Good morning GH. It is just past 4:00 a.m. in "The City", where we have a current temperature of 35° that feels like 28°, as we drop to the overnight low of 22°. That's a lot to happen between now and sunrise at 8:04 a.m. Today, the skies will be partly cloudy and the temperature will rise to a high of 37° with a 10% chance of precipitation. Wednesday, with have a lower temperature, but there will be sunny skies.

Yesterday when Sugar the Weather Dog and I went for our morning constitutional, we got out just a tad late. Sugar rushed tot he mud room eagerly. However once there, she sensed a disturbance in the force which she had not noticed in her mad rush. She wanted to get back in to avoid the coming sleet and snow event. I forced her out, we picked up the newspaper and headed home. She was right, there was just a hint of ice on the sidewalks to contend with, but that morphed into a full-on storm as the day wore on. Sugar wasted no time in beating a hasty retreat to the protection of Mary's office when we got home, before I made her go out again.

In other news, those ornaments are done. Mary came up with the solution that I needed regarding how to apply the matte finish without making the entire palatial estate smell. I opened one-half of the outer doors to the man-cave, and held each ornament in the fresh air to allow for spraying. It took all of two minutes. I used to have a small, well ventilated, spray area in our old house for that purpose.

Today I may get that Christmas tree set up. Or not. I will get more time in with the girls if editing doesn't supersede. I'll also get in a walk with the intrepid one if the sidewalks don't look too ice covered. Plus I'll read more of my new book. The Ghosts of Belfast, by Stuart Neville. Different, much like the type of novels that I like, but different.

Trainspotting yielded only the southbound run late last evening at 1:20 p.m. Locomotives # 2057 and 2019 were towing eight covered hopper cars. I never heard the northbound run, which should have happened about three hours later.

Well that's enough before the early morning hours get away. The sun will set at 5:10 p.m., and that means that I can too. Ciao.