Good morning! Happy Saturday on this Martin Luther King 👑 weekend. Overcast and 25 degrees in Delmar. ☁ There is a north breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 1 pm. 🌡️

Today will cloudy with more sun later 🌥, with a high of 33 degrees at 12pm. Typical for today. North wind around 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 32 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1932. 9.0 inches of snow fell back in 1999.❄

Getting ready to head out of town. 📦 Just a lot of packing and picking up things, though honestly for two nights it isn’t that much stuff I need especially as there isn’t much snow around. I’ll bring the shovel just in case but I’m not expecting a lot.

I really have mixed emotions about it all. 🛻 It looks like a cold winters day 🌬️ though the weekend will improve as it goes on. I don’t enjoy camping and traveling the way I once did, I have more and more anxiety about driving. But on the other hand, I do look forward to the open country 🐄 and the rural landscape, and the fire 🔥 once its going and a nice warm dinner. Then hiking the truck trails tomorrow will be nice. But it’s also a lot of money I don’t have though I’m sure it will work out as my tank is still mostly full on my truck and I don’t need that much in groceries and supplies. Part of Mission Fifty is figuring out what is next, I’m not sure I want to keep doing the things in my forties that I found fun in my twenties and thirties.

Got to check ☑ the oil 🛢 and load up the truck. Double check my packing list. Go through a second time and hopefully be on the road a little after 9:30 as I need to get groceries and supplies on my way out and want plenty of time to set up, gather firewood and maybe go for a walk before dark. ⛺

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:05 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.1° from the due south horizon (-44.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:02 pm with the sun in the southwest (234°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (241°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:46 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 19 seconds with dusk around 5:16 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:52 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 31 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 27 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 36 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 21 degrees at 6am. Five degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 26th. Maximum wind chill around 15 at 12am; North wind 11 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mist by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1957.

I was looking at my paystub 🎫 and I noticed that they are taking out more for deferred comp now that the federal limit has been raised. It’s good, in the sense that I’m saving more money for retirement though it also means that I have less for today, saving and investing. But it’s pre-tax, so it’s saving money living in a high tax state like this is good. Plus there are years of dividends and market growth ahead. But it still feels like I’m getting squeezed yet another way. 🎐

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day 🥛 when the sun will be setting at 5:23 pm with dusk at 5:50 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 26 and 12 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 35 degrees. We hit a record high of 59 back in 1981.