Good early morning GH. It is just past 2:00 a.m. in "The City." Currently our temperature is 50° heading down to our overnight low of 47°. When we peak today, we should hit 52°, with a 60% chance of additional showers. Monday's weather was a mixed bag. The temperature hit 64° for a high, but the rains that came in the afternoon were genuine gully washers. As you may imagine, Sugar the Weather Dog spent the afternoon and part of the evening in her hide-e-hole. Fortunately for her and me, we got out early enough in the day to avoid walking in the rain. I believe that there was a song in the 60s made popular by the Ronettes titled Walking in the Rain. Like I've said before, there is a song lyric or title for just about any situation or mood.  But I digress once again.

Once Sugar and I got back from our walk, Mary had a chat for her work group. She retired to the upstairs and I worked a crossword from the newspaper that I picked up earlier. Then I got to work for my boss. I spent a few moments learning what I had to do and then got down to business. However I was soon interrupted by that same boss who told me that we had to go out to Coopersville to pick up some free chicken wire that she had located on Freecycle™. Much like Mary's theory about Goodwill Industries™, she believes that reuse is always the better alternative. We wanted the wire for the compost pit that we have created in the back forty. So although the wire is rusty, it doesn't matter, because it will be outdoors getting still more rusty.

We arrived at the donor's house in the nick of time. We got the wire loaded into the car just as the skies opened up. We said our quick goodbyes and headed for home. Now if it ever stops raining in GH, I'll get the wire put into place. Earlier in the day, I made the necessary sticks to hold the wire. This is a cheap and simple compost pile, but it should work. Next year we should have our own nutrient rich compost for our planting.

Today, I plan to walk with Sugar and then do some of  the highlighting that I have on my schedule. I have nearly 500 pages to highlight, but this time there is only one color required and every page has limited highlighting required. In the past, some of the work assigned by my boss has been far more exacting. A little more music, a bit more reading for pleasure and that should be my day. Like I know I've said before, retirement can be very busy.

In sports news, the Bulls were eliminated from the playoffs going only 1 - 4. The boys in blue had a game in Cincinnati that had three rain delays and led to another loss for Jeff Samardzija, 2 - 3. The sports geeks said that neither team could find a rhythm. True, but it looks like the Reds found just enough rhythm. Will next year ever get here? The Tigers eked out a win over that other team from Chicago, 4 - 3. My beloved Red Sox once again mustered the runs needed to win, 7 - 4, over the Rays. The Caps bested the Lake County Captains 4 - 0.

I heard a long train go by around 12:15 a.m., but I didn't get up to look. I was comfortably ensconced in my nice warm bed. That's likely where I'll be when the next northbound train passes by. When I got up to see the northbound run yesterday morning, it was just the two locomotives and no cars. Well, it turns out I was up. The usual two EMD GP 38 locomotives towing 36 covered hopper cars, seven of those dreaded black tank cars, four white tankers, and one white with a black stripe tank car. Ciao.