Still pretty sunny as we head into the 9 o’clock with temperatures around 22 degrees. Not a half bad morning although I suddenly was running late after running early but I caught the bus without too much darting out into traffic. Probably the cop thought I was nuts running to the bus, but I made it. 46 degrees and more clouds later.
First gear of the week but before you know it we will be shifting down into overdrive and it will be the weekend. I don’t expect it to be an awful week although by midweek it could be quite dreary. Well, we will see. Next week with the time change, I may be able to start heading down to the park after work, although I expect evenings for the most part for the next few weeks to be quite cool and we will still have dusk about 7:30 for first week or so after the time change.
The sun will set at 5:52 pm with dusk around 6:20 pm, which is one minute and 13 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 11 hours and 31 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday. We are quickly creeping to that time of the year when there is more day then night. We have exactly 12 hours of daylight and darkness a week from Thursday, March 16. Calendar spring starts the following Monday, March 20th. Realistically, spring doesn’t come to the mountains until May 10th or so. Mud and black fly season. The smell of oceans of DEET and those lips tingling from my reaction to DEET poisoning. But hell, it works and I apparently haven’t died yet.
Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly after 2am. Cloudy, with a low of 35 degrees at 8pm. 12 degrees above normal. Maximum wind chill around 32 at 6pm; South wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2016, it got down to 31 degrees with periods of rain. The record low of -6 occurred back in 1950.
Today in 1857, Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. Nowadays the only people who talk about the Dred Scott decision are conservatives who are pushing for greater state rights.
Next weekend, I’m hoping to get the low voltage disconnect wired up, and at least get a power run from cab to the front of the truck cap, and start wiring up the switches. A lot will depend on the weather, as I’m not going to be climbing all over my truck, standing out in 30 degree weather. I want to test everything out well before I head up in to the woods camping, and then install a fresh marine (accessory) battery up front. My hope is with the low-voltage disconnect, I will get more then 2-3 years out of the inexpensive marine batteries I’ve been trashing with over-discharge conditions. Right now the forecast looks decent for the weekend, but I know things can and will change before the weekend.
Looking ahead, there are 6 weeks until Patriots Day when the sun will be setting at 7:40 pm with dusk at 8:10 pm (Daylight Savings Time). On that day in 2016, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 76 and 36 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 59 degrees. We hit a record high of 91 back in 2002. Hopefully at least in the city, things will be greening up around here. I look forward to getting back in the woods.
