Good morning! Happy Last Day of Winter 🏂 ! Another real cold, late winter day. Going to need to bundle up. Spring starts tomorrow, going Two weeks to Good Friday ✝️ . Mostly sunny and 23 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a north breeze at 15 mph. 🍃 with gusts up to 28 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is 10. Things will start to thaw out at around 11 am. 🌡️

Finishing up my breakfast of french toast and coffee. A good breakfast, although I wish I had more frozen fruit to put on it but I didn’t get enough when I was at Aldi’s last week. Unfortunately I don’t like how Aldi’s lacks the bulk sizes that you can get at Walmart, and I end up buying less then I really need as I eat a lot of frozen fruit both with meals and snacks. I don’t buy cookies or sweats anymore both for health reasons but mostly because of cost reasons because I’m always living paycheck-to-paycheck after saving for retirement, and putting away money in various investments to eventually buy land, so I’m not stuck living the rest of my life in this miserable, literally falling apart apartment in city, when there are so many wonderful places out west where you can have land and your freedom and dignity.

Yesterday was what one would expect for a rainy day. Kind of a busy day at times with work, but then there was some down time. I should have finished my taxes up so I could get the big refund check from the IRA, but I didn’t. Money is going to be tight after the car insurance payment goes through, as rates have gone up with the pandemic ending, however I’m not convinced I’d save a lot of money switching despite all the free firewood the insurance companies mail me daily and spam my social media feeds. Actually in my experience, paper doesn’t burn that well, unlike some of the lightweight plastic wrappers food comes in. I did watch a couple of videos on birding and common birds to better improve my birding skills that I previously had downloaded on Sunday.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 38 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 28th. North wind around 16 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Going to be chilly out all day with the wind and late February weather like weather. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 51 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 2012. 9.6 inches of snow fell back in 1971.❄

With my neck problems I’ve been having this week, I am thinking I will go down to the library mid-day to work from my truck, because I think my truck seat is much more comfortable then my broken wooden chair on a paint bench at home. Plus then I don’t have to be monitoring the bandwidth meter when I’m working down there, as that Internet is not metered unlike my cellular connection. Plus I think with the sun it will be a pretty nice day to work down at the library despite the breeze and relatively cold weather. Next week looks nice enough that I might just walk down to the library a couple of days to work, although if I have involved projects, I might prefer the comfort of the seat in my truck plus not having to worry about my laptop battery.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:04 pm with sun having an altitude of 47° from the due south horizon (-23.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:30 pm with the sun in the west (264°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (270°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:07 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 53 seconds with dusk around 7:34 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the southwest (236°) at an altitude of 60° from the horizon, 250,661 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:08 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 33 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 7 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 53 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be clear 🌃, with a low of 20 degrees at 5am. Seven degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 28th. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight. In 2020, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 44 degrees. The record low of 2 occurred back in 1967.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 54 degrees at 4pm. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 5th. Calm wind becoming west 5 to 9 mph in the morning. I’ll take some late April weather this weekend. I am thinking of hiking out to Five Rivers, and then Meads Road, I think. It’s a nice walk and doesn’t involve burning any fossil fuels and there might be a lot of birds and wildlife on the move at Five Rivers. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 74 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 2012. 7 inches of snow fell back in 1944.❄

Looking ahead to Sunday, sunny, with a high near 59. Calm wind. Typical average high for the weekend is 46 degrees. I am thinking of doing a road hike up at Partridge Run with my binoculars to see how many wild turkeys, grouse and deer I will see along my walk. While I probably want to stay on the roads as the trails will be quite muddy, I think there should be nice hiking up there, especially if wildlife are out and about thanks to the warmer weather. If I get an early enough start I can probably do all day hiking. Maybe I should avoid walking past that mobile home on sickle road with the pit bull that ripped a big whole in my jeans last year. Didn’t draw blood fortunately. That dog is lucky I wasn’t hunting, otherwise it would have died from lead poisoning. I just hate the concept of pets and owning animals for companionship, especially if they are vicious beasts that attack random strangers walking through the woods or on public roads. If you need a pet for companionship, you are a very sad person in my opinion.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Good Friday ✝️ when the sun will be setting at 7:22 pm with dusk at 7:51 pm. On that day in 2020, we had rain showers, mostly cloudy and temperatures between 57 and 38 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 77 back in 2010.