Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Nice to be up north on a Friday, doing remote work, although it seems like the fun is coming to the end with a new CDC guidance and the desire for normalcy. 👨‍💻 Back to old ways on the bus and in the office. But for the past year, I’ve been able to spend a lot of summer up in the woods with my hotspot and phone. Two weeks to Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ . Sunny and 49 degrees in Speculator, NY. 🌞 There is a west breeze at 5 mph. 🍃.

A beautiful morning to start out the day, 😎 and with the sun and clear skies. I am going to work from the screen tent this morning and my hotspot, but will probably head in mid-day to town to get some lunch and ice cream, and the my afternoon zoom meeting I’ll do at the Spectulator Library wi-fi. Maybe sit down by the lake in the afternoon 💻 with the laptop. I got to say it’s fun while it lasted, although  it seems like there is a lot of discussion what the future is — people like remote work, and if the work is getting done, who really cares if it’s happening in a cubicle downtown or up in the wilderness. 🌲 The world of smartphones and laptops isn’t the world of 1970 any more. 📱 Things are changing.

Had a nice fire last night, 🔥 and sat out and looked at the stars for a while ✨ although I didn’t stay up super late as it was an early start yesterday, as I had to make it to Speculator by 9 AM to clock in and get started for work — although admittedly I started my day in Wells, because I was running late. Kind of a busy day at work, lot of meetings and emails, but I got to spend a little time down at Lake Pleasant with a book in the evening before heading back to camp to get things set up. 🍳 Eggs and sausage for breakfast today, it was nice to sit outside for a while before the black flies got to bad. 🐜

Today will have increasing clouds ☁, with a high of 68 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 6th. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 70 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1900.

I may have to be a bit careful about managing my energy resources by the end of the day 🔋 but for now things should be well charged. The important thing is having enough power for the laptop, 💻 I can live with having reduced power tonight, as tomorrow will be sunny and I’m planning to head somewhere else in the Adirondacks and the alternator can top things off so I should be good for the rest of the weekend. I want to camp somewhere tomorrow where I don’t have cell reception, so I can have some time off the grid where I’m not constantly bombarded by news and happenings. 🤫 I want to do some reading this weekend 📚 and not be constantly playing on the Facebook or TikTok.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:55 pm with sun having an altitude of 65.2° from the due south horizon (-4.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:34 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (290°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (297°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:15 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 18 seconds with dusk around 8:47 pm, which is one minute and 5 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-northwest (283°) at an altitude of 24° from the horizon, 249,065 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:29 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 57 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 41 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 10 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 37 degrees at 4am. 11 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 16th. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2020, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 57 degrees. The record low of 31 occurred back in 1977.

This evening I will be participating in the Zoom between John Wolcott and Don Rittner. 🎙Yes, remotely from the Adirondacks. It should be a real interesting one for sure, although I doubt I’ll be doing much of the talking. But if I have questions, all I ask them. 📹 It should be a very interesting discussion. My new phone has good service where I am camping, which is good both for this interview and remote work.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 68 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 6th. West wind 5 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 84 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1900.

I haven’t totally decided where I will hike tomorrow, 🏃‍♀️ but I have some ideas, mostly around Spectulator. I wouldn’t mind a hike up Watch Hill again but I don’t think the road past Mason Lake is open yet for the summer. 😞 Otherwise, that would be a nice hike and place to camp. I thought about Hope Falls Road, but I want to stay up through Monday, that’s pretty far south if I am coming back north to work on Monday. 💭 So I don’t really know — but I want to spend much of the weekend off the grid.

Looking ahead to Sunday, scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 68. Northwest wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 43 at 8pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 71 degrees.

I could head home on Sunday, but Monday looks nice enough that I should try to get one more day in working from Spectulator. 👨‍💻 It going to be back to riding the bus and big office 👨‍💼 for the second half of the week, so you got to take advantage of what you can, when you can. I’m a little bummed out that panademic is ending but I really also understand the benefits of in-person work, the social interactions and emotions conveyed at are missing over email ✉️, phone 📞 and the Zoom. 📹 At least I feel good knowing that as a vaccinated person, 💉 I won’t have to worry about getting very sick from the COVID and mask wearing isn’t required 😷 except on buses, stores, and common places — mainly because the law, not because it will make me safer. Studies are pretty clear that the COVID vaccine is safe and very protective. ⚗ My hats off to the scientists that developed it.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ when the sun will be setting at 8:28 pm with dusk at 9:02 pm. On that day in 2020, we had hot and humid weather that was mostly cloudy and temperatures between 83 and 68 degrees. I remember it well, I was working in Spectulator. Typically, the high temperature is 75 degrees. We hit a record high of 93 back in 2016.

I don’t anticipate going back to the Adirondacks for Memorial Day Weekend ⛺ this year as I expect to be fairly busy with work and the bugs are bad and things are crowded. Maybe next weekend I’ll do Madison County or maybe that will wait until June. I thought about the Green Mountains but I’d have to camp where I have good reception 📶. I’ll have to think about it more.