Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 4:00 a.m. in "The City."

We show a current temperature of 38° under cloudy skies as we head for the overnight low of 33°. Later today, the temperature will rise to today's high of 35° with a 60% chance of rain/snow showers. The temperature will drop later in the day to Tuesday's overnight low of 24°. Wednesday, the temperature will rise again, to 29°, with cloudy conditions prevailing. Here's hoping that the trip we are making to Muskegon on Wednesday to see my yak doctor will be uneventful.

Yesterday, I tied hard to accomplish as little as possible. I took a short walk with STWD while Mary was out with Ginger on a longer sojourn. Speaking of both of our fur-children, Ginger was out @ 3:00 a.m., while STWD refused to go out at all. I took time to clear up the dishes and make the kitchen ready for a new day of activity.

The kitchen got a good workout yesterday. I made Coleslaw to accompany the vegan hot dogs that Mary made for lunch. My job was easy. We had our breakfast/lunch meal, sat around and then went out to run some errands after our walks with the fur-children. We stopped at the Restore™ store to drop off our old mailbox and then had a rather irritating trip to the local big-box home center. I attempted to return the empty water bottles that we had paid a deposit on earlier in the month. Sadly, the store and its ersatz manager had no way to take back empty bottles without buying replacement bottles that were filled. The only promise that I could elicit from that almost a manager was a future credit on another purchase. Sigh.

We followed that with a visit to the grocery store in Spring Lake and then a quick visit to Field's Fabrics in that fair city for some buttons for Mary's latest knitting project, before a stop at Stan's Bar and Grill, our favorite watering hole on the other side of the bridge. It was getting foggy as we returned home with the empty water bottles, the groceries, Mary's new buttons, and the rose spray that she purchased at the florist across from Stans. As usual, Mary has a vision for the arrangement that I can never achieve, but which I can always appreciate. Mary has given our amaryllis plant one more week to get its act together or find a new place to live.

Once home, I sat and read the day's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune that I had picked up on my earlier walk with STWD. I finished the crossword and then watched some TV with Ginger in my lap. While I was vegging out, Mary was hard at work in the kitchen, making a terrific dinner of pasta with a not so quick and dirty sauce and her vegan faux meatballs that she had made when I was at my jam session last Saturday. The entire dinner was great.

I retired to the media room, where I was joined by Ginger, and later Mary, where we watched a movie, London Has Fallen, starring Gerard Butler. When we were done, I let Ginger out for her late night activities and then I retired to our boudoir.

I have started a new novel, but I am only a few pages in. By the by, I returned a couple of books to the Loutit District Library to get credit towards my goal of getting a "Free" cup in their Cabin Fever Reliever reading activity, a companion to the spring, summer and fall activities that I try to do every year. Mary is also enrolled in that activity. Two down, eight to go for me.

Today, I hope to do some kitchen activity and some reading between wake up time and a walk with STWD to The Bookman, our local indie bookstore. Sadly, The Bookman is for sale, likely due to competition from that bigger than big online e-tailer. I don't know what we or STWD will do without The Bookman, as a source for Sugar's morning treat and our source for some specialty books that we apparently didn't purchase often enough to keep them afloat. Is this the future?

I had to use that bigger than big online e-tailer to buy the new light switch for the media room and I also used them to get a beginner's course in playing the bodhran, one of my goals for this winter and beyond. I may never be a virtuoso, but I will be able to play at our Irish Jam Sessions every Saturday if all goes according to plan.

I almost forgot to mention the nearly one-hour of my life that I'll never get back waiting for customer service from the manufacturer of our smoke.Co detector. That infernal device went off early yesterday morning as I was finishing my meditation. I think the placement that we had used was too near the outlet for our furnace. At any rate, Adam, I didn't wait on the phone because I'm cheap, I waited because the unit has a seven-year warranty on a device that retails for over $65.00 and it was only one-year-old.

I'm done, for now, I've typed too much and I need to get away from this chair, right after I complete this morning's meditation session. The sun will rise later this morning @ 8:09 a.m. and set later @ 5:45 p.m. Ciao.