Good morning! Happy Valentines Day ❤️ ! We got a little snow to start out the morning, but it’s tapered off. Always, one of the coldest bleakest time of year. I do miss seeing all the holiday displays and vendors hawking their often very strange wares to the state workers on my lunch-time walk in the Empire Plaza. Six weeks to Worm Moon 🌕 . Snow showers and 21 degrees in Delmar, NY. They are warning their may be a period of ice this morning. Calm wind. So if you slide off the road, don’t worry about getting chilled through by the wind. There are 6 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at around 2 pm. 🌡️

Yesterday, I ended up going out to Five Rivers. It was a nice hike out there, the deer were fluffy but not as much wildlife as in recent days. Just fewer birds, deer, squirrel. Not sure if it had something to do with the sunny skies, although there was a lot deer by the Lyman Farm. And cows like always were cute at Meads farm.

Today will have patchy snow and freezing drizzle before 11am. Mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 33 degrees at 3pm. So far just a few snow flurries locally. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 10th. Calm wind becoming northwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 36 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1946. 23.5 inches of snow fell back in 1914.❄

Heading out to the parents house later on. They are having Sunday dinner, in the usual socially distant fashion of late from opposite sides of the room wearing masks. They are getting the COVID-shot this week, so hopefully things will get better for them soon. I doubt I’ll be able to get vaccine myself anytime soon, as I’m relatively young and relatively lower risk, but I will do it once it’s widely available and convenient from the local CVS. I don’t want to have to make an appointment or wait in line. I am sure in a few months that is how it will be, probably closer to summer or autumn. I can imagine eventually there will be a vaccine surplus, and everybody in rush to get the vaccine will be done.

I wonder when I will be working downtown again. At this point I kind of like working remotely, especially should the weather get nicer and I can work from camp. I spent so much of last summer writing emails and even reports from my phone or laptop. I have to think the fun has to end at some point. Based on the current vaccine roll out speed, and the relative smoothness of remote work, since I and others have gotten all the technology to play nicely together, it seems like there is no rush to head back downtown. And I like the idea of working from the hammock in the wilderness with my unlimited video data on the cellphone at 20 GB on the laptop.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:11 pm with sun having an altitude of 34.5° from the due south horizon (-36.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:47 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (247°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (253°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:27 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 2 seconds with dusk around 5:55 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-southwest (237°) at an altitude of 27° from the horizon, 248,834 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:29 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 31 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 33 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 40 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 18 degrees at 4am. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 17th. Maximum wind chill around 13 at 5am; Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. In 2020, we had clear skies in the evening, which became clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 4 degrees. The record low of -22 occurred back in 1943.

More snow come President’s Day. 29 degrees for the high, with snow becoming widespread in the afternoon through the evening. We could get another half of foot. Then even more snow come Thursday. I hoping its the Lion roaring it’s head and warm up in March, although there is no evidence of that in the long range. But might hope is grounded in the strengthening sun angle. I am thinking about going skiing then but I don’t want to drive home in the snow. Maybe I’ll just figure out somewhere to walk in the neighborhood, but I expect the snow is still kind of deep on the rail trail to walk it without skis.

The rest of my library books have come in. I will need to get there and pick up the books. I guess the library is open today, but I am thinking Tuesday is going to be sunny, relatively warm and I can work down there for a few hours, and then pick up the books. I am back in line for data cap for the month, so I should be good, but I kind of like having the unlimited broadband at the library. I have plenty to read right now.

🌹🌻🌼Only 34 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼One day closer. But even before then is the time change. And that’s a message I can approve of on this blog.

One month 📅 from now will be 7 PM Sunset 🌇 when the sun will be setting at 7:00 pm with dusk at 7:28 pm (Daylight Savings Time). I know I am looking forward to Daylight Savings Time. You get a mild day, and the evenings are quite a bit longer and nice.