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

Okay, I am officially worried now. The Cubs lost another game to the Mets, this one by a score of 3 - 4. Jake Arrieta lost his first road game in 24 starts. He was once again all too human, not the Cy Young winner of 2015 at all. He says he isn't too worried, he knows he didn't do his job. But, the Cubs as a team are still not doing their job. Sure, they are 51 - 29 in the N. L. Central, nine games ahead of the 2nd place Cardinals, but as a faithful fan, I would like to see the Cubs win more often than they have been of late. This is their 3rd loss on a row. Arrieta is supposed to be their ace, their stopper, but he says he need to be more aggressive and not fall behind hitters. Ya think? Remember faithful readers, this is supposed to be "The Year!" The Cubs try to beat the Mets again this afternoon @ 1:10 p.m.

The Tigers eked out a win over the Rays, 3 - 2, to go to 43 - 38, five full games over .500 in the A. L. Central. As a transplanted Tigers' fan, I have easily become a "Homer" for them. They are 6.5 games behind the Indians, who lost for the 1st time in 15 tries, this one to the Blue Jays. Plus, the Tigers are 2.0 games ahead of that other team from Chicago, who also eked out a win over the Astros. The Tigers face the Rays again this afternoon, also @ 1:10 p.m.

My beloved Red Sox stunk up the joint, there is no other way to say it. They lost to the Angels, 2 - 21. Red Sox starting pitcher Clay Buchholz was not alone, although he gave up 6 runs in his short 4 1/3 innings of work. The Angels even had a player go 6 for 6 at the plate, including 2 home runs and 5 RBIs, with 5 runs scored. Red Sox manager John Farrell, said, "Honestly, we're embarrassed by tonight's ball game." "There's really no other way to to put it,." We got kicked around the ballpark tonight." Once again, "Ya think?" That finds the Sox still in 2nd place, 4.0 games behind the Orioles who also lost to the Mariners, albeit in a less spectacular fashion in the A. L. East. The Sox play again today against the Angels @1:35 p.m.

The Caps slipped past the lowly Dayton Dragons, 3 - 2. That moves the Caps up to 4 - 6 and 7th place in the Midwest League Eastern Division, one game ahead of the Dragons. Same teams today @ 2:00 p.m.

We traveled to the phone store yesterday to get a new phone after the old one lost its mind. We had hoped for a simple fix, but the lure of new technology made that decision a no-brainer with no change in monthly costs. In the process, we also got a "free" tablet computer from the store. Free, if you don't count the $15.00 per month charge for the data plan. So we have incurred a small extra charge to improve our technology. Now I have to learn to use that tablet.

The weather yesterday was pleasant, but partly cloudy. The temperature reached the upper 70° range. We expect 80° today after the sun rises @ 6:10 a.m. and long before it sets @ 9:27 p.m. We have a current temperature of 54° according to the NWS, and 57° according to the DTWS. STWD is sleeping next to me at my desk, so I know that no storms are in the offing. No precipitation is in the forecast until a.m. T-storms on Wednesday. Poor Sugar, fireworks on the 4th and then T-storms on the 6th.

Today, reading of another book for my Beachcomber's Book Bingo quest, after having finished that 950 page spy novel I have been reading. The new book is regular sized print, and it is 426 pages in length. That 950 page large print book would have been 736 pages in regular size print. This next book should be a walk in the park by comparison.

Mary plans some plain and fancy cooking and knitting today. I plan more watering, some indoor chores, and more reading to go with baseball watching on TV.

That's enough for today. Ciao.