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

I think I'm going to try to keep this one shorter. I want to get back to my nice warm bed. In fact, I awoke to find Mary reading things on her Smartphone. Go figure.

Yesterday, Mary revised an index, while after a little help from Mary with the placement of some things, I was left to my own devices in the backyard. I spent some time cleaning the deck, and washing the front porch and the furniture that is now in its summer home. I did try the pressure washer that I inherited from Adam and Steph, but it would not create any pressure. In fact, it didn't even let the water pass through. Maybe the next time they are here, Adam can show me what I was doing wrong.

Today, I hope to apply fresh stain to the deck and its railings, and then then let the stain dry before the precipitation moves back in Wednesday evening.

The outdoor temperature yesterday was fantastic. Sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s have led to the current temperature of 50° that feels like 50°. Later today, we are anticipating a high temperature of 72° under sunny skies.

At 4:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon, we journeyed to the First Presbyterian Church to enjoy one of their concert series presentations. In this case, we listened to the band Blackthorn, a Detroit based group that plays mostly traditional Irish music, but they also add in some music from Scotland. In addition to entertaining storytelling, collectively they play a myriad number of instruments such as; keyboards, tin whistle, flute, guitars, fiddle, banjo squeeze box, mandolin and mandola. Most of the singing was done as a group or by lead vocalist Richard McMullan, a native of Belfast, Ireland. We enjoyed ourselves for the second year in a row. The band has been playing together for 32 years.

We enjoyed Mary's now famous vegan Swiss cheese and sauerkraut sandwiches on sourdough bread for lunch after I took STWD for the morning safari. That followed our regular morning bagels with vegan cream cheese, onions, tomatoes and in my case, vegan ham. I think they call that a Schmear in Yiddish. Hopefully I got that right.

Dinner was another serving of Mary's roast beest, served with broccoli and topped with vegan Worcestershire sauce. All in all, a very satisfying day of meals.

Sadly, the four teams in baseball that I follow all lost. The Cubs remain in first place following a loss to the Rockies, 0 - 2. The Tigers are still in third place, in spite of a neat trick played by Ian Kinsler when he let a ball drop and the tossed out the runner who never ran to second. Since there was only one runner on first base, the infield fly rule was not invoked. Still, the final score was 4 - 5 as the Tigers lost to the Astros. My beloved Red Sox also maintained their divisional place of second, as they lost to the Blue Jays, 3 - 5. The Caps lost to the Dayton Dragons, 0 - 1. Their record of 5 - 5 places them in the middle of the Midwest League Eastern Division.

I'm starting to run long in spite of my efforts, so I'll close by saying that the sun will rise at 6:58 a.m., and set at 8:32 p.m. Ciao.