Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Monday, Monday! Long weekend though after the Thanksgiving break. Next Monday is Cyber Monday 🛍️. A few snow flurries around the freezing point in Delmar. ❄ Calm wind. Despite the dusting of snow we get last night, there is only about an inch of snow on the ground, with many bare patches showing. ☃ ️Might get a few more inches tomorrow morning but the rain expected for the long Thanksgiving weekend it will be gone here although I think it will be an all snow event up north.

Today will have a slight chance of rain and snow before 2pm, then a slight chance of rain showers after 5pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 41 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 1st. Cool and cloudy but not super cold like mid week. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 52 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1921. 4.2 inches of snow fell back in 1914.❄

The sun will set at 4:29 pm with dusk around 4:59 pm, which is 45 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 40 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 5 mph. Even without the sun, that should basically kill off the snow. Today will have 9 hours and 36 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 58 seconds over yesterday. Loosing less than a minute today.

Tonight will have a chance of rain and snow showers before 10pm, then snow showers likely. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 29 degrees at 3am. Two degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around November 24th. Light northwest wind. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 30 degrees. The record low of 6 occurred back in 1986.

I’ve been very happy so far with the change to the 719 bus, starting at the underground location at the plaza and then heading directly to South Swan Street. 🚌 If anything, this has made the busses few minutes early to South Swan sometimes but it’s fine for me as I often get out of work at five and three bus stop is right in front of my building.

It’s going to be very cold come Thanksgiving which sucks for the heating bills 💸 but I guess I can’t control that living in the suburbs. I’m driving Big Red a lot less these days, so that will help save money and I am trying to come up with affordable meals for dinner that are packaged in bulk so I can avoid going to the transfer station as long as possible. There are a few inexpensive electronic components I need to get for projects I’m building this winter, and that SSD drive plus money for Christmas donations in the name of family members, but I’ll figure out how to make it all fit. Money is saved by the fact it looks like I won’t be taking any road trips or camping in the wilderness, ⛺ and that I’ve quit drinking alcohol.

As I mentioned yesterday, my foot is sore👣 from where I stepped on📌 the thumb tack yesterday. I hope it’s not infected but if it is, I’ll go to the doctor get it checked out. The tack was holding VMS display to the wall so I also have to be a little concerned with lead poisoning from the paint but I can’t imagine there was so much lead on the tip of a pin. It’d not horribly painful but noticeable from time to time.

Tonight I want to finish building the board that will use the lolin32 board to drive my VMS sign. It’s built on a breadboard now but needs to switched over to perf board.🔬 The 240 MHz 32 bit processor is much quicker than the Arduino 8 bit processor but the killer feature for me is the 1.25 MB of programmable ROM which means I can store a lot more data internally and it also has built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the prior I plan to enable soon, although I’m not happy with how much memory the Bluetooth library uses when loaded – nearly a MB alone.

Today I’m going to call about getting my truck state inspection done hopefully either on Friday or Saturday. 🔧 I’ll check the lights but I expect no issues with that, everything is working fine now, at least everything that the inspection shop checks for. They rotated the tires the last time they did the oil change so I don’t need that. I should think about getting the wheels aligned as it’s been four years but not right now, as I haven’t noticed any unusual wear on the tires.

As previously noted, next Monday is Cyber Monday 🛍️ when the sun will be setting at 4:24 pm with dusk at 4:55 pm. On that day in 2017, we had rain, drizzle, cloudy skies and temperatures between 46 and 35 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 44 degrees. We hit a record high of 67 back in 1979.

Good evening! Clearing skies, quite mild and 38 degrees in Delmar. 🌝 There is a northwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. There are 4 inches of snow on the ground. With the mild temperatures it’s melting quickly locally but there is still a ton up north. ️Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 4 am. ☃️

Tonight will have isolated showers before midnight. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 27 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around November 30th, in case you were wondering. Northwest wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2017, we had clear skies. It got down to 21 degrees. The record low of 10 occurred back in 1972.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 74% illuminated. Lots of moon light this evening, especially late. The moon will set at 1:33 am. The Beaver Moon 🌕 is on Thanksgiving night with a chance of snow showers. Good for a trot after eating all that turkey. The sun will rise at 6:50 am with the first light at 6:19 am, which is one minute and 14 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 20 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 4 seconds over last night. Nights really are long this time of year. But then again, days will become this long come six months from now.

I kind of like how I can sit in my bed now and watch a video with my Bluetooth headphones on my laptop and big monitor across the room. 💻 I sometimes like downloading YouTube videos at the library and watching them at home and now I won’t have to worry about bugging my neighbors with the noise.

I got the VMS sign that I have in my bedroom ported over to the ESP32/Lolin32 board I have. Changes were quite minor but now I have a much more powerful board that I can add Bluetooth Connectivity, more messages and graphics to my display. After studying the manual I also figured out how to switch between the graphics drawing mode with the MD MAX72XX library and the MD Parola library.🔑 I knew there was a way to do it, I just had to find it in the documentation and make sure my code was making the switches between the modes cleanly. With the additional power of the lolin32 board there is a lot of possibilities. I think tomorrow I will solder together a board for this purpose on perfboard. I am going to also order some more lolin32 boards from China as they are only slightly more expensive than the Arduino Nano and really don’t use that much more additional power.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of snow before 3pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow between 3pm and 4pm, then a chance of snow after 4pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 36 degrees at 3pm. 11 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 14th. North wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 46 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1928. 9 inches of snow fell back in 1980.❄

I might go out skiing tomorrow locally, although the snow might be a bit slushy. 🏂I’ll have to think about it a bit more. Depends on how cold it is.

Went for a nice little evening walk tonight, fresh air was nice not too cold or icy. Sidewalks generally were quite clear.🚶

Yes, I have to work on putting up some new maps on the blog. Maybe I’ll work on that tomorrow or maybe early next week. 🌎 I’ve gotten bad at creating new maps and content, doing more other things besides creating interesting content that actually drives people to the blog.

In four weeks on December 15 the sun will be setting at 4:22 pm,🌄 which is 7 minutes and 45 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had snow, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 22 and 7 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 36 and 21 degrees. The record high of 61 degrees was set back in 2015.

Looking ahead, December 🎄 is in 2 weeks, February 🌧 is in 11 weeks, Ground Hog Day 🐻 is in 11 weeks, St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 is in 4 months, 7:30 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 20 weeks, Palm Sunday 🌴 is in 21 weeks, Easter 🐰 and Earth Day 🌎 is in 22 weeks, Cinco de Mayo 🤠 is in 24 weeks, Mothers Day 👩‍ is in 25 weeks and Fathers Day 👨 is in 30 weeks.

Good morning! Regular Deer Season is now underway in the Southern Zone 🦌. Two weeks to December 🎄. It’s cloudy and gray, 36 degrees in Delmar. ☁ There is a southwest breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. About a half foot of snow on the ground. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 8 pm. ☃️

Today will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 43 degrees at 1pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 27th. West wind 7 to 13 mph. Kind of a cold bleak day for the first day of deer season. I actually don’t know how much sun we will see today, maybe some breaks, epspecially late. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 40 degrees. The record high of 73 was set in 1928. 2.8 inches of snow fell back in 1992.❄

The sun will set at 4:30 pm with dusk around 5:01 pm, which is 50 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 39 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 40 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 4 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 25 degrees at 6am. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 5th. Continued cold, watch for icy spots after eight pm. West wind 5 to 8 mph. In 2017, we had clear skies. It got down to 21 degrees. The record low of 10 occurred back in 1972.

Today’s weather doesn’t look that great, so I’ve decided to stay home. 🏠My truck doesn’t burn any gas when it’s turned off. I ended up procrastinating for a while this morning, as I lacked milk for my coffee. 🐮 Eventually I got the milk, made up some eggs, read for a while, then worked on various electronics projects, including hooking up the ESP/LoLin32 I bought last year, but never hooked up. Took a while to figure out the voltage regulator and how that all works, but now it’s working well. I also got the UVA (black light) LEDs I ordered from China and a small Bluetooth dongle so I can listen to movies and videos from across my room on my wireless headphones. Due to glitches in Linux, the built-in Bluetooth has never worked properly on my laptop🎧, but a tiny little $1 adapter I ordered from China gives me seamless Bluetooth from basically anywhere in my room.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until December 🎄 when the sun will be setting at 4:22 pm with dusk at 4:54 pm. Thursday is Thanksgiving, the holiday season is right around the corner. On that day in 2017, we had rain, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 45 and 31 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 41 degrees. We hit a record high of 67 back in 1934.

Good morning! Yeah, it’s Snowy Friday! First of the winter. Next Friday is Buy Nothing Day 🛍️. Still snowing fairly hard this morning and 29 degrees in Delmar. ❄ There is a north-northwest breeze at 11 mph. 🍃. I’m blaming Trump, it never used to snow in November that much, well in recent years, until the prince of darkness was selected to run our country as a better choice to the alternative. Things will start to thaw out at around 10 am. 🌡️

Today snow then turn to rain before 1pm, then a slight chance of rain showers after 4pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 38 degrees at 1pm. 10 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 8th. Now you know. North wind 5 to 11 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible but the rain that should be starting soon will wash it away into a globby mix of slush for opening day of deer season. A year ago, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 53 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 2006. Not this one bro. 3.4 inches of snow fell back in 2002.❄

The sun will set at 4:31 pm with dusk around 5:01 pm, which is 51 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 37 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 42 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 5 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 31 degrees at 12am. Typical for tonight. West wind around 8 mph. Things will freeze back up late. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies. It got down to 25 degrees. The record low of 7 occurred back in 1972.

With all the talk of the snow, I didn’t think it was a bad commute although the sidewalks where kind of icy last night. ❄ Roads are mostly just wet snow, slush earlier. I guess the snow is kind of pretty and I’m not sure how long it will last as it will be in the forties on Saturday and several sunny days heading into the Thanksgiving weekend. I like snow but I’m not ready for it in November. I’ll take snow from December 15 – January 1st but after then it’s a bit annoying to say the least.

This evening I have to dig out Big Red and clear off the solar panel with a broom. It’s not a lot of snow and it’s not that icy so I don’t expect it to be a big deal. 🚗 Winter comes and goes. I’m fine with that. If I think I will be in town next weekend I might get my truck inspected then.

As previously noted, next Friday is Buy Nothing Day 🛍️ when the sun will be setting at 4:26 pm with dusk at 4:57 pm. Hopefully we will have nice weather for the long weekend, I wouldn’t mind doing some snow camping and or traveling. On that day in 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 37 and 27 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 45 degrees. We hit a record high of 72 back in 1931.

Good evening! Light snow and 29 degrees in Cooperstown. ❄ There is a west-northwest breeze at 13 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at Friday around 11 am. 🌡️

Tonight will snow showers likely, mainly after 1am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 20 degrees at 6am. 12 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around December 18th. Maximum wind chill around 9 at 5am; West wind 11 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of around 2 inches. In 2017, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 12 occurred back in 1996.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 37% illuminated. The moon will rise at 12:33 am. The First Quarter Moon will be tomorrow with scattered flurries. The Beaver Moon 🌝 is on Thursday, November 22nd. The sun will rise at 6:49 am with the first light at 6:19 am, which is one minute and 15 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 12 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 13 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will snow showers likely, mainly before 9am, then a chance of snow showers with scattered flurries after 5pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 28 degrees at 2pm. 21 degrees below normal. Northwest wind 9 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of around an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 40 degrees. The record high of 70 was set in 1973. 14.4 inches of snow fell back in 1972.❄

I’m glad I made it out here before the roads froze up, as the temperature kept dropping as I headed out this way and the wind was really whipping around on Interstate 88, and for a while it was sleeting hard making visiblity difficult. Having the headlights well adjusted did help though a lot. Fortunately, it seems like the road salt will keep things from getting too icy right away. Having a good burger at the Cooperstown Dinner 🍔 and then going down for a swim in the indoor swimming then in the hot tub at the place I’m staying made up for it. Sometimes work trips are fun. 😎 Nice digs, at least for the night. But a busy today tomorrow.

Much more fun on a cold night like today then camping up in the wilderness somewhere in the wilderness,🏕 although if the snow disappears in December I probably will camp and maybe hunt up at Cherry Ridge in Charles Baker State Forest. My theory is we will get a big warm up with rain in mid-December, taking away the snow but maybe that’s wishful thinking. That was fun camping on Christmas Day 2015, not too cold that year, and it was a great hike at the Glimmerglass State Park. US 20 isn’t that far north of the northern part of the lake. Maybe I’ll have to visit the Cooperstown dinner again the next time I’m out here.

Truck has been working great, ever since I topped off the tires.☸ I guess I haven’t had the wheels in a hard lock, although I did rub a little on the wheel well backing out before, but I haven’t noticed any unusual noises since I raised the tire pressures up to 46 PSI cold. Some of them before I added air where about 39 PSI, which with those big tires is much too low, causing a lot of noise and poor handling on the curves. This might be too high for mid-summer when I’m off road and would lead to a rough ride, but for now the handling is superior and the ride is only slightly rougher on the bumps. I got to keep an eye on the tire pressure now that it’s getting to the colder time of the year.

I downloaded some of John Burrough’s audio books from LibreVox on my phone. I had no idea that my podcast program also is tied in LibreVox.🔊 I keep meaning to listen to some of Borrough’s writings, I’ve been very interested ever since visiting the Borrough’s State Historic site. I might listen to them for a while tonight. We will see, it depends how difficult it is to get to sleep, or how much I listen to them before i’m head out. I have a long day tomorrow, probably with more driving after dark. But at least my headlights are well aimed now.

I still haven’t found my electronic projects wire strippers. Really fustrating. The ones I have aren’t an expensive tool, ✂ but a very essential one for building electronics. I will have to order another pear this weekend if I can’t find them. I don’t think I can get them locally, nowadays with Radio Shack gone.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. 😞 Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 38. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 31. Typical average high for the weekend is 47 degrees. Maybe it will be nicer up north, but by then I expect they will have a ton of snow up there. If it’s sunnier and without new snow falling, I might try to get up north to do some tent hot camping this weekend. I though will have to plan on bringing my snow shovel, then digging out a parking spot, then moving my truck to campsite, as I expect a ton of snow up north.🏔 Good for skiing though. A few inches of snow in Cooperstown, depending where you look. The mountains sure sure looked snowier around Interstate 88, probably too much snow to do the back roads in Burnt-Rossman State Forest any time soon.

In four weeks on December 11 the sun will be setting at 4:26 pm,🌄 which is 12 minutes and 8 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had snow, cloudy skies and temperatures between 34 and 24 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 37 and 23 degrees. The record high of 61 degrees was set back in 1952.

Sorry, if I’ve been too negative lately. 😠 It’s just tough adjusting to winter, which seems to have come so quickly. I wish I could have made my autumn road trip happen, it kind of sucks to have to put it off. But then again, I can’t control the snow or anything else that is going on.🌨 I’m still hoping the snow won’t set in for the year, but if it does, spring will eventually come, and then eventually the mud season will end and all the back country roads will open again.

Looking ahead, Christmas 🎅 is in 6 weeks, New Years Day 2019 🎉 is in 7 weeks, 36th Birthday 🎉 is in 11 weeks, Daylight Savings Time 🌆 is in 17 weeks, Hottest Time of the Year 😅 is in 8 months, Last Sunset After 8:30 PM 🌆 is in 35 weeks and Election Day 2020 🗳️ is in 103 weeks.

Good morning! Tonight is first Average Nightly Temperature Below Freezing 🌌. Six weeks to Christmas 🎅. Maybe it will warm up again and I can spend Christmas camping in Brookfield again. That was wild that year in 2015, warm and no snow. Hiking Glimmerglass State Park on Christmas morning was wonderful. With the heat dome in the mid west and west, I could see it pushing east by December. I’d take a 45 degree day with lots of sun for mid-December. 🌞 Climate change has its upside in the winter if you’re not a snowmobiler right now and your on the hot side of the increasingly wavy jet stream.

Heavy rain and 36 degrees in Delmar. ☔ No snow here but very cold and wet. There is a north breeze at 5 mph. 🍃.

Temperatures locally will drop below freezing at around 10 pm. ☃️ Up north I’ve heard it’s an all snow event. Yep there getting more snow there, although I don’t think the snowmobile trails open until the end of Big Game Season.🐻

Today will rain, mainly before noon, then a slight chance of showers after 4pm. 🌧 High of 40 degrees at 3pm. Nine degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 4th. Definitely not a warm day. Northwest wind 5 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 69 was set in 1964. 6 inches of snow fell back in 1886.❄

The sun will set at 4:34 pm with dusk around 5:04 pm, which is 58 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 39 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 11 mph with gusts up to 21mph. Today will have 9 hours and 48 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 13 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain showers before 8pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow showers between 8pm and 9pm, then a chance of snow showers after 9pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 24 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around December 8th. Northwest wind 11 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2017, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 12 occurred back in 1996.

Finally bought coffee. ☕ It was good having a nice strong cup of coffee this morning. Percolator pot on the stove still works great. Simple technology is the best. Helped with getting up and heading out to the bus stop on this rather rainy and cold morning.🚏Nice and warm on the bus during this rainy morning, as I listen to Hollies heading down. I’m glad they built a bus shelter 🚍 near where I live on rainy mornings like today. Plus the heated bus shelter in the plaza for the evening trip home, now. That’s so awesome.

It’s good to be back in the routine, although it’s not going to last as I’m back in the field for work for a few more days this week 🌽 but soon it will be the normal routine where I can leave Big Red parked hooked up to the solar panel for a full week or more. 🚌That’s winter, I like to save as much gasoline and money as possible until traveling season returns, especially as my utility bills increase with the heat being turned on.⛽

When I went shopping yesterday, I forgot to buy more waffle mix. I did buy frozen cherries to top them off. 🍒 I have eggs from my parents for breakfast today. Bought cheese and sausage to complement them. 🍳 Very filling meal, I packed lunch but I’ll probably skip it in favor of having an early dinner around four.

When I’m at Walmart, I usually try to buy the biggest family sized packages of food just because it saves money and reduce waste,💰 especially during the winter when I don’t have a fire to chuck the packaging into like is so handy when camping. Plus the waffle mix boxes are just paper so I can recycle them for free, no hauling to the transfer station. Saves a lot of money also buying bulk and means fewer times of running low on supplies. I think I have the same jumbo bottle of shampoo that I bought at the beginning of the year because it’s lasted so long. Every dollar saved is one closer to owning my off-grid cabin. 🏡 It’s good to have a savings goal in life. Oh, and today is pay day.

Looking ahead, there are 6 weeks until Christmas 🎅 when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:59 pm. On that day in 2017, we had snow, heavy fog, freezing fog, mist, squalls, partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 33 and 17 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. That was no 2015 that year. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1889. It was even warmer I believe on Christmas Eve 2015.

Good evening! Rain and 40 degrees in Delmar. ☔ There is a east-southeast breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. Kind of a cold and wet night tonight, I turned on the heat after coming home. Above freezing here, and it will warm as the night progresses, then cool down over as the weekend progresses. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Sunday around noontime. ☃️

Tonight will rain, mainly before 3am. 🌧 Low of 39 degrees at 3am. With the rain, fairly mild. It will be six degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around October 18th. Southeast wind 6 to 10 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2017, we had light rain in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 21 degrees. The record low of 16 occurred back in 1965.

Kind of a lazy Friday night, laying in bed listening to some Christmas music 🎄with the lights dimmed, writing down my thoughts on the blog. I’m going to kill the lights soon and go to bed, setting my alarm⏰ so I get started at a reasonable hour tomorrow. I still lack coffee but I think I will make waffles in the morning.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 7% illuminated. The moon will rise at 9:27 am. Not going to see much through the clouds tonight, although it has already set. The First Quarter Moon is on Wednesday night with partly cloudy skies. The Beaver Moon 🌝 is on Thursday, November 22nd. Thanksgiving! The sun will rise at 6:40 am with the first light at 6:10 am, which is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 3 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 19 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of rain before 7am, then a slight chance of showers between 7am and 11am. Mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 39 degrees at 6am. 11 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 6th. West wind 8 to 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Pretty darn chilly but I still think I will bundle up and head up north and enjoy the sunshine. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. The high last year was 45 degrees. The record high of 72 was set in 1931. 3.2 inches of snow fell back in 1987.❄

The moldy, musty smell has mostly disappeared from my apartment, since I cleaned up the mildew under the stove and behind it. Most of the rest of the kitchen has was mildew free once I got it cleaned up but it was a tough year fighting the mildew with it being such a hot and wet summer. 💦 Fortunately, full strength bleach works wonders on the walls. It’s been an ongoing battle in my apartment but it’s a cheap place and I love location near the library, parks, and express and local busses.

Continuing to design the flashing start I’m building for my niece for her night stand, but I expect I have a design that is nice. ✨ Powered by an Ardiuno board it uses RGB leds to turn marbles various colors.

I’m going to play it by ear but I fully expect to head up to the Adirondacks by mid morning tomorrow. ⛺ I am hoping to get the campsite I like that has cell service and a good clearing to flood the solar panel with sunlight during the daylight hours. Sunday I will hike back along the Stewart Creek most likely, and Monday (Veterans Day) I will head home as I have to work Tuesday. I think with the rain, most of the snow they got earlier today will be melted away but I’ll bring my sled in case I have to drag gear back to the site. At some point, maybe Monday I’ll hike back to Auger Falls, or maybe drive up to Speculator and hike the nature trail boardwalk, as it would be interesting to see in the winter.

I skipped buying groceries today, I’ll get them on the way up. 🍖I bought my hunting license today although the town clerk charged me an extra $1.95 for using my credit card, as I lacked $22 in cash. Saved money by skipping my trapping privileges this year although I could get that later. Next time I will just go to the DEC license bureau and buy it. I can’t believe they charge for that. I can understand charging for extra fees for a town license on a credit card but a hunting license where Walmart or every other place doesn’t seems silly 💳. It’s not like they aren’t getting paid by the state as a retailer like $2. Buying a license at Walmart is a pain because there never is a clerk there. But I know I won’t be buying a license again from the town clerk. I should go to the bank tomorrow and deposit the expense check I have from work and get some cash as it’s handy to have as a few places don’t take cards.

I went to the library and borrowed several books and got caught up on things on the internet. 📚 Looking forward to doing some reading up at camp and just sitting back by the fire during the long winter nights. I hope we have lots of blue skies as it will make things feel much more cheery and keep the batteries well topped off. Even a cold day, the sun can make things much better.

In four weeks on December 7 the sun will be setting at 4:21 pm,🌄 which is 16 minutes and 16 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had snow, cloudy skies and temperatures between 41 and 26 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 39 and 25 degrees. Basically tomorrow’s weather. The record high of 65 degrees was set back in 1998.

Looking ahead, Buy Nothing Day 🛍️ is in 2 weeks.