Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. We just passed 3:20 a.m. in "The City."

We had a severe weather alert last night from the NWS that covered Ottawa and many counties in Western, MI. The alert was for a fast moving line of storms. A furtive look out the WW indicates that the only result was to scare STWD. I see no evidence of a negative result, but the view out the WW at this hour of the morning is typical, dark and darker, accompanied by a side of inadequate street lighting.

We have a current temperature of 57° per the NWS, while the DTWS is indicating 59°. In both instances, no additional precipitation is forecast. Today's high temperature is expected to be 75° under mostly sunny skies. No watering of the gardens of the PE today, but the balance of the week will require watering by Wednesday at the latest. Since we won't see the 80°s until Friday, evaporation should be minimal.

Sports news had only one bright spot. Otherwise, a .250 result was the outcome for my teams. The Cubs behind Jake Arrieta lost to the D'Backs, 2 - 3. That gives the Cubs an overall record of 39 - 16 in the N. L. Central. 9.5 games ahead of the Pirates. The slumber in the Cubs' lumber ended Arrieta's winning streak at 20 games. The Cubs are off to play the Phillies tonight.

The lone bright spot was that the Tigers are now 24 - 24 in the A. L. Central, following a 5 - 2 victory over that other team from Chicago. That means that the Tigers are still in 4th place, but they are showing some life.

My beloved Red Sox fell to the Blue Jays, 4 - 5. That moves the Sox back into a statistical tie with the Orioles, with an A.L. East record of 33 - 24.

The Caps dropped a heart-breaker to the South Bend Cubs, 1 - 2. Like the Sox, the Caps too are statistically tied, in their case with those same S. B. Cubs, with an overall record of 32 - 22 in the M. W. L. East.

For anyone paying attention, the Cleveland Cavaliers were crushed by the Golden State Warriors in game two of the NBA finals by a lopsided score of 110 - 77. That gives the Warriors a 2 - 0 game lead over the Cavaliers in the finals.

I did it, albeit with assistance from Mary and STSD. I made a loaf of my famous banana nut bread. Mary assisted with the things that required two hands and cleanup, while Sugar ably assisted with only the clean up duties. A late lunch of vegan tuna salad atop some fresh lettuce from our gardens, topped with Mary's homemade ranch dressing, followed those aforementioned bagels with a schmear during CBS Sunday Morning. We sampled my banana nut bread efforts after lunch and the morning safari and they proved delicious, so I can personally attest that my efforts were a success. I believe that STSD would agree.

We set out to locate a breadbox for Mary's kitchen at two of the local antique stores, but the search proved fruitless. However, I forwarded another series of possibilities to Mary a few moments ago, so she'll let me know later this morning. We had planned a dinner of pasta with tomato sauce last night, but after an unplanned stop following our fruitless breadbox search, Mary took the safe route and we had hot dogs with all the trimmings along with potato chips.

It is likely that we'll be able to check into those other breadbox options later today, along with a trip to the big-box nursery and garden center to pick out some additional shade tolerant perennials. I have a haircut scheduled at 12:00 p.m. No laughing please, because my beard and other places need a professional tune up. I also want to stop at the library to speak to Larry, the organizer of the Irish Jam sessions, about the type of bodhran, an Irish frame drum, that I am considering buying. He knows much more than me about all things concerning Irish music.

That definitely looks like enough for one day's activities. The sun will rise at 6:06 a.m. and set at 9:21 p.m. Ciao.