I don’t partake in candy anymore but I do like using canned pumpkin in several recipes and I should cook up sugar pumpkins for recipes in the coming weeks.

Good morning! Clear and 37 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌅 Calm wind. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Thursday around midnight. ☃️ But after all of yesterday’s and Sunday’s rain, it’s

Rode to work today 🚲 and let me tell you, it was cold ❄ especially on the fingers. 🖐️ I need to get some good riding gloves 🧤. Not just for the cold but to keep from putting too much pressure on the nerves in my hand and causing numbness in my finger tips. That said, lately it’s not been so bad, but I’ve also been more careful how I ride my bike. The walk up the 18 floors of stairs to the office 🏢 is helping to warm me up. Only a few more days when there will be daylight to ride home after work, though when the mornings aren’t too cold, I’ll ride in and then put my bike on the bus for the trip home. 🚵‍♀️ Still cuts my bus fare in half and provides valuable exercise.

This morning with the fresh groceries I got from the store, 🍳 this morning started out with some onions fried up, broccoli, mushrooms, scrambled eggs with smoked paprika, topped with cottage cheese and nutritional yeast. It was a remarkably good breakfast, though not dissimilar to what I last had in West Virginia. Also made up some brown rice with red lentils for a nice creamy mix spiced by chipotle sauce mix. Good for a change from other types of brown rice.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 48 degrees at 3pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 18th. Light north wind. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 64 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 2019. 0.1 inches of snow fell back in 1913.❄

I accidentally lost my headphones 🎧 last night but this morning re-tracing my steps, riding to work I was able to find them at the steps of the laundromat. Checked the polling place first, then the laundromat. I was glad to find them. While the earbuds are getting old and probably will need to be replaced in a few weeks or months, I didn’t look forward to making a special trip to Walmart to replace them. I lost my other set a few weeks back too, though I did find an nasty cheap wired pair at home if I absolutely needed tunes 🎼 while working. I should get a second pair, lest these break or get lost.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:40 pm with sun having an altitude of 33.3° from the due south horizon (-37.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 9.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:11 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (245°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (252°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:51 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 6:19 pm, which is one minute and 20 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:54 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 45 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Tomorrow will have 10 hours and 22 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 32 seconds over today.

Got a lot of miscellaneous things done yesterday. 💉 First and foremost I got my COVID-vaccination and flu shot scheduled for Thursday. I don’t want to get the COVID or flu if I can avoid it. 🗳 I had time so I got out and voted. That and the whole banning drones near school post by one of the local candidates made me angry 😠 so I wanted to cast my protest vote right away. 👕 👖 Went to the laundromat and got my clothes cleaned, and while they were drying, I went to Hannaford and stocked up on groceries. 🍄 🌾 🍵 Unfortunately they were out of bananas, 🍌 but being that I rode my bike to work today, I can stop on my way home.

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain showers after 3am, mixing with snow after 4am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 33 degrees at 6am. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 10th. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Unlike West Virginia, Albany hasn’t had freezing weather yet, though the leaves are quickly falling. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 54 degrees. The record low of 22 occurred back in 1964.

Already reached that part of the year, 📄 where I got the PEP, productivity enhancement program sign up form for 2024. Already got it done and signed up for next year. How fast the years come and go, I feel like I just filled it out a few weeks ago. But then again, it’s November. I also was looking and they’ve increased the retirement savings maximum for the year, 👴 which means I won’t max out even with my 25% deferred comp contribution. I was hoping for big checks at the end of the year to balance out my budget, but it doesn’t seem likely to happen. At least come December I should be getting in revenue from the blog.

Mild but more clouds for the second half of the weekend 🌤️. Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 57. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 56. I want to wait a few more days to decide if this is the weekend for Madison County. 🐮 ⛺ Typical average high for the weekend is 54 degrees.

I voted yesterday 🗳 mainly as I wanted to get it done before I might head out of town this weekend. Plus after reading a local candidates social media post, I was so angry 😡 at them I decided I had to go and right away cast a vote ❎ against them. I know voting while angry is probably not a good idea but I got it done.

Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until Average High is 50 🍂 when the sun will be setting at 4:35 pm with dusk at 5:04 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2022, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 42 and 27 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 50 degrees. We hit a record high of 70 back in 1973.