Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 4:00 a.m. in "The City." Outside the WW, there is no precipitation in evidence, but there is a strong wind blowing.

Yesterday, at about 3:30 p.m., a gentle rain began. STWD, who had been at our side, was off to her hide-e-hole. We knew that something big was about to happen. Sure enough, the skies opened up and the rains came down hard, accompanied by some thunder. By about 6:00 p.m. it was over, and the intrepid weather dog returned to our side. Today, we expect partly cloudy skies, a 20% chance of rain, and winds at about 14 mph. Thursday, the expectation is for partly cloudy skies, no chance of rain, and 77°.

Mary and I were working during the storm, so it didn't really make much difference to us. We finished the indexing project, one more to go, and then we can relax for a couple of weeks. I still have some highlighting to finish for the next project.

A nice segue to what I had been doing prior to today's indoor work. I spent some time walking with STWD. we took a different route, as Mary, who left before us, needed to walk down to the waterfront and commune with the channel that leads to the "Big Lake." Here in MI, that's as close as she can get to "Mother Ocean." We collectively returned about the same time, so I gave Sugar a treat and then went to work in the gardens of the palatial estate. Transplanting, weeding, and a guarantee of rain, were on my list. As nearly every gardener knows, if you water, it will rain. I needed to water my transplanted perennials, so I guaranteed the rain.

I took some pictures of  my gardening efforts, so I think I'll include a few here.

Weed and leaf free, well mostly, and transplanting done.

You can see what I mean by the phrase "Vast Gardens."

Same here.

I like this shot.

A nice view of Mary's violas and my handiwork on the cold frame. 

But I digress. Since I wasn't able to do any trainspotting over the holiday weekend, I was surprised and pleased to hear the familiar sound of a train whistle, yesterday morning. Yes, I said yesterday morning at about 10:50 a.m. Locomotive 2019 went rolling through town heading south, towing a lone box car, one white tank car, three of those DBTCs, a lone gray tank car, and nine CHCs. Naturally, at that hour of the day, the engineer started blowing his horn like he was Little Boy Blue. At about 2:45 p.m., the train reversed the above procedure and headed back north, this time towing three box cars, six of the DBTCs, and 15 CHCs. I expected that they were making up for the weekend and that I'd hear another train late last night or early this morning. Nope.

In sporting news, the boys in blue used a walk off hit my Addison Russell, what a great name for a young man who plays at the corner of Addison and Clark, to win the game in the bottom of the ninth. The boys won 3 - 2. The Tigers knocked off the As. 1 - 0. A real offensive struggle in CA. My beloved Red Sox lost to the Twins, 1 - 2. The Caps easily defeated the Lake County Captains, 5 - 1. The Blackhawks play tonight, as do the boys and my beloved Red Sox The Tigers play this afternoon, while the Caps get the first pitch at 11:00 a.m.

Today we are planning to visit with Adam and Steph. We haven't seen them for several weeks, so a post-holiday trip will fit nicely into our schedule before we have to get back to work on the next index. 

I won't get any time with the girls, or at least very little, but that's okay. One of the many positives about being retired, in spite of my always being busy, is that there is always tomorrow. I did get in a little time yesterday, but not enough. 

The sun will rise at 6:11 a.m. and set at 9:13 p.m. Ciao.