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 32 seconds over today.

Got a lot of miscellaneous things done yesterday. 💉 First and foremost I got my COVID-vaccination and flu shot scheduled for Thursday. I don’t want to get the COVID or flu if I can avoid it. 🗳 I had time so I got out and voted. That and the whole banning drones near school post by one of the local candidates made me angry 😠 so I wanted to cast my protest vote right away. 👕 👖 Went to the laundromat and got my clothes cleaned, and while they were drying, I went to Hannaford and stocked up on groceries. 🍄 🌾 🍵 Unfortunately they were out of bananas, 🍌 but being that I rode my bike to work today, I can stop on my way home.

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain showers after 3am, mixing with snow after 4am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 33 degrees at 6am. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 10th. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Unlike West Virginia, Albany hasn’t had freezing weather yet, though the leaves are quickly falling. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 54 degrees. The record low of 22 occurred back in 1964.

Already reached that part of the year, 📄 where I got the PEP, productivity enhancement program sign up form for 2024. Already got it done and signed up for next year. How fast the years come and go, I feel like I just filled it out a few weeks ago. But then again, it’s November. I also was looking and they’ve increased the retirement savings maximum for the year, 👴 which means I won’t max out even with my 25% deferred comp contribution. I was hoping for big checks at the end of the year to balance out my budget, but it doesn’t seem likely to happen. At least come December I should be getting in revenue from the blog.

Mild but more clouds for the second half of the weekend 🌤️. Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 57. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 56. I want to wait a few more days to decide if this is the weekend for Madison County. 🐮 ⛺ Typical average high for the weekend is 54 degrees.

I voted yesterday 🗳 mainly as I wanted to get it done before I might head out of town this weekend. Plus after reading a local candidates social media post, I was so angry 😡 at them I decided I had to go and right away cast a vote ❎ against them. I know voting while angry is probably not a good idea but I got it done.

Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until Average High is 50 🍂 when the sun will be setting at 4:35 pm with dusk at 5:04 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2022, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 42 and 27 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 50 degrees. We hit a record high of 70 back in 1973.

Pasture

Not the nicest day ever but it’s not raining. I say that a lot these days, lol. 😂 ☁

I was up at 5:30 this morning to make breakfast and get going, and then it was dark, sat down at my computer and finally figured out how to calculate mile points along roads and trails. Doesn’t seem like a major accomplishment but the code turned out to be something I’ve been racking my brain over the past year or so, though when I finally got it to work, it was fairly simple to implement in reality.

Good afternoon! Mostly cloudy and 55 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ Calm wind. The dew point is 45 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 4 am. Not a real beautiful day, did see a brief break of blue sky but it’s dull and overcast again now. Not heading down to Pennsylvania or West Virginia today but those days will come, or so I tell myself.

I was up early and it was dark. 🌇 The pancakes I made up with ground oatmeal and some quinoa were good 🥞 I added a banana to the mix for sweetness 🍌 and topped with lots of frozen blueberries 💙 and sugar-free maple syrup. I might end up eventually switching back over to real maple syrup but the low calorie nature of the prior is good, and it’s much cheaper. Maybe come next spring, when it’s fresh. And maybe only as a treat. It’s good to use up the quinoa — it’s better now that I’ve started to wash it better and it cook it longer to get rid of the bitterness but it’s not my favorite breakfast food just in a mushy bowl. But it’s surprisingly good mixed into the oatmeal pancakes.

Also continuing on the oatmeal theme 🍵 (I bought more oatmeal this week), I decided to make oatmeal bread up this morning with whole wheat flour, water, yeast and a bit of salt. Also included shredded carrots 🥕 in the mix to boost fiber levels and give it more texture along with the oatmeal. I keep trying to make healthy meals, while keeping things interesting through variety. The apple bread the other week I wasn’t pleased with due to the lack of salt and fat in it, but the garlic bread I made was delicious. I topped the oatmeal bread with oatmeal and a bit more sea salt for good measure. I plan to bake tonight with spaghetti squash and sweet potatoes at the same time in a very full oven, and then reheat more pea soup — though I’ve thought about making up soup with the red lentils, salt, turmeric and other spices. That might be good, especially after my bike ride. 🚴‍♀️

Been reading and studying map making 🗺 in the effort to get better at GIS and make better more useful maps for the blog, make more ad revenue and expand my skill set. One of the big things I’m trying to master is label placement in QGIS. Automatic label placement often sucks, but I’m not very good at manually working with labels in QGIS. In modern versions of QGIS manual label placement isn’t hard but I find it rather confusing as I’ve never used the manual label placement options much and they aren’t always super obvious how to use them. Like how do only show desired labels using manual label positioning, rather then suppressing them? You can change one of the override settings to do that but it’s non-obvious. Plus I’ve been learning all about pinning labels, a concept I didn’t know much about until I spent some time reading and experimenting. Labels are important for quality maps but I have to admit I was very ignorant on how they all worked in QGIS.

This afternoon will be cloudy ☁, with a high of 58 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 24th. Maximum dew point of 46 at 4pm. Light north wind. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 67 degrees. The record high of 81 was set in 1920.

The war on mice continues. 🐁 I literally caught three more last night. I think one was that big fat sucker I tossed outside yesterday in my boxers and t shirt full of shaving cream like a girl 🧒 yesterday. He got back inside and caught again. I haven’t set up the bucket trap this year but I did do both the spring traps and the sticky traps the later which I find works well with a big glob of peanut 🥜 butter which I won’t eat anymore but I’m find using it up catch mice. Lol, I haven’t heard anymore today in the walls but I envision there are hundreds 💯 in my kitchen at night when I’m not looking. 🙀 I guess I need a barn cat for my apartment. I’m not into pets that I can’t eat 🐐🐖🐄 but I could see the utility of having a cat.

I am still thinking about going for a bike ride out to Indian Ladder Farms. 🍏 👈 🚲 I’m just not motivated with the weather today, and I’ve been playing a lot around with maps and code this morning. I am so proud that I finally figured out how to Create Mile Points from a LINESTRING or MULTILINESTRING in R. While the final code I wrote was pretty trivial, it took me a long time to figure out my way around the details, and overcome some of my coding mistakes in earlier versions. It is quite a handy little piece of code, I should not. I plan to use it for a lot of projects in the future.

Tonight will have a New 🌚 Moon with 0% illuminated. At 12 PM, the moon was in the south-southeast (169°) at an altitude of 39° from the horizon, some 247,147 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by April 19th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The moon will set in the west-southwest (258°) at 6:12 pm. The Hunter 🏹 Moon is on Sunday, October 29. The darkest hour is at 12:42 am, followed by dawn at 6:39 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:08 am in the east (100°) and last for 2 minutes and 57 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:46 am with sun in the east-southeast (107°). Tonight will have 12 hours and 50 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 48 seconds over last night.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy ☁️, with a low of 43 degrees at 6am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 11th. North wind 3 to 6 mph. In 2022, we had clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 38 degrees. The record low of 27 occurred back in 1978.

In four weeks on November 11 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (247°) at 4:38 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 38 minutes and 20 seconds earlier then today. I won’t be able to ride the bike home from work at that point. In 2022 on that day, we had rain and temperatures between 69 and 48 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 51 and 33 degrees. The record high of 70 degrees was set back in 2002. Those days will be here before you know it.

Looking ahead, Daylight Savings Time Ends 🛥️ in 3 weeks, Veterans Day 🇺🇸 is in 4 weeks, Average High is 50 🍂 is a month away, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 is in 5 weeks, Small Business Saturday 🛍️ is in 6 weeks, Average High is 40 🌨 is in 8 weeks, Earliest Sunset of the Year ⌛️ is in 8 weeks, Tea Party Day 🐍 is in 9 weeks, Festivus 🍖 is in 10 weeks, Bacon Day 🥓 is in 11 weeks.

Along Salmon River Reservoir

Up and in early this morning ☺

A simple morning this morning – cream of wheat, topped with ground up apples, cinnamon, ginger, chia seeds 0 that quinoa I had in the fridge. The ginger really gives a nice kick to breakfast and it’s supposed to help with inflammation but I mostly just love the taste.

Good morning! Rise and grind. Monday’s come back around again. Rain showers and 55 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ There is a north-northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 53 degrees. The skies will clear around 5 pm.

Like usual I was up early at five 5⃣ so I decided to catch the early express bus downtown. 🚍 Maybe the rain would have ended early and I could have ridden home but it hard to say and the rain would have taken off at that nice lubrication I had put on the bike chain yesterday. ⚙ Most of the rest of the week will be good for bicycling to work 🚲 plus I need to get to the store and get some garlic cloves 🧄 which somehow fell off my grocery list when shopping yesterday. 🛒

Today will have a chance of showers, mainly before 10am. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 67 degrees at 3pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 3rd. Maximum dew point of 56 at 2pm. Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming southeast in the afternoon. 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, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 66 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 2017.

Not the nicest day ever, 🌧 actually a pretty darn dreary day, but I’m going to try to get in 5,000 steps in before work by waking laps and the stairs at the Empire Plaza. I am up early and if I can’t walk outside, I will definitely try to get my steps inside. 👣 Tomorrow I figure I’ll ride to work, and the same on Wednesday. Thursday before tripping up to the Adirondacks with my parents, I’ll probably do my usual morning walk or maybe if it’s really nice and I’m up early do a quick ride out to Five Rivers 🐦 around dawn.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:48 pm with sun having an altitude of 46.6° from the due south horizon (-24.2° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:12 pm with the sun in the west (263°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (270°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:50 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:16 pm, which is one minute and 47 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the southeast (141°) at an altitude of 17° from the horizon, 226,549 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:51 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 65 degrees. The dew point will be 55 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 12 hours and 2 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over today.

The new data structure is implemented on the blog 🗺 which cuts page loading time, saves a ton of space, eliminates several thousand lines of custom code, and just makes things a lot more pleasant for me on the maintance side, including making it easier to upload new maps. 🤷 Why did I not implement this sooner? Well I didn’t think it would save so much space, and I was afraid of transitioning over the old content, with all the files that it would involve. Turned out not to be as bad of a conversion as I thought, and the user experience doesn’t change a bit.

Also turned on Google AdSense, with fairly conservative settings. I don’t love having ads on my blog, but it should help with the ever growing hosting bills. 💵 It wasn’t that difficult to implement in the code, and I’m not running that many ads, so if you don’t scroll through a lot of pages or scroll down far, you might never see them. I don’t like advertising, but you don’t run ads, there isn’t a chance of getting any money at all. The way I look at it — an investment in the future of the blog, and it doesn’t require a lot of work on my part.

Tonight will have patchy fog after 5am. Otherwise, partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 49 degrees at 5am. Typical for tonight. Southeast wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable. 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 53 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1947.

Thursday going up to the Adirondacks with the folks 🍂 to do some leaf peeping and enjoying the fall foliage. Probably go up to Speculator and then down back around through Piseco-Powley Road or NY 10. Have a picnic lunch. 🥪 It will be a nice day with the family, should be a good sunny day 😎 as I can’t do Thursday and Friday looks to be a bit more cloudy. ⛅ That said the weekend currently looks great.

A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 71. Maximum dew point of 54 at 11am. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 73. Maximum dew point of 55 at 11am. Typical average high for the weekend is 68 degrees. I kind of would rather go camping during the Columbus Day Weekend, but this one looks so good too. Maybe I’ll do Rensselearville State Forest again. 🌲 That way I can get out to the folks house relatively early, as they’re doing lasagana this weekend. Really looking forward to that.

Looking ahead, there are 7 weeks until Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 when the sun will be setting at 4:36 pm with dusk at 5:05 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 49 and 36 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 50 degrees. We hit a record high of 69 back in 1964.

Trees

They’re taking about frost in the North Country this morning 🍂

You can taste the fresh silage on the air and you know it won’t be long before the leaves will be full of color in the North Country. Up at five o’clock cooking down split pea soup to have with homemade bread.

Good morning! Happy Thursday. A cold start, you might need the choke on your motor. Mostly clear, the sun is rising and 47 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌅 Calm wind.

Up a little after five to cook 🍳 and get started on my day. Needed to run to the rest room and then I needed to have coffee ☕ and get that pea soup cooking down. A half pound of spinach, onions, stir fry vegetables, a crust of whole wheat flour and water plus two eggs, a bit of milk and corn starch topped with a bit of Parmesan was breakfast. Dinner last night was pizza 🍕 but not that American crap way. A simple whole wheat flour and water crust, several paste and other tomatoes that were starting to mold a bit run through the food processor with a garlic clove and a bunch of spices with flour to harden, topped with chopped onions and spinach and a bit of Parmesan. 🥦 I do eat a lot of spinach, I like fiber. Fills your stomach up fully without many calories.

Lately I’ve been a been a little nostalgic 🎶 and listening to a lot of country music from the early 2000s like back in college. Not that I’d ever want to go back to those days with all those trials and tribulations of youth and far less money but life was good before inflation kind of ruined everything. I think it’s September 11th and just the autumn weather that takes me back to the first year back at Hudson Valley Community College, my first experience with much urban life, and being on my own, having a car, being able to go up to the woods whenever I wanted to. 🎄

Out walking around 6:45 AM this morning. 🚶‍♀️ Definitely a beautiful morning for the walk, should be a great ride down through the gorge to work. 🚲 I tasted some of that pea soup, it’s delicious, I’ll bring some for work and probably have some more for dinner. Might end up freezing the rest so I can have it later in the weekend, obviously with some fresh bread. 🍵 Might be a good way to end Saturday after riding trail most of the day up at Thacher Park. 🚵‍♀️ I am starting to run low on bananas, 🍌 I might stop and get just them at Hannaford during the evening commute home. Other then that my pantry is pretty solid.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 70 degrees at 3pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 26th. Maximum dew point of 50 at 6pm. Calm wind becoming north around 6 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 76 degrees. The record high of 95 was set in 1895.

I called the General yesterday 🚚 and guess what I’m on call back list regarding when they can do the passenger airbag inflator recall work. I figured with all the notices and social media ads I’ve gotten about replacing the airbag inflator, they’d have a ton in stock at this point and I could just drop the truck off in a week or two and have it back the next day. Nope, they took down my information but couldn’t promise me an appointment at this time.

Called back the doctor, 📞 and after a bit of phone tag 👩‍⚕️ they want to do some more testing about my pissing problem.  Didn’t catch it right away, as my phone is set up to automatically go to voice mail. 📨 Heck of it is since I’ve not been eating so many zucchini and overnight oatmeal, I’ve not had such a pissing problem.🚽  I kind of don’t want to spend more money getting tests, as I think it’s mostly in my head at this point, to blame on my diet, but they said some of the initial rounds of test were inclusive. 📋They can’t schedule me until another two weeks, so at that point I’ll re-evaluate if I find myself needing to piss too much. I really think the key is stay away from coffee and overnight oatmeal before road trips, especially my October trip if I’m thinking West Virginia.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:49 pm with sun having an altitude of 48.2° from the due south horizon (-22.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:20 pm with the sun in the west (266°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (272°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:57 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:23 pm, which is one minute and 47 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, 233,527 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:58 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 66 degrees. The dew point will be 50 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 16 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over yesterday.

Yesterday, I went for an evening walk 🚶‍♀️ and went through my dresser and pulled out most the XXL clothes and put them away in the crawl space, and started to go through the hand-me-downs I got from the late John W. Some are XXL unfortunately, I only meant to get XL but I’ll try them on. 👕 Going to wash them though before putting them with the other clothes, as some of them have a bit of an old man smell to them. The pizza I had was good 🍕, very filling, didn’t really need a desert. Lights were out before 8:15 PM though I did listen to a podcast or two on my phone before getting fully asleep but that’s fine, I’m usually up by 5 AM most mornings to start cooking and getting a jump start on my morning.

Totally getting sold on going down to Canaan Heights West Virginia sometime after Columbus Day Weekend 🍂 to mountain bike, hike, camp and see the sights. I mean I’m not 100% on this and it could change, but it would be fun. Probably start the week up Wellsboro PA-area to ride some of the Pine Creek Gorge Trail. Not sure how much farther south I’d go in West Viriginia, maybe Dolly Sods, but I would rather focus on Canaan Heights, Blackwater Falls State Park and the Canaan Wildlife Refuge as I haven’t spent nearly enough time up that way.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 46 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 1st. Light northwest 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 51 degrees. The record low of 31 occurred back in 1962.

I’ve been starting to look more deeply into the future of the blog. 📝 I can bitch about the cost of running it but it won’t make it go away. I kind of would miss not doing it, so it’s probably worth the money to me. I do want to re-work the data structure, make things more efficient and maybe remove more of the custom code and try to make it use as much of built-in WordPress code as possible. 👨‍💻 I could bring my laptop home and work on this over the weekend, especially if it’s going to be rainy. The big difficulty might be the transition — taking down the old data structure and replacing it with the new one, and getting all the URL rewrites perfected before going live. I don’t know any way to do this completely without taking at least part of the blog offline to do the change over. 🤷‍♂️ I might also look at implementing Google AdSense, so I can get some advertising revenue, to cover the costs of doing the blog. I don’t love that idea — there is too much advertising pollution already, but I get tired of ever inflating costs, even if it really is a smaller part of the budget that that I’m making more money at work. 💸

A chance of showers throughout the weekend with more sun on Sunday. 🌦 Saturday, a chance of showers, mainly after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 66. East wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Maximum dew point of 52 at 10am. Sunday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 68. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 56 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 72 degrees.

I won’t say it’s a banner weekend this weekend, 🌦 but maybe not a wash out. Still will be good enough to do the Nature Bus to Thacher Park. Saves some money and it’s a fun day, plus I went out camping last weekend. 🏕 Maybe next weekend I’ll get out again, though the very long-range forecast doesn’t look all that great in all honestly. Columbus Day Weekend, which is two weeks from Saturday might be better. ⛵ 🍂 Only time will tell, though it seems like autumn will be late this year.

South Along Lake George

Well that pizza crust reminded me of inexpensive Walmart whole wheat sandwich bread that was a bit soggy 🍕

Well it was an experiment but probably rushing it, making it undercooked with the wetness from the thawed 3/4 lb of frozen spinach and pulverized tomatoes left it soggy. I’m not saying it was bad as I eat all up but needs refinement. On that note…

Good morning! Clouds after the rain storm and 68 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁️ There is a south breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Some good bolts of lightening as I cooked breakfast with rain but then it stopped.  ⛈ The dew point is 66 degrees. The skies will clear around 11 am. Probably within a few hours I’ll need to drop the shades in my office so I can see my monitor. I don’t mind the sunlight, especially on a cooler day today.

I ended up deciding to ride to work after realizing I was too late to catch the early express downtown 🚵, as it wasn’t too wet this morning, after the storm pulled away and the radar showed all clear. But if we get rain this evening or it’s too hot, I can always throw Blackie back on bus and take it home — but it’s rather ride, burn the 500 calories and save my buck thirty. 🚌 I figure in most cases when it’s nicer out, it’s best to take Blackie at least one way, as before you know it there will be snow on the ground, I’ll have to dress up for work, or actually have a good excuse for not riding in. That said, I’m kind of looking forward to moving over to the new office in North Albany, as Erie Boulevard is a much easier, flatter ride then the Madison Street hill, past Hill Cafe. Plus none of the serious traffic like on Madison Avenue. Won’t get rid of the Normans Kill Gorge climb in the evening commute, but that’s part of the calorie burning exercise.

Got my 36 inch jeans on 👖 and they fit pretty darn nicely. I almost could have gotten 34s, but these will do for now, as who knows where things will be in a few months. With some of those nicely-fitting shirts I got from the Salvation Army, I look pretty sharp compared to the baggie jeans and oversized t-shirts I often wear, though I’m getting more fitting clothes, but most of that currently is just shorts and hand-me-down t-shirts from dad. 👕 I think now that I have better fitting clothes, it won’t look like I’ve lost an excessive amount of weight, and that will hush up the critics. Now the key is just keeping off the pounds, though I think I’ve learned enough about food and nutrition in recent months that I’m unlikely to go back to my old ways. Yet, it will be harder to ride to work when the snow flies ❄️ as eventually the rail trail will be impassible due to snow. Plus when I move to the Erie Boulevard office, I won’t have the 18 flights of stairs to climb or that hard climb up the Madison Street, not that I’ll necessarily miss the later especially with the traffic.

Today will have showers and thunderstorms before 11am, then a slight chance of showers between 11am and 2pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. 🌦 High of 77 degrees at 2pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 5th. Maximum dew point of 68 at 9am. 🏖️ South wind 5 to 13 mph becoming northwest 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 mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. It was very sticky. The high last year was 90 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1953.

I think yesterday’s pizza would have been better, 🍕 had I baked the crust even further — more then 8 or 10 minutes before adding the spinach and sauce, and maybe boiled down the pulverized tomatoes 🍅 before applying them as sauce. I didn’t think the crust was a garlicly as I had hoped, and maybe I could have added more olive oil to the mix, though I didn’t want lard it up with too much saturated fat or calories. The loads of spinach were good, and the cottage cheese added flavor, and it was good to use up many of the tomatoes I had where starting to get soft and in some cases moldy in part of them. I think next time I’ll try preparing in advance with the addition of yeast, 🍞 maybe a little of Stevia for sweetness and maybe less oil. And make sure the crust is fully baked before adding toppings, and as then boil down the sauce in advance to make it thicker. Definitely felt full after this meal though, and I went for a five mile bike ride 🚴‍♀️ after eating, around the Nature Trail in the park, 🐸 then down Glenmont Road to the other part of Elm Avenue and back home before it was completely dark out at eight. 🌃

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:57 pm with sun having an altitude of 56.4° from the due south horizon (-14.4° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:58 pm with the sun in the west (277°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (283°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:36 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 58 seconds with dusk around 8:03 pm, which is one minute and 41 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-southeast (110°) at an altitude of 3° from the horizon, 226,455 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:40 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 70 degrees. The dew point will be 60 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 13 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 45 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🎑 , with a low of 57 degrees at 5am. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 3rd. Maximum dew point of 61 at 6pm. Going to sweat this evening on the bike ride home, especially with long-sleeved shirt and jeans but I’ll take my time. 🚲 Northwest wind 8 to 10 mph. In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 66 degrees. The record low of 37 occurred back in 1965.

I put some red lentils to soak in the refrigerator today, 🍛 this evening I will drain, and try running them through the food processor again with some sea salt, for a second attempt at making red lentil wraps. I have generally avoided wraps as I think they’re extra calories and carbs for no reason, but I could see different things I could make up with them too. Somehow I don’t have turmeric in my pantry despite shopping at Farmer’s India Market on Saturday, but I should get some so I can make dhal up as it’s an healthy option. I need eggs, 🥚 I could get them with the Turmeric this afternoon commute, though I’m a bit hesitant to buy eggs and then ride home with the bumps, 🐣 as often it’s a bit rougher riding in the basket then in an an automobile. Plus if I wait until Friday I can get farm-fresh eggs at Samdil Farm, which I was surprised are only selling for $3 a dozen, probably because they mill their own chicken feed from farm-grown grain that is primarily for their dairy operation. 🐓 But then again, I don’t really need any more food, my refrigerator is full and I don’t want things to start going bad. Maybe next week when I back from camp I can try dhal.

Tonight I’m going to start packing for the Labor Day Weekend. 🏕 There is only so much I can do this soon but the more I have ready, the less to do tomorrow, and then I can get to bed early 🛌 and be up and on the road before seven come Friday. Then to Samdil Farm early, which is a bit out of the way but worth it, Johnstown Walmart for any other miscellaneous supplies and hopefully to that campsite I want by nine. 🎪

Then when I get up to camp, by mine, the plan is clear: 🎪 Set up the tent, then chill, as I have day off and I’m not remote working. 🚲 Spend the afternoon riding dirt and gravel, see how many bears 🐻 and wildlife I can see along the way. Cook up some shrimp, squash and other goodies, eat sweet corn. 🦐 🌽 Hammock time, and kayak and swim time, especially come Labor Day. No need to rush home on Labor Day, as I’m not visiting my parents this weekend though I want to be home by 8 PM so I’m not driving home in the dark. But that leaves a lot of day to poke around and have fun in the greater Speculator-area.

A picture perfect Labor Day Weekend on tap. 😎 Friday, sunny, with a high near 77. Light north wind. Max dew point of 53. Very nice. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Maximum dew point of 60 at 4pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 85. Maximum dew point of 66 at 4pm. Monday, sunny and 89 degrees with a maximum dew point of 69 at 4 pm. A bit sticky for sure. Typical average high for the weekend is 79 degrees. 🍂 That said, it won’t be long before we start seeing a lot of color up north. Not sure, I could be back up there in three or four weeks to take in autumn’s colors.

On this day in 1967, Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ⚖ Had to have been quite the step forward in the country at the time, but now seems so long ago, with Justice Clarence Thomas long ago now replacing him. And in 1974, a powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan. 💣 Eight are killed, 378 are injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested on May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities. Usually it’s right wingers these days blowing up shit. But who knows if Trump is reelected not that I think it’s likely to happen at this point.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until More Night then Day 🌌 when the sun will be setting at 6:46 pm with dusk at 7:12 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 68 and 50 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 70 degrees. We hit a record high of 89 back in 2017.

Pond

I didn’t expect to get wet before heading out to Five Rivers 🐸

I mean I probably should have with the summer we’ve had expect rain. Going to clear out later but will be cool for the family clam bake.

Good morning! Happy Sunday. Rain showers and 65 degrees at the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. ☔ There is a north-northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 60 degrees. The skies will clear around noontime.

Woke up early 🌅 and to run to the bathroom 🚽 and decided not to go back to sleep. Milled oatmeal down to a fine powder in the food processor and then added one of the fresh apples 🍏 that I got at Yonder Farms and ultimately a banana 🍌 for sweetness and consistency and a bit of water for pancakes 🥞. Black coffee ☕ and frozen fruit with sugar free syrup made for a good breakfast.

Rode Blackie 🚵 out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center 🐸 for some nature observation and to get away a bit this morning, though I wasn’t expecting the rain. ☔ Not super wet but unexpected in my mind, I’m hiding our under the pavilion for now. I’ll go for a short walk 🚶 and then head home. Then shower 🚿, get a few groceries at Walmart and clams 🦪 at Market 32 🛒 then head out to the folks house by later midday. 🕛

Today will have isolated showers before 9am. Partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 76 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 11th. Maximum dew point of 62 at 11am. North wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 81 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1948.

Yesterday afternoon at Thacher Park 🏞 was nice, though some of those trails were rougher on the bike 🚲 then expected but I try to be super gentle with Blackie not wanting to break shit but I’m also not afraid to now ride somewhat rougher trails with Blackie but I still prefer gravel. Super muddy after the summer that was. Still want to get to Charles Baker State Forest to ride before the snow 🌨 comes. Not that I probably have much of a worry this winter with El Niño and I’m not planning on doing much trail riding which closes October 31st, just road riding.

John Wolcott’s funeral is over ⛪ that chapter is closed. The whole wheat bread I made last night came out pretty good, most of it is now frozen. Last night’s dinner was commercial protein pasta you find in the supermarket with a bunch of spinach and the remaining kale I had plus mackerel for a good boost in the omega 3, healthy fats to help absorb the vitamins that make up the spinach and kale. The fats, protein and fiber fill you up quickly. 🍲

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:58 pm with sun having an altitude of 57.5° from the due south horizon (-13.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:03 pm with the sun in the west (278°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (285°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:41 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 59 seconds with dusk around 8:08 pm, which is one minute and 39 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the south-southeast (151°) at an altitude of 15° from the horizon, 228,020 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:45 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 71 degrees. The dew point will be 59 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 26 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 44 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃 with a low of 56 degrees at 6am. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 6th. Maximum dew point of 60 at 6pm. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2022, we had clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It became humid as the night progressed. It got down to 59 degrees. The record low of 42 occurred back in 1982.

Now that I made bread with yeast 🍞, I’m interested in doing baking using baking powder or baking soda for those times I don’t want to mess with kneading or waiting 24 hours for the bread to rise. That’s more kind of for making biscuits but they can be a source of healthy carbs too if you limit the unhealthy fats by using olive oil or ghee and don’t use sugar. Also I was playing with my food processor this morning and will just dry oatmeal seems to do a decent job of milling whole grain oatmeal down to oat flour – and not just pancakes. 🍪

Today in 1859, Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world’s first commercially successful oil well. 🛢 To this day, that town still smells like petroleum, and it floats in the creeks, but they produce much less oil today then at the peak around the turn of the century. Exploring the Oil Creek State Park is fun as is Pithole abandoned oil town but do expect a strong petroleum smell. 👃 But then again, Western PA smells like petroleum like the Black River Valley smells like cattle and manure. Just part of the country.

Looking ahead but maybe not forward to dark mornings walked or risen, there are 2 weeks until 6:30 Sunrise 🌇 when the sun will be setting at 7:16 pm with dusk at 7:43 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny, patches of fog and temperatures between 83 and 56 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 77 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1931.

Mallet Pond

Closing out summer weekends on this rainy Friday ☔

Next weekend is Labor Day Weekend, words that I find almost find hard to write. As that garage in Johnstown has on the sign, summer should get a speeding ticket.

Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Clouds with a break in the rain and 65 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a south-southeast breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 63 degrees. 0.52 inches of rain is expected before it ends tomorrow around 4 am.

Another day for busing it 🚍 as I’m not convinced that it won’t turn to heavy rain last night. At least this time I’m prepared with my rain coat 🧥 so that almost guarantees that it won’t rain. Next week at this time I’m hoping to be well on my way to Spectulator so I can set up camp ⛺ before nine o’clock for the long weekend. I’ll see if I can remote work otherwise I’ll take off a personal day.

Today will have showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 9am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 9am. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 75 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 14th. Maximum dew point of 70 at 2pm. South wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.  It could be a swamp for bicycling home, assuming it’s not raining. And I’m not convinced that will be the case. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 87 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1947.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:59 pm with sun having an altitude of 58.2° from the due south horizon (-12.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:06 pm with the sun in the west (279°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (286°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:44 pm after setting for 3 minutes with dusk around 8:11 pm, which is one minute and 38 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the south (180°) at an altitude of 20° from the horizon, 232,021 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:49 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 73 degrees. The dew point will be 69 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 13 hours and 32 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 42 seconds over yesterday.

If it’s not raining too much today, 🍞 I am thinking of riding down to Hannaford and getting some whole-wheat flower and yeast so I can start experimenting with making bread again for the first time in years. Looking to make some simple, relatively healthy wholegrain bread as a way to mix up my diet more, especially with winter coming and wanting to have something to dip into the various vegetable soups I want to make come winter. 🍲 And maybe some more frozen fruit, though that could wait to the weekend as I sliced into the pineapple 🍍 last night and still have bananas left.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms before midnight, then a slight chance of showers between midnight and 5am. Patchy fog after midnight. Otherwise, mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 66 degrees at 6am. Seven degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 70 at 6pm. Light and variable wind. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half 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 was humid. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 40 occurred back in 1942.

On this day in 1950, President Harry Truman orders the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike🏗️ So much for the boy from Missouri being a socialist. 🇨🇳 For those looking for more processed food and unhealthy levels of salt in their diet, in 1958 world’s first publicly marketed instant noodles, 🍝 Chikin Ramen, are introduced by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando. And for us Linux users, in 1991 Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux. 🐧

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. Partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 79 degrees at 3pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 1st. Maximum dew point of 66 at 9am. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 83 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1948.

John Wolcott’s funeral is on Saturday at ten AM, ⚱ so I will be needing to get up at the normal time, go for my walk, have breakfast 🥞 and then shower 🛀 and get on the suit and black tie. 👔 After the funeral, I am thinking I will run to Albany Walmart or maybe just Aldi’s as it’s out in the Colonie, then maybe to Indian Farms and Our Families Harvest to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables, namely apples and sweet corn. 🍏 🌽 Also I’m quite interested in the Farmer’s Indian Market off Central. Might be some good spices and unusual vegetables at an affordable rate there. Plus bulk bags of rice, lentils and MSG. Got to have that MSG. 👹 Lol! Honest, it doesn’t turn you into a monster but it makes food taste so good.

Looking ahead to Sunday, partly sunny and cool, with a high near 74. ☀ North wind around 6 mph. Maximum dew point of 60 at 11am. Very autumn like. Should be a nice day for the clam bake with my parents. I’m actually tempted to get up early and do a hike or bike ride early in the morning. 🚴‍♀️ Typical average high for the weekend is 81 degrees.

Looking ahead, next Friday the Average High Falls To 79 🎑 when the sun will be setting at 7:31 pm with dusk at 7:59 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny, rain showers and temperatures between 73 and 55 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 during the 1953 heat wave 🌊 . Summer comes to a close.