Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Four weeks to Epiphany. Snow flurries, partly cloudy and 27 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 15 mph. Kind of chilly but that sun filtering through the clouds is nice. The skies will clear around 2 pm.

It wasn’t a bad walk down to the Park and Ride. Not nearly as cold as I though from the radio announcer who spent most of the morning complaining about the cold. I swear weathermen make winter seem colder and summer warmer then it really is. It’s called seasons and change is a good thing, although I’ll take a dog day of summer over a frigid winter day, because I don’t like paying for heat, and being outdoors in the cold means you have to get all bundled up.

I do like that sun. It quite pretty and will filter down on my desk when I get in the office. The skies are quite blue behind the Empire State Plaza. A lot of traffic heading downtown but the driver is quickly navigating through it. Didn’t grab a picture because I had the luck of catching a bus with one of those wraps. But it is a nice bus.

Today will have isolated snow showers before 4pm. Partly sunny, with a high of 32 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees below normal. Northwest wind 15 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. It’s the wind that will get you today. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had fog but otherwise sunny and a high of 48 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1966. 7.3 inches of snow fell back in 2009.

The sun will set at 4:22 pm with dusk around 4:53 pm, which is 2 seconds later than yesterday.  The sunsets are getting later. Today will have 9 hours and 7 minutes of daylight, a decrease of 50 seconds over yesterday. And so are the sunrises (which means the days are still getting shorter).

Tonight will have isolated snow showers between 10pm and midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 18 degrees at 6am. Five degrees below normal. Northwest wind 6 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2015, it got down to 41 degrees with periods of rain. The record low of -4 occurred back in 1902.

As previously noted, there are 4 weeks until Epiphany when the sun will be setting at 4:38 pm with dusk at 5:09 pm. On that day in 2016, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 34 and 5 degrees. Cold but not unusual for January. Typically, the high temperature is 31 degrees. We hit a record high of 71 back in 2007.

The good news is the weekend is just around the corner …

Good evening! Partly cloudy and 32 degrees on this moonlit evening in Delmar. There is a west breeze at 13 mph.

Went out for my evening walk. It was a pleasant evening but a bit chilly with the breeze until I got moving. Lots of moonlight tonight for sure.  Skipped going to the library this evening in part because my laptop battery is low, and I also do not like doing my evening walk so late. Not only do we have the moon tonight but the stars are great too. 

Tonight will have a chance of snow showers, mainly between 11pm and 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 25 degrees at 6am. One degree above normal. West wind around 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Still enough to make the roads slick late night.  In 2015, it got down to 23 degrees with periods of fog. The record low of -11 occurred back in 1902.

Waxing Gibbous Moon tonight with 64% illuminated. The moon will set around 3:47 am. The Full “Cold” Moon is on Wednesday night with mostly cloudy skies and mercury in the teens.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of snow showers before noon. Partly sunny, with a high of 31 degrees at 11am. Six degrees below normal. Northwest wind 11 to 16 mph. Going to feel pretty cold despite the sun.   Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had fog and a high of 48 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1966. 7.3 inches of snow fell back in 2009. The sun will rise at 7:13 am with the first light at 6:41 am, which is 54 seconds later then yesterday.

It will be cold, but I still think I’ll walk down to the express bus tomorrow morning. I like the exercise to start out my morning. The sun will be nice. 

Looking ahead, Obama’s Last Day is in 6 weeks, Ground Hog Day is in 8 weeks and Start of June is in 25 weeks. We have a while before June. 

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 39 degrees in the City of Albany. There is a west breeze at 9 mph. The skies will clear tomorrow around 4 pm. A bit chilly outside, but then again it’s December 8th, and that’s to be expected this time of year.

Tonight was the earliest sunset of the year. We only get more daylight after tonight. Sure we have many cold nights ahead of us but each night, the days will be getting longer. 

Tonight will have a chance of rain and snow showers before 11pm, then a chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 27 degrees at 6am. One degree above normal. West wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2015, it got down to 23 degrees with periods of fog. The record low of -11 occurred back in 1902.

Look to the east, the moon is quite pretty. We have a Waxing Gibbous Moon tonight with 64% illuminated. The moon will set around 3:47 am. The Full “Cold” Moon is on Wednesday night with mostly cloudy. It definitely will be cold that night with temperatures getting down to 12 degrees for the full moon.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. Generally a cool weekend is on tap but we got to watch Sunday, as the roads might get slick. Partly sunny on Saturday, with a high near 30. West wind 6 to 10 mph. Sunday, a chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 32. Chance of precipitation is 30%.Typical average high for the weekend is 38 degrees.

I think I’m dropping plans for the Adirondacks next weekend. It’s just too much of a risk of slick roads on Sunday for me to go north. I don’t know anything on winter driving and I don’t plan to learn. I’ll probably stay home all day on Sunday except to walk places to avoid the risk of dealing with icy roads. 

In four weeks on January 5 the sun will be setting at 4:36 pm, which is 15 minutes later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 19 and 2 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 31 and 15 degrees. The record high of 64 degrees was set back in 1950. Pretty cold. January is awful in Albany. 

I bought a second charger for my laptop. It’s one of those things I like to keep one in the office and one at home. Otherwise, I will forget to pack my charger with me all of the time, and as you can guess, that I can be problematic. Plus carrying a charger back and forth to work causes the wires to get frayed and broken. So I like to have one in both locations. Spent the extra $10 to a get a geniune HP charger, because sometimes the cheap knock-offs are less reliable, with wires that tend to break easier — and who knows how fire safe they really are. You never can trust non brand Chinese stuff you find on Amazon.

I also gave up on ordering those Sears Oxford shirts online. They have many of the same colors that I like at the store but they are hard to figure out online, because each color gets a separate product listing. Moreover, when I went to order them, they were going to charge extra for certain colors to ship, because they come from different warehouses. The Sears website crashed multiple times when I was looking in the cart. I give up. I guess when I need more of their shirts, I’ll just go to the Maul. It’s an excuse on a cold evening to go out and do something.  I do like their shirts, but it was difficult to figure out their website — and I think I’m fairly computer literate.

Fixed the grub bootloader so now it automatically comes up when I power up the laptop. I had to rename the default Windows bootloader and put grub in its place, and fix the grub configuration to see the moved bootloader for Windows. It was annoying that Linux didn’t do this automatically but it was easy to do. Of course on my machine, it’s called Microsoft Winders 10.

I’m no computer expert but I enjoy tinkering a little with Linux, and being able to take a look and study the computer guts. So much of Linux can be adjusted by messing with a text file. And the Internet is full of answers on how to fix it. And with Linux, you don’t have software developers intentionally making it more difficult than necessary to get into the guts of a program.