Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 40 degrees in Delmar. ☁ There is a south breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow around 8 pm. ☃️ Then a long cold period will be upon us.

Tonight will rain and snow before 3am, then rain, snow, and sleet between 3am and 4am, then rain after 4am. 🌧 Low of 35 degrees at 3am. Three degrees above normal, which is similiar to a typical night around November 3rd. That’s kind of good otherwise it would be a quite snowy evening. South wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Little or no snow and sleet accumulation expected. In 2017, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 13 occurred back in 1981.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 28% illuminated. The moon will rise at 11:55 am. The First Quarter Moon is on Wednesday night with mostly clear skies. The Beaver Moon 🌝 is on Thursday, November 22nd. Good trapping. The sun will rise at 6:44 am with the first light at 6:14 am, which is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 10 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 14 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will rain, mainly before noon, then a slight chance of showers after 3pm. 🌧 High of 39 degrees at 12pm. 10 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 6th. Kind of a wet and cold day ahead. North wind 5 to 14 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 69 was set in 1964. Not exactly a hot day even back then. 6 inches of snow fell back in 1886.❄

Cool this weekend with temperatures running 10 degrees below normal but otherwise sunny. 😀 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 42. I’ll take that. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 33. Maybe I will head out of town this weekend to the Adirondacks for some snow camping and skiing. Going to be very cold up north with all the snow but I have the heater and will bundle up. Typical average high for the weekend is 47 degrees.

I think truck cap camping is done until spring as the snow is setting in early.⛺ It’s good for the deer hunters tracking deer but not so good for getting into the back country with a truck. I can certainly hot tent camp but with my little plastic sled I’m limited to how far I can drag gear back in the woods.

I got grocery shopping today, got down to the library for podcasts, aired back up my tires except for the one I couldn’t reach with the cord to bring up to the proper pressure (fix tomorrow), went for a nice walk, did some reading and got other projects done. All and all I thought it was a productive day. 👍

Back to work tomorrow, traveling out of town again tomorrow in the evening, heading back out to Central New York for a few days. 🚗 I am a little worried about the threat of snow and icy roads but it looks like the timing will mean that I will miss the worse of it when I’m on the road. ❄

One thing that is frustrating is that I misplaced my small gage wire stripper, which has put my electronics project on hold for now. ✂ I used it for something I was fixing on my truck but it wouldn’t work for that job as it’s only works with the very fine wires I use for my electronics projects. Unfortunately it’s the kind of thing I can only really get online as Radio Shack is no more locally.

I keep finding yellow jackets in my apartment. 🐝 When I got back last week there was a bunch of dead ones on the floor, and each time I turn up the heat I find a one or two more around. Hopefully I don’t have a nest inside somewhere that will become reactivated come spring time.

I’ve been posting more essays lately with my thoughts. I will be the first to admit some of my ideas are controversial but that’s intentional.📰 I’m tired of hearing the conventional wisdom in the news, I think long sacred cows need to be challenged. Phil Ochs is my idol. 🎸

In four weeks on December 10 the sun will be setting at 4:22 pm,🌄 which is 13 minutes and 10 seconds earlier then tonight. Pretty close to the earliest sunset of the year, only off by a few seconds. In 2017 on that day, we had snow, patches of fog, mist, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 36 and 18 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 38 and 23 degrees. The record high of 64 degrees was set back in 1966.

Looking ahead, Cyber Monday 🛍️ is in 2 weeks, New Years Eve 🎆 is in 7 weeks, Martin Luther King Day 🖤 is in 10 weeks, Average High is 40 ☀️ is in 16 weeks, Daylight Savings Time 🌆 is in 4 months, April Fools Day 🤡 is in 20 weeks, Tax Day 💰 is in 22 weeks, Mothers Day 👩‍ is in 6 months, Memorial Day 🇺🇸 is in 28 weeks, July 🏊🏿 is in 33 weeks and Last Sunset After 8 PM 🌆 is in 9 months.