Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 6:00 a.m. in "The City."

I'm going to start out with the Trainspotting Report, because the train that rolled through at 5:00 a.m., was the catalyst for my being up now. I had planned to stay snug in my bed, but the train whistle sang out and I couldn't resist it's siren song. Twin EMD GP 38 locomotives, #s 2057 and 2019, went by at a moderate rate of speed, towing a total of 35 mixed cars. One box car, then two covered hopper cars, followed by another box car, followed by 31 additional covered hopper cars. Not a long train. I was up late enough to have heard the southbound train and yet, I didn't. The covered hopper cars were showing their age. One still had New York Central livery and many were so rusty, that they should have been retired years ago.

On to the weather report. The sun will be rising at 7:30 a.m. today, to reveal the cloudy skies that are forecast to bring a 50% chance of showers this morning and a high temperature of 54°. Tomorrow, the precipitation forecast rises to 70%, with a high of 47°. Wednesday, the forecast for the descent of the Polar Vortex seems to be in our future, as the precipitation prediction changes to a mere 10%, but the temperature will not rise above 33°. Brrrr!

All that is my long winded way of saying that starting Wednesday, it may be time to limit the outdoor activities. Even though the wind will be blowing, Mary and I will  walk with Sugar the Weather Dog to get the morning newspaper. Mary suggested that our rain pants would make excellent wind-breakers for the walks on the windy days.

Speaking of Mary, I told her yesterday morning that it was time to use some of that pumpkin I baked on Saturday to make a pie. I said I could make the filling while she made the flaky crust. Our collective pie became mostly Mary's pie, while I became a spectator, as she took over most of the kitchen activities. Sugar filled her usual role as Sous Dog, but I became the second string Sous Chef, while Sugar fell to third string. I think Sugar did better than me. The resultant pie is not quite ready for prime time consumption. The crust is flaky and the filling has a nice taste, but I think that the pumpkin that I baked would be better suited to  being a side dish than a pie filling. The consistency is not quite up to expectations. Here is a picture of that pie as it cooled on the shelf in the mud room window.

As I said, good taste, but not yet ready for prime time consumption. I am not discouraged. Mary has surmised that we need to reduce the amount of additional liquid due to the higher water content of this particular variety of pumpkin. We can try it and see what happens. I also feel as though we should increase the amount of brown sugar to compensate for the lack of natural sugar. 

Today, we'll get that walk in with Sugar and then settle in to read more of our collective book as well as the non-fiction book that I am now starting, since I finished my latest pulp fiction novel yesterday. I have more fiction to read, but I am reading in the order in which I picked up the books. Mary has some editing to do on a previous index. I also hope to find time to play with the girls. That should be a full day. The sun will set at 5:26 p.m. and then it will be time to relax. Ciao.