A good day for staying home, doing some reading and some cleaning. Maybe some thinking and writing about where I am currently, now that’s I’ve put my house and land search on ice, I’d say suspended it but I’m still going to keep learning, will keep my eye on Landwatch and Zillow and keep my options but I think my preferred option is now focused on early retirement.

Good afternoon! Started out as snow, turned to rain, and now looks like it’s more freezing rain and 32 degrees here in Delmar. 🌧️There is a north breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. There are 2 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️The skies will clear tomorrow around noontime.

I honestly thought it was just going to be a rain event locally. 🌨️ I was wrong. It’s really much more of a mixed bag, a lot of slop locally but now I’m watching the trees ice up. They’re getting a fair bit of snow up north, but I think with the warmer temperatures next week, maybe some will be left up north prior to camping but it won’t be a major hindrance as most should melt this weekend. 🏕️ I confirmed that For the Love of Bacon is going to be open on Good Friday, so I can get bacon 🥓 prior to camping. Yum. 🐖 I won’t buy store bought bacon but as an occasional treat, farm bacon is great.

This afternoon will rain or freezing rain before 3pm, then rain and sleet between 3pm and 4pm, then rain, snow, and sleet after 4pm. High of 35 degrees at 2pm. 13 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 13th. North wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime ice accumulation of 0.3 to 0.5 of an inch possible. Total daytime snow and sleet accumulation of less than one inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 56 degrees. The record high of 80 was set in 1938. 6.1 inches of snow fell back in 2020.❄

Thursday knocked my derailleur badly out of alignment fighting the wind heading home, didn’t discover until Friday commute. 🚲 Couldn’t even get it into high. Ended up driving in on Friday but it’s fine as I brought in a better desk lamp and one of my re-potted plants. Had a root rot issue or maybe over fertilization. 🥀 Wasn’t a difficult adjustment, took five minutes with a hex key but I didn’t have time on Friday to adjust. When the rain stops I’ll take for a test ride to verify. I ended up getting an inexpensive stick lamp for my desk at work 🛋️ because the lamp shade on the old lamp I found in the closet was falling apart. Lamp shades were close to same price, plus that old lamp I found in closet kind of was on it’s last legs. This new lamp is super bright with the 200-watt LED bulb, and the not aged-plastic on the lamp shade.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:03 pm with sun having an altitude of 48.6° from the due south horizon (-22.2° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 5.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:35 pm with the sun in the west (266°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (273°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:12 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:39 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east (100°) at an altitude of 20° from the horizon, 252,272 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:13 pm. At sunset, look for snow and freezing rain 🌨 and temperatures around 35 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 14 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 22 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.

At one point I had more ambitious plans for today, 🧹 but I really should spend time cleaning in my apartment, especially the bathroom. And I want to do some reading, this time not about real estate, building a house or land. 🏠️ It was fine when I was doing it, but it became a bit overwhelming to say the least. I’m not going to stop learning, but it’s not going to be primary focus now that I’ve moved that goal into my retirement years when I can have lots of land and in live in a state that shares my values. 🧭 I wanted to make New York work, but I just don’t see the state’s values as being consistent with my own.

This afternoon I am thinking if the library opens I’ll go down there for a while to get on the internet, 🖥️ and maybe drop off my Early Voting Ballot to the Early Voting site. Totally voted for Dean Phillips, as I think we need new blood in government, 🫀 even if the 79-year old Joe Biden has nomination locked up. If I don’t get it done today, 🗳️ I can do that tomorrow when I run to the grocery store for my weekly shop already — can you believe tomorrow is already Sunday? 🛒I am thinking Thursday I may take half a day off from work and head up to Adirondacks before rush hour 🚗 , although if the weather is bad, I think I’d be better off to go up early on Good Friday, maybe doing a hike in the morning. 🏕️

Tonight will snow, mainly before 8pm. 🌨 Low of 21 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 29th. Northwest wind around 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2023, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of 0 occurred back in 1875.

Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until Arbor Day 🌳 when the sun will be setting at 7:52 pm with dusk at 8:21 pm. On that day in 2023, we had partly cloudy, patches of fog and temperatures between 62 and 40 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 65 degrees. We hit a record high of 91 back in 1962.