January 10, 2017 Night

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Good evening! Occasional sleet and 35 degrees in Delmar, NY. Breezy, 25 mph breeze from the south with gusts up to 40 mph. The current wind chill is 23. 

Tonight will rain and sleet likely before midnight, then rain. Low of 35 degrees at 10pm. 19 degrees above normal. Breezy, with a south wind 18 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total nighttime sleet accumulation of less than one inch possible. In 2016, it got down to 17 degrees with periods of snow. The record low of -25 occurred back in 1968.

Waxing Gibbous Moon tonight with 91% illuminated. The moon will set around 7:56 am. The Full “Wolf” Moon is on Thursday night with chance of showers. The sun will rise at 7:24 am with the first light at 6:52 am, which is 18 seconds earlier then yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 41 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 1 minutes and 26 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of rain, mainly before 7am. Partly sunny, with a high of 47 degrees at 1pm. 19 degrees above normal. South wind 9 to 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had snow and a high of 37 degrees. The record high of 57 was set in 1975. 8 inches of snow fell back in 1922.

A nice weekend coming up with seasonable temperatures. Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 27. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 34.Typical average high for the weekend is 30 degrees.

In four weeks on February 7 the sun will be setting at 5:17 pm, which is 35 minutes later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 46 and 24 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 33 and 16 degrees. The record high of 48 degrees was set back in 2005.

Looking ahead, Valentines Day is in 5 weeks, Spring is in 10 weeks, Average High is 50 is in 11 weeks, Tax Day is in 14 weeks, Average High is 70 is in 18 weeks and Independence Day is in 25 weeks.

Eight Years

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It’s hard to imagine that eight and a half years ago on the night of August 28, 2008 I was camping on Lower Betty Brook Road in Blenheim. I tuned into Barack Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention, sitting next to the campfire, enjoying a cold one. I liked the man, he gave a good speech and ultimately ended up voting for him in both 2008 and 2012.

Eight and a half years later tonight, I am watching Barack Obama’s Farewell address on this cold winters evening on my monitor hooked to my HDMI box. I still live in the same place and work the same job and while much has remained constant, other things have changed. 

When I first heard Obama speak, I was only a year and a half out of college then, now I have many gray spots on my hair. I’ve grown older moved up in my company, learned a great deal more knowledge in recent years. But it seems like the eight and half years have gone by much too quickly. Assuming that Donald Trump is re-elected in 2020, I’ll be forty two by the time he leaves Washington. 

I’m going to miss President Obama. The changes that took place during his eight years were most of my life post college. So much has changed in the intervening years, a scary recession and recovery, a health care law, the taking out of Bin Laden, shootings, and Black Lives Matter. Many smaller actions like the Clean Power Plan and the fuel efficiency standards have helped to get our country on track addressing climate change. 

Whatever you may think of Donald Trump, his era will be short much like the brief years of Barack Obama. His time will come and go quickly. Like Obama, he’ll get a chance to make his mark on our democracy and then in a few brief moments it will be a new era in our country’s long history. I’m sure Donald Trump will do some good in his brief moment as chief executive for his period in our democracy. 

I will miss Barack Obama. It was a good era but now time will be move forward and we will continue to build a better country for all.

$2.99 Stewart’s Ice Cream

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$2.99 for all Stewart’s Ice Cream half gallons this week makes me happy. I really like getting ice cream from Stewart’s, but frankly their half gallons are expensive when they aren’t on sale. It might be winter and it might be cold, but now’s the time to buy ice cream, because it tastes so good, and it’s nearly half off until Sunday.

I know I will be buying more ice cream, the next time I go to Stewart’s to buy more milk the second half of the week.