Good morning GH, It is just past 1:00 AM in "The City" and our current temperature is 18° with light snow showers. The prediction is for 70% snow showers today, 50% on New Year's Day, and 20% on Thursday. We may see an additional one to three inches of accumulation over those days, just enough to require dealing with it. In Michigan, we consider that a spring like season. If it wasn't for the snow, everybody would live here, to borrow from Oprah. But, if we didn't have the snow, then everybody would live here and we'd have to have Coast Guard Fest all year long. We truly would be Key West, FL with all that brings. I think we'll keep things just as they are.

I just learned something off the Internet. Using a shortcut that someone suggested, I am now able to add the degree symbol to my typing just as my speech recognition software does. Small pleasures as they say. Every now and then, useful information can be found on the Internet. You just have to be sure that you know the source of the information.

Monday, Mary and I took a pleasure trip. As a famous comedian used to say, I took a pleasure trip today and dropped my                                (fill in the blank) off at the                                (again, fill in the blank). In this case, we took a trip to Kentwood to pick up my new to me guitar. Mary was very gracious as she drove through the snow for an hour there and back. The return part of the journey actually took longer due to traffic. Kentwood is actually on the south side of GR, and every two miles, the stores, fast-food restaurants, etc., repeat themselves. Some people like it, Mary and I were not thrilled.

But I digress. I didn't want to get my hopes up. A used 12 string Ovation guitar that I had to have shipped from CT and sent to Kentwood, MI, a guitar which I had only seen in a picture, is always a gamble. Dents, scratches, a worn fret-board, etc., are all possibilities. However, when I opened the case, I was very pleased. Other than needing a new set of strings and a little polishing, the guitar is in pristine condition. The store that was selling it described the condition as good to excellent, and they were right. Plus, it came with its original hard shell case. What's not to like?

I was surprised that the guitar was green in color. Mary asked, "Didn't you know that?" I said, "Remember who you are talking to, I thought it was black." In any event, Mary gave her a name, Ivy. Most guitars have a very feminine shape to them, so Ivy is the perfect name. I think Steph would agree with giving most things a name. Cars, guitars, etc. Hey, I even name plants and trees. That's how the apple tree I planted by our old house in IL got her name, Appleonia. After all, fruit bearing trees are feminine too. I wonder if the new car that Adam and Steph just got has suggested a name yet? Steph always names Adam's cars for him.

As we were leaving the house, the delivery service was dropping off the stand that I had ordered to hold the guitar in my music room/office. Now I have to decide on the placement in the room. Side by side with "Blue," or book-ending "Bridget," or ?????? So many possibilities.

I can't wait to get my shoulder in better shape so that I can play her. I think this may be good motivation for working hard on my rehab exercises. However, I can only work those so hard, so that I don't have a setback. The guy at the guitar store asked why I didn't wait to buy her, but I told him that when you see what you want, it is time to buy before it is gone.

Wow, just in time. Dashing through the snow, twin locomotives towing some box cars and a long string of covered hopper cars. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that seasonal reference. Speaking of my concerns about trains and the cars they tow, below is a link to a train derailment in N. Dakota from earlier today. The cause was two trains passing, when one struck the other, causing the derailment. Fortunately, there is no chance of that happening on a one-track line.

http://news.yahoo.com/train-collision-north-dakota-sets-oil-rail-cars-004424603--sector.html

In sports, many NFL coaches were axed on Monday following disappointing seasons. You can't fire the whole team, so the coach has to go. The only point of a pro football team is to win the Superbowl. Anything less is not success. What was it that the legendary Vince Lombardi was quoted as saying? "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." Over a two day period, five coaches lost their jobs. There will probably be more. Too bad the boys in blue haven't gotten that message. The manager was recently fired for not winning. Why the next guy will be any more successful than the last guy, and the guy before him, and the guy before him, going back over 100 years, is a mystery to me. I used to think that my beloved Red Sox would never get there, and they have gotten to the World Series twice this century. I now think that the futility of the boys in blue will outlast me.

Well, that looks like enough for yesterday and early today. Sunrise will be at 8:16 AM and sunset at 5:20 PM today. Ciao.