Good evening! Clear and 14 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a southwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. There are 15 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 1 pm. 🌡️

I have to say it wasn’t the busiest day ever 💤but after the snow storm came out went and then that late night at work I’m rather tired. Fixing the skis was the big thing and I probably wasted too much time watch the YouTube lately. 📼 I’m happy though I think I’ve worked out most of the major problems with the blog, especially the speed issue which has been bugging me for some time.

Feeling a bit stiff and sore this evening. 😩 I thought that was the Lyme and the doxycline was to take care of that. Not terrible but maybe it’s also all the time I spent on the exercise bike or the near slipping a few times on the black ice ❄. I’ve been trying to carefully follow the antibiotics schedule but sometimes it varies when I can do it 💊 and it can be tough on my stomach to take it empty stomach.

I went for my evening walk 🚶 and while it was cool it want too bad wearing gloves and moving. My goatee iced up a bit but with a calm breeze it didn’t seem super cold for December. I’ve certainly been out walking on much colder evenings.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 7 degrees at 3am. 17 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 7 at 4am; Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm after midnight. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 14 degrees. The record low of -3 occurred back in 1902.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 90% illuminated. The moon will set at 3:13 am. The Cold Moon 🌕 is on Wednesday night with mostly cloudy skies expected. The sun will rise at 7:11 am with the first light at 6:39 am, which is 57 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 50 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 2 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 36 degrees at 3pm. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 14th. Light south wind increasing to 9 to 14 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 30 degrees. The record high of 58 was set in 1927. 4.3 inches of snow fell back in 2001.❄

I did flip the switch to pull power from the solar panel to the starting battery 🔋 so I should be in good shape to start Big Red come the morning although I wonder if I should have disconnected the switch before dark to keep the batteries from fighting. But we should have plenty of sun come the morning. Red is free of snow although I’ve not started him since the car wash on last Sunday morning. 🚘 He looks so nice and clean compared to most cars on the road but alas tomorrow I have to go to the store 🏬 and my parents house for Sunday dinner so he’ll get dirty again. But then it will rain Monday, helping to wash away some of the salt.

Looking forward to getting that voltage sensitive relay switch from China 📟 and being able to use that to automatically connect the starting battery when the solar panel is putting out enough energy to charge it. It will make it easier and totally eliminate the guess work on when to flip the switch, keeping the batteries better balanced. I could envision a lot of useful projects with a voltage sensitive switch, especially when I have my off grid property eventually. 🏡

The skis and ski boots have been sealed and the glue has hardened on the one ski 🎿 whose tip was broken so that I should be ready to go come the morning. I think I’m going to drive to Elsmere and do the rail trail in the morning and go shopping after that. The best part of the day will be in the morning tomorrow as clouds ahead of the rain are expected to push in come Sunday evening. Looking at quite a bit of rain 💦 and snow melt Monday into Tuesday, places that often flood in the spring time might flood. I’m definitely going to need the rain coat come Monday and might take the local to work.

John Wolcott wants to know if I can come over this week. 🔍📂I got to think about it some more but not Thursday as I have to bake a cake 🎂 or something for the work holiday party 🎄 on Thursday night. I probably should figure out what I want to cook so I can buy the ingredients tomorrow while I’m at the store. 🍰

I am toying with the idea 💡 of requesting December 30th off work, as I have New Year’s Eve and Day off as holidays. I am thinking it would be fun to toast the new year in the wilderness, possibly if we got a nice run of weather out in the Finger Lakes or somewhere else nice. 🎇I could ask and maybe I’ll get it. Who knows though it’s likely to be crappy snowy weather. I miss night’s in the wilderness ⛺ – I had such fun last year.

In four weeks on January 4 the sun will be setting at 4:35 pm,🌄 which is 12 minutes and 57 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had partly cloudy skies , mild temperatures between 43 and 30 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 31 and 15 degrees. Last year after a cold November and early December, the second half of the month was relatively mild. The record high of 64 degrees was set back in 1950.

Looking ahead, 4:30 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 3 weeks, Winnie the Pooh Day 🍯 is in 6 weeks, 5 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 7 weeks, February 🌧 is in 8 weeks, Save the Pine Bush Turns 42 🦋 is in 2 months, Average High is 50 🌸 is in 16 weeks, 7:30 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 4 months, Average High is 60 🌼 is in 19 weeks, Flower Moon 🌕 is in 5 months, Average High is 70 🐮 is in 23 weeks, Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ is in 24 weeks.