Aldis in Colonie was so packed with people yesterday, picked over grocery wise with people stocking up for the winter storm that is supposedly approaching today, I just turned around and left. I look across the street at the Market32 with the packed parking lot, and tossed my hands up knowing chances were slim I’d get any whole-wheat flour or other needed groceries. Best to wait until today, when the stockers have been able to restore the shopping experience by morning. I’ll just do Walmart after I shower this morning.

Good morning! Happy Soon to be Wet and Sloppy Sunday. It seems like it rains every Sunday lately. Without fail. Rain loves the weekend. Clouds and 35 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 6 pm.

Decided I wanted pancakes today, and I have a lot of oranges, so I decided to try out full-orange pancakes, milling both the orange and peal to make some rather zesty fully flavored pancakes with some lemon juice topped with some greek yogurt and honey. Wow did they come out good — that orange flavor really shined, especially some ginger, vanilla in the mixture. Finished up the remaining oatmeal I had in the mixture, along with the whole wheat flour and had to fall back onto using some rye flour, but it worked out well.

Today will rain and snow. High of 35 degrees at 7am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 9th. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. Not going to stick more A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 45 degrees. The record high of 56 was set in 1916. 9.6 inches of snow fell back in 1897.

Riding trail in the Albany Pine Bush was great yesterday though by mid-day I was starting to feel a bit worn out from all the trail riding. The section off of Kings Road was closed due to them logging and using a tub grinder to chop up the black locus, blackberries and invasive trees as part of the restoration effort. Ended up riding my bike around Morris and Curry Road to see what I could spot from the road both ecologically and development wise, to further educate myself for Save the Pine Bush. In the afternoon, after shopping at Salvation Army I decided to head up Balltown Road to Aquaduct, as I wanted to check out the old Aquaduct that once carried the second Erie Canal across the Mohawk River and then NY 146 until the 1964 bridge was completed, and the aquaduct demolished to improve the river’s flow and prevent ice jamming. Seems odd these days when Mohawk River ice jams are rare, because the river rarely jams up with so much ice. Climate change has changed a lot in our world. There was some ice on Mohawk River but not a lot. Then I rode my bike down the Erie Canalway to the ALCO Trail through that swanky new Mohawk Harbor development, then through the Stockade and Riverfront Park, then the Erie Canalway Trail to Lock 8 and ultimately out to I-890 – NY 5 Connector near Rotterdam Junction.

While Aldis was insane yesterday, I did luck out at the Salvation Army in Karner – Niskayuna – Lisha Kill or whatever the area off of Central Avenue and got two nice dressier shirts. The stuff you get there is nicer then anything you might find at Walmart and cheaper then going to a place like Macy’s or JC Pennies. Plus often much higher quality. Two really nice shirts for $9.60. Can’t beat prices like that. Not only are there wonderful deals at Salvation Army, you’re supporting their disaster and community development efforts. That place is a complete dump on the outside, with people leaving discarded furniture and trash all around it, but inside it really is the best thrift store to get really nice clothing, often for prices far below other thrift stores around. Not going to find anything that nice so cheap at Goodwill or one of the “high end” thrift store boutiques like in Delmar or Slingerlands. Also looked at lamps for my new office, but I’m going to wait until I move into my permanent office before committing to buying a desk lap, assuming I can’t find one in a storage closet somewhere. Thrift shop’s the way to go for that — I am thinking I can put a 150 watt equivalent bulb in it as a bright desk lamp. I just hate the overhead florescent lighting.

Solar noon is at 12:09 pm with sun having an altitude of 29.1° from the due south horizon (-41.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour starts at 4:21 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (238°). The sunset is in the west-southwest (246°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:03 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 11 seconds with dusk around 5:33 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds later than yesterday. The best time to look at the stars is after 6:07 pm. At sunset, look for rain and snow and temperatures around 34 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 8 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 54 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 14 seconds over today.

Tonight will snow, mainly before 4am. Low of 33 degrees at 5am. 18 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 5th. North wind 9 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible. Ain’t going to be much snow on the roads with that temperature, especially if they’re treated with the tons of deicing chemicals as they most certainly are. Maybe this week will be a good one to wash my truck. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 22 degrees. The record low of -10 occurred back in 1925.

Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day when the sun will be setting at 5:22 pm with dusk at 5:50 pm. I was totally getting teased the other day in my old office for being such a complainer. I know, I’m such a perfectionist. Cheap bastard too, but I’m saving all my money so I can blow it someday on land, goats , hogs, and cattle. I’ve been told cattle are the fastest way to be broke forever, maybe except for horses. Probably someday I’ll meet a girl who is as much a hillbilly as I’m and I’ll have to agree on horses in exchange for having a burn barrel and land. Actually, I think I complain about things, but it’s different from what others complain about. I don’t like working in suburbs, when so many others love the acres of parking for easy motoring and the convenience of avoiding crowded elevators, lol. On that day in 2023, we had mostly sunny skies snow showers and temperatures between 38 and 23 degrees. I wouldn’t say that’s spilled milk, but a rather nice day. Maybe just a few drips of milk after the teats are stripped. Typically, the high temperature is 35 degrees. Going to be in the forties during this up coming week. We hit a record high of 59 back in 1981.