Not all days will be quite as good but if you are consistent and disciplined a better tomorrow is possible.
I thought about going for a early morning bike ride 🚲 👉 🚶
But changed my mind in favor of going in on the early bus and walking laps on the Plaza. I’ve been having a lot of trouble this winter with cold numb hands when I go out walking and riding this year. Maybe I need heavier gloves but it’s not pleasant to get home have sore fingers and struggle to unlock and open the door.
Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Cloudy and 17 degrees in Delmar. ☁ Calm wind. Still a cold morning. There are 3 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out next Tuesday around 8 am. 🌡️This weekend is going to ducking 🦆 cold.
Breakfast was onions, canned green beans, canned 🥫 tomatoes and eggs 🥚. It’s what I had and with some spices it was pretty good. My pantry is completely void of fruit 🍌 after today’s lunch and the vegetables aren’t much more plentiful unless you count the canned stuff I primarily have for camping. 🛒 I plan to go shopping tomorrow, though a lot depends on whether I’m getting filmed 📼 for the Rezsin Adams documentary tomorrow.
Wanted to catch the earliest express downtown 🚍 but I ended up catching the second express downtown after walking down to the Park and Ride. 🚶 I want to try to get in at least 7,000 steps 👣 before settling in my office this morning. I’m a bit concerned about how sore and numb my hands 👐 get from the cold now ❄ but I realize I’m getting older, my body is wearing out and frankly I probably need better gloves 🧤. The Plaza will be nice to walk inside.
Today will have a chance of snow showers, mainly after 11am. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 22 degrees at 12pm. 10 degrees below normal. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 9 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1929. 8.5 inches of snow fell back in 1886.❄
All week I’ve been dealing with not only cold fingers but also anxiety 🥶 as it’s been a tough adjustment to all that is new in my life. Its just such a different experience working out in a suburban office environment, much more of a corporate office culture with less opportunities for creativity. It’s tough learning all the new faces, 👥 the culture and the technical nature of the work. ⚙ I’m doing good I guess though I wish I had known the VIM editor better which is so much a big part of my new position. Fortunately I’m pretty good at most of the other parts of the job like the bash shell, SQL, data tidying. 🖥
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:07 pm with sun having an altitude of 27° from the due south horizon (-43.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:08 pm with the sun in the southwest (235°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (243°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:52 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 16 seconds with dusk around 5:22 pm, which is one minute and 13 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the southeast (125°) at an altitude of 58° from the horizon, 233,485 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:57 pm. At sunset, look for snow 🌨 and temperatures around 22 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 8 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 35 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 51 seconds over today.
Last night 🌃 I made it up until almost 9 pm last night, as I went for an evening walk 🚶 and then laid in bed 🛏 for a while listening to a podcast 🎧 about the rise of homeschooling in America. 🏫🚸 I think it was NPR Fresh Air. But I can’t blame parents when most schools these days are Confined Education Operations Systems (CEOs), designed primarily to waste taxpayer dollars 💵 and prepare the youth of tomorrow for working in acre sized bull pens next to 5 acres of parking off of the freeway interchange in the suburbs. 🛣️
Tonight will be really cold. That’s relatively speaking. We will have a slight chance of snow showers before 11pm. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 9 degrees at 6am. Six degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -4 at 5am; Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2023, we had light rain. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of -22 occurred back in 1970.
This evening I think I will go down to the library 📚 pick up the damaged books that I reimbursed the library for and work on my laptop for a while. It is a good way to get some steps in and then head to bed relatively early. 😴 Tomorrow is going to be cold, but I will make the best of it.
I’ve been quite impressed how smoothly the transfer has been between the shuttle and the express bus. 🚌 🔛 🚐 There is a only a few minutes between the buses but so far I’ve always made the transfer without issue, plus there is a warm place to wait in the Concourse bus station. Works out much better then I expect. 😀 My commute remains the same as before time wise, about 40 minutes, leaving and getting home at the same time, without the late nights. The drive in would be 20 minutes, but that doesn’t include time cleaning off snow and ice, warming the truck up or parking. So really taking the bus is a win-win.
Tomorrow will have a chance of snow showers, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 17 degrees at 1pm. 15 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -6 at 6am; Northwest wind 11 to 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 38 degrees. The record high of 53 was set in 2006. 10.4 inches of snow fell back in 2019.❄
Looking ahead to Sunday, sunny and cold, with a high near 23. ☀ Northwest wind around 15 mph. Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees. Probably going out to see the folks then, 👪 and maybe do a hike earlier in the day, if I bundle up. But with my problem with my fingers getting cold, this seems less fun then in years past.
When there is no hope, there are 2 weeks until Ground Hog Day 🐻 when the sun will be setting at 5:10 pm with dusk at 5:39 pm. I bet he will see his shadow. On that day in 2023, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 36 and 19 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 53 back in 1981.
How to fix rselenium / wdman unable to start error
If you are getting an error starting geckodriver when using rselenium, you may want to try deleting the LICENSE.chromedriver file which accidentally attempts to be executed by wdman::geckodriver. You can do this simply in the Linux terminal by using this command. The xargs -r command only executes the rm command when there is a file matched to delete.
find ~/.local/share/ -name LICENSE.chromedriver -print | xargs -r rm
Happy Snowman Day ☃
At least that’s what the internet tells me to be the case. And unlike me, the internet doesn’t just make up shit.
Good morning! Happy Snowman ☃ Day. 15 degrees and partly cloudy this morning as I await the dawn 6:50 🌅 and head out for a morning bike ride. Roughly three inches of snow on the ground ☃, which could probably be turned into a snowman that will last until Monday at 2 pm, the next time it’s likely to be above freezing again.
Last night I was bed 🛏 by 7 pm and asleep shortly thereafter as with the nights so cold and dark I can’t imagine staying up much later. I mean I probably should have gone for an evening walk 🚶 but I was tired. Cooked up some of mom’s lasagna with Butternut squash and the last of the frozen peas and corn I had. Salmon and broccoli 🥦 🐟 for dinner tonight.
Pancakes 🥞 this morning with the remaining fresh blueberries 🫐 and mango that I had. Getting low on fresh fruit but with the snow coming tomorrow I’ll probably wait until Saturday morning to shop. 🛒 Even the veggies are almost out but I have several cans 🥫 of low sodium vegetables I got for camping that I can crack open. I’ll stock up on several large bags when I go Wally World. Bulk frozen vegetables is something I really like. Plus no cans to wash and recycle ♻. The plastic makes a good fire 🔥 starter, lol. 😂
For our snowman ☃ day, slight chance of snow showers after 3pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 29. 🌥 South wind 7 to 10 mph. 3 degrees below the normal high of 33, closer to the typical normal before the climate warmed in Albany. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Kind of a cool day ahead but it is mid January.
I started my morning bike ride 🚲 out to Meads Lane but my face 😔 and hands 👐 were really cold, ❄ so I decided after about 4 miles of riding to head back home, have a warm shower 🚿 and then take the earlier express bus 🚍 in an walk in the Concourse where it will be warm. I prefer the calorie burn of riding but lately I’ve been riding back along Cherry Avenue at 7:30 am and it’s really congested. 🚶 I guess I could have done a walk in Delmar instead this morning but the Concourse will be warm.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.8° from the due south horizon (-44.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:07 pm with the sun in the southwest (235°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (242°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:50 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 17 seconds with dusk around 5:21 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the south-southeast (150°) at an altitude of 59° from the horizon, 231,005 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:56 pm. At sunset, look for skies and temperatures around degrees. There will be a calm wind. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 34 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 49 seconds over today.
The shuttle bus to the suburban office 🏢 works well with the 519 schedule though I admit the evening transfer is very tight and there will be times I inevitably will miss the express at the bus turn around but if I hurry to the Capitol I can likely catch it there or the 18 home. Worse comes to worse, I catch the later 18 home and just walk laps in the Plaza. 👣 I’m getting used to the change, though I miss the heart pumping 💓 of climbing all those stairs. When the weather gets nicer out, I’ll be riding to work, that is once the bike path is free of snow 🚲 and can visit the Corning Preserve at lunch time or explore the bike trail, especially the nicer section near Menands. 🏞 Might be nice to sit down by the river and eat lunch and ride. It’s a big change to working out in the suburbs, but it really isn’t that bad but I do miss the sweeping views from the old downtown office, and just the experience, but I’m young and can adapt.
This evening will have a slight chance of snow showers before 8pm. 🌨 Mostly cloudy, with a low around 18. Two degrees above normal. South wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
I have been trying to dial back the calories and big meals this week, 🤰 as I haven’t been riding into work with the weather, and don’t have the stairs to climb in the suburban office building. There are some halls to make laps, but nothing like being connected with Capitol Complex and Concourse. It’s just been cold and icy, and it’s hard to get in as many steps as I would like to do each day. 👣 Plus I’ve been having a lot of carbs lately with all the bread I’ve been baking 🍞. Of course now the challenge is with the pantry getting low, but as noting before, if I dip into the canned vegetable reserve I have I should be able to make it to Saturday.
Then when we finally reach Friday, ☺ we will have snow 🌨️ mainly between 8am and 5pm. Cloudy and cool, with a high near 26, which is six degrees below normal. North wind 6 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. Then really cold for the weekend. Saturday will be cloudy, with a high near 18. Northwest wind 14 to 18 mph. That just sounds cold, even without considering the windchill. Then Sunday it will be sunny, with a high near 23. 😎 Still cold. But then again, the high temperature for this week of the year is typically around 32 degrees, which used to be only 30 before the planet warmed. Probably staying home, except for maybe going out to shop and if we do the filming of the Rezin documentary, I’ll probably head out.
Looking ahead, next Thursday is 5 PM Sunset 🌇 with dusk at 5:29 pm. On that day in 2023, we had snow, mostly cloudy and temperatures between 36 and 28 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 1938.
Biden’s Reelection – A question of if we want renawables, solar, electric cars and heat pumps.
The renewable, low carbon energy revolution has made a great deal of progress in recent years. It’s not perfect and there is a lot of legitimate criticism of the technology’s imperfections – environmental costs of construction, it’s less convenient nature, it’s technical flaws – but it’s getting to the point of widespread adoption if we allow it.
I fear that should a Republican take the White House much of the potential progress of recent years on electrification and renewable energy will be stillborn. A lot of potential wasted, needed adoption of advanced technologies to slow the progress of climate change stalled. While no administration can completely reverse progress, a lot could be lost under a second Donald Trump or Republican administration in 2025.
Even should Joe Biden be reelected, renewable energy and electrification faces headwinds. Many proposals are overly ambitious. But most are a step in the right direction and even if we only partially obtain ambitious plans – with unaffordable and environmentally bad proposals killed – then it is still progress. Yet such progress my be even more fleeting under a Republican administration.
I don’t agree with giving Joe Biden and his party an open checkbook to do whatever it wants on climate change. But with moderation, public participation and sensible adoption of the right technologies I believe we would come out ahead of where we would under a more conservative minded administration.
Hump Day, and I’m out riding early 🚲
Slept in a bit later then I wanted this morning but I made good time this morning and was able to go for a 45 minute ride out Meads Lane and Orchard Drive. Cows were all lumped together, staying warm in the cold. My fingers felt a bit swollen and sore when I first got back indoors but the warm shower seemed to make things feel better again.
Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Partly sunny and 17 degrees at the Downtown Albany. There is a west breeze at 11 mph. 🍃. The current wind chill is 4. Honestly, I think that wind chill is an exaggeration but I’m kind of a tough mother. There are 4 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at Tuesday around 9 am. 🌡️
The morning bike ride at 6:45 AM wasn’t bad 🚲 though it was a bit cold at times, especially on my fingers. 🤚 I had gloves on which helped quite a bit, 🧤 but at times my fingers were cold. Riding up the hills on Orchard Avenue helped warm me up but I didn’t mind getting back home and taking that warm shower 🚿 before heading out to the bus. 🚌 It turns out the later express bus works out well for the transfer to the shuttle to the suburban office, making for a commute not much longer then driving, plus it saves money and I don’t have to worry about bumping other cars, and watch videos or do other things while I ride the bus. That said, I look forward to riding to work again, but right now the rail trail is snow covered ❄️ not to mention it’s a pretty cold week.
Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 24 degrees at 3pm. Eight degrees below normal. West wind 10 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 33 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1889. 10.9 inches of snow fell back in 1994.❄
Moving back out to working in the suburbs is what you might expect it to be. 👨💼 Very much kind of a corporate experience, working in a massive two-story sprawling building with massive open-air cubical farms, surrounded by acres of free parking. 🅿️ At least it’s convenient for parking for the weekends I plan to head out of town after work, right off the freeway. ☕ And as much free coffee as I want and not many late nights. And it’s a bit more money and a good resume builder, which is important especially in these inflationary times. 💸 Need to study up on VIM and probably awk, as I think those programs will be essential for my new job. They have some books in the office, but I know there is a lot of Youtube videos and other sources of info about it on the internet.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.5° from the due south horizon (-44.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:05 pm with the sun in the southwest (234°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (242°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:49 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 17 seconds with dusk around 5:19 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south (174°) at an altitude of 56° from the horizon, 228,953 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:55 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 22 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 11. ☃️ There will be a west breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 30 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 43 seconds over yesterday.
Yesterday with the snow was kind of a messy commute ❄️ and I was annoyed that I got on the local bus and saw shortly thereafter the very late express bus passing by. 🚌 I just didn’t trust the real time bus info, as it kept shift as the express bus and local bus kept getting later. I though they might have canceled the express bus or I missed it as the shuttle back to the Plaza was running late due to snow, but it was accurate data. Doesn’t matter, I was still home by 6 PM.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 14 degrees at 2am. One degree below normal, which is similar to a typical Maximum wind chill around 4 at 10pm; South wind 8 to 10 mph. In 2023, we had light freezing rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of -19 occurred back in 1957.
Ended up getting dinged $45 for damaged books 📚 from the library, but I get to pickup the books and I’ll add them to my collection. Two of my books unfortunately got wet and dirty when I was camping. 🏕 It happens, I shouldn’t bring library books winter camping I guess. Or at least plan to keep any books that I take up to the woods with me. Never a problem in the summer, but in the winter, it’s easy for dirt and wetness to get attracted to the paper. It happens, oh well. I’ve paid the fine. At least with the mild weather in December, my electric and gas bill was down, mostly because I didn’t use that much gas heat. This month though with the recent cold blast 🌬 it must certainly will be back up. Trying to limit my power use too by cooking efficiently with a full oven each time I cook. 👩🍳
Cold but clearing this weekend. ⛅ Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 17. Without much sun, that’s going to feel like a real cold day for sure. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 24. Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees. But it’s too be expected in mid-to-late January. By Tuesday, things are expected to be in the low 40s and by the second half of the week if the trend continues, looking at upper 40s. It’s really to far away to know about things though for following weekend, and heck even past Tuesday who really knows but it looks like there is a warming trend ahead.
Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Valentines Day ❤️ when the sun will be setting at 5:26 pm with dusk at 5:53 pm. On that day in 2023, we had partly sunny skies mild temperatures between 50 and 30 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 36 degrees. But maybe there is hope after all the cold. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1946.
Prejudice
The other day when I went to Walmart to pick up some supplies,🏪 I saw the clerk was a younger man, Caucasian with red hair. Somehow I had to react differently, viscerally to see a white clerk there – one who looked more like someone would work on a farm or on your car or repairing mechanical equipment.👨 I bet he owns a lot of guns, a four wheeler, likes bonfires and drinking beer. Probably lives out in country, maybe this is his second job to make ends meet and provide for his family. Certainly, cool guy to hang out with, a bro.
After I got back to my jacked up pickup truck, turned on engine, took a sigh, and realized how truly racist my attitudes were in the store.😐 Just because somebody is white or has red hair, doesn’t mean they’re any more of a decent person then an African American or Latino clerk. Certainly not all blacks are drug dealers who on the side work at Walmart to pretend to have a legitimate job. That’s just a terrible stereotype, often portrayed in the media. Many are not immigrants, many are not struggling to make ends meet.👬 Granted Walmart is famous for underpaying workers, but not every one there is a drug dealer or welfare queen.
Prejudice is a something I’ve struggled with for most of my adult life. 🚧I always have found it disconcerting to see an African American driving a pickup truck.🚛 Some how it violates my idea of the stereotype. It really kind of bothers me a lot, because I don’t think of myself as a racist or a bad person.😥 I don’t dislike people because of their race and would never intentionally treat a person differently based on their race. 🌐I think I should work to be more open minded and less prejudicial, but it’s hard to over-turn long-standing prejudices against the groups that different then myself.🗽