Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 12:00 a.m. in "The City."

Well folks, it's a done deal. Next year is here. Yesterday, the Cubs signed outfielder Jason Heyward to an eight year, 184 million dollar contract. He does have some opt out clauses in that contract, but he will be paid a huge amount of money to help put the Cubs over the top. Along with recent the signings of pitchers John Lackey and Adam Warren, (You gotta love that first name) and infielder Ben Zobrist, the Cubs should be the team to beat in 2016. Am I  die hard? Looks like it.

Lunch was had  after I assembled my new chair. While it was a good nutritional lunch, the chickpea salad was on the bland side. Edible and nutritional yes, but tasty? Not really. The soup I had for dinner was accompanied by that same bland salad.

I did the cleanup after lunch, while Mary went off to chat. A fair trade, as she took the morning safari with STWD while I assembled that chair.

Yesterday afternoon, we traveled to the local garden center and dog biscuit purveyor, where we also got two large ornaments for our front porch. They were 50% off. Next we traveled to the big-box home center for that aforementioned return and to get some "needed" things. Then we walked next door to the big-box electronics store to get a new Bluetooth™ speaker for use with our phone. Finally, we made our way to the grocery store in Spring Lake to pick up a few items to get us through the balance of 2015. No visit to Spring Lake would be complete without a visit to our favorite watering hole north of the bridge. I'm worn out again just writing about it.

Today I have to get to that highlighting and addressing our holidaycards. My puzzle is going along, but Mary doesn't think I'll finish by year's end. I beg to differ.

I am typing on my new keyboard and it feels great to the touch.

The sun will rise this morning at 8:10 a.m. and set at 5:10 p.m. Today's high will be 51° with rain and windy conditions. Currently, the temperature outside the WW is 42°, while the indoor temperature is 69°. Ciao.