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

Where do I begin, to tell the story of how great a ...Oops, I was channeling again.

At any rate someone once said that the best place to begin is at the beginning, so that's what I'll do.

We awoke yesterday to witness the beginnings of the sidewalk replacement in front of the Palatial Estate. That replacement, which includes the replacement of the driveway approach from the street, necessitated that our car and that of our neighbor, be relocated from our respective garages to the city owned lot near public safety. Once that was done, we walked STWD and then we settled in to watch the proceedings.

Well I did, while Mary had to get to work after our early breakfast. Many men and some noisy equipment that did not please the intrepid one were on the job. Soon, several men, a tractor and a truck accomplished the removal. I took numerous pictures, but I thought the best thing was to select just a few for the edification of my loyal readers.

It all began with one slab. two men, and one tractor, and one truck.

Which soon grew in scope.

Aided by a  machine with a, pardon the obvious, Jack Hammer. 

And men with a power saw.

Sometimes hand tools,

Even some very manual labor

Loaded the bucket of  the tractor for transfer to the truck.

Until the sidewalk area turned into a crime scene.

Now, we await stage two of the project. More pictures to follow.

While all of this activity was going on, the southbound run of locomotives 2019 and 2057 rolled by at 8:54 a.m. In tow, were 17 empty CHCs, with two of those at the end, four DBTCs, seemingly empty, two DWTCs, which normally carry HCl acid, but also seemingly empty, and three GTCs, contents unknown.

At 1:48 p.m., while there was a lull in the activities on the sidewalk project, those same locomotives rolled through heading north. This time, the train was about as long as I've ever witnessed on the reality scale train layout. In tow were 39 CHCs fully laden, four DWTCs, also laden with their regular cargoes, five DBTCs, also carrying their regular cargoes, three BCs, contents unknown, and one GTC, also content unknown. All told, 52 cars and two locomotives were heading for the north terminal of the Mid-Michigan RR. 

In sports news from yesterday, all of the teams that I follow were victorious. The boys in blue, fronted by John Lackey, walloped the Reds, 9 - 2. That gives the Cubs, with their division leading 7 - 1 record the best eight game start in team history. They play again tonight, same bat time, same bat channel, or not. These are not the days when you could catch it all on WGN, as Steve Goodman sang. The Tigers clipped the Pirates, 7 - 3, but they remain solidly in third place in their division. My beloved Red Sox slipped past their opponent, the Orioles, by a score of 4 - 2. They too are solidly in third place in the AL East. 

That leads me to the weather. Yesterday was breezy, but nice, with a high temperature in the upper 40° range. Right now, the temperature is 40° that feels like 34°. Our expected high today? 59° under partly cloudy skies. Tomorrow, the high is forecast by the NWS to be 66° under sunny skies. We believe that spring has finally sprung in "The City", with sunny skies and not much precipitation anticipated. We suspect that the favorable forecasts provided the impetus for the commencement of the sidewalk project. 

We finished the index yesterday and sent it on its way. As my reward, we went off to our favorite watering hole and had, wait for it, cauliflower with Buffalo™ hot sauce instead of our more traditional bean burrito. I played some with the girls and ultimately finished the novel I was reading. A good story with a minor flaw in continuity. 

Today, not much on tap. Stay in bed until noon, take the morning safari with STWD after lunch, read the Grand Haven Tribune, do the crossword puzzle, and watch the festivities in front of the Palatial Estate, Mary plans to batch cook, including the creation of one of her famous vegan roast beests, The next indexing project is not due in until early June. 

The sun will rise in a few hours at 7:03 a.m. and set at 8:26 p.m. Ciao.