Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 12:30 a.m. in "The City."

In case you were wondering, I won't have to water the lawns and gardens of the vast PE for several days. We are experiencing severe T-storms right now and have been for quite a while. Later today, the chance of additional rain drops to 50% and by Friday, we go back to an 80% chance of more T-storms. Fortunately, this is Michigan in the summer. It could be snow. We have a current temperature of 64° and our high today is forecast to reach 76° according to the NWS.

I/we spotted only one train yesterday. I/we witnessed the southbound run of MMRR EMD GP38-2 locomotive #2019 as it plied the rails of the RSTL between 11:03 - 11:05 a.m. Mary, Ginger, STWD, and I had nearly returned from the library when we heard that lonesome whistle blow as the single locomotive towed 29 CHCs, and five DWTCs. None of us saw nor heard a northbound run.

Sports news yesterday produced an O-fer.  By that, I mean that all of my teams lost their games, some in spectacular fashion.

Let's start with the Cubs, about whom I am currently reading a non-fiction book entitled: The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building The Best Team In Baseball And Breaking The Curse. by Tom Verducci. I have only just begun, but so far, this is an entertaining trip.

But I digress, as is often my wont. The Cubs took it on the chin from the Washington Nationals last night, 4 - 8 in spite of a prodigious home-run off the bat of Anthony Rizzo in the top of the 8th. Unfortunately, John Lackey gave up another of his Major League leading 24 home runs as the Nationals put on their heavy-hitting shoes and came out swinging. In the aforementioned book, Cubs' President Theo Epstein is described as a baseball genius. Let's see if he can do something that is rare in Chicago sports and send Lackey and his home run allowing pitching packing in spite of Lackey's big dollar contract.

I almost forgot to mention that the Cubs did do one thing that might help, they designated highly paid backup catcher Miguel Montero for assignment and brought in a new backup catcher, after Montero placed the blame for the seven bases stolen by the Nats in the previous game on the shoulders of Jake Arrieta. While I am no fan of the way that Arrieta's velocity has dropped this year, this is not the way to ingratiate yourself with your teammates. Montero makes big money to work two days a week for six months. Like our librarian. Toni Runtz used to say. "Sit down, shut up, and wear beige."

In last night's game, Kris Bryant injured his ankle and is listed as day to day. The Cubs now have a 39 - 39 record in the NL Central and are still in 2nd place in spite of their best efforts to drop further. The Cubs and the Nats play again today @ 4:05 p.m.

The Tigers went back to their losing ways too, as they dropped a game to the Royals, 2 - 8, to fall to a full seven games behind the AL Central Division leading Cleveland Indians. The Tigers now have a record of 34 - 43 and looked like what they are, a bad baseball team.

I read a reprinted article yesterday in our local newspaper, The Grand Haven Tribune, in which the writer noted that it isn't Brad Ausmus' fault that the Tigers are bad, it is the fault of bloated, long-term contracts and aging players. Duh! Still, as I've noted before, the manager usually takes the blame. So, we'll see just how long the Tigers' GM allows this team to underachieve. He can always blame Ausmus and the previous GM. Oh, the Tigers will continue their losing ways today against those same Royals @ 1:10 p.m.

My beloved Red Sox lost to the Twins, 1 - 4. Fortunately, the Yankiees lost once again and so the Sox are still in 1st plce in the AL East by one-half game. The Sox have a record of 43 - 35 and play the Twins again today @ 7:10 p.m.

To complete my 0-fer day, the Caps finally lost one to their MWL East division rivals, the Dayton Dragons, which allowed the Ft. Wayne TinCaps to tie the Caps for 1st place, with identical 6 - 1 records in the 2nd half of the season. The Caps and the Dragons play again tonight @ 7:00 p.m.

Let's move on to better news. My camera lives again, thanks to our IT guru's suggestion to reprogram the date in the camera. I can now download pictures to my photos file and easily find them. So, since Mary told me when I was in the man-cave doing some painting, that the waves were breaking huge on "The Big Lake" we needed to go and take some pictures, which we did. I'll share them without comment now.

The Red flag was flying to warn swimmers to stay out of the water, but a few for hearty souls were still wave boarding

In addition to us, Ginger went along for the ride and then came home to crash from all of the excitement.

Riding in the car and walking on the pier can be so exhausting.

On the way home, we detoured through Grand Haven's Lake Foret Cemetery and Mary took a picture of an interesting looking tree.

To quote from Yogi Bear of Jellystone Park, "Looks more, like a Sycamore, to me."

I was downstairs a few moments ago to assist in the closure of the downstairs, hard to close open and old windows in the manse. It takes two hands and some upper body strength.

I plan to complete my painting chore today and then replace the top to the storage cabinet in the mud room. Mary plans to do some batch bean cooking and also try some new recipes that use those beans. Yesterday, she used some rice and vegan chicken that she had made previously to make two meals, a delicious stir-fry, and some fried rice. I liked both of her efforts.

Otherwise, the fur-children will need to be walked if it isn't raining and I plan to read more and play more with the girls after the sun rises @ 6:07 a.m. and well before it sets @ 9:28 p.m. We also have an appointment at the chiropractor too. Ciao.