I bet those people sitting in their deer stands this morning are shivering, fighting off hypothermia thinking they probably won’t get their big buck despite the statistics that show two thirds are harvested today. I’m quite okay being inside this morning, enjoying my eggs and spinach, along with the homemade bread, sweet potatoes and butternut squash that I baked starting a little after 5 AM this morning.

Good morning! Rain and 45 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ There is a north-northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around midnight tonight. ☃️ Kind of a yucky morning, temperature is going to drift downwards as more sun appears later with a steady breeze to keep things good and cool for the balance of the day. That said it’s mild enough, that the heat is off, though I have plenty of warmth inside after all that cooking this morning. 👩‍🍳

While I don’t really need to get up at 5 AM on my day off ⏰ I wake up that hour, especially as I was asleep before 8 PM last night as it was such a dreary night and I lacked the energy to do my evening walk, 🏃‍♀️ though to be fair, I did get in 10,000 steps 👣 for the day, rode my bike 7 3/4 miles to work via the rail trail 🚲, walked laps at lunch time on the Plaza and then did the stairs up and down to my 18th floor office downtown. I do note that once I move to the suburban North Albany office in a few weeks though it’s going to be more difficult to do the stairs, though I am thinking I’ll probably transfer buses a the Empire Plaza and can walk laps there or days I ride in it’s a bit longer of a ride then downtown, though not the Madison Avenue Hill, though lately I’ve been using Arch Street/Warren Street past the Albany City Jail 👮‍♀️ and then heading up Park Avenue and Museum Road (yes, the wrong way on a one way street) to the Plaza to avoid the worse of the hill. 🤷‍♂️ 🤣

I was thinking blueberry pancakes this morning 🥞 👎 🍳 but ended up deciding I so love the onions, tomatoes, spinach and eggs for a more protein packed day that will keep me going all day. Also cooked up some kidney beans, I am thinking of making homemade spaghetti sauce from canned tomatoes, chop up some onions, cumin and red pepper with peas and spinach thrown over some chickpea pasta 🍝 for dinner tonight. Along with a generous side of butternut squash and maybe some of the sweet potatoes. 🍠 🍆

Lunch is going to be some leftover beef stew I got from my parents house about two or three weeks ago that’s been frozen, tossed over some peas and sweet potatoes. 😋 I need to use up some of the leftovers I keep taking home from my parents house. I often forget about left overs. Mom makes good food, even if it is more calorie dense then I would prefer, but then again maybe I’ve gotten a bit extreme with my own cooking. 👨‍🍳 I just don’t want slip back into the old life of being so heavy and out of shape. The left over stew should be real tasty. 🍲 I can’t complain, mom’s home cooking won’t be around forever, as she’s getting up there in the years, and it’s something you can only enjoy until you no longer can.

Having that extra pot of coffee ☕ this morning, with the cinnamon and ginger. I am not planning on heading out until a while, and only to the library, so if I spend my day pissing it away, I don’t care. I just like an extra cup or three on this cold morning, with that rich tangy taste of cinnamon and ginger. Plus yesterday when I was walking I started to feel a bit achy, 😣 first time in a long time, apparently the turmeric with the spinach, onions and eggs isn’t enough to overcome all those stairs I’ve climbed 🧗‍♀️ over the past week, lol. 🤣 What can I say, I’m getting ducking old 🦆 in a few weeks I’ll be 41. That means two decades have passed since I can legally drink and that first time I went out to the bar with the Young Democrats.  I just remember that night at the Lionheart Cafe downtown, and how much that bar stunk of alcohol 🍻 I think because it was right after they had banned smoking at bars 🚭 and they hadn’t gotten good at cleaning all that spilled beer. Or maybe the Lionheart was more of a dive college bar back in the day.

Today will have showers likely, mainly before 7am. Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing 🌧 👉 🌞, with a high of 45 degrees at 6am. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 25th. North wind 9 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 43 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1928. 9.0 inches of snow fell back in 1980.❄

I am thinking I’ll watch and do some more of the Udemeny Course on Remote Sensing 🛰 and then shower and go down to the library 📚 so I can use the internet on my laptop this morning without working about data use at 10 AM. Then maybe check out the Bethlehem Sportsmart at 1 PM for skis, ⛷ and then in the afternoon ride out to Voorheesville, maybe visiting Indian Ladder Farms for apples. 🍎 Or I could just get apples at Price Chopper on Sunday. Also want to see if I can repair my broken vacuum cleaner. Also thinking about doing some soldering and working on an electronics project this evening. I haven’t done much electronics in a while now. 🤓

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:41 am with sun having an altitude of 28.2° from the due south horizon (-42.6° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 11.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:49 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (237°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (244°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:32 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 14 seconds with dusk around 5:01 pm, which is 49 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south (185°) at an altitude of 24° from the horizon, 227,672 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:37 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 42 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 11 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 43 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 3 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 31 degrees at 3am. Typical for tonight. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light and variable. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 21 degrees. The record low of 12 occurred back in 1972.

Pretty much typical weather for this evening. 🛌 I’ll probably head to bed pretty early as it gets dark out so early, and I prefer an earlier start. I want to get to Price Chopper tomorrow morning before the crowds 🛒 and get the groceries I need for the week with my coupons. 🎫 And then get up and going on the day. Maybe ride out to Five Rivers 🐦 to enjoy the sunshine and cold before heading out to the folks house for Sunday dinner. 🍲 They are making chilli which should be good.

Going to shop at Price Chopper come Sunday as I have two $5 off $50 coupons, 🎫 giving one to mom and one for my own use. Plus I have a $2 off $10 in meat or fish coupon to use, I’ll probably stock up on frozen salmon for the next time I decide to bake up some salmon. 🐠 I haven’t had salmon in a few weeks, and I think I don’t have any more in my freezer currently but its an excellent source of omega-3 fats. 😋

Looking ahead, next Saturday is Small Business Saturday 🛍️ when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:56 pm. On that day in 2022, we had mostly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 49 and 40 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 45 degrees. We hit a record high of 64 back in 2004.

I am watching the forecast, 🌨 especially to see how much snow they get up north on Wednesday, but I’m hopeful to head up to the Adirondacks come Friday, to camp and maybe hike or possibly ski along the East Branch more likely. 🏕 I would probably take off Cyber Monday so I can have a three-day weekend, as I’ve been planning for some time now, though I am running a bit low on vacation time for the year, and don’t want to drop below 210 hours for the year if I can avoid it to maximize my roll over into next year, where I may need the extra hours to cover time spent working at the campaign committee along with trips I plan for the summer and autumn. 👩‍💻 That said, I’m hopeful to do remote work at times next year, so maybe I can extend some of my camping trips while working from the Spectulator Library or the hotspot and my laptop in a hammock from camp. But not until spring time, as it’s too cold and not enough solar in autumn.