Good early morning GH. It is just past 4:00 a.m. in "The City." Our temperature is, as usual for this time of year, 46°. We are expecting a high of 52° late this afternoon. Once we pass 8:00 a.m., a 30% chance of showers is also in the forecast. When I originally set the veterinarian appointment for Sugar the Weather Dog at 11:00 a.m., that rain was not in the forecast. Oh well, I don't mind the rain, but Sugar will not be happy.Tuesday now looks like a nice sunny day in the 60s, with a 0% chance of rain. In fact, the temperatures will be in the 60s for several days, with varying chances of rain.

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day. It was still a bit cool in the lower 50s, but the wind died down in the late afternoon and walking was very pleasant. We walked downtown in the a.m. to get a N.Y Times to read as the week goes by.

Later, I got that mulch we purchased at the bog box home center laid down. Unfortunately my original estimate on the amount that I would need was a tad off, so I had to sally forth once again to that same store for an additional amount. For those in the know, the palatial estate is large enough to consume huge amounts of mulch in the gardens.

I was not surprised to find that one day later, the pile of bags at the home center had been reduced to one-half the amount that had been there Saturday morning. It was/is on sale, and Michiganders have been "Chomping at the bit," to get into their gardens. For those of you are strict grammarians, the phrase "Champing at the bit," is an archaic variation that has fallen out of use. "Chomping at the bit," is more readily accepted today. That's my contribution to education today.

Once I was done with the work in the garden, I came in and played some tunes on my guitars. In a sense, I was probably channeling our trip to the concert by Blackthorn, the Irish band from the Detroit area that I mentioned in my last blog. That concert was being held at one of our local churches. The concert was great, the music, while not strictly Irish in origin, was moving and delightful. It is not really amazing that the acoustics in the main hall of the church were great for music. Whether the type of music was appropriate is open to personal interpretation. Personally, I think that the very idea of fellowship represented in a church is much like that in a pub. From there, we journeyed to our own version of a pub and had dinner.

Home soon beckoned, and so we set forth on our walk. By the time the day was done, we had covered about 3 1/2 miles. I like to get in that much walking everyday when possible. Mary does too, when she isn't working. Sometimes the pressing need to meet a deadline necessitates that she skip our morning walk with the intrepid Weather Dog. Today will be a skip too, as Mary is not fond of the dander that comes with a trip to the veterinarian. I don't know why, but too much dander from pets in any one place makes her sneeze.

The balance of my day will be reading, music, and taking care of my own meals. Mary has that project she is working on and that will require her to focus. My part is done for now.

In sports, the boys in blue didn't get that sweep over the Cardinals. The boys fought back hard as they overcame an early three run deficit to tie the game at three. But once the Cards had loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, it took only a single to the outfield to score two. In spite of the boys scoring once in the bottom of the inning, that was the game. I'd like to let a certain highly paid first-baseman off the hook, but his strikeout when the boys had the bases loaded themselves earlier in the game, was not a good move. For that kind of money and hype, you have to produce, especially on a nationally televised game. Hopefully as the boys face that other team from Chicago this week, they won't get embarrassed again.

The Tigers at 17 - 9 on the season, continued their winning ways over the Royals, with a final score of 9 - 4. My beloved Red Sox couldn't make it over the hump as they fell to the team from Oakland 2 - 3. They are once again two games under .500. The Caps won over the Lansing Lugnuts 2 - 1. With a record of 17 - 14, the Caps are just one-half game back in their division. It looks as though they will be able to send some players into the AA pipeline and beyond, soon. The Blackhawks took a two games to none lead over the Wild in the Hawks post-season quest for Lord Stanley's Cup.

The trains were early yesterday/today. The southbound train with the usual twin EMD GP 38 locomotives towing 22 covered hopper cars, went by at 9:15 p.m. last night. The northbound run went by at about 12:15 a.m. this morning. I heard it, but I don't know it's composition beyond those two locomotives, which never changes. The line itself runs through GH and terminates on the southern end about half-way to Holland. The northern end goes to a yard near Muskegon. The railroad goes to other places in Michigan too.

The sun will rise at 6:31 a.m.and set at 8:49 p.m. Ciao