February 27, 2017 Evening

“Monday mornin’ feels so bad
Ev’rybody seems to nag me
Comin’ Tuesday I feel better
Even my old man looks good
Wed’sday just don’t go
Thursday goes too slow
I’ve got Friday on my mind”

Good Monday evening! Going home time. Drive safely. No, the weekend isn’t here yet. Nor is summer. Partly clear and 51 degrees in City of Albany. There is a south-southwest breeze at 11 mph. Those shadows from the buildings are hanging low overhead. I do like that evening sun. It will be nice when the time changes a week from Sunday. Tomorrow is final day of February 2017, in Trump’s America. 

The sun will set at 5:43 pm with dusk around 6:11 pm, which is 1 minutes and 15 seconds later than yesterday. At sunset, look for partly clear conditions and 47 degrees. There will be a south-southwest breeze at 11 mph.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 35 degrees at 1am. 14 degrees above normal. South wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light southeast after midnight. In 2016, it got down to 32 degrees under mostly cloudy skies. The record low of -10 occurred back in 1950.

Waxing Crescent Moon tonight with 12% illuminated. The moon will set around 8:53 pm. The First Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with mostly cloudy expected. The Full β€œWorm” Moon is on Sunday, March 12th. The sun will rise at 6:31 am with the first light at 6:03 am, which is 1 minutes and 36 seconds earlier then yesterday. Tonight will have 12 hours and 47 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of rain and snow showers before 7am, then a slight chance of rain showers after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 54 degrees at 2pm. 18 degrees above normal. Southeast wind 3 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies and a high of 57 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1903. 9.7 inches of snow fell back in 1948.

I thought it was a pretty good day for a Monday. Not too crazy, the calm before the storm. Things that needed to get underway happened and got the information I need to set up a dental appointment. I hope to get my teeth checked out in the next few weeks. I need to find out how much damage has occurred by deferred maintenance, because honestly I’ve not been to the dentist in a decade and a half because I didn’t have dental insurance for a while and it’s generally not a pleasant experience for me. I drink a lot of milk and a eat shit ton of vegetables so hopefully they won’t be that bad. I don’t eat that many cookies or sweets except at parties and when camping. 

All together I am feeling better today. That ear ache went away last night by morning. A little achy this afternoon, so I might be coming down with a cold. It’s the damn weather of recent. 

A nice weekend coming up with seasonable temperatures. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 32. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 47. Typical average high for the weekend is 40 degrees. I know that seems cold compared to recent days, but it’s still the first weekend of March. And I like sunny weather after all the cloudy crap of late. 

My new wallet works well with the bus RFD card but I find even just storing my hunting and fishing license in the center fold blocks it from operating. Those businesses card readers aren’t very sensitive. I guess it prevents accidental reads. 

In four weeks on March 27 the sun will be setting at 7:16 pm (Daylight Savings Time), which is 1 hour and 33 minutes later then today. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 58 and 40 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 49 and 30 degrees. The record high of 78 degrees was set back in 1998.

Looking ahead, Patriots Day is in 7 weeks, May Day is in 9 weeks and Memorial Day is in 13 weeks.

President Trump Budget Outline Calls For $54 Billion For Defense, Domestic Cuts

President Trump Budget Outline Calls For $54 Billion For Defense, Domestic Cuts

"President Trump's budget will propose a $54 billion increase in defense spending, while slashing domestic programs by the same amount. The president told the nation's governors on Monday that his plan "puts America first," and that "we're going to do more with less, and make the government lean and accountable to people."

February 27, 2017 – Looking Ahead This Week

Enjoy today’s beautiful weather, as it’s not going to last. Much cooler, early March weather is expected come for second half of the week, once we get past the rainy but mild first day of March on March 1st. Sunset keeps getting later, as in a week from Sunday, we will be setting the clocks ahead an hour,

Weather Summary
Tonight. Mostly Cloudy and 33 degrees , 6:30 sunrise.
Tuesday. Slight Chance of Rain/Snow then Chance of Rain and 54 degrees , 41 max dew point, 5:44 sunset.
Tuesday Night. Rain is likely and 49 degrees , 6:28 sunrise.
Wednesday.
March 1st
Chance of T-storms and 65 degrees , 54 max dew point, 5:45 sunset.
Wednesday Night. Showers is likely and 38 degrees , 6:26 sunrise.
Thursday. Partly Sunny and Breezy and 43 degrees , 5:46 sunset.
Thursday Night. Partly Cloudy and 22 degrees , 6:25 sunrise.
Friday. Partly Sunny and 33 degrees , 5:48 sunset.
Friday Night. Partly Cloudy and 17 degrees , 6:23 sunrise.
Saturday. Mostly Sunny and 32 degrees , 5:49 sunset.
Saturday Night. Mostly Cloudy and 22 degrees , 6:21 sunrise.
Sunday.
Partly Sunny and 46 degrees , 5:50 sunset.
Sunday Night. Mostly Cloudy and 30 degrees , 6:20 sunrise.

 Southern Schroon Lake

‘Middle-class’ Manufacturing Jobs Pay Fast-food Wages

‘Middle-class’ Manufacturing Jobs Pay Fast-food Wages

"The truth is that while auto jobs used to be good jobs, we now have more in common with workers at McDonald’s or Walmart. One-in-four of the 600 jobs at the Camaco plant are temporary positions that pay $10 an hour. Meanwhile, wages for all of the plant’s production workers are capped at just $12 an hour β€” with an 18-cent raise a year for a β€œliving fee.” I haven’t even received that raise this year. Temp workers are often kept in limbo for up to a year before being hired on full time. And turnover at the plant is off the charts, with a manager recently admitting that 1,500 workers have cycled through the plant in the last two years. The company has been forced to hire three temp agencies to find employees, recruiting workers from as far away as Cleveland."

February 27, 2017 Morning

This morning in Albany, we are up 39 degrees under fairly sunny skies and nice weather conditions. There is a southwest breeze at 10 mph with gusts up to 21 mph. Looking at 56 degrees later, which ain’t bad for February. 18 degrees above normal. West wind 10 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. A year ago, we had snow and a high of 39 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 1997. 3.6 inches of snow fell back in 2013. Winters aren’t as cold as they once were. That said, we are going to have a big cool down later in the week (scroll down on the blog to see the new interactive graph that gives you all the details). Less sun by mid-week.

The bus I am taking downtown smelled like burning brakes, but it made it downtown without a fire or the brakes failing. I still think the brakes are dragging a bit on the bus. It’s one of CDTA’s oldest Bus Rapid Transit-style Gillig Hybrids, I think they bought as a pilot bus for testing prior to introdocuing Bus Plus.

The sun will set at 5:43 pm with dusk around 6:11 pm, which is 1 minutes and 15 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 11 hours and 11 minutes of daylight, an increase of 1 minutes and 51 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 34 degrees at 1am. 13 degrees above normal. Southwest wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. In 2016, it got down to 32 degrees under mostly cloudy skies. The record low of -10 occurred back in 1950.

While right now I’m running the old method of sharing blog posts, I did fix the broken new method, which only was broke because I forgot to comment out the save_posts action in WordPress, causing many draft posts to be accidentally shared.

Still hoping to get the car wash today after work, assuming the weather remains decent. I don’t want leave the mud and salt on the truck, and hopefully the issues they were having at the car wash will be resolved come this evening. I wish we had more light in the evening, although that will change a week from Sunday, when the time changes. 13 days until the time change, for those keeping track of such things.

March 1st is Wednesday. Before you know it will be camping season. After disconnecting the solar conntroller, which I rarely use, the accessory battery is charging and holding it’s charge much better. That said, once the battery protection relay is installed, I will probably replace the battery so I have maximum charge for the summer.

Thirteen weeks from now will be Memorial Day. I know I can’t wait for the warmer temperatures this summer. I shouldn’t be as busy, so I hope to take more road trips this summer and into the fall. It will be nice to go back to the summer and spent some serious time at the poolside at Watkins Glen, and enjoy nice long evenings next to campfire, listening the soft mooing of cows in the distance at Finger Lakes National Forest. Plus many good trips to the Adirondacks.

Not sure what my plans are for Memorial Day Weekend; I might go to Vermont or maybe the Adirondacks. Moose River Plains to be a rather muddy mess during Memorial Day Weekend, and not all of the roads are open, so I may avoid that. I don’t think I will go to North-South Lake either β€” that place is a zoo on Memorial Day Weekend, and honestly, I don’t like being that close to other campers and the lake is less fun to paddle then you might think being a reservior with a very rocky bottom.

As previously noted, there are 7 weeks until Patriots Day when the sun will be setting at 7:40 pm with dusk at 8:09 pm (Daylight Savings Time). Almost spring time at that point — especially in city — if we have mild temperatures in April. On that day in 2016, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 76 and 36 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 59 degrees. We hit a record high of 91 back in 2002.

February 26, 2017 Night

Good evening! Mostly clear and 26 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a east breeze at 6 mph.

Saturday this weekend was so beautiful in the morning. I really had wish I had planned to go to Hannacroix Preserve or maybe some place more distant on Saturday. But I got my taxes done. So that was a good thing. It was nice hiking at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center for a few hours on Saturday, but it’s really not my favorite place to go as it’s much too suburban for my taste. Albany Pine Bush hike I led today was pretty successful, as a few of the regulars showed up, despite the cold windy weather. My expectations were low as soon as I stepped outside this morning. But it turned out good. Out walking it wasn’t so bad as the calories you burned made up for the cold. I got my shopping done, so I have food for the week and don’t have to go anywhere except maybe the car wash. 

There pretty good thunderstorms last evening, although it was mostly heavy rain and sleet with a few clips of thunder and some brief wind. During the half hour between when the front went through and when it was over, the temperature had to drop 20 degrees. So much colder this evening.I had to turn the heat back on at home and close, lock, and put storm windows back in. 

Fixed a bunch of bugs on my blog last night. And made some new bugs. Most of those bugs are minor  but they should reduce the number of messed up charts, posts scheduled for the wrong time, and glitches setting up picture locations.  Also added some user adjustable charts and the code implementing a new weather chart. Of course in the process of the fix, I managed to create new bugs including a nasty one that accidentally revealed all my recently saved drafts posts to Facebook. 

It was a pretty good weekend until I things started to go terribly wrong on Sunday evening. First off, I decided to get my truck washed – putting it off until the rain could wash the salt off the pavement – and by then the car wash by closed for repair. Damn kids with their muddy trucks. I might go back tomorrow after work. I pushed forward several minor blog fixes but that all went terribly wrong when a single line of code went wrong. All kinds of draft content posted, clogging up people’s Facebook feed, getting at least one person angry at me because I said something in a draft that wasn’t exactly the most artful of words. People get over their egos.  And it’s deleted now. Drafts are meant to be private, used to work out ideas. I got to be more careful what I put in drafts, should they ever go public again. On top of that, I’m concerned I’m getting an ear infection in my left ear, which feels kind of like there is fluid in it. And I broke my headphones. I bought a new set – another $7 set of ear buds at Walmart. But if I get a full blown ear infection, I don’t think I’ll be wearing them anytime soon. I’m hoping it will be fine by morning, if not ill give it some time then it’s off to the doctor. I hate using antibiotics but I don’t want to lose my hearing like so many older people I know. 

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 25 degrees at 11pm. Five degrees above normal. East wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable. In 2016, it got down to 17 degrees with periods of snow. The record low of -13 occurred back in 1940.

Waxing Crescent Moon tonight with 5% illuminated. The First Quarter Moon is next Sunday with partly cloudy skies expected. The Full β€œWorm” Moon is in 2 weeks. The sun will rise at 6:33 am with the first light at 6:05 am, which is 1 minutes and 36 seconds earlier then yesterday. Tonight will have 12 hours and 49 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 51 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with a high of 52 degrees at 3pm. 16 degrees above normal. Breezy, with a south wind 9 to 14 mph becoming west 16 to 21 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph. I wish we had weather like that today. A year ago, we had snow and a high of 39 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 1997. 3.6 inches of snow fell back in 2013.

Looking forward to wiring up those gang plate switches and the dimmer next weekend. I think I will put the shelf/gun rack strip and the cap roof lighting on the same dimmer switch but with separate on off switches. It looks like I can also wire the built in USB port and volt meter to an on off switch so it won’t be glowing all night or wasting power unnecessarily. Nice blade connectors that are easy to crimp, use and move around as needed. I also want to get the low voltage disconnect hooked up. Since I pulled the solar controller, it seems like the accessory battery isn’t going flat so quickly. Maybe I won’t have to rush out to replace it, although I may still do it before peak camping season. I hate sitting in the dark at camp. 

In four weeks on March 26 the sun will be setting at 7:15 pm (Daylight Savings Time), which is 1 hour and 33 minutes later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 52 and 34 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 49 and 29 degrees. The record high of 74 degrees was set back in 1986.

Looking ahead, Daylight Savings Time is in 2 weeks, Palm Sunday is in 6 weeks, Easter is in 7 weeks, Mother’s Day is in 11 weeks, Memorial Day Weekend is in 3 months and Father’s Day is in 16 weeks.