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

Yesterday was a great day here in GH. The rains fell in the morning @ a steady rate that allowed me to escape the ritual watering. Mary and I had to wait to take the morning safari with STWD due to her reluctance to go out in the rain.

Worthy of note was the arrival of the Furminator™ for the benefit of Sugar and us. I have more work to do with Sugar, but the Furminator™ works as advertised. Sugar's coat looks much better as she was relieved of what seemed like pounds of excess hair.

Speaking of rain, the NWS predicted that we'd be having rain right now, and surprisingly, they were like the proverbial stopped clock, they predicted the rain accurately, a rare event. We have a current temperature outside the WW of 67° under cloudy skies. The rains are not heavy, but they may allow me to avoid the watering once again. I won't know until I go out later this morning.

Weather Update Alert!!!  The rains have continued, and @ 3:50 a.m., they continue to fall in yet another reprieve from the daily waterings. STWD is in her hide-e-hole upstairs, so I know that T-storms are in the area. 

The NWS is predicting a high for today of 80° with T-storms and showers occurring throughout the day with varying degrees of possibility, anywhere from 40% right now, to 60% @ 7:00 p.m. The showers or T-storms will be scattered and tapering off later tonight in time for the annual Coast Guard Festival car show on Sunday. As I noted previously, the car show participants will be watching the weather overnight tonight and into the morning on Sunday to make a final decision about bringing their cars to the show.

Sports news yesterday was mostly good. The Cubs' bats exploded in a flurry of home runs and multiple base hits in a 12 - 1 romp over the visiting Seattle Mariners. The Cubs occupy 1st place in the N. L. Central with a record of 62 - 40, 6.5 games ahead of the Cardinals who also won. The Cubs and the Mariners play again today @ 2:20 p.m.

The Tigers not to be outdone, also saw their bats explode as they romped over the Astros in a game @ Comerica Park in Detroit. The final score was a lopsided 14 - 6. Home runs and aggressive base running contributed to the Tigers' victory, as they continued their winning streak to go to an A. L. Central record of 55 - 48. They are still in 2nd place, but they are only 4.5 games behind the Indians who also won. The Tigers and the Astros play again tonight @ 7:10 p.m. I may have been premature in my prediction of the demise of Brad Ausmus and the Tigers. They may even make the playoffs once again. Like I've said before, it is easy to become a homer and hop on and of the bandwagon.

My beloved Red Sox finally snapped their losing streak with a 6 - 2 win over the Angels last night in Anaheim. The Sox are now @ 56 - 45 in the A. L. East and in 2nd place, just 1.5 games behind the Orioles who lost to the 2nd place Blue Jays, The Sox and the Angels play again tonight @ 9:05 p.m.

We somehow managed to walk nearly five miles yesterday. The morning safari, a visit to the chiropractor and a walk downtown and back made that possible. We stopped in @ the Waterfront Stadium and caught the Old Friends during their pre-concert sound check. They played enough so that Mary's Simon and Garfunkel hunger was sated and we had no need to attend the actual show.

We supped @ the Double Deuce and then came home and spent some time on the front porch of the PE with Adam and Steph who are visiting.

It was on that same front porch that I did a complete trainspotting yesterday. Adam was there for the morning run on the RSTL and waved to the engineer occupying the cab of EMD GP 38 locomotive # 2019 and it's twin #2057 as they slowly passed through on their trip south @ 10:50 a.m. In tow were two BCs, one CHC, one DWTC, and one DBTC that was bringing up the rear of the empty cars.

Later @ 3:16 p.m., I watched out the WW as the same tandem of locomotives and the same engineer motored by during their northbound passage, 10 CHCs, two DWTCs, one GTC, and seven DBTCs were moving slowly due to a full load. That slow passage was a good thing on the rickety rails of the RSTL.

I did more highlighting and newspaper reading yesterday between meals and walks. I have more highlighting to do to stay ahead of Mary's efforts. The book is interesting, so the reading is going easy and well.

We may or may not walk down to the Waterfront Stadium to see the Beach Boys interpreters, Sound of Summer, later tonight. The rains and T-storms predicted by the NWS may preclude that activity. I'll be doing more highlighting and Mary will be doing more indexing after she and Steph make a visit to the annual quilt show @ St. Patrick;s Catholic church nearby. Adam and I will be staying home with the intrepid one. We may once again have a short morning safari if the rains continue to fall.

The sun will rise @ 6:33 a.m. and set @ 9:07 p.m. Ciao.