Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Two weeks to April Fools Day 🤡. Partly sunny and 30 degrees in Elsmere. NY. There is a west breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at around 10 am. 🌡️ Snow is mostly gone here in the city except for some piles around. ⛄

Cold start this morning but it warmed relatively quickly. Lots of sun which is helping things warm up quickly. ☀ The spring sun is much stronger than the winter sun. I heard the heat 🔥 click on this morning. But all and all, relatively seasonal and dry for most of the week. ☔ Still quite a bit of salt on the roads but at least I have the worse of it washed off my truck. 👌

Eggs again this morning. 🍳 That cleaned up frying pan is fantastic. Nothing like a good omlet in the morning for a filling meal 🍴 that lasts a long time. The low humidity meant my shirt 👚 and pants 👖 was kind of wrinkled this morning which was a bit annoying. I tried to iron it the best I could. The air is just so dry. I probably should have folded the wash as soon as I pulled it out. But usually it’s fine to wait until I get home and put it on the hanger. I guess it’s fire weather once the snow melts away. 🔥 I also need to get my jacket to the dry cleaner.👔 I will have to wear my new jacket tomorrow. I was going to do it today, but I wanted to remove all the labels and stickers before I headed into work. But for today, I’ll look like a college professor. It’s a bad case of a Mondays.

The important thing is that I managed to catch the local bus 🚍 on time. ⌚ I expected a fairly busy day at work, maybe a long day as conference may extended into the evening 🌃 as they continue to discuss the budget.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 41 degrees at 4pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 9th. I’ll take it. West wind 7 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny. The high last year was 32 degrees. The record high of 69 was set in 2012. 8.0 inches of snow fell back in 1977.❄ Not 1977 this year but fairly cold.

Today marks the second day with more daylight then night or somewhere around it depending where you are in New York State. 🌷🌱🌞 In a month the average high will be 60 degrees as the weather continues to moderate. I’m thinking a month from next Wednesday will be my road trip, camping ⛺ and exploring. More on that later.

The sun will set at 7:05 pm with dusk around 7:33 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 35 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 4 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 55 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 22 degrees at 6am. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 7th. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2018, we had mostly clear in the evening, which became mostly sunny by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 15 degrees. The record low of -10 occurred back in 1967.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 43 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 14th. Not terribly cold, but not super warm either. Northwest wind 6 to 10 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny. The high last year was 35 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 2012. 9.6 inches of snow fell back in 1971.❄

Sunday was sunny but cold. It was a nice walk down to the Normans Kill gorge and then I had a nice Sunday dinner at the folks house. 🍀 Saint Patricks Day corned beef, 🐂and all the fixings. Good to enjoy it while I still can. I know my parents won’t be around forever. I’m not a big cook myself and I doubt I’d ever make something like that for myself. Definitely felt cold after the seventy degrees weather on Friday and that wind was biting. ❄

After dinner the mercury quickly dropped but the wind stopped and I went for my evening walk. 🌃 Not a terrible not, actually it felt fairly mild with the wind slack and a nearly full moon 🎑 although clouds were crowding things out at times and there is a lot of light pollution locally. Honestly, despite the cold weather it seemed warmer than it was during the day.

Continuing to work on my VMS sign in my bedroom, adding more messages and almanac data. My most recent add involved 📝 adding dusk 🌆 and dawn data, legislative session day and bus schedule countdowns. I am continuing to debug but the bus countdown feature is very helpful. 👏 I still have a few bugs 🐞to fix and I want to change the order of the messages but I can just change that in the source code and ref-lash the memory.

I think on Wednesday, the first day of spring I’ll deactivate my Facebook page. I’m remarkably sad 😔 about leaving Facebook which is stupid although I’ll keep my account open for reading other people’s posts. 💻 I’ve already deleted most of the old posts on my personal Facebook which until August 1st Facebook api restrictions was linked to the the blog. I might occasionally post things to my personal Facebook but that’s not my focus going forward.

Mom 👪 was disapproving of me quitting Facebook as she was wondering how she could continue to keep up with my blog and photos 📷. Just have to do it the old fashioned way visiting the blog a few times a week. I’m fed up with the Facebook platform on so many levels, and rather than deal with stupid comments and the fight for likes and more prominence in the feed, I’d rather focus on my personal blog and keep the pictures and maps here. I have complete editorial control 🎮 over my blog, and I can change the format to however I like. I may pull back from Twitter too but I’m going to keep that link live for now.

It’s just become too much of a game 🎰 with Facebook and too much of a hassle to maintain the code and update Facebook. I don’t want to spend my time trolling for likes and clicks. I really want to focus on my own life and priorities and enjoy the greater freedom and self expression of the blog. I hate to loose the followers and the story I’m telling but I think I can do it better here than elsewhere. 📝

I’m glad that I’m using up the food 🍲 in the refrigerator and cabinets. I’m saving a fair amount of money by not going shopping 🛄 or driving. 🚘 I haven’t gassed up Red since mid February and I have a half tank left. It’s good as it will help me make it through April financially and save for my mid-April trip. I’m looking forward to camping ⛺, hiking 🗻, and fishing. 🎣 Still not sure how far I’ll end up going – maybe the North Country TBD – but it could still be a special trip.

I have the new battery 🔋 in my phone 📱. Seems to last quite a bit longer. It’s good because I’m hoping to get at least six months to a year more out of this phone. Not bad for a phone I use constantly but only spent $50 for it. I’m quite happy not having on of those fancy phones all the kids use nowadays. 😂

Finally we might get a nice early spring weekend. 😎 Saturday, sunny, with a high near 42. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 57. Typical average high for the weekend is 47 degrees. I will take it. I want to get out and enjoy the weather, while it’s nice.

If it’s in the fifties and sixties next weekend I want to unpack my truck and inventory the camping gear. ⛺ I like to get everything ready for the first trip of the year. Plus I’m running out of room in the outside trash cans and want to start loading bottles and cans into the back of my truck to eventually take to the transfer station. ♻Seems like all the lighting 💡 is working fine in the cap, but I still want to replace the upper led tape which has multiple sections failed with a brighter and more energy efficient model.

Saturday I am going up to Saratoga for my niece’s birthday party. On Sunday, I’m thinking of going hiking somewhere, ⛰ though maybe not the Catskills as I don’t feel like hiking in the snow at this point, and the snow will be crap for skiing if it’s near 60 degrees. Maybe Cole Hill State Forest or Partridge Run.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Tax Day 💰 when the sun will be setting at 7:37 pm with dusk at 8:06 pm. On that day in 2018, we had freezing rain showers and mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 36 and 28 degrees. Pretty damn cold day last year to enjoy my government imposed poverty. 💸Typically, the high temperature is 58 degrees. We hit a record high of 86 back in 2003.

According to the message board on my wall there are 100 days until Primary Day. ☑ I see a lot of local candidates are posting about it as they work to collect signatures. I’ve volunteered a few times to collect petitions and I’ve scrubbed and reviewed petitions 📜more than a few times at work. It’s hard work for sure. I often think holding elected office is kind of a madness, they’re are better ways to make money for a whole lot less work. 💵 I guess somebody has to do it. 👔

Looking ahead, Tax Day 💰 is in 4 weeks, Average High is 60 🌼 is a month away, Pink Moon 🌕 is a month away, Earth Day 🌎 is in 5 weeks, Flower Moon 🌕 is in 2 months, Memorial Day 🇺🇸 is in 10 weeks, July 🏊🏿 is in 15 weeks, Labor Day 👨‍🏭 is in 24 weeks and Columbus Day 🛥️ is in 29 weeks.