I dethroned Colleen as the mayor of the Elm Avenue Park and Ride. We go back and forth as some weeks she rides the bus more than I do. It gives us something to talk about standing in the queue. Very quiet morning on the bus, with only one other person on it today. A lot of state workers take off the week before Christmas and New Year’s Eve, especially with Christmas holiday this year observed on a Monday. I guess I might have done the same, except that it’s winter, and camping this time of year isn’t that much fun due to the short days, cold weather, and inaccessibility by vehicle of many of locations.

48 degrees and mostly to partly cloudy right now, depending on how you count the clouds. The breeze is supposed to be picking up but it’s been fairly calm. I wore the heavy Carhartt to work as I have the vest on but it’s much too warm this morning but will cool down later.  Just looking at sun filtering through the trees branches. Listening to John Denver’s Holy Night.  I feel a bit congested this morning, as I think I may have gotten some of the mildew in my nose while I was cleaning last night, but I took some sinus medication and drank orange juice and ate lots of frozen fruit this morning. I got some of the frozen fruit I was putting on the waffles on my face this morning, so I when I went to the store this morning to get milk (moo!), the clerk said I had blood on my face. Oops. Well, this is why I take a shower before I go to work.

For the rest of the day look for partly sunny skies, with a temperature falling to around 39 by 5 pm. Warm enough you won’t have to Breezy, with a west wind 11 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had rain and a high of 51 degrees. I remember that wet day driving back from Cherry Ridge in Brookfield. The record high of 60 was set in 1895. 15 inches of snow fell back in 1894. Today won’t be so snowy although snow is expected later in the week. Today instead will be salt encrusted and damp but mild. We sometimes get days like this mid-winter.

The sun will set at 4:29 pm with dusk around 5:01 pm, which is 44 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 9 hours and 4 minutes of daylight, an increase of 29 seconds over yesterday. Days are getting longer but the sunrise continues to get later. Those mornings are so dark even on sunny days, and hell I don’t get up until around 7. In the pitch black.

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain and snow showers between 8 pm and 10 pm, then a slight chance of snow showers after 10 pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 29 degrees at 5 am. 12 degrees above normal. West wind 8 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2015, it got down to 22 degrees with periods of fog and rain and snow. The record low of -14 occurred back in 1951.

Looking ahead to our next Tuesday holiday in February, there are 7 weeks until Valentines Day when the sun will be setting at 5:27 pm with dusk at 5:55 pm. On that day in 2016, we had sunny skies and temperatures between 8 and -13 degrees. I remember that day, it was very cold. But sunny! I think I walked down to the Park and Ride, all bundled up. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1946.