Alfred E. Smith Building

The Alfred E. Smith Building, known officially as the Alfred E. Smith State Office Building and sometimes called simply the Smith Building, is a structure located in downtown Albany, New York across the street from the New York State Capitol and One Commerce Plaza.

The building’s namesake, Alfred Emmanuel Smith, was a four-term governor of New York and the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 1928 presidential election. The Art Deco skyscraper has 34 stories and at 388 feet (118 m) is Albany’s second tallest structure (after the Erastus Corning Tower).

Completed in 1928, it houses offices of the New York State government. Built originally with an observation deck on the 31st floor, the 350-foot-high (110 m) open-air deck was closed in 1976 when the 589-foot-tall (180 m) 42nd floor enclosed Corning Tower Observation Deck was opened. An extensive renovation of the building began in 2002. This modernization, which cost at least $103 million, is now finished.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Smith_Building

December 21, 2015 evening

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Good evening. 45 degrees with a cold breeze this afternoon. No rain so far this evening but rain showers remain a possibility throughout the evening. A better chance of rain come tomorrow.

Today was the shortest day of the year, being the winter solstice. Slowly at first the days will be getting longer. The mild winter really has given us a break but it still gets dark so early.

Looking forward to the long weekend and camping on Christmas. I wonder if I will see other people up in the woods. I certainly wouldn’t be shocked with the nice warm weather. It will be nice, especially now that I have that nice bright propane lantern.

Traffic is light heading out of city. It was a relatively quiet day today at work. Christmas week means a lot of people are off from work.

December 18, 2015 evening

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Good evening. Currently 36 degrees in Albany. It’s a little hard to tell in the city but I think it’s mostly cloudy out per my phone. Tonight we are looking at isolated snow showers after 1am from Lake Effect Snow. Increasing clouds, with a low around 29. Northwest wind 8 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Going to be a pretty cold and blustery weekend as expected for December. Not a lot of snow expected locally but we might get a dusting from the lake effect locally.

It’s was a pretty good day. Big Red seems to be working well with the charged battery. Did some good stuff at work today. Went and had some drinks after work at CSP. All and all a good day.

December 15, 2015 night

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Good evening. Currently 43 degrees and clearing. Some clouds still block out the stars in parts. Later mostly cloudy, with a low around 36. Northwest wind 6 to 16 mph.

Made a bunch of new maps this evening, including one of the election results for the Town of Westerlo Supervisor race. Lots of hiking and state land maps, including some local preserves that have recently been added to Open Street Maps.

Did my evening walk. Not too cold and the stars were starting to come out. It’s a pretty nice evening. I didn’t go down to the library tonight though.

Have a great night. Sleep well. Sunrise at 7:23 AM tomorrow.

December 15, 2015 evening

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Good evening. Currently 46 degrees and overcast this evening. Isolated showers before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 36. Breezy, with a northwest wind 19 to 24 mph decreasing to 5 to 10 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

It was cloudy this evening but had the clouds broke it would have shown an earlier sunset. Tomorrow will be sunnier with a high around 46. Certainly cooler than today, but still warmer than normal.

Tomorrow is the Save the Pine Bush Dinner at 6 PM at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Downtown Albany. Ward Stone will be the guest speaker. He is always a good speaker.

Tomorrow dad is going to pick up the battery from my truck. The shop said it just needed to be charged. We will see I guess. Hopefully I won’t be stuck in town this weekend. Otherwise I’m either going to have to get the truck towed somewhere or otherwise fixed. Gosh, I don’t know but it’s a bit frustrating.

December 15, 2015 morning

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Good morning! 52 degrees and cloudy on this Tuesday. Last night was a remarkable 62 degrees after the rain before the cold front pushed through. Did I mention today is December 15th? Pretty outrageous weather. Going to be a windy day and with the sun expected later, the heavy rain from last night should be rapidly dried up from the pavement.

For a while last night I had no data service on my phone. I don’t know what the issue was but I sure missed having real time bus info on my phone after I stopped at the bus stop.

It poured on the way down to the library but I was able to catch a bus down there. The stop at the library is really nice. Later in the evening the rain stopped but it was wet and I was tired so I skipped my evening walk. So be it.

Continuing to work on tweaking maps and designing some new content for the blog. Also did some more cleaning last night.

December 10, 2015 evening

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Good evening. Currently 47 degrees and mild. This evening will be fairly cloudy but still not bad to sit outside with a jacket on. We are only looking for a low around 42 degrees tonight. Mild weather continues for the foreseeable future with 59 degrees and partly cloudy on Friday. Upper 50s for highs through the weekend then rain but continued warm for Monday.

I’m strongly thinking about heading to Southern Vermont this weekend. Not too far but next weekend I’ll be stuck in town for the Save the Pine Bush Hike. I’d like to do some hiking and camping. Maybe some plinking too. I hate driving NY 7 through Troy but I been a lot of other places lately and would prefer to hold off the next trip to the Adirondacks until after Christmas. I have to get a haircut Saturday morning and refill the propane, but other than that I could leave pretty early. I don’t need any food or supplies, well except for one thing that I can pick up at the store when I go this evening.