Good early morning GH. It is just past 5:30 a.m. in "The City," so I am going to keep it short so that I can go back to the rack. Our current temperature is 64° as we head for today's high of 61° with a 70% chance of showers. Yesterday the National Weather Service issued an afternoon/evening severe storm watch for our area and nothing happened. In fact it was sunny when I shut off my computer in preparation for the big storm. A later perusal of the weather radar showed that although the storm approached, it split and went north and south of us. Now we will experience daytime temperatures in the lower 50s by week's end, and the chance of showers will peak at 80% on Thursday.

Speaking of the north, I must have slept through the northbound run of the train. I was awake for the southbound run, which consisted of the familiar locomotive combination, a lone box car, 31 covered hopper cars, three white tanker cars, which surrounded a single dreaded black tank car.

In sports, I was wrong. The boys in blue blew out the St. Louis Cardinals by a score of 17 - 5. Now the boys are sporting a 13 - 24 record. The Tigers easily handled the Orioles 4 - 1. My beloved Red Sox had the day off to travel to Minneapolis to meet the Twins. The Caps experienced their own blow out 1 - 17 at the hands of the Great Lakes Loons. The Caps have fallen to .5 games back of the Dayton Dragons.

Mary's suggestions for my music stand have all worked out. A heavier base, a piece of Plexiglas™ on the platform, not bolted to the stand, and all is well. All for far less than the cost of a bigger and unattractive stand. All I have to do now is get to that guitar stand welding and my room will once again be complete and fully functional.

Yesterday, Mary and I got out with Sugar the Weather Dog early to take advantage of the early break in the rain. We both wanted to stay in bed, but alas, if we hadn't gone out when we did, it would have required waiting until later in the afternoon. I also found a break in the rain to go to the local health food store, the newspaper office, and the library. As noted earlier, the weather dried up by late afternoon.

Today I will read more of the N. Y. Times and play more guitar. I also have two books that I picked up to read. The sun will once again rise in the east this morning at 6:22 a.m., too soon for me. Sunset will happen in the west at 8:57 p.m. In between, Mary will work, I'll goof off, and that is a good day in retirement, for me. Ciao.