Good evening. Currently mostly clear and 22 degrees in Delmar. Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 16. Northwest wind around 7 mph. Waxing gibbous moon, setting at 4:17 am. Getting closer to the full moon for sure. Tomorrow’s sunrise will be at 7:18 am with first light at 6:48 am, which is one minute and 42 seconds earlier then today.

Tim Nichols presentation at the Save the Pine Bush Dinner was interesting, I learned a lot about his life long campaign against smoking. I may not have agreed with all his politics or tactics, but he seemed like a genuinely nice guy and a smart individual. His crusade against smoking came from his heart and not just because he was a paid lobbyist for the Lung Association. Government needs a few people on both sides of the aisle like him to give it a moral conscience. Negotiators and those in the middle are important, but so are the fringes. The Save the Pine Bush Dinners always have some great speakers. I got to hear his whole speech tonight, as Claire ever so kindly did the dishes tonight.

I’m tired but it seemed like a quick bus ride home, maybe because I was playing on my phone and reading some news articles. I was also listening to music. Sometimes the band Bread can hit a nerve after a long day at work.

I’ve grown increasingly interested in drinking water quality since the Flint Water scandal and somewhat alarmed about the increasing appearance of trihalomethanes in our drinking water in many cities including the town of Bethlehem. I know local water boards blame tighter federal standards for the violations but carcinogenic trihalomethanes aren’t a good thing to be in drinking water – they’re byproducts of chlorine disinfection – when it’s used with water containing a fair amount of suspended solids, mostly caused by pollution and poorly treated sewage as is a problem in the Albany Pool of the Hudson River. The worse the water quality, the more chlorine used and the more suspended solids, producing more trihalomethanes like chloroform. In other words, more treated human shit in your drinking water means more cancer causing chemicals. To make matters worse, trihalomethanes are corrosive, they can leach lead and copper out of pipes, as happened in Flint. I won’t stop drinking local water, but I will keep advocating for a cleaner river.

I hope you had a good Penguin Awareness Day. Sleep well!

Good morning! Happy Penguin Awareness Day. It is currently sunny and 19 degrees in Delmar. Today will be for the most part sunny, with a high near 29. The penguins will like the sun but not the wind. Northwest wind 13 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Blustery for sure. There is road salt everywhere as we progress through the grimness of winter.

The only glimmer of hope on these cold and salt covered winter mornings is the days are getting longer. Sunset will be at 4:53 pm with twilight at 5:24 pm which is one minute and 14 seconds later then yesterday. Every minute and seconds count. Before you know it, the sun will set after 8 PM and it will be 70 degrees most evenings.

There are 5 days until Opposite Day. Should be a fun day to celebrate. This day in 1949, Point Four Program a program for economic aid to poor countries announced by President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address for a full term as President.