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

Of both desire and necessity. I'm going to try to keep this one short,. Will I make it? Stay tuned.

We have a current temperature of 62° under clear skies. Sorry Steph, I don't feel like going outside and trying to take sky shots with the sun about to rise. Maybe tomorrow. We are anticipating a high today of 70° with sunny skies in the morning and a 50% chance of showers and/or T-storms in the afternoon and evening, The Sun will rise in a short while @ 6:05 a.m. and set @ 9:27 p.m.

Sports results yesterday were mostly tragic. Yes, the Cubs eked out a win over the Padres last night 3 - 2, to move to 35 - 34 in the NL Central, still good enough for 2nd place, but that doesn't mean that they are in good shape. Until they run off a string of wins in the seven to ten game range without a commensurate number of losses following, I won't pronounce them in good shape., The Cubs play the Padres again tonight @ 8:05 p.m.

The Tigers, what can I say? They fell to 32 - 37 in the AL Central following another loss, this time to the Mariners, 2 - 6. The Tigers are still mired in 4th place and going nowhere, except to their couches in the fall. In addition, manager Brad Ausmus will take the fall at season's end because that's what happens to managers when their teams don't win. The Tigers are once again in Seattle tonight @ 10:10 p.m.

My beloved Red Sox fell to the Royals last night by a score of 2 - 4 and also fell back into 2nd place in the AL East with a record of 39 - 31. They'll try again tonight in KC @ 8:15 p.m.

Six members of the Caps play will in the MWL All-Star game tonight.

We ran some errands yesterday before I retired to the front porch of the manse for some R & R.

I was on the porch yesterday afternoon reading and watching the clouds roll in when @ 5:15 p.m., locomotive 2019 passed slowly by heading north. In tow were five CHCs, two DBTCs and two DWTCs, I wasn't around for the southbound run. My apprentice trainspotter recorded the passage for me.

However, since I was there, I did snap some pictures of the clouds and our surroundings for posterity. Here they are with no particular significance nor order.

Blue skies shining on me.

Nothing but blue skies did I see.

Unless you count the fur-children staring out the window @ me.

But then, the skies turned gloomy, as though a rain event was imminent.

But no, nothing, as usual.

We plan to stay in today and do those indoor chores I need to get to. Otherwise, Mary will be chatting and something else that I forgot. Before that, we'll walk with the aforementioned fur-children and then... Ciao.