Good morning! Where did September go? Winters coming. But first autumn. Two weeks to Columbus Day 🛥️. Partly cloudy and 47 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ Calm wind.

I had a nice breakfast of eggs this morning, so hopefully I’ll have lots of energy to make it through today. ☕ I set my alarm early so I would be up in plenty of time to drop off my truck and be in early to prepare for the Monday meeting.⏰ Hopefully this week will go smoothly, and vacation will happen on Saturday morning bright and early. Rainy though by mid-week but maybe the rain will get out of the system by next week.🌧

Big Red has been dropped off at the shop and he’s being looked at. 🚘 Hopefully today or tomorrow it will be fixed and I’ll be good for vacation. 🔧 New mechanic but the online reviews were good and the receptionist was friendly. Maybe not the tobacco smoke, WGNA country music playing 🎶 with a burn barrel 🔥 out back but I don’t live in the country anymore. 🐮 I do miss having my cars repaired at Lou’s in Greenville, but he must be a million years old now. Great guy though. But certainly driving through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia I’ll have plenty of time to see the country in coming week.

I’ll probably buy food for vacation 🍲 on Wednesday so I can test out the truck and have more time to figure out what I forgot before I leave. I want to leave by dawn on Saturday. Should be a nice trip down there. Friday I will also go to the laundromat and get some books to read at the library. I also want to buy two additional SD cards 🎴 so I have plenty of recording capacity for my dash cam to make scenic videos.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 67 degrees at 3pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 29th. Maximum dew point of 47 at 6pm. Light and variable wind becoming south around 6 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 66 degrees. The record high of 88 was set in 1905.

The sun will set at 6:39 pm with dusk around 7:07 pm, which is one minute and 46 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 66 degrees. The dew point will be 47 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 48 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly between midnight and 2am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 55 degrees at 6am. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 8th. Maximum dew point of 52 at 5am. South wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2018, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 52 degrees. The record low of 28 occurred back in 1993.

A picture perfect weekend to start out my vacation on tap. 😎 Saturday, sunny, with a high near 59. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 62. Maximum dew point of 45 at 5pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 64 degrees. Temperatures are dropping rapidly now that we are into October.

I plan to get a really early start on Saturday and probably get scrapple in Pennsylvania just to try it out. 🐽 Then visit a few state parks on the northern tier before overnighting near Towanda. I’ll probably take Interstate 88 down to Pennsylvania, even though I hate driving it as I want as much time as possible to visit state parks in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

The latest forecast for Thomas WV is talking about more rain ☔ for Monday and Tuesday but that could change again. I’m going to bring my tent, tarps and heater in case it’s really cold and wet. ⛺ I don’t mind a few quiet days but I hope at least the balance of week is sunny. Cloudy days as was common during my vacation in 2017 and 2018 are kind of depressing. ☁ Sometimes though if you get the exposure right cloudy days can be excellent for fall foliage pictures. Might also be a good day for some camp cooking and baking, now that my camp stove is working really well.

I am glad that this week is a pay week, 🤑 because between the car insurance, the repair bill for my truck, rent, and certain expenses related to vacation, there is a lot of money going out and not a lot coming in. My day-to-day fund balance as of the weekend is the lowest it’s been in recent years, although I do keep a bit more in their in years past as a cushion. That said, based on the fact that it’s another month before my credit card bill is due, I think things will balance out, especially as expenses except for heat decline in the winter months.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Columbus Day 🛥️ when the sun will be setting at 6:15 pm with dusk at 6:43 pm. On that day in 2018, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 59 and 40 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 61 degrees. We hit a record high of 81 back in 1920.

Good morning! Happy Labor Day 👨‍🏭! Kind of a rainy, wet Labor Day although things seem to be improving. I made some coffee up ☕ and are finishing taking down my campsite. I took down the flags last night and my truck cap stayed pretty dry last night despite the intense rain we had for a while. 💦 This campsite is well drained so the rain wasn’t really an issue.

This Labor Day morning is cloudy, damp and 57 degrees at the Perkins Clearing Easement. ☁ There is a south breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 57 degrees. Not going to be a real nice day but it looks like the rain has let up and the skies will clear around 7 pm.

Labor Day will have showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 1pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 1pm and 5pm. 🌦 High of 64 degrees at 3pm. 12 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 2nd. Maximum dew point of 61 at 2pm. 🏖️ South wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of Perkins Clearingprecipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It became sticky as the day progressed. The high last year was 83 degrees. The record high of 100 was set in 1953.

The sun will set at 7:31 pm with dusk around 8:00 pm, which is one minute and 45 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 60 degrees. The dew point will be 58 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 7 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 52 degrees at 4am. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 14th. Maximum dew point of 58 at 6pm. West wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It was very sticky. It got down to 73 degrees. The record low of 39 occurred back in 1976.

So Labor Day Weekend has come and gone. Well at least the camping ⛺ part of it once I finish taking down camp. I am in no rush at any rate. I might go for a walk 🚶 at the Speculator River Walk before heading home 🏡 but then I’ll be home. Four weeks from now I’ll be West Virginia, 👍as I’m doing my road trip a week earlier this year as usually the colors are done by Columbus Day Weekend in the high country and because I’m house sitting as my parents house the following week. 🐶

The camp stove continues to work well with both burners ♨ and I’ll replace the broken chair 🚮before the next time I camp. 💺Need to get propane, especially now that I know they don’t sell it at Tractor Supply 🚜 in Amsterdam. That said, there were plenty of other places that sold propane, but I skipped it and I made out okay, although I’ll need it for the next trip.

I could have gotten propane at Frank’s Gun Store on the way up here but I’d probably end up buying yet another gun 🔫 and honestly I need to save some money as my car insurance is due at the end of the month. 💵 I thought about switching insurers but I’ll probably just drop off my insurance reduction certificate from the class to State Farm. I like the coverage and rates of Progressive but it’s a pain figuring out all the details of the switch. 🔎 The difference in price for equivalent plans isn’t that great.

Probably cheaper to get propane at Tractor Supply, it’s a loss leader for them to sell more cowboy hats 🎩 and in my case more Carhart shit that I just got to have. But self restraint is possible in hopes of a better life tomorrow in a freer state. ✅ Gotta have the AR-15 to ventilate that garbage burning barrel, when you live out in the sticks in a red state. How else are you going to have fun putting holes in your barrel?🛢🔫

Changing topics, I need to get a better shovel. It’s hard digging through the roots to bury the poop at the end of the camping trip. 💩 A troel works but it’s hard work. While the bucket shitter means I’m only digging one hole, I like digging a deep hole because I hate finding toilet paper flowers in the woods. I guess I should separate out the toilet paper and burn it but as long as it’s buried deep enough with the bacteria from the poop it should rot away quickly. I bet the local hardware store would sell a small spade ♤ for such purposes.

Cool next weekend with temperatures running 15 degrees below normal but otherwise sunny. 😃 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 63. Maximum dew point of 49 at 12pm. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 59. Typical average high for the weekend is 76 degrees. Probably won’t be so cool back in Albany but hardly swimming weather at any rate. I might hunt next weekend 🐀 at a local state forest 🌲 but I doubt I’ll head out of town for a few more weeks. I like traveling but becomes a lot of work after a while and there is a lot of things I could be doing closer to home. 🐢

Plus all that beer drinking 🍻 around the campfire 🔥 probably ain’t that healthy for me or my finances. I returned 107 beer cans from camp to Shoprite the other day. ♻ It’s all from camping because I don’t drink at home. I don’t always eat the healthiest crap up at camp and maybe have a smoke from time to time. 🍴 Camping is fun but maybe too much fun at times.

Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until Columbus Day 🛥️ when the sun will be setting at 6:27 pm with dusk at 6:56 pm. On that day in 2018, we had cloudy, mist and temperatures between 72 and 52 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 63 degrees. We hit a record high of 89 back in 1963.