Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 3:30 a.m. in "The City."

Our current temperature of 52° is the overnight low, before we rise to today's perfect high of 74°. That is the promise for this fall day in western MI. Comfortable temperatures, no precipitation, and partly cloudy skies. Mary and I once said we would like to retire to a place like this, where the weather is pretty much a constant, for example Portland, OR. But with the odd weather patterns and wildfires out there, along with the chance of drought, to paraphrase Micheal McCloud, a singer/songwriter in Key West, FL, "Oh what the heck, I think we'll just stay right here."

But I digress. We didn't get out of bed until noon yesterday. We listened to the progressive radio shows and hosts that we like and then finally got up and had lunch around 1:00 p.,m. STWD had been let out late the night before, so she was fine with that. After lunch, Sugar and I went for the morning, well actually early afternoon safari, and then we settled in to do as little as possible. What's not to like?

Later in the afternoon, Mary took me out to our favorite watering hole to pay me for my labors over the last few weeks, so that was all good.

In trainspotting, the morning run of EMD GP 38 locomotive #2019 rolled through at 9:52 a.m., accompanied by nine CHCs and four DBTCs, At 2:00 p.m., as the intrepid weather dog and I were returning from our early afternoon walk, we stopped in front of our house to watch the same locomotive head north. This time, there were many more cars in tow. 23 CHCs, five WTs, three DBTCs, and two BCs. I don't know about Sugar, but it was great for me to watch from the sidewalk in front of our house. We didn't get too close.

Sports news yesterday was a mixed bag, as is often the case. I'll start by announcing that the West Michigan White Caps are the Midwest League Champions, after a 3 - 2 win over the Cedar Rapids, IA Kernels. Maybe the Caps parent club, the Tigers, can look forward to some help from the "A" level Caps one day. The Tigers lost twice yesterday to that other team from Chicago, 0 - 2 in the first game of their day/night double header, and 2 - 3 in the night cap. My beloved Red Sox slipped past the Tampa Bay Rays, 8 - 7. Finally, the men in blue bounced back from their Sunday loss to the Cardinals, to beat the Brewers convincingly, 9 - 5.

Today is the day for the mundane things of life that have been delayed by the crush of business. Sugar goes in for her spa treatment at noon, Mary finds time to chat with her work group, I'll find time to read and play with the girls and then later this evening, we'll watch the only must see program on our viewing schedule, NCIS.

The sun will rise at 7:32 a.m. under beautiful skies and set later in front of a waxing gibbous moon at 7:42 p.m. Ciao.