Four Corners

February 8, 2018 5 PM Update

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Good evening! Cloudy and gray ☁with the mercury around  25 degrees in Delmar. There is a west-northwest breeze at 7 mph. It’s just plain dark and dreary as we sit in traffic on the old 787 heading home to Delmar. Traffic is bad tonight.🚓🚕🚌🚚🚛🚗🚕 Must be a fender bender or something else. The sun was nice in my corner office overlooking the mountains until it sank into the clouds and got all gray. 

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 11 degrees at 5am.⛅ Six degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 3 at 5am; Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2017, we had mostly clear skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 7 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1934.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon with 35% illuminated. 🌒The moon will rise tomorrow at 2:15 am. The New Moon is on Wednesday night with partly cloudy skies. The Snow Moon is on Wednesday, February 28th. The sun will rise at 7:00 am with the first light at 6:30 am, which is one minute and 15 seconds earlier than yesterday. Tonight will have 13 hours and 40 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 36 seconds over last night. The days are getting longer slowly but surely. I can’t wait until it’s nice enough to go to the park after work with either my laptop or a good book. 

Tomorrow will have a chance of snow, mainly after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 29 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal. South wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. The high last year was 31 degrees. The record high of 57 was set in 1925. 13.7 inches of snow fell back in 1906.

Cloudy with a chance of rain for the weekend. ☔ Saturday, a chance of rain. Cloudy, with a high near 45. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Sunday, rain. High near 42. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Not a really nice weekend, but at least it should help melt away the snow.   Typical average high for the weekend is 33 degrees.

This weekend I will probably stay in town and continue working on various electronics projects, 🔬:idea:⚡as I expect the weather to be quite cloudy and gray. I ordered some more Dupont lines today and two inexpensive 8 GB MicroSD cards to use for logging purposes with my Arduino. They will either be used for my GPS logger📡 I’m building or maybe a temperature logger I’m thinking of building. Won’t have either by the weekend but that’s fine. I want to replace the broken plexiglass and fix the case on my VMS / clock that cracked when I pulled the screen last Sunday. 

In four weeks on March 8 the sun will be setting at 5:54 pm, 🌼🌺which is 35 minutes and 17 seconds later then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had rain, then later on mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 58 and 41 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 41 and 23 degrees. The record high of 68 degrees was set back in 2012.

I’m tired and I can’t wait until spring time, once the snow melts and I can get back on the road again. 🚗⛺Those days will return again I promise myself. I’m saving money by not traveling, and knowing that I will appreciate it more when those days return. 

Looking ahead, Columbus Day is in 8 months.🍁🍂

🍔🎆Only 105 days remain until the start of Memorial Day Weekend!😎⛺

February 8, 2018 Morning

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Good morning! Happy Thursday. Partly cloudy and 18 degrees in Delmar. ⛅There is a northwest breeze at 9 mph. The current wind chill is 7. The skies will clear around 9 am. Cool but with the sun in more protected areas it really isn’t that bad out. We got about a foot of snow here in Delmar but it is expected to be mostly gone by next week with our rainy weekend ahead. 

🌼Only 40 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌼

Today will be partly sunny, with a high of 26 degrees at 2pm. ⛅Seven degrees below normal. Northwest wind around 10 mph. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. The high last year was 44 degrees. The record high of 52 was set in 1925. 14 inches of snow fell back in 1895.

The sun will set at 5:18 pm with dusk around 5:48 pm, which is one minute and 19 seconds later than yesterday🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy conditions and 24 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 34 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 12 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal. 🌒Maximum wind chill around 6 at 6am; Southwest wind around 6 mph. In 2017, we had mostly clear skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 7 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1934.

So yesterday was the big snowstorm. It really did not impress me but I got released from work at noon. Seems kind of pointless to go home from work early but I don’t make those calls. I guess I would feel differently if I had to drive in the snow. The primary roads are just wet today. It did get a bit slick mid afternoon yesterday. The fresh snow is kind of pretty. It won’t last with the rain expected for the weekend. 

Yesterday afternoon I spent fixing what I think are remaining bugs in the LED strip code. Now the sunrise and sunset timers work perfectly, I can fully adjust the hue and brightness of the lights, the hue changing mode works perfectly among other things. :idea:I am still waiting for the PIR motion detectors I ordered from China but that should be easy to program – just check if a pin is high in each time of the loop. I guess I could put the microcontroller to sleep and use interrupts to save a few milliwatts of power but even for a unit running all the time I doubt it’s worth it. Then I’d also have to set up interrupts with the clock and irremote. Not sure if it’s worth the effort. 📟 I also got the max7219 module working with the Nano. I do need some more dupont lines to finish my clock/VMS, I will order them probably today. I’m going to be too busy to work on it this weekend at any rate with other things. Still not sure if I will go up to the outdoors show in Johnstown. I’m undecided.

So rain this weekend. It will help wash the salt off the roads. And maybe mean we will be less snowy. I will probably stay in town. The extra money in the paycheck due to the Trump Tax Scam is nice, but I admit I’m thinking about taking a pass on the money and putting it into deferred compensation or maybe just my investment account. I’m too heavy already in the stock market right now, maybe I should use the money to diversify my holdings going forward. I’m not sure I want to lock so much money up for retirement.  

There are 8 months until Columbus Day when the sun will be setting at 6:23 pm with dusk at 6:52 pm (Daylight Savings Time). Wait long enough and autumn then winter return once again.🍁