Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Two weeks to Memorial Day 🇺🇸. Despite the cold and wet spring, making farmers and everybody else life miserable summer is coming. Cloudy, damp and 44 degrees in the land of the Delmaritian. ☁ There is a east-southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Rain this afternoon once again, I hope you brought your umbrella ☔. Maybe it’s an exaggeration but it sure feels like the sun ain’t going to shine again. The skies will clear Wednesday around 1 pm.

This morning I feel sick as a dog 🐶 but it’s off to work. Headache, body aches and a bit of a sore throat. But I’ve had this on and off for weeks now. I’m thinking it’s mold exposure from all the rain we’ve had lately in my shitty apartment and that and I hate Mondays. Hopefully this won’t last for long. It’s come and gone every week.

But I shouldn’t hate this week too much as tomorrow is a pay day, the first or second of the month depending on how you look at the calendar. 💵 One week closer to a better tomorrow. I expect a busy day and I’m hoping to get out of work at a reasonable hour, so hopefully the day will go by quickly. No plans for the weekend yet, but I do have to prepare for the Lupine Festival and the Save the Pine Bush booth 🦋 on Saturday. The following weekend is Memorial Day Weekend.

Today will rain, mainly after 1pm. 🌧 High of 50 degrees at 1pm. 19 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 29th. East wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 68 degrees. The record high of 86 was set in 2004. There was a dusting of snow in 1953.❄

The sun will set at 8:09 pm with dusk around 8:41 pm, which is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 46 degrees. There will be a east breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 34 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 9 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will rain. 🌧 Low of 40 degrees at 6am. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 24th. North wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 54 degrees. The record low of 30 occurred back in 1996.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Memorial Day 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 8:22 pm with dusk at 8:56 pm. On that day in 2018, we had rain showers, partly sunny and temperatures between 68 and 54 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 73 degrees. We hit a record high of 94 back in 1914.

It looks like the weather forecast is improving for the long range. ☀ It might be a hot and dry start to June. I’m hoping for nice weather for Memorial Day Weekend but who knows at this point. At some point the weather will change. But regardless I expect a shit ton of black flies.🐜 At least they aren’t bad after dark. And they weren’t biting that much this weekend that was.

While I didn’t get to Moss Island this past weekend, I will probably head over to there sometime in June, 🌼 as part of a trip to Piseco-Powley Road and the potholers. When I do that, I’ll probably also get a bite to eat for dinner at Green Acres drive-in and maybe hike a little bit of the Erie Canal Trail. Might be warm enough to kayak a bit in the Mohawk River too. Not totally sure which week though in June, because I also want to get up to Speculator and do some hiking and camping up along Perkins Clearing Road where I went on Labor Day Weekend last year.🚶🏕

Almost to work… Time to end this blog post. Have a great day!

Good morning! Happy Saturday. Finally the weekend! The Sunday before Mother’s Day. 🚺 Next Saturday is Flower Moon 🌕. Partly cloudy, but clearing and 53 degrees ⛅ up at Stewart Landing campsites in the Adirondacks. 🗻 There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. A bit chilly when the sun dips under the clouds, laying back in the hammock with the breeze blowing around. The skies will clear around 11 am.

At 4:15 pm Friday I decided to come up camping. ⛺ I had nothing packed or bought for food 🍲 but I decided to leave work, grab my camping gear and head out. I figured I would beat the severe thunderstorm getting home ⚡ and then get packed while it was ongoing and from there after it was over, after rush hour head out of town. I stopped for some groceries and gas and went out to Stewart Landing. I got caught off at the same exit on the Crosstown Arterial in Albany I got rear ended on five years ago but this time I was able to avoid an crash though horns were mashed and brakes slammed. I may have urinated a bit in my pants over that. Yikes. 😮 People ask why I ducking hate motoring so much. The Thruway was completely blocked for a while due to a motorcycle crash, according to the CB radio 📻 but after 15 minutes it freed up and I was moving. It such a ducking bad drive up here with smearing rain the whole way.

Because I had to shop, get gas and get packed, despite leaving work early, I didn’t get to camp until close to 8:15 around dusk 🌆 but the campsite was fine except for the litter 🚮, broken glass and thumb tack 📍 I had to clean up. A lot of litter around here I had to pick up which was annoying but the campsite is mostly cleaned up and I fixed up the fire pit. I’ll bring some of the litter home but the bigger stuff – burnt chair frame, burnt out car radio, lots of burnt wire – I’ll just toss in the pile of other debris back in the woods. It’s at least out of the way for now. I wish people wouldn’t litter – pack out your garbage. If something doesn’t burn fully, haul it out. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t scrap the burnt wire at least that was all over the campsite. Nobody wants to be tripping over wire or broken glass in the darkness.

Things are fairly dry up here 👢but there is a pretty deep and rocky mud hole on the driveway to the campsite ⛺ so I don’t want to drive through it unnecessarily to visit Little Falls today and I’m kind of annoyed about what happened yesterday driving up here. I just don’t want to hit one of those big rocks and bend or break a suspension component. Instead I’ll probably hike back to Hildervaldnt Vly from camp and enjoy the beautiful day in the wilderness. The sun is already charging the battery 🔋 and I expect a good charge with all of the sun.

After I started setting up, somebody took the campsite just down the road, started a big fire 🔥 then packed up and left. Odd. That’s one of the reasons I’ve never camped down here as there isn’t a lot of space between the campsites – the nearest one is about 250 ft away. Not the mile plus of many of the Pisceo Powley sites. But quiet up here today, I can certainly listen to my music later on without bothering folks.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 57 degrees at 2pm. 11 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 13th. Northwest wind around 10 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 66 degrees. The record high of 90 was set in 1911. .5 inches of snow fell back in 1907.❄

The sun will set at 8:11 pm with dusk around 8:44 pm, which is one minute and 6 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 52 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 32 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 15 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 38 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 18th. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming light and variable in the evening. In 2018, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 48 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1969.

As previously noted, next Saturday is Flower Moon 🌕 when the sun will be setting at 8:19 pm with dusk at 8:52 pm. On that day in 2018, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 73 and 51 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 70 degrees. We hit a record high of 94 back in 2017.

I should probably finish securing camp and head out on the trail. The hammock, sun and breeze are nice although I did just see my first black fly 🐜 of the year…..

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Gotta make that money 💵 to save for a better tomorrow. Plus buy beer, ammunition and gasoline. Three weeks to Memorial Day 🇺🇸. Not that it feels like it. Cloudy, damp and 55 degrees ☁ Calm wind. The dew point is 51 degrees. The skies will clear around 2 pm.

I caught the earlier local bus 🚍 to work today. I was up so I figured I might as well get in the office early. 🏢 No sun now but they are still promising it later. I don’t know about you but I’m tired of all these cloudy, rainy days. Not sure how long the day will be but I’m hoping to get over to Finger Lakes wine night 🍷 for a while this evening. I don’t drink much anymore so it won’t take much free booze to have my share. Tomorrow is mock session so I’ll probably get out at five o’clock tomorrow.

Today will have a slight chance of showers before 10am. Cloudy, then gradual clearing during the afternoon 🌞, with a high of 71 degrees at 3pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 20th. Maximum dew point of 51 at 7am. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 65 degrees. The record high of 89 was set in 1930. There was a dusting of snow in 1994.❄

The sun will set at 8:01 pm with dusk around 8:32 pm, which is one minute and 6 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 66 degrees. The dew point will be 46 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 21 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers after 3am. Partly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 53 degrees at 4am. Nine degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around June 2nd. Maximum dew point of 47 at 6pm. South wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2018, we had light rain in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 50 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1874.

I was thinking more about the weekend and I’m thinking about camping ⛺ up at the campsites near Stewart Landing and then driving down to Little Falls on Saturday. Sunday I could hike some of the upper Glassco Mills trail. 🚶 Never been back that way. I probably wouldn’t bother with bringing my kayak as the water is still pretty cold.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Memorial Day 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 8:22 pm with dusk at 8:56 pm. On that day in 2018, we had rain showers, partly sunny and temperatures between 68 and 54 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 73 degrees. We hit a record high of 94 back in 1914.

I’m still thinking about the East Branch of the Sacandaga for Memorial Day Weekend. ⛺ But only if the weather is decent and not too ungodly hot although I bet I could find a good swimming hole or two in the East Branch. 🏊 I wonder how much those campsites fill up? I’m thinking mid June heading up to Perkins Clearing lest I’m on call 📞 and I need to do work from camp. I can call my clients from the hammock with my cowboy hat on. 😎 Plus that site is nice and open so I would get a lot of Solar power. ☀

Good evening! Partly clear and 56 degrees 🌉. There is a east-southeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 49 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 11 am. Not a terrible evening but I decided against sitting out back after my evening walk. Should be a great evening for sleeping. 💤

Sipping on some nice cold drink of water with a hint of that cider vinegar. 🍏 I’m so glad I quit drinking alcohol. 🍻 Budwiser is so tasty now that it’s a rare treat in the wilderness. Water is so much healthier and has zero calories. And cheaper. Maybe the slight acidity is bad for the teeth but I can’t imagine it’s any worse than soda. I do get regular check ups at the dentist and I still drink a lot of milk 🐮 although not as much as I once did as milk is kind of expensive and a lot of calories.

All and all it was a pretty sucky weekend weather wise, 💦 but except for running to the store I pretty much stayed home. I did get groceries so I’m not totally out of food like yesterday when I was stuck eating cream of chicken soup 🐔 dunked with stale bread. Hey, it had to be used up and I was in a cranky mood yesterday so I wasn’t going to go shopping. I figured sticking around home saves money. As does using up what is at home before buying more.

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain before 10pm, then a slight chance of showers between 10pm and 1am. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 49 degrees at 6am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 21st. East wind around 6 mph becoming north after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 54 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1969.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 5% illuminated. The First Quarter Moon is on Friday night with mostly cloudy skies expected. The Flower Moon 🌝 is on Friday, May 17th. The sun will rise at 5:43 am with the first light at 5:12 am, which is one minute and 17 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours and 42 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 22 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 71 degrees at 5pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 20th. Maximum dew point of 49 at 4pm. North wind 3 to 5 mph. Should be a nice day. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 65 degrees. The record high of 89 was set in 1930. There was a dusting of snow in 1994.❄

Tomorrow is another work day but with my south facing office 🏢 the sun will be nice ☀. I love the views of the Heldebergs and Catskills from my office and with all the greenery from the spider plants 🌾 its always nice. I’ll definitely walk outside to the Capitol.

Over the weekend I worked on some improvements to the blog that make it easier for me to locate old content for refeaturing and updating. After all these years of blogging it becomes hard to constant think up new things. 💭

I won the eBay auction for the hand drill 🔩 I plan to use for drilling holes in quarter inch luan plywood for building LED signs. Minimum bid $8, even with shipping I think I got a fair deal – certainly cheaper than buying new and much higher quality rool. I am thinking my first project will be a USA red white and blue sign for use at camp.💡 I’ll probably just run it at five volts USB power with everything in parallel. If I drive the LEDs at 15 mA I can run 30 in parallel and draw about 1/2 amp at 5 VDC or 2.5 watts.

I also ordered two more HC-05 Bluetooth modules and a USB to serial adapter 🔌 from China to replace the one I burnt up this weekend. Still haven’t paired the two together I have but I’ll figure it out eventually. I also played with the waterproof temperature sensor a bit today. I got to get it now working with the esp32 that drives my VMS display and run the wires outside so I can measure the outside temperature. ❄

I started thinking more about what life would be like without an automobile 🚘 this weekend. I’ve thought a lot about the savings but less about the costs – ride sharing fares, more bus fares, car rentals, laundromat, paid trash pickup vs hauling my own, and even having to either order online or buy from Hannaford rather than buy cheaper at Walmart. The big savings seem less than at first. Well I guess the same thing is true when I study car insurance 🚙 options – big savings don’t materialize by shopping around if you want to maintain decent coverage. The way you save big bucks is by dropping the amount of coverage you have which increases your risk especially in case of severe accident. Being that I don’t own a house nor have my money tied up in property it’s less safe from liability lawsuits so I want to have decent coverage. 💵 Plus I think it would mean a lot less nights in the wilderness.

Right now, next weekend looks pretty nice. 😎 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 64. Maximum dew point of 46 at 6am. Sunday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 64. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 44 at 11am. Typical average high for the weekend is 68 degrees.

If the weekend forecast remains true, 👍 I’m still thinking about Piseco Powley Road and then Little Falls on Saturday. ⛺ Things could change before the though. I know that the gates are closed north of the Potholers but the lower part of the road will be open and hopefully won’t be too soft. Or I could consider other alternatives.

In four weeks on June 2 the sun will be setting at 8:27 pm,🌄 which is 27 minutes and 14 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had humid, partly sunny, patches of fog and temperatures between 78 and 60 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 74 and 53 degrees. The record high of 94 degrees was set back in 1895.

Looking ahead, Mothers Day 👩‍ is in 1 weeks, 8:30 PM Sunset ️⛱️ is a month away, Fathers Day 👨 is in 6 weeks, Dog Days of Summer 🌻 is in 2 months, National Nude Day 👱 is in 10 weeks, Sunset Before 7:30 PM 🌆 is in 17 weeks, Autumn 🍂 is in 20 weeks and Average High is 60 🍂 is in 23 weeks.