Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 1:00 a.m. in "The City."

Phew, I'm done for the year! Well at least with the outdoor chores here on the PE. This year, in recognition of being of a certain age, I took a minimalist approach to the storage of the outdoor furniture and the vegetable and flower pots. I moved the clay pots to the back and covered them with a tarp. I covered the deck planters with plastic wrap and secured that with the rain covers that I made a couple of years ago. I left them in place on the deck. The wrought iron furniture was moved aside but left in place on the deck. The only furniture that I moved to the man-cave was the furniture from the front porch since it is painted wood. I bagged the final bag of leaves for pickup. Like I said, "Phew, I'm done for the year!"

I came inside to bake my world famous banana nut bread with the assistance of STSD and a wee bit of assistance from GTSD. The intrepid one did the lion's share of the cleanup because the GTSD dog is still learning. Once done, it was time to go to the chiropractor, so Mary wrapped up some slices for the doctor and his assistant. I haven't tried the bread yet, but I'm relatively certain that it will taste as good as ever.

I also took some time to hang our Christmas wreath on the wall next to the front door. When we were out on safari yesterday morning, we noticed that the annual Christmas Craft Fair was happening at the Community Center. Mary suggested that since I would be outside working, I could walk back when I was done and choose a wreath. I demurred and instead walked home with the fur-children while she stopped in at the sale. Her choices are generally better than mine when it comes to things of that nature. She procures, I hang. I like my division of labor better.

The fur-children were apprehensive when Mary left the safari route. Ginger doesn't like to let Mary out of her sight and Sugar doesn't like it much either. However, everybody made it home safely. Worthy of note is that Ginger watches out the windows when Mary goes anywhere. Ginger and Mary are bonded.

I was able to train spot twice yesterday. Only one locomotive, #2019, was necessary on both the southbound run in the morning and the northbound run in the afternoon. @ 11:35 a.m. that locomotive was towing five CHCs, seven DBTCs, two DWTCs, and five GTCs with one of those bringing up the rear. @ 3:12 p.m., the northbound passage occurred as #2019 traveled north towing three DBTCs with seven CHCs @ the end. The northbound run was fully loaded.

Mary decided that she had accepted more work than she had time to complete, so she became a contractor and farmed out a book to an indexer out West. That was the book that I had just started highlighting. Since I was only 30 pages in and since I have plenty of things to occupy my time anyway, I was not disappointed to see it go.

I never got around to setting up our Christmas tree yesterday, so that is on my schedule for today. That and going downtown to see the annual Jingle Bell Parade @ 6:00 p.m. Mary will continue her indexing project. The parade ends @ Central Park with speeches, the lighting of the tree in the park and of course, Santa Claus himself. Two years ago, we watched the parade and just as the speeches were about to begin, it started to rain, so we made a beeline for home. If the weather forecast for today is accurate, we will see rain in the morning and then clear skies by the time the parade takes place.

Speaking of the weather, the current temperature is 38° but it feels like 32° with the wind. Later today, the sun will rise @ 7:59 a.m. and set @ 5:10 p.m. There is rain in the forecast from the NWS @ 40% that will end about midday. Sunday is another matter altogether. The NWS has forecast a 90% chance of rain/snow for much of the day. I know where I'll be after the morning safari. Ciao.