January 5, 2020 Night

Good evening! Partly clear and 29 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 10 am. 🌡️ The moonlight is nice with the Wolf Moon 🐺 expected Friday.

Hiking in the Albany Pine Bush was delightful but cold. 🌲Pine Bush meeting was all business but that’s to be expected. I donated $100 towards their efforts to hire experts, I encourage you to also donate at RappRoadGoFundme.org. I normally don’t like to spend money 💵 that I don’t have to but fighting development in the Pine Bush is important and honestly I can afford it as I didn’t go to the Finger Lakes last week. I’m not planning any big trips in the coming weeks. It also looks like it will be relatively mild over the next few weeks, helping to save on the heating bills.

A lot of deer were out running by the road tonight. ⚠ Nice how much longer the nights have gotten lately though. I was surprised driving past Tommell Cattle 🐄 on Stove Pipe Road that the lots were empty. I had heard cattle prices were off so it might not be worthwhile for them to be fattening them up right now though. I used to remember how pungent those feedlots were as a kid. Grain can have a pretty strong smell when it rots. 🌾 I think it’s more often the spoiled grain then the manure which is really pungent on farms.

Had a nice ham dinner at the folks house. 🐷 As lately thanks to YouTube I have an obsession with all things pork, I also got a pork roast to cook later in the week or maybe Saturday. They’re pretty good although probably not as good as something you killed yourself. It’s kind of cool though the different worlds and places that YouTube can take you – from the large hog farm to the remote off grid cabin all while on the exercise bike. 🚲

My apartment still stinks from using the broiler. I think there is something that has run into the top of the oven to make it smell 👃I love how the broiler cooks the top of the food but not the smell the oven makes when it’s on. I have no problems with the normal oven. While I was on the bike watching YouTube earlier, I lit a candle to mask the smell which helped a bit. I rarely use candles as I know they are dangerous inside but I don’t like the energy consumption of the plug in models. 🔌 Honesty, when I own my own land if I’m off grid I’ll probably heat with wood and maybe use some oil lamps to supplement solar power in the winter, so fire safety is so important to always practice. ⚠

Tonight will have a chance of snow, mainly after 4am. Increasing clouds 🌨, with a low of 25 degrees at 1am. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 14th. Saves on the heating bills. Maximum wind chill around 25 at 12am; Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 22 degrees. The record low of -19 occurred back in 1996.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon with 77% illuminated. At dusk you’ll see the moon in the east-southeast (118Β°) at an altitude of 44Β° from the horizon, some 247,186 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 Almost close enough today you could head up there for the weekend on your space ship. The Wolf 🐺 Moon is on Friday, January 10. Howl! The darkest hour is at 12:01 am, followed by dawn at 6:54 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:26 am in the east-southeast (121Β°) and last for 3 minutes and 23 seconds. Sunrise is 2 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 8:11 am with sun in the southeast (129Β°) at an altitude of 6Β°. Tonight will have 14 hours and 49 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 3 seconds over last night. Nights are definitely getting shorter now. I noticed quite a bit of light after 5 pm driving out to my parents house from Guilderland.

Tomorrow will have a chance of rain and snow before 1pm, then a chance of rain between 1pm and 2pm, then a chance of rain and snow after 2pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 39 degrees at 1pm. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 1st. Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Sounds like a bit of a sloppy commute tomorrow but bit a bit deal. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 44 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 2007. 12.7 inches of snow fell back in 2002.❄

In four weeks on February 2 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (248Β°) at 5:09 pm,🌄 which is 33 minutes and 32 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 32 and -2 degrees. That’s a pretty big range for a day, cold front come throughout. Typically, you have temperatures between 32 and 15 degrees. The record high of 53 degrees was set back in 1981. Ground Hog day ain’t real warm.

I keep watching what is happening in Iran. 💣It just seems like its going to be a disaster and at minimum it is going to greatly escalate gas prices β›½ and mean a whole bunch more taxpayer dollars 💵 wasted on security and war machines.

Well folks I better get to sleep. 💤Part of the reason I have been feeling a bit sick lately is I’ve been staying up too late. As much as I enjoy watching stupid YouTube videos of people chasing cows around 🐮 or chopping wood it’s time for bed. My headphones 🎧 were discharged too, another sign of bed time. I also watched an interesting video learning some new techniques for processing meat rabbits 🐰. A good night’s sleep is good being my best at work, demonstrating quality products for my clients, achieving results and ultimately making more money. 💵

Looking ahead, 5:30 PM Dusk 🌆 is in 3 weeks, Ground Hog Day 🐻 is in 4 weeks, Snow Moon 🌕 is in 5 weeks, March 🌨 is in 8 weeks, Daylight Savings Time 🌆 is in 9 weeks, Ides of March ✝ is in 10 weeks, Palm Sunday 🌴 is in 3 months, Easter 🐰 is in 14 weeks (rabbit is a healthy food), Cinco de Mayo 🤠 is in 4 months, Mothers Day 👩‍ is in 18 weeks, Pack Rat Day 🐀 is in 19 weeks, 8:30 PM Sunset ️⛱️ is in 5 months, Strawberry Moon 🌕 is in 22 weeks and Fathers Day 👨 is in 23 weeks.

Looking Out on Summit

Stop Overdevelopment of Rapp Road by Pyramid

Fundraiser by Save The Pine Bush : Stop Overdevelopment of Rapp Road by Pyramid

We need your help to Save The Pine Bush, Protect the Rapp Road Historic District, and the nearby Neighborhoods of Guilderland and Albany from intense development by the Pyramid Companies that own Crossgates Mall.

The Town of Guilderland has changed zoning laws which allow the Pyramid Companies (the owners of Crossgates Mall) to intensely develop on Rapp Road and the Mall Ring Road.

Pyramid has already built one large hotel and is now seeking approval to build in total 360 apartments, 278,900 sq ft of commercial space, and 50,000 sq ft of office space on Rapp Road and the Mall Ring Road.

The first phase of this new development is to build two 5-story apartment buildings and three 2-story townhouse buildings with a total of 222 units and 405 parking spaces on nearly 20 acres of land on Rapp Road which is currently designated as partially protected for the Albany Pine Bush.

There is also another proposal to build a Costco Wholesale big box store with 700 parking spaces and a gas station on another approximately 17 acre parcel south of the apartment complex on Rapp Road between Western Avenue and the Mall Ring Road.

The 20 acres of land to be developed for apartments is directly adjacent to a fully protected wildlife corridor and development of it could further endanger habitat of the federally protected Karner Blue Butterfly and 79 Species of Greatest Conservation Need that have been observed in the Albany Pine Bush. (In the video we say 45 species, but since creating the video we have learned that 79 species have been observed. We currently do not know how many of these species can be found on the properties to be developed.)

I just donated $100. Why? The Rapp Road parcel is key to the butterfly corridor and ensuring a healthy Pine Bush ecosystem. Building the apartment complex would infringe on the butterfly corridor putting the whole Pine Bush ecosystem at risk. Funding will help Save the Pine Bush hire experts to make the case against developing this key portion of the Pine Bush.

First major meteor shower of 2020 will peak tonight | 13 WTHR Indianapolis

First major meteor shower of 2020 will peak tonight | 13 WTHR Indianapolis

January's star-studded sky will have an extra twinkle on Jan. 3 into the morning of Jan. 4.

The Quadrantids meteor shower will put on an impressive but brief celestial show tonight, according to EarthSky.org. The meteor shower can produce over 100 meteors per hour but will only last a few hours.

Although the Quadrantids have been active since Dec. 27, tonight is when they will peak.