December 20, 2017 10:49 am Update
December 31 the Upstate NY minimum wage rises to $10.40/hr and $11.75/hr for fast food workers.
December 19, 2017 Evening
Good evening! Partly cloudy and 45 degrees in Albany. There is a southwest breeze at 9 mph. The skies will clear around 8 pm. A fairly mild evening, assuming the rain stays off to the north. I meant to bring my rain coat today, but in the mad dash to the bus, I confidentially grabbed my winter coat out of habit.
Tonight will have a chance of rain showers, possibly mixing with snow after midnight, then gradually ending. Partly cloudy, with a low of 32 degrees at 6am. 12 degrees above normal. West wind 8 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. In 2016, we had clear skies. It got down to 6 degrees. The record low of -19 occurred back in 1951.
Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon with 3% illuminated with the moon setting at 5:51 pm. The moon will rise tomorrow at 08:56 am. The First Quarter Moon is on Monday night with mostly clear skies. The sun will rise at 7:21 am with the first light at 6:49 am, which is 33 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 57 minutes of darkness, an increase of 6 seconds over last night.
Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with a high of 35 degrees at 1pm. One degree above normal. West wind 11 to 15 mph. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 28 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 1957. 8.4 inches of snow fell back in 1975.
I didn’t catch the express bus because I decided to bake blueberry cake, which I always forget how much longer it takes compared muffins. I just wanted blueberry cake or muffins this morning, but I get tired of washing out all of those silicone muffin tins, and I refuse to use paper ones.
I have yet another sore throat and a minor cold today after standing out in the cold, although I guess that really hasn’t gone away over the past month and a half. Not real sick, but it’s just more of an annoyance from the cold then anything else. Maybe at some point I should go to the doctor if it continues to annoy me, but honestly, I don’t care that much. Eventually winter will be over, and I can get some more fresh air and feel better. Even thought today is mild, it sure is gray, and still pretty damp out.
Finally got the lead solder in the mail yesterday. It works perfectly for soldering those tiny little components to the perfboard. I am going to practice a bit more, then finally get the components permanently mounted on the perfboard (and not the messy one I’ve been practicing with). I will keep the lead-free solder for projects that are less tiny and more-heat tolerant like connecting together wires or pins on the LED strip, and use the lead solder for mounting components. I was looking how inexpensive the other day electronic components are now — you can mixed boxes of like 2,000 resistors or capacitors on eBay for like $10. So many things you could build.
This weekend, I am finally going to get my LED fixture put permanently together. I still got to get something to mount the LEDs on. I was originally thinking aluminum, but I may go with some kind of plastic “U” shaped and fairly thin clear plexiglass to defuse the light. I am just working out how to lay out the circuit to minimize excess wire and keeping things neat. There are some different software packages for Linux that do just that, but I’m figuring out which one is most useful.
Tonight I am going to meet the folks for dinner, then do the annual drive for the lights in the park. Always kind of fun, but sort of cheesy at the same time. Unfortunately, I will miss the Albany County Young Democrats holiday party, but I can’t do everything.
Cloudy and wet but mild this weekend heading into Christmas Eve. Saturday, rain. High near 49. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Sunday, which is Christmas Eve, a chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 37. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Typical average high for the weekend is 33 degrees. For Christmas, rain, snow, and sleet likely. Cloudy, with a high near 40. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
I may end up staying in town for the long Christmas Weekend. It’s just not going to be that nice. Maybe for the New Years Eve Weekend I can get up North. It would be special to ring in the New Year around the campfire. With such mild weather, there might even be less snow up north by then.
In four weeks on January 16 the sun will be setting at 4:49 pm, which is 24 minutes and 47 seconds later then today. In 2017 on that day, we had partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 39 and 14 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 30 and 14 degrees. The record high of 62 degrees was set back in 1995.
Looking ahead, National Pie Day is in 5 weeks, Lame Duck Day is in 7 weeks, Presidents Day is in 2 months, First Day of Spring is in 13 weeks, Election Day 2018 is in 46 weeks and Election Day 2020 is in 150 weeks.
Interstate 84 (Western)
If you ask my opinion, Interstate 84 in Oregon, Idaho, and Utah looks prettier then the Interstate 84 in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania.
December 18, 2017 8:14 pm Update
I guess they fixed the Gillig 4094. It made it to Delmar tonight without dying on the expressway.
Winter returns
November 15, 2017 Night
Good evening! Partly cloudy and 38 degrees in Delmar. There is a south-southeast breeze at 10 mph. The skies will clear Friday around 1 am. Today was a nice day weather wise but maybe a bit chilly. But the sun sets so early and the Pine Bush Dinner meant I didn’t get home until pretty late.
Interesting presentation at the Save the Pine Bush dinner on the ultra efficient ground source aka geothermal heat pumps but also kind of depressing when you realize how energy intensive they are. Your not going off the largely fossil fuel fired electric grid with heat pumps no matter how many solar panels or wind turbines you have on your house. Sinking heat or cold into the ground is very energy efficient but it still requires incredible amounts of electric power. For a large sububranite house that currently consumes 1,000 gallons of oil a year, the ground source heat pump would use about 7 megawatt hours per year or 7,000 kwH. Maybe burning 800 watts a hour, every hour of the day 24-7-365 is better than burning all that oil but neither is sustainable. Nor is it really a serious solution for heating in urban areas as its still a lot of energy, unlikely to ever be sourced from renewable sources or even by burning uranium in those quantities. Drilling geothermal heat sink wells turns out to be pretty difficult in cities too, especially as you to tear up streets and sidewalks to site wells and avoid hitting the numerous utilities and archeological items below ground.
Tonight will have a chance of rain, mainly after 3am. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 38 degrees at 10pm. Four degrees above normal. South wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2016, we had light rain and mist in the evening, remaining overcast into the early morning. It got down to 39 degrees. The record low of 7 occurred back in 1972.
Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon with 5% illuminated.The moon will rise tomorrow at 4:41 am. The New Moon is on Friday night. The Cold Moon is on Sunday, December 3rd. The sun will rise at 6:48 am with the first light at 6:17 am, which is one minute and 15 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 17 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 7 seconds over last night.
Rain and clouds tomorrow. Not a nice day. Tomorrow will rain likely, mainly before 11am, then a chance of showers after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 49 degrees at 1pm. Three degrees above normal. South wind 7 to 16 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Better weather for Friday but continued cold. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 55 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 2006. 3.4 inches of snow fell back in 2002.
Friday will be nicer but still quite cold and windy. I have too much to get done at work this week so I’m not going to take it off but I will take some long weekends in December. Or maybe go hiking midweek like up Overlook Mountain as I often do in December.
Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. Saturday, a chance of snow before 10am, then rain. High near 44. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Sunday, a chance of showers before 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 44. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Typical average high for the weekend is 47 degrees.
I am still waiting on the transistors but I have the LEDs and power supply now, so I should be able to hook up the LED string this weekend and play with developing the code. Hopefully this will be as good as I hope. If not it’s an experiment and there is more to learn going forward. The trick is to get as much light as possible in places I need the light of just the perfect temperature. I’m going to stay in town and work on that during the rainy cold and wet weekend. I’m not going to be out there in the woods for regular season, hopefully though you’ll have good luck and get meat on the table. It would be a little different if I had land and wasn’t stuck as a public lands hunter who either has no place to hang a deer in the suburbs. I should hunt more, always buy my license but I lack the skill and patience. Eventually though I’ll own land in God’s Country, and my focus will be on acreage more than a big fancy grid tied house. I like working with low voltage electricity. I’d rather know exactly where my power and food is coming from and where my waste is going. Maybe I’ll get the bars cut and drilled for mounting the solar panel on my truck.
In four weeks on December 13 the sun will be setting at 4:22 pm, which is 9 minutes and 39 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had snow, mist, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 39 and 32 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 37 and 22 degrees. The record high of 58 degrees was set back in 1984.
Looking ahead, Coldest Day of Year (Avg. 14-30 degrees) is in 8 weeks and Inaugeration Day 2021 is in 166 weeks.
