I think it’s reasonable to say this morning feels more like spring time then winter, even if the mercury is a bit below freezing. With the sun it and calm wind it doesn’t feel that cold. Plus no snow to make things feel cold from the evaporation of the snow. Should be a great ride in and will be super nice and mild by mid-day into afternoon.

Good morning! Happy Thursday. Mostly sunny 🌞 and 23 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. Things will start to thaw out at around 9 am. 🌡️

Didn’t get earliest start ever ☕ but I was up by 5:30 or 5:45 AM and got johnnycakes with lots of onions, garlic and spinach cooking up on the griddle 🥞 and lots of coffee. Continuing to play with the derailleurs on my bike — ⚙ sometimes I swear I’m just making things work with my belief that everything should be completely silent and every gear shift should be perfect. 👨‍🔧Truth is I should make an appointment with my bicycle mechanic to keep is running well. I also should rotate the front and rear tires, especially before I plan to do any mountain biking in the mud and ice.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 46 degrees at 3pm. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 18th. Light and variable wind. Super, I’m looking forward to March and especially April. A few nice weeks before the black flies arrive, lol. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 46 degrees. The record high of 52 was set in 1925. 14.0 inches of snow fell back in 1895.❄

Bike’s working good enough to ride in to work, 🚲 despite or may in spite of the fact that I keep tinkering with the gears. Front derailleur is a bit off, because when I adjusted the “B” screw on the rear derailleur it threw off the front derailleur which I re-aligned but maybe not perfectly. Yesterday at lunch time I rode over to the Albany Rural Cemetery ⚰ in Menands. I want to explore the cemetery more at lunch time. Maybe today or maybe tomorrow.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:10 pm with sun having an altitude of 32.3° from the due south horizon (-38.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 9.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:37 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (243°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (250°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:18 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 5 seconds with dusk around 5:46 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:21 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 43 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 10 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 31 seconds over yesterday.

Four weeks into it, I am getting used to my new job in the suburbs. 🏣 It’s actually a lot of fun to tidy data, and play with SQL for clever tricks. I can often tease a lot of interesting insights out of data using R Studio and the alike. Plus when I ride my bike in there is a lot of fun parks I can go to at lunch time, including the Corning Preserve and Albany Rural Cemetery. Plus there is a fair number of businesses and shops in Menands.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 😴, with a low of 33 degrees at 5am. 17 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 5th. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the evening. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became light rain by the early hours of the morning. A very mild night, I should go out for a walk. It got down to 25 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1934.

Continued mild but more showers come the weekend. 🌧 Saturday, showers likely, mainly after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 52. Light south wind becoming southeast 5 to 10 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 44. Typical average high for the weekend is 35 degrees. I don’t have any big plans for the weekend, but that’s good, I’ve been so busy these days. The following weekend in President’s Day.

Looking ahead, there are 6 weeks until First Day of Spring 💮 when the sun will be setting at 7:10 pm with dusk at 7:37 pm (Daylight Savings Time). I guess that means winter is more then halfway over, though the second half of winter can be kinder but snowier. At least not as cold as for as long, or so I tell myself. On that day in 2023, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 59 and 24 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 47 degrees. We hit a record high of 78 back in 1921.