Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 5:30 a.m. in "The City."

I'm going to endeavor to follow the K.I.S.S. formula for this blog, let's see how it goes.

I have one-half of a trainspotting report from yesterday. At 12:06 - 12:09 p.m., the southbound run of locomotives 2019 and 2057 passed through on the RSTL. #2057 was looking crisp and clean with or without caffeine, but #2019 looked like it had been ridden, but not put away not wet.  There were 12 CHCs, one GTC, and 32 DBTCs, with 28 of those bringing up the rear.

I had been out in the gardens and lawns of the PE raking up leaves when I heard that lonesome whistle blow, I repaired to the front porch after retrieving a pad and pencil to record the passage. I waved to the engineer and then sat down to record. I do know that the cars were empty as they all made a hollow booming sound when they passed over the joints in the tracks.

Since it was straight up noon, the usual lunch time traffic was on our street and since the train was moving slowly through GH as it passed the PE, the traffic on our street began to back up, nearly all the way to 5th. For the uninitiated, that's about one and one-half blocks. Once the train cleared, the frenzy began as people were trying to accomplish their various tasks before their lunch breaks expired. I got to watch. Retirement has its privileges.

We have a current temperature of 43° according to the DTWS. The NWS has forecast that we'll have a high of 67° under partly cloudy skies later today. That forecast has convinced me that I need to ride my bike today in spite of the accompanying forecast for 15 mph winds. Tomorrow's forecast looks similar with a bit more wind, so, we'll see what happens. Mary will be staying behind to work on one of the indexes.

She did get out to the grocery store yesterday while I was reading and doing some indoor and outdoor chores, so I think I had the better set of tasks.  Later in the afternoon, we both traveled to the big-box home center in Norton Shores and the fabric store in Spring Lake for some thread. On the way home, we stopped at our favorite watering hole for dinner, because while Mary and Ginger were on safari yesterday morning, Mary met the manager and daytime bartender, Rocker, at the door of that fine establishment and that put the idea into her mind. As always, I fought hard to prevent that from happening. : - )

Today, other than reading, playing with the girls, riding my bike, and watching the world go by, I have no plans. Mary will be working on the aforementioned index and perhaps she'll do some sewing in between the morning safari and making lunch.

The sun will rise @ 7:49 a.m. and set @ 5:18 p.m. There, not bad, 30 minutes from start to finish. Ciao.