Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just passing 2:00 a.m. in "The City", Grand Haven, MI.

STWD, (Sugar the Weather Dog) has just left her usual post at the side of our bed and made her nightly journey down to her couch. That couch now has a new coverlet that Mary recently purchased and which Mary has proclaimed as "perfect" and which, "Makes her very happy!" Okay be me, but I am afraid that it won't match the intrepid weather dog's hair color, which will make Sugar's daily presence more obvious.

In other news, I was extra busy yesterday. Mary was stuck on the phone with the Social Security Administration, not so willingly giving up an hour of her life which she will never get back. At my advanced age, and now hers, we can ill afford to give up those hours without a fight. That call precipitated a trip to Muskegon to personally talk to a rep from S.S. That trip finally got Mary's questions answered to her satisfaction, but once again, another one and one half hours which we will never get back.

Speaking of advanced ages, Happy Birthday to my better half. I didn't get her anything, unless you count the clean house, the wind chimes, the fresh produce from our vegetable gardens, and the trip to the Social Security office, followed by a stop at our favorite watering hole.

I took the trip to the orthopedist yesterday morning. There I received mixed news. I have a deteriorated joint in my thumb that can only be fixed permanently, by surgery. It won't get any worse, but the cortisone shot I received can only be repeated one or two more times before those would cause more deterioration in the tissues of that area, which as it turns out, is the donor area for the transplant tissue needed for the surgical repair.

As I understand it, the surgery is much like a mini Tommy John elbow surgery for my thumb joint. So, if  the pain gets to a point where I can't handle it, I'll have to do something. Trouble is, the surgery is simple according to the doctor, but the recovery time is about three months, including total immobility for several weeks. That means that playing with the girls would be precluded for that time period. Decisions, decisions.

No trains yesterday, at least none of which I was aware.

I did finish the final wind chime, and harvested another cucumber yesterday, that makes two, with many more to come. I also cleaned up the workshop. Best of all, I managed to charge all three batteries for the Big Brute. Now I can race for at least one hour, I think. That of course assumes that I don't break something on the "Brute" that would need Adam's TLC. While I'm not sure how, the LiPo battery had recovered enough of a charge to make a recharge possible without the balancer that Adam had supplied. I guess that that is okay, but I"ll be sure to ask Adam, the guru of all things R/C car or truck.

We went to another concert in the "Tuesdays in the Park" series. The performing duo was called Max and Ruth, and they were superb. I've included a link to one of the songs that Ruth wrote to celebrate her life growing up in West Michigan.

I really like the optics and the music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMVG4TJL0lE

I wish that I could write and sing that beautifully.

Otherwise, not much was happening yesterday. Housework mostly done. Wind chimes, done. Mary's Social Security questions answered, done. Batteries charged, done. Trip to doctor with mixed results, done. Trip to the favorite watering hole, done. Stop at the Post, done. Just one more thing to go, and I am done working. while Mary's friend, Gwen, visits.

In weather news, when STWD and I took our morning safari yesterday morning, it was trying to rain. Not much and that didn't stop me from riding my bike to the doctor's office. Today, in honor of Mary's birthday, it will be sunny with a high of 76°.

In sports, the AL All-Star squad defeated the NL squad, 6 - 3.

I hope that the birthday card that I sent through the mail will arrive later today. I'll wish Mary a happy birthday again, but the card was my attempt to get her some mail that wasn't another credit card application, a catalog, or a solicitation for life insurance.

The sun will rise today at 6:18 a.m. and finally set under a waning crescent moon at 9:26 p.m. Ciao.