January 18, 2016 Night

Good evening. Currently some light snow is coming down and 16 degrees in Delmar. The roads are slick in spots, you can go from bare pavement to snow covered quickly. Also, the windchill makes it feel much colder then 16. That wind is really whipping around at times. Not a good night to accidentally slide off the roads tonight, especially in areas without cell service.

Tonight will have a slight chance of snow showers before 11pm with more lake effect bands the farther north and west you go. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 13. Wind chill values as low as -3. West wind around 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.Waxing gibbous moon, setting at 2:20 am. Tomorrow’s sunrise will be at 7:20 am with first light at 6:49 am, which is one minute and 37 seconds earlier then today.

Went out to my parents house for Sunday dinner a day late. Mom made roast chicken, it was pretty good. Otherwise, it was a pretty quiet day. Cold one for sure with the wind whipping around most of the day.

I hope you had a good extended weekend. Martin Luther King Jr Day was kind of a drag with the cold but it at least gave us a chance to rest up. Sleep well!

January 18, 2016 Afternoon

Good afternoon. Currently a few clouds and breezy and 24 degrees in Delmar. This afternoon will continue to have occasional snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 25. Breezy, with a west wind around 22 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. Sunset will be at 4:51 pm with twilight at 5:21 pm which is one minute and 13 seconds later then yesterday. A week from today will have the first sunset after 5 pm.

Tonight we will have a waxing gibbous moon, setting at 2:20 am. Tonight will have a chance of snow showers, mainly before 9pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 13. Wind chill values as low as -2. West wind 15 to 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Been Unpacking the camping gear, doing some work on the blog. Working on my public comment on the state’s proposed ban on roadside camping in the Adirondacks and generally cussing out state leaders. Just generally hanging out as I’ve been feeling a little under the weather and have been tired. The weather looks kind of cold and miserable outside.

I’m kind of glad I came back yesterday. It’s possible the snow would have been minor but it still would have been cold and the night would have been really long. I like camping but the long nights are really for the dogs. Lanterns are fine and campfires are nice but after five hours by the fire it gets so long. Not to mention heading to bed at 9 PM and darkness when you awake at 7 AM. I like getting away to the woods but it still ain’t fun.

Big Red has been running great all weekend but it seems like all that road salt is gross and it’s making it hard to see out the windows when driving. I’m going to wash the truck in a bit.

The bits and pieces I’ve heard about the Democratic Party debate last night hardly inspired confidence in either candidate or inspired me to go out and vote Democratic this year, at least on the presidential line. We don’t need more wilderness areas or gun control. Public lands should be available to use by the public and not locked up as fee use parks. I would like to see more investment in infrastructure, more renewable energy efforts, and increased energy efficiency. Action on Climate Change is important to and the ignorance of the leading GOP candidates is obnoxious. Taxes on working folk are too high. I’ll have to learn more about the different candidates and maybe there is one I’ll like. I don’t know. Change would be good, I feel like we need fresh ideas in our country. One party shouldn’t rule forever. Competitive elections encourage better ideas to float to the top.

Too much of politics at least in the political news cycle and social media is about penis length measuring of the candidates and parties rather than real policy. It doesn’t matter if the other party’s candidate has a shorter penis. They have valid ideas too. People are too ignorant of what real state and federal agencies are doing to hardworking people just trying to feed their families.

State Of New York – Open Data.

State Of New York – Open Data.

I don't know if you have been checking data.ny.gov lately, but it now has a lot of good data from state agencies, that you use for various purposes.

This data used to only available via Freedom of Information Law requests. To save state agencies time (and requesters too), the state is now posting frequently FOILed data.

Many people think the FOIL law is mostly used by journalists or interested citizens. But the truth is 99% of FOIL data is actually requests for data collected by state agencies in their ordinary operations and used by citizens, non-profits, and commercial entities to build derived products.