Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 4:45 a.m. in "The City."

I'm listening to Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. He and his guest, John Greenewald Jr., are discussing the life-work Greenewaldewald, who at the young age of 15 began to research all things kept "secret" by the CIA, FBI, and the NSA regarding UFOs, the JFK assassination, chemical, biological and nuclear weaponry, and top-secret aircraft. He claims that he has obtained interesting documents from the U.S. Forest Service and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
regarding those subjects. An intense discussion to say the least.

But I digress.

I was outside in the clear air in the 52° temperature air around 3:15 a.m. because once I got up, Ginger got up. In her case, it is always best to allow her to do her duty when she gets up.

The high temperature today is forecast by the NWS to be a perfect 72° under sunny skies once the sun rises @ 6:07 a.m. and well before it sets @ 9:28 p.m. There is a 60% chance of showers on Wednesday. We had a very brief sprinkle yesterday evening and the temperature never exceeded 66°. Mary was cold, but I was in my summer uniform of shorts and a T-shirt.

We traveled north to go to the mall so that Mary could get some new jeans. She normally eschews clothing that can't be bought at a repurposing store AKA a resale store, but in this case, she had to give up her quest and go full-on retail. Well, sort of, as the jeans were on sale for a BOGO offer of one pair @ full price and the second @ 50% off for a second pair. She found some that are perfect so I insisted that she buy four pairs.

That trip to the mall nearly became a very long trip. Much to our dismay, when we walked to Ginger's daycare place about 11:00 a.m. before our departure, the traffic on Beacon Blvd, AKA U.S.31, the traffic was extremely heavy heading south. But, that is often the case, so we paid scant attention. Even when we headed northbound abut one hour later, the traffic was still very heavy. As we traveled north towards the mall, we noticed that the cars were backed up north of Pontluna Rd., a distance of about four miles, and well into Spring Lake on Savidge St. as the cars attempted to enter Beacon on the other side of the drawbridge across the Grand River.

Since we were on the north side of the bridge, turning back was no longer an option, so we kept on going with no idea what was the problem. We tried to access the internet @ the mall and without any luck, we ducked into the Sprint telephone store after Mary's shopping spree and learned from the young man there that the traffic was still the leftovers from the weekend's Electric Forest Festival.

https://www.electricforestfestival.com/

There is also a second coming of the festival on June 29 - July 2. Apparently, the Electric Forest Festival is West Michigan's version of Lollapalooza or for people of a certain age, Woodstock. Art, music and huge crowds are the norms. Needless to say, the young man @ the Sprint store knew the details and advised us of an alternate route home to avoid the traffic jam. We will avoid that mistake next weekend.

I guess that I really did digress.

Trainspotting was spotty if you'll pardon the pun. At 10:52 a.m. locomotive # 2019 was soloing southward towing only one CHC and one DWTC. At 4:45 p.m., the same locomotive was heading north towing 10 CHCs, and 15 DBTCs.

Sports news from yesterday won't take long. All of my teams, with the exception of the Tigers, won their games. The Cubs eked out a win over the Washington  Nationals, 5 - 4 to stay in 2nd place in the NL Central, with a record of 39 - 37. The Cubs and the Nats play again tonight @ 7:00 p.m.

The Tigers were off so they couldn't lose. They are still mired in 4th place in the AL Central with a record of 33 - 42. The Tigers welcome the Royals to Comerica Park tonight @ 7:10 p.m.

My beloved Red Sox bested the Twins, 4 - 1, to maintain a tie with the Yankees for 1st place in the AL Central. The Sox and the Twins play again tonight @ 7:10 p.m.

The Caps are still a perfect 5 - 0 in the MWL East following their win over the Dayton Dragons by a slim 1 - 0 score. The Caps and the Dragons play again tonight @ 7:00 p.m.

I am going to stop my digressions by closing with a simple statement. Today, we'll do what we do. Ciao.