Good evening! In less than 24 hours from now it will be going home time on the Thanksgiving Day Weekend. I see they have already put up the State Christmas tree and the electrician are busy wiring up the trees. It seems like it was just Christmas 2016. Time goes by so quickly when you get old. Winter starts in one month. I’m thirty five in two months.

 Partly clear and 51 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south breeze at 14 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. Faster than downtown. I had to go running after my hat after I stepped out of the office building. It relatively warm tonight but that breeze makes it feel cool. It could be a lot more bitterly cold though. Traffic is sluggish on the old 787. I’m surprised, I would expect less traffic with the holidays coming up but maybe there is a crash ahead. 

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers after 4am. Partly cloudy, with a low of 42 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees above normal. South wind 5 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2016, we had partly cloudy skies. It got down to 30 degrees. The record low of 9 occurred back in 1969.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon with 12% illuminated with the moon setting at 7:07 pm. The First Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with mostly clear skies. The Cold Moon is on Sunday, December 3rd. The sun will rise at 6:55 am with the first light at 6:24 am, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 29 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 53 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers before 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high of 44 degrees at 10am. One degrees below normal. South wind 5 to 15 mph becoming northwest in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had light snow in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 37 degrees. The record high of 70 was set in 1931. 9.1 inches of snow fell back in 1943.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. Saturday, a chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Sunday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 39. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Typical average high for the weekend is 44 degrees.

I am now leaning towards spending the whole weekend up north. I would enjoy the quiet and getting away before the winter really sets in for the year. It’s going to get really snowy up north before you know it. I will have to buy some groceries on Buy Nothing Day but so be it. Hiking at Moreau Lake State Park will be nice but I definitely will be wearing my blaze orange.  I may do some hunting on Sunday. 

I have the spec sheet for the transistor, now I just need to calculate the size of resistors that I need to use. My LED driver works for a while really well until the transistors get hot and noisy and the Arduino stops providing PWM output. When it works, it is nice to precisely control the color to make a nice warm light, although I wish the leds were a bit brighter. I know that this can be done, I just need some math and help from the internet. I will head down to the library once I get home to do some research on the internet. 

We are getting new phones in the office. We’ve had the same analog phones in the office for at least the past ten years I’ve worked, so the fancy voice over ip phones seem so modern. The speed dial will be helpful because I dial so many long distance numbers and those calls are a lot of digits. Also caller ID and other fancy features. No more guessing who is calling. I’m sure we are the last agency to upgrade to modern phones. 

I got to leave at five o’clock tonight, because my communication plans are done. Been putting in some long days working on them. Hopefully tomorrow will be a quiet day and maybe I can get out of the office by three or four o’clock. It would be nice getting out of work when it’s not pitch black. Caught the express bus home  which certainly ain’t express tonight with the crushing traffic heading out of the city. I actually don’t mind taking the later local bus home because it’s usually closer to on time and there is no traffic on the way home. I guess my mind will be changed when I start working later more often. This year if we pull all nighters, I think I will just pay for Uber or Lyft to avoid hitting a deer while sleepy. It’s worth the $20 the few times I work after 11:30 AM compared to getting into a wreck. I’ll probably ignore my own advice come March. But I rarely work that late and often when I’m that late there are buses running again in the morning. My suit is dry cleaned so I’m ready. You can’t get to summer without first going through winter. 

In four weeks on December 19 the sun will be setting at 4:24 pm, which is 3 minutes and 4 seconds earlier then tonight. Before you know it, the sunsets will be getting later. December 9th to be exact. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 23 and 8 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 35 and 20 degrees. The record high of 54 degrees was set back in 1895.

Looking ahead, National Hug Day is in 1 months, National Pie Day is in 9 weeks, Lame Duck Day is in 11 weeks, February Save the Pine Bush Dinner – 40th Anniversary is in 2 months, First Day of Spring is in 17 weeks, Election Day 2018 is in 50 weeks and Election Day 2020 is in 154 weeks.