Slept in a bit later then I wanted this morning but I made good time this morning and was able to go for a 45 minute ride out Meads Lane and Orchard Drive. Cows were all lumped together, staying warm in the cold. My fingers felt a bit swollen and sore when I first got back indoors but the warm shower seemed to make things feel better again.

Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Partly sunny and 17 degrees at the Downtown Albany. There is a west breeze at 11 mph. 🍃. The current wind chill is 4. Honestly, I think that wind chill is an exaggeration but I’m kind of a tough mother. There are 4 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at Tuesday around 9 am. 🌡️

The morning bike ride at 6:45 AM wasn’t bad 🚲 though it was a bit cold at times, especially on my fingers. 🤚 I had gloves on which helped quite a bit, 🧤 but at times my fingers were cold. Riding up the hills on Orchard Avenue helped warm me up but I didn’t mind getting back home and taking that warm shower 🚿 before heading out to the bus. 🚌 It turns out the later express bus works out well for the transfer to the shuttle to the suburban office, making for a commute not much longer then driving, plus it saves money and I don’t have to worry about bumping other cars, and watch videos or do other things while I ride the bus. That said, I look forward to riding to work again, but right now the rail trail is snow covered ❄️ not to mention it’s a pretty cold week.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 24 degrees at 3pm. Eight degrees below normal. West wind 10 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 33 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1889. 10.9 inches of snow fell back in 1994.❄

Moving back out to working in the suburbs is what you might expect it to be. 👨‍💼 Very much kind of a corporate experience, working in a massive two-story sprawling building with massive open-air cubical farms, surrounded by acres of free parking. 🅿️ At least it’s convenient for parking for the weekends I plan to head out of town after work, right off the freeway. ☕ And as much free coffee as I want and not many late nights. And it’s a bit more money and a good resume builder, which is important especially in these inflationary times. 💸 Need to study up on VIM and probably awk, as I think those programs will be essential for my new job. They have some books in the office, but I know there is a lot of Youtube videos and other sources of info about it on the internet.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.5° from the due south horizon (-44.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:05 pm with the sun in the southwest (234°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (242°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:49 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 17 seconds with dusk around 5:19 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south (174°) at an altitude of 56° from the horizon, 228,953 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:55 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 22 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 11. ☃️ There will be a west breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 30 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 43 seconds over yesterday.

Yesterday with the snow was kind of a messy commute ❄️ and I was annoyed that I got on the local bus and saw shortly thereafter the very late express bus passing by. 🚌 I just didn’t trust the real time bus info, as it kept shift as the express bus and local bus kept getting later. I though they might have canceled the express bus or I missed it as the shuttle back to the Plaza was running late due to snow, but it was accurate data. Doesn’t matter, I was still home by 6 PM.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 14 degrees at 2am. One degree below normal, which is similar to a typical Maximum wind chill around 4 at 10pm; South wind 8 to 10 mph. In 2023, we had light freezing rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of -19 occurred back in 1957.

Ended up getting dinged $45 for damaged books 📚 from the library, but I get to pickup the books and I’ll add them to my collection. Two of my books unfortunately got wet and dirty when I was camping. 🏕 It happens, I shouldn’t bring library books winter camping I guess. Or at least plan to keep any books that I take up to the woods with me. Never a problem in the summer, but in the winter, it’s easy for dirt and wetness to get attracted to the paper. It happens, oh well. I’ve paid the fine. At least with the mild weather in December, my electric and gas bill was down, mostly because I didn’t use that much gas heat. This month though with the recent cold blast 🌬 it must certainly will be back up. Trying to limit my power use too by cooking efficiently with a full oven each time I cook. 👩‍🍳

Cold but clearing this weekend. ⛅ Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 17. Without much sun, that’s going to feel like a real cold day for sure. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 24. Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees. But it’s too be expected in mid-to-late January. By Tuesday, things are expected to be in the low 40s and by the second half of the week if the trend continues, looking at upper 40s. It’s really to far away to know about things though for following weekend, and heck even past Tuesday who really knows but it looks like there is a warming trend ahead.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Valentines Day ❤️ when the sun will be setting at 5:26 pm with dusk at 5:53 pm. On that day in 2023, we had partly sunny skies mild temperatures between 50 and 30 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 36 degrees. But maybe there is hope after all the cold. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1946.