Good morning! Happy Boxing Day 🥊! Good day for burning all those boxes 🔥 that the Christmas presents 📦 came in. Although I guess the greenies say the rednecks of the world should recycle ♻ them. Apparently recycling cardboard is a good idea. Probably good for soaking up mud too. Christmas 🎄 is over, now they can go back to playing Freda Paine 💍 for the hundred 💯 millionth time on the radio 📻. Or whatever is trendy these days, although Band of Gold is pretty singable. Does anybody even listen 👂 to commercial radio anymore in the era of the MP3? I rarely do. Two weeks to Static Electric Shock Day 🧼🌩. I fully expect it to be cold and dry enough then to get a good shock. 😮 I know in the state office building I used to work in the air was purty dry.

This morning is partly cloudy ⛅ around freezing degrees at the Elm Ave Park & Ride – CDTA. Calm wind 🍃. Not a half bad morning for late December. Bus is running on time 🚍 Going to be another mild day, they’re is a trooper sitting at the Southern Boulevard Bridge. 🌉 45 mph section so probably not a lot of speeders but maybe he’s sitting up there looking for people yapping on their cellphones 📱. I know I can’t talk and drive, I find it hard to remember things when driving like what day of week it is. That said, I drive so little and when I’m on the road I often are in the sticks where there ain’t reception 📶. I really should hook the bluetooth back up with my phone on my truck, it got reset the last time I reset my phone. But I use it so rarely, it’s hardly needed.

Today will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 41 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 3rd. Light and variable wind. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 35 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1895. 13.9 inches of snow fell back in 1969.❄

The sun will set at 4:27 pm with dusk around 4:59 pm, which is 39 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 40 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 9 hours and 3 minutes of daytime, an increase of 18 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of rain showers, snow showers, freezing rain, and sleet before midnight, then a chance of rain showers between midnight and 3am, then a chance of freezing rain after 3am. Sounds, charming, eh? I actually thought about leaving work on Friday early and driving out to Madison County but I decided it against it based on the forecast. Cloudy☔ , with a low of 32 degrees at 9pm. 15 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 16th. South wind 6 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow and sleet accumulation expected. In 2018, we had light snow in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 24 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1914.

This weekend is going to very mild as especially out in the Finger Lakes but will end with a pretty good rain storm. Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 43. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light in the afternoon. ☀ Sunday, a chance of rain after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44. Chance of precipitation is 50%.☔ Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees. It looks like Sunday evening into the Monday morning will be a good soaker, but I will bring extra tarps and books to read in the tent if it’s cold and wet.🌧 The heater will get keep the tent real comfortable. ♨Good warm meals will be good even if it’s rainy,  👨‍🍳 and if I gather plenty of wood up on Saturday into Sunday, 🪓 I’ll have enough for a good fire on Monday and New Years Eve.🔥

Never got around to testing the propane lantern. 🏮 I think it’s working fine though, and I’m not sure what else I can do to repair it besides knock out that shit ton of carbon that I already knocked out of it. 🏮💨 I realized if I tested it at home, I’d end up with a ton of propane in the line, that I’d have to burn out, and with only the latern hooked up, the pressure is such that it can take 15-20 minutes for all the propane to burn out of the line. I’ll bring a wrench to camp in case I need further adjustments, but I think it will work well now. 🔧

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Static Electric Shock Day 🧼 🌩 when the sun will be setting at 4:40 pm with dusk at 5:11 pm. On that day in 2019, we had rain and temperatures between 40 and 32 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 30 degrees. We hit a record high of 62 back in 2008.

Good evening! Partly clear and 36 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. There is a inch of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Temperatures will drop below freezing around 2 am. ☃️

It’s actually a pretty nice evening, 🌃 and I sat out back for over an hour when it started to cool off a little bit. It wasn’t until quite late that it really started to drop off. Not going to be quite as nice in the Finger Lakes but not that awful either with each day expected to reach the mid 40s. Hard to complain about such weather on Festivus and I got a nice walk 🚶 before dark as I got out of work early today.

After which I came inside and rode the exercise bike 🚲 for a while listening 👂 to more of that trucker country 🚚 that I like from the late 1960s. That music 🎶 is crude and sleazy and sexist, probably gives one a taste of cigarette 🚬 and diesel 💨 on one’s mouth but it’s good for singing along especially if you’re not a real good singer and it has a good back beat. 🎸

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 28 degrees at 6am. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 29th. Northwest wind 5 to 11 mph. In 2018, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 31 degrees. Even milder last year. The record low of -15 occurred back in 1989.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon 🌘 with 1% illuminated. The moon will rise at 5:38 am. The New Moon is on Christmas Day with mostly cloudy skies. The sun will rise at 7:22 am with the first light at 6:50 am, which is 28 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 57 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 7 seconds over last night. We never quite have 15 hours of darkness in Albany but if you go maybe to Warrensburg or there about, you do on the first day of winter. They have slightly longer summer days then more southerly locations but ultimately it balances out.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 36 degrees at 1pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 16th. North wind around 7 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 40 degrees. The record high of 72 was set in 2015. I remember that day we’ll, rained a fair bit then I went to my parents house – after working until 3pm and they lost power briefly while cooking Christmas dinner. Spent Christmas that year camping at the Cherry Ridge Camping Area in Madison County. 13 inches of snow fell back in 1966.❄

I thought about testing the propane lantern 🏮 after work today but I have no where to test it around home. I normally hang it between trees on a rope at camp but there are no trees around where I live because the landlord cut down all the trees on his property to avoid liability and leaf removal costs, although in the summer neighboring property trees seem to provide enough shade to keep the buildings cool. I feel like the lantern should work now that I cleaned it a few weeks and if it doesn’t I don’t know how I’m going to fix it before heading out to camp on Saturday.

While I haven’t really planned out my whole camping trip yet ⛺ I do have some things in mind and I’m thinking about what I will need for camping and my packing list 📃. I might start doing a little packing on Christmas Day 🎄 as I told John Wolcott I’ll be over to his house on Thursday after work 🔎and then Friday I’ll have to finish packing and getting finished for camp as I don’t want to delay my departure. I hate driving NY 79 through Ithaca with all the aggressive drivers so I’ll probably take US 20 out but that’s a long drive. Alternatively I guess I could take NY 13 down through Cortland but that can be pokey too. Seneca Falls, decorated as Bedford Falls 🌉 is fun to explore during the holiday season, Montezuma Wildlife Refuge will be closed for the winter. 🐦

In four weeks on January 20 the sun will be setting at 4:52 pm,🌄 which is 26 minutes and 47 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had snow and temperatures between 21 and 0 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 30 and 14 degrees. The record high of 53 degrees was set back in 2006.

Not sure I’m happy with the current voltage settings on the voltage switch. 🔋 Neither the starting or the accessory batteries were well charged today, but then again I only got like 30 watt hours of power today. It said that the starting battery charged for 3 minutes today, not sure if the switch tripped multiple times. I may have to push the switch up to 14.0 volts again but in the lousey sun angle ☀ of winter not sure if I’m going to ever have enough power to make it ever engage. I might raise the voltage for camping as maximizing the accessory batteries charge us kind of a priority with the long cold winter nights. It easy enough to adjust those settings.

So far I’ve been fairly happy with the red screen both on my laptop and phone 📱 but it’s a pain to get things adjusted just right. But once the settings are good enough I can just turn them on and off and hopefully that will help with sleep 😴. Definitely it’s good to tone down the blue light from my computer monitor 💻.

I really do watch too many farm, hunting, trapping and off grid living videos on YouTube 📹 but it’s a much needed change from my urban life and takes me to worlds far away from Albany. A camera can bring you into a tie stall dairy barn and see the milking and feeding, show how to skin and process a coyote pelt or even many the day to day parts of living off grid with limited electricity generated on site, heating irg wood, etc. 🐻Wisdom shared over a camera. Because I downloaded the videos and watch them offline, I don’t have to watch those stupid ads but I also don’t get to like or comment on people’s channels. But if I had the internet at home, I’d probably be distracted all the other mindless things to do on the internet. 😼

Looking ahead, Bacon Day 🥓 is in 1 weeks, Make Your Dream Come True Day 🏡 is in 3 weeks, National Popcorn Day 🍿 is in 4 weeks, National Cheese Lovers Day 🧀 is a month away, National Pie Day 🍰 is in 4 weeks, Clean Your Computer Day 🧹 is in 7 weeks, Presidents Day 👴 is in 8 weeks, Read Across America Day 📚 is in 10 weeks, Worm Moon 🌕 is in 11 weeks, Arbor Day 🌳 is in 18 weeks, 8 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 19 weeks, Flower Moon 🌕 is in 21 weeks, Memorial Day Weekend Starts 🏕️ is in 5 months, Memorial Day 🇺🇸 is in 22 weeks, June 🍹 is in 23 weeks, Average High is 80 🏖 is in 26 weeks and Primary Day 🗳️ is in 6 months.