Good evening! Mostly cloudy and damp, 37 degrees in North Syracuse. ☁ Calm wind. The skies will clear next Wednesday around 7 pm. Hah! That’s been the story of my entire autumn here in Northern Onondaga County. But maybe things will change come my vacation which will be starting in two weeks.

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain showers between 10pm and 1am, then a slight chance of snow showers after 1am. Mostly cloudy ☔ , with a low of 34 degrees at 5am. Three degrees below normal. Calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2017, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 46 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1952.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon 🌖 with 97% illuminated. The moon will set at 9:12 am. The Last Quarter Moon is on Tuesday night with a chance of showers. The Beaver Moon 🌝 is in 4 weeks. The sun will rise at 7:31 am with the first light at 7:02 am, which is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 13 hours and 27 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 43 seconds over last night. This time of the year the nights are long. Summer is just a memory. It will return eventually. 💤

Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy ☁, with a high of 49 degrees at 3pm. Seven degrees below normal. Light south wind. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. The high last year was 54 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 1963. There was a dusting of snow in 1997.❄

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. 🙁 Saturday, rain, mainly after 7am. High near 44. East wind 8 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. Sunday, showers likely. Cloudy, with a high near 45. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Typical average high for the weekend is 56 degrees.

At this point I’m more or less watching the long range 8-14 day outlook to see what my road trip will be like weather wise. Looks like it will be mild but potentially quite wet. 😰 This time of year it might prove to be quite bone chillingly cold. But if it’s only a few days of cold and wet, I’ll be fine, I’ll just have my tent and propane heater to make things warm and toasty. ⛺ I’m really looking forward to some nice nights in the wilderness.

The Facebook connection to my blog broke today again as it wasn’t happy that I wasn’t using SSL 🔐 but now I’ve upgraded to that and well it will make my WordPress password more secure by not sending it in clear text and maybe improve my Google Rankings.

I’m continuing to browse AliExpress in search of electronic components to use for projects this winter. 📟 Depending on how cold and snowy it is important might spend quite a bit of time building various things this winter. I have a lot of interesting ideas for projects and I figure I better get in on the cheap shipping before Trump takes that away.

Other than that, it’s been a really busy day at work. 💼 Just lots of mail and so many things going on. But I’m making good progress and it will be over soon, and my road trip will be under way before you know it. ⛺ That egg plant parm🍆 I had for dinner was good but not as good as a good campfire dinner before a long winter night. I look forward to the flags, the lights and the fire. 🔥

I got my absentee ballot 📮and now have to think about who I will vote for the year. I’m leaning towards that libertarian candidate for governor, Larry Sharpe not because I’m thrilled about him or expect him to win but I think it’s good to cast a protest vote. 🏤 Cuomo will be governor come January so my vote doesn’t really matter at any rate. I probably will vote for Tonko, Gillibrand and the usual crew although I could change my mind. In recent years my views have trended more conservative especially with my frustration with the Democratic Party over climate change. I mean if the party can’t be bothered to take action to solve the climate crisis, at least I can vote for one that will advocate for our second amendment rights. I don’t buy this vote for me I’m not as bad as the other side. Besides appointing Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, the whole Trump administration has been a disaster. Hopefully Trump gets spanked in the mid terms. At least that’s my take on politics.

In four weeks on November 22 the sun will be setting at 4:34 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 30 minutes and 46 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had rain, cloudy skies and temperatures between 46 and 34 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 45 and 30 degrees. The record high of 70 degrees was set back in 1931.

Looking ahead, November 🥧 is in 1 week, Thanksgiving 🦃 is in 4 weeks and Christmas 🎅 is in 2 months.

I find it hard to believe that November is a week away, Thanksgiving four weeks and Christmas in two months.🎄 Where did 2018 come and go so quickly? The winter is long and bleak in the northeast but at least in a few more weeks I’ll be home and the bus will get me to work even in the worst of weather. And if it’s not that cold and snowy I’m sure I’ll still have plenty of time to get away and spend a few nights camping in the winter. ⛄