Good evening! Partly cloudy and 31 degrees in Albany. There is a northwest breeze at 9 mph. The wind has died down a bit but still chilly. I guess it’s still December. 

With the cold, I’m glad that I didn’t go up to the Adirondacks. Tonight would have been a cold night and I probably would have retired to the tent before 9 pm. Not that much fun as much as I like winter camping and a good fire, it wouldn’t have been much fun. 

Finally got QGIS up and running by downgrading to Ubuntu 16.04. I should have just stuck with the long term support version from the start. It’s much more stable and doesn’t force you to totally upgrade every six months. Things are better supported with the long term support version when it comes to pre-compiled add on packages. That said it was a pain to reinstall all the software and configure it a second time. But things are mostly back in business. 

I made up 20 new maps tonight and will start posting tomorrow…. 

Went to Sears, bought another blue Oxford shirt. Boring yes. But I needed a second one and they were out of stock for my size. Good price this week at $15. I do need more but I’m hoping with the receipt I can figure out what I need to order online. I like their Oxford shirts a lot, I wouldn’t mind ordering a bunch just for the free shipping. They had some nice colors there but not my size. 

I was surprised how empty the mall was for being three weeks to Christmas on a Saturday night. I wonder if people are doing a lot more online shopping now. It can’t be good for business but maybe the suburban mall is dying out. Sears didn’t look real healthy and it keeps getting smaller but that isn’t shocking as they are kind of dying out. 

Also went to the grocery store and picked up a a few things. Tomorrow I’ll go to Walmart for sandwich meat and replacement headphones. Bought peanut butter cookies mix to make for dessert for Sunday dinner at my parents house. 

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 28 degrees at 6am. Two degrees above normal. Northwest wind 6 to 9 mph. In 2015, it got down to 35 degrees with periods of rain. The record low of -9 occurred back in 1940.

Waxing Crescent Moon tonight with 30% illuminated. The moon will . The First Quarter Moon is on Tuesday night with chance of snow expected. The Full “Cold” Moon is on Wednesday, December 14th.

Tomorrow will be sunny, with a high of 37 degrees at 1pm. Three degrees below normal. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had rain and a high of 45 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1998. 6 inches of snow fell back in 1901. The sun will rise at 7:09 am with the first light at 6:37 am, which is 1 minutes and 1 seconds later then yesterday. The sun rises late this time year, essentially canceling out the extra time we got before the time change. 

Looking ahead, Christmas is in 3 weeks, New Years Day is in 4 weeks, Average High is above 40 is in 13 weeks, Palm Sunday is in 18 weeks, Easter is in 19 weeks, Mother’s Day is in 23 weeks and Father’s Day is in 28 weeks.