January 9, 2023 Night

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 31 degrees in Delmar for my evening walk. ☁ Calm wind. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around noontime. 🌑️

Monday’s almost Done. Not a bad evening walk, not real cold no ice but the moon hasn’t risen enough to be visible on the horizon. Windy late but a fairly mild night by January standards.

Tonight will be cloudy ☁, with a low of 29 degrees at 8pm. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 24th. Maximum wind chill around 28 at 8pm; Light west wind increasing to 6 to 11 mph in the evening. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 16 degrees. The record low of -13 occurred back in 1968. Back when it used to be a lot colder in winter.

I finally got that mouse trap I ordered a week and a half ago. 🐁 I am as excited as a pig in shit about that. Finally got one of those Rinne bucket traps you snap on a five gallon bucket full of water πŸ’¦ and they fall in, the peanut butter πŸ₯œ flap drops and they drown. Their popular with farmers and snake owners as they can catch several mice in a night and they don’t involve toxic chemicals and can be used indefinitely. I figure just dump the buckets in the woods out back and it’s clean food for predators. Been waiting for a long time for the trap and I’ve not had a lot of luck lately with the spring traps or sticky traps. Both worked for a while till they stopped. I’m just annoyed the mouse chewed through the hole I patched a few years back.

Tonight will have a Waining Gibbous πŸŒ– Moon with 91% illuminated. At 8 PM, the moon was in the east-northeast (72Β°) at an altitude of 7Β° from the horizon, some 251,000 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. πŸš€ At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by July 19th. Buckle up for safety! πŸ’Ί The Wolf 🐺 Moon is on Wednesday, January 25. The darkest hour is at 12:03 am, followed by dawn at 6:54 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:26 am in the east-southeast (120Β°) and last for 3 minutes and 21 seconds. Sunrise is 13 seconds earlier than yesterday. πŸŒ„ The golden hour ends at 8:10 am with sun in the southeast (128Β°). Tonight will have 14 hours and 41 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 18 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 37 degrees at 1pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 18th. West wind 6 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. A year ago, we had light freezing rain in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 32 degrees. The record high of 55 was set in 2016. 7.3 inches of snow fell back in 1984.❄

Tomorrow is the State of the State Address. 🎀 If there was ever a day I avoid the Capitol or Empire State Plaza that would be it. I’m not sure how many protestors there will be this year but I’m quite comfortable watching them from the window of my office 🏒. When I take the local in the bus 🚍 drops me two feet from the Alfred E Smith building where I work and I can slip in and upstairs without the craziness.

I sent the state a $250 estimated tax payment for Q4 of last year. πŸ’Έ With work and everything else I missed my Q3 payment though I should be good as I usually only average about $1,200 a year in taxable dividends. It always angered me a lot to have to take money πŸ’΅ out of my pocket to cover dividends I’m reinvesting and not taking but I was doing the numbers the other day how important reinvesting dividends is to a secure future. 🌎 That said, I probably should have paid estimated taxes to the fed as I’ll probably owe but those limits aren’t as tight. I think my taxable income will still be low enough this year to free file πŸ“‚ which is nice.

In four weeks on February 6 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (250Β°) at 5:16 pm,πŸŒ„ which is 34 minutes and 42 seconds later then tonight. In 2021 on that day, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 36 and 12 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 34 and 16 degrees. The record high of 55 degrees was set back in 1991.

Looking ahead, Martin Luther King Day πŸ–€ is Next Monday, National Cheese Lovers Day πŸ§€ is Next Monday, Save the Pine Bush Turns 43 πŸ¦‹ is in 4 weeks, Average High is 35 β˜€οΈ ️️| 3 is a month away, Presidents Day πŸ‘΄ is in 6 weeks, 7:30 PM Sunset πŸŒ‡ is in 3 months, 8 PM Dusk πŸŒ† is in 13 weeks, May πŸ•Š is in 16 weeks, 8:30 PM Sunset ️⛱️ is in 21 weeks, Average High is 80 πŸ– is in 23 weeks, World Mosquito Day 🐞 is in 32 weeks, Labor Day πŸ‘¨β€πŸ­ is in 34 weeks, September 11th πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ is in 35 weeks, 7 PM Sunset πŸŒ† is in 36 weeks, Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 is in 44 weeks, Cyber Monday πŸ›οΈ is in 46 weeks, First Sunday of Advent ✝️ is in 47 weeks, Average High is 40 🌨 is in 11 months, Earliest Sunset of the Year βŒ›οΈ is in 11 months, Bake Cookies Day πŸͺ is in 49 weeks and Christmas πŸŽ… is in 50 weeks.

Foamy Lechate Leaking Off the Landfill

I was reading about how much many homeowners spend on utilities …

I was reading about how much many homeowners spend on utilities … βš‘πŸ”ŒπŸ’°

Apparently $200 or $300 a month isn’t that much money to spend on heat and electricity, even in lower cost states compared to New York. Some hobby farms with shops and farm equipment spend $500 or even more a month on electricity and natural gas. That sure seems like a lot of money to be burning up each month in non-renewable resources that are both impoverishing you and the planet.

It’s probably not that much money in the grand scheme of things – I would have more spare cash if wasn’t saving or investing so much right now – but I sure know I don’t have that kind of pocket change hanging around these days. I groan when my electric and gas bill pushes $100 come the frigid cold winter, when I have to turn up the heat to keep warm and the pipes from freezing.

When I own land, I can’t imagine having a big fancy home that requires so much energy to support it. A single room, small cabin takes a lot less energy to heat and light. Wood can be used as a primary heat source, small-scale solar can provide lighting and small-scale charging. While I doubt there is any practical way to avoid purchasing and consuming bulk propane for cooking and making hot water, those instant-on hot water heaters can be quite thrifty for bathing and wasting dishes.