Good evening. Currently overcast and 40 degrees in Delmar. Warm mercury wise but feels colder with the wind. Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. West wind 10 to 13 mph.

Tonight we have a Waining Gibbous Moon with 80% illuminated. Tomorrow’s sunrise will be at 7:13 am with first light at 6:43 am, which is one minute and 54 seconds earlier then today.

Spent too much time fiddling with PyQGIS trying to figure out the ins and outs of the API. Pretty much got the plug-in for automation purposes done, although I already have ideas on how to further automate and improve things. Certainly frees me from the routine of making maps in favor of the stuff that can’t be automated like styling of icons, zoom perspective, and custom text. But the fewer times I have to spell a state forest or mountain name, the less chances for mistake. Let the computer do the boring stuff.

The evening walk and trip to the library didn’t happen. Oh well. I guess it wasn’t to be. Sometimes when you discover a new toy it can be self consuming . At any rate, this coding project can’t last much longer, as there is only so much I can automate and still make interesting, unique looking maps. It’s winter and cold out, so I’m not missing much.

I hope you had a good Australia Day. Sleep well!

Good morning! Australia Day. It is currently overcast and 36 degrees in Delmar. Kind of depressing but at least we are avoiding the freezing rain they are getting up north. Today will have scattered showers, mainly between noon and 3pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44. Northwest wind 13 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. With this mostly bleak winter, you have to wonder if suicides have increased. Probably not but day after drab day just ain’t fun. Most of the highways with suicide lanes have long had them removed for safety purposes.

Sunset will be at 5:01 pm with twilight at 5:31 pm which is one minute and 17 seconds later then yesterday. It’s official, the post 5 pm sunset is here. Tonight we will have a Waining Gibbous Moon with 80% illuminated. It will rise at 7:48 pm. The Last Quarter Moon is on Sunday and the New Moon is on February 8.

There are 1 month, 26 days until First Day of Spring. Everybody in New York State is counting down to that day, especially if it involves sunny weather and warmer temperatures.

This day in 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had “sexual relations” with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Duly noted. It’s remarkable how many Americans want to return to the 1990s, a decade while the economy was strong was pretty miserable for a lot of working Americans. Whatever happened to having fresh new ideas?

Today is pay day, which is good because the rent check is due at the end of the month and there is bills to pay. By the time one pays the bills, the IRA account, savings account, and everything else, there usually is only a hundred bucks above the bank’s minimum deposit if even that. Life is so darn expensive.