Good evening! I hope you survived this most taxing of days. I certainly did, but it was as awful as I thought. Partly clear, a blustery 40 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ Stiff breeze at 30 mph the west-northwest 💨 with gusts up to 52 mph 💨💨💨. Wind at times is really roaring around tonight. The skies will clear tomorrow around noontime.

I survived another three-years worth of defensive driving class.😳 It was as awful as usual, nothing has really changed, but I guess it’s good to freshen up on things. I doubt the class really makes people much safer drivers, but acts a selection mechanism for the safest drivers on block.🚙 I almost didn’t take it when I heard they raised the rate for the class to $25 from $10 three years ago, but that 10% discount on insurance over three years adds up. Taxes and fines are high in New York, so don’t speed, don’t drink and drive, don’t touch your phone while driving.

I do use my cruise control a lot more these days, and keep my speed down on on the highways. Driving without speeding is a lot less stressful and saves gas. I do sometimes suffer from road rage when I see a cop, doing something I don’t think is fair, but the best thing is to just keep driving in a mostly law-abiding fashion and ignore it. 👊 I really shouldn’t take calls while driving, even with the hands free, but at least now with the latest version of Waze I don’t have to touch the phone to run most commands like report a police trap — and anything that is more then simple to do — I just pull off at the next safe spot.

I’ve never texted anyone while driving, but I do read text messages and email headers when they pop up on my phone in the hands-holder,📱 in big text, which is near my line of sight. If I need to respond, I will pull over where lawful, or call back on the hands-free phone. I’m much more careful with the CB radio, which to operate it, being mounted as low as it is, can be difficult to operate.

After the 6-hour class, I decided to go into work for the final two hours of the day. 📝As I have an hour paid lunch, I only ended up having to use 5-hours of personal time, and honestly I don’t have that much personal time, and I’ve earned a lot of comp time over the past few months. 💼 Work was a bit of clusterduck when I got there, I kind of picked a busy day to be out. But things that got done happened, and life moves on. Probably good that I decided to go to the office for a few hours this afternoon. I’m still thinking about taking a day or two off next week.

Wireless headphones weren’t working on my phone 🔇 today which made for a long bus ride home. 🎧 I think I just needed to update the software on my phone. 📱 Now they work perfectly after I updated the firmware.

I was pretty tired after all that happened today, as that defensive driver class is pretty intense while also being superboring, as the videos haven’t changed in 30 years. I did walk down to the library for a while, 📚and worked on some stuff down there for a while. Mostly just a lot of catching up, some fixing a nasty little bug I discovered in my blog. At least the rain is gone for now, but it’s cooled down a lot. I’m going to turn off the lights and head to bed in a bit. 😴

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers before midnight. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear 🌧, with a low of 35 degrees at 6am. Three degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around April 10th. Windy, with a northwest wind 22 to 31 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2018, we had light rain in the evening, which became rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 22 occurred back in 1981.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 92% illuminated. The moon will set at 5:01 am. The 🌕 is on Thursday night with a slight chance of showers then chance of showers. The sun will rise at 6:12 am with the first light at 5:43 am, which is one minute and 37 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 10 hours and 33 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 44 seconds over last night.

Much nicer weather tomorrow. It will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 59 degrees at 3pm. Typical for mid April. Breezy, with a northwest wind 20 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy in the morning, which became light drizzle by afternoon. The high last year was 49 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 2012. 5.3 inches of snow fell back in 1983.❄

I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow. I’ll be getting paid tomorrow which is good, 💸although much of those funds have already been allocated for various purposes. But I should have enough money to do an end of the month road trip, although I’m thinking it may be just to the East Branch through I’m considering still going up to the Adirondacks North Country.

Easter weekend continues to look wet and cloudy. 😞 Saturday, rain likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 70. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Maximum dew point of 57 at 6am. Sunday, a chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 63. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 46 at 6am. Typical average high for the weekend is 61 degrees.

This next weekend I’m going to most likely stick around town although if I get a nice day I might go down to the Catskills and hike up Platte Clove Road. 🚶 Or maybe do some fishing on the Eight Mile Creek. 🎣 I’m not sure, it all depends on the weather. I also have projects that I can work on at home. Obviously staying home is the cheapest option but it might be fun to get out of town.

The weekend after next I’m definitely looking to get out of town. By then it looks like the weather will moderate and it could be quite sunny and warm. ☀ I would camp, ⛺ fishing 🎣, and maybe some hiking. 🚶 It should be a great weekend to kick off the 2019 camping season. Probably take off Friday of that week and maybe also Thursday. I’m not going to take any time off though although until it gets closer and the forecast is more certain but the 8-14 day outlook looks good for now.

In four weeks on May 13 the sun will be setting at 8:09 pm,🌄 which is 31 minutes and 19 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 68 and 48 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 69 and 46 degrees. The record high of 86 degrees was set back in 2004.

Looking ahead, Earth Day 🌎 is in 1 week, Memorial Day 🇺🇸 is in 6 weeks, Latest Sunset 🌆 is in 10 weeks, July 🏊🏿 is in 11 weeks, Cow Appreciation Day 🐂 is in 3 months, Last Sunset After 8 PM 🌆 is in 17 weeks, Labor Day 👨‍🏭 is in 20 weeks and Columbus Day 🛥️ is in 25 weeks.