Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 12:30 a.m. in "The City."

Yes, this is an early edition, but Mary roused me to watch the chaos on the floor of the House of Representative, and so I am up to blog. I won't be long.

The current temperature is 71° with the high temperature forecast for today to be 81° under partly cloudy skies. Earlier this evening, the NWS was warning of severe storms, but they passed well to the south of GH. That's a long way of saying I guess that I'll be watering for the foreseeable future. There is no significant precipitation/storm activity in the forecast until Sunday @ 70%. I'll take that with a grain of salt.

Mary had a good time at her sock knitting class yesterday, but not so much during her stop at the big-box everything store. However, we spent a nice afternoon traveling to and from Comstock Park to visit the Flowerland™ store there to get some plants and things for Mary's $.95 new terrarium. Plus, we learned that what we thought were slugs eating our roses, are not slugs at all, but an insect called a sawfly. We go some spray that should solve the problem.

I did hear and see the train rolling southbound at 9:38 a.m., but I never saw nor heard the northbound run. The early train consisted of locomotives 2019 and 2057 towing two BCs, 19 CHCs, four DBTCs, and four DWTCs, with two of those at the end. All the cars were empty.

Sports news was not good yesterday. The Cubs were swept by their N. L. Central division rivals, the Cardinals, with a 2 - 7 final series game. The Cubs have a record of 47 - 23, good for a 1st place lead over the Cardinals of 9.5 games. I guess that turn about really is fair play, because the Cubs swept the Cardinals in St. Louis earlier in the season. Let's hope that the Cubs' next stop in Miami goes better.

The Tigers fared better, as they defeated the Mariners 5 - 1, to go to an A. L. Central record of 37 - 35, good for 3rd place, 4.5 games behind the division leading Indians. The same two teams meet again later today.

My beloved Red Sox fell to that other team from Chicago by a score of 6 - 8. That leaves the Sox 2.0 games behind the A. L. East leading Orioles, and in 2nd place. The Sox once again face that other team this afternoon.

The Caps return to action tonight, following a great first half of the season in the Midwest League Eastern Division. They are in Lansing, MI tonight to face the Lugnuts.

Yesterday while Mary was at her knitting class, STSD and I made our famous banana nut bread. I did have Mary chop the walnuts before she left, but after that, I mashed, stirred, poured, and baked one-handed. I also cleaned up with that same one-hand system. It was challenging, but I did it. STSD as usual, was there to provide moral support and assist in the clean up.

Today, I have to go to the hospital for some preventative care, nothing serious, and then I hope to spend some time reading. Mary has to get to work on that index, so I should be able to do as I please after visiting the hospital, and watering the gardens and lawns of the PE.

The sun will rise at 6:06 a.m. and set at 9:28 p.m., as the days once again get shorter. Ciao.