Good evening! Partly clear and 11 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. The current wind chill is -2. Definitely felt that cold walking home from the library. Maybe not painfully cold but cold. Sidewalks and my driveway is quite icy too. I forgot what it was like with the icy sidewalks in town. 

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 6 degrees at 6am. 15 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 0 at 1am; West wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light after midnight. In 2016, we had mostly clear skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 6 degrees. The record low of -8 occurred back in 1874.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon with 9% illuminated.The moon will rise tomorrow at 4:34 am. The New Moon is on Sunday night with partly cloudy skies. The sun will rise at 7:18 am with the first light at 6:46 am, which is 44 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 56 minutes of darkness, an increase of 27 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have increasing clouds, with a high of 26 degrees at 2pm. 10 degrees below normal. South wind around 6 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 27 degrees. Just about as cold. The record high of 61 was set in 2015. 8.2 inches of snow fell back in 1968.

Another cold day ahead. It doesn’t really matter much to me though as I will be back at work. I enjoyed my day off even if all I really did is went for a short walk at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, then to the store and then later to the library. I have the stuff I need for pasta salad tomorrow, I just have to boil the noodles, thaw the chicken and mix it up. Definitely a cold day but I enjoyed the cold weather from inside.

With the cold, I was surprised how much the battery voltage dropped when I hit the door unlock button and the headlights came on, but the truck started with ease. I think it’s just cold and in this weather the voltage drop will be much greater. The voltage meter is mostly for my safety when camping, just so I can glance in the truck while parked and ensure that the voltage is fully charged. It does read lower in the cold, especially under load.

Traffic getting to Shoprite through the rotaries at rush hour was pretty easy, and Shoprite wasn’t too crowded. So that went smoothly. I was happy about that as I didn’t feel like driving to Walmart. I am still thinking about ordering my jeans and other supplies online from Walmart rather than go to the store, especially with free shipping and lower prices. Honestly, Shoprite has better prices than Walmart for groceries and I wouldn’t mind the convenience of buying Walmart stuff online although I know somethings like ammunition and lighter fluid can only be bought at the store. Walmart in store now sells lighter fluid in non toxic HDPE plastic which is a big step up from PVC which stinks and is quite toxic when burnt.

Still thinking about heading out camping for a Christmas camping trip next weekend. It will be hot tenting in snow but I may do the Adirondacks this year as long as it is not too darn cold. I just need to get an early enough start because the sun sets early this time of year and there is a lot more to set up snow camping. As I noted earlier, I’d rather spend Christmas in God’s country under the stars then some consumerist celebration with artificial lights under a tree stuck inside a house.

Well, it’s time for me to get some sleep.