Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 2:00 a.m. in "The City." A current temperature outside the Weather Window of 28°, is accompanied by NO precipitation of any type or form is in the forecast. The National Weather Service is showing that our high today will be 32° along with that 0% forecast. Friday will be 37° to accompany another 0% prediction. In fact, even Saturday will have only a 10% chance of precipitation with a high temperature of 36°. It looks like Sunday will be the best this week, with sunny skies, no precipitation, and 37 balmy degrees. Today, before sunrise at 7:59 a.m., we'll see our overnight low of 23°.

We are getting closer to the shortest days of the year on December 21 and 22, 2014, and then it's downhill from there. On that day and the next, the sun will rise at 8:13 a.m., and set at 5:14 p.m. Today when the sun sets at 5:11 p.m. we'll still be enjoying a longer day.

Speaking of the winter solstice, it is always followed by the coming of spring. This year, that happens for the Cleveland Indians on February 18, 2015. As far as I'm concerned, that's when spring begins, when pitchers and catchers report for spring training. Both the Tigers and the boys in blue have yet to announce their spring dates. That's also true of that other team from Chicago. However good news abounds. My beloved Red Sox report on February 20, 2015.

Trainspotting, yes. Well actually I am issuing an aural report from about 9:30 p.m. last night and about 12:10 a.m. this morning.

In other news, Mary got a call for a rush job from one of her packaging partners yesterday. A short turnaround time, but a short book too. By late afternoon, I had painted the red portion of those Christmas tree ornaments and now I have to do some of the other colors and allow them to dry. In between, I made a fresh batch of chickpeas seasoned with red hot sauce and a new squash type, since I had the oven running.

As the day wore down, Mary decided it was time to go to the Post and visit with Sally. We took along some of my newly baked banana nut bread. I had tasted it earlier and pronounced it fine. Sugar the Sous Dog was sad to see any portion of the loaf go out the door. I need to get the correct battery for my desk clock later this week. Maybe when we are across the bridge for my replacement lenses I can accomplish that feat.

Today, more playing with the girls, more ornament painting, more crossword puzzling, and more picking up some books at the library. All of that after the morning constitutional with Sugar the Weather Dog when we pick up the morning edition of the Grand Haven Tribune. Ciao.