Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 33 degrees in Delmar. Calm wind. Kind of a gloomy but not too cold evening after a rather dark and gloomy day, that got off to such a bad start with the bus running late. But I’m not longer bitter. I promise. I guess they need emission and inspection checks from hardworking individuals to make the state wealthy, so it can spend it on the welfare queens. Steal from the poor, give to welfare queens who always are illegally parked in front of the County Welfare office. At any rate the gloom isn’t expected to last too much into tomorrow. The skies will clear tomorrow around 7 am. But more clouds for Thursday. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 29 degrees at 5am. Three degrees below normal. Cool but not that cold. Calm wind. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 34 degrees. Closer to normal. The record low of 14 occurred back in 1939.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon with 10% illuminated. The moon will rise tomorrow at 3:40 am. It may be clearing by then, so you might see if you get up way before I will be getting up. The New Moon is on Friday night with a chance of rain then rain is likely. The Cold Moon is on Sunday, December 3rd. The sun will rise at 6:46 am with the first light at 6:16 am, which is one minute and 15 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 15 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 10 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with a high of 45 degrees at 1pm. Yeah, the sun at least for one day. But still three degrees below normal. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. The high last year was 46 degrees. The record high of 74 was set in 1993. 4.8 inches of snow fell back in 1906. Long time ago.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap, even by November standards. Saturday, snow showers likely before 10am, then rain showers. High near 44. Chance of precipitation is 80%. I heard freezing rain up north. Sunday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 43. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Typical average high for the weekend is 47 degrees.

I still think I will take Friday off, if I can get it off. I got the square nuts to build the rack for my solar panel. Now I just need to find bolts that will fit snuggly, cut and drill the aluminum bars that I will buy. Maybe I will do that on Friday. I will have to see if my parents will be around, as I may want to ask my dad if I can borrow his drill. I have diamond-blades for cutting into the aluminum but lack a power drill of my own. Maybe I should think though about adding that tool to my bin. But first I have to carefully measure everything out so I don’t accidentially mess up a hole and things don’t fit tight.

But I’m staying in town for the weekend, because I don’t want to deal with freezing rain up north. I’m not ready to be out washing the road salt of my truck, moreover, I don’t want to get frozen in the truck cap, or have to deal with the extra patrols for the opening of the Southern Zone regular season, even if I will be in the Northern Zone. I’m still hoping to get away on Black Friday through that Sunday though. 

Traffic was pretty heavy coming home on the bus tonight, and I was pretty cheesed out on Facebook about those stupid huts they want to build in the Adirondack Preserve, and charge people big bucks to stay at. Public lands belong to the public, they should be free to use. Pay for public lands by selling timber, hay, and grazing rights. Some oil and gas development. Keep the facilities rustic and manage resource extraction so it pays for public use of the land without compromising it. I don’t get the environmentalists who don’t use office or toilet paper. Or those who want even higher fees to use public lands that should be free for a wide variety of rustic uses. Multiple use can benefit all New Yorkers, we don’t have live under the extreme idea that not a single tree may ever be fallen inside the blue lines of the Adirondack or Catskill Parks. But unfortunately, Manhattan and surrounding areas where all the people live don’t understand that natural resources can be managed for sustainable harvests for generations to come.

I put together a map of the relative state tax rates, but unfortunately the Google Maps export got messed up, so it won’t be posted until later in the week. It also sucks because the US Census Data on State Taxes doesn’t include local taxes, which actually makes New York look lowered taxed then it really is. New York has high state taxes, but when you add in local taxes, we have some of the highest taxes of all. Most states don’t rely on localities to tax as high as New York does, especially with the big Medicaid mandate that pushed down to counties. 

I continue to work on my light dimmer program. Been researching color theory and things along the line of HSV to RGB conversions, along with color temperature algorthms, as I want to be able to have very percise flexibillity in getting just the right light for my bedroom. Also rewrote a timer algorithm that is non-blocking of the central loop, so I can use the remote to adjust lighting settings while a ongoing mode is occuring in my program. I can’t wait until my RGB LED strip arrives, along with the transitors and power supply so I can start playing with a real-life demostration.

Also been looking at the different methods of building circuits boards for permanent use — perf board versus strip board — various soldering irons versus kryon twist wiring. And all the stuff that goes along with soldering like choosing between lead and lead-free solder, solder wicks, etc. I have a solder gun and certainly have wired bigger things but I need to be more percise for soldering electronics. While I still hunt and shoot with leaded ammunition, and l’m not concerned about lead fumes when soldering as my other electrical solder is leaded and lead portion doesn’t melt or vaporize while solder typically, I think I’m going to go lead free for future electronic projects. That’s the future, and it makes the net result less toxic where it gets disposed of in a fire eventually or properly recycled at an e-waste event. I am planning to move out to country and live off gird after all eventually. And I hear a lot of fire is involved with that kind of life. Hopefully though I will get a lot of use out of the projects I end up building and will be able to salvage components from them at the end of their lives. 
I might eventually even switch to lead-free ammunition for hunting and target practice, but that’s a whole another ball of wax because traditional ammunition is a lot cheaper, you use a lot more of it, and it’s a lot easier on your barrel. Solder in contrast is pretty small cost, as even if my electronics hobby picks up and I make a lot of solder bridges on perf board, it’s still only an occassional use. Lead poisioning of Bald Eagles and other raptors is tragic, but as species, it really isn’t a threat to them like DDT once was. Lead shot to humans might break teeth if your not careful, but I doubt you ever swallow it or get enough fragments to do any harm as an adult. I get to get out to range to do some shooting or somewhere in the back country where I have a safe backstop sometime soon. I do pick up my shotgun shells and spent brass as much as possible.

Back to electronics. I also found a local supplier of Arduino Uno cards for a good price in Newburgh on Ebay. Something like $7 each with free one or two day shipping. I should also look at EBay. I don’t have an Ebay prime account but my parents do. Once my LED driver is done, I will want future units for future projects. I calculated that the Arduino run on a 12 volt power supply consumes about a 1/4 watt an hour or 1.9 kWh a year, so it’s pretty reasonable. I expect the LED dimmer to always be powered up so to turn the lights by remote when ever I need them except when I’m out of the town for the weekend or on vacation or traveling for work. 

I was also reading about the Raspberry PI. That’s a miniature full-blown computer compared to the Ardiuno which just a fairly basic microprocessor for driving simple electronics. The Raspberry Pi can drive LEDs at different but it really over kill for that, and at $35 is much more expensive. The base model of the Raspberry Pi uses 3.5 watts, which is nothing for a minature computer on a chip board, and has wireless internet, monitor and takes USB disk port, and runs Linux including a LXDE window manager. I could see the Raspberry Pi as a home computer in an off-grid home, as a much more efficent alternative to using my laptop with a 12 volt power supply. My laptop is fairly energy efficent, but when it’s charging, it can use upwards of 90 watts which is a lot of electricity, when your trying to make every watt count on a battery powered setup. 

I don’t envision ever owning a television or home internet. My smartphone provides plenty of internet access, if I need high speed internet access like for uploading photos or video, there are always public hotspots in town that I can stop at local libraries and the alike. I had that TV tuner for a while before it stopped working, but I almost never used it except for occassionally watching the PBS Newshour. But I quit watching that, as I found it was just such a time waste. I really am not a fan of all that technology.

In four weeks on December 12 the sun will be setting at 4:21 pm, which is 10 minutes and 46 seconds earlier then tonight. The fact is the sunsets don’t get much earlier then they are now, especially on a gray and depressing days like today. In 2016 on that day, we had rain, snow, freezing fog, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 40 and 28 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 37 and 23 degrees. The record high of 62 degrees was set back in 1979.

Looking ahead, Election Day 2018 is in 51 weeks and Election Day 2020 is in 155 weeks. That’s pretty much all you do on Tuesdays is vote. That said, I need to start adding some of the 2018 calendar and special dates to holiday.txt file that powers that automagic date count down thingy-ma-bobber. 

I think it’s time to get some sleep. Good night.

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Cloudy and 34 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a north breeze at 5 mph. The skies will clear around 5 pm. Kind of a gray morning on the bus ride downtown, and cranky, because I am not going to be in the office until well after 9 AM despite getting up early and walking down to the express bus.

Got to work eventually, the bus was delayed by the traffic jam caused by the emissions and registration check on NY 32. Did they really need to pull over and check opacity for every single semi truck at rush hour slowing traffic to a crawl, especially in an area that has no air pollution problem? I guess you could make a different case for South Pearl Street or residential areas, but not on major highways in rural areas. I guess the Environmental Conservation Officers and Bethlehem Police were bored as fuck prior the opening of regular season on Saturday. I get up early to walk down to the express bus stop, and I’m still late to work because the bus gets stuck in all of this mess. I’m cranky.

Today will be mostly cloudy, with a high of 41 degrees at 1pm. Eight degrees below normal. North wind 3 to 5 mph. A year ago, we had sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. The high last year was 58 degrees. The record high of 70 was set in 1973. 14.4 inches of snow fell back in 1972. That was a pretty big storm by any standard, but Albany has certainly seen worse.

The sun will set at 4:33 pm with dusk around 5:03 pm, which is 55 seconds earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for partly cloudy conditions and 39 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 46 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 10 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 26 degrees at 6am. Six degrees below normal. Light northwest wind. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 34 degrees. The record low of 14 occurred back in 1939.

Made soup and crescent rolls for dinner last night. That was a pretty good dinner. Waffles again for breakfast. I do get a bit tired of waffles, but I figure it’s a fairly good and easy breakfast, especially when topped with peaches this morning, or other fruit like blueberries and strawberries. I had eggs with cheese and ham on Monday morning, which seems to be more filling, but I don’t like the extra dishes to clean, especially if I accidentally get the pan on and it gets burnt.

Great big bearded tom this morning, at the intersection between US 9W and NY 32. He was just standing out there staring at the passing traffic and annoyed commuters that were late to work due to the truck inspection.

I may take off Friday, depending on how much time I have left to use before the end of the year, but I don’t think I will head far out of town. I just don’t want to get caught with freezing rain up north — even if it doesn’t last all day. Waking up with everything frozen and covered with ice in the morning would not be fun — even if I’m just a few hundred feet from the winter-maintained NY 8. Plus it’s the first day of regular deer season in the Southern Zone, so while I doubt there would be Sheriff/Conservation offices patrols up north stopping by, as you would in most state forests in the Southern Zone, it’s quite possible that there would be on NY 30, once in the Southern Zone coming back home on Saturday. Not that it’s a big deal, but I still don’t like answering questions or being delayed on my trip home — although I’m sure they would admire my Molon Labe flag.

Maybe over the Thanksgiving Weekend — e.g. Black Friday through Sunday I could go for a road trip. It depends how much snow there is out there. I probably would go to the Northern Zone because deer season is mostly done up there if I wanted to go hunting or camping. That said, some of the bigger campsites on NY 8 are probably already taken by people who have deer camps set up there through December. If there isn’t any snow, I might go up and camp by Mason Lake. That is pretty with the frost and cold in the morning. I want to do some hiking too. Maybe Moxham Mountain like I’ve been talking about, although I like Mason Lake as I know I will have cell service there, and it makes the evenings more fun. I guess there is always a possibility I could go further north. But I doubt it.

Continuing to work with my Arduino IDE and developing the LED driver. I’ve been working with the IR detector which works with the TV remote that never worked with my HDTV box, the later which broke a few months back, and I’ve not been able to fix it. It was easy enough to get the code from the remote when pressing a button, and make it fire up an LED, dim it, or make it blink or do some kind of routine. That said, I will have re-write some of the code, because with the Arduino you can’t run processes in the background, so anytime you call delay(), it hangs the microprocessor until the loop runs again.

So you have to avoid calling delay, instead storing the time the program has started and check the time each time you go around the loop to see if the program needs to do further action like dimming a pin or turning it on or off. Kind of pain to write, but it works okay. There is an interrupt function you can call to break a delay(), but from what I’ve read you shouldn’t really be hanging the processor with the delay() function. Maybe there is a simpler way to do it — it would be neat if the compiler would allow you call functions in the background as a thread — but I can’t figure it out. Actually, I think messing with interrupts and breaking functions might be more complicated then just repeatedly calling the loop and checking against the time.

Looking ahead, there are 51 weeks until Election Day 2018 when the sun will be setting at 4:41 pm with dusk at 5:11 pm. Yes, it will come back around the guitar. On that day in 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 51 and 35 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 73 back in 2015.