Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 4:30 a.m. in "The City."

Yesterday dawned cloudy but comfortable. It was a great morning for a morning safari, albeit in different directions for our expanded family. Mary walked all over GH with Ginger, while STWD and I walked east and south before returning home.

We have a current temperature of 68° under cloudy skies with strong winds. Later today, the temperature will remain @ a comfortable 68° with those same conditions according to the NWS. There is no rain of note in the forecast for several days which allowed me to kill the crabgrass and other noxious weeds in preparation for the planting of new grass seed for growth next spring. Research has shown me that perennial ryegrass would be the best seed. However, I will also ask my neighbor, Ron, what he is using to produce the new lawn over his recently disturbed lawn areas. His grass is coming up nicely.

Speaking of Ginger and Sugar, they are working it out, but Sugar has been the alpha dog for nine years, so her jealousy is not surprising. We are learning about Ginger's bathroom habits, but we still have much to learn.

We did have two trains to spot yesterday. I heard and felt the southbound run @ 10:35 a.m., but I didn't directly observe its passage. My apprentice trainspotter could only tell me that she saw some DBTCs and DWTCs being pulled bu some locomotives, but their number was not determined. I am reasonably certain that the regular contingent of locomotives was in the lead.

At 4:54 p.m., I personally observed the northbound run of locomotives 2057 and 2019. They had a short list of cars, eight DWTCs, and four DBTCs.

I didn't get much accomplished on my list of to-dos yesterday. I got Shanghaied into the kitchen to do some batch cooking while Mary worked on the index. I also did some other household chores both indoors and out.

Mary and I found a great recipe for goulash, that Mary wanted to try for lunch, but I had to make an unanticipated trip to Health Hutt for chopped tomatoes to complete the recipe. While there were other alterations made to the recipe to utilize the vegetables we had on hand, the overall outcome was delicious. I do have just one slight criticism. Too many green chiles. With that alteration, this is a keeper.

I do have plans to watch NCIS and BULL tonight along with watching the Cubs defeat the Dodgers starting @ 8:00 p.m. The Blue Jays fell to the Indians last night to fall to 0 - 3 and put themselves on the brink of being swept by those same Indians. Those two teams play again this afternoon in Toronto @ 4:00 p.m.

Today, I am going to get to the man-cave and get that painting done. The lid for the cold-frame needs to go back on before the snows fly. I need to do some reading and play with the girls too. Mary will continue to work and chat.

The sun will rise @ 8:02 a.m. and set @ 6:56 p.m. Ciao.