Good mornig or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 1:30 a.m. in "The City."

We have a current temperature of 48° that feels like 43°. According to the NWS, we'll be seeing a high temperature 66° later today and 69° on Saturday. If they are accurate, then we can get out to the vast gardens of the Palatial Estate and do some digging and planting later.

Yesterday began with the continuation of the "Sidewalk Saga." We awoke to the sound of a machine grinding away the stump of that once mighty maple tree that formerly stood in the parkway. 20 minutes later, and a lot of thrown dirt and chips, and the stump was mostly history.

While I took numerous pictures, this one illustrates the activity as well as any.

Were we done with the process? Nope. Now it was the city's turn. They came with their truck, a tractor with a smaller grinder attachment, and men to clean up the mess and grind away some additional roots.

Sometimes it gets down to manual labor.

Were they done? Not quite, as they returned with their smaller grinder that was attached to their tractor, a dump truck, and some strong men.

Once again, dirt and chips flew.

These men were hard workers.

In the process of removing the final roots, they uncovered some stones buried beneath the roots of a decades old tree. Mary decided that the accumulation will become a new to our gardens rock sculpture of some type. So we picked them up, placed them in our folding wheelbarrow, and set them on the patio for today's festivities. More on that later. They appear to be limestone quarried locally decades before the workers and probably us, were born.

According to the workers, if the concrete truck had not been an hour late, they would have finished sooner.

Once the concrete was poured, the finishing could begin. They have more pouring and finishing to go in order to complete the concrete part of the job. 

This is indeed back breaking work. 

The pouring and finishing of the final approach will have to wait until the forms from yesterday's action can be removed, but so far, the job looks terrific. 

This photo is a great application of the skills that Mary and I learned in our short class on photo taking.  A  nice way to depict the results.

Since the day's activities were nearly over, we decided it was time to visit two of the stops  on the West Michigan Yarn Quest 2016. Here are a couple of pictures of Mary as she visited the shop in "The City", and another in Muskegon later in the day.

The Needlesmith.

And,

Angel Knits and Purls.

More shops to visit on "The Quest."

During a very busy day, Mary found time to make that aforementioned vegan roast beest in the Crockpot™. That beest accompanied by some green beans and the mushroom gravy she also made yesterday, tasted great to me. She doesn't think it was her best effort. However, as I've often said, pour gravy on something and Adam and I will think it tastes great.

Before we returned home, we stopped in at Sporty's for some adult libations. 

In sports news, the boys in blue, AKA the Cubs, were once again victorious over the Reds, 8 - 1. They now have a division leading record of 8 - 1, the forst time that has happened since the 1969 season. Coincidentally, that's the year that I graduated high school. A coincidence of great things to come? I like to think so. Their next game is this afternoon at 1:20 p.m. Chicago time, against the visiting Rockies. 

The Tigers defeated the PIrates once again, this time by a score of 7 - 4. That gives then a record of 6 - 2 in their division and three wins in a row, However, they are in third place in their division, My beloved Red Sox had the day off, so noting has changed for them.

We took a shortened safari with STWD due to the activities around the Palatial Estate. Hopefully today we can take a more lengthy walk and enjoy the weather that the NWS has predicted for today. 

Then it will be time for Mary to chat and get started on some other activities that have been on hold. Me, I'll finish yesterday's crossword, read today's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune, and then do the crossword from today's edition that we'll have picked up on our morning safari. I should be able to find time to play with the girls too. Irish Jam is tomorrow. I think that in spite of the arrival of Susanna, I'll be taking Abigael to the jam. I am liking playing Susanna, but I'm not quite comfortable enough with her for a PDA. 

The sun will rise today at 7:03 a.m. and set at 8:28 p.m. Ciao.

Oh, here's a throw in picture. 

I took this picture of this for sale 4.6 liter, SVO prepared Mustang, just outside the Bookman when I was walking with the intrepid one. Is it rare or desirable? I don't know, it needs an expert's opinion.