Clean Off Your Desk Day 2016 Night

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Good evening. Currently overcast and 31 degrees in Delmar. Without the wind and with my comfortable sweater, it doesn’t feel all that cold.

Tonight will have periods of freezing rain before 3am, then periods of rain. Gradual warming through the night. Rain stops during early to mid morning. Light northeast wind. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Not a lot of ice predicted. Rain by mid-morning then just cloudy with clearing late.

Earlier tonight you could occasionally see the first quarter moon. Tomorrow’s sunrise will be at 7:21 am with first light at 6:50 am, which is one minute and 30 seconds earlier then today.

Been packing and shopping for winter camping tonight. I do need to buy some food and a few supplies for tomorrow including batteries for the carbon monoxide detector. For safety in the colder weather demanding more heat and the greater chance of tent vents getting blocked by snow, I’m keeping my CO detector in the tent. The Big Buddy Heater doesn’t output CO under normal circumstances and it has a low oxygen shutoff but things can malfunction and I don’t want to die if I can avoid it.

I’ve been planning this trip for months. Probably the most difficult part will be digging out a parking spot . If I have to, I’ll camp near one of the plowed parking areas along with road. Those snowbanks can be hard to shovel through based on past experience winter camping up there in December. I will also have to shovel out the campsite – especially around where I pitch the tent, the fireplace and place for the table but even with the estimated foot of snow it should be manageable. Once I get set up I’ll have all weekend to dig snow.

I have a small $17 plastic child’s sled I bought to drag gear back to the site, especially the 20 lb propane tank which actually weights about 35 lb when mostly full and the bulky propane heater and relatively more compact lantern, tent, and tarps. I also am going to buy firewood that has to be dragged back. I also bought two more USB batteries that I will use to keep my phone and Bluetooth speaker charged. I already have one, I’ll rotate them out to the truck, charging off the accessory battery so I have music and radio throughout the weekend. I wanted to charge the phone off the propane tank but I couldn’t find any affordable and reliable piezoelectric or similar device to turn propane into charging power for the phone.

I’m not planning on getting an early start in the morning, as I want to leave after the roads are totally cleared up, but I do need to get some sleep.

I hope you had a good Friday. Sleep well!

Clean Off Your Desk Day 2016 Evening

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Good evening that starts off Martin Luther King Day Weekend. Currently overcast and 34 degrees in Albany. Tonight it will rain, mainly after 2am. Low around 34. Southeast wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Tonight we have a first quarter moon, setting at 11:21 pm. Saturday will be have a mix bag of rain, snow, and sleet before 9am, then rain likely between 9am and noon, then a chance of rain showers after noon. High near 40. Calm wind becoming west 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow and sleet accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Tonight I’ll be packing for going camping tomorrow assuming that the roads are passable by mid-morning . There will be a lot of snow up north but I’ll dig out a place to park or find a plowed out parking lot and drag my gear and supplies back to the campsite.

I have things fairly well planned out. I’m going to buy two more of those USB batteries to charge my phone and Bluetooth speaker back in the woods for music and radio. I’ll exchange them hooked to the truck’s accessory battery to keep everything charged. I will have the propane heater to keep the campsite warm and the propane lantern to keep the site bright. I’ll tow firewood back. I’ll use a tarp under the tent and dig out all the snow away to keep things dry. I’ll use tarps and piled snow to block the wind. Probably do a little snowshoeing but back to where, it’s to be decided. Probably on Sunday head over to Warrensburg or North Creek. We’ll see how things go.

Clean Off Your Desk Day 2016 Morning

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Good morning! Happy Friday. It’s Clean Off Your Desk Day. It is currently overcast and 28 degrees in Delmar. Not the nicest morning but it is expected to get nicer as the day progresses.

Later it will be partly sunny, with a high near 42. Calm wind becoming southeast around 6 mph in the morning. Sunset will be at 4:47 pm with twilight at 5:18 pm which is one minute and 11 seconds later then yesterday. It’s nice that we are picking up a minute or so of daylight every evening.

These dark and dreary mornings are tough and lately I’ve been in a fog at work. I bought some dark French Roast Coffee and put in three scoops for six cups of coffee. That gave me a much needed jolt of caffeine. I look forward to sunrises before 6:30 or so.

Today is Clean Your Desk Off Day. Not a bad idea, because I don’t know about your desk but my desk always gets pretty covered with papers and miscellaneous junk as the week progresses. Organization makes Mondays go by much smoother. Do you want to come back after a long holiday weekend to a messy desk?

There are 3 months, 10 days until Arbor Day. Arbor Day is April 22nd. Depending on how early spring comes, things may start to green up a bit in the city. Every year is a bit different but I’m recent years except last, spring has been coming earlier then in the past.

A few notable things happened on this day in recent history. This day in 2001, Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online. It’s hard to imagine the Internet without Wikipedia. Also this day in 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 makes an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York, New York. All passengers and crew members survive. I remember that day well. It was the first day I got on Twitter or shortly thereafter when people were posting pictures of wreck on the new social media service