Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 12:15 a.m. in "The City", where the current temperature outside the Weather Window is 14°, although it feels like 13°. 14° is supposed to be our low for the night. There is still no precipitation on the horizon, although we did see a few flakes of snow earlier on Monday. Today when the sun rises at 7:57 a.m., the temperature will rise to a much warmer 35° under partly cloudy skies. As the day progresses towards sunset at 5:11 p.m., the temperature will once again drop, but the low will only be 31°. With the exception of the high on Monday, the temperatures in December are starting out nicely. Each day in the five day forecast from the National Weather Service shows that we will stay in the low to mid thirties, with a slim chance of precipitation.

Sugar the Weather Dog, Mary, and I took the morning constitutional on Monday. Sugar and I dropped Mary off at the Health Hutt for some groceries, and then we headed home by way of the Book Man, our local independent book seller, after Sugar was done sniffing. Mary came home shortly thereafter.

Mary had to go to work, and since she had some ripening bananas, Sugar the Sous Dog and I made another loaf of my famous banana nut bread. However, we weren't done. I followed up the banana nut bread with a loaf of whole wheat bread from the same cookbook, Mary's Fanny Farmer cookbook from the 1970s. Both loaves turned out great, and so I have included a picture of both loaves directly below. The dark loaf is the whole wheat.

Since I am now a pie baker, I thought I'd try my hand at a loaf of whole wheat bread.

Earlier on Monday evening at 9:02 p.m., I watched the southbound train rumble by. Locomotives #2057 and #2014 were towing one box car, 20 covered hopper cars, and two of those dreaded black tank cars, with a gray or white tank car bringing up the rear. That  train was, much earlier than usual. The northbound train went by at 12:10 a.m. The same EMD GP 38 locomotives were towing a similar configuration of cars. Six covered hopper cars, four of those dreaded black tank cars, and one gray tank car separating the white and black tank cars. 

Today I have those ornaments to paint after I walk with the intrepid weather dog. Then I can settle in for some additional highlighting for Mary. I am up to page 269 of 514, so that makes me 52% finished. I am liking the subject matter, so it is going smoothly. I always said that if I was going to get my PhD, that I'd get one for the period that surrounds the Revolutionary War and the writing of the Constitution. So you can guess what the subject matter of my highlighting efforts includes. 

Other than that, I have an appointment to see the eye doctor to get my new glasses checked for the reading prescription. I want them to be better than I am seeing right now. Ciao.