Problem assigning to and testing a variable

I want to forward copies of selected messages to my work address,
and one of the tests is the time it is received.  I am having
trouble with the assignment and testing of DAY and HOUR variables.

I'm testing this at home with procmail v3.10 1994/10/31, but it will
be run at my account at the ISP using procmail v3.11pre5 1997/04/03.
(I know these are old.  I'm working on getting them updated.)  What
I have so far is getting delivered properly, but the logs indicate
it's not without some problems.  This is what I have in the rc file
used to test this stuff at home:
   
   PATH=/home/deh/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin
   DEFAULT=/var/spool/mail/deh
   PMDIR=$HOME/Mail
   INCLUDERC=$PMDIR/.procmail_testrc
   LOGFILE=$PMDIR/procmaillog
   LOGABSTRACT=all
   VERBOSE=yes                  #change to yes for debugging
   DAY=`date +%a`
   HOUR=`date +%H`
   NL="
   "
        :0
        * ? test $HOUR -gt 12
        {
                LOG="    $HOUR > 12 $NL"
                :0:
                $PMDIR/12+
        }
   
        :0
        * ? test $HOUR -le 12
        {
                LOG="    $HOUR =< 12 $NL"
                :0:
                $PMDIR/12-
        }

A test message sent around 5:20p ends up with the following log
entries.  The assignment to $DAY and $HOUR fail the first time
through, followed by a fail of 'test' because the variables
don't have a value.  Then it tries it all again, and everything
seems to work ok.

   procmail: Assigning "LOGABSTRACT=all"
   procmail: Assigning "VERBOSE=yes"
   procmail: Executing "date,+%a"
   date: write error: Bad file number
   procmail: Assigning "DAY="
   procmail: Executing "date,+%H"
   date: write error: Bad file number
   procmail: Assigning "HOUR="
   procmail: Assigning "NL=
   "
   procmail: Executing " test $HOUR -gt 12"
   /bin/bash: test: -gt: unary operator expected
   procmail: Program failure (1) of " test $HOUR -gt 12"
   procmail: No match on " test $HOUR -gt 12"
   procmail: Executing " test $HOUR -le 12"
   /bin/bash: test: -le: unary operator expected
   procmail: Program failure (1) of " test $HOUR -le 12"
   procmail: No match on " test $HOUR -le 12"
   procmail: Assigning "LOGFILE=/home/deh/Mail/procmaillog"
   procmail: Opening "/home/deh/Mail/procmaillog"
   procmail: Assigning "LOGABSTRACT=all"
   procmail: Assigning "VERBOSE=yes"
   procmail: Executing "date,+%a"
   procmail: Assigning "DAY=Sun"
   procmail: Executing "date,+%H"
   procmail: Assigning "HOUR=17"
   procmail: Assigning "NL=
   "
   procmail: Executing " test $HOUR -gt 12"
   procmail: Match on " test $HOUR -gt 12"
   procmail: Assigning "LOG=    17 > 12 
   "
       17 > 12 
   procmail: Locking "/home/deh/Mail/12+.lock"
   procmail: Assigning "LASTFOLDER=/home/deh/Mail/12+"
   procmail: Opening "/home/deh/Mail/12+"
   procmail: [7609] Sun Jan  4 17:17:16 1998
   procmail: Unlocking "/home/deh/Mail/12+.lock"
   From deh  Sun Jan  4 17:17:14 1998
    Subject: procmail test 9
     Folder: /home/deh/Mail/12+                                             361
   procmail: Notified comsat: "deh(_at_)1356:/home/deh/Mail/12+"

When this is working ok, I won't need both the -gt and -le tests.
This is just for testing purposes here.  What obvious problem
am I missing this time?

Thanks.

 - Don