Day: March 3, 2021💾

Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Two weeks to St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 . Blue skies and 22 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at around 9 am. 🌡️

A rather blue sky morning, after a cloudy start earlier on before sunrise. I am hoping for a pretty nice early spring day today, but I am not sure. I have seen conflicting models for this afternoon — we might see a lot of clouds push in about the time it warms up to the 40s. It’s kind of sad but after such a long winter, 42 degrees with sunshine seems quite desirable. Heading out for my morning walk shortly.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 42 degrees at 2pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 10th. South wind 7 to 11 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 63 degrees. The record high of 64 was set in 2002. 10.9 inches of snow fell back in 1994.❄

I am leaning towards going to down to the library to work and do other things on my laptop including uploading some dash cam videos to the Youtube. It’s nice in the warm weather to get away from home. With the grass reappearing I might be able to do some bird watching too. Maybe I should go out to Five Rivers and use the internet out there. I’ll have to think about it.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:08 pm with sun having an altitude of 40.7° from the due south horizon (-30.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:10 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (255°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (262°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:48 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 56 seconds with dusk around 6:15 pm, which is one minute and 13 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:49 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 40 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 20 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 51 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 28 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 22nd. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph. In 2020, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 38 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1950.

After yesterday’s research and number crunching, I am leaning towards renewing my lease for another year just to buy time. I realize the cost of moving is going to cost more then the rent hike, which really is pretty small. And while my apartment isn’t nice, I really like the neighborhood for all the places I can walk from around here. The unavoidable costs of commuting, utilities, maintenance, taxes, etc. really do add up, and I haven’t seen many houses on the market the same size as my apartment. Plus, there is costs both to selling and buying a home, that I don’t get when buying stocks and bonds. Trying to diversify a bit more though, getting a little more into bonds and especially government bonds to save on taxes. Stock market index funds have been fantastic the past decade, but I just don’t see this going on forever, especially if the market tightens. Factory shortage of parts after lockdown is a concern to me — this could lead to real inflation. Which is probably a good reason to buy property, but I just don’t want to commit to New York forever.

Back in 1972, an airplane crashes in suburban Albany, off Holmesdale Ave in Albany (near Colvin Avenue and Washington Ave). Regional Carrier, Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 crashes as a result of a control malfunction and insufficient training in emergency procedures. Also today in 1873, U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” books through the mail. And in 1991, an amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers. 🙅🏿‍♂️ It’s amazing how little progress we have made on race these years, although slowly but surely work has been done to twiddle down the police state we all live in, but goes particularly against the colored and poor who lack political clout.

Cool this weekend with temperatures running 8 degrees below normal but otherwise sunny. 😃 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 30. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 34. Typical average high for the weekend is 40 degrees. Still thinking about heading up to Adirondacks for one more weekend of winter camping but I am sure I will need a snow shovel to dig out the campsite.

🌹🌻🌼Only 17 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 when the sun will be setting at 7:04 pm with dusk at 7:32 pm (Daylight Savings Time). Probably with the restrictions on bars, there will be a lot less drunk drivers on the road. On that day in 2020, we had mostly cloudy skies snow showers and temperatures between 51 and 35 degrees. I remember working down at the library in my truck on a very cold and snowy day. Typically, the high temperature is 45 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 1990.