Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Next Tuesday is Election Day 2019 🗳️. I am glad that I took care of the voting thing last night. Monday night around 7 seems like a nice quiet time to Early Vote ❎. Wearing the sticker today.

Definitely a mild but gray morning. Cloudy and 51 degrees at the Elm Ave Park & Ride – CDTA. ☔ There is a south-southeast breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 49 degrees.

Today will have patchy drizzle before 11am. Not seeing much on the radar though but who y’all knows. It don’t think it will be all the wet, but I work in a windowless office, so once I’m there, I won’t have any idea. Mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 59 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 19th. Maximum dew point of 51 at 5pm. South wind 7 to 10 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 52 degrees. The record high of 77 was set in 1946. 3.8 inches of snow fell back in 2011.❄

Still some decent color 🍂 in the Norman’s Kill Gorge. If I end up staying in town this weekend maybe I can hike there. I don’t know for sure yet. But generally it’s obvious that November is right around the corner. Things are quite faded even in the city. But this time of year always comes. By weekend and into next week, the nights might be finally be cold enough to warrant turning the heat back on at home.

The sun will set at 5:52 pm with dusk around 6:21 pm, which is one minute and 23 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 58 degrees. The dew point will be 51 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 27 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 37 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 51 degrees at 4am. 15 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 18th. Maximum dew point of 51 at 6pm. South wind 3 to 7 mph. In 2018, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 31 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1969.

I’ve been reading a lot about Missouri lately. It sounds like a fun state with fun people, especially when you get back in the hills.🚜 Cheap living, few zoning codes or regulations, open burning with relative reason is allowed (e.g. extreme fire risk), lots of places to hunt, fish, and ride four-wheelers. Seems like a great place to hobby farm too and enjoy the outdoors. I know it seems like a lot of the Carhartt stuff I buy and trapping gear seems to come from Missouri too. President Truman seemed great too. Maybe that’s my future eventually, not the Presidency but the backwoods of Missouri. Less snow and cold then West Virginia, and easier driving.

A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 52. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 48. Typical average high for the weekend is 53 degrees. I think once I get the new bulb installed in the truck, then I will head up to Adirondacks — I think. Or maybe somewhere else. I am still chewing over my options.🏕 It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to have a nice fire in the wilderness, but i will need to buy some more propane and bring the heater as the nights might be pretty cold.

As previously noted, next Tuesday is Election Day 2019 🗳️ when the sun will be setting at 4:43 pm with dusk at 5:13 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2018, we had rain showers, partly sunny skies and temperatures between 48 and 31 degrees. I was going to say it was a fair bit warmer in North Syracuse, but that’s not true, as that was 2016 I was thinking of. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 1994.

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 55 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ Calm wind. The dew point is 50 degrees. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 3 am. ☃️

Long day and I’m tired 💤but I’m heading to bed shortly for a good night’s sleep. When I get this tired I’m often kind of achy. But I got done everything I needed today. Made a big pot pasta 🍝 for dinner used the last of the spaghetti sauce. I hate having to wash out those containers for recycling ♻. That’s why I usually buy it in plastic so in the summer I can use fire 🔥 to clean it up. When I own land, that will be a year round thing except during burn bans but then I can just stack it away from the house until the burn ban is done and then have a big bonfire after dark.

I went for my evening walk 🚶 and voted ❎. I bought some milk, 🐮 I’m tired 😴 now and are about to kill the lights and call it a night. I did wear my inappropriate shirt 🚫👚 for the polling place but I covered it up before going inside. 😉 Real nice evening for a walk for sure. Haven’t done my evening walk in a long time but I haven’t been home much lately. 🎑

Its funny how people get so wrapped up about voting⚠ but at the end of the day it’s just filling out a scantron firm and sticking a card in the machine. 🀄 Not a big deal, no matter how you vote, not likely to change your life. As I’ve said many times in the past, th best way to vote is with your feet and moving to a community that best reflects your values.

The new electronic poll books and ballot printers – aka generic laser printer was fast and worked well. 🐰 Real fast to sign in and print. There wasn’t even much in the way of choices this year for the election – lots of local races but few were opposed. I guess the GOP doesn’t exist anymore locally. 🐘 I guess Trump has killed local Republicans all off. Even though I’m a Democrat 🐴, I vote split ticket 🎫 and a lack of competition means a lack of innovation, corruption and rot. Incumbents sometimes dseerve not to get 80% of the vote decade after decade. Erastus Corning wasn’t a bad person but Theresa Cook’s criticism of the machine was valid. ✊

It’s actually funny, I ran into Theresa Cook many times with Save the Pine Bush 🌲🌲🌲 but I never knew her history in Albany until after her death. There are so many great, amazing people with stories to tell around you, but if you don’t know, they are just anonymous faces. So much history gets lost with people, as time passes by. So much is just plainly forgotten. 😢

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 49 degrees at 4am. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 23rd. Southeast wind 3 to 7 mph. Mild enough it’s tempting to leave a window cracked open for ventilation. AIn 2018, we had light rain in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 42 degrees. The record low of 19 occurred back in 1969.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 5% illuminated. The moon will rise at 8:57 am. The First Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with a chance of showers. The Beaver Moon 🌝 is in 2 weeks. The sun will rise at 7:24 am with the first light at 6:55 am, which is one minute and 14 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 So late this time of year. Even worse in Syracuse. Tonight will have 13 hours and 31 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 39 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 59 degrees at 3pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 19th. Maximum dew point of 52 at 6pm. South wind 6 to 10 mph. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 52 degrees. The record high of 77 was set in 1946. 3.8 inches of snow fell back in 2011.❄

Kind of a boring day at work, 😕 lots of filling out forms and training. Signed up for the 401(K), which isn’t as good as working for the state, choosing the 12% contribution level with a 3% match. I was doing 20% deferred comp with the state. But now I’ll take the other additional money and buy mostly CDs and maybe some index funds, for mid-term goals like my off-grid farm. Retirement is great, but it’s a long ways off. Now that the paperwork stuff is mostly done, I’m looking forward to getting up and running 🏃 and into the meat 🍖 of things this week at work. But you take things one step at a time. But I am certainly tired.

In four weeks on November 25 the sun will be setting at 4:25 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 28 minutes and 23 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 52 and 39 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 44 and 29 degrees. The record high of 64 degrees was set back in 2004.

Looking ahead, Veterans Day 🇺🇸 is in 2 weeks, Thanksgiving 🦃 is a month away, Cyber Monday 🛍️ is in 5 weeks, First Sunday of Advent ✝️ is in 5 weeks, Earliest Sunset of the Year ⌛️ is in 6 weeks, Festivus 🍖 is in 8 weeks and 4:30 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 2 months.

For a while it was really beautiful at the Dickinson Hill Firetower at Grafton Lakes. Good but mostly faded colors but it depended on exactly which way I look. Then it clouded up a bit and things are most gray. Mostly cloudy ☁ and 50 degrees at the Dickinson Hill Firetower. There is a north breeze at 5 mph. 🍃.

Earlier in the day I spent a few hours canvassing for David Bissember 📝. That was a tough neighborhood where I was in with a lot of conservative Republicans but I did the best I could. Then this hike was a nice way to cap off the day with a three state view and a fair bit of color. 🍂 Didn’t Early Vote, the polling place looked packed, maybe on Monday after work.

I was thinking for a while I should have brought gear to spent the night ⛺ up at Green Mountain National Forest, especially after seeing the Bennington Monument and Stratton Mountain from the Firetower. But time is tight ⏳and it would involve setting up in darkness and taking camp down in the pouring rain ☔ in the morning. And now the clouds have pushed in, it’s not nearly as nice.

I am feeling pretty good this afternoon, 😊 but I’ll wait and see how it goes by morning. I have extra strength ibuprofen ready to go if I need it come morning and if this lasts into next week I’ll go to the doctor. 😷 So far the ibuprofen has been the only thing that’s made daily life bearable this week.⚠ I think it’s just a cold but I did get that tick bite 🐜 last Saturday and the migraines and body aches could very much also be a sign of Lyme disease. 🎯

Well folks, it will be getting dark in an hour and it’s 45 minutes back to my truck and I don’t really want to drive in rural Rensselaer County in the pitch dark. ⬜ So I take one last look around and head back. Walking 🚶 here from Grafton was better than driving 🚘, it certainly was real pretty but daylight won’t last long.

Good evening! Mostly clear and 46 degrees in Dormansville, NY. Calm wind. A really nice evening for mid-to-late October, sitting out back next to the firepit in my parents backyard. Last night I think I’ll be camping out back here, because they return on Wednesday night, and I won’t be making the trip back and forth to house-sit anymore.🔥

Made a nice big pot of pasta and sauce up with lots of veggies and delicious filling stuff.🍲 Nice dinner out the fire, and then I cracked open a few beers.🍻 Not going to stay up too late though as lately I’ve been sleep deprived and that makes me miserable come morning. Did a little blogging on my phone, and then went for a night hike around the path — about a mile total with the dog 🐶 — before deciding it was late and time to settle in for the night.

Tonight will have patchy fog after midnight. Otherwise, partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 40 degrees at 5am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 15th. Light southeast wind. In 2018, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 36 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1959.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon 🌘 with 32% illuminated with the moon rising at 12:12 am. The moon will rise at 1:00 am. The New Moon is on Saturday night with mostly clear skies. The Beaver Moon 🌝 is in 3 weeks. The sun will rise at 7:15 am with the first light at 6:47 am, which is one minute and 11 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 13 hours and 11 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 44 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers, mainly after 3pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 54 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 30th. Maximum dew point of 49 at 4pm. Southeast wind 7 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 48 degrees. The record high of 86 was set in 1979. There was a dusting of snow in 2005.❄

I plan to take down camp in the morning, so I have time to clean up here, and in the house, 🏕 prior to the parents returning. I don’t want to chew up the lawn or cause any more compaction by my truck running over it, and tomorrow is expected to be quite rainy.🌧 Grass compaction is bad enough,🌾certainly don’t want ruts in my parents lawn. That’s why I want to get to be shortly, so I have time in the morning to take things down.🐗

Forgetting my bluetooth headphones and dealing with my broken headphone port 🎧 got me thinking more about replacing my cellphone.📱 The current model I have is just getting about 2 or going on 3 years old, doesn’t have a lot of memory and at times the charging port refuses to charge the phone, especially when I’m driving because it’s loose. Annoying when you phone doesn’t have a charge and you can use Waze or any other app to figure out where you are going. I was looking — a similiar tracphone to what I have — with a better camera and more internal memory, so I can once again install more apps, especially the full version of Facebook. It might also be nice to have a better camera phone. Only $40 but I’d also have to get a case, and I don’t want to throw away something that still works. I guess though you can return phones now for recycling — I should do that with the drawer full of them I have at home.♻

In four weeks on November 18 the sun will be setting at 4:31 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 33 minutes and 41 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had snow showers, mostly cloudy and temperatures between 37 and 30 degrees. Days are so much shorter when you get to around Thanksgiving — it’s pitch black out by 5 PM — at least around here, less so further west in he state. Typically, you have temperatures between 47 and 31 degrees. The record high of 71 degrees was set back in 1928.

Looking ahead, Veterans Day 🇺🇸 is in 3 weeks, Cyber Monday 🛍️ is in 6 weeks, First Sunday of Advent ✝️ is in 6 weeks, Earliest Sunset of the Year ⌛️ is in 7 weeks, First Day of Winter ☃️ is in 2 months, Festivus 🍖 is in 9 weeks and Martin Luther King Day 🖤 is in 3 months.