Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 4:00 a.m. in "The City."

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. I'm in a slight funk following yesterday's sports news.

The now 2 - 6 Spartans of MSU fell to the now 8 - 0 Wolverines of Michigan by a score of 23 - 32. I'm not sure that the Spartans were in the game after taking the opening kickoff and marching it down the field for the first score. It was all downhill after that. Mary and I spent the afternoon @ the Post watching the game and talking to Sally who came in to see old friends. She is looking well, but tired. We had a good time.

In other sports news, the Cubs bats continued their somnambulistic ways. While some players got hits, they stranded too many men on base and are now facing an end to their fairytale season tonight. The Indians ace pitcher Corey Kluber was able to throttle the Cubs' power hitting and the final score of 2 - 7 could have been much worse. John Lackey and his relief corps were unable to contain the Indians and now the Cubs have their backs against the proverbial wall. There is no joy in Mudville.

We had a power outage yesterday morning that lasted about two hours. We'll have to wait for the Monday issue of the Grand Haven Tribune for full details. That power outage caused us to ask the handyman to delay his return until Monday. We did get out for a long walk with the fur-children to the big-box home center. While that store was also experiencing the same power outage, they  had some lighting and the ability to take your money due to an emergency generator. We got what we had set out to get and so life went on.

Ginger and STWD each got a treat @ the big-box home center and Sugar also got a treat @ the Bookman when we stopped there for the weekend edition of the Grand Haven Tribune. We don't want Ginger to learn about all of the possible places in "The City" to get free treats.

Today we'll be doing some work in the gardens of the vast PE. Leaves to be blown, raked, and bagged, kale to be harvested, and grass seed to be sown. I'm already tired just thinking about it.

Otherwise, not much is on tap. We are in a state of upheaval downstairs due to the painting activities.

I/we plan to get the yardwork out of the way. Then I can spend some time reading and singing and playing with the girls. I'm just too busy in retirement.  Mary plans to do some work in her kitchen, do some reading, and then do some knitting in some order. All of those activities are after the morning safari. I'm feeling the need for some downtime, as is Mary.

The current temperature is 50° under cloudy skies. As I perused the forecast from the NWS, I saw a 45%  chance of a.m. showers. If that happens, most of our outside activities will be put on hold. Time will tell. The high temperature for today is expected to be 55° under cloudy skies. The weather and high temperature are supposed to improve by Tuesday, so we wanted to get the yardwork out of the way on what was supposed to be a cool and dry day.

The sun will rise this morning @ 8:17 a.m. and set tonight @ 6:38 p.m. Ciao.