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October 22, 2018 Afternoon

Good afternoon! It’s a Monday again. Two more after this before I get to back home. Definitely miss the routine of catching the bus to work. Driving to work is for the dawgs. Three weeks to Veterans Day Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸. Cloudy, damp, and 46 degrees in North Syracuse. ☁ There is a southwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃.

Not a real nice day for sure. Kind of bitterly cold and damp. Yuck. I guess not every day can be 75 degrees and sunny. It’s tough that this October is more typical then many we have had in recent years. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Thursday around 3 am. ☃️

“Wish I was a Kellogg’s Cornflake
Floatin’ in my bowl takin’ movies,
Relaxin’ awhile, livin’ in style,
Talkin’ to a raisin who ‘caisson’ly plays L.A.”

– Punkey’s Dilema, Simon and Garfunkel.

This afternoon will be mostly cloudy ☁, with a high of 50 degrees at 4pm. Seven degrees below normal. Southwest wind around 8 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 74 degrees. Back in the bad old days. 👹 Long ago they seem. The record high of 86 was set in 1979. There was a dusting of snow in 2005.❄ Not a real nice day, but you can’t control the weather but you can control your attitude towards it.

The sun will set at 6:09 pm with dusk around 6:38 pm, which is one minute and 32 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and 48 degrees. There will be a south-southwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 42 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of sprinkles after 5am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 41 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal. South wind around 5 mph. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 43 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1969.

Last night when I was heading home, I noticed the accessory battery looked a bit low. 🔋I was a bit concerned as I thought that meant I might have a loose wire or some other problem with the battery. Turns out I had left the starting and accessory batteries connected and forgot about it during the day, and the load of the headlights and unlocking the doors with the engine off made both batteries voltage sag a bit momentarily.

Not it was a problem, but my misreading of the gauges made me a bit worried for a few minutes until I figured out what was really going on. I got to be real careful with that switch when camping, ⏺ making sure it’s in the “I” rather then the “II” position when I’m using camp power. That said, I usually keep a close eye on both the starting and accessory battery voltages when I’m at camp.

Today in 1897, using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13 1/2 hours before burning out). 💡 Talk about some dated technology that had a long life-span, as vacuum tubes filled with various gases continue to light our buildings to this day. That said, light-emitting semiconductors, have all but certainly replaced that this technology, although for existing fixtures many of the mercury-vapor florescent lights and some tungsten-filament energy hogging bulbs are used in rough-service areas like barns.🐄

I was reading about solar power converters, ⬛ last night, which are used in some multi-panel solar systems to boost or buck current from individual solar panels to increase efficiency. Basically, solar panels put out a wide range of voltages depending on how much power is coming out of them. You need a certain voltage to charge a battery, and if the voltage is too low the battery won’t charge well, while if the voltage is too high, the battery will off-gas and eventually explode. Likewise, solar panels are most efficient if you apply some resistance on them so you get the right balance of amps and voltage. It’s a bit complicated, I don’t fully understand the technology, and it’s hard to explain, but it’s interesting to learn more about it. 📟

Honestly, when I own land and a cabin up in the wilderness, I don’t care about all that fancy technology, and aren’t really that interested in having high-voltage 120 volt, grid-style electricity. 🔌 Maybe use a few small inverters to power a few appliances, but my goal is to use as little electricity as possible, and stay with 12 volts or maybe 24 volts with buck converters. I guess things like water pumps, refrigerators, etc. often require more power, which easier delivered with a higher voltage and lower amperage.

But that’s some time off. I need to continue to save and invest for another decade, as I figure I will need at least a quarter million to pay for relocation costs, land, and a small cabin. Land is expensive, and while a smallish cabin is more affordable, I want something that is well insulated and protected from the rain. 🏠 I don’t mind doing low-voltage electrical stuff and basic maintance, but I want something decent to start out. Oh, and a good job once I relocate. But I think with some saving, careful investing, and planning I can make it a reality sometime after 2030. That seems like a long time away, but it’s really not that far out, and I’ll only be 47 years old at that point, and still lots of my life left.

There are 15 days, 7 hours and 45 minutes until the poll close on Election Day in New York. 🗳 Two weeks tomorrow. Three weeks, my vacation will be well underway, god-willing that is. I am still very carefully watching the North Atlantic Oscillation to see how it will impact my trip. I am hoping the weather won’t be too bitterly cold, snowy or rainy. Who knows though, things can certainly change.

Regardless, it will be nice sipping the cup off coffee in the morning next to the heater ☕ and having a rip-roaring fire at night. 🔥 Cooking some decent food in the camp oven — fresh bread, muffins, pizza. Yum. Sitting back, feeling the chill at night. Hanging out in the woods with a shotgun, going for a hike, seen the land. Just not rushing around, not so busy lie i’ve been lately. I’ll be glad once that time comes around.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Veterans Day Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 4:43 pm with dusk at 5:13 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2017, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 44 and 22 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 49 degrees. We hit a record high of 68 back in 1909.

September 22, 2018 Night

Good evening! Happy Autumn. Partly cloudy and 50 degrees in Fayetteville. ⛅ Calm wind. Definitely feels like an autumn evening with a good chill in the air.🍂

Definitely a fantastic sunset tonight here in the Syracuse area. 🌄 Loads of color for sure and I had a great view from Green Lakes State Park overlooking Minoa and Fayetteville. The hills hide most of the development and the bird conservation area is fantastic for viewing wildlife without the crowds. 🐸

Tonight will be partly cloudy ☁, with a low of 42 degrees at 5am. Seven degrees below normal. Light and variable wind. Definitely an autumn night. In 2017, we had partly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 53 degrees. The record low of 32 occurred back in 1963.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 96% illuminated. The moon will set at 4:59 am. The Harvest Moon 🌕 will be tomorrow with a chance of showers. Shine on harvest moon! The sun will rise at 6:52 am with the first light at 6:23 am, which is one minute and 6 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 11 hours and 52 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 55 seconds over last night. Sometime next week we will start having more night than day time. Winter is coming! ❄

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 66 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 48 at 4pm. Light and variable wind. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 85 degrees. Pretty warm for sure that day when I was camping up at Moose River Plains. The record high of 97 was set in 1895.

Looks like a a nice day to do some hiking and enjoying of the day. 😎 It’s no going to be long before sunny days in the mid 60s are a rarity. I have stuff to do tomorrow so I can’t venture out too far but maybe I’ll follow up my evening hike today with a hike along the Erie Canal tomorrow. I also want to spend some time hiking along Onondaga Lake at the county park but I think I’ll hold off for later in the month. Syracuse downtown is pretty overlooking the lake especially when there is some fog on it during a nice crisp morning. 🏃

Yesterday when I was out hiking my digital camera battery went dead, so I don’t have much video and I couldn’t use my telephoto lens. 📷 Still it was a nice evening for a walk. The camera battery is charging now. I should have left it charging all day as the accessory battery in my truck remains really well charged even with the short trips for work due to the ample sun over the past few days hitting the solar panel.

I do miss being home and even more so camping ⛺ but I’m well paid for my work and enjoy the travel. Lots of nice people you meet along the way and it’s providing me with extra money to put away towards my long term savings goals of owning land and an off-grid cabin where I can finally have my own space that is more than just a temporary residence in the wilderness. 🌲 I do have some camping gear in my truck so I might be able to get away for a night but honestly I’m looking forward to those long November nights next to the campfire, using my camp oven and making delicious meals. 🍝 Right now where I’m working I lack a stove, oven and freezer, so while I can cook some things or get take out it’s nothing like a good meal cooked in the wilderness.

I have been working on uploading📤 some of the essays and other interactive content of developed for my blog over the summer and plan to be featuring more of it over the coming weeks. 💻 Last week moving to the new office and attending that wake back in Albany meant I didn’t have a lot of free time to post to the blog but I am good with stuff going forward – it’s more just a matter of getting the final tweaks done before it goes live. 📝

In four weeks on October 20 the sun will be setting at 6:12 pm,🌄 which is 47 minutes and 57 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had sunny skies and temperatures between 71 and 46 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 58 and 38 degrees. The record high of 80 degrees was set back in 1965.

Looking ahead, Average High is 60 🍂 is in 3 weeks, Northern Zone Regular Season 🦌 is in 4 weeks, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 is in 8 weeks and Thanksgiving 🦃 is in 2 months.

How To Break Your Truck in the Middle of Adirondack Wilderness. And Fix It When You Get Home.

So this weekend, I was camping in the Southern Adirondacks on Route 8, about 85 miles from home. All was going well today, when I got back from my hike. It was a bright and sunny day, and I had my new solar panel hooked up to my truck, and it was cranking out the amps. Solar power charges slowly, but on a bright and sunny day, it adds up quickly.

So I get back to my truck. I noticed my starting battery was low, and the truck would be needed to be started if I wanted to listen to the radio back at camp. I like using the car radio, as it’s nice and loud, and has all my favorite music on it. Portable radios tend not to have good reception in the Adirondacks, and the alarm clock I had with me couldn’t seem to pick up any radio stations at all.

I could do what I did in the past — just idle the truck and charge up the starting battery. The thing was the accessory battery that powers the inverter was almost fully charged from the solar panel I had plugged in to it, on this delightful Good Friday afternoon in the Adirondacks. But that would be stupid. Why not have the panel charge both the starting battery and accessory battery, when the key was in the “accessory” position.

A person a few weeks ago posted a comment on my blog, about a source of “switched” accessory power under the hood of my truck, known as the “Amplifier Fuse”, No. 41. If I simply switched the battery isolator fuse tap from the “Engine Fuse” No. 5 to No. 41, I would be good to go. So I pulled the “Engine Fuse”, and it came out firmly. I proceeded to unplug the 15-amp fuse from the lower blade of the fuse tap, plugging it back into the “Engine Fuse” socket.

To my shock and horror, the “Engine Fuse” socket was loose. How could this be? How could I have broken the socket, pulling the fuse tap. I know a lot of people hate fuse taps, as you can accidentally break a fuse socket with them, if you bang on it the wrong way — at least in theory. But it beats cutting into a wire, and to be honest, that’s just how the place that installed the battery isolator in my truck did it. I wasn’t going to question it.

I fiddled around under the hood, unable to figure out why the “Engine Fuse” socket was suddenly so loose. I figured, what the hell, I’ll try to start up the truck. Maybe it’s okay. Otherwise, I guess I’m screwed. The truck, to my surprise, started, but it ran awful. It sounded like it kept wanting to die, but eventually it found a high but somewhat rough idle.

I figured there goes another $1,000 bucks due to my stupidity and abuse pulling a fuse from the fuse box. Maybe it won’t be that expensive, if they can take it apart the fuse box and replace the broken socket — and it’s unlikely to be that much labor. But there goes buying the shotgun I’m looking to buy for hunting or that lift kit that I am rapidly losing interest in.

I didn’t have cellphone service where I was in the Adirondacks. I had really only four options:

1) Try to flag down a passing car, and ask for help. Maybe they could at least give me a ride back to Wells or Warrensburg.

2) Try to call a trucker, or maybe a Forest Ranger/State Policeman on Channel 9 on CB Radio. I knew there was a lot of traffic, and maybe they could relay my message along to police.

3) Wait and see if a Forest Ranger came by — they usually do their rounds up there around 10 AM on Saturday mornings.

4) Try to limp the truck home, and if I wouldn’t make it all the way back, at least reduce my towing bill and possibly be in a place better for signaling help, rather than empty stretch of NY 8.

Breathing a sigh of relief that at least the engine worked with the broken “Engine Fuse”, I quickly packed up my gear, and decided to try limping the truck home. I figured with the rough idle and general poor engine performance, it wouldn’t do that much damage over 75 miles driving home. I guess it could gunk up the catalytic converter or maybe damage the cylinder walls, but I figured the risk is relatively low, if I drove it easily. Except for a few sections, it’s mostly downhill, rural roads.

If it got worst, I would try the first three options. But first I really didn’t want to have to deal with towing, getting a loaner car, or having to ask for a ride from a friend. I figured if I made it to Amsterdam, it would mean I could probably find a better garage, plus it would be reasonable to ask somebody to pick me up.

I made it to Amsterdam. It ran awful, trying to stall at every traffic light. It helped to keep one foot on the accelerator and in lower gear. Then I made it to Schenectady, then on the Thruway. I drove about 50 MPH on the Thruway at rush hour in the right lane, which annoyed a lot of people. Finally, I made it home. I decided to take one more look at the fuse box, mostly in despair, and suddenly, I realized I had plugged the “Engine Fuse” into the wrong socket. I got confused. I put the fuse in the right socket, fired up the truck, and it ran like new. The second time I started up the truck, the Check Engine light was off.

I drove it out to my parents house, because I needed a pair of needle nose pliers to reattach the excitor wire on the isolator, which I managed to break in the craziness of this all. But the truck drove just fine, and there is no evidence there was any damage to running the engine like I did back from the Adirondacks. I think it probably will be fine, as I didn’t push things too hard, and just disabling several engine sensors, just forced the main computer to go into fall back mode, which was able to get me home, just at much compromised performance.

I feel stupid. But I am going back to the Adirondacks early tomorrow morning, to enjoy the rest of the nice weekend.

It turns out if you try to run your Silverado truck with the 15-amp "Engine" fuse unplugged it will run, just real poorly.

And this may cause you to panic, causing one to "limp" your truck home, cutting short your camping plans in the Adirondacks.

But heck, I am going back tomorrow. I will just chalk it up to pure stupidity. It's just $40 dollars wasted and maybe 150 miles that I didn't need to drive. I don't think I did any lasting damage to the engine.

The Upcoming Weekend

Might be in the 50s next weekend. That is a little bit above average, although not super-above average. But at some point, we need warmer weather to pull up the average. Looks like Saturday may be rainy at least early, but Sunday should be sunny and warm.

I will probably be on-call next weekend for work, probably so I will not head out camping or go too far from town, but would still like to spend a lot of time outdoors hiking or exploring. Might have enough snow left to do some snowshoeing or skiing — although hopefully this will be the last week where we have snow in the lower elevations.

Hopefully by the weekend, I will have my solar panel for camping and CB radio, so I can start working on building the storage/mounting box for the solar panel — and start running wires for the radio and solar controller in my truck. Some of the parts may be delayed, and I still have to purchase some small little things like fuses and crimp-on ends locally, but I should be able to get moving on things by the weekend.

Looks like we might finally get some great weather this weekend to enjoy some of the remaining snow in the mountains and be able to do stuff outdoors.

Hump Day Comes to a Rainy Close

Made it through the middle of the week. Pouring rain this evening, after I walked down to the library. Wasn’t so cloudy when I first got up, but it’s headed in the direction of rain by the time I got out of work. So far the weekend doesn’t look all that great.

This morning, rode the bus with no name downtown. Or so it seems, taking a bus without a working destination sign. They must be short on buses, because last night I caught a bus home, which was a shuttle bus. Probably makes sense to use the smaller buses, as they are more fuel efficient, especially if they aren’t full, which they usually aren’t in the evening by 5 PM.

Tomorrow is the first day of calendar spring. That means in one month, it will be April 20^th. Might even see some signs of spring by mid to late April, besides a slight tinge of manure in the air. I am hopeful that by late April when I take my trip out to the Finger Lakes, there will be some signs of green at least down by Seneca Lake. We shall see, as spring always comes late in higher elevation.

Bought my fishing license, which will be effective on April 1st. I haven’t done a lot of fishing in recent years, but I am going to get a good rod and reel next weekend.

Almost ready to buy the solar panels for my truck camping and maybe the CB radio. Probably will be 400 bucks for everything — including the CB antenna, quick connects, mounts, solar controller, and half a dozen other parts. Once it is delivered, all I will have to buy is some 8-gauge wire (which is not cheap), some plywood, screws, fuse holders, fuses, and hinges to put it all together. Also maybe some rubber cement to patch up the hole in the firewall when I run the antenna out there.

Done a lot of research and I think I will end up with a good setup that will let me continue to use as much electricity as I need camping during day without starting up the truck — and get weather alerts and CB radio info. It would be fun to get things wired up this next week.

I have almost finalized my latest investment decisions for retirement after a lot of careful study of the options. It’s kind of hard to know what to buy these days, as its apparent the stock market is kind of overvalued from quantitative easing and the like. But I think I got a good mix of index funds and bond funds, and so small-cap and medium-cap stuff. Also plan to buy some energy stock. Yeah, that fossil fuel stuff that is so awful but provides good historical returns. Diversity is key for investing, as they say.

Putting off the lift-kit for now — probably the end of summer. I am leaning towards wearing out the tires, especially now that one of the tires has developed a wear pattern due to an alignment issue. That’s why I have a little more money to spend on things now, by cashing in a few of my short-term investments for toys I’ve wanted for a while.

Kind of a rainy middle of the week. But the rain will turn the snow into mud, and maybe soon it will be camping time.

Replacing All My Camp Lighting Next Year with LEDs

Right now, my primary source of camp lighting is a set of two 100-watt equivalent florescent bulbs, hooked to my truck’s inverter. Due to the nature of camping, and because things often get wet or dropped, they really do not last very long, and frequently need replacing.

When they don’t get broken, I usually bring them home, and save them to the some day in the future when I return them for recycling. When they break — I don’t freak out — I usually just chuck them in the campfire, and pack out the glass and unburnt debris in the morning. I don’t really freak out about the mercury. But for environmental reasons, I would like to get away from mercury-based lighting, despite the relatively tiny amount of mercury in each bulb.

In recent years, I’ve been slow moving away florescent lighting whenever I can for camping. An early purchase of mine was LED Christmas light strings. The purpose of the Christmas lights was not so much for decoration — even though they’re pretty — but to provide a small amount of backlight to the campsite, so I don’t trip on things. A string of LED Christmas lights uses a fraction of the energy, even a smallish compact florescent uses.

This past year, I noticed that LED light bulbs have finally come down enough in price to reasonably affordable. I bought my first one this past July, a 40-watt equivalent bulb that uses only 7-watts of electricity, for a bright warm white lighting of my American flag. It not only seems quite durable and efficient, it always bright regardless of the temperature. It keeps the flag lit regardless of the weather.

With prices coming down even further, I bought a second LED bulb this fall for $10. It’s a 60-watt equivalent that uses only 10 watts of electricity. Best of all, even during the cold winter months, it works quite well. I wasn’t crazy about the heat shielding on the model I bought, but many of the newer ones lack the ugly heat shielding over the glass. Despite 15 degree temperatures, the 10 watt LED bulb kept things bright all night long.

LED lighting is the future. Fluorescent lighting not only contains mercury, it also uses more power and dims dramatically even under modest temperature drops. Florescent lighting is fine indoors, in relatively warm rooms. But it doesn’t work well outside, especially when camping, when air temperatures can 50 degrees or even lower in the even lower. Common fluorescent lamps dim in the cold, while LEDs shine their brightness, regardless of the cold.

Two years ago, when I bought my truck cap, I bought a series of LED strip lights to light up the cap. At the time, I had the choice between warm-color LEDs and cool-color LEDs. I bought the cool colored ones, as I thought they would look more neat in the truck cap. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with them since purchasing, and would consider having them as part of a future off-the-grid home.

What’s nice about LEDs is they are natively 12-volts, so they work well with batteries, solar-panels, and most renewable sources of energy. The onces I bought for my truck, required no transformer or adapter, as they worked on natively at that voltage. It’s also relatively easy to step down 120 volt AC power and run it through a diode to create 12 volts DC to run LED lamps. Most LED lights are natively dimmable with common thysor-based dimmers and require no ballast.

A decade ago, I toured an off-the-grid house in Clinton County. It was a neat home, and one of it’s best features was the use of 12-volt wiring for lighting. Rather then step up the voltage from the solar panels and batteries for lighting purposes, they chose to efficiently just use 12-volt DC lamps, mainly the relatively new LED bulbs and some halogens. They also had a large inverter to power 120-volt AC appliances and select number of florescent light bulbs.

I think LEDs are the future. I am sure after spending $10 a bulb to buy a third or fourth camp light, prices will come down even further, and I will look back and think what a waste of money.

Technological progress has meant LED bulbs are cheaper, more efficient, and work well in the cold outdoors conditions.

Andy Arthur.org

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