Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 4:00 a.m. in "The City." Outside the WW, the air is calm, the skies are dark, and the night is quiet. While we are officially "in season", even the denizens of the local bars and eateries are safely home in bed and the early morning workers have yet to take to the streets to make their deliveries and get set to purvey their wares or cook and serve breakfast to the masses. Ah, what is life without the hum of human activity?

Yesterday was a busy day for me. I got up and got my outdoor activities underway. The car got unloaded, the dead tree got removed and replaced by some irises, the lawns of the PE got mowed, and the visits to the big box home center and grocery store were all accomplished before 1:00 p.m. I feel like the men and women in that commercial that the military used to run about accomplishing more before lunch than most people do in a day.

I was fortunate, Mary and STWD went for the morning safari which allowed me to do all of those things. Mary thinks that I like returning cans for their deposit, but it is actually something that I endure, like putting gas in the car, necessary, but not enjoyable.

I did get in some time with the girls early yesterday morning. I have to get up early these days to get time for that activity. I am three days behind on reading the newspaper and doing the crosswords. Plus, I still have to find some downtime. Once again, my mother in law was right. I am just as busy or busier than I was before I retired. I think that's why I get up now, it gives me time that has no demands.

Mid afternoon yesterday, Mary and I set forth to the library to meet with a man who is collecting signatures from registered MI voters to place a referendum to ban on "Fracking" on the ballot in November of 2016. He gave us a set of petitions for our own efforts. Each county in MI requires a separate petition. Only registered voters over the age of 18 may sign. A valid address is essential too. The petitions have to be completed by November of 2015 and a minimum of 240.000 valid signatures re required. That's a steep hill to climb.

Since we were one-half of the way to the Post, we carried the petitions along and got signatures from many of the members present. Mary first checked with the Post Commander, to make sure it was okay. It may be a steep hill to climb, but the future of our state and our planet, as well as the welfare of our progeny demands that we try. You have to consider that we were given this world to use, not exploit to our own generational profit.

I did some trainspotting yesterday afternoon. The southbound train went by about 2:45 p.m. A lone locomotive, 32019, towing 17 CHCs, and nine DBTCs. An odd time to say the least. I didn't hear the return run.

In sports report, not much was happening on the north side of Chicago on Thursday afternoon. No hockey and in basketball news, the Bulls fired their head coach. Baseball results were: the boys in blue had the day off before facing the Royals this afternoon. The Tigers, lost 2 - 12 to the Angels. My beloved Red Sox beat TX 5 - 1, and the Caps lost to the Lake County Captains 3 - 4.

Today, is set aside for highlighting after the morning walk with the intrepid weather dog. Maybe it is time to add to my list of acronyms. STWD could be listed as STIWD when on safari, which would be the acronym for Sugar the intrepid weather dog. What do you think? I wonder if I would have to double post that acronym in my blog. In indexing, you double post acronyms at the full name and at the acronym. For example, NASA is the acronym for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Anyone who looked at either the acronym or the full name in the index would be able to locate the desired information. I'll ask Mary

So that looks like enough for one day. The weather is supposed to be nice today until about 11:00 a.m. The temperature will be in the upper 70s or lower 80s. The scattered T-storms predicted won't begin until around that time. As long as STWD gets out before then, everything should be fine. Those T-storms are expected to be only around 35% until Saturday morning, when the percentage changes to 75% or more.

The sun will rise today at 6:09 a.m. and set at 9:15 p.m. Ciao.