Good morning pr good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 3:45 a.m. in "The City." The weather yesterday was windy and rainy, but comfortable for walking. Right now, the temperature is  51° with an expected low temperature of 32°.  We are heading for today's high of 45°. Quite a comedown from yesterday's high of 61°. The NWS is forecasting several inches of snow for Saturday, just in tie for me to walk to my Irish Jam session.

Still no sign of the concrete to replace the sidewalk that was recently removed for underground pipe repairs.

Trainspotting yesterday was, spotty. At 9:37 a.m. the southbound run of locomotives 2019 and 2057 rumbled through towing 17 CHCs, five DBTCs, and three GTCs. At 12:23 p.m., the same locomotives rolled through heading north. In tow were eight CHCs, many rusty and old looking, two DBTCs, and a lone DWTC that was bringing up the rear.

I managed to keep STWD out of Mary's hair while she was on her webinar, so I guess that I did my job. I also got the bags of leaves out to the curb, so another job was completed.

As noted, it was very windy when the intrepid weather dog and I took the morning walk. Along the way, we encountered Sugar's favorite newspaper delivery lady, both on the outbound and the inbound legs of our journey. On both, this nice lady provided biscuits for Sugar. Naturally, Sugar adores her and believe me, Sugar is very careful about whom she likes. A good biscuit can often, but not always, ease the meet and greet. Sugar is still working on our letter carrier, Dave. She likes him when she sees him, but she's not sure, and then she sees him on the street again and wants to greet him, but then she's not sure. Well, you get the idea.

In sports news, as predicted here, Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta won the N.L. Cy Young award, which goes to the best pitcher in the league. That means the the Cubs won the baseball Tri-fecta. I don't know who the MVP award winner will be in the N.L this year. As a long suffering Cubs fan, I'm hoping that next season Arrieta gets some competition from Jon Lester for the Cy Young award next season. Somewhere, the old third baseman, Ron Santo is probably wishing that the Cubs make it to the World Series next season. Me too. The NIU Huskies defeated the Bulls of Buffalo, 41 - 30. The basketball Bulls defeated the Phoenix Suns, 103 - 97, to go to 8 - 3 on the young season. Sadly, D' Rose sat out with a sprained ankle.

Today, I plan to continue reading my novel. It is holding my interest. This is the latest offering from Dale Brown entitled Iron Wolf. I also have some western based stories on hold on my bookshelf, along with The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga by Pamela Newkirk. This is the sad story of a young man captured in Africa and exhibited like an animal in a zoo. Awaiting pickup at the library is Scents and Sensibilities by Spencer Quinn. This is pure pulp fiction about a dog named Chet and his human, Bernie Little, proprietor of the Little Detective Agency.

Otherwise, some time with the girls, some puzzle solving and that's about it after the morning walk. I will also be traveling to the doctor's office for a routine checkup.

The sun will rise at 7:42 a.m. and set at 5:17 p.m. Ciao.