January 20, 2020 Night

Good evening! Clear and 14 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The current wind chill is 0. There are 3 inches of snow on the ground. β˜ƒ ️Things will start to thaw out at Wednesday around noontime. 🌡️ Kind of a cold evening, I turned up the heat a bit before bed to ensure things aren’t too cold come morning even though its comfortable right now in the apartment due to the sun hitting the building all day.

It was a good long weekend even if it was pretty cold and somewhat snowy ❄. It would have been fun to gotten out of town but it was pretty cold and they got quite a bit of snow up north and out west. Got groceries, hiked at Schodack Island State Park, finally emptied the overflowing paper 📄 recycling bin β™» at the park and ride and took the other trash, recycling and compost out. Still need to return the beer cans the next time I go to the store. Made some progress on cleaning but there is more to do. Definitely lot of sun β˜€ today but cold. The rest of the week should be quite sunny but cold.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 6 degrees at 5am. Eight degrees below normal. Single digits. Cold but not that bad in the grand scheme of things. Maximum wind chill around -1 at 6am; Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming calm after midnight. In 2019, we had light snow. It got down to -7 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1994.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon with 14% illuminated. The darkest hour is at 12:07 am, followed by dawn at 6:50 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:21 am in the east-southeast (117Β°) and last for 3 minutes and 16 seconds. Sunrise is 38 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 8:04 am with sun in the southeast (125Β°) at an altitude of 6Β°. Tonight will have 14 hours and 26 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 54 seconds over last night.

Bathroom sink is plugged again 🚽 and I’m out of drain cleaner again. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with the sink on and off during the past few months. I was put some in the morning but it’s not free so I ended up mopping up the extra water 💦 and hopefully by morning it will be freed up. If not tomorrow after work I’ll get more cleaner. I’m fairly certain the clog is in the trap, if I have to I will pull it off and clean it myself. I’m hoping to do it with vise grips but if I need I’ll get a bigger plumber wrench 🔧 for my tool box. But first I’ll add more lye from the store. Worse comes to worse I’ll call the landlord but it’s only in the trap so I think I can address myself.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 24 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees below normal. Northwest wind 3 to 5 mph. A year ago, we had snow in the morning, which became light snow by afternoon. The high last year was 5 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 2006. 7.2 inches of snow fell back in 1990.❄

In four weeks on February 17 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (254Β°) at 5:29 pm,🌄 which is 36 minutes and 23 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had partly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 31 and 17 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 35 and 18 degrees. The record high of 60 degrees was set back in 1981.

Looking ahead, Clean Your Computer Day 🧹 is in 3 weeks, Presidents Day 👴 is in 4 weeks, 5:30 PM Sunset 🌆 is a month away, Read Across America Day 📚 is in 6 weeks, Worm Moon 🌕 is in 7 weeks, Spring 🌷 is in 2 months, Arbor Day 🌳 is in 14 weeks, 8 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 15 weeks, Flower Moon 🌕 is in 17 weeks, Memorial Day 🇺🇸 is in 18 weeks, June 🍹 is in 19 weeks, Summer ️⛱️ is in 5 months, Average High is 80 🏖 is in 22 weeks and Inauguration Day 2021 👴🏻 is in 12 months.

Snowshoeing Up Side Of Mountain

I Slept Outside for a Week and It Changed My Life (Really)

I Slept Outside for a Week and It Changed My Life (Really)

Both of these victories were possibly a result of being lulled to sleep by, and waking up to, disorienting new surroundings. I kept my hopes low for the second night, when I’d be a little more used to the pattern and I’d be camping alone. I thought I might lie awake thinking about The Blair Witch Project. Nope. This time I was out in five minutes, barely surfaced from my deep sleep when I heard (I hope) deer circling my tent in the middle of the night, and hit my snooze button just once the next morning. After the third restful night, I abandoned my sleep anxieties and started evangelizing: “My sleep has been amazing,” I told anyone unfortunate enough to ask how the experiment was going. “I think my circadian rhythm is already changing. You can just feel it, you know?”

I know I sleep a lot better after a night in the woods. In the winter months, when I'm home all of the time, I find it hard to sleep, waking up early, although lately I've improved my sleep a lot by going to bed early and getting up early.

Penn State wants to burn Pennsylvania forests to make them better – pennlive.com

Penn State wants to burn Pennsylvania forests to make them better – pennlive.com

Forest landowners, other than state agencies, in Pennsylvania generally use very little prescribed fire on their lands.

They’re missing out on an effective management tool that could be helping them to promote the growth of desired tree species, spur new growth to provide food and cover for wildlife, control invasive plants, suppress Lyme-carrying ticks and more, according to Jesse Kreye, assistant professor of fire and natural resources management in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Prescribed fire is the controlled, low-intensity burn of defined and contained areas of forest with specific management goals in mind.

State agencies, like the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, have been using prescribed fire for at least a decade.

The Albany Movement (1961–1962) β€’

The Albany Movement (1961–1962) β€’

The Albany Movement was a desegregation campaign formed on November 17, 1961, in Albany, Georgia. Local activists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Ministerial Alliance, the Federation of Woman’s Clubs, and the Negro Voters League joined together to create the movement. The Albany Movement challenged all forms of racial segregation and discrimination in the city. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Leadership Conference (SCLC) joined the movement in December 1961.