Good evening! Cloudy, damp and 42 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ There is a south-southwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. A break from the rain for now. The mild temperatures and rain are doing a job on the snow. There are 2.5 inches of snow left on the ground. ☃ ️Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 4 pm. ☃️

It was a nice Christmas decorating party at my parents house. 🎄 My niece is growing old fast but aren’t we all? Lots of good food 🍲. I got home early and put away my wash 👚 and did some cleaning in the bathroom 🛁. Then I rode the excerise bike 🚲 for 45 minutes ⏳quiting mostly because it was 8:20 pm and I was a bit concerned that the rumble would bother m neighbor as it was getting late. 😴 Took two sleeping pills – which according to the label is the recommended dose – I normally take one but hopefully I’ll sleep well tonight. 💊Only have a week left on the doxycycline and I’ll be glad when I no longer have to take that medication. I hate how sometimes in the morning it makes me feel like I am going to puke.

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain before 11pm. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 35 degrees at 5am. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 3rd. West wind 9 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of -8 occurred back in 1874.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon 🌖 with 82% illuminated. The moon will set at 10:20 am. The Last Quarter Moon is on Tuesday night with partly cloudy skies. The sun will rise at 7:17 am with the first light at 6:45 am, which is 46 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 55 minutes of darkness, an increase of 32 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of rain showers before 2pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow showers between 2pm and 4pm, then a slight chance of snow showers after 4pm. Partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 41 degrees at 10am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 3rd. Breezy, with a west wind 18 to 24 mph, with gusts as high as 46 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 48 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 2015. 8.2 inches of snow fell back in 1968.❄

I want to get an early start tomorrow and get to the store 🏬 and buy groceries for the week and return beer cans ♻. I also need fuel ⛽ for Big Red. I’m hoping that maybe if I go early I’ll avoid the crowds 👫👬👭👪 and then if it’s nice in the afternoon go for a walk as I’m not convinced they’ll be a lot of snow later. Then probably go to the Save the Pine Bush benefit night at the Low Beat. It sucks that’s its on a Sunday in the middle of the city when no busses are running but so be it. I guess I could park downtown and then take the 1 up Central 🚍.

I was originally was thinking about going camping ⛺ next weekend after the Pine Bush Hike🌲in the Adirondacks but I agreed to help Cynthia Pooler of Focus on Albany fame with the documentary she is putting together on community activist Reszin Adams. Ms. Adams as the Times Union once put it is the Alpha Activist of Albany. Probably nobody outside of Theresa Cook has done as much progressive advocacy. It’s such a privilege to be asked to help out. 📹

After looking at rechargeable lanterns 🏮 I decided to ask mom about getting me one of the Lightning Ever rechargable lanterns for Christmas. My mom has several of the non rechargable ones in her house for power outages and they’re really nice and quite inexpensive. 🔋 The big selling point for me is the lanterns use 18650 cells so I’m going to buy extra cells and a stand alone charger to always keep them in my truck fully charged. This way I won’t have to worry about a dead battery and the lantern not working at camp. Those lanterns are small and efficient enough to use for backpacking or hot tenting at night like I plan to do in two weeks.

Still haven’t gotten the voltage switch from China. 🔌 I thought it would have arrived during the week as it said it cleared customs 🛃. I have everything ready to wire it up once I get it, test it and build the wiring harness instead so I’m not messing around outside in the cold ❄. I’ll have to work on wiring it up next weekend.

In four weeks on January 11 the sun will be setting at 4:42 pm,🌄 which is 19 minutes and 39 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly sunny, snow showers and temperatures between 24 and 12 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 30 and 14 degrees. The record high of 57 degrees was set back in 1975.

Looking ahead, Coldest Week of the Year 🌬 is a month away, Winnie the Pooh Day 🍯 is in 5 weeks, 5 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 6 weeks, February 🌧 is in 7 weeks, Valentines Day ❤️ is in 2 months, Average High is 50 🌸 is in 15 weeks, Average High is 60 🌼 is in 18 weeks and the Average High is 70 🐮 is in 22 weeks.