It’s running late but so am I. Some of it is my fault, I didn’t get a real early start and I rode my bike to the store first for groceries. I needed more fresh fruit for the coming week and more rice and beans so I could cook prior to vacation.
Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Partly sunny and 71 degrees at the Elsmere. NY. Calm wind. The dew point is 67 degrees. The muggy weather ends Sunday around 2 am. 😓
I tell you I might have been better riding Blackie to work rather then catching the bus, 🚌 seeing how late it’s running today. But I decided to go to the store, stock up my pantry 🍑 🍏 🍌 with lots of fruit and veggies 🌶 🫑 🍄 and also rice and beans. 🍚 I soaked black beans and will cook them tonight, followed by red beans tomorrow so I can bring them out on vacation. Vacation starts on Friday. 🏊♀️
Today will have a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 86 degrees at 4pm. Two degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 68 at 10am. West wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 88 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1963.
I am going to build an updated list of everything I need to pack 🎒 as it seems like my packing list has gotten very out of date in recent years and it means I sometimes forget things, especially as my equipment and tastes have changed for camping.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:02 pm with sun having an altitude of 67.1° from the due south horizon (-3.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:44 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (291°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (298°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:24 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 16 seconds with dusk around 8:56 pm, which is 57 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the southwest (214°) at an altitude of 26° from the horizon, 241,681 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:38 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 74 degrees. The dew point will be 67 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 46 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 55 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight I am going to a public hearing about yet another development in the Albany Pine Bush 🌲 🌲 🦋 with the hope of getting home early enough to pack some of my clothes tonight 💼 and maybe go through one of the supply boxes in my truck to get it organized. Tomorrow, I want to do bulk of my packing, as Thursday I need to run to the store for rope and a few more miscelleanous things, and the more I do early and double check the less ✅ I think I’ll be likely to forget.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 63 degrees at 6am. Typical for tonight. Maximum dew point of 67 at 6pm. South wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 61 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1976.
On this day in 1965, Bob Dylan goes electric as he plugs in at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music. 🎸The crowds boo and his. Not very respectful. In 1993, The Saint James Church massacre occurs in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa. Liberals use it as an excuse to take away people’s gun rights in Australia, 🔫 which weren’t protected by an active gun culture or second admendment like in America.
A summer weekend ahead, going to be hot especially Friday through Sunday. 🏖️ Saturday, a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 87. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 69 at 10am. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Maximum dew point of 58 at 7am. Typical average high for the weekend is 84 degrees.
Looking ahead, next Tuesday is August 🌻 when the sun will be setting at 8:17 pm with dusk at 8:47 pm. On that day in 2022, we had hot, partly sunny and temperatures between 89 and 69 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 84 degrees. We hit a record high of 101 back in 1933.
They hide it everywhere in processed foods from hot dogs to pasta sauce. There is also a lot of fat in foods where you’re not thinking. 
Cheese is after all just dairy fat! Plus salt. 
It’s bad how much salt there is in common canned goods, including canned vegetables like I used to use a lot a camp. The more you learn and more you look at the labels, the more horrified you become. 
It’s everywhere, even canned tomatoes if you not careful. Even pasta and pasta sauce is pretty darn unhealthy with all the carbohydrates.
I not only eat too much but I also eat way too much pasta, along with my love of cheese and dairy. 
The carbohydrates, especially from the white pasta was further aggravating my soreness at times from Lyme Disease and just generally growing older. 
You can eat a lot of white pasta with pasta sauce, loading up on calories but not be filled up due to the lack of fiber. 
Walking isn’t fun when you wake up all achy.
I’m not sure if I’m pre-diabetic, but I certainly was heading that way. Then there was a constipation from all that cheese and pasta, the runs and terrible hangovers from over-consuming alcohol at camp, 
and general not wonderful health — even if I was burning a lot of calories. 
Maybe I could get away with in my younger years, but I’m no longer 20 or even thirty.
Meat in particular has gone up a lot in price, but also pasta, cheese and sauce. Vegetables and rice in contrast have been much more consistent in price over the years. It’s also easier to buy them in bulk which means less plastic garbage to get rid off. 
I can burn it, but plastic is kind of nasty and recycling is a pain to clean and pay to take the recycle center, assuming that the recycle isn’t just a creative detour to the landfill as it often is.
Most weeks were between 40-50 miles walked. But at the same time, I was looking at photos my face, winter camping, especially with the hoodie on and I was looking chubby especially in my face. Hiking up some of the big hills around was tiresome too. 
Next I swapped out pasta for brown rice, which as a lot more fiber and is more filling. Started adding additional healthy things like lentils and beans, which really fill you up quickly with minimal calories. 
Evey week I make a big bowl of lentils, brown rice, and cooked dried beans of some sort as a base ration for many meals.
Cheese is great, in moderation, something I didn’t do in the past. So many two-pound blocks of cheese I eat over the years. Macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, slices of cheese with honey. 
Meat is wonderful as a treat, but it can pack in a lot of calories. And it lacks a lot of vitamins for all the fat and calories that it contains. To get healthy fats, I occasionally eat chicken and salmon, in moderation. 
At first I started with frozen vegetables, but now I’ve been getting more fresh vegetables as it’s often more affordable and the taste is better. Plus greater flexibility for camping, as you can’t keep things frozen. 
I learned love tomatoes, freshly chopped onions, peppers and even kale. 
Always looking at new ways to get new green vegetables into my diet — I always have either spinach or kale in one or two meals a day. 
Ravioli and pasta are great, but it’s not like you can grow them out back. 
They come in paper and plastic garbage, they can’t be composted. In contrast, fruits and vegetables come in minimal to no packaging. 
I don’t get hung up above overly complicated recipes, but I do try to make things are healthy and don’t add a lot of unhealthy things to make them artificially sweet or give them tastes that aren’t natural. 
Feeling thinner and getting complements all of the time is great too. 
