Good morning, good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 1:00 a.m. in "The City," where our current temperature is a chilly 52° as we head go down to an overnight low of 52°. Today the weather will be turning worse than yesterday when Mary and I went downtown to see the arrival of the U.S. Coast Guard ships in the annual parade of ships. Mary will supply pictures of the ships in a future blog. It was windy and cool on the channel causing our plans to be altered to include our sweatshirts and an earlier than anticipated departure from the waterfront. It never got past the mid 60s, as the winds continued to blow out of the west in excess of 20 mph. Sugar the Weather Dog was safe at home, on "Her Couch."

As today changes to tonight, the expectation is for a 40% chance of T-storms starting at 1:00 p.m. and increasing to 50% by 4:00 p.m. until tapering off to 40% from then on. In fact, the forecast calls for a 40% chance of rain throughout the days of the festival. Here's hoping that the forecast is wrong, as usual. No matter, when the temperatures barely climb out of the 60s in the daytime and fall into the 50s at night, it tends to hold down the attendance at the carnival.

The channel and the "Big Lake" were very choppy and with large waves in excess of 10 feet on the "Big Lake", the ice-breaking tug boats/cutters Bristol Bay and Mobil Bay, come in early last night. That left the early afternoon show on Monday to the larger cutter, Hollyhock, and the smaller Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory ship R/V Laurenthian . They did not disappoint.

I just watched/heard the southbound run of the nightly train as it passed in the early a.m. hours. The regular duo of two EMD GP 38 locomotives under the hand of that horn happy engineer, was followed by 27 covered hopper cars, one lone box car, and six of those dreaded black tank cars.

There is a movement afoot by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to regulate the construction of newer oil carrying tank cars, and to restrict the movement of older cars through the cities and states. Trains with more than 20 of the older DOT 111 tank cars, those built before 2011, would be limited to speeds of less than 40 mph as they traversed urban areas. Some trains can be as long as 100 of those older cars, of which there are an estimated 80,000 still on the rails. The railroads/tank car companies would have until 2017 to retrofit or upgrade the older tankers. Newer/retrpfitted cars would be more resistant to rupturing in the unlikely event of a crash.

Otherwise om Monday, we picked up a loaf of bread on the way home and watched as the annual Coast Guard Festival™ carnival set up on Washington Ave. for tonight's scheduled 6:00 p.m. opening. Mary will also have a few pictures of that activity in a future blog. The throngs are arriving in GH daily to participate in the festival and here's hoping that the weather cooperates. Tonight the annual Street Dance is to be held, but the threat of T-storms and cool temperatures will likely deter some attendees.

Today, I have that P/T appointment at 11:30 a.m.. If there is no rain at 11:00 a.m., I'll ride my bicycle. If there is rain, I may walk or drive. I'd prefer to avoid driving, as the annual craziness that comes with the arrival of tourists unused to one-way streets and a lack of stop signs on the main in and out streets, creates confusion. The festival is a good showcase of all that GH has to offer, but it is a perilous time for driving.

Otherwise, I finished my latest pulp fiction book and now, I will move to non-fiction. I like to alternate genres, as I can read pulp fiction in a matter of hours, whereas non-fiction takes days to read and digest.

The sun will rise at 6:29 a.m. and set under a waxing crescent moon at 9:10 p.m. If the weather is cooperating, Mary and I may go to see the band called "The Gents" composed of USCG retirees, at the Street Dance tonight, just a few blocks from home. If not, TV is a good option. Ciao.