Good evening! Partly cloudy and 28 degrees in Delmar. There is a northwest breeze at 11 mph. The current wind chill is 15. The skies will clear around 11 pm.

While I was back in the kitchen for most of the evening washing dishes, the Save the Pine Bush dinner featuring speakers from Standing Rock were fascinating, even if I had One Tin Solider, the Legend of Billy Jack in my head the whole time. I believe Billy Jack was somewhat ripped out of the headlines, 50 years ago even if it is fictional. Granted, the fight against fossil fuels is a far bigger crisis than some fictional movie that was widely panned by the critics. The water protectors do God’s work. I’m not into spirituality stuff and I like my big jacked up truck but we can’t keep burning all this black gold, especially that nasty stuff from Cannuck land. Like the natives and the good ol boys at Standing Rock,  I love camping and the idea of living off the land. Plus they had some pretty wild fires and spent some good time in the wilderness at Standing Rock. They were peaceful protestors so they didn’t have the guns, the cowboy hats or all the fun of the boys at that wildlife refuge out west. But what do I know, I missed most of the presentation.  I just operate the big dish washer and scrape the food scraps into the compost bucket. I like playing with the big toy, the restaurant size dish washer. I’m all preserving the Pine Bush and other fire dependent ecosystems.

Bus ride home was quiet and uneventful. I listened to the aforementioned song by Coven a lot, and it just seemed like with little traffic I was home quickly. Then again, it was the fast bus driver. I wonder if there was a house fire downtown, it smelled like something was burning in the city. Just laying in bed now for the night.

Tonight will be scattered flurries before 10pm. Partly cloudy, with a low of 18 degrees at 6am. One degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 8 at 6am; Northwest wind 8 to 11 mph. In 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1942.

The First Quarter Moon is on Monday night. The sun will rise at 7:21 am with the first light at 6:49 am, which is 31 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 57 minutes of darkness, an increase of one second over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with a high of 31 degrees at 2pm. Three degrees below normal. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1957. 6.6 inches of snow fell back in 2008.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. Saturday, rain likely. Cloudy, with a high near 42. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. I think that hurts our chances for a White Christmas, even if we do get a few inches of snow Friday. Christmas Eve, a chance of snow showers before 7am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 36. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Typical average high for the weekend is 33 degrees.

If I go camping this weekend, it will be up north on Christmas Day through Boxing Day. It seems like it will be quite snowy up north. That’s fine, I’ll park in one of the plowed  parking areas then shovel out a driveway closer to where I plan to camp. Of course if it looks like snow for those days I’ll skip out as I don’t want to have to drive in the snow. If not there is always New Years Eve. That might be a good way to ring in the New Year. I will probably cook up some of the leftover Pine Bush lasagna for my Christmas Dinner if I go camping.

In four weeks on January 17 the sun will be setting at 4:50 pm, which is 25 minutes and 33 seconds later then tonight. The days will be getting much longer by then. In 2017 on that day, we had rain, freezing rain, sleet, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 34 and 19 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 30 and 14 degrees. The record high of 62 degrees was set back in 1889.

Looking ahead, State of the State Day is in 2 weeks, Coldest Day of Year (Avg. 14-30 degrees) is in 3 weeks, Blue Moon is in 6 weeks, February Save the Pine Bush Dinner – 40th Anniversary is in 9 weeks, First Day of Spring is in 3 months, Independence Day is in 28 weeks and Inaugeration Day 2021 is in 36 months.