Yesterday was not nearly as nice as the weatherman had argued it should have been. At times it was downright chilly outside. But it was a nice afternoon to spend out in country over at old friend’s homestead picking his brain on how he financed and put together his 10-acres of land with a beautiful farm house and barn from the 1820s. It was chilly and cloudy, as today also will be, but not so cold. I left the windows open last night, after I the smoke alarm went off again, but I’m hopeful to keep the windows open for most of the rest of the summer at this point. Only a few more weeks that there is a good chance of freezing weather.

Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. 🙀 Mostly cloudy and 41 degrees in the land of the Delmartian, as I get ready to ride to work. ☁ Calm wind. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Friday around 4 am. ☃️

Well maybe not a beautiful day today, ☁️ it should be good for riding to and from work. I want to bring my new artwork into the office 🖼️ but I’ll wait until a rainy day later in the week when I either take the bus or drive in. 🚘 I realized I need some more eggs 🥚 and I should get some kind of candle warmer plate. I couldn’t find it in Walmart the other day but looking online, they have them in-store for $10 but I didn’t know the aisle. 🕯 Yes, the use electricity, but they don’t charge me for that at work, lol. Working above a printing plant sometimes smells like sulfur. 👃 You know, like Ticonderoga or Plattsburgh.  Same thing for the brighter 200-watt light bulb I got for my desk, 💡 though it’s an LED bulb so it only uses 27-watts and is replacing the 60-plus watts of hideous overhead florescent lighting. 🛋 So far I haven’t been asked to give back the lamp, but I was looking at Walmart, and they have many attractive desk lamps for sale, as will garage sales and paces like the Salvation Army should I have to give back the seemingly forgotten lamp I found covered with dust in the closet.

Today will have patchy dense fog before 9am. 🌫 Otherwise, mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 55 degrees at 1pm. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 6th. Maximum dew point of 47 at 1pm. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 10 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had light snow in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 37 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1919. 8.3 inches of snow fell back in 1971.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:08 pm with sun having an altitude of 41.2° from the due south horizon (-29.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 6.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:12 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (256°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (263°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:50 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 55 seconds with dusk around 6:17 pm, which is one minute and 13 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:50 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 54 degrees. The dew point will be 47 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 27 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over yesterday.

I plan to start my deep dive into the land 🤠 today, and am going to try to write some code to analyze parcels based on steepness of slope and direction of slope. Both of those have significant impacts on the ability to build and homestead on the land, plus I want to make sure if I do build a house 👷 that it’s built in a place that is resistant to excessive rainfall, that is certain to happen with the warming climate. 🌍️ Also want to take a deep dive into CAD, and try to get to place were I can at least sketch out a house plan. Really want to go simple and low resource when I build, not so much as a cost measure but for sustainability and simplicity purposes — I want to spend the money up front and then have minimal out-year costs for maintenance and repair. That said, despite being conditionally approved for an excessively large mortgage to buy a conventional house, I am increasingly thinking about buying with cash 💵 and knowing my land and house is paid off and cheap to operate. Utility bills and repairs on my house scares me the most about it, more then the up-front cost. Plus I just hate how everything is plastic now. 🔥 Have you ever burned plastic? Shit stinks and burns so black, especially some of common materials used these days.

Tonight will have a chance of rain after 5am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 42 degrees at 5am. 19 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 27th. Southeast wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2023, we had light snow in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 33 degrees. The record low of -12 occurred back in 1948.

I really enjoyed meeting up with that friend of twenty years ago 🏘 and learning more about how he obtained his homestead. It’s a ways out from the city, but it is a wonderful 10 acres and an beautiful old 1820s house. I really miss being out in the country, in the hilltowns. ⛰ Since I got my big jacked up truck, and well the burn ban, I don’t cruise the backroads like I once did. 🔥 He built quite the life for himself and his family. While I am still stuck, for now, in the suburbs in my dumpy apartment. Not that my dream off-grid cabin is what many people would call high-class living, but I won’t be paying rent and I’ll be able to do my thing, have fires, listen to the frogs on a warm summer night. 🐸 And see the mountains every day driving to and from work.

Today in 1985, Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States. 🩸 In 1917, Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives. 🏛️ Pretty remarkable that was only about 100 years ago. And in 1957, S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90. 📈 The market opened at a ceremonial $17.75 and at this point is well over 1,000.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. 😞 Saturday, a chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Sunday, rain likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44. Chance of precipitation is 60%. The likelihood of camping this weekend seems fairly low. Maybe another good weekend to red and study about buying land, and continue my research. Typical average high for the weekend is 43 degrees.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until April Fools Day 🤡 when the sun will be setting at 7:23 pm with dusk at 7:50 pm (Daylight Savings Time). On that day in 2023, we had rain and temperatures between 74 and 41 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 77 back in 1986.