Good evening! Partly clear and 22 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. Already not as bitterly cold as a day ago but I did turn up the heat because I am cold and it’s going to be mild the rest of the week. There are 3 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 11 am. 🌡️

Today was a cold and gray day ☁ but it was pretty when the sun peaked through the clouds out skiing 🎿 in the Pine Bush. It was just me and Burt Shou on the Save the Pine Bush Ski trip but then I went out for a while myself. I think I may have gotten a bit of a sun burn because of the reflection off the snow and from my photosensitive skin after taking the antibiotics for three weeks. I was glad I finished them up but I am now feeling a bit stiff in the knees and I had a bit of a headache for a while but sometimes a bit of Lyme hangs around. 🐜 Or maybe I’m injuring my knees a bit with all the time lately I’ve spent on the bike 🚲.

I did fine skiing 🎿 except the one time I crashed 💥- my skis are touring cross country skis and they are a bit fast and unstable for descending the steepest dunes. I missed a turn in the trail and ended up tangled in wild grape 🍇 vine. They’re quite old at this point but they still work great. I like to use things as long as possible as it saves money 💵 and I don’t have trash pickup so I’d have to pay to get rid of them at the transfer station. 🚮 I have more photos 📷 to upload tomorrow.

As the first day of winter it was pretty cold and gray. ☁ But it was a productive day and it’s going to be warm and sunny over the next few days, ☀ especially on Monday. Too bad I have to work that day but I’ll enjoy my lunch time walk 🚶.I’m just hoping that the nice weather will continue into the next weekend when I’m out in the Finger Lakes National Forest.

Finally took out the garbage from the kitchen. 🗑With the compost usually it doesn’t stink and I can leave it in the can for weeks — but I guess I must have scrapped something off a pan or something and it started to rot and stink. 👃🏻 I should do it more often but I don’t like to waste trash bags, and it’s not like I have a day I have to do it except when I go to the transfer station myself.

Took another sleeping pill 💊 because I was concerned about waking up in the early hours and didn’t want to have that happen again like last night. Might be a bit foggy 🌁 in the morning but without work or anything to do early tomorrow I’m fine with that.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 15 degrees at 5am. Four degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 17 at 6pm; Light south wind. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of -8 occurred back in 1955.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon 🌘 with 10% illuminated. The moon will rise at 3:16 am. The New Moon is on Wednesday night with mostly cloudy skies. The is on Wednesday night. The sun will rise at 7:21 am with the first light at 6:49 am, which is 32 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 57 minutes of darkness, an increase of 3 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 39 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 7th. South wind 3 to 6 mph. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became mostly clear by afternoon. The high last year was 59 degrees. The record high of 60 was set in 1990. 12.3 inches of snow fell back in 1969.❄

I am glad we are having a big warm up tomorrow ♨ as it will save on the heat. It will also make it easier outside for skiing and walking. I’m interested to see if the voltage switch does its job properly. I checked the connections with the Volt meter – for a while I brought it inside for future testing when something looked like the output polarity reversed but it seems fine now. ⚡ I’ll probably need to tweak the voltage thresholds but I think it will work well. I’ve learned to test and check ☑ when wiring things up and always stop and reconsider things ⛔ when I discover something isn’t working as expected.

One week from now will be my first night 🌃 winter camping ⛺ and that should be a lot of fun. I’m just hoping that it won’t be too rainy – looks to be quite mild and cloudy for sure with a chance of rain throughout the week. ☔ I almost prefer snow showers to rain although at least the roads won’t be so bad with just rain. I can’t control the weather but I can control my attitude.

In four weeks on January 18 the sun will be setting at 4:50 pm,🌄 which is 25 minutes and 23 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had snow showers, mostly cloudy and temperatures between 35 and 21 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 30 and 14 degrees. The record high of 59 degrees was set back in 1973.

Looking ahead, 4:30 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 1 weeks, Winnie the Pooh Day 🍯 is in 4 weeks, Martin Luther King Day 🖤 is a month away, 5 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 5 weeks, February 🌧 is in 6 weeks, Average High is 50 🌸 is in 14 weeks, Average High is 60 🌼 is in 17 weeks, Average High is 70 🐮 is in 21 weeks, Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ is in 22 weeks, Last Day of Session 🏛 is in 26 weeks and Summer ️⛱️ is in 26 weeks.