Good early morning GH. It is just past 3:00 a.m. in "The City."  We have a current temperature of 69° as we drop to an overnight low of 56°. According to the National Weather Service, our high to day will be 68° with a 20% chance of showers. Tuesday portends another story though, 73° and a 60% chance of showers. By Wednesday, that changes to 80%. We'll see.

Sunday, Father's Day, turned out to be great. The weather was beautiful as Mary and I got together with Stephany and Adam. We delivered some things that we had at our house, and I got some Father's Day gifts that I truly appreciate. Some chocolates that I have been desiring, and a John Wayne™ themed pick-up truck model. Once I get it placed near the service station on my office shelf, I'll include a picture. Included in my "sweets" was some caramel corn that should be great. I have yet to try it, because after we were treated to lunch, I was simply too full. Fortunately, there is always today. Plus, just being able to get together with the kids, was in itself a gift.

My thanks to Adam and his observational skills for thinking up a better way for me to get myself into the passenger seat of the car. With Adam or Mary driving, I could sit back, enjoy the ride, and only have to navigate a bit. Oh, Adam helped me repair my broken guitar stand using his developing welding skills. Several grinders, a little welding, and paint and it was ready to go. Like much of the woodworking projects that I used to make, the $10.00 guitar stand was repaired by several hundred dollars worth of tools.

I have to get to that toilet repair today. I don't know if I mentioned it before. I'd like to think that it will take less that one hour, but rarely are my estimates accurate. So I'll expect two hours and a possible visit from the plumber. One good thing, the water valve for the toilet is about 10 inches from the toilet, so I don't have far to go to shut off the water supply. If I cross my fingers and toes, I may get lucky.

Otherwise I am hoping that I won't have to water the gardens on the palatial estate, in anticipation of the rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. Like I said earlier, we'll see. Once Sugar the Weather Dog and I return from our morning constitutional, I can get down to business with that toilet. Then more highlighting, more reading, more guitar playing, a little cross word puzzle solving, and the day will be gone. This retirement thing is so taxing.

In sports, the boys in blue actually won again over the Phillies 3 - 0.That's two of three in Philly. The Tigers also won two of three over the weekend, in their case from the Twins, with a final series victory of 4 - 3. Sadly, my beloved Red Sox lost two of three to the Indians. Their score in the last game was 2 - 3. The Caps stayed one-half game of the South Bend Silver Hawks in their division, as they defeated the Silver Hawks, 4 - 1. Next up, the Midwest League All-Star game at 5/3 Ballpark.

I did hear the southbound train with that horn-happy engineer at the throttle at about 11:15 p.m. last night. Since if was earlier in the evening, the extra horn blowing might have been necessary, but I bet that he just enjoys the horn. He does have a distinctive style. Perhaps a musician driving the train, or perhaps just a wannebe. I just saw and heard the northbound run at 4:40 a.m. The usual twin EMD GP 38 locomotives, followed by three box cars, two of those dreaded back tank cars, and 37 covered hopper, cars in what seemed to be a random order.

So that's enough for now. When the sun rises at 6:03 a.m, I'll be sound asleep. When it sets at 9:25 p.m., I'll be watching TV. In between, non-stop busy. Ciao.