October 20, 2018 Night

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Good evening! Cloudy, a bit cool and 43 degrees in North Syracuse. ☁ There is a west-northwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. Those enjoying the first day of opening day in the North Zone, I hope you had good luck or at least are enjoying freezing your ass off in your tree-stand. 🦌

Actually, it wasn’t that bad today, 🤷‍ although I was stuck in the office. We have climate control here, except for the time I spent on the ladder hanging that big sign up over our door at work. That ladder was heavy loading on my truck. For a while today, we had some sun for a while and blue skies. ☀ Seems like a rare thing around these places lately. Despite the cool weather, we aren’t looking at freezing temperatures even tomorrow, although we might even see some snow flurries around from time to time. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Thursday around 3 am. ☃️

Tonight will rain showers likely before 5am, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Cloudy ☔ , with a low of 37 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal. Northwest wind 7 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. ❄ In 2017, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 40 degrees. The record low of 17 occurred back in 1972.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 88% illuminated. The moon will set at 3:47 am. The Hunter Moon 🌕 is on Tuesday night with mostly cloudy skies. 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. 🌄 The sun rises so late this time of year. Tonight will have 13 hours and 13 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 47 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will rain and snow showers likely before 2pm, then a slight chance of rain showers between 2pm and 5pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow showers after 5pm. Cloudy ☔ , with a high of 40 degrees at 2pm. 18 degrees below normal. Breezy, with a northwest wind 13 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. Definitely not a real nice day on tap for sure. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 74 degrees. The record high of 81 was set in 1979. 0.2 inches of snow fell back in 1926.❄

In four weeks on November 17 the sun will be setting at 4:38 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 34 minutes and 30 seconds earlier then tonight. At that point, depending on when I come back from my vacation, my great autumn road trip will almost be to an end. Hard to say. It’s the first day of the Southern Zone opener. 🦌 In 2017 on that day, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 40 and 25 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 47 and 31 degrees. The record high of 73 degrees was set back in 1928.

Yesterday, I went for a walk at Green Lakes State Park. 🏞 It was okay, although the trails down by Green and Round Lake were crowded. The bird sanctuary part with the open fields was nice, but I was busy with my phone keeping buzzing with work stuff, so it kind of wasn’t that great in the grand scheme of things. But it was still some time away from the office. It seems like the days I get out of the office really aren’t that nice. I guess that’s just the nature of my work these days. I’m making and investing good money, so I can have a better tomorrow.

I haven’t really figured out all of my November Road Trip yet but I’m committed to it not being too busy. ⛺ At this point its not about seeing as much scenery or doing as possible, but just enjoying life. Hunting is good for that as is just camping and hiking from where you are camped, on no particular trail or place. I really crave the primitive quiet of a few nights in Allegany County. I might even end up doing more tent camping than truck camping just because I have a greater desire for solitude at this point. A lot depends on how nice the weather is. Deep blue skies would be nice although the long range trend seems more towards damp and cold which can be problematic especially if snow is threatened. I don’t want to get stuck somewhere dealing with icy roads.

Looking ahead, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone 🦌 is in 4 weeks and Inauguration Day 2021 👴🏻 is in 27 months.

On the Edge of Lower Falls

Sheridan Ave., below the ANSWERS solid waste refuse plant – Flickr

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Sheridan Ave., below the ANSWERS solid waste refuse plant | Flickr

This picture from the Albany... the way it was. group is mislabeled.

This is not the ANSWERS plant spewing black smoke (which it did) but it's predecessor and successor, next door, the old Sheridan Hollow Steam Plant, back when it burned residual fuel oil.

Residual fuel oil burners are notorious for when the fuel is not up to temperature to spew massive amounts of black smoke. My old high school used to also burn RFO, and it could blot out the sun when the boilers would fire under certain conditions.

They still use RFO fuel in a few buildings downtown, notably 11 North Peal Street, which sometimes on a cold winter's day, you can see a thick plume of black smoke rising from the building.

How Prepared Am I For the Coming Shocks?

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I often wonder how prepared I am for the overwhelming evidence that in coming decades the economy and society at large is going to face increased crisis over dwindling oil supplies with increased demand for energy, with climate change pushing our infrastructure and natural resources into crisis. ⛽

I am carefully investing, taking advantage of grow of the economy. But what if people like Bill McKibbean and nearly ever other rational person is right — growth is not indefinite? 📈What happens if the stock market and economy stop growing larger each year — at least over the long-range horizon. Then I guess I’m screwed, as most of my investments are market based — diversified yes, but still based on the premises of a forever growing economy.🌎

I do spend a lot of time reading and studying videos about bushcraft, off-grid living, hunting and fishing. I’m probably more comfortable in the wilderness then many Americans. But I’m no serious outdoorsman, I rely on the plastic bagged food and cheap oil as much as anybody else. If the markets are in a permanent state of collapse, the funding I need to buy land and my off-grid cabin will vanish.📉

I am not willing to plunk a bunch of money into gold,  💰 or other questionable assets. Even land or a house that I’m not going to use for a few decades seems like a bad investment. The market, carefully invested in a place is to be if you want to grow your money for tomorrow. But I think many people will be in the same boat as me if the economy permanently changes, although I think with careful saving, and no debt, I’ll still come out ahead.

And just as important as money, learning new skills, especially with natural resources and the basics that make up our world 🤔is invaluable in succeeding in an economy that may collapse in the future as pressures in the oil markets and climate change take their toll on society.