April 11, 2019 Night

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 46 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ Calm wind. Mild enough that when I went down to the library for the Wi-Fi I sat outside on the park bench. 📚 Got progressively cloudy as the day went on with the sky very dark around rush hour. The skies will clear Saturday around 8 am.

Busy tough day at work. What got done and needed to happen got done so I got paid. 💼 But in many ways it was a long day. At least I got the replacement sensor for the truck so hopefully that will work well going forward.

Traffic on the bus ride 🚍 home wasn’t bad. Made it home around the normal time and saved money 💵 too boot as it was a free bus ride as I had already ridden three buses for the day and the rest are free for the day. 🆓

It looks like they finally cleaned up the hotel 🏩 that burned on Southern Boulevard about two years later and the new suburban development should be errected there. Apparently they never discovered the reason for the fire but I suspect the owner torched it to reduce asbestos abatement costs. That’s my thoughts 💭 and we know who profits over their asbestos landfill – the city.

Before heading over to the library I cleaned out the refrigerator and found a half empty bottle of wine 🍷 from Finger Lakes Wine Night at the Capitol a year ago and drank it so I could recycle it. The refrigerator is cleaned out and do are the bottles and cans ♻ and the wine was still good with the pasta despite being first opened 11 months ago. The wine was remarkably good with the pasta although if I hadn’t gotten it for free I doubt I would have drunk it. First alcohol in like three weeks. But now I can recycle the bottle 🍶.

Fixed some bugs 🐞 in the internal blog code and made some more orthophotos up at the library. If it had been a bit nicer with a later sunset I probably would have just gone to the park.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 39 degrees at 4am. Three degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around April 19th. Light southeast wind. In 2018, we had mostly clear in the evening, which became mostly sunny by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 29 degrees. The record low of 13 occurred back in 1874.

Tonight will have a First Quarter with 53% illuminated. The moon will set at 2:06 am. Not going to see much tonight with the clouds. The Pink Moon 🌝 is next Thursday. Only pink if you wear rose 🌹 colored glasses. 👓 The sun will rise at 6:19 am with the first light at 5:50 am, which is one minute and 40 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 10 hours and 44 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 47 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 57 degrees at 5pm. Typical for Tomorrow. South wind 10 to 15 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy. The high last year was 54 degrees. The record high of 84 was set in 1977. 3.3 inches of snow fell back in 1962.❄

I might open up the windows tomorrow morning as I always like the fresh air. 🔳 Next week I think I’ll be able to have the windows open most of the week, certainly Sunday.

Saturday will be the best part of the weekend. 😕 Saturday, a chance of showers, mainly before 7am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 72. Southwest wind 6 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Maximum dew point of 53 at 6am. Sunday, rain likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 60. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Doesn’t sound like a real wash out Sunday but not a lot of sun. Typical average high for the weekend is 57 degrees.

My weekend plans remain the same – transfer station, brake switch, pack camping gear ⛺. I’ll have to see if I can go out to my parents house on Saturday. Sunday I’ll probably stay home or if I go out it just will be to the store for groceries. Monday is going to suck with Defensive Driving. I really need to look at other good insurers like Gieco or Progressive as even with the discount my rates just keep jumping up. My truck is getting old and while I have good coverage to protect my hard earned savings, the rates are getting a bit steep.

So I have the brake switch and I’ve been studying about four or five YouTube videos on how to pull off the clip and the module. 🍥 It doesn’t look hard but I don’t want to mess shit up by doing bone headed things. I just want my cruise control back.

In four weeks on May 9 the sun will be setting at 8:04 pm,🌄 which is 31 minutes and 35 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had sunny and temperatures between 82 and 53 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 67 and 45 degrees. The record high of 93 degrees was set back in 1979.

My electric and gas bill fell to $61 last month because I had the heat off most of last month. That’s a pretty big drop from February when it was $104 and I started to think I was a soldier on the war on poverty. 🔌 Knowing how fees are, probably $50 is just fees for being connected to the grid and $9 is the water heater and the refrigerator. Or something like that.

I retired the debt on the credit card 💳 that had to be retired and the state tax payment comes out on Monday. Tuesday I get paid by the state which is good. 👋 If the weather is good next weekend I should be able to afford to get out of town but I’m also fine with staying in town and waiting another week for more snow melt and 💧 and potentially warmer weather.

Looking ahead, Average High is 60 🌼 is in 1 week, Pink Moon 🌕 is also in 1 week, Average High is 70 🐮 is in 5 weeks, Summer ️⛱️ is in 10 weeks, Independence Day 🇺🇸 is in 12 weeks, August 🌻 is in 16 weeks, September 11th 🇸 is in 5 months and Last Sunset After 7 PM 🌆 is in 25 weeks.

Snow Melt Coming Down the Mountain

NPR

Trump Signs Executive Orders In Push To Make It Easier To Build Oil And Gas Pipelines : NPR

After speaking at the International Union of Operating Engineers International Training and Education Center, Trump signed two executive orders aiming to make it easier for companies to build oil and gas pipeline projects — and harder for states to block them.

"Republican lawmakers and energy groups have long accused blue states of blocking pipeline projects using a section of the Clean Water Act," NPR's Nathan Rott reports for our Newscast unit. "One of Trump's executive orders will aim to weaken that power. Whether that actually happens will remain to be seen. Executive orders only do so much — and lawsuits are sure to follow."

Trump's pipeline orders mark his latest effort to push for infrastructure projects his administration says will "unleash American energy."

Your Not Where You Work.

One of my Facebook friends posted a provocative post the other day — does your job define who you are?

Like most people, what I do for employment is the center part of my weekday. I get up, have breakfast, shower, take a bus downtown, then work, then I take another bus home, have dinner, and enjoy the remaining 3-4 hours left in my day before bed. Weekends I often have free, but I sometimes work then too.  Over all, if you do the math, work is about 35-50% of my waking hours — depending on the week.

Ultimately though, I’m not a volunteer for work. I work for the money, both to provide for my contemporary needs, but more importantly for a better tomorrow. Statistically, less then 1 in 3 people enjoy their jobs, most people do it primarily for their paycheck. That’s certainly my thing — I do enjoy seeing the result of job well done, but I’m mostly there for the paycheck. I don’t romantic ideas about my job, but I try to do quality work, that reflects well on my employer, provides a good service and provides me with good compensation in return.

The old generation used to ask, where are you from? The new generation often asks, what do you do for a living? I really don’t like that new question, because I don’t think it’s an accurate way to frame who I am or what I believe. I get occupation is in part a reflection of the quality of your work, but I don’t think it should overally define who you are — much of our lives is lived outside of work.