Good morning! Happy Sunday. Next Sunday is Christmas Eve. Mostly sunny and 16 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. Looks like a beautiful morning, sitting inside looking through the window as I sip a cup of coffee but it sure is cold. I guess without the wind and with the sun, it’s not that cold.

Today will have increasing clouds, with a high of 27 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees below normal. Light and variable wind becoming northwest around 5 mph. I guess that’s reasonable for the second half of December. A year ago, we had light snow and mist in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 35 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1984. 11.1 inches of snow fell back in 1970.

The sun will set at 4:23 pm with dusk around 4:55 pm, which is 22 seconds later than yesterday. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy conditions and 25 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 9 hours and 3 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 16 seconds over yesterday. By next week, the sun will be setting four minutes later. Summer is coming st some point.

Tonight will have a chance of snow showers, mainly after 11pm. Cloudy, with a low of 20 degrees at 7pm. Typical for tonight. Maximum wind chill around 21 at 6pm; Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2016, we had light freezing drizzle in the evening, which became light rain and mist by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 20 degrees. The record low of -9 occurred back in 1919.

A bit of a cold Sunday on tap. I got to head to the store later today and I want to remove and update some code to the blog that I’ve been working on.

I might also go for a hike somewhere but I don’t want to go too far this weekend if I’m thinking of heading out of town next week. Maybe a walk along the rail trail? I could hike that section out to Voorheesville through Font Grove, although that sounds flat and boring. I could also do the Normans Kill Gorge, but I’ve done that a lot lately. I don’t know, this morning I’m feeling lazy after staying up late last night after smelling that delicious hazelnut coffee and deciding I need a cup. I’ve gotten back into flavored coffee again. But I got a lot of new code written for better Facebook integration with the blog.

Yesterday’s Save the Pine Bush hike was fun, not too cold but a little more sun would be nice. The Pine Bush isn’t my favorite place to hike but it is good that it remains somewhat wild even if sprawl runs through it. The Pine Bush exhibits such natural beauty and the ugliness of suburban life that abbuts it. Motoring is nice but it’s so noisy. While the displays made out of polyvinyl chloride and painted  aluminum are tacky its still nice to have such a nice place close to home. Too bad they bus service is so piss poor that only the adventurous can get to the Pine Bush without a car but I guess that helps limit use and abuse of the land.

Looking forward to going up north next weekend to the real wilderness, assuming that the weather isn’t too cold and I can dig myself out a parking space and a campsite. Alternatively, I could backcountry camp at Cole Hill or Rensselaervile State Forest.

I do need to get some data so I can make up some more graphs and maps. Maybe when I go down to the library to upload and test the other code.

Been studying soldering techniques for YouTube more, and I’m going to try to work with the silver solder some more today, as the leaded 60/40 solder got delayed in the mail. It only was coming from New Jersey but it got delayed in the mail. Leaded solder is actually safer from a fumes perspective then silver solder as it melts quicker so your breathing in less of the toxic flux fumes.

Still chewing over going grocery shopping at Shoprite and using Walmart online  to order other supplies and dry goods. Shoprite has good prices for food as does Walmart online for supplies. I like the idea two day free delivery, although I worry about excess non recyclable packaging. I think about waste a lot because I am anti-landfill and anti-municipal incinerator and plus I haul my own trash bags to the transfer station at $2 a bag.  At least the plastic grocery bags can taken back to the store for recycling.

As previously noted, next Sunday is Christmas Eve when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:59 pm. On that day in 2016, we had rain, drizzle, snow, sleet, mist, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 42 and 35 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 72 back in 2015. I remember that rainy day at the bus stop after work. For Christmas in 2015, I went to Glimmerglass State Park and camped in Brookfield. That was a very nice way to spend Christmas but this year there will be a fair amount of snow in both of those places.