Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Not yet a summer get away weekend but Memorial Day Weekend 🇺🇸 is only 11 weeks away at this point.🏕 Attention friendly strangers in black sedans, Next Friday is Ides of March ✝. Cold but very sunny ☀ around 13 degrees in Delmar. Not a whole lot of warmth in the sun today. There is a south-southwest breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. The current wind chill is 2. Not a really good day for frosty, as only patches of snow remain around. ☃ ️Things will finally start to thaw out at around noontime. 🌡️ Thumpty-thump, thumpty-thump, look at frosty go.

Remarkably chilly morning walking down to the express bus stop.🚍 Despite all the sun ☀ there isn’t a lot of warmth in the air. I also left the heat turned down last night because I didn’t think it was that cold ❄ and honestly I’m trying to save money 💵 however possible to make it over the fiscal cliff known as tax season. I’m hoping at this point that I won’t have to turn the heat up at night night because the nights won’t be that cold. I’m not seeing a lot of below normal weather in the forecast for the next week.

It’s just kind of depressing to read my home energy report the utility sends me and see that 94% of my winter energy ⚡ use is from heating. 🔥 My heating bills have been higher this year than last year according to the report, but then again we had the cold spell and sometimes I’ll turn it up a bit when I’m cold. But every time I turn up the heating knob, I realize I am stealing from my future in two ways — less money to save 💸 and more climate change from the burnt natural gas.🌍 I do find my blaze-orange hoodie keeps me warm, so I wear it a lot more and just are cold morning. Eventually when I own land and home, insulation is going to be a priority, as will having an efficient, wood or maybe coal stove. Energy security is a big concern for me, I’ve seen too many people struggle after they loose power or their propane supplier doesn’t show up promptly for re-fills. Things are only going to get worse as climate change gets worse.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 36 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 22nd. Where are you Mr. March weather? Probably in Florida. Southwest wind around 8 mph. Might be good though for a lunch time walk 🚶 . A year ago, we had partly cloudy in the morning, which became light snow by afternoon. The high last year was 35 degrees. The record high of 68 was set in 2012. 6.5 inches of snow fell back in 2013.❄

Today back In 1965, Thirty-five hundred United States Marines 🇺🇸⛴ are the first American land combat forces committed during the Vietnam War. 🔫 The Vietnam War was getting underway, a quagmire that would ultimately undermine the Great Society plans and be one of America’s longest wars. Never declared a war, it still did a lot of harm to our country to say nothing of Vietnam and lead to a lot of unnecessary deaths.☠

The sun will set at 5:53 pm with dusk around 6:21 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 34 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 35 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 18 degrees at 6am. Five degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around February 20th. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2018, we had light snow. It got down to 27 degrees. The record low of -14 occurred back in 1943.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 41 degrees at 3pm. Typical temperature for a change. Not above or below normal, just normal. Doesn’t happen very frequently — only four times over the past winter. Calm wind becoming northeast around 5 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had partly cloudy in the morning, which became light snow by afternoon. The high last year was 37 degrees. The record high of 81 was set in 2016. 6.9 inches of snow fell back in 1961.❄

Tomorrow looks like a nice day. I am thinking about meeting my parents for breakfast, 🍳 and then going out for a hike/ski in the Heldebergs and look for sheds 🦌 or at least enjoy the beautiful day.🏞 I’m trying to minimize the miles on my truck and not filling up the gas tank for a while, but I’d hate to miss the nice weather on Saturday as who knows how much longer the snow will be around. Gas isn’t that expensive, ⛽ and I’m not planning to head out that far, and next week like this week, I plan to keep the truck parked through Saturday or maybe Sunday, 🅿so it won’t be burning any fuel in the mean-time.

Looking ahead to Sunday, rain, snow, and sleet, becoming all rain after 11am. 🌨 High near 42. Southeast wind 8 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Typical average high for the weekend is 41 degrees. I emailed Mr. Wolcott to see if he’s around on Sunday, I might go over to his house. I could take a bus, or I might drive this week, as I would like to wash the salt off my truck 🛁 and pick up the few groceries I need. I’m avoiding a “full” shop this weekend, to save money, and because I have way too much food at home right now. If I didn’t have to wash the salt off the truck, I’d probably just leave Big Red Parked until next week. No problem with keeping the accessory battery fully charged, it was at 15.4 volts this morning with the stronger sun of spring time.

Sunday is the first day of Daylight Savings Time. ⌚ I know it doesn’t actually save time but it does mean more light in the evening 🌇 which once it warms up and I’m not working late at work, I can go down to the park with a book 📙. I really look forward to the change, even if it means I will have to get an extra hour early up for work. But with the days getting longer so quickly, I don’t think that’s a big deal.🕜 I already set the analog clocks ahead in my bathroom and kitchen, the next step will be to set the clock in my truck and reprogram my microcontrollers with the time change. I know I probably could hard-code in the time change to the controllers, but it’s just easier to re-flash the memory twice a year. For about a week, it will be dark when I wake up for work, but with lights coming on automatically, it shouldn’t be that difficult to wake in the morning. Plus, I can go back to setting my alarm clock each day.

In four weeks on April 5 the sun will be setting at 7:26 pm (Daylight Savings Time),🌄 which is one hour, 32 minutes and 23 seconds later then today. In 2018 on that day, we had a rather cold but partly cloudy day with some snow showers and temperatures between 39 and 24 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 54 and 33 degrees. The last few Aprils have been pretty cold, but I’m not totally sure that will be the trend this year. The record high of 82 degrees was set back in 1928.

Looking forward to finally nice weather, and getting out of town on the weekends once the snow bites the bucket. 🏕 It’s going to happen, it always does. Sure many roads will be closed for mud season, but there are still many places I can go once the snow is gone. NY 8 in the Adirondacks comes to mind, especially early May before the black fly season has started. Solar panel should work good this time of year. The fiscal cliff I face, is manageable, and with some careful planning, I should be able to enjoy adventures in late April into May, depending a lot on how busy my work schedule is and the weather. I want to definitely do some trout fishing, 🎣 plus have a nice big fire up in the woods 🔥 with a cold one or two.  Snow camping is fine, but I much prefer truck cap camping, and not tromping through the snow.

Looking ahead, Ides of March ✝ is in 1 weeks, Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ is in 11 weeks and Dog Days of Summer 🌻 is in 17 weeks.