February 19, 2016 Evening

Good evening. Currently overcast and 35 degrees in Delmar. Tonight’s Waxing Gibbous Moon with 79% illuminated is setting around 4:30 AM.

Tonight we will have a chance of snow showers and sleet before 4am, then a chance of rain showers between 4am and 5am, then a chance of sleet after 5am. Cloudy, with a low around 31. Breezy, with a south wind 20 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow and sleet accumulation of less than one inch possible.

In four weeks on March 18 the sun will be setting at 7:06 pm, which is 1 hour and 33 minutes later then tonight. That is the first Friday in daylight savings time.

As you saw from my earlier post, I survived defensive driving class. It was such a long six hours. Such a gory class, and I’ve taken it so many times, that it’s fairly pointless except for the insurance discount. Driving really is a dangerous, deadly activity. I took the rest of the day off from work and headed home. In a little bit, I’m going to head to Walmart or Staples and get a flash drive so I can use my new TV tuner to save and play video.

You know after all these years, I kind of like being able to watch TV at home. The picture is quite beautiful on the LCD screen and makes it easier to understand world events with the visual. I can still work on my laptop or make breakfast and flip through the channels and see what is happening in the news. I can mute the audio and listen to NPR and get twice the news at once.

Other than that, no real weekend plans but hope to get out for a hike somewhere in the Albany area. Saturday’s forecast seems quite nice. We will see.

Defensive Driving

I survived another defensive driving class. What did I learn? Driving is awful gory, violent activity that involves the killing and imprisonment of lots of nice children and teenagers. It’s also a leading killer of adults. I’m certain any society with a moral compass that opposes rampant senseless violence would ban motoring.

They didn’t cover in the class that driving causes climate change emissions and that cars are destroying our children’s hope of a livable future. Or that motoring is poisoning our air, literally causing thousands of heart attacks per year and burning the lungs out of our fellow humans. Automobile shredding debris is a leading source of landfill waste. Or is leading to more farm fields and woods being paved over.

Apparently six hours wasn’t enough time to cover such topics.

“America, land of the free, home of the auto dump. But man was born to wander.” –  Renny Russell

February 19, 2016 Morning

Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! It is currently partly cloudy and 15 degrees in Delmar. Going to be a warm but rainy and cloudy weekend.

Another nice sunny morning, I walked down to the Park and Ride and are taking the express bus downtown. It’s a more scenic and smooth rise downtown. I love looking at downtown from the flyover ramp to the Empire State Plaza.

Today will have increasing clouds, with a high near 35. Light south wind increasing to 6 to 11 mph in the morning.

I have defensive driving today which is no fun,
but it’s six hours of misery for 10% off my insurance bill for three years which is nice. The class was only $10 through the company I work for. I could use a refresher in driving techniques. I was told cellphones are strictly prohibited in class, so mine will be totally off and in my bag except for lunch time. I have the full day off so I’ll get home early tonight.

There are 1 month, 25 days until Tax Day. Have you done your taxes? Mine are done and I’m just waiting for my refund. It’s possible it’s already come and I haven’t just noticed.

Today is the 50th day of 2016, for those who keep track of such things. Only ten days until March. Looking forward to spring and it getting nicer.

Happy Birthday to Smoky Robertson of the Motown band, the Miracles. She turns 76 years old today.

Today in the way back machine, 1807 to be exact, Aaron Burr is arrested for the crime of treason. He was later acquitted by trial that was viewed as overly political.