December 22, 2016 night 

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There is so much sadness, anger and fear these days watching Charlie Brown’s Christmas Special was so reaffirming. Christmas doesn’t have to be about all this commercialism, we don’t have to hate each other or be always so angry towards those who are different. Granted, I was glad to have taped the show in advance because the commercials were so obnoxious. I may save the edited version sans commercials on my backup drive for whenever I need a quick pick me up. 

37 degrees with a fair number of stars tonight. It was a very pleasant evening walk. Skipped the library tonight as I’ve gotten away from the late evening walks. A lot of people out on the streets tonight. More clouds later with a low around 28 degrees. Clearing in the morning then mostly sunny with a high around 41 come Friday afternoon.  The sun will rise at 7:22 am with the first light at 6:50 am, which is 27 seconds later then yesterday.

Definitely looking forward to spending a night in the wilderness this weekend and hopefully a mild January 2017 so I can spend many more nights in the woods.

There are so many people out there struggling this holiday season. People who work so hard but have so little. Proud, honest, hard working folk. I wish I could figure out how I could help or what causes I should give to this holiday season. I try to generous but there are so many people and organizations that are in need. I should do more but so many things are so far away from me in affluent Delmar. 

Nobody really knows what 2017 will bring, to a certain extent we are all victims to history. I know some very good people are proud and excited about the election of Trump. Other things he says are downright alarming. I just hope that he does what is right for our country, helps those in need, especially those in Appalachia, the Ozarks, down on the farm and in the rest of Rural America that are struggling so hard to make ends meet while government and the system is doing nothing except holding them back. I wish I knew the answer but I doubt liberalism or conservatism has all the solutions. 

Looking ahead, Ground Hog Day is in 6 weeks and Start of June is in 23 weeks.

December 22, 2016 5 PM Update

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I’ve got some big news to announce. The Christmas Cactus in my office is starting to bud up. I think I may have flowers on it come Christmas or at least before New Years. I’m kind of real excited about that possibility because I’ve been taking care of the plant for a year and those tender beautiful buds produce a lot of color in an otherwise drab winter scene. I like my window view from the skyscraper where I work but it really could use some color. 

This evening is fairly mild, around 38 degrees. Not bad weather all things considered, especially because we are only two days away from Christmas Eve. Maybe not as warm as last year at this time but it sure looks like we have temperatures that are somewhat above average at least through the end of the year. 

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 28 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees above normal. Northwest wind 7 to 11 mph. In 2015, it got down to 41 degrees with periods of fog and rain. The record low of -12 occurred back in 1955.

Waning Crescent Moon tonight with 37% illuminated. The moon will rise around 12:41 am. The New Moon will be tonight with partly cloudy skies expected. 

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with a high of 41 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees above normal. Southwest wind around 7 mph. A year ago, we had fog, rain and a high of 56 degrees. The record high of 64 was set in 1990. 8.8 inches of snow fell back in 1947.

In four weeks on January 19 the sun will be setting at 4:52 pm, which is 27 minutes later then tonight. It’s always remarkable how quickly daylight accelerates after you get past the first day of winter and only accelerates faster come closer to spring time. In 2016 on that day, we had snow and temperatures between 23 and 13 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 30 and 14 degrees. The record high of 62 degrees was set back in 1929. Based on the current long-term projections I think we may be warmer then last year but everything can change in a month. 

I am definitely thinking about a Christmas Camping trip but where I go is somewhat up for question. I don’t want too much snow but at the same time I want snow so I can drag the gear back in the woods. It might be fun to camp in the Adirondacks and take a nice drive, do some snowshoeing back to a pond or overlook. Have a nice fire and sleep in a nice toasty tent. But a local state forest might be fun too. I don’t know. I have a couple of days to decide. 

Almost home. Traffic turns out that it wasn’t too bad today and I’m sure tomorrow it will be non existent except for maybe delays around the Thruway ramp. Going to tape and watch Charlie Brown’s Christmas later on. Should be a nice evening.