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May 5, 2019 Night

Good evening! Partly clear and 56 degrees ๐ŸŒ‰. There is a east-southeast breeze at 6 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. 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. ๐Ÿ’ค

Sipping on some nice cold drink of water with a hint of that cider vinegar. ๐Ÿ I’m so glad I quit drinking alcohol. ๐Ÿป 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 ๐Ÿฎ 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, ๐Ÿ’ฆ 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 ๐Ÿ” 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 ๐ŸŒง, 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 ๐ŸŒ’ with 5% illuminated. The First Quarter Moon is on Friday night with mostly cloudy skies expected. The Flower Moon ๐ŸŒ 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. ๐ŸŒ„ 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 ๐ŸŒž, 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.โ„

Tomorrow is another work day but with my south facing office ๐Ÿข the sun will be nice โ˜€. I love the views of the Heldebergs and Catskills from my office and with all the greenery from the spider plants ๐ŸŒพ 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. ๐Ÿ’ญ

I won the eBay auction for the hand drill ๐Ÿ”ฉ 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.๐Ÿ’ก 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 ๐Ÿ”Œ 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. โ„

I started thinking more about what life would be like without an automobile ๐Ÿš˜ 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 ๐Ÿš™ 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. ๐Ÿ’ต Plus I think it would mean a lot less nights in the wilderness.

Right now, next weekend looks pretty nice. ๐Ÿ˜Ž 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, ๐Ÿ‘ I’m still thinking about Piseco Powley Road and then Little Falls on Saturday. โ›บ 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,๐ŸŒ„ 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 ๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€ is in 1 weeks, 8:30 PM Sunset ๏ธโ›ฑ๏ธ is a month away, Fathers Day ๐Ÿ‘จ is in 6 weeks, Dog Days of Summer ๐ŸŒป is in 2 months, National Nude Day ๐Ÿ‘ฑ is in 10 weeks, Sunset Before 7:30 PM ๐ŸŒ† is in 17 weeks, Autumn ๐Ÿ‚ is in 20 weeks and Average High is 60 ๐Ÿ‚ is in 23 weeks.

Spent a while yesterday on the Great Stairs looking down at Enfield Glen

April 29, 2019 Morning

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Four weeks to Memorial Day ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ. Sunny and 36 degrees in Elsmere. NY. ๐ŸŒž Calm wind. Cold but sunny start to the morning. I know a month ago we would have called today a fairly nice day. But May starts on Wednesday and things have greened ๐ŸŒฟ up a lot in the city.

While lately my sleep has improved a lot lately I still decided to take a sleeping pill ๐Ÿ’Š before bed and I feel a bit groggy this morning. It’s a Monday, I’m not driving. I do think I got plenty of sleep so once I really wake up I should be feeling good. I’m sure by mid-day I will be quite awake or whatever is needed for a good jolt. โ˜• I did have a good breakfast of coffee and eggs ๐Ÿณ, ironed my shirt, and I’m off. Should be a nice day when I get into the office, with lots of natural sunlight, but then clouds later.

Today will have increasing clouds โ˜, with a high of 60 degrees at 4pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 19th. North wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. A year ago, we had light rain. The high last year was 50 degrees. The record high of 88 was set in 1888. 1.0 inches of snow fell back in 1885.โ„

It looks like I forgot to buy contact solution this week, ๐Ÿ‘€and I don’t have any at home. I guess I could drive down to the Elsemere Park and Ride tomorrow and drop off one of my jackets for dry cleaning, and then get the solution or maybe I can walk down to Rite Aid downtown after work and get some. Depends how late I get out this evening, and how it work with the bus schedule.

The sun will set at 7:53 pm with dusk around 8:24 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies โ˜ and temperatures around 55 degrees. There will be a east-southeast breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 14 hours and one minute of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 32 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have showers, mainly after midnight. ๐ŸŒง Low of 42 degrees at 3am. Typical for tonight. Southeast wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2018, we had light rain in the evening, which became mostly sunny by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 38 degrees. The record low of 25 occurred back in 1874.

Most of this week weather wise doesn’t look great, but so be it. The weekend does look nicer. As I mentioned last night, my aunt is coming up from Arizona on I am going to stay in town so I can visit her. โ˜€ It might be a fairly nice weekend although the models are rather mixed on that point. I guess it doesn’t matter that much, but I’m hoping for a nice weather when I see her.

The following week I may head up to Piseco-Powley Road, which is open south of the Hamilton County Line/Potholers. I would like to do some spring hiking ๐Ÿšถat Moss Island to see the birds and wildflowers ๐Ÿ but only if the weekend looks rain free. But nothing is set in stone yet. โ›ฐ Things could change with the weather. The following weekend is the Lupine Festival.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Memorial Day ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ 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 but otherwise 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 am undecided what I will do on Memorial Day this year ๐Ÿ• — I doubt I’ll do Vermont this year, maybe just head up to the East Branch of the Sacandaga again and do some camping and day hikes. I’m not really sure, as it’s rarely good weather that weekend, with all the black flies and the alike. Black flies, with all the rain we’ve had lately, are expected to particularly bad this year. But camping is always fun, assuming it doesn’t rain all weekend.

 Schroon Lake

April 4, 2019 Morning

Good morning! Happy Thursday. Feels more like a Friday to me, although I have to go to work tomorrow. That’s what happens when you work Sunday. Two weeks to the Average High is 60 ๐ŸŒผ. Might even start to see some signs of spring at that point. Mostly sunny and 36 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 11 pm. โ˜ƒ๏ธ

Not a terrible day, fairly mild I still have the heat off. ๐Ÿ˜Ž May turn it back up later on though and the windows are closed as it’s not expected to be super warm. Certainly nice and sunny. I enjoyed my walk ๐Ÿšถ down to the express bus ๐Ÿš. Riding a coach bus to work today with nice soft seats. ๐Ÿ’บ Riding in comfort for sure.

Today will be sunny ๐ŸŒž, with a high of 50 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around March 29th. Breezy, with a west wind 9 to 14 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph. The wind will make it feel fairly cold but the sun โ˜€ will help.

Continued red flag ๐Ÿšฉ conditions as it’s spring, dry and windy. So Pennsylvania rednecks shouldn’t be burning ๐Ÿ”ฅ their paper plates and plastic milk bottles today. Save them for after the rain, get lots of beer and big ol’ bonfire. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became partly cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 52 degrees. The record high of 79 was set in 1950. 4.3 inches of snow fell back in 2016.โ„

The sun will set at 7:25 pm with dusk around 7:53 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At sunset, look for mostly clear skies ๐ŸŒ„ and temperatures around 44 degrees. Breezy, 17 mph breeze โ›… from the west-northwest. With that wind, probably too cold to go to the park after work. Today will have 12 hours and 53 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 51 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy ๐ŸŒค, with a low of 22 degrees at 4am. 11 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around March 7th. Cold but not quite record breaking cold. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph becoming light after midnight. In 2018, we had mostly clear in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 24 degrees. The record low of 14 occurred back in 2016. It still can get pretty cold this time of year.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of rain and snow before 11am, then rain likely. Increasing clouds ๐ŸŒง, with a high of 42 degrees at 1pm. 12 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around March 11th. Light east wind becoming south 6 to 11 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became partly cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 82 was set in 1928. 1.1 inches of snow fell back in 1914.โ„

Definitely going to be a cold and wet day tomorrow. ๐Ÿ’ฆ I am not camping, so I don’t mind. Sure, another nice day would be nice, but at least it will reduce the fire danger, provide moisture that with the increasingly mild weather will eventually make the city start to green up a bit. ๐Ÿž Yesterday, I went for a walk in Washington Park and there is no signs of the tulips, ๐ŸŒทand honestly things looked kind of barren with the snow gone, but things still brown and no leaves on the trees.๐ŸŽ‹ Honestly, I didn’t expect it to look like spring in the park, but I was hoping maybe to see a few more signs of spring.

Yesterday, I went over to John Wolcott’s house, continued going through his files. ๐Ÿ—ƒ Some of them were kind of interesting, especially the ones about thePryun Library that Erastus Corning and the DOT insisted had to be torn down for the flyover ramp for Interstate 787, even though they could have located it a few feet to the west for minimal costs, and remain within engineering standards. Some of the old dutch documents aren’t much of an interest, but anything involving Mayor Corning is very fascinating.๐Ÿ› The 1960s were a very interesting time in America.

When I got home, I was pretty tired and the wind was whipping around, ๐ŸŒช so I skipped my evening walk. Sure, I was a bad person, but I was quite happy to just lay back in bed. I opened up Facebook, jumped into the swamp, and got so disgusted by what I saw on Facebook, I closed the app. ๐Ÿ’ป I don’t even know why I go on there anymore. Maybe I’ve just become more conservative in recent years, or maybe it’s that my liberal friends have become more obnoxious. I don’t know.

I guess I shouldn’t avoid threatening ideas, but going on Facebook just makes me sick. ๐ŸคขLiterally makes me want to run down to the bathroom and puke out my brains.ย  I mean I like looking at the cute pictures of cows and hunting stuff, ๐Ÿ„ and seeing what my old friends from high school are up to, but so much of what is on there now is either advertising or abusively obnoxious political posts.

The weekend forecast continues to improve. ๐Ÿ˜Ž Saturday, a chance of rain before 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 59. Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 61. Maximum dew point of 40 at 1pm. Not a drop of humidity in that air, but that’s to be expected this time of year. Typical average high for the weekend is 54 degrees.

Spring is rapidly approaching, although there is going to be a lot of snow and ice in the mountains, and mud in lower elevations. I think I’m going to do something fun this weekend — maybe a good hike ๐Ÿšถand and some fishing on Sunday. ๐ŸŽฃ Depending on how nice it is on Saturday morning, I might go for hike on rail trail ๐Ÿš‚ although I’m not sure how early it will clear out or how early I’ll be out of bed.๐Ÿ›

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Average High is 60 ๐ŸŒผ when the sun will be setting at 7:41 pm with dusk at 8:10 pm. On that day in 2018, we had cloudy and temperatures between 47 and 33 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 60 degrees. We hit a record high of 90 back in 1976.

Two weeks from now I’ll probably be on my trip to the Adirondacks or Central NY, although I still haven’t requested the time off.๐Ÿ• I am on the fence where to go — I kind of would like to go to the Adirondacks and the North Country, but not if there still is a lot of snow and ice to deal with. The alternative would be a mix between Charles Baker and Stoney Pond State Forest, maybe heading south to Balsam Pond, hitting up several trout streams, and more rural rather then mountain country. I mean still have plenty of time to visit the Adirondacks before summer is over. I don’t want to deal with camping with snow and ice.

In four weeks on May 2 the sun will be setting at 7:56 pm,๐ŸŒ„ which is 31 minutes and 48 seconds later then today. In 2018 on that day, we had hot, mostly sunny, rain showers and temperatures between 90 and 45 degrees. Last year was the record high. Typically, you have temperatures between 65 and 43 degrees.

While it may not feel like it this week, ๐ŸŒทthe truth is much warmer weather is likely just around the corner. Ninty degrees days are not out of the question nor is heat and humidity although I hope things green up before then so there is some shade to enjoy outside by then. And maybe a few weeks without the black flies. ๐Ÿœ

Last night, I got talking to somebody about the plastic bag ban. They were worried about what they would use for trash bags, ๐Ÿ—‘ once single-use shopping plastic bags were banned. I got thinking about it some more — and pointed out they could wash out the trash cans like people did in the olden days, without any problem. Seems like a simple solution for a silly problem. I don’t get why they always have to have trash bag liners.

Probably when I have my off-grid property, I’ll use animal feed sacks for the kitchen trash that’s going out to the burn barrel (the stuff like wrappers, bottles and packages contaminated by food), and just either use bread bags or wash out the compost container. It’s amazing how many feed bags even small hobby farms end up throwing out. It just seems like there is much too much disposable, single-use plastic out there. ๐Ÿ›No sense paying for something your going to burn, after all.๐Ÿ”ฅ Maybe that’s the future, but I’m still focused on it.

After finding a plastic bag in the Pine Bush ๐ŸŒฒ then seeing a bunch more in the trees, I’ve really started to come around on this issue — they really need to go — as they don’t rot in nature without being burnt. Sure, I’m not happy with them charging paper bags, as I don’t always remember to have my reusable bags with me, but I’m also thinking that using a plastic milk crates, might actually be a much easier way to handle groceries. Reusable bags tend to get dirty quickly, and are somewhat flimsy, but if I could stack groceries in a crate that can be washed off, that might work really well. Groceries would be less likely to spill or get damaged when packaged in a plastic create.

Looking ahead, Average High is 60 ๐ŸŒผ is in 2 weeks, Pink Moon ๐ŸŒ• is in 2 weeks, 8 PM Sunset ๐ŸŒ‡ is a month away, Average High is 70 ๐Ÿฎ is in 6 weeks, Summer ๏ธโ›ฑ๏ธ is in 11 weeks, Independence Day ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ is in 3 months, August ๐ŸŒป is in 17 weeks and Last Sunset After 7 PM ๐ŸŒ† is in 26 weeks.

South East from Farm Tower

February 5, 2019 Morning

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Two weeks to 5:30 PM Sunset ๐ŸŒ†. Cloudy, damp, muddy and 46 degrees in Delmar. โ˜” There is a south breeze at 8 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. There are 1.25 inches of snow on the ground. โ˜ƒ Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 10 pm. โ˜ƒ๏ธ

One more mild day today. Then February weather returns for the second half of the week, although honestly a bit above average until the weekend when it will be closer to average. ๐ŸŒžToday will again be relatively busy but still not too insane or so I hope. ๐Ÿ’ผBut maybe I’ll be able to catch the five o’clock home.๐ŸšŒ

I was running late again but fortunately so was the bus โŒš so I made it with time to spare to the bus stop. ๐ŸšI’ve been trying to get to bed earlier but I’ve been bad at that. I wake up at the normal time but then delay getting out of bed. That and I was planning on wearing the same pants as yesterday but I stopped when I discovered that there was mud on them from just walking around the city streets, kicking it up. I don’t care about mud that much, but I’m supposed to look nice for work. ๐Ÿ‘”It pays the bills and let’s me save for a better tomorrow, owning my own land in the wilderness. ๐Ÿ—ป

Today will have isolated showers before 11am. Mostly sunny ๐ŸŒž, with a high of 53 degrees at 12pm. 21 degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical day around April 3rd. I’ll take April weather in early February. Not all warm days are a result of climate change I tell myself. South wind 7 to 15 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had cloudy in the morning, which became sunny by afternoon. The high last year was 34 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1890. 10.4 inches of snow fell back in 2014.โ„

Snow has been doing a lot of melting yesterday, it was quite damp but mild. ๐Ÿ’งI’m glad it’s been warm enough to give the heat a break – I’ve left the thermostat at fifty since yesterday and with the solar radiation hitting the building yesterday it was 63 degrees inside by the time I got home.๐Ÿ”ฅ I’m not going to pay to keep the heat warm when it’s above freezing, I’d much prefer to keep it colder. Money is always tight, my heating bills this year seem a lot steeper than years past. But then again, I don’t hesitate to turn up the heat like I did years ago when I was younger. ๐Ÿ’ธ

The sun will set at 5:14 pm with dusk around 5:44 pm, which is one minute and 19 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At sunset, look for mostly clear skies ๐ŸŒ„ and temperatures around 44 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 15 mph with gusts up to 26mph. Today will have 10 hours and 10 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 29 seconds over yesterday. Even longer, getting closer to twelve hours of daylight in a month.

Tonight will be partly cloudy ๐ŸŒค, with a low of 22 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around March 4th. Northwest wind 6 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. In 2018, we had clear in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 15 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1948.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of rain and sleet between 3pm and 4pm, then a chance of rain. Increasing clouds ๐ŸŒž, with a high of 35 degrees at 1pm. Two degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical day around February 15th. Light and variable wind becoming southeast 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no sleet accumulation expected. A year ago, we had cloudy in the morning, which became sunny by afternoon. The high last year was 30 degrees. The record high of 55 was set in 1991. 10.8 inches of snow fell back in 1978.โ„

Monday wasn’t too bad of a day, work got out around 7:40, I ended up taking the 8:15 busย ๐ŸšŒ home and having a quick bite to eat before going on my evening walk around the block.๐ŸŒฏ A nice starry night, warm enough that I could walk with just a t-shirt and my vest.๐Ÿ‘•

I ordered some micro USB cables from AliExpress. I ordered the UGreen brand which if they are anything like the latest ones I ordered are built to be very high quality, durable, heavy while in minimal but professional looking plastic envelopes. ๐Ÿ”ŒNot a lot of waste.โ™ป I ordered a 3 meter and two 1.5 meter cables for $10, which if they are like the last two I ordered from them are a very good deal. I know that you can get cheap USB cables from Amazon but they aren’t as nice as the UGreen cables. The 3 meter cable is nine feet long which means that I can reach either microcontroller mounted on the wall from my laptop without moving it from where it sits by my desk.

For simple components, I swear by most of the things I have gotten from AliExpress. Only one or two things have either gotten lost in the mailโœ‰ or been below expectations but most components arrive within two weeks and are all within specs, same quality as if you ordered from a United States retailer.๐Ÿ“ฆ

While I was on AliExpress I also bought some 5 volt linear regulators. I am thinking about building a smart switch for the solar panel and the dual batteries so that when I have a lot of sun I can not only top off the accessory battery ๐Ÿ”‹but also the starting battery while automatically disconnecting them when there is little sun to avoid the batteries fighting or over discharging. I could use the built-in linear regulator of the Arduino Nano but I fried one last year with the 15.4 volts of the alternator output at times and the summer heat. I’ve 3.3 volt regulators in my toolbox but no 5 volt ones.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until 5:30 PM Sunset ๐ŸŒ† when the sun will be setting at 5:32 pm with dusk at 6:01 pm. On that day in 2018, we had rain showers, partly cloudy and temperatures between 44 and 23 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 36 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1981.

A bit cool but sunny this time weekend. ๐Ÿ˜Ž Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 28. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 31. Typical average high for the weekend is 33 degrees. Should be nice, certainly not frigid. I’ll take it.

I am still chewing over my weekend plans. Maybe I’ll go up to Johnstown or maybe not. It’s still quite a bit of a drive for a relatively small outdoors show and I’m still thinking about heading out of town for Presidents Day Weekend.โ›บ Weather depending of course. This weekend doesn’t look that bad but kind of chilly but that’s expected for February. I should see when the Adirondack Ice Races on Lake Algonquin are – if they were this weekend – that would increase my incentive for going north. Of course the other problem is finding a pull off where I can park and hike back to a campsite along route 8 this time of year. Maybe I should just wait and save my mileage and gas expenses until it gets warmer.โ›ฝ Two months from now will be early April after all. But in the mean time, the only weather is expected to moderate a bit…

In four weeks on March 5 the sun will be setting at 5:50 pm,๐ŸŒ„ which is 35 minutes and 39 seconds later then today. In 2018 on that day, we had cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 38 and 31 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 40 and 22 degrees. The record high of 71 degrees was set back in 1964.

The ants seem to have disappeared from the counter. I’m glad about that. I don’t know if it took a while for the ant bait to work or just spraying the area where they were coming from was enough. It’s been over 24 hours since I saw the last ant so I’m hopeful.๐Ÿœ I have this big bottle of spray now so I may use it when and if I see them again. Much like mice and other pests,๐Ÿญ they tend to come and go in cycles – you have mice until you catch them all and then they are gone for months if not years.

Looking ahead, 5:30 PM Sunset ๐ŸŒ† is in 2 weeks, Cinco de Mayo ๐Ÿค  is in 3 months, 8:30 PM Sunset ๏ธโ›ฑ๏ธ is in 4 months, Dog Days of Summer ๐ŸŒป is in 5 months, Last Sunset After 8:30 PM ๐ŸŒ† is in 23 weeks and Election Day 2020 ๐Ÿ—ณ๏ธ is in 91 weeks.

91 weeks until presidential Election Day! Now you know. I’ll already be thinking my post election November road trip at that point. The bus is almost downtown, it’s off to work. Have a great day for sure on this Tuesday!

 Lincoln Park

Plants release up to 30 per cent more CO2 than previously thought, study says

Plants release up to 30 per cent more CO2 than previously thought, study says

"During daylight hours, plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen through photosynthesis, and at night only about half that carbon is then released through respiration. However, plants still remain a net carbon sink, meaning they absorb more than they emit.

"Currently, around 25 per cent of carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuels is being taken up and stored by plants, which is good, as it helps reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," ANU researcher Owen Atkin said. "Our work suggests that this positive contribution of plants may decline in the future as they begin to respire more as the world warms."

Taking the Gillig 4011H home, a 2008 hybrid bus home.

Taking the Gillig 4011H home, a 2008 hybrid bus home. Nothing grows older faster than the future.

I remember when they were new buses, something to try out because they were going to be future of a green, energy efficient economy in an era when gasoline cost $4.20 a gallon locally, and climate change was a problem that everybody thought was a critical crisis to be addressed. Back when Barack Obama was a Senator, and even the New Hampshire Primary was in the distant future. Congress had recently passed the Energy Policy Act of 2007, signed into law by President George W. Bush, that would among other things save billions of kilowatts and millions of gallons of gasoline with more efficient automobiles and consumer lighting technology. Different times for sure.

2018 Comes to An Conclusion

I am surprised as everyone that 2018 has come to such a quick conclusion. Not a terrible year, but not a great one either. Made it through another year, one year closer to my future. Not a great year on the stock market, but regardless I was able to save a little money, and I continue to learn and explore.

Next year is 2019. Final year of the second decade of the 21st century. How fast time flies, especially when your in the middle of your life, and everything has come down to a fairly predictable routine. Days become more and more alike, the odd ball things of years past are pretty normal and you now how to address them efficiently with minimal worry. Experience comes with itโ€™s own rewards.

I continue to mature, but I still wear my cowboy hat at times. But Iโ€™m no longer in my twenties, and indeed 40 is closer then 30. I can be dead serious, but I like to have some fun sometimes. I still like subversion and listening to old Phil Ochs records, although I donโ€™t attend many political rallies these days. I tell myself itโ€™s because of work, but the truth is Iโ€™m more concerned about my future and my limited years left on the planet, not saving society. I believe deeply in conservatism, saving and avoiding waste whenever possible. I mean Iโ€™m not into green toilet paper or all that silliness, but I still shy away from take out food, preferring to cook everything myself, and economizing when ever possible.

As the year comes to a close, money is as tight as itโ€™s ever been, although I have been fairly successful, with a nice corner office and a view of the mountains. But Iโ€™m trying to whatever I can to save for a better tomorrow, so I can eventually own my own land, some place in the mountains or at least remote country where people wonโ€™t bother me and I meet my own needs to greatest extent possible using renewable sources of power.

Iโ€™ve learned to have lower expectations of the year. Predictability and normalcy is a good thing, and most things that happened in 2018 could have been seen. I mean I donโ€™t see all that much exciting in the future in 2019, and I think thatโ€™s a good thing. Just make it through the year, have some adventures, learn a few new things, read some more books, spend more nights in wilderness with the cowboy hat. Save some more money, get another year closer to retirement and owning my own land, leaving New York in the rear-view.

With careful planning, saving, and investing, I believe 2019 can be a good year.

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