How did I not know such a thing before today? I heard of spiralizers but never used one. I’m very happy with my decision to hop on my bike, ride and get a zucchini spiralizer at Walmart rather than go to Indian Ladder Farms for apples today. The store bought apples are fine – probably any of the ones Indian Ladder at this point has been stored in nitrogen for the past year and would quickly spoil. In two weekends I’ll likely bike out to Indian Ladder.

Good afternoon! Clouds and sun and 76 degrees at the Delmar. 🌥 Probably a thunderstorm will come through before this blog post is done. There is a west-northwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 67 degrees and getting muggier as the thunderstorm approaches. The muggy weather ends tomorrow around 1 am. 😓

Black is great for a quick run to the grocery store 🛒 like this morning when I ran to Wally World to get a spiralizer for the zucchini that I wanted to try making zucchini lasagna out of. 🍝 With some of excess zucchini and tomatoes made an excellent lunch without all the carbohydrates to crash my blood sugar in a few hours. The spiralizer made excellent zucchini spaghetti, and used the food processor for the tomatoes plus some onions, jalapeños and Italian spices, a frying pan plus some parmesan up top. Good meal 🍴 for lunch. I do want to try zucchini bread next, using whole wheat flour and oatmeal along with stevia, cinnamon and olive oil – also maybe some grapes or other fruit mixed in for flavor. 🍞

What can I say, Blackie 🚵 is such a slow dog 🐶 on the paved bike trails Erie Canal Trail but awesome on gravel and light mountain biking on horse and easy to moderate mountain bicycle trails. It gets blown by the road bicycles like your standing still on the paved bike trails, with a continuous pace and top gear. ⚙ But then it’s so much fun on the gravel and even gated haul roads on the background where you’d shred road bike tires. Not so wonderful in deep mud or even in deeper sands like in parts of the Pine Bush but those crawl gears are awesome for crossing the rough terrain. Blackie on asphalt likes to go around 10 mph though on gently slopping terrain, it can easily do a constant 13-15 mph but road bikes blow by at 20-25 mph. It’s kind of the tractor on the interstate experience.

This afternoon will have isolated showers and thunderstorms. It’s summer. Mostly sunny 🌦, with a high of 79 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 1st. Maximum dew point of 67 at 12pm. West wind 7 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 79 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1947.

Yesterday was a good day, checked off basically everything on my list besides the spiralizer which I got today. ☑ Got a lot of groceries at the Stanton Farm Stand 🍑 though the Pennsylvania peaches they had where a bit disappointing. Their sweet corn 🌽 was excellent along with their tomatoes. 🍅 No good clothes at Goodwill but not unexpected. Mountain biking in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, 🦋was great though some of the trails were rougher than I expected and the deep sand wasn’t great in spots though that’s partly my fault for not airing the tires down more but I didn’t want pinch flats. 🚲 I did find a nice pair of shorts and long sleeve shirts at Salvation Army for $20 which fit my smaller size nicely 👍👕 and I mentioned it to Linda when I was visiting John and she gave me some of his old shirts which fit well too. Going to need to buy smaller jeans 👖 and in the fall should keep an eye on Salvation Army for dress clothes 👔 and maybe some new ties but I’ll probably end up buying much of that new at JC Penny. For me it’s not a money 💵 thing at this point but I’d rather keep good clothes out of the landfill and support needy people. 🏚️ Plus there is some unique stuff there, especially their ties.

Visiting John was nice though he was largely out of it due to sedatives for pain he’s on. 🧓 Rode some of the Erie Canalway which was crowded and the weather hot and sticky 😰 and the constant blow by of road bikes 🚲 was kind of obnoxious. I prefer more solitude and less spandex as I ride my slow as shit mountain bike. Got most of the supplies and food I needed at Walmart, had dinner – zucchini and onions again, followed by yogurt and frozen fruit with lemonade 🍋 and retired to bed 🛏.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent 🌘 Moon with 6% illuminated. At 12 PM, the moon was in the southwest (221°) at an altitude of 70° from the horizon, some 249,616 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by February 19^th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The moon will set in the northwest (307°) at 7:04 pm. The Sturgeon 🐡 Moon is on Tuesday, August 29.

The darkest hour is at 1:01 am, followed by dawn at 5:30 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:00 am in the east-northeast (69°) and last for 3 minutes and 6 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:39 am with sun in the east-northeast (76°). Tonight will have 9 hours and 57 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 30 seconds over last night.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃 , with a low of 60 degrees at 4am. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around August 20th. Maximum dew point of 63 at 6pm. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 54 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1941.

I don’t think I’ll get to Indian Ladder today 🍏 with rain storms around, and because I got a good ride doing a quick trip out of Walmart on Blackie. 🚵‍♀️ But soon in a bit I’ll head out to my parents house for Sunday dinner and to do my wash then do a quick hike up Bennett Hill. 🏔 Then get home, and unpacked. And ready for the upcoming week.

In four weeks on September 10 the sun will be setting in the west (278°) at 7:16 pm,🌄 which is 45 minutes and 46 seconds earlier then today. In 2022 on that day, we had mostly sunny, patches of fog and temperatures between 83 and 56 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 77 and 55 degrees. The record high of 96 degrees was set back in 1931.

Looking ahead, 6:30 Sunrise 🌇 is in 4 weeks, Constitution Day 📜 is in 5 weeks, October 🎃 is in 7 weeks, Average High is 65 🍂 is in 8 weeks, Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 is in 3 months, 7:15 AM Sunrise ⌛️ is in 17 weeks and Christmas Eve 🎅 is in 19 weeks.