Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is now past 3:30 a.m. on a chilly Monday morning in "The City."  Our current temperature of 50°, is as low as it will get. Later today, the temperature will top out at 59°. Then the showers are scheduled to begin after 9:00 a.m. The balance of the week promises temperatures in the 60s and mostly sunny skies. The SW winds are blowing at 10 - 15 MPH. I could be more certain if I had the World's Largest Weather Vane on the "Palatial Estate. Mary says I can have a weather vane, but the size of the one in this picture is of the "Not gonna happen" variety. So I'll have to use info from the National Weather Service.

This is the "World's Largest Weather Vane, located in Montague, MI

I just liked the angle in this picture of the vane.

In other news, Mary and I traveled to the Michigan Irish Music Fest on Saturday, We had a terrific time, and saw many terrific bands. Mary has additional pictures of the fest and the weather vane at her blog,

http://marygoeswalking.blogspot.com/. She is better at photography than me. But I got what I wanted. Those pictures are below.

This is the band Kennedy's Kitchen. We ran into John Kennedy (second from the left) at the hotel later. 

Nolan of Kennedy's Kitchen. Vocals, guitar, whistle. He does it all beautifully. He also sings and plays with another band,  Soltré. We liked their performance too. 

One picture from a performance called Tionól.  The word Tionól, translates to mean a gathering or celebration. Musicians from many different bands performed in this venue.

A view of the Muskegon lake shore skyline.

Muskegon is making a comeback, but it's tough.

Muskegon Harbor

I especially liked this picture of the skyline, and Mary, in her new sweater.

In sports, the boys in blue will have Anthony Rizzo back today. They need him, because they lost once again to the Pirates, 3 - 7. My beloved Red Sox continue to help the Tigers, They once again defeated the Royals, this time by a score of 8 - 4. That gives the Tigers a 1.5 game lead in the A.L. Central after their defeat of the Indians, 6 - 4. Football was a mixed bag. The Lions lost big time to the Panthers, 7 - 24. to go to 1 - 1 on the young season. The Bears are also 1 - 1, after they squeaked past the Forty-Niners, 28 - 20. The Northern Illinois Huskies got past UNLV on Saturdayby a score of 48 - 34. The Michigan Wolverines easily defeated Miami of Ohio, 34 - 10. 

I hear the northbound train coming. I can tell by experience that the horn happy engineer is at the throttle. The usual contingent of locomotives, #s 3885 and 2819 respectively, followed by a lone box car. 

Elsewhere, Sugar the Weather Dog was glad to get home from camp. We surprised her because although she can tell the passage of time by sunrises, she knows when we are coming to get her when she gets bathed. This time she didn't get a bath, so she was surprised to see us. When we got home, she got a second surprise, as her food bowl had also been filled. Then it was time for her to get to couch. We went out to dinner.

Today, Mary and I have to get to work. She has to get to the actual indexing, and I have to get to highlighting. It looks like the girls will have to wait. So much to do, so little time. Sigh.

The sun will rise at 7:22 a.m., and set at 7:53 p.m. The days are indeed getting shorter. Sigh. Ciao.