Good morning! Happy Saturday. Partly cloudy and 45 degrees in Delmar. There is a north-northwest breeze at 6 mph. It was overcast this morning when I first woke up but there is more sun now — but it’s not expected to last. I think soon I will take a shower and go for a walk at Five Rivers or maybe Thacher Park?

Today will have occasional breaks of sun, with a high of 51 degrees at 3pm. One degree below normal. It’s November.   North wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable in the afternoon. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. The high last year was 53 degrees. The record high of 76 was set in 1994. There was a dusting of snow in 2006.

The sun will set at 5:43 pm with dusk around 6:13 pm, which is one minute and 13 seconds earlier than yesterday. Set your clock back one hour tonight. Won’t see sunsets this late again until around President’s Day. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy conditions and 49 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 10 hours and 9 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 28 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly after 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 41 degrees at 4am. Five degrees above normal. Southeast wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Set your old fashion clocks back an hour before bed. In 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 17 occurred back in 1951.

So today I think I will go hiking at Five Rivers for a bit this morning before the clouds push back in. It was cloudy this morning but it’s cleared out a bit for a while. It’s November. Kind of chilly morning, but that’s expected for this time of year. I really should think about putting the storm windows in an turning on the heat at some point because its as cold when I woke up.

I can’t wait until my Arduino beginners kit arrives and I can start making electronic things again. I haven’t done anything electronic in a long time, and it seems like one can make a lot of interesting things with that small, inexpensively, easily programmable microcontroller and simple electronic components. I’ve looked and those off-brand Arduinos can purchased for $5 or less, and they only consume 20-50 milliamps but can provide programmable logic, pulse width osclliation for speed control and dimming, and read a wide variety of outputs. Plus most electronic components are quite inexpensive ordered online, from the perf board to capacitors and transitors. 

After years of delay, I swear that this month I will get the solar panel mounted on  my truck. I am going to use Yakima bolts and 1/8 inch aluminum bar and bolt the panel directly onto that. The bolts are brass and the bar is aluminum, so I am bit concerned about corrosion and damage from one metal being harder then the other, but I will have to research further. The panel will be permanetly hooked into the solar controller and will top off the accessory battery anytime I’m parked in the a sunny location. This will allow me to camp multiple days without driving far — as long as I’m parked in the sun and the kayak is off the roof. I’ve had the panel for three years now, but I think I’ve finally figured this out. I will order the Yakima bolts this afternoon — probably two sets, that way I can have eight mounting points to make sure things stay nice and secure.

I am one for making grand plans but never getting around to doing them right away. But that’s fine, patience is good. Over time, technology gets better and cheaper, knowledge grows so you don’t do as much stupid and expensive shit, and your savings and investments grow. I’m quite fine putting off buying land and put togther an off-grid homestead for another decade plus so I can buy more with cash plus learn a lot more. I am fairly compentent about 12 volt wiring, are book smart about electronics basics, but I haven’t built anything electronic since I was a kid. Computers kind of replaced my interest in electronics. While I don’t endorse resisting new “green” technology like some of Republicans do, I say “tread’ carefully, because sometimes technologies like hybrid buses and first generation LED street lights have proven to be defective technology compared to the second generation. Conservatism matters!

More pressing updates!!! I had pumpkin bagles for breakfast. I was rather underimpressed. Maybe with pumpkin creamcheese and a toaster over they would have been better then just heated in the oven with butter. But my toaster oven is broken — something shorted out in it — and I’ve yet to be able to figure out how to fix it. So I live without.

Tonight the sun will set at 5:43 pm in Albany. Then tonight we set back the clocks one hour as we return to standard time. Here is what that means for sunsets going forward over the next few months…. 

Standard Time Begins – Sunset on Sunday, November 5 is at 4:42 pm

4:30 pm sunset – Friday, November 17

Earliest Sunset – Saturday, December 9 at 4:22 pm

4:30 pm sunset – Wednesday, December 27
4:45 pm sunset – Friday, January 12
5:00 pm sunset – Wednesday, January 24
5:15 pm sunset – Sunday, February 4
5:30 pm sunset – Friday, February 16
5:45 pm sunset – Wednesday, February 28

Daylight savings time returns on Sunday, March 11th – Sunset at 6:59 pm

7:00 pm sunset – Monday, March 12