Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Next Friday is Ground Hog Day.🐻 I wonder what the Ground Hog will have to tell us about the rest of the winter?🌞 Cold but sunny at 11 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. It was a nice walk down to the Park and Ride. Lots of sun and not that cold, although cold enough to put frost on everything to make it sparkle. ❄

🌼Only 53 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌼

Today will be sunny, with a high of 31 degrees at 2pm. 🌞 Typical for today. Calm wind becoming southeast around 6 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 48 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1950. 8.5 inches of snow fell back in 1949.

The sun will set at 5:01 pm with dusk around 5:32 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds later than yesterday. At sunset, look for mostly clear conditions and 30 degrees. 🌆There will be a south-southeast breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 47 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 11 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low of 25 degrees at 2am.🌃 10 degrees above normal. Maximum wind chill around 22 at 6pm; South wind 7 to 10 mph. In 2017, we had light rain in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 33 degrees. The record low of -23 occurred back in 1994.

I’m pretty happy with how the clock / information display I built turned out.📺 I tried scoring the plexiglass and breaking off pieces and while initially I was fairly successful, not having a clamp meant that I didn’t have too much luck. Plexiglass kept sliding around while I was scoring and breaking it wrecking a smaller piece. I’m going to save that scrap and once I get a few table clamps will try scoring and breaking it again. First piece came out pretty clean I must admit except where I slipped with the score. It takes a lot of scoring it seems to get a clean break. I guess I just need to practice more.

I was reading the label on the acrylic welding solution and I don’t think I want to use it anywhere not well ventilated🔱📛. It certainly sounds scary although from what I’ve read it’s so volatile that as soon as you drop it on something besides plastic it instantly vaporizes. But the warning label is scary. Will use with goggles for sure and some rubber gloves. I don’t plan to pour the solution, indeed I will use a oral syrnge to carefully extract only a tiny amount from the bottle to put into the dropper. Don’t want to spill it, very expensive not to mention toxic, although apparently it vaporizes very easily. I might substitute superglue for now especially if I’m working inside until spring time.

But first I have to figure out how to cut the plexiglass. I think the scoring method will work but I need to clamp it down first, and then make my score and break. I might also consider buying a dremel cutting tool. 🔅✂🔨Not that expensive. I worry that it might also be challenging to get nice straight edges with a dremel though. I also looked at getting the plexiglass pre cut and sent to me but that is relatively expensive option when u can get it cheaply locally. The 2 mm is plenty thick for my purposes and it looks nice once I master cutting it.

Decided against going down to the library last night, instead working on various projects at home. Went for a short walk and then decided it was a bit too cold and getting late so I turned around and went home. I’m more hesitant to go for a late evening walk these days, probably for totally irrational reasons but late at night things can be rather empty on the street.

Tomorrow is the Save the Pine Bush hike which should be an enjoyable hike with some nice weather. Depending on the forecast for Sunday, I’m starting to think about going down to the Catskills for a change. Seeing the Catskills from my new office makes me want to hike them more. 

With that bright sunshine, I bet my plants are really digging it although honestly the sun doesn’t get really bright in my new office until afternoon. 🌺 I look forward to seeing the Christmas cactus fully in bloom! 

As previously noted, next Friday is Ground Hog Day🐻 when the sun will be setting at 5:11 pm with dusk at 5:40 pm. On that day in 2017, we had snow, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 35 and 18 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 53 back in 1981.