Photo of Andy Arthur

Andy Arthur

The color television assures us that April showers bring May flowers. 🌷🌻🌼 I'll believe it when I see it, though there are definite hints of the green up -- grass is looking greener in the city, some bushes are starting to bloom and there are signs of the days to come. Days have gotten longer, windows open and it's generally just nicer then not that long ago.

One more day until Friday 🌸

A little more blue sky now as the clouds burn off but still lay bit gray to start out the morning. Ran to the store, got milk to put in my coffee, had a big pan of carrot pancakes topped with honey and blueberries.

Good morning! Happy Thursday. Mostly cloudy β›… and 55 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind.

Not a bad start to the morning, quite mild but a little more sun would be nice. πŸŒ₯ It’s supposed to clear out as the day goes by. I have my bike back from the shop, I will ride in. The gear shifting is back working good again, though I decided to hold off on getting tires for the bike, as they were more at the bike shop then what I was prepared to pay 🚲 after having $200 worth of service done on the bike. πŸ›  I do want to get tires though before I do the Catskill Scenic Trail and Schoharie County next week, lest I put a rock through the tires.

Today will be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny ☁ πŸ‘‰ β˜€ , with a high of 76 degrees at 7am. Nine degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around June 1st. South wind around 14 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became mostly sunny by afternoon. The high last year was 56 degrees. The record high of 90 was set in 2018. There was a dusting of snow in 1986.❄

Riding to work this morning. 🚲 It really isn’t a half bad morning. Going to try to get in relatively early as I might sneak out of the office early to join the office happy hour downtown 🍻 if time allows. Probably another busy day, though at least today I don’t have any meetings downtown except for the happy hour if I so choose. Its on the way home and a drink would be good.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:53 pm with sun having an altitude of 62.9° from the due south horizon (-7.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 3.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour πŸ… starts at 7:18 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (286°). πŸ“Έ The sunset is in the west-northwest (292°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:57 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 8 seconds with dusk around 8:28 pm, which is one minute and 7 seconds later than yesterday. πŸŒ‡ The best time to look at the stars is after 9:06 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies πŸŒ„ and temperatures around degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 14 hours and 12 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 27 seconds over yesterday.

This are going well with my Fedora 40 install, it’s mostly now just a matter of restoring things πŸ’Ύ back to the hard drive – – that is the things that I really use and not just copying back a bunch of files πŸ“‚ that I never plan to use again. I am experimenting with VirtualBox on Windows – – while I could never get it to work the other way – – it would be nice if I could keep Linux and Windows running on my machine at once so I had access to the VPN for work while access to all my files and programs on Linux, using a dual monitor set up all one computer πŸ–₯ rather then switching keyboards all of the time. πŸ”³

Tonight will be partly cloudy πŸŒƒ , with a low of 50 degrees at 7am. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 20th. Northwest wind 3 to 8 mph. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 44 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1966.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. 😞 Saturday, a slight chance of showers after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 68. South wind 7 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Maximum dew point at 7am. Might be okay for a ride somewhere around town, but I’m not planning any long trips. Sunday, showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 56. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Typical average high for the weekend is 68 degrees.

Staying in town this weekend, but the plan is to leave at 4 PM next Thursday and take off Friday β›Ί for a long weekend out in Schoharie, doing some mountain biking in the Schoharie Valley plus ride the Catskill Scenic Trail 🚲 from Stamford to Bloomville and back again. It would be nice into the spring time, and hopefully the black flies wouldn’t be too bad up there. But this weekend looks kind of shitty. πŸ’© It’s fine, my parents aren’t going to be around the following weekend to visit.

Looking ahead, there are 9 weeks until Independence Day πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ when the sun will be setting at 8:37 pm with dusk at 9:10 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 84 and 54 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 83 degrees. We hit a record high of 104 back in 1911.

 Peaked Mountain

NPR

11 Most Endangered Historic Places’ list includes Eatonville, Fla. : NPR

Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, Athens, N.Y.: "Opened in 1874, the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse used to be one of several 'middle-of-the-river' lighthouses on the Hudson River. Now, it's one of only two left standing. However, due to erosion and other preservation challenges, engineering reports indicate the building is at risk of collapse within three years if no action is taken."