Good evening. This dark and chilly evening closes out September with temperatures around 51. Low around 45 degrees with some clearing later. Tomorrow will have considerable cloudiness and highs around 60. Similar weather for Friday and rain on Saturday evening.

While I’m watching Hurricane Joaquin, I’m not super worried. While I was out of town for both Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy but my apartment was free from damage from both storms. I don’t know if I lost power during either storm but I doubt it, and certainly was no more than a day at most. I am however going to eat frozen foods over refrigerated meals the next few days to clear the freezer put in advance. I can keep refrigerator items cold by the coolers I have plus the 5 gallons of ice I have in the freezer. I have a camp stove and my truck can provide lighting if I lose power. It’s warm enough to not have to worry about heat and I’m on city water.

If the rain stops this weekend going to take my shotgun out for a walk and see if I can shoot me some squirrels at that den that always seems full up at Partridge Run. Might be fun. If not, it’s still a nice walk in the woods.

Still haven’t taken off the week for my trip to West Virginia and Virginia but increasingly thinking of spending 2-3 days in Shenandoah National Park on Skyline Drive. The park is $20 to enter and camping is $15 a night but if I’m in that part of the country I really should visit it for amazing views. I probably will spend a few nights at Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia and have discovered there are some nice places to camp at George Washington National Forest. The National Forest store doesn’t sell a GW NF map but I have pieced together a lot from a state road map of Virginia along with information on the GW NF website on campgrounds, primitive and developed. Looks like beautiful country. I will probably request the time off tomorrow as long as I feel like my work project we will get wrapped up in time.

Walked around the state museum today, through the Concourse, down to the Bethlehem Public Library, and the big superblock around the High School. More than five miles walking today. I feel occasionally minor pain if I strain the ankle in the wrong way  it finally I think my ankle injury is behind me. I have the boot and brace though if I should ever need it again. It was a long sucky last month of summer with my sprained ankle. Bit it’s now history.