Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Three weeks to Pink Moon 🌕 . Albany got rid of their Pinkster festival 🌺 some years back to focus on a bigger tulip festival. 🌷 Sunny and 38 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌞 There is a northwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃.

Up early this morning, 🌅 as I have to drop my truck off for the oil change this morning. 🛢 I could do it myself, but it’s so much easier to have it dropped off at my mechanic 🔧 and let him deal with getting the rusty salt-encrusted filter off and draining and changing the oil. Small engines aren’t so bad, but it can be a bitch to get that filter off sometime, and I can never find 5W-30 synthetic at the store. Then I should be good until November or 7,000 miles when my inspection is due — although I might do another oil change before I go to West Virignia in the fall, especially if it’s in the shop for other repairs at the same time. Not like the bad ol’ days when you did oil changes every 3,000 miles. I’ll drop it off, walk home, and pick it up at lunch time. 🚶‍♀️ That way I get my morning walk in to on this most beautiful of spring days.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 64 degrees at 4pm. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 28th. Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph. 🚩 Another red flag day with the wind, the warmth and the dry grass. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 62 degrees. The record high of 82 was set in 1921. 17.3 inches of snow fell back in 1982.❄

At lunch time, I will probably head down to the store 🏬 and pick up some groceries. I need more frozen fruit 🍓 as I am pretty addicted to that and the Maine frozen Wild Blueberries that they have at Hannaford are like crack, and maybe some eggs and other things. I probably should get the groceries I need for the week, as I don’t have any other reason to drive anywhere this week, although maybe I will go somewhere on Saturday for a hike. I’m thinking Rennselear County but I could decide to just walk somewhere on Saturday and then Sunday maybe do Partridge Run or Rennselearville State Forest. Depends on the forecast.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:58 pm with sun having an altitude of 54° from the due south horizon (-16.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 4.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:50 pm with the sun in the west (274°). 📸

The sunset is in the west (280°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:27 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 56 seconds with dusk around 7:55 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:30 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 59 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 59 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 50 seconds over yesterday. it sounds like a pleasant evening, I might go down to park. 🏞 I should get more books at the library. I’ll have to look and reserve some, especially as when I head up to wilderness I like to have books to read.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 38 degrees at 6am. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 16th. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. Almost warm enough to leave the windows open, for good sleeping. In 2020, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 42 degrees. The record low of 13 occurred back in 1982.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. 😞 Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 63. Maximum dew point of 46 at 11am. Sunday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 60. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Typical average high for the weekend is 56 degrees. No camping plans for this weekend, 🏕 as the weather doesn’t look great, and I’m worried about it being so dry with a rip-roaring fire in the woods. 🔥 The snow is gone even up in the Adirondacks. I am hoping this weekend into next week we will get some rain, 🌧 and then I can head up north for an extended weekend come Thursday of next week. By then the state budget should be done and things will be quiet.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Pink Moon 🌕 when the sun will be setting at 7:51 pm with dusk at 8:21 pm. On that day in 2020, we had rain showers, cold, cloudy and temperatures between 46 and 37 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 63 degrees. We hit a record high of 91 back in 1962.