Red Sky at Night
Current Wx: Temp: 70.43°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 5.75mphWords: 284
Pretty much rained all weekend, including the drive out to Mom's and back. It was nice seeing Mom, and I'm glad I took the time to get out there.
I learned a bit about why Maps sometimes offers routes with "fewer turns." I took 88 up through the Catskill and Alleghany Mountains. It's a beautiful drive, but getting there is about 70 miles of back roads. It wasn't terrible, but it is fatiguing.
The real challenge was after I got off 88 near Schenectady. Then it was a mile here and a less than a mile there, and turn, turn, turn. That was exhausting. Of course it happens right at the end of the journey.
I ended up taking the Thruway home, which is probably 20 miles longer in distance, but only 8 minutes longer in travel time. Much easier drive. A lot of turns getting to the Thruway, which seems like I might have avoided. Traffic was light and I was able to spend most of the drive in the right lane doing about 72 in a 65. Fewer Death Race 2000 drivers as well, which was welcome.
The best part was taking 96 south to Watkins Glen. So pretty, driving past all the wineries and farms.
Stopped at Walmart to get some groceries for the week, got back to the house at 5:01pm, as recorded by the front security cam.
Started noticing some red in the sky as I sat on the couch, so I had to get up to investigate. So many evenings, it looked promising but fizzled out. This time was a little different. It's not spectacular, but it was nice.
And a wonderful way to end the day.
✍️ Reply by emailA Prayer for America
06:13 Monday, 26 May 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.43°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 142
I read an editorial about this last night. I hadn't seen this release before. So I watched it this morning, starting about 5:00am, since I was up. I've always been sentimental ("I cry at Kodak commercials."), but this had me weeping. In a good way, I guess.
I'm not surprised that the Mad Orange King is rage-bleating about the Boss. Our sovereign is a jealous king. I don't know that those in the grip of MAGA can hear Bruce, but for those of us who can, it is a source of some solace.
If you wish, check it out:
✍️ Reply by emailSunset 5-25-26
Current Wx: Temp: 52.09°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 4.97mphWords: 779
Yesterday was Memorial Day. It had rained all day Saturday and Sunday, so Mitzi wanted to get out of the house. She wanted to go to The Windmill Farm and Craft Market because there was a car show and she thought I'd be interested in that.
It's not the kind of thing I would do by myself, but I'd never been to the place before and Mitzi likes it when I go with her someplace, so I grabbed a camera and tagged along. It was still pretty cloudy and seemed to threaten rain, but all we got was some light drizzle, more like a mist really.
We started out in a few of the buildings, checking out the vendors before we headed to the car show portion. Eclectic array of products and foods. A lot of kitsch. Some marvelous dining tables and chairs. Pricey, but probably worth it. Some of it is made in Pennsylvania, we may try to find something made more locally when we move into the new house.
There was a band, three guys my age or older play the hits of our era, like Surrender by Cheap Trick. I can't put my finger on it, but it just seemed a little... off.
The car show opened at noon with an emcee "reading" (barking?) a poem about military service, followed by Taps, followed by the National Anthem. Again, it seemed a little off.
Strolled around looking at the cars. Some pics will be up at Flickr in a bit. Talked to a couple of the owners. The owner of the Dodge Little Red Truck was very proud. He loved that truck as a kid and finally managed to own one. He wasn't a gear-head, per se, just a boy who loved a truck. Probably the nicest thing about the whole visit.
Back into the pavilions to look around some more. I started feeling uncomfortable. Too many people in too confined a space. There are probably about as many people per square yard at the Ithaca Farmer's Market, but it's more of an open air pavilion. These were enclosed buildings, stuffy and you couldn't move without dodging people, kids and dogs.
Mitzi asked if I wanted to get lunch there and I suggested we get something in Watkins Glen, so we headed back to the car. By the time we left there was a line of cars waiting to get in and people were parking in fields across the road from the place.
Memorial Day in America.
In other news, LaunchBar and AppleScript don't play as well as I'd hoped. The scripts worked, but LaunchBar had to be the frontmost application since they all begin with dialogs. That was pretty awkward.
Well, I also have HyperKey installed, so figured I'd use that for all the FastScripts. Used it to start this post from Photos. I only have to remember one modifier-hey (caps lock) and a letter for the script. Seems manageable.
Watched some more videos about hydronic heating and cooling, some very good ones. A buffer tank is less like a battery and more like a capacitor. It can't store enough energy to last all night, but it can store enough energy to smooth out the cycling of the heat pump. If you really want to store energy, you put it in the slab. How you extract it after that isn't clear to me.
These videos were webinar presentations, and one of them was especially interesting in the sense that it suggested I'm on the right track vis-à-vis managing latent cooling loads with a dedicated dehumidifier. Modern residential construction practices are building home envelopes so tight, so well-insulated that the cooling loads are relatively small and perhaps inadequate for managing humidity levels within the home. I also learned there's a simple product that can solve my dew point problem. It's a sensor and a switch, and if it detects that the cooling water is at or below the dew point, it simply doesn't allow the system to run.
I'm growing more confident that we can manage our cooling loads with the radiant floor system, though I'm still uncertain if I can get a professional to design and install such a system.
I just wish I wasn't dreaming about HVAC now.
We need to try to get the windows sorted this week, while we wait for the plans to be reviewed and finalized. We have a zoom meeting tomorrow with a firm that will design the timber frame structure for the porch and deck, and we'll need to get that coordinated with the plans. Hopefully that goes smoothly.
Meanwhile, the beat goes on...
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