Forty four on our way up to fifty. To the east you can see the sun peaking through the clouds but rain is expected later. In some ways kind of depressing, but the weather will change, starting tomorrow. More sun come Wednesday, and now the weekend is looking progressively nicer. Maybe a bit too much sun though for good trout fishing come Sunday. Water levels might be too high too. But maybe come the following week, I can get out fishing.

And, yes I brought my umbrella. Not that I expect it to rain by afternoon, based on the latest forecasts. That said, usually when I’m downtown, the umbrella is pretty useless in the afternoon. But the latest model suggest that we might not get much rain come afternoon. I guess we will see. Hopefully I won’t leave my umbrella on the bus, as I left my laptop backpack at work, as I didn’t need my laptop last night.

Had a great big oil spill in my apartment this morning. I was making waffles and I dropped the Pyrex glass measuring cup, and went to grab it to avoid shattering on the floor. The measuring cup fell on the floor, but it didn’t break,  but I knocked over the bottle of vegetable in the process. Vegetable oil, like all oil is difficult to clean up — and I probably only spilled less then a cup before I caught the bottle. Fortunately, because I skipped lunch yesterday, I didn’t have to pack lunch today.

That said, the waffles came out pretty good, this time leaving the blueberries for on the top. I don’t have fresh ones this week, because I didn’t get to the grocery store that had them on sale. I like fresh fruit better, but then I have to worry about them going bad, and usually fresh fruit comes in more packaging then frozen ones. I did the whole wheat ones today. I have a box of the regular waffle mix, but I doubt I will buy anything but whole wheat or corn waffle mix going forward, as I don’t like the regular white flour waffle mix that much.

The sun will set at 7:17 pm with dusk around 7:46 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 12 hours and 35 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 53 seconds over yesterday. Rain showers and 50 degrees later.

Tonight will have showers likely, mainly before 11pm. Patchy fog before 11pm. Otherwise, cloudy, with a low of 37 degrees at 5am. Six degrees above normal. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2016, it got down to 34 degrees under partly cloudy skies. The record low of zero occurred back in 1923.

I tell you I’m looking forward to getting out camping on the weekends soon. I hate been stuck at home so much, and I really hate my dusty, dirty generally awful apartment in the suburbs. It’s great for commuting to work, but I’ve spent too  much time there this winter. I did clean my tub and kitchen up a bit last night, and I probably should vacuum again upstairs tonight.

I also got reading about off-grid refrigerators and the latest in 12 volt refrigeration technology. Surprisingly enough, there is a lot of highly efficient refrigerators available today, not just the Sunfrost models that once were the gold standard for off-grid people. A lot of semi truck drivers use 12 volt mini-refrigerators to keep their food cold. Refrigerator technology has really improved in recent years — even if you have an 120 volt system powered by central grid, replacing that 10 year old refrigerator will pay you back in a few years.

Looking ahead, there are 3 weeks until Tax Day when the sun will be setting at 7:41 pm with dusk at 8:11 pm. On that day in 2016, we had partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 78 and 40 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 60 degrees. We hit a record high of 90 back in 1976. I am hoping by then I will be able to get the park after work and be enjoying some nice fresh air while either reading a book or working on my laptop.

I still think I have to pay my big ol’ state tax bill by the April 15th, even though it’s a Saturday. I think the state is withdrawing $300 from my account.