“Chewing on a piece of grass / Walking down the road / Tell me, how long you gonna stay here Joe?” – America, Ventura Highway

Good morning! What day is it? They don’t advertise this day on Ford trucks. Three weeks to State of the State Day. Partly cloudy and 19 degrees in Delmar, NY. Breezy, 16 mph breeze from the west-northwest with gusts up to 28 mph. The current wind chill is 3. The skies will clear around 5 pm.

Today will have a chance of snow showers, mainly between 3pm and 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 24 degrees at 1pm. 12 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 3 at 8am; Breezy, with a west wind 16 to 24 mph, with gusts as high as 41 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 58 was set in 1984. 14 inches of snow fell back in 1915.

The sun will set at 4:22 pm with dusk around 4:54 pm, which is 12 seconds later than yesterday. At sunset, look for partly cloudy conditions and 23 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 7. Breezy, 23 mph breeze from the west-northwest with gusts up to 40mph. Today will have 9 hours and 4 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 33 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a slight chance of snow showers between 9pm and midnight, then a slight chance of light snow after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 15 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 7 at 6pm; West wind 9 to 14 mph becoming light southwest after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2016, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -5 occurred back in 1898.

So it’s Hump Day. Ended up catching the later bus downtown. I have a bit of vacation time to use up before the end of the year, so I think I will request Thursday off. Like today, Thursday is going to be cold but I don’t mind sleeping in. Friday is the Christmas party at work so maybe I could make up a dish on Thursday. It will be my 11th Christmas party. It amazes me to think of all the years I’ve been taking Route 18 and 719 to work. I really don’t like driving in the city, so I’m glad I always have the bus an option. I am finally feeling better but honestly I could use a little more sleep. 

I am ready to give up on the lead free solder. I think I may order leaded electronics solder because honestly I can’t get the lead free stuff to flow properly without burning off the flux needed to properly stick. I have an adjustable power solder iron but despite trying different heat settings, I’m not having good luck. Leaded solder is supposed to be a lot easier to to work with as it melts at lower temperature so you have a much greater chance of being able to get it stuck without it boiling off. In the grand scheme of things, lead in solder is tiny compared to the lead in ammunition which gets spread all over the air when the bullets fragment. To say nothing of the lead used in gasoline at airports and race tracks. Or old automobiles without catalytic convertors. 

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until State of the State Day when the sun will be setting at 4:35 pm with dusk at 5:06 pm. On that day in 2017, we had rain, drizzle, freezing drizzle, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 37 and 31 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 31 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 1913.