Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Next Friday is Grilled Cheese Day 🧀. Mostly cloudy and 31 degrees at the Four Corners in Bethlehem, NY. ⛅ Calm wind. I missed the express as I had an issue with my contacts 👀 so I ended up deciding to go for a walk down to the four corners. Rain later then the skies will clear tomorrow around 2 pm.

Today it seems like the rain held off so I was able to walk down🚶to the four corners to get some exercise before taking the yokel local because I running a few minutes too late to catch the express bus 🚍. Probably is close to the same amount of time leaving from the four corners as catching the express but not as scenic. 🚆The seat I’m in adjusted strangely not very comfortable. 💺 Cloudy this morning ☁ but the rain is going to hold off until later. ☔ Cool but not so cold this morning, I ended up leaving the heat off last night as it will be in the upper forties by afternoon and mid sixties on Saturday. Things are still warmer with the heat off in my apartment compared to mid winter with the heat on.

I am glad it’s finally a Friday. 🎉Seven weeks from now I’ll be getting ready to swat black flies during the long Memorial Day Weekend. No to Moose River Plains this year over Memorial Day Weekend but I’m inclined to visit the Southern Adirondacks, maybe along Route 8. Been a long week for sure 😕 having to work last Sunday.

Today will rain likely before 4pm, then rain and snow likely between 4pm and 5pm, then rain, snow, and sleet after 5pm. 🌥 High of 40 degrees at 1pm. 14 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around March 6th. Light east wind becoming south 5 to 10 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Little or no snow and sleet accumulation expected. A year ago, we had partly cloudy. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 82 was set in 1928. 1.1 inches of snow fell back in 1914.❄

The sun will set at 7:26 pm with dusk around 7:54 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and possible sleet 🌧 and temperatures around 36 degrees. I probably made a good decision to wear my rain coat ☔. There will be a south breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 56 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 51 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will rain and sleet likely, becoming all rain after 10pm. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 36 degrees at 6pm. Two degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around April 11th. South wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Little or no sleet accumulation expected. In 2018, we had mostly clear in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of 14 occurred back in 1943.

Tomorrow will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 60 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical day around April 18th. Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. A year ago, we had partly cloudy. The high last year was 40 degrees. The record high of 82 was set in 1921. 17.3 inches of snow fell back in 1982.❄It’s a reminder that we can still have snow this time of the year but it’s increasingly rare especially with the warming climate in the Albany area.

Saturday now looks like the nicest day of the weekend. I have my neice’s birthday 🎂 party in the afternoon but in the morning I’m thinking about walking out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, this time not deciding I accidentally leaving the oven on. 😮 It sucked having to run back so quickly the other day after the oven fiasco that turned out to be just some dried out brownies. 🍪

Looking ahead to Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 62. Calm wind. ☀ Maximum dew point of 42 at 4pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 54 degrees.

As I noted yesterday I’m thinking about hiking Platte Clove Road on Sunday. 🌲I think I’ve figured out a good legal place to park, although it will add maybe a mile more of a walk. I’ll bring my microspikes in case the road is still icy but I doubt it.🐸 The gates are still closed but I should be able to walk past them. I’ll think about it some more tomorrow. I think it would be a nice full day hike without much mud or muck. Get the blood pumping too. That said if the forecast continues to become cloudy, I might change my mind, maybe do some fishing instead 🎣.Maybe next weekend? The gates open on Platte Clove Road to automobiles 🚘 on April 15th supposedly.

As previously noted, next Friday is Grilled Cheese Day 🧀 when the sun will be setting at 7:34 pm with dusk at 8:03 pm. On that day in 2018, we had rain showers, partly cloudy and temperatures between 54 and 29 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 57 degrees. We hit a record high of 84 back in 1977.

In four weeks on May 3 the sun will be setting at 7:58 pm,🌄 which is 31 minutes and 48 seconds later then today. In 2018 on that day, we had mostly sunny skies with generally warm weather, with a few rain showers and temperatures between 83 and 61 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 66 and 43 degrees. The record high of 89 degrees was set back in 2001.

I spent about an hour on the exercise bike 🚲 and then a few hours playing around with mapping on my laptop. I’m trying to get better at simplifying shapefiles and extracting rasters. 🌐 GIS is a really complicated science, I keep learning more each day. I skipped my evening walk because I got working on playing with map data 🔣and honestly I thought it might be cold out.

I thought I had blocked Facebook Lite from running in the background of my phone 📱 but it’s popping up notifications again. I guess I am going to just have to completely uninstall it. I can use the browser for updating my Facebook page every once and a while. It’s just become such a headache in my life. They make that product so obnoxious.

I finally got tired of telemarketers and the certain groups calling me 📞 asking for money and trying to sell shit I don’t want to buy. So I installed an app that I believe automatically sends any phone number that is not in my contacts list 📱 right to voicemail – without that stupid missed call notification. ➿ I regularly check my voice mail when it comes in and then decide to call back.

Most robo calls don’t leave voice mails in my experience.🔕Sometimes I’ll refuse the robo call but it’s still in log that I have to clear out which is a pain. Some robos are creepy, 👹and most are annoying just because when you get a call even if you dismiss it. I get people need to fundraise and if you don’t ask you won’t get. 💵 I sometimes will send some group a few bucks but that doesn’t mean I will give again right away. Usually I give to local groups but occasionally I’ll give to a national group if I’m interested in a particular campaign they are advocating in. I don’t get into politics and rarely if ever contribute to political campaigns.

By conserving money of the past month I think finances have improved this April 💸 but I still have my my credit card bill 💳 to pay and state tax bill to pay mid month. With the quarterly payments next year hopefully my state taxes won’t be so bad next year. The feds over withhold enough I don’t have to worry there. Once I start traveling and camping more ⛺ expenses will increase but I expect to remain within my budget going forward. The solar helps save fuel at camp and I’m trying to walk and do more things closer to camp, especially now that I have the solar to top off things.

Looking ahead, Grilled Cheese Day 🧀 is in 1 weeks, Cinco de Mayo 🤠 is a month away, Pack Rat Day 🐀 is in 6 weeks, Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ is in 7 weeks, 8:30 PM Sunset ️⛱️ is in 2 months, Dog Days of Summer 🌻 is in 3 months and Labor Day Weekend Begins 👨‍🏭 is in 21 weeks.