Happy Weekend! Final work week as a 35 year old comes to a close. 👴 Next Friday I’ll be closer to forty then fifty. 🎂 Partly clear and 25 degrees in Delmar. Breezy, ️16 mph breeze from the west 🌬 . The current wind chill is 12. There are 4 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ Rain over the past few days and the mild temperatures has been tough on the snow, although untreated surfaces are still quite icy. ️Things will start to thaw out at Sunday around 11 am. 🌡️

For a four day work week, it’s been a long tough week but next week is expected to be much different. 😮I do the best I can, work as professionally as possible even if at times I have moral questions about it all. 💼I’m just doing what the numbers and evidence points to what is right for my clients. The only stake I have in it is the money I earn and invest towards a better tomorrow. 🙏I went after work for one drink in honor of a departing colleague, but I couldn’t drink much as I’m still really struggling with the cold. 🍺 I wish I could feel better but the long days and the stress of it all are a drain. And I’ve not really been sick enough to legimately take sick time off. I think I’m just exhausted.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 13 degrees at 5am. One degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 5 at 3am; West wind 11 to 16 mph decreasing to 5 to 10 mph in the evening. In 2018, we had cloudy in the evening, which became mostly sunny by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 9 degrees. The record low of -17 occurred back in 1920.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon 🌖 with 57% illuminated with the moon rising at 10:38 pm. The moon will set at 10:45 am. The Last Quarter Moon will be tomorrow with mostly cloudy skies. The Snow Moon 🌝 is on Monday, February 18th. The sun will rise at 7:15 am with the first light at 6:45 am, which is 50 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 14 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 9 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 26 degrees at 1pm. Five degrees below normal. South wind around 6 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny. The high last year was 32 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1950. 8.5 inches of snow fell back in 1949.❄

Cool but not a half bad day for the Save the Pine Bush Ski Trip. 🌲I probably should make sure my skis are ready although I’m sure they’re okay. I really haven’t been out skiing this year, long lasting snow in the area is pretty rare these days. 🏂I actually don’t think there is that much snow to worry about at this point so I may be fine with just the microspikes.

Looking ahead to Sunday, a chance of snow showers, mainly after 1pm. The snow could be heavy at times. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 38. South wind 7 to 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Typical average high for the weekend is 31 degrees.

I am a little worried about the weather on Sunday evening for going out to the folks house but I think it should be relatively mild. ❄ Cold the second half of next week but I don’t care as I’ll be plenty busy with work and as long as I time it with the buses things will be fine.

I also want to work on some various coding projects like my LED driver:idea: and maybe put the SSD drive in my laptop..📀 I got to think about that – if I do that I won’t have access to all my programs until I re-install as I want to do a clean upgrade. 💻

I am really glad that the federal shutdown has come to an end. 🏢 It has been unnecessarily tough on those impacted, workers should never had been used as bargaining chips. At least they’ll probably get paid in time for their February rent and mortgage payments. Even if you invest and save its so important to have a little money socked away in cash for a rainy day. ☔ You can’t control the world but you can be prepared for when things don’t work out the way you had hoped.

It’s a lesson I’ve seen over and over again. Be conservative in your dealings, prepare and be professional. My goal in my 36th year remains the same as 35, do go work for my clients, save, invest. 💰Don’t worry too much about what is happening locally, remain focused on one’s future, remember it won’t really matter once you successfully get out of New York. Maybe I should look for higher paying positions and make the jump to something new but I think loyalty counts for something. I basically want to get another ten years in with the state if possible and then leave Albany for good, once I no longer have family locally.

In four weeks on February 22 the sun will be setting at 5:36 pm,🌄 which is 36 minutes and 28 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had snow and temperatures between 40 and 21 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 36 and 19 degrees. The record high of 68 degrees was set back in 1997.

Looking ahead, March 🌨 is in 5 weeks, Ides of March ✝ is in 7 weeks, Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ is in 17 weeks and Dog Days of Summer 🌻 is in 23 weeks.

Good evening! Partly clear and one degree in Delmar. Blustery, with a stiff breeze at 28 mph the northwest 💨 with gusts up to 45 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is -24. Cold outside but inside with the electric heat on and the thermostat downstairs up and my hoodie I m very comfortable. There are 14 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at Wednesday around noontime. 🌡️

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of -4 degrees at 6am. 18 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -24 at 7pm; Windy, with a northwest wind 18 to 28 mph decreasing to 8 to 18 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 45 mph. In 2018, we had partly cloudy in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 33 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1984.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon 🌖 with 94% illuminated. The moon will set at 8:28 am. The Last Quarter Moon is on Saturday night with rain. The Snow Moon 🌝 is in 4 weeks. The sun will rise at 7:18 am with the first light at 6:47 am, which is 42 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 22 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 59 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 23 degrees at 3pm. Seven degrees below normal. Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming light and variable in the afternoon. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning, which became mostly sunny by afternoon. The high last year was 39 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1906. 12.9 inches of snow fell back in 1987.❄

I’m tired but generally feeling better today than yesterday. I went out to the folks house for Sunday dinner 🍛 a day late and took my dad to his doctor’s appointment. Yummy lasagna. 🚘Roads weren’t terrible but a few slippery patches here and there.

I’ve been watching some YouTube videos at home that I downloaded when I was at my parents house. 🎧 Having the Bluetooth headphones hooked to my laptop means that I can watch videos while not annoying my neighbors with the noise. I’ve never been a bug fan of television but there are definitely some really great YouTube channels out there.

I ordered some mosfet transistors from the United States rather than China so I can get my light strip up and running again by the weekend. :idea:I used some alligator clips to have it working for now with just the red light at full brightness but it will be nice having it come on automatically on these dark winter mornings and now be able to control it from my phone. 📱

I’m still recovering from my cold and are pretty tired so I think soon I’ll retire to bed. 💤 It’s going to be a busy week at work and I’m hoping I’ll feel good enough to go to work tomorrow. A good night’s sleep can really help make a cold better. 👃 I do feel a lot better than yesterday but I’m still a bit achy and my nose is a bit plugged. It was severe yesterday but not super long lasting which is good. I could read for a bit, continuing reading the book I got from the library on solar power but I think I’ll retire soon to bed.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 19. Going to be cold but nice for the Save the Pine Bush ski trip, assuming that the forecast doesn’t change. Sunday, a chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 30. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Typical average high for the weekend is 31 degrees.

In four weeks on February 18 the sun will be setting at 5:31 pm,🌄 which is 36 minutes and 28 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had partly sunny, snow showers and temperatures between 40 and 23 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 35 and 18 degrees. The record high of 63 degrees was set back in 1981.

Looking ahead, Presidents Day 👴 is in 4 weeks, Average High is 40 ☀️ is in 6 weeks, Spring 🌷 is in 2 months, April Fools Day 🤡 is in 10 weeks, Tax Day 💰 is in 12 weeks, Easter 🐰 is in 3 months, Earth Day 🌎 is in 13 weeks, Memorial Day 🇺🇸 is in 18 weeks, July 🏊🏿 is in 23 weeks and Last Sunset After 8 PM 🌆 is in 29 weeks.

Good morning! Happy Thursday. Four weeks to Valentines Day ❤️. I love it with all the sun, as it makes it pleasant, even if it is cold. Sunny and 12 degrees in Delmar. 🌞 There is a northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. Won’t need the lights on my in office until late. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 11 am. 🌡️

With the sun and not much breeze it really doesn’t seem that bad. I walked down to the express park and ride with my coat unbuttoned but I was burning calories. 🚌 Sitting in the woods I would probably have a different impression of the cold. I didn’t get a real early start, so I was skeptical about catching the bus, but somehow I managed to do that today. Traffic was heavy heading into the city, as the right lane was closed with a crash or a break down being assisted by the state police, and the left lane was closed ahead due to road-construction.👷 Another big commercial vehicle inspection thing going down today at the Park and Ride today.👮

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 25 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees below normal. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. A year ago, we had light snow in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 28 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1889. 10.9 inches of snow fell back in 1994.❄

The sun will set at 4:50 pm with dusk around 5:21 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 24 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Reasonable for mid-January. Today will have 9 hours and 29 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 46 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will snow, mainly after 11pm. 🌨 Low of 18 degrees at 8pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 17th. South wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 2 degrees. The record low of -19 occurred back in 1957.

Last night was the Save the Pine Bush Dinner. The history of the the Rapp Road Historical Association is always a fascinating, and Anne Pope, Rev Sam Johnson and Stephanie Woodard had a great talk about it. 🗣 Good lasagna too, nobody left hungry or without their tastebuds full. 🍝 Definitely listen to the podcast.🎧 And also check out WMHT’s Crossroads: The History of the Rapp Road Community, if you are more into the video side of things and want a shorter introduction.

Definitely a good dinner, although like I do too often, I drank too much coffee and while I fell to sleep fairly early, 💤 the quality of sleep I get after having so much coffee definitely suffers. ☕ I also have a bit of a low-grade cold I’ve had on and off and by morning I had a bit of a sore throat and some aches. By the time I had my shower and was going, I was feeling a lot better, good enough to walk briskly down to the express bus stop this morning. 🍳 I made up egg waffles again, melted some cheese on them, although I got some egg shell in one, and it made it a bit crunchy.

Tonight is the sold-out lecture at the Pine Bush Commission about climate change.🌍 It should be a very interesting lecture. Going to be a cold night, so I hope I don’t have problems with the sensor not letting my get the truck out of park, but I think I figured out how to address that if I have problems — tap the brake a few times. After the first start and driving a bit, it seems fine. I probably should get it fixed, but if it’s fine once it’s warm, at least for now. I know driving a jacked-up truck to a global warming lecture is well, umm… but the Pine Bush center is out in the sticks and not easily accessible via public transportation. Depending on how willing I am to brave the cold, I might go for a short moonlit hike after the lecture.🌔

The other day, I watching the Steven Family Farm homesteading channel on YouTube. What a nice homestead they’ve built out of one of the shed-to-house conversions in the Ozarks of Arkansas.🏠 They’re really popular down south I’ve heard. I’ve actually never been to the south outside of Virginia, but I do like the laid back way of doing things down there, at least if your white and don’t live in a big city. I found the cultural norms in backwater Virginia to be just werid, kind of racist and repulsive.

Homesteading and off-grid shed-to-home seems like such an affordable way to do things, especially if you don’t want a big house and want to live out in the sticks with as minimal of material things as possible.🐷🐔🏠 Sure, not much value retained in the building, but it also means you might be able to pick up something used real cheap. On the Stevens Family Farm use solar for electricity, heat with wood, raise a lot of their own food and livestock such as pigs, chickens, duck, hunt, burn their own trash and compost their poop and organic matter (so nearly zero landfill), use bulk propane for their refrigerator and stove. Kind of like my old neighborhood.🚜 And they have a great view from their homestead. I don’t know though, 8 people living in a 800-foot structure must be tight especially in the winter, but they probably save a lot of money and resources, and don’t have to work nearly as hard for their lives. Living in the city and making a lot of money is fun,🤑 but I’d rather live a life based on reality rather then escape.

I’ve been also watching the cannabis debate in the state carefully, and what it will mean for people that want to grow their own marijuana.🌱 Not sure I would want to do that even if it was legal, but it’s an interesting discussion, and I think if they do legalize it I would hope home growing would be allowed. It’s a good crop from everything I read, and while I hardly have a green thumb or a desire to get stoned, it might be nice one day when I finally own land, and we come towards a rational national public policy as it related to cannabis. I could definitely see more low tax, conservative states allowing marijuana for on-farm growing and consumption. Like cigarette smoke, it marijuana isn’t pleasant to be around when others are smoking, but I feel like I should be able to do what I want on my own land. 🚭

Still watching the weather for the weekend, as it might be very snowy. Saturday going out for breakfast with my parents and then hopefully the snow will hold off until I get back home that evening. I have to return some library books 📚, then Sunday I will probably strap on skis, and head over to the rail trail for some winter skiing in the fresh snow they expect.⛷ I want to get that SSD drive installed and files moved over, and the software re-installed on the new drive. I will have to figure out if I should order a replacement sound connector for my laptop, and also if I want to get an enclosure so I can put my second old hard drive in the DVD bay now.💿

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Valentines Day ❤️ when the sun will be setting at 5:26 pm with dusk at 5:55 pm. On that day in 2018, we had mostly cloudy and temperatures between 45 and 28 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1946.

Good morning! Happy Saturday. Many years ago today was Coldest Morning Recorded in Albany at Negative 26 although that’s nothing like Old Forge winters back in 1970s 💨! At least so the record books say. Two weeks to 5:30 PM Dusk 🌆. Mostly sunny and 18 degrees in Delmar. There is a northwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at Tuesday around 1 pm. 🌡️

I went out to breakfast with mom and dad today, and now I’m at the store while they pick up some groceries. 🍳 I had a good scrambled eggs at the Jake’s Moon dinner this very cold morning. Bennett Hill Scramble. Although I was jealous of the eggs that my mom got.

Big Red started up and drove fine 🚗 – although the ABS was disabled with the wheel sensor malfunctioning in the cold. Still I don’t think it’s safety critical and it doesn’t happen once the truck is warmed up so I’m not going to give it much more thought.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 24 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees below normal. Although certainly south of the city more clouds are pushing in. Northwest wind around 8 mph. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 63 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 2018. 12.8 inches of snow fell back in 2011.❄

Going to be a rather cold day but hopefully not too bad with the sun. 🏃Probably go for a walk later in the day, maybe the rail trail. I’ll have to think about it a bit more. I have some things I want to work on around home too. Then maybe read and work on projects later in the evening.

The sun will set at 4:44 pm with dusk around 5:15 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly sunny skies 🌃 and temperatures around 23 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 20 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 30 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 9 degrees at 6am. Five degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 1 at 6am; North wind around 6 mph. In 2018, we had light rain in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 8 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1968.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until 5:30 PM Dusk 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 5:01 pm with dusk at 5:31 pm. On that day in 2018, we had sunny and temperatures between 32 and 9 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 31 degrees. We hit a record high of 59 back in 1950.

Good evening! Five weeks to Valentines Day ❤️. Nothing out there tonight to warm your heart. It’s as frigid at the heart of the grinch. Still clauwdy with snow showers and 25 degrees in Delmar. ❄ Breezy, ️20 mph breeze from the west-northwest 🌬 .The current wind chill is 11. There is a dusting of snow on the ground. ☃ Kind of another cold evening, and it’s only going to get colder as we head into the weekend. But at least I left the heat turned up a bit at home, so it shouldn’t find it so hard to climb out of the cold. But if necessary, I’ll turn that expensive electric heat on for a few minutes. I am trying to save money wherever I can towards my future and owning land, but I can probably afford a few pennies here and there so I’m not shivering while I’m home.

Things should start to thaw out at Tuesday around noontime. 🌡️ Do you think it will warm up before the federal government reopens? At least the Energy Department is funded so I’ll have things to graph from the Energy Information Agency. Not so much from the Census bureau but at least they weren’t such pissy pants like in 2013 when they took down the website and I camped out in the National Forest.🏕 I guess I can download data or camp in the wilderness without the help of the gubernatorial. Haha. This post is becoming political, kind of like how Facebook thinks I should follow Walton Manure Management.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 12 degrees at 5am. Two degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -2 at 6am; Northwest wind 14 to 17 mph. In 2018, we had mostly clear in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 37 degrees. The record low of -25 occurred back in 1968. Definitely warmer then those days when Judy In Disguise (With Glasses) with playing on the radio every five minutes.👓

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 30% illuminated with the moon setting at 9:09 pm. The moon will rise at 10:36 am. The First Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with partly cloudy skies. The Wolf Moon 🌝 is on Sunday, January 20th. The sun will rise at 7:24 am with the first light at 6:52 am, which is 17 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 41 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 25 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 18 degrees at 2pm. 12 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -1 at 10am; Northwest wind around 15 mph. Yuck, that’s winter. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies . The high last year was 51 degrees. Not all winters are that unpleasant. The record high of 57 was set in 1975. 8.0 inches of snow fell back in 1922.❄

So I got the SSD Drive but it turns out what I thought was a M.2 SATA slot in my laptop for plugging it into turned out to be the DVD drive’s connector. I was confused because the manual talks about the M.2 SATA connector but it’s only included on select models with the SSD included from the factory. So I ended up ordering a M.2 to SATA-III adapter, and will have to pull out the existing hard drive. 💾 Ducks as that wasn’t the plan but it should work.

I was doing some more research and I found I could order a DVD-drive sized enclosure for the existing hard-drive and replace the DVD drive with the second hard drive, bringing me up to the full 2 GB of space which I was expecting to have when I plugged it in last night. 📀 It’s just one screw to swap the DVD drive on my laptop, not that I’ve used it in a long time.

I was bummed out about it but then I thought about silly that is, especially because I think it was good to go with the M2 form factor with a adapter to be future compatible. 🗜 Mechanical drives are disappearing from computers and so are their drive bays.

I ended up sending $138 on the 1 GB SSD drive with tax which is a good price but it took six weeks to get it. 💰I debated the wisdom of spending the money but it will make my laptop much faster and extend its life. I have lots of memory and a fair amount of disk space but speed of the hard drive has always been sluggish with my laptop even with the lightweight XFCE window manager. I know every buck that I spend on toys is essentially stealing from my future, buying land and an off grid home out of New York but sometimes updating technology helps and I’m running low on disk space.

In the process of searching for the non existent m2 slot I discovered I could easily replace the broken headphone jack by replacing the small ioboard it’s mounted on for about $20 on Ebay, less if I buy used. 🔊 I want to confirm it’s actually that easy to remove but if that proves to be true, I’m going to fix it as I get tired of hauling around the USB external sound card – one of which broke and whose audio quality isn’t as good as the internal audio.

Cool this weekend with temperatures running 7 degrees below normal but otherwise sunny. 😀 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 24. Northwest wind around 7 mph. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 23. Typical average high for the weekend is 30 degrees. It’s going to be nice enough I’m going to try to get out both days, but I think I will have to plan on being well bundled up as most of the weekend will be in the teens or low twenties, with a breeze.

In four weeks on February 7 the sun will be setting at 5:17 pm,🌄 which is 35 minutes and 13 seconds later then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had snow and temperatures between 27 and 13 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 33 and 16 degrees. The record high of 48 degrees was set back in 2005.

Looking ahead, Valentines Day ❤️ is in 5 weeks, Daylight Savings Time 🌆 is in 2 months, Spring 🌷 is in 10 weeks, Average High is 50 🌸 is in 11 weeks, Average High is 60 🌼 is in 14 weeks, Average High is 70 🐮 is in 18 weeks, Independence Day 🇺🇸 is in 25 weeks and August 🌻 is in 29 weeks.