Good early morning GH. It is just past 4:30 a.m. in "The City." Currently our indoor temperature is 71°, due in large measure to the outdoor temperature of 37°. That means that although all I can see out the Weather Window is darkness, I know that the snow piles continue to melt. That's good for us, for Sugar the Weather Dog, and humankind in general.

Unfortunately, with the exception of a couple of days later this week, once the curtain falls on today, we go back into the twenties. That will effectively end the melting of the snow and make driving and walking more hazardous. Hopefully, the prediction for three more inches of snow over lower Michigan later this week, courtesy of Winter Storm Vulcan, is wrong. Given the way that winter has gone so far, I'm not counting on that. Mary talked to Sugar's walker, and promised to call if we need her. We may. Sigh.

Mary and I journeyed to the big box grocery/everything store mid-afternoon yesterday. I was lucky enough to get the can return duty, which as it turned out, was probably better. Mary was dressed for the outdoors, so the heat turned up too high inside that store for a warmer day, nearly caused her to pass out. I think that some people are veterans when it comes to big box shopping. Mary just wants the experience to be over.

Once that experience was over, we headed for the veterinarian to get some additional food for Sugar. This is her special kidney diet and it is expensive in a smaller amount. Although still expensive, next time I'll have to buy a larger quantity. There is a real savings in buying in bulk in this case. I just had a thought. Since I haven't opened the smaller bag, maybe I can take the smaller bag back and buy the larger one. I'll have to ask Mary. I don't want to drive. I have to do that on Wednesday afternoon while she works and I go to P/T.

Afterwards, we stopped in at our favorite watering hole for dinner. On the way there, we passed the Armory Building in GH. This building is 109 years old and has served as an armory, the YMCA, and is now offices and shops. As we passed, both coming and going, people were coming out and milling around. The Public Safety people were rolling up as we passed the first time. According to the Grand Haven Tribune, it turns out that one of the shop owners smelled or saw smoke coming from an unused area of the building.

Using sophisticated thermal imaging cameras, Public Safety determined that a faulty heating unit was the culprit. They turned control of the building over to a maintenance person who promised to call an HVAC repair person today. Since this building is of an historic nature, Public Safety was taking no chances.

That was about it for our day. We came home, watched the snow melt, and watched a little TV. I went upstairs to the "Media Room," while Mary remained downstairs. After a while I fell asleep in my chair, and Mary must have come up to bed, where I found her when I came to bed later. I am up now because of my aching shoulder. However, the OTC pain pill will handle that shortly and I can return to bed.

I got all of my housework done yesterday afternoon, which Mary will say contributed to my aches and pains. However, my shoulder feels about the same as it always does after lying in bed for a few hours. So it is just possible that the extra exertion didn't hurt me, and may have helped.

The train passed heading south at 9:47 p.m. last night. I haven't heard one going north yet, but that often happens about 4:00 a.m. The one I saw had twin EMD GP 38 locomotives pulling 21 covered hopper cars, three of those dreaded black tank cars, and four of the usually benign white tank cars. If the train heading north goes by before I go back to bed, I'll add it to this blog.

Today Mary will work, and I'll read and work on our puzzle. That's about enough for today. Having completed the housework, the laundry, and with Mary and I getting the shopping done yesterday, I don't have any further ambitions.

Sunrise will be at 8:03 a.m. and sunset at 7:45 p.m. Ciao