Good morning or good evening,wherever you may be. It is just past 2:00 a.m. in "The City."

Let me start out by saying YES! That's in relation to my latest visit to the orthopedist. My sutures are out and I now have a removable brace that allows me to type with both hands, although it is impossible to take a photo of both hands. See below.

While I only play a typist on this blog, this is a vast improvement.

The doctor and his nurse, with a little assistance from yours truly, removed the bulky plaster cast that had been in place since my surgery 10 days ago. The nurse, Carol, and Dr. Baszler were quick to decide that those sutures and the incision sites looked great. Mary was not so sure, but neither she nor I had yet received our doctor's degrees before the appointment, so we had to defer to the the "real" medical people. I knew all along that things would be fine. At any rate, next week is my final knee treatment and a reevaluation of my thumb's progress following updated X-rays. Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson, a broadcaster for that other team from Chicago, would have said it this way, "Put it on the board...YES!"

Speaking of sports, pardon my borrowing of that phrase from the late sportscaster Howard Cosell, the baseball results for yesterday were .500. The Cubs handily defeated the Dodgers and their 19 year old pitching prospect, Julio Urias, 7 - 2, with Urias giving up three home runs before being relieved. His manager isn't sure if Urias will remain in the starting rotation. With the way the Cubs are playing, I would not be too quick to judge. The Cubs now lead the N.L. Central by 8.5 games over the 2nd place Pirates. The Cubs welcome the D'Backs this afternoon.

The Tigers are still reeling, losing to the Yankees, 4 - 5. That gives the Tigers a record of 25 - 28 in the A.L. Central, good enough for 4th place. Ouch!

My beloved Red Sox took it on the chin, losing to the Orioles, 7 - 12. That gives the Sox a record of 30 - 22, and leaves them with a slim 1.0 game lead over the 2nd place Orioles in the A.L. East. Also ouch!

The Caps are doing great. They defeated the Great Lakes Loons, 6 - 3. They now have a "solid" 1.0 game lead over the South Bend Cubs, in the M.W. L.East, with a record of 31 - 19.

I heard the morning run of the southbound train while on the mornig safari with Mary and STWD. The walk was abbreviated due to my doctor's appointment. All I know for sure was that the train was unloaded, based on my "Trained" trainspotting ear, pun intended, when it passed through at 9:40 a.m.

While we were out, we had a first with regard to spotting. We watched a young man riding past on what was likely a replica high wheel bicycle. The early hi-wheelers were dubbed "Boneskakers" A company in Alameda, CA, called RBR manufactures the replicas. If you want to try one, here is their web site address. http://www.hiwheel.com/boneshakers/index.htm Personally, I'll stick with the tried and true two wheel models of today.

Also on the subject of spotting, we saw six, Jeeps™ of various configurations and colors. The one parked behind the fabric store was painted British Racing Green and was a 4.0 liter Wrangler model. I should have mentioned yesterday that I spotted a Jeep™ during our trip to Holland that my "Jeep™ Sensei" would have quickly identified as a pre-1997 model, based on its suspension configuration. I have so much more to learn with regard to the nuances of all Jeeps™.

We made a short stop at the mall to buy a new watchband for my "Work Watch" and then traveled across the street to buy a couple of things at the big-box home center located there.

As we headed home, we stopped in Spring Lake to see if Mary could avoid a step in her plan to make her rug project into a wall hanging without sewing. It turns out that she can't, so she has to hand sew the rug to complete the edges. We also stopped at the resale store there and picked up a a pair of knitting needles so that Mary can start another project, my new scarf.

I almost forgot. We stopped in an antique store there too, and purchased some hardscape for our front garden area.

The current temperature is 55/59° as we head for today's NWS forecast high of 75°. Those mid-70° temperatures will be the norm for the next several days. However, with only a 20% chance of precipitation, watering is on the agenda here at the PE too.

Mary has a chat today, we have the morning safari with the intrepid one, and perhaps a trip to that big-box most everything store I mentioned yesterday. The sun will rise at 6:07 a.m. and set at 9:19 p.m. Ciao.