Good morning, or good evening, wherever you may be in "The City." It is just past 5:00 a.m. and our current temperature is 68° as we head for a mostly sunny high of 73°. That's after the sun rises at 6:53 a.m., and well before the sun sets at 8:45 p.m. The National Weather Service is predicting that we have a 50% chance of rain on Tuesday, but like all the forecasts, that's subject to change. Sugar the Weather Dog will let us know. I can feel a cool breeze wafting through the Weather Window right now. That is a 68° breeze on August 16th. Speaking of those unpredictable forecasts, it is raining, which means that I won't have to water today. The chance of rain wasn't forecast to be more than 20% today.

In other news, I decided to get a first coat of paint on the porch railing. Today I"ll get the second coat. Next year, I"ll give the entire railing that surrounds the porch a good sanding and painting. It will take several days, but the one thing I have an abundance of, is time. So for this year, the touch up and maintenance will have to suffice.

I did a lot of reading yesterday. However, the book I am reading has become formulaic and therefore boring to read. I know where the author is going. It reads like the script for an action movie, which it probably will be. The original author of this character died 13 years ago, so his protagonist has been reanimated by another famous, albeit less appealing author. It seems as though all writers these days are writing for the optioning of book rights.

Sugar, Mary and I walked downtown yesterday to get a loaf of bread from the bakery and a newspaper. Mary was able to jump to the head of the line and bypass the latte crowd of tourists and get out before much time had passed. We stopped and got the newspaper on-the way home and that's when we had breakfast. Mary made her soon to be famous BLTs, using fresh iceberg lettuce, a tomato given to us by Sally's brother via Sally, and some lunch veggie meat from a company that both Mary and I like. That usually means that this company will be bought out by one of the "Big Boys" of the no-meat industry, and the formula will change. Next will come the chemical preservatives. Sigh.  After that, I sat down to read the newspaper and more of the book. That book is overdue and it is not worth paying additional fines for a pedestrian read.

I had originally planned to just read yesterday because I was feeling tired, but I got up a fresh supply of energy. I went to the front of the palatial estate and sanded the railing and put on that first coat. Once I was cleaned up, Mary and I walked downtown to see the Art on the Waterfront displays. We once again passed through the sidewalk sale, and Mary noted that the blouse she had looked at on Friday was still available. It was marked at $71.00, one half off, and still available. Let's see, it didn't sell at the original price of $142.00 and it didn't sell at $71.00, so it goes back into storage at the merchant, to hit the bruised and reduced sale next spring.

In sports, the boys in blue are playing like it's last year, as they lost to the Mets, 3 - 7. My beloved Red Sox got into a slug fest with the Astros, winning 10 - 7. The Tigers are their usual maddening selves, defeating the Mariners 4 - 2. The Caps romped in their game with the Loons, 7 - 2.

Looks like that's a full day. There is a big NASCAR race at the Michigan International Speedway, the Pure Michigan 400, but taxi cab racing and I are not all that compatible. The NASCAR gang raced at Mid-Ohio Raceway on Saturday, but that was interesting, because it is a road course, like Road America. Michigan International is a high speed oval. Get in, tighten your seat bets and turn let with the throttle to the floor. Once I get the morning walk in with the intrepid one, it's time for reading and working crosswords. That second coat of paint will have to wait for the humidity to ebb. Oh well, there's always Monday. Ciao.