John Boyd Thacher State Park

Maybe it’s too soon to declare it time to stick a fork in it, but the writing is on the wall about the year. Looking at the rising sun taking the express bus downtown as it’s going to turn to rain by rush hour this evening. Listening to that Smash Mouth song, Waiting on the Sun — that I remember fondly hearing on the radio rolling down Interstate 99 at 73 mph heading past Tyrone Penna on the way to West Virginia. Thinking as the year comes to a close, won’t be that much longer that I’ll be working downtown, a big change after the two decades that was.

Good morning! December starts out sunny and mild but quickly fades to rain by evening. Mostly sunny ☀ and 36 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south-southeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Tuesday around 2 am. ☃️

Doesn’t look like I’ll need much of the central heat this weekend 🌧️ though maybe I’ll want the space heater and electric blanket as it’s going to be cool and damp. 🍞 Planning on making more bread and pea soup tomorrow morning bright and early.

Today started out a little bit later then normal 🛏 sleeping into around five thirty, which is late by my standards. Ran some onions, spinach, broccoli and eggs 🥚 through the food processor, tossed oil into a frying 🍳 pan and that was breakfast. Not a half bad breakfast. Kind of a sleepy this morning 😴, kind of had a rough night sleeping, which is unusual lately since I switched to rising early.

Maybe I could have biked to work today, 🚲 but they’re expecting fairly heavy rain by evening. 🌧 I didn’t really feel like grabbing my bike at end of day, unlocking it and loading it on the bus in the pouring rain. Didn’t seem like a fun way to enjoy my day. The thing is not much longer to ride the bike to work, as when I move to the new office in the suburbs, I’ll be taking the shuttle from downtown, and they don’t have a bike rack on that.

Today will rain, mainly after 3pm. 🌧️ High of 47 degrees at 12pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 22nd. South wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 40 degrees. The record high of 67 was set in 1934. 13.3 inches of snow fell back in 2019.❄

Morning started out nice, but I am not expecting it to last. 🌦 Still a bit cool for walking on the plaza, so I’ve been doing laps inside, and now are heading up the stairs to my office. Figured I got to do the stairs as much as I can before I move on to my new office in suburbs with only a single flight of stairs. As I noted, until we get more sunlight in the evening, I don’t think I’ll be able to ride to work, though January would otherwise be tough with the snow and ice and bike trail. Not to mention the cold.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:45 am with sun having an altitude of 25.6° from the due south horizon (-45.2° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:40 pm with the sun in the southwest (233°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (241°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:24 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 20 seconds with dusk around 4:54 pm, which is 20 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:31 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 44 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 7 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 19 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 21 seconds over today.

Yesterday, I went out to lunch with the colleagues 🍔 🍣 at the fancy swanky War Room restaurant across from the Albany Capitol Center. I’m just glad I wasn’t paying for lunch and it was on the company credit card. Being the hillbilly of the group, 👩‍🌾 I always order the worse thing on menu — I got the Buffalo Burger, which despite the delicious sounding description menu, came out looking like a sad McDonald’s hamburger with a not-so-good sauce. I should have ordered the sushi lunch — the sushi appetizers I had were delicious. Would have been more healthy omega-3 fats too compared to that rather nasty $26 burger. I thought for that price, it would be a big-beefy burger with a good bun and excellent fries, none of which was true. So if you’re a big shot politico and lobbyist, and you go to the War Room, only order the sushi. Consider this to be your warning, especially if you’re a hillbilly like me.

That said, I’m kind of glad to be moving to the new office in North Albany 🏢 away from the craziness of Downtown Albany and all the political things. I have a feeling once I’m up in North Albany working I won’t get invited to all these lunches and political events downtown, and can just focus on the data science work for work, running lists and calculations 📄, and not all these real political social things. 👪 I often prefer to work in solitude, get things done, produce results and avoid the politicing and social stuff. I’m kind of an introvert.

Tonight will rain likely, mainly before 10pm. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 36 degrees at 4am. Nine degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 2nd. South wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 31 degrees. The record low of -2 occurred back in 1875.

Dreary evening ahead, 📖 but I’ll get home and cook up some salmon in the oven 🐠 and then get a book out to read and do some of the Udemny course on machine learning 🤖 and head to bed early 🛌 seeking the warm of my heated blanket. My heat is off for now, I don’t need it if going to be above freezing, I’d rather just have a warm bed and warm food. I like living on the cooler side of things, it makes winter camping all them more delightful. ❄️

Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 49 degrees at 12pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 17th. South wind around 6 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1998. 6.8 inches of snow fell back in 2019.❄

Staying in town this weekend. 🏘 Probably stay home on Saturday, go down to the library for a while. 💻 And then maybe to Walmart to get some groceries, particularly spices.

Looking ahead to Sunday, rain likely, mainly after 1pm. 🌧️ Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. North wind around 6 mph becoming east in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Typical average high for the weekend is 43 degrees.

Sunday I’ll be going out to see the folks 👪 and have Sunday dinner. Turkey soup for dinner. Should be delicious. It’s always great to visit them, even if otherwise it will be a quite wet and dreary day. But not all days can be sunny, and at least it’s not snow or road salt season yet.

Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until Bill of Rights Day 📜 when the sun will be setting at 4:24 pm with dusk at 4:54 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, sleet and temperatures between 33 and 16 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 38 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 2015.