New York State Museum

The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol.

The museum houses art, artifacts (prehistoric and historic), and ecofacts that reflect New York’s cultural, natural, and geological development. Operated by the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education, it is the nation’s oldest and largest state museum.

Formerly located in the State Education Building, the museum now occupies the first four floors of the Cultural Education Center, a ten story, 1,500,000-square-foot (140,000 m) building that also houses the New York State Archives and New York State Library.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Museum

December 9, 2016 Evening

Good evening! Happy Friday. Currently 28 degrees but with that breeze it feels more like 17 degrees. Definitely a cool evening. I grabbed the hot seat on the bus intentionally. 

Tonight we have a Waxing Gibbous Moon to the east in between the clouds. Partly to Mostly Cloudy tonight with a low around 20. Or maybe a bit less, we will see. 

Tomorrow will be cold. Looking only at high of 32 degrees with plenty of sun. The wind chill with that wind whipping around will make it feel much colder. Sunrise tomorrow is at 7:14 pm. 

The express bus was running about five minutes late but traffic is light so we are making up time. I was worried that the bus was late because it wasn’t in the GPS system. 

Staying in town this weekend. Probably just stay mostly indoors in the cold. I do need to get a battery for the remote control for the DTV adapter box. Well I’ll see. 

December 1, 2016 Evening

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 46 degrees in Albany. There is a west breeze at 10 mph. A bit chilly with that breeze this evening. The skies will clear Saturday around 11 pm.

Lately I’ve gotten into listening to the Guess Who, that early 70s Canadian soft rock Β band most famous for American Women. I hadn’t heard She’s Come Undun in almost a decade but then I heard it ON XM Radio’s free preview and I got hooked on it.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 36 degrees at 6am. Nine degrees above normal. West wind 6 to 10 mph. In 2015, it got down to 41 degrees with periods of rain. The record low of -2 occurred back in 1875.

Look towards the west for beautiful Β theΒ Waxing Crescent Moon tonight with 17% illuminated.Β At times it will be hidden by clouds. The moon will set around 8:30 pm. The First Quarter Moon is on Tuesday night with a chance of rain orsnow expected. The Full β€œCold” Moon is on Wednesday, December 14th.

Another evening in soon to be Donald Trump’s America. All I can say is that the bus is running on time, and traffic wasn’t that bad. I really should go to Sears tonight but I really don’t feel like going anywhere tonight.

“Too many mountains and not enough stairs to climb /Β Too many churches and not enough truth / Too many people and not enough eyes to see /Β Too many lives to lead and not enough time” – She’s Come Undun, The Guess Who

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of showers after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 47 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees above normal. West wind 6 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had rain and a high of 50 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1998. 6.2 inches of snow fell back in 1949.

Looking colder and generally nastier for Saturday but Sunday still looks nice if I don’t get stuck in the office.Β Much like most of America.Β Β Saturday, a slight chance of rain and snow showers before 10am, then a slight chance of rain showers between 10am and 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 42. Northwest wind 10 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 40.Typical average high for the weekend is 41 degrees. I’m increasingly looking at staying in town this weekend because I think Saturday could be cold in the wilderness, even if it is snow free. I’ll make a decision tomorrow. I might have to go into the office on Sunday. On the other hand, it might be nice to get away before it gets super frigid outside with the blast of cold air certainly on its way.

In four weeks on December 29 the sun will be setting at 4:30 pm, which is 8 minutes later then tonight. In 2015 on that day, we had rain, snow and temperatures between 35 and 24 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 32 and 17 degrees. The record high of 71 degrees was set back in 1984. It must have been nice on that late December day to get up to 71. I’ll have to check the record book to see see if it was sunny on that warm day a few days before 1985 rolled around.

After doing extensive research I found that the problem I was having with my PyQGIS script is thatΒ the SIP module that ships with Python 2.7 is broken and not properly allowing methods to be called through their parents. Nothing I can do to easily fix it unless I want to re-compile Python 2.5Β and QGIS. For now, I’m just going to disable the problematic code.