Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 5:30 a.m. in "The City." I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so here I am at the keyboard.

Phew, yesterday was a snowplow driver's dream or his nightmare, depending on how long he/she spent in the process. If you are paid for the job, then it was a dream. If you are paid for the season, then it was a nightmare. Since I am paid in neither fashion, it was just a lot of work.

I took some photos to give the flavor of what I was up against so that my loyal readers can get a sense of what it is like here in W. MI this winter.

The front porch area when I first got up yesterday morning.

Same for the back deck.

I am running out of places to pile the snow.

The mail must go through!

The snowfall seemed to never end

A space I carved out for the fur-children in the back-forty.

There. enough complaining. Well, not exactly, as I have to report some additional forecast details from the NWS as they relate to Ottawa, County.

As of now, the NWS is forecasting a Winter Weather Advisory for Ottawa, County that has expectations for an additional three to five inches of additional snow, starting slowly later this morning and increasing steadily in the afternoon hours to 90%. The high temperature is forecast to reach 17° after the sun rises this morning @ 8:16 a.m. and well before it sets @ 5:19. Oh my, I honestly don't know where I am going to pile that much additional snow. This winter is eerily reminiscent of the year that I had my shoulder repaired and John, our handyman, was here nearly every day so that I/we could get out and go to P/T.

Below, are some pictures from the February of 2014. However, keep in mind that these pictures are from February of 2011, whereas the previous pictures are from December of 2017!

The snow piles in the back-forty were nearly as tall as yours truly.

This was the pile on the deck.

Another angle. This was the winter that killed my first electric snowblower!

The area that John carved out for the trash bin.

So, if I sound a bit worried in December, that's because I am. To paraphrase the late Lloyd Bridges from one of my favorite movies, Airplane, "I picked a heck of a winter to have a baking yak.!"

However, once I came in from the cold yesterday, in the late morning, Mary made a tasty brunch of hot tea accompanied by chickpea sandwiches with a side of peas and corn.

After my second go around with the snow, we watched a Hallmark movie as I sat with Ginger in my lap and Mary made a dinner that was a tasty salad with homemade dressing and one of my now famous vegan sausages.

While Ginger is cute, she is no replacement for STWD, who used her superior size to displace Ginger later.

Radishes, lettuce, and onions combined to make a great salad!

On my plate and ready to munch!

I spent part of the afternoon yesterday doing some additional highlighting for the index before going outside to face snowmageddon. Too much snow precluded a repeat of the previous day's visit to the "Promised Land" of the heated streets and sidewalks of downtown GH to walk the fur-children. Instead, I was pressed into another round of snow removal.

Today, more highlighting, more TV viewing, perhaps pro-football, and a very likely necessity of more snow removal. Mary will be indexing. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 10:30 p.m. in "The City."

We had a busy day. Mary worked on the index and I used the snowblower and the snow shovel, twice. However, I'm not sure that the snow that fell after my efforts didn't negate my previous work. In addition, there is a Winter Weather Advisory in effect from 12:00 p.m. tomorrow until 12:00 p.m. on Friday. There exists a possibility of two to four additional inches of snow in Ottawa, County where we live, and a possibility of eight inches in "localized" areas, whatever that means.

Suffice it to say that I am running out of places to pile the snow that has fallen. But, this is Michigan and when you are retired, you have all the time you need to think about the details. However, since that Winter Weather Advisory kicks in @ noon tomorrow, we may have to go out and so some errands before then.

We didn't go to Holland today to get the car looked at because the snow was falling and so, discretion being the better part of valor, we stayed home. Mary reset the appointment for Friday afternoon, but that Winter Weather Advisory may change that plan for the third time.

In any event, the fur-children are getting restless as they want their walks. Ginger needs hers and Sugar just needs to get out and smell the scenery. So, we may try to give them an abbreviated walk in the early morning hours before we set out on those errands.

By the by, I know that spring will soon be here, as we received our first seed catalog in the mail on Tuesday. A nice way to forget the snow and think spring!

Otherwise, that is enough for one day. The sun will rise tomorrow @ 8:16 a.m. and set @ 5:17 p.m. bookending a day with a high temperature of 16°! Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 10:30 p.m. in "The City."

Christmas day was great! I didn't really enjoy moving the snow, especially since the gale force winds seemed to put much of it back from whence it came. But the good news is that with the aid of my trusty yak brace, I came away none the worse for wear.

I've included a few pictures to give the flavor of what I was up against. The city plowed the street, but that meant that the snow landed in the driveway. Tomorrow sometime, the city sidewalk plow will be by to make the sidewalks less passable too.

The front porch of the manse before I started

Likewise, the deck and our shared driveway.

While I was out, Mary was preparing our breakfast/brunch. The raisin toast with vegan margarine was a nice opener. She then prepared a great tasting tofu noodle soup, not unlike chicken noodle soup. The base can also be used with other ingredients such as beans or seitan. Suffice it to say that this one is a keeper.

Excellent!

We spent part of the afternoon listening to Christmas music and jazz as we read our respective books.

Finally, it was time for Mary to get started on the Christmas dinner that I chose, vegan shepherd's pie. I'm not sure if Mary liked it as much as I did, but that may be because she was in the kitchen bringing it all together. According to her description, she had to double the number/amount of portabello mushrooms called for in the recipe, but I liked it a lot and I also pronounce this dish a keeper. I've added a few pictures to showcase her efforts.

In the beginning.

Fresh out of the oven.

On my plate and ready to eat.

We have leftovers from both meals, but that's okay with me.

Earlier in the day, I gave the fur-children their morning repast. topped with a special treat for each of them.

These chew bones came from Ginger's daycare center which is also the groomer for both of the fur-children.

Worthy of note is the arrangement of branches from our own back-forty that Mary placed in a vase that she had gotten at the 7th Street Gallery, where I took my drawing lessons. I think Mary did an excellent job of interpreting of the display they had in their window.

A nice touch of the outdoors on a cold winter's day.

Otherwise, we watched a couple of Hallmark Channel romances and Mary just finished watching a movie downstairs. I am taking a break from watching Dirty Dancing to write this blog.

Tomorrow, after my scheduled P/T appointment, we may travel to Holland to get our car looked at regarding a possible recall concern. Other than that, we have to get some things at the big-box home center. That is enough for one day.

We have a current temperature of 13° that feels like 0°. Tomorrow, the sun will rise @ 8:15 a.m. and set @  5:15 p.m. In between, one to two inches of additional snowfall is possible and the driving conditions will be hazardous. That may preclude my P/T appointment and our trip to Holland etc. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 10:30 p.m. in "The City."

What a great day/evening. I walked the fur-children while Mary went to the grocery store before the snow began to fall in earnest and then I settled in to enjoy the day. I/we watched the Bears defeat the hapless Browns and Mary made our Christmas Eve brunch of vegan hot dogs. Not traditional, but tasty.

It has snowed on and off most of the day and evening, and according to the forecast from the NWS, there is a weather advisory in effect until 7:00 p.m. tomorrow with a 70% chance of additional accumulation that could total three to five inches. The current temperature is 23°. Plus, there is also a Gale Warning in effect with gusts that could reach 35 MPH! Only time will tell I guess. The sun will rise tomorrow @ 8:15 a.m. and set in the early evening @ 5:15 p.m.

We watched the Bears and switched to the Lions to get a look at what might have been in both cases. The Bears showcased their rookies QB, Mitch Trubisky, who looked like he might just be the QB of the future, as the Bears won the game, 20 - 3, while the Lions QB, Matthew Stafford, was not able to put the Lions into the playoff picture, as they lost to the Bengals, 17 - 26, thus effectively ending their season. Somewhere in there, I made some baked tofu that is coasted with garlic, pepper, nutritional yeast, pepper, and oregano.

While we watched the games in lieu of seeing It's a Wonderful Life, our original plan for this afternoon I enjoyed a bowl of popcorn that Mary prepared for me and also some snack foods like olives, vegan cheeses, and crackers. Dinner was a great repast of spaghetti with vegan bolognese sauce that Mary prepared while we played a new game called Control, a mixture of 21, War, and strategy that used as its theme, time travel. Earlier in the day, we played a game of Grand Haven-Opoly. This game is based on familiar places and businesses here in GH. With dumb luck, I won both games.

Before and after dinner, we watched one of our favorite movies, Love Actually. As always, we liked the movie and its theme.

Tomorrow, Mary will be making a Christmas dinner of vegan Shepherd's Pie. The recipe looks promising, so we have high hopes. I also need to do some additional highlighting and Mary needs to log some additional time on the index.

Of course, the fur-children will need to go out and I'll need to move some snow around too.

I almost forgot to mention that our upstairs Smoke/CO detector decided it was time to sound for no perceptible reason late Friday night. I moved the downstairs detector upstairs and it has been silent ever since. So, like the last failed detector, this one also proved to be defective. Both should have lasted 10 trouble-free years. I called the manufacturer's helpline and they are sending a "free" replacement in seven to ten days. Of course, with the holidays, that timeframe is likely flexible. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 2:30 a.m. in "The City."

The NWS was/is right, the snow is falling, albeit lightly here on the shores of the "Big Lake." Not much accumulation yet, but enough to cover the streets and lawns of our little corner of the world. If we get only a slight accumulation, I may have to clear the deck and steps, but no heavy work will be necessary. My yak feels better already.

We have a current temperature of 32° which also means that the Winter Weather Advisory issued by that same agency will mean that people driving to their jobs or schools later this morning will have hazardous driving conditions to cope with. That advisory is in effect for our area until 9:00 a.m., or shortly after the sun rises @ 8:13 a.m. and approximately 12 hours before the sun sets @ 5:13 p.m. Since it is now December 22, the winter solstice has passed and we have three months of hard winter ahead of us here in Michigan.

I made it to my foot doctor's appointment yesterday morning and that went well. Later in the afternoon, I also made it to my P/T appointment and that too went well. I have plateaued a bit, but the therapist is working on me.

The morning run of the train passed by around 8:42 a.m. yesterday, but I refused to get up and look. I was out @ 12:24 p.m., so with the able assistance of Ginger, the trainspotting dog, GTTSD, my apprentice spotter recorded the following. MMRR EMD GP-38-2 locomotive passed by heading north will only a few cars in tow. Four DBTCs, one DWTC, and one GTC.

Otherwise, not much was/is happening. Our little Christmas tree is having some lighting issues and finding the defective bulb will be a challenge. Oh well, that can wait until after the holidays when the tree is taken down and access to the lights will be easier when the ornaments are out away.

I am back to work on the highlighting of that 500 plus page tome. It is interesting, but 500 pages are 500 pages.

I finished the latest crossword puzzle and I am now ready to work on the special puzzle section from the NY Times. I'll fit that in with the highlighting. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 8:00 a.m. in "The City."

We are just five days before Christmas and the world is still standing, at least for now. Sure, lots of crazy things are going on, and sure, some of them are unpleasant, more for some than others, but in the end, we have within us the ability to adapt and overcome. To use a phrase, "This too shall pass."

The credit for helping me overcome my pain and getting me on the right track towards health and greater happiness in the coming year goes to Mary for the most part. Yes, I've had help from various doctors, physical therapists, Adam and Steph, and of course from the fur-children, but the bulk of the credit has to go to Mary for allowing me to be me.

Yesterday, I only saw half of the train run, I heard the passage southbound @ about 9:15 a.m., but I only saw the northbound run that occurred @ 2:40 p.m. MMRR locomotive #2019 passed by towing 12 CHCs, 11 DBTCs, and two DWTCs, one of those with a green stripe of anticorrosive paint around its mid-section.

I made it to P/T yesterday morning and all went well. I am slowly on the mend. I have additional home exercises to work on to speed my recovery. I'll be seeing the therapist again tomorrow.

We got a lot of indoor chores done yesterday and I did make it into the kitchen for some cooking and cleanup. In the afternoon, we took the fur-children to their doctor's appointment and that went well. Sugar benefited from some antihistamines that we gave her before the visit, but she still had some side effects from her inoculation. Ginger just had to get some blood drawn for her visit, and she came through with flying colors,

I have another book on my desk for my highlighting enjoyment. When it was first announced to me, the total pages were estimated @ over 800. Instead, it is much "thinner", only a shade over 500 pages! FYI, a ream of paper is 500 sheets! Here is what it looks like before I get started. I placed the photo in the extra large mode to give a perspective of how each book looks to me before I start. Of course, Mary has the hard part, I just have to read and highlight.

Today, we have nothing on the agenda and that's good. A morning safari is likely, but that's about it. 

I plan to do some additional reading and Mary plans to get ready for her indexing, but that's it.

We have a current temperature of 29° under partly cloudy skies. Yesterday, the midday reading was in the low 40s and then the day got cooler. The sun will be rising shortly @ 8:12 a.m. and setting later @ 5:12 p.m. after we peak @ today's high temperature of 31°. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 8:30 p.m. in "The City."

We had a mostly marvelous day. Sad to say, before we dropped Ginger off at doggie daycare, she and my recently crafted reindeer had a slight accident. Thus, the reindeer became another speedbump on the road of Ginger's life. 

I was in the kitchen and Mary was upstairs when Ginger had her accident. I was heading upstairs when I turned the corner into the foyer and saw the following scene. What you are seeing is a picture of a decapitated reindeer with all of it's legs torn asunder. Ginger was the culprit and she knew it at the time. However, since dogs live in the moment, she was only aware of her fauxpas at the time. Mere minutes later, she had no idea that she had done wrong. We still love her and it gave us a laugh all day long as we traveled to and from The New Ewe in Newaygo, MI to pick up Mary's bag of goodies. In the photos that follow Ginger's accident photo are two pictures taken at the shop.

Oops!

The New Ewe had a terrific shadow box or diorama on display.

The scene depicted was that of Sant''s workshop.

The overall effect was mesmerizing and we enjoyed it immensely. On the way back to GH, we stopped in a resale store run by Love Inc. and purchased some doggy toys and other sundry items.

After a short stop at the big-box pharmacy store, we stopped in at our favorite watering hole, the "World Famous" Tip-a Few tavern, where we enjoyed a bean burrito and some adult beverages before we headed home to feed the fur-children. We played a game of Yahtzee, that Mary won, and then settled in to watch another Hallmark romance. We enjoyed that too. In addition, Mary put together a nice dinner of spaghetti with vegan meatballs and marinara sauce. It was time for me to head upstairs and do all of the things that I need to do before we can settle in for a good night's rest.

We have a current temperature of 41° under partly cloudy skies. Tomorrow, the NWS is forecasting a high temperature of 41° with only a 10% chnace of additional precipitation. Here in MI, when a December temperature forecast of 41° is given, we enjoy it while we can. 

Tomorrow I have an appointment for additional P/T on my yak and then in the afternoon, we have an appointment for the fur-children to see their doctor for some additional innoculations and tests. Somewhere in there, Mary will be printing out the latest book for indexing and doing some indoor chores. I may get in some time in the kitchen. The sun will rise @ 8:12 a.m. and set @ 5:11 p.m. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 11:00 p.m. in "The City."

Most adults of a certain age probably would tell you that Christmas is for children. But I beg to differ. I think that Christmas and all the holidays that are celebrated throughout the year are for children of all ages. That's why, after many years of not having a Christmas tree in our house, I asked Mary if we could buy one to put up each year and she agreed. That's also why we borrowed the ornament idea that Adam and Steph have used to commemorate their travels and life events.

Our tree here in the manse now has numerous mementos our trips throughout the United States and the state of Michigan. We have driftwood pieces from Beaver Island in Michigan, shells from Pensacola Beach, FL along with several ornaments from that state. We also have ticket stubs from sporting events, souvenirs from our trip around "The Big Lake", and pieces of programs from theatrical events here in GH too. In short, our tree allows us to revisit those times and places that are special to us as we set up the tree and as we add new items each year.

All of the above is a long-winded way of saying that earlier today, we crafted some new items and added them to our tree and our Christmas display that is in the same room. In order to accomplish that feat, we traveled to Hemlock Crossing County Park earlier to make the ornaments/decorations pictured below. We had a great time and learned a few things along the way.

There were several choices to make and so I chose to make a reindeer and an owl. Mary made a snowman and also another owl. 

The owls now reside on the lamps in our foyer, the reindeer stands adjacent to the trolley beneath our tree, and Mary's snowman is hanging proudly on the branches of our tree. All in all, it was a fun afternoon and was representative of the many activities that are available to residents of Ottawa, County, MI under the auspices of the Ottawa County Park System.  Since there was an official parks photographer snapping pictures during our session, I believe that the pictures will be posted on the Ottawa County Parks Facebook page in the near future. I've included a link to their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/OttawaCountyParks

Elsewhere, we took a morning safari with the fur-children before we set out to go to the big-box home center to get some distilled water for our bedroom humidifier. Since this big-box chain allows dogs to bring their humans, we took Ginger along for the trip. She got lots of "How cute" comments and a few doggie treats during her visit. We're betting that she'll be glad to go back anytime. It was after we dropped Ginger off at home that we traveled to Hemlock Crossing for our crafting activity.

Tomorrow, we will be dropping Ginger off at doggie daycare before we travel to Newaygo, MI to pick up Mary's bag of goodies that she had the store accumulating for her knitting activities. This is something that this store does every year to encourage knitters to indulge their habit. Otherwise, we have nothing scheduled except for lunch in Newaygo.

The current temperature is 33° under partly cloudy skies. Tomorrow's high is forecast by the NWS to reach 40° with a 40% chance of showers in the morning. The sun will rise @ 8:11 a.m. and set @ 5:11 p.m. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, It is just past 2:30 a.m. in "The City."

I got up early enough yesterday to remove the snow that had accumulated overnight. It was somewhere between two and four inches of mostly light snow. Not to worry, I used my trusty electric snow blower to save the wear and tear on my yak. I also wore my yak brace for additional support.

Once I came in from the cold, Mary prepared a Saturday morning vegan brunch of one of her now famous Tater Tot™ casseroles that also used onions, mushrooms, and faux cheese. While not normally as big a fan of Tater Tots™ as yours truly, in this case, I have made her a convert. I truly like this recipe. Along with some British Breakfast tea and some juices, I was fortified for my activities later in the day.

Those activities included my regular Irish Jam, for which we had many new players and new audience members. I even sang a tune or two. Irish music playing requires that you play each part through twice and the overall piece is played three times. So, for example, you play two "A" parts and two "B" parts and then repeat that effort two additional times for a total of three. If you string several similar pieces together, which we often do, one series can last up to 10 minutes or more.

I returned from the jam to edit that index Mary has been working on and then we were prepared to watch the Bears and the Lions play on TV. In order to not be interrupted by the fur-children, we fed them early only to find that the game was not available to us here in the manse. Unfortunately, with the myriad number of channel options available this game was not on a regular or sports network that is available to us on our cable system without a subscription to the NFL Network™. So, that necessitated a trip to our favorite watering hole to watch the first half. By then, we'd seen enough of the eventual loss by the Bears to the Lions, 3 - 20.

We came home and Mary made a dinner that consisted of some leftovers that she discovered in the refrigerator and then we watched a Hallmark movie that had a happy ending. "Surprise!" I then let the fur-children out once again and left to go to the media room to watch a movie that mary discovered on our Amazon™ Prime channel. This movie was Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. I thanked Mary for the discovery as she left the room to once again watch The Day AfterTomorrow downstairs.

The current weather is cold with a side of snow. This will be a much snowier winter here in Michigan. That's OK since I am retired and I can do snow removal on my schedule. The current temperature is 25° under partly cloudy skies. Today's high is forecast by the NWS to reach 35°. There is no snow of significance in that forecast until Friday. Monday's high will reach 39° and Tuesday, 40° is possible before we plunge back into the 30s.

The sun will rise today @ 8:11 a.m. and set @ 5:11 p.m. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 8:00 p.m. in "The City."

I had a great day today. I spent some time in the kitchen making vegan Italian faux meatballs. A bit of portobello mushroom, some TVP, garlic, vital wheat gluten, and some sundry spices became some very tasty faux meatballs. I recognize that they are not for everyone, but I like them.

For brunch, Mary made some pita pockets with leftovers that included some of her vegan hammish loaf and some baked tofu plus some sloppy joes to make a nice lunch. Dinner tonight was spinach lasagna that was very tasty and spiced just right. Once again, I liked it.

The current temperature is 30° under partly cloudy skies with a 70% chance of additional snow showers. Tomorrow's high is forecast to once again reach a high of 30° with only a 40% chance for additional snow showers. We've had more snow in December than we had all of last year. That's Michigan for you.

Mary is nearly finished with the current indexing project which I will edit upon my return from the Irish Jam session tomorrow afternoon. After I am done with the edit, I'll sit down to watch the Lions and the Bears square off in a late-season pro football game. Sadly, neither the Bears nor the Lions are headed for the Super Bowl next year.

Ginger and I heard and spotted the trains as they passed by today. I only heard the morning southbound run @ 8:18 a.m., but I could tell it was a long train. This afternoon, we spotted the northbound run as it passed by the manse on the RSTL. MMRR EMD GP 38-2 locomotive # 2019 was towing nine DBTCs and two CHCs, one in the usual gray color and the other painted red.

The sun will rise tomorrow @ 8:10 a.m. and set @ 5:10 P.M. cIOA.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 5:00 a.m. in "The City."

I hadn't planned to get up, but you know what the oft-quoted "They" say about the best-laid plans of mice and men etc.

We have a current temperature of 27° under partly cloudy skies. We had quite the snow event early yesterday morning. We received about four inches of the white stuff and I was fortunate that our neighbor, Ron, came by with his snow blower to relieve me of much of the yak-breaking work of moving what was in some places a heavy wet snowfall. My thanks go out to him.

Today, the temperature has been forecast to rise to 33°, just warm enough to make things slippery. In addition, there is more snow in today's forecast @ a 60% possibility. That rises to 90% on Monday with a projected accumulation of one to three inches. The sun will rise @ 8:05 a.m. and set later today @ 5:09 p.m.

We had a relatively quiet day after the morning snow moving. Mary took the fur-children for an abbreviated morning walk and then that expanded later into a more lengthy sojourn. STWD came back with little to show for her walk, but Ginger came back ice encrusted and happy. I had to sit with her for a while in the mudroom to wait for the ice to soften enough for removal. She was none the worse for wear. Mary, I'm not so sure.

Somewhere in there, I made another batch of my world-famous squash and kale soup that mostly followed the recipe. I just substituted leek for onion because we had one to use. We had some of that for lunch and it was, as always, excellent. I also followed Mary's rewritten recipe for vegan Hammish loaves and they turned out great. We had part of one of the loaves for dinner along with some mashed potatoes that used vegan sour cream in the finished product instead of vegan butter and non-dairy milk. I liked the result better.

Otherwise, not much was happening. Mary got started on the index. I had already finished my highlighting the night before.

Today, I hope to do a bit more cooking and some reading of the weekend edition of the Grand Haven Tribune. Mary will have to work more on the index. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 8:30 p.m. in "The City."

We had a busy day today. We actually got up at a reasonably early hour and then Mary made a delicious breakfast of scrambled tofu served in a  pita bread sandwich, for lack of a better term. Whatever name you give her efforts, I liked them. Tonight, she crafted some bean enchiladas for dinner served with vegan sour cream and salsa. Once again, I liked them. In between, that was another story altogether.

We dropped the fur-children at the groomers around 12:00 p.m. and then set out to do some grocery shopping, a stop at that famous chain drug store, and then took a ride to Norton Shores to attempt to buy some pine bunting or roping for the front porch of the PE. Sadly, the regular place we usually go to was out of stock until later this afternoon. Not to be deterred, we went to our own City Farmer and purchased the bunting there. 

Now you may ask, what else happened in between? Well, I only heard the train go by heading south on the RSTL at 10:00 a.m. and actually observed it heading north at 12:49 p.m. I was able to observe that there were 14 CHCs, one in rusty red, five DBTCs, and four DWTCs, one with an anticorrosive green paint band around its midsection, all towed by MMRR EMD GP-38-2 locomotive #2019. 

Of course, that leads me full circle to the fur-children. We picked them up from grooming and then made our way to the local pet food purveyor, Chow Hound, where they were offering a chance to have your dog's picture taken with Santa Claus for $5.00, with all proceeds going to benefit the West Michigan Humane Society. We stood in line for only a short time and the result was a great picture of our newly groomed fur-children with Santa. Mary took this picture of that picture with her cell phone and it turned out terrific.

In all their glory!

But I digress. I worked a couple of crossword puzzles and also read today's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune. The weather was crisp and cool under mostly clear skies with a high temperature of 30° The NWS is forecasting a winter weather advisory for early tomorrow morning that will commence about 1:00 a.m. and continue until about 9:00 a.m. with an 80% probability. Accumulations are forecast to be between three and five inches.

In any event, I have some cooking to do tomorrow and so I won't be going anywhere other than the kitchen. Mary has to get to work on the index. I am making solid progress on my highlighting duties and I am well ahead of her.

Other than those activities, I can say with certainty that my yak is feeling better, but I have to do my strengthening exercises to continue to make progress.

The sun will rise tomorrow @ 8:04 a.m. and set @ 5:09 p.m. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 10:30 p.m. in "The City."

I received good news from my yak doctor today. I have not yet peaked with regard to my recovery from the problem I have been having with my aching yak. In fact, he authorized up to six weeks of P/T two to three times per week. I hope to see if some of the strengthening and flexibility exercises that I had been working on before my steroid injection three weeks ago can improve my stamina and help me return to my old level of physical activity.

I have my next appointment at P/T tomorrow @ 10:20 a.m. I'll be seeing the same therapist as before and now that I have a firm diagnosis and have been treated for the underlying condition, the therapist can design a regimen that will produce positive results.

In other good news, Ginger seems to be over whatever was ailing her the last few days. Mary and I believe that her problems stemmed from an intolerance to the new food we tried for her. So, we switched her over the to the same food that STWD enjoys and that seems to have done the trick. So, both of the fur-children can now be on the same food and make our feedings more uniform in content if not in volume.

I changed the strings on one of my six-string guitars, Blue, today and she sounds terrific. Blue is my oldest guitar, an Ovation 1982 collector's edition. She has been a member of my musical family since the 1980s. I always forget how good she can sound with new strings. I still need to change the strings on Ivy, my 12 string Ovation guitar, but I may take her to Dave at Guitar Haven for that change of strings as I just don't like the extra time needed to change 12 strings versus six.

Mary is downstairs right now doing some form of needle art. It might be knitting, it might be cross-stitch, or it might be weaving. She put together a nice dinner of a chickpea salad over lettuce with a spicy homemade dressing accompanied by one of her biscuits from yesterday's brunch. I liked it.

We were so busy today, that we had a quick breakfast of spinach and grilled cheese sandwiches with spinach. By mid-afternoon, we were so famished that some burritos from that fast-food taco and Tex-Mex purveyor tasted great.

Tomorrow, I'll be in the kitchen baking sugar cookies for our book club meeting on Wednesday and also some baked tofu for general snacking.

Today's temperature here in GH reached a high of 59°. Tomorrow, the onset of winter weather will bring much cooler temperatures and a possibility of snow by the weekend.

The sun will rise tomorrow @ 8:01 a.m. and set @ 5:09 p.m. with temperatures never leaving the upper 30s with partly cloudy skies. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 8:00 p.m. in "The City."

I'm going to skip over the details of the bad news from the world of pro football and just say that both the Bears and the Lions lost. Nuff said.

We took time this afternoon to travel to P.J. Hoffmaster State Park in nearby Muskegon. My yak is feeling well enough to tolerate some walking and so with Mary driving and Ginger sitting in my lap, we made the trek to the shores of the "Big Lake". We forgot to take the camera, so Mary used her phone to take what are some incredibly clear pictures of Ginger, yours truly, and the beach. Since getting the pictures from the phone is a labor-intensive process, I selected a few to represent what we saw.

Here they are in no particular order,

Looking north

Looking south

Looking southwest

Looking down from above

Enjoying the view from the overlook

Fall and the environs at P..J. Hoffmaster are covered in leaves

We all had a good time and then took a circuitous route home to GH. We think Ginger had a good time playing on the beach that is usually forbidden to dogs, but with no one to stop her...

We had a great brunch of vegan biscuits and gravy. Mary used the last of the portabello mushrooms from a previous grocery run and when combined with some spices. the gravy tasted great atop the vegan biscuits that she made from scratch.

Later, after we had been home for a while, Mary made what she might term a down and dirty pasta sauce that she served with garlic bread and some of the vegan "meatballs" that I made yesterday. All in all very satisfying.

I am upstairs preparing to watch TV while Mary is downstairs working on something with needles and yarn. She just likes to sit in the La-Z-Boy and knit and watch something on TV or listen to the music channel.

Tomorrow, we have to decide whether Ginger needs to see her doctor or whether she was just experiencing an adjustment to some new food that she won't be getting in the future.

At any rate, the current temperature is a comfortable 42° under cloudy skies Tomorrow, when we are supposed to travel to visit my yak doctor, the high temperature is supposed to reach 57° with T-storms and windy conditions. By Tuesday. we'll be dropping into the 30s and then the 20s and staying there for the foreseeable future.

The sun will rise @ 7:59 a.m. and set @ 5:09 p.m. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 8:00 p.m. in "The City."

What can I say, my yak is feeling better today than yesterday. I was able to walk over one mile today and that means that although I am not in perfect shape, I have hope for the future. In fact, my yak felt good enough to take a ride to the big-box home center where Ginger is free to enter and then to Muskegon to go to an estate sale in search of that elusive sewing basket that Mary is seeking. During our trip, Ginger was riding in my lap and Mary carried her through the aforementioned estate sale. Alas, no basket was found, but Ginger had a good time. Later, we made a stop at one of our local stores, Vintage Green, where we asked the proprietor to BOLO. In police jargon, that means to be on the lookout for one of the sewing baskets Mary is seeking.

As we were walking towards Vintage Green, we heard some Christmas music being played loudly at the corner near the manse. We thought it might be coming from another of our local merchants, Guitar Haven, but it turned out that it was one of our GH public works trucks decked out with Christmas lights, huge hi-fi speakers and a large dragon with a Santa's Hat on its head. This is just another example of the way this city seems to get in the spirit of the season. Below is a picture that Mary took with her cell phone.

Since we were out, we decided to make a stop at still another local merchant, The Bookman, where they are once again offering a service that benefits our local Loutit District Library, the Adopt a Book program. Ths program allows people to buy a book to add to the library's collection and have their donation acknowledged. We did this last year and it seems like a good way to make a contribution to our community and not buy things that we don't need for each other. As you can see, we chose a book entitled Women Who Dared: 53 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, & Rebels, written by Linda Skeers and illustrated by Livi Gosling.

We have a current temperature of 39°under partly cloudy skies. Tomorrow's high is forecast by the NWS to reach 48° with partly cloudy skies in the morning and sunny skies in the afternoon. Later tomorrow evening, the annual Jingle Bells Parade will be traversing the streets of GH as it does every year. This is the kickoff for our holiday season here in GH. A parade featuring floats, bands, marchers, and Santa and Mrs. Claus culminates in a stop at Central Park where the lighting of the City Christmas tree takes place and everyone is invited to join in singing carols with Santa and Mrs. Claus. We attended two years ago and while the temperature was pleasant when the parade started, by the time the parade reached Central Park the rain had started to fall, so we beat a hasty retreat to the PE. Age does confer wisdom.

Tomorrow, plans call for some baking, some reading, some relaxing and some crossword solving. I also plan to sit in the media room in the evening and watch the Ohio State Buckeyes try to defeat the undefeated Badgers of Wisconsin. It should be a fun game to watch regardless of the outcome.

The sun will rise tomorrow @ 7:57 a.m. and set @ 5:10 p.m. Ciao.