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One more nice day before the snow 🌞

Monday, Monday. Riding to work and enjoying it before the snow comes and takes over the land again during this mid-February Valentine’s Day Week. Then a three-day weekend, though it might be cool and snowy so who knows about Madison County come Friday.

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Cloudy and at the freezing point in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Going to warm up as the day progresses, with the skies clearing around noontime. Not a terrible day ahead, though the morning will be cloudier and tomorrow will snow.

Oatmeal pancakes with shredded orange 🥞 🍊 made for a delicious 😋 start to the morning today. Topped with lots of blueberries I will note. 🫐 I know I’m waiting for the inevitable blood sugar crash 📉 though I’m hopeful that the protein in the egg plus the mixture of oatmeal, shredded orange including the peel and whole 🌾 flour will help slow the crash. Didn’t use any maple 🍁 syrup today, the blueberries were plenty of sugar, lol. 😂

I figure today’s the day to ride to work if any day this week. 🚲 👉 🌨 Tomorrow is going to be quite snowy, so it will be back to busing it back and forth to work. 🚵‍♀️ And after the snow tomorrow, the rail trail will be likely impassable for several days, ⛄ and while I could take Corning’s Hill and South Pearl to work, it’s going to be cold plus the shoulder of the South Pearl near the Port is a muddy rough mess. Not to mention, Wednesday looks like it will be quite cold. ❄️ I do need to call the bike shop and ask about a tune up for the bike 👩‍🔧 and getting those gears really tight and working well before spring comes and appointments with the bike mechanic get really hard to get. As I ride my bike nearly every day, I want to keep it running in top condition.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 42 degrees at 2pm. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 6th. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 47 degrees. The record high of 55 was set in 1932. 13.5 inches of snow fell back in 1988.❄

On the way in, I got to stop at Hannaford ❤️ 🍬 and get some candy to hand out in the office for Valentines’ Day. As the director now, I have to make sure I have little trinkets to give away for holidays and special occasions to reward staff. 🎁 Nice little gestures. I know that’s what they did for years when I was just staff and deputy management, but being I’m now the big man in town, I got to make sure to plan to do such things going forward. 🎂 Also need to look up my staff’s birthdays and make sure to have cake or cookies for each of their birthdays. Figure I should budget about $20 a month for that. Even if I don’t eat cake and sweets anymore, I know a lot of people like that kind of thing. 🍪 It’s a nice gesture and important for a successful office.

Been exploring more of the free resources of the Bethlehem Public Library, 📚 namely E-Books borrowing using the Libby app that let’s you read 📖 and listen to audio books for free on your phone or Kindle if you have such technology. Mom was going to give me her old Kindle but I struggled to understand how the technology works 📲 and after cussing it out 🤬 I think it might be too old of a model. At any rate, I think it easier to read E-Books on my phone with the Libby app which saves them on the phone so I can use it offline in the remote Adirondack country. That said, I’ll probably use the audio books even more 📼 as I can listen while riding my bike 🚲 or by the campfire 🔥. I figure with my taxes so damn high, I best use every free government service out there – be it the state forests, free guided hikes, lectures, nature bus, bike trails etc.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:11 pm with sun having an altitude of 33.6° from the due south horizon (-37.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:43 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (245°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (252°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:23 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 3 seconds with dusk around 5:51 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-southwest (238°) at an altitude of 30° from the horizon, 226,878 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:25 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 39 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 10 hours and 31 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 39 seconds over today.

Groceries were another $120 this week, 🤯 which is more pain on the budget, but I did also buy some more loaf pans and knife sharpener. Eating all those fresh fruit and vegetables really adds up. 🍎 And it’s not like things are going to waste, 🚯 by the end of last week my freezer was mostly empty except for camping ice, but between inflation and everything else it adds up. Sunday night dinner was a really nice tomato 🍅 bean soup with the family 👪, I made some of my onion🧅 and carrot bread 🥕 to share. Took home leftovers, been slowly but surely eating up what’s in the freezer in an effort to cut my grocery costs. 🛒 Inflation sucks and I make good money 💵 these days but it doesn’t go very far anymore. Maybe it’s because I’m so committed to saving and investing in my future, 🔮 but I find it hard to make ends meet during these inflationary times.

I don’t even want to think about my $530 car insurance bill due the end of March or my taxes 🏦 which I haven’t started yet. I’ve been withholding extra out of each paycheck, 📂 which I’m hoping will help ensure I don’t owe a shit ton come April 15th. I got to figure out which service to use — I’ll probably use a Free-file site for my federal taxes, then copy that information onto a state tax form, and mail it in like I did last year. Hopefully not mess it up this time, and get a letter from State Tax Department. I hate filing taxes, especially when the government already knows how much money I make 🔍 as they get copies of my tax documents from my employers, banks, and vendors already. Thanks tax-vendor-software lobbyists and corporations. 🕴Life has gotten so damn expensive these days.

Tonight will have a chance of snow, mainly after 4am. Increasing clouds 🌨, with a low of 30 degrees at 5am. 13 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 27th. North wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 24 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1875.

Yeah, I got to turn the heat back on tonight. ♨️ It’s been nice the few days with the heat off and the windows open. No electric blanket use either. I’ve been using the electric blanket a lot more this year, but not he past few nights. My electric bill has come down somewhat, 🔌 as I’ve not made as many soups and beans on the stove top, and have been making sure my oven is fully packed 🍞 when baking bread, to get as many meals as possible out of each time things are cooking in the oven. I like cooking 👨‍🍳 but it can get pricey at times buying those whole-food type ingredients, which really can be a lot more expensive when added up then the packaged processed crap I used to buy a lot more of when I was fat. 🤰

Hopefully now with that cable I bailed out from the post office 🔌 ⌨ I’ll be able to use that USB switch I bought two weeks ago, to switch between my laptop and work PC seemlessly when I get into the office. Otherwise I’m out $17 and a lot of aggravation, but it seems like the switch is working well when I tried it with the one cable it originally came with and the second cable I bailed out due to insufficient postage by the seller seems to be working fine. We’ll see when I get to the office this morning I guess. 🏢 That and tinkering with the gears ⚙ on my bike has been so much aggravation over the past two weeks. At least lately I’ve not been having problems with the smoke alarm 👩‍🚒 repeatably going off. The warm weather over the weekend has allowed me to have the windows open and clear out some of the cooking smoke and moisture from my dumpy apartment.

Cool with times of sun for President’s Day. ⛅ Saturday, a chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 32. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 34. President’s Day, partly cloudy, with a high near 42. Typical average high for the weekend is 36 degrees.

As previously noted, next Monday is Presidents Day 👴 when the sun will be setting at 5:33 pm with dusk at 6:00 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly cloudy and temperatures between 47 and 23 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 37 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1981.

I’d like to get out of town for President’s Day 🏕 but the weather doesn’t look great. I was thinking about taking a half day off on Friday to head out to Brookfield and Charles Baker Horse Camp 🐴 for the long weekend, but now it’s looking like lake effect snow on Friday, and there is now way in hell I’m going to do the hills around Brookfield in the snow. I’ve dealt with those roads in the past, and they’re not well plowed, as Madison County primarily uses just sand and not salt, and some of those hills can be quite icy. That said, things could change before the weekend, so I’ll keep it in mind.

Six Weeks Until New Years Eve 🎇

Those extra cups of coffee did me no good yesterday. Not only did it make it impossible to get to sleep, it contributed to my extreme anxiety I had most of the afternoon. I just kind of wanted to relax to some extra coffee yesterday but I guess I really overdone it. I swear I used to drink a lot more coffee when I was younger, and coffee ain’t as strong as it once was when sipping it, but the after effects are much worse. Between the garlic powder gas and shits, the anxiety and staying up too late, I didn’t get much sleep and sleeping past 6 o’clock is unimaginable in my mind at this point.

Good morning! Happy Sunday. Partly clear and 34 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 10 pm. ☃️

Not a super cool morning. 😀 I could go for a walk but I want to get to the store pretty earlier and my guts are mess after last night I don’t want to risk an accident out walking. 💩 Could be excess coffee of yesterday ☕ but I think it’s the garlic powder I added to the tomato sauce I had last night, as that previously gave me trouble in West Virginia plus one other time at home. Big bulk container I got from Hannaford, even in moderation it keeps me running to the toilet 🚽 . Could be salmonella or mold growing in the container. I probably should empty it and toss in the recycle bin ♻️ before it gets me sick again. 🤢

Decided on pancakes this morning 🥞 as that’s all I really had left. I was playing with recipes, decided to do ground oatmeal, with one egg, apple cider vinegar and baking soda for levity, and Splenda rather then bananna for sugar. Came out fairly good, little more filling then just ordinary oatmeal-banana pancakes. Topped with shredded apples from the food processor 🍏 heated and cooked down in the microwave, along with chopped bananas. 🍌 Pretty good.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 46 degrees at 12pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 23rd. South wind 6 to 11 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1921. 4.2 inches of snow fell back in 1914.❄

First thing this morning is to shower 🛀 and then head over to Price Chopper in Slingerlands for grocery shopping, 🛒 that is once I get my list together. 📜 I need to get $50 in groceries to use my $5 coupon, though that shouldn’t be hard as groceries are so expensive these days. Only shopping through Friday morning, as I plan to get what I need when heading up to the Adirondacks. Not Walmart on Black Friday, but I don’t think Hannaford will be particularly crowded the day after Thanksgiving. Mostly just restocking the pantry full of fruits and veggies, though I’m also going to get a big bag of frozen salmon fillets as I have that other coupon too. 🎫 Eating lots of omega-3 is good.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:42 am with sun having an altitude of 28° from the due south horizon (-42.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:48 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (237°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (244°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:31 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 14 seconds with dusk around 5:00 pm, which is 47 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south (170°) at an altitude of 28° from the horizon, 226,654 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:36 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 42 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 41 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and one second over yesterday.

Been continuing on the Udemy Courses. 🎓 I am on my third course after two courses on remote sensing. 🛰 So far done is Remote Sensing with QGIS: Basics of Satellite Imagery Classification and Fundamentals of Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis. Been learning a lot. It’s wonderful that my public library 📚 offers these classes for free and you get free certifications 📄 after you get done watching the classes and doing the quizzes. The most recent one is Spatial Data Analysis with R, QGIS & More which is good but it’s about 7 or 8 years out of date, and doesn’t show a recent version of QGIS and uses the obsolete R library of rgeos rather then sf and terra which is used today. But still it’s interesting and good to learn as a big part of the class is about kriging, which is something I am still struggling to fully understand. 🗺 📍

Yesterday I checked out the Bethlehem Sportsmart ⛷ and was shocked at the prices of skis, especially ones in good quality. At over $100 for a pair of cross-country skis, I think I’d be best off to get a pair at a retailer, maybe after the holidays, one that fits and works properly for my needs. It was mobbed at the sportsmart, with screaming babies 👶 and children running around. 🧒 The skis I have currently are groomed-track skis, which besides being broken, really aren’t good for the kind of cross-country skiing I do that rarely involves following groomed tracks. 🤑 The problem with those skis is they are too fast and sink too deep in unpacked snow, the prior is a particular concern when descending mountains, especially now that I’m close to 41 years old, and crashing with skis may very well mean broken bones. 🤕 Plus I wasn’t in the mood to spend any money right now, to say nothing about that I’m not sure if it will be a particularly snowy winter. I might just stay closer to home this winter, do more bike riding 🚴‍♀️ on the roads. Winter ski season is so short around here, and it’s often quite cold int he winter.

Didn’t end up being able to fix the vacuum cleaner yesterday, 🧹 turns out that after I got it all apart, then put it back to work, I found out the source of the rattle — bad ball bearing. After fiddling for it for a few more hours, I ended up pulling the motor and any part I could reuse or scrap. ⚙ Heck of it is I had it back to together and it was working until it’s started sparking and not working again. ⚡ Disappointing crap, I bought it only 7 years ago but ever since I got it constantly plugged, burned up belts and malfunctioned. If I get another vacuum, I am going to get a small rechargeable hand held 🤲 one as I don’t really have that much carpet in my apartment and then I can do the stairs and vacuum out the mud and dust from my truck better. I’m just annoyed by all that plastic trash, even I will be able to reuse the switch and cord from the vacuum for camp lighting, 🔌 and may be able to part out parts of the motor for electronics projects or add to the stack of scrap metal for eventual recycling at the scrap yard. ♻️ It wasn’t a real cheap vacuum — it was like $70 or $80 bucks, a Dirt Devil Pet Hair Vacuum but it constantly plugged on wads of hair and dust. I bought it because the reviews were good originally, and I figured a pet hair vacuum wouldn’t clog as much as a standard vacuum. 🐶 I guess don’t believe the review. I just hate carpet, when I have my own land, I don’t ever want that indoors. Especially not the gross, nasty worn out shag carpet like in my apartment.

The broken vacuum cleaner, the debate in my mind to renew or not renew my certificate of deposit, the signing of Clean Slate last week, getting my ego knocked down a peg for that messed up background at work, and cold weather 🤪 plus all that coffee just really got me into a bad place by last night. 🤯 My mind was racing, I just kind of felt sick. The whole thing was stupid, it wasn’t entirely my fault I messed up the background, the researcher and big boss didn’t catch it either. 💣 The vacuum cleaner was cheap shit it never worked right. The truck is going to be fine for another year. Then I got the shits from that garlic powder. 💩 Yuck, I was so sick for a while. Did I mention I burnt my finger 👆 on the soldering iron when I was working last night. 😠 I was just so bitter, angry and frustrated all evening. I mean it’s stupid, what happened at work isn’t the end of world, moving to a new department soon, the seven-year old vacuum cleaner was less then a tank of gas these days, my truck will likely make it another year, it’s winter it’s cold but I am still planning adventures, I can get better skis somewhere else, and the coffee and shits will wear themselves off.

But regardless, I had a nice bicycle ride out to Voorheesville. 🚲 The bridge is fully re-opened, they did a nice job, it’s a very smooth ride up and over the bridge. On the west side of the bridge it’s a slight upgrade, but the expansion gaps are remarkably smooth and it’s blacktop, all the more surprising for a “temporary bridge”. Truth is they did such a nice job on the “temporary” bridge that they really don’t have a good reason to necessarily replace it anytime soon. Sat and watched the 4 PM freight train roll through Voorheesville 🚂 then watched the sunset 🌆 from Bender Mellon Farms and rode home quickly, thinking it would get dark but it didn’t so I rode down to Adams Street then back along the designated bike route through the back roads of Delmar. Great evening even if it was shitty day in so many ways. That part of the day was pretty nice, even if I got sick in evening 😫 and my mind was racing the rest of day. 🤪

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers before 8pm. Partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 26 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 3rd. Northwest wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2022, we had clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 24 degrees. The record low of 6 occurred back in 1986.

Last night made homemade tomato sauce with canned tomatoes, Italian spices, spinach, peas, chopped garlic, crushed red pepper, smoked paprika and kidney beans. Added a little bit of lentil pasta towards the end. Tasted good, very filling and kept me full. 🥘 It as all good until I added some garlic powder (really not much), which totally blew up my stomach starting around midnight, with frequent visits the bathroom and everything stinking of garlic. I don’t know why I have such problems with this garlic powder I got the other day — crushed garlic is good. I thought the problem was the whole wheat flour I got from Price Chopper but I’m pretty sure it’s the garlic powder. Been having a lot of stomach issues lately, I thought I would adjust to the high-fiber diet but it’s proven difficult. 🤰

Got reading about the latest generation of single board computers 🖥 which keep getting more and more powerful and cheaper. Technology on this front is advancing so quickly, it’s a golden age to be a hobbyist with things like the original Arduino from years ago seeming so out of date. 🤖 Then I got reading about stomach issues as my stomach grumbled, and this really weird thread on the internet where people fight about whether or not sugars in excessive fruit consumption 🍌 🍏 🐒 lead to fatty liver disease and diabetes. Most of the experts think the benefit of the extra fiber far outweigh any downsides to a diet rich in fruits, though I do eat a lot of fruit (and vegetables too). Probably too much fruit but I like sweet. But I also don’t eat any food with added sugars if I can all avoid it, which is what most doctors 👨‍⚕️ think really are a big threat to health. I am a bit obsessed with fatty liver disease after people warned me about the risk of loosing so much weight so quickly. Hell of it is I don’t have much control over my weight, it really is a just a side effect of diet. Hard to gain too much when your stuffing your face with fruits, vegetables and beans all of the time, and riding to work and walking everywhere.

Next Friday through the following Monday is looking good for the Adirondacks 🏕 though only time will determine for sure. ❄️ It looks like the snow event in Wednesday isn’t going to leave feet of snow up north, so I should be able to get back to camp without doing a lot of shoveling or hauling gear back, though worse come to worse, I’ll bring the sled and drag gear back. 🛷 The weekend looks to be cool but not as cold as they first predicted ☕ and warm coffee and meals along with the heater should be good. And I can get away from it all.

Looking ahead, there are 3 weeks until 7:15 AM Sunrise ⌛️ when the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm with dusk at 4:53 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 31 and 20 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 40 degrees. We hit a record high of 64 back in 1966.

Nostgolia on this Election Day 2023 ☕🙈🗳️

This year I’m glad I’m not involved in any elections or doing anything political. Just sipping my coffee watching the sun rise remembering the days gone by but glad I’m not at all rushed this morning.

Good morning! Happy Election Day 2023. Partly cloudy ⛅ and 51 degrees at the Stoney Pond State Forest. ☔ There is a west-southwest breeze at 15 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 47 degrees. I can smell the manure somebody’s spreading this morning 💩 it’s November in Madison County and the field work is soon to be done for the season. 🚜 They might have snow as soon as midweek.

Turned out to be a much nicer morning then expected. ☕ I knew it was going to be a great day when I awoke, saw the clear night skies 🌜and the moon. Had a nice hardy breakfast of eggs 🍳 with lots of vegetables and onions 🧅 that I got at Aldi’a yesterday in Cazenovia. While yesterday was cold, damp and gray at times it was still a good day with lots of riding 🚲 and making the most of my day off. A lot has changed in this world over the past few years but mornings are still quite beautiful and the coffee is good.

Glad I’m not involved in any elections this year 🗳 but there were many hard fought ones out of Bill Magees auction house 🗝️ 🍶🏺just down the road. Been half a decade now, I saw the bridge in Cazenovia they renamed after him. It was sad he lost five years ago, but during that general election cycle wasn’t my race. 🧑‍🌾 Truth is winning these rural districts is almost impossible with the democratic party becoming mostly an urban issues party with gun 🔫 control one of their top priorities. I can understand why people vote the way they do nowadays out in the country. 🚜 It’s not just Trump. Both parties have become more extreme but the Republicans have really locked up the rural areas nowadays. I have a feeling that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator John Tester of Montana are going to loose in 2024, especially if the GOP runs a stronger presidential candidate then felon Donald Trump. ⏳ Time moves on. Democrats though really have locked up the suburbs, especially the older ones and professional class. 🕴🏻

Today will have showers likely, mainly between 10am and 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 43 by 5pm. 🌦️ Breezy, with a west wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with sunny skies in the afternoon. The high last year was 69 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1938. 4.5 inches of snow fell back in 1886.❄

I’m not sure how long it will be nice, clouds are already pushing in. 🌥 I don’t want to deal with wet camping gear 🏕 so I’m slowly but surely taking things down. I don’t have solid plans for today but I think 🤔 I’ll just go for a walk 🚶 around Stoney Pond then head home and get unpacked. 👪 Planning to go see my family this afternoon it’s been three 3⃣ weeks as I’ve been out of town 🌲 on various trips. Despite yesterday being cold and dreary especially midday it was a great trip.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:47 am with sun having an altitude of 30.9° from the due south horizon (-39.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:08 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (241°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (249°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:50 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 8 seconds with dusk around 5:18 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:53 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 44 degrees. Breezy, 20 mph breeze ⛅ from the west-northwest with gusts up to 32mph. Today will have 10 hours and 6 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 26 seconds over yesterday.

Yesterday I rode the South Trail from outside of Cazenovia to New Woodstock. 🚵 Nice ride though best on a mountain bike as some parts of the trail are a bit rough with roots and gravel. Pungent with the cow poop and water slurry 🐮 💩 one of the dairies was applying to a nearby field but that’s to be expected this time of year.

Spent a little bit of time riding around New Woodstock yesterday after taking the South Trail from outside of Cazenovia to New Woodstock. 🚂 Neat little village with a Historical Museum just off the rail trail. They like in Cazenovia also have an old Black Diamond Caboose there. Cute little village.

Unfortunately my bike had developed a really annoying squeak on Sunday afternoon ⚙️ which I couldn’t figure out and started applying grease everywhere, including getting it all over my hands 👐 and jeans 👖 and started to drive me crazy thinking I might have a failing bearing or some problem that could leave me stranded. I thought it was just some stone dust from the Erie Canalway somewhere it shouldn’t be mixed with the grease. Kept stopping, applying grease trying to find the noise. 🔕 Finally, I figured it out, it was the left pedal got some stone dust in it and squeaking. A little spray lubricant, knock off WD 40 on the pedal after my south trail ride 🚲 returned my sanity.

Swung by Critz Farms hoping to get apples 🍏 but it looked like only the brewery was open 🍻 and I wasn’t looking for a drink. So I went to Cazenovia Lake Park. Kind of cold gray afternoon but the geeese didn’t seem to mind the cool gray day on Cazenovia Lake. 🦆

Then I went to the Lorenzo State Historic Site, never been there before. ⛲ Been by it a million times though. It was a Monday so all the buildings were shut up and no visitor services or as I needed a bathroom 🚽 but it was still nice to explore the grounds. Swung by the library 📚 in Cazenovia for a pee.

Then I Canastota – Cazenovia Trailway, it was starting to rain and was cold didn’t spend a lot of time, ☔ wanted get back to camp and start cooking soup plus by then I needed another bathroom 🚽 break. Too much coffee ☕ in the morning. 🌅 Also didn’t feel like carrying my mountain bike over several steps to cross Bingley Road. Visited Aldi’s in Cazenovia 🍏 🥦, such a delightful shopping experience. 🛒 Low prices, simple selection quick in and out and the cashier lines without them bagging is so quick. ☺

Got back to camp around 4 pm accidentally brushed a tree with one of my tires backing into the campsite ⛺ rushing having to pee but didn’t do any body damage to my truck 🛻 as the tires stick out beyond the body. Sun ☀ came out and ghe wind died down. Fried onions and mushrooms, boiled carrots, broccoli, spinach and whole wheat pasta, added some tuna fish 🐠 for an excellent dinner. Soup really warmed me up 🍲, I just wish I had some homemade bread 🍞 to dip in it but I eat all of that the previous three days. Had a nice fire 🔥 didn’t rain until 7:30 pm so it was a good evening at which point I retired to bed 🛏 in my truck for the evening.

Tonight will have a chance of rain and snow showers before 11pm, then a slight chance of snow showers between 11pm and 1am, then a chance of flurries after 1am. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 26 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 3rd. Northwest wind 14 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. In 2022, we had clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1971.

Cool but fairly decent now for Veterans Day Weekend, especially come Saturday. ☀ Friday, clouds then clearing, high may reach 43. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Sunday, going to be sunny and 39. Typical average high for the weekend is 51 degrees. Probably will stay 🏡 next weekend.

Looking ahead, next Tuesday is Average High is 50 🍂 when the sun will be setting at 4:42 pm with dusk at 5:11 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 42 and 27 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 50 degrees. We hit a record high of 70 back in 1973.

An Extended Government Shutdown Could Impact My Vacation Plans 🏕

Most versions of my plans for my October Road – Camping trip involve at least some “dispersed camping” in National Forests and visiting National Forest sites. While I am not planning leaving until October 14th, I know spiteful a Democratic president can be over the temporary lapse of appropriations, forcing closures of many developed recreation sites, including in some cases gating back-country roads, not because they cost the government much money, but to put political pressure on Republicans to adopt a budget they don’t agree with.

Not sure if this is going to be an issue this year, but I could see both sides dragging out their appropriation fight well into October and it might require me to reconsider my plans. One option would be to visit more state forests in the Southern Tier of New York State along with doing the Pennsylvania Pine Creek Rail Trail, another would be to head north, and do a trip to the Tug Hill Plateau and North Country / Massena.

I did camp in back country in the Finger Lakes National Forest during the shutdown in 2013, but it’s not clear if that was explicitly permitted or prohibited. The recreation sites were gated at the National Forest, but it’s rather hard to close off back-country roads that aren’t maintained by the forest service. State parks remained fully open, and while during the week I saw a Schuyler County Deputy and the NYSDEC Officer patrolling the roads to make up for the lack of working forest service rangers, they never stopped or said anything about camping during the government shutdown.

It’s not certain what will happen this year, but I should consider my alternatives.

Those forty inch jeans 👖 don’t really fit anymore and are so baggy

I really need to get some new jeans that are better fitting though I only got this pair a few months ago, not realizing what was despite the warnings I was given. Especially because the Salvation Army shirt I got is so nicely fitting. Still I’m hesitant to invest in a new clothes of any expense as I know what I’m up against in a culture that prioritizes low quality calories, excessive sugar and fat. I’m good but the social pressures are so bad, and it can be lonely eating things that are actually half decent for you.

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Rain and 66 degrees at the Elm Ave Park and Ride. ☔ There is a north-northeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 66 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 2 pm.

Too rainy 🌧️ for the morning walk and I wasn’t moving fast enough to catch the earlier bus 🚍 downtown. The rain let up and I walked down to the later express 🚏but in part I delayed as I didn’t really want to do laps in the Plaza in part because that would add another time up and down the eighteen flights at work and I didn’t want to do that. Lousy excuse but I’m still not doing elevators at work.🛗 It’s stupid, I’m not afraid of the state elevators and I’m sure the state police 🚨 would come and rescue me when the elevator breaks down but I like the exercise of climbing 🧗‍♂️ all those stairs. The worse thing that could happen is I get trapped in the elevator with the head of the Assembly Republicans and after a few awkward seconds maybe talk about deer 🦌 hunting or something in the wilderness.

Morning was eggs 🍳 with a bunch of onions, spinach, and peppers. Lots of fiber and protein there. Had a few cups of coffee ☕ though I really should cut back on the fluids as I’ve been having to piss a lot due to 6000pall the water I’ve been consuming from the watermelon 🍉, zucchini 🍆, egg plant and the fruit 🍏 I’ve been eating. Last night was breaded egg plant with panto breadcrumbs using egg as a glue, with a sauce made from tomatoes, jalapeños, onions and Italian spices and a bit of dried Parmesan on top. Broccoli 🥦 on the side. It was good in the broiler all crispy.

Today will have showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 3pm. 🌦 High of 71 degrees at 3pm. 11 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 24th. Maximum dew point of 69 at 2pm. 🏖️ Northeast wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 87 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1959.

Another work day today, then one tomorrow, then it’s off to camp in the Adirondacks. 🏕 I’m not sure how nice Friday will be and Saturday looks chilly up north, but I might end up bringing both the heater and bug screen, along with tarps. 📚 I’m sure Lynne is going to ask if I want to go to the Guilderland Meeting regarding the Senior Home Development in the Pine Bush 🌲 but I’ll see if I can get out of that because I don’t feel that great, and I’m tired of attending meetings regarding the Pine Bush, yelling and screaming and being mocked in the press. 📰 I really have other priorities, and I’d like to get books from the library and get packed for camping. I doubt I’ll leave before early on Thursday morning, but if I get ready, it’s less to do tomorrow. Pine Bush stuff is kind of important, but I don’t want to be on the forefront, and so many of these hearings and being shoved down by the town board is kind of boring. Plus I have salmon 🐟 to cook up tonight with spinach, and I’m looking forward to that on this rainy night.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 61.5° from the due south horizon (-9.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:20 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (284°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (290°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:59 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 8:28 pm, which is one minute and 27 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:07 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 70 degrees. The dew point will be 67 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 13 hours and 58 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 32 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am, then a slight chance of showers between 1am and 2am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 65 degrees at 4am. Four degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 68 at 6pm. East wind around 5 mph becoming south after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 58 degrees. The record low of 41 occurred back in 1972.

In 1969, the Woodstock Music Festival Opens on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, 🎧 🎸🎷 much to the distaste of his neighbors and fellow community members. 🐮 I’m sure he just thought of it as a way to make some money on a wet, muddy field that wasn’t growing much hay or silage that year due to the weather. He used to run the largest dairy farm in Sullivan County. Of course, they cut his milk contract in subsequent years, and was forced out of the dairy business. His son would go on to be the Sullivan County Clerk some years later. And the farm became a tourist destination in recent years. 🗑 The hippies trashed the land more then Yasgur could have ever expected, to say nothing of what they did to the neighbors. And he just wanted a little money from the hippies, and expected after the weekend, the muddy field could be tilled up and put back in production.

On this day in 1970, President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors. 💰 Much was made out of it, but truth be told the US hadn’t been pegging it’s currency to gold since the 1930s and by the 1960s the value of the US currency had grown with the size of the economy and inflation, it was getting harder and harder to come up with enough gold to settle the currency, especially as investors sought more gold as a hedge of growing inflation as the sixties slid into the 1970s. 📈 Truth be told, regardless had the gold standard ended or not, the gas crisis would have still occurred, and it would have done a lot of damage to economy, though a lot of that was baked in after the sixties, and all the post-war expansion including the baby boom and the construction of the Interstate system which produced a enormous boom that was petering out by the seventies as major legs of the system were finalized. 🛣

Cool but sunny this weekend. 😎 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Maximum dew point of 58 at 2pm. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 84. Maximum dew point of 64 at 4pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 82 degrees. Actually, Sunday will be fairly warm and muggy. But Friday the high is only 66 degrees with rain showers. I am going to bring my heater up north I guess this weekend, along with the screen tent as the bugs may be bad. 🎪 I wasn’t sure if I was going to bring my kayak up north, but Sunday could be a very nice day for kayaking on the Mohawk River around Moss Island, 🛶 especially if I do a bike ride first. Although do I want to spend more time at the Potholers at Piseco-Powley? 🏊‍♀️ Decisions! 🤔

Looking ahead, there are 11 weeks until Halloween 🎃 when the sun will be setting at 5:51 pm with dusk at 6:19 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 64 and 37 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 56 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 2019.

The smoke clears as the weekend approaches but I’m in as much of as a haze ever 🌁

Through the haze I think I can see the weekend though for a while walking yesterday I could feel my throat burning. Again the smoke alarm went off in the office from the wildfire smoke, the fire department came and switched off the alarm. I reviewed votes on calender 58B at one AM in the morning, flipped a Rules Report number got up at 5:50 am and started walking. A day in the life.

Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! On a clear day you can still see the weekend. Summer is still coming despite the smoke which started to part yesterday. Mostly cloudy with some smoke and fog around 47 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌁 Calm wind. The air quality index is 54. You can sort of start to breathe again this morning.

That cold cup of coffee ☕ helps a lot as died the cold air. My throat feels a lot better this morning, it really started to burn yesterday when I was walking in the mid afternoon after the smoke had appeared to lift but the air quality levels still were around 175. 🫁Walked 6 ¼ miles yesterday and 7 ½ miles yesterday which ain’t bad despite the busy schedule and noxious air. Reheating the eggs, spinach and vegetables from yesterday 🍳. A rich source of protein and energy for the coming day.

It seems like only a day more of wearing my oversized dress pants 🕴️which apparently the pair I had saved for today seems particularly oversized. In many ways I can’t believe how much weight I have lost. Now I kind of wish I had a working scale and weighted myself before I started this journey into healthy eating 🍏. I concede probably a lot of it was the two pounds of cheese 🧀 I was eating most weeks, which for as much as I love all things dairy 🐮, that’s a lot of saturated fat. I do like my new sense of taste and all interesting foods. I guess session could extend after midnight again but I don’t think I’ll be likely driving downtown to work a full day on Saturday though anything is possible. I just want things to wrap up so so I can get onto summer.

Today will have a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 11am. Some of the storms could produce small hail. Partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 67 degrees at 2pm. 11 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 3rd. Maximum dew point of 52 at 9am. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 75 degrees. The record high of 100 was set in 1933.

Last night when I was working from home 💻 I made up another pound of rice 🍚 and lentils for the upcoming week. A mixture of red and green lentils in the rice as it was a red lentil week but I didn’t have enough. After lunch today the pound of black beans I cooked up on Sunday evening will be done. They were good especially cold with red onions. 🧅 I need to get to the store 🛒 soon as my fresh and frozen fruit supply has been mostly eaten at this point as I only have a single apple 🍏 left in my office 🏢 although I can finish off the red grapes 🍇 today at work. Yesterday’s dinner was the last of the rice with a thawed shrimp 🦐 and lots of kale. But I’m even getting low on frozen kale and spinach, so you know a real crisis in the pantry is ahead.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:56 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.3° from the due south horizon (-0.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:50 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (296°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (303°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:32 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 9:06 pm, which is 36 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:52 pm. At sunset, look out for rain 🌧 and thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 63 degrees. The dew point will be 53 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 17 minutes of daytime, an increase of 49 seconds over yesterday.

In an ideal world session would wrap up fairly early today, 🏡 I could get home early, take a nap 😴 and then get to Walmart around 8 pm when freshly stocked but that’s living in a fantasy world. 🧛 I think realistically the best I can do is try to get my steps 👣 in today, keep my eyes 👀 mostly open at work and celebrate 🎉 come tomorrow when the legislative session is done if it is done before then which I concede may be unlikely.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms could produce small hail. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 48 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 16th. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 53 degrees. The record low of 36 occurred back in 1975.

I double checked to make sure my stove was off 🍲 and that the refrigerator was off and the iron unplugged before leaving home because I’m sure memory is bad at this point. 💁🏻‍♂️I’ll be glad for a more normal week next week though I have a busy one planned. Got to get my summer on. ☔ I forgot my umbrella again but at this point I don’t care if I get a bit wet heading home.🌧️ I’ll dry out my suit jacket, probably will need to be dried cleaned by January at any rate and I’ll throw the rest in the wash. Probably going to end up getting at least some new dress shirts and pants should I keep off the weight if not loose more through the end of the year.

On this day in 1972, severe rainfall causes a dam in the Black Hills of South Dakota to burst, 🌊creating a flood that kills 238 people and causes $160 million in damage. This one wasn’t blown up by the Russians. I have always been fascinated about some day maybe living in the Black Hills of South Dakota. 🌲🌲🌲 Very wooded and remote, low taxes, good gun laws. If I was a Republican I would probably vote for their Governor in the Republican presidential primary as she is pretty damn sexy and has that flame thrower on her ranch. 🔥

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 74 degrees at 4pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 27th. Maximum dew point of 53 at 8am. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 76 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 2008.

I’m hoping to do the Gas Up 🚜 with dad on Saturday assuming that I’m not working. Then an overnight hammock camping 🏕 in the woods somewhere. I heard Stanton’s has fresh strawberries 🍓 which might be good as a snack at camp and breakfast the next morning, especially if I don’t have time to shop in the mean time.

Looking ahead to Sunday, a slight chance of showers after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 80. ☀ Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Maximum dew point of 59 at 7pm. I might do the Gas Up again on Sunday to explore more of it and get some ice cream 🍧 made with the antique churn and the Blackstone engine assuming I’m not too tired. Plus hike at Thacher Park. 🚶 Typical average high for the weekend is 78 degrees.

Next week, I have a busy week ahead. 🚲 I am hoping to get some advice on my bicycle from the Albany Bicycle Rescue clinic on Tuesday, which will hopefully get me on the right track. Then come Wednesday, I need to go to the store and get my propane tank filled 🏮 and food for the long weekend. I plan to take Friday off to head up to the Adirondacks, so I will be driving north on Thursday evening, hopefully to get the House Pond Campsite and the swimming hole. ⛺ And the Potholers Monday is Juneteenth and I’m planning to take off Tuesday, so I will probably camp somewhere different for the second half of the weekend. Maybe Stewart Landing and paddle Lily Lake 🌼 in hope that there will still be the lilies out on the lake. They come pretty early in my experience and are a easy to miss.

Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until National Nude Day 👱 when the sun will be setting at 8:33 pm with dusk at 9:06 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 85 and 65 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 84 degrees. We hit a record high of 99 back in 1995.

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. 🌄

The countdown to summer continues. Going to relatively mild today but certainly not summer like. I’m just waiting for black fly season to be done. And water temperatures to be a bit warmer.

Cloudy and 50 degrees in Delmar for the morning walk. ☁ There is a south-southwest breeze at 8 mph. 🍃.

Not so cold this morning. 🍃 Going to be pretty nice by afternoon. Too bad I’ll be stuck in the office 🏢 most of the day. Walked 9.2 miles yesterday and 12.3 Sunday. Lots of steps but it’s been nice. Didn’t do the twenty mile hike on Sunday but it was a busy weekend.

This morning I am reheating the queche I made up on Sunday 🍳 and froze. Took out a slice from the freezer last night, plan to add some kale, mushrooms, and tomatoes as apparently I need more of them then it already has. 🍅 As they say, the more fiber the better. And some carrot 🥕 slices after breakfast. Black coffee ☕ from reheated coffee grounds plus a little fresh coffee, as I’m trying to cut expenses with coffee being so expensive these days. Eggs 🥚 are a good all morning breakfast, especially blended with lots of fiber.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 78 degrees at 2pm. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around June 9th. West wind 8 to 14 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, and we had an thunderstorm ⛈ in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 82 degrees. The record high of 89 was set in 1991.

Finished up the updated maps for Save the Pine Bush 🦋 kiosk yesterday at the Lupine Festival this Saturday. I reached out to Lynne about getting the rest of the material for the display. I like tabling, leading hikes, doing maps and research but not so much public hearings especially with the jackals in the press 📰 just looking to twist your words for speaking what you think. At this point in my life, I hate politics, I’m more focused on what is right for me.

Not a pay week this week 💸 but I think it’s a pretty three paycheck month. I’m doing my best to keep expenses down but it’s tough in these inflationary times we all live in. I’m planning on saving a little money this money in my savings account for the first time in years, as interest is up and I know some point in the future 🔮 I’ll have to replace Big Red.

No tax refund for me. 💵 Oh well, not a big one, I was planning on applying any of what I thought to be a $150 refund to next year’s taxes. Didn’t owe anything either. Somehow I made a math error in calculating the amount I was liable for. 🧮 My calculated income was right but I must have read the tax table wrong. I’ll go over my form with the reconciliation statement but there is nothing further for me to do. It’s so stupid to have to file 📂 taxes when the government already has the data on their computers.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:53 pm with sun having an altitude of 66.4° from the due south horizon (-4.4° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:31 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (291°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (297°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:12 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 15 seconds with dusk around 8:43 pm, which is one minute and 3 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:25 pm. At sunset, look out for a chance of rain 🌧 and temperatures around 69 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 42 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 4 seconds over yesterday.

School 🚸 budget vote today, I’ll probably go after the evening walk 🚶 as then I’ll avoid the crowds and morning traffic as the polls are open until 9 pm and I’m usually in bed 🛏 before then. School Board elections are more rigged then most but it’s the one chance you have to vote against government spending. I also should get milk 🥛 this evening which I keep avoiding because frankly I’ve gotten into drinking my coffee ☕ black.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers before midnight. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 42 degrees at 6am. Seven degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 29th. North wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 50 degrees. The record low of 30 occurred back in 1959.

Sunday looks to the best day for the weekend. Saturday, a chance of showers after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 69. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Maximum dew point of 49 at 7pm. Sunday, a chance of showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 74. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Maximum dew point of 52 at 10am. Typical average high for the weekend is 73 degrees.

Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until Primary Day 🗳️ when the sun will be setting at 8:38 pm with dusk at 9:11 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 82 and 47 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 81 degrees. We hit a record high of 97 back in 1953.

Andy Arthur.org

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