Good morning! Happy National Bird Day 🐦! Birds the word. Although some say Bird Day was January 5th? Gosh who knows, so many special holiday. Two weeks to my 36th Birthday 🎉. Happy birthday to me! Ain’t I special or at least old. More and more gray, every day. No I don’t use coloring. Yeah, I still wear my cowboy hat and enjoy the wilderness and burning things as much as ever.

Cloudy with snow flurries, the air smells like wood chips and barnyard, they’re spreading down the road and 17 degrees in Delmar. Calm wind. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 11 am. 🌡️ It’s nice living close enough to the city to catch the bus to work but also only be a traffic light or two from the open countryside.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 31 degrees at 2pm. One degree above normal, which is similiar to a typical day around January 23rd. West wind 3 to 6 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 21 degrees. The record high of 65 was set in 1995. 13.4 inches of snow fell back in 1983.❄ Right before I was born.

The sun will set at 4:47 pm with dusk around 5:18 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly sunny skies 🌃 and temperatures around 31 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 25 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 38 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 22 degrees at 3am. Eight degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around March 4th. Maximum wind chill around 24 at 6pm; Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph after midnight. In 2018, we had mostly clear in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 14 degrees. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1971.

Yesterday was an ungodly long day at work so early in January, 💼 but sometimes that happens. I’m still making money and earning comp time, so maybe I can take off some time in February or April for either some ice fishing and camping or a road trip. 🎣 Being busy in the winter isn’t that bad of thing, and the bus got me home last night despite being rather tired.

By the time I got home last night cooked up some dinner and retired to bed. 💤At least the week is going by quickly. Or so I hope. Pine Bush dinner tomorrow, Thursday is the lecture at the Discovery Center on climate change that I got tickets for but might not be able to attend if the weather is bad. They’re talking snow starting tomorrow night. I burned the Xubuntu installer to a flash drive and I’m thinking it won’t be until the weekend until I have time to upgrade my laptop to the SSD. 💾 I do think I will also buy the board to fix my broken headphone jack and probably also replace the DVD drive with the the old hard drive to expand my storage to 2 TB so I have enough room with all the video I’ve been producing lately for the blog. 📹

My post about pigs last night got a lot of discussion, 🐖 but I’ve always had a lot of interest in agriculture. I’m not interested in getting tied down to the land right now, but eventually, when I have saved more money, gotten closer to retirement and can move to a place closer to my views in an off-grid cabin, producing some of my own food on the land, and making them most of that is important to me. But for now I’ll continue to travel, spend my weekends in the wilderness and continue to being a professional that works in the big city. 🌆

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until 36th Birthday 🎉 when the sun will be setting at 5:05 pm with dusk at 5:35 pm. On that day in 2018, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 39 and 26 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 31 degrees. We hit a record high of 54 back in 2002.

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Next Tuesday is National Bird Day 🐦. Cloudy at the freezing point in Delmar. ☁ Breezy, ️16 mph breeze from the south 🌬 with gusts up to 28 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is 21. Sidewalks and the grass have a glaze of ice on them but it’s not terribly slippery in Delmar. The skies will clear Friday around 2 am. Then it will get really cold, well relatively speaking. Fortunately though the heat in my apartment has been turned back on. The burner control switch was accidentally shut off when they were servicing another units boiler.

Today will have a chance of freezing rain before 9am, then rain showers likely. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 39 degrees at 1pm. Nine degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical day around March 1st. South wind 10 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. A year ago, we had cloudy in the morning, which became light snow by afternoon. The high last year was 27 degrees. The record high of 60 was set in 2008. 8.3 inches of snow fell back in 1923.❄

The sun will set at 4:39 pm with dusk around 5:11 pm, which is one minute and 3 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 39 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 15 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 15 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will rain before 1am, then rain and snow. 🌧 Low of 34 degrees at 6am. 19 degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around April 6th. South wind 8 to 10 mph becoming southwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2018, we had cloudy in the evening, which became mostly sunny by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 24 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1968.

Tomorrow is the first day of the year session, 👔so I’ll have to dust off my politician suit. I actually need to buy another ironing board cover as the old one got mildewy and tossed into a fire at some point along the way. Mom was saying they sell them at Walmart. I have to stop and buy some file folders too before I head over to John Wolcott’s house to continue sorting his archives as part of a local history project that Save the Pine Bush is doing.📂 At some point they will end up in a local historical library and contain probably one of Albany’s richest collections of history.

Last night I got my flu shot, 💉 and then went to the public hearing of the Guilderland Industrial Development Agency where they proposed giving a generous sales and mortgage tax exemption💰 to Crossgates Maul to build apartments in the Pine Bush across from preserve lands on a parcel that connects habitat for the Karner Blue. 🐥 Stupid proposal but Crossgates is failing as people don’t shop at mauls anymore and they’re trying to be part of the overbuilding of apartments in Guilderland 🏢 which will certainly crash in price in the coming years. Make money now and leave others holding the bag I guess is the thing now.

Still really busy with the report I’m working on with work, 📝but hopefully that will wrap up soon and there won’t be too many late nights later this week. I just want things to go smoothly as we head to the weekend. Going to be cold and maybe snowy this weekend but with family obligations and other necessary things I expect another busy weekend. The good news is it’s making January pass by quickly. 🌀

As previously noted, next Tuesday is National Bird Day 🐦 when the sun will be setting at 4:47 pm with dusk at 5:18 pm. On that day in 2018, we had cold, partly cloudy and temperatures between 21 and 5 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 30 degrees. We hit a record high of 65 back in 1995.

Good morning! Happy New Years Day 2019 🎉 ! I was in bed by nine and woke pretty early but I’ve yet to get out of bed. Not a really nice day to start out 2019. Two weeks to National Bird Day 🐦. Bird is the word.

A new year is upon us. I don’t expect any big changes to things, 📈 just incremental improvements and minor changes to my life. I’ll continue to travel and explore but I don’t expect anything grand or great to be ahead. I’m fine with the current trends as they are, they certainly are predictable.

Rain showers, blustery and 50 degrees in Delmar. ☔ Warm start to the year. Breezy, ️18 mph breeze from the west-southwest 🌬 with gusts up to 31 mph 💨💨💨. Definitely can hear the wind roaring around. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 7 pm. ☃️ With the rain tapering off and the wind hopefully things won’t ice up too much.

New Year’s Day 2019 will have a slight chance of showers before 9am. Partly sunny, with a temperature falling to around 36 by 5pm. ⛅Windy, with a northwest wind 18 to 26 mph, with gusts as high as 46 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had sunny skies. The high last year was 11 degrees. The record high of 57 was set in 1966. 9.2 inches of snow fell back in 1961.❄

The sun will set at 4:33 pm with dusk around 5:04 pm, which is 52 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 38 degrees. Breezy, 20 mph breeze ⛅ from the west-northwest with gusts up to 34mph. Today will have 9 hours and 7 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 48 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 18 degrees at 5am. Two degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around February 17th. Northwest wind 8 to 15 mph. In 2018, we had clear skies. It got down to -4 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1970.

I’m feeling a bit congested this morning although not really sick. 🐶 I have some decongestant that works well and after I take a shower I’m sure I’ll be feeling better. Already after some coffee I’m feeling better.

Today I have to go to the store, pick up some groceries for the rest of the week and then wash my truck again. So muddy and salty. I probably should also return some beer cans from both December trips too. I get tired of returning beer cans ♻ and they don’t burn so I just have stopped drinking except a little while camping. That and I’m always broke.

I might also go for a short walk before heading out to my parents house, 🏃 if the weather is a bit sunnier and not super cold from the wind. A lot depends on the weather, I had enough time freezing my ass off in the wilderness of Madison County.

I left my laptop charger at my parents house, so I couldn’t work on my various projects last night 🔌 but that’s fine I was tired. I also accidentally cracked the 12 volt plug on my charger I use with my truck – it’s a simple boost converter so it uses less power than the AC charger when running in my truck. I might replace the plug or I might hardwire it on my truck, although if I do that I’ll add a switch so it’s not wasting power when my laptop is unplugged. I doubt a simple boost converter uses much power without a load, but I’m sure it still uses a few milliamps of power.

I wasn’t going to buy anything else from AliExpress but I ended up deciding to buy a waterproof temperature sensor for $1.45 that I will stick out my window when heating season is done to measure the temperature and display the outside temperature on my display. ✨ I think I can squeeze it under the window sill when it’s closed in the summer but I don’t want to waste heat in the winter by having the window open a crack.

I went to bed early last night as I was tired. 🎉 I don’t see any reason to stay up to midnight especially not owning a television or having anything to watch at midnight. It was pouring rain so I certainly wasn’t going out anywhere. I did get everything out of my truck and washed up by yesterday although I’m still waiting on my water jugs thawed out. Seemed like the weekend in the wilderness went by too quickly but maybe that’s because I stayed in camp all day long on Sunday.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until National Bird Day 🐦 when the sun will be setting at 4:47 pm with dusk at 5:18 pm. On that day in 2018, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 21 and 5 degrees. Last year was ducking cold. Typically, the high temperature is 30 degrees. We hit a record high of 65 back in 1995.