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

I was sleeping soundly, well as soundly as I ever sleep, when Ginger nudged my elbow around 1:00 a.m. to let me know that what Mary felt was Ginger's final out @ 9:00 p.m. last night, wasn't. At any rate, she went out, I did the dishes, emptied the dishwasher, and gave her and her sister STWD, a treat.

We have a current temperature of 59° as we drop to the overnight low of 56° under mostly-clear skies. What's the difference between mostly-clear and partly-cloudy? I am speculating here, but it must mean that there are less clouds than clear skies. Today's high is forecast by the NWS to reach 76° under sunny-skies. That I understand. The sun will rise later this morning @ 7:21 a.m. and set later tonight @8:00 p.m.

What a great spot to segue to the sports report from last night. My beloved, 99 - 46 1st place Red Sox, clinched a berth in the AL playoffs with a convincing win over the visiting, 65 - 79 Toronto Blue Jays, 7 - 2. Brock Holt helped seal the Sox' win with a two-out, three RBI pinch-hit home-run. The Blue Jays remain in Boston to provide a chance for the Sox to reach 100 wins tonight @ 7:10 p.m. Not surprisingly, the Sox are the first team in the Major Leagues™ to clinch the playoffs this season.

The 1st place in the NL Central Cubs, behind starting pitcher Jose Quintana, got some life in their bats last night as they dropped the 2nd place Brewers, 3 - 0, to take a two-game lead over the Brewers. Cubs' shortstop, Addison Russell, wowed the crowd and his teammate, David Bote, as he made a stop on a sharply-hit ground ball off the bat of the Brewers Ryan Braun to rob Braun of a sure hit. Even Braun was impressed by the play. The Cubs return to the field against the Brewers tonight @ 8:05 p.m.

The 59 - 86, 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers, lost to the 91 - 54, 1st place in the AL West Astros, 4 - 5. I guess that being only 27 games under .500 means that the Tigers really are a rebuilding team. Tigers' skipper, Ron Gardenhire, says that his team never gave up and JaCoby Jones nailed a three-run home that was the hardest hit homer for the Tigers in what has been an otherwise dismal season.

I am predicting that two-years from now, the Tigers will be a legitimate contender. Team owner, Chris Ilitch, who inherited the Tigers when his father passed away, expressed confidence in GM Al Avila, manager Ron Gardenhire, and players throughout the Tigers system from the A level White Caps, to the AAA level Toledo Mud Hens, and of course, the players that are already at the Major-League™ level.The Tigers close out their series against the Astros this afternoon @ 1:10 p.m.

Trainspotting yesterday was easy. At 9:00 a.m. MMRR locomotive #2019 was spotted heading south, solo. Later, @ 12:32 p.m., that same locomotive was spotted by Ginger and me heading north, towing a fully loaded contingent of 20 DBTCs, two DWTCs, and 11 CHCs. As the train passed, the manse shook, attesting to the fully-loaded cars in tow.

I had a great day yesterday. My annual check-up went well and I am good to go for another year. I also went to the grocery store afterwards and came home with nearly everything on Mary's list and only a few things she hadn't asked for. Not bad!

Mary stayed behind to accomplish some tasks that she has been unable to get to due to her indexing workload. When I got home, I got the privilege of accompanying her to a big-box craft store for a return. That went smoothly. Dinner was the last of my Italian meatballs with spaghetti in one of Mary's famous down and dirty sauces. I liked it. I also drank too much wine that made me sleepy and sent me to bed to listen to the Cubs game on the radio.

Today, I have to set up the tripod and make sure that I can get our camera to do what I want it to do when we travel to Road America this weekend. The camera only does what what you ask, so any problems are of the operator-error variety.

Mary is trying to get something ready to take to Road America too. I plan to take some books along with the camera. I am still working my way through my latest read, a novel entitled, the woman in the window. by A. J. Finn. At first, I wasn't sure about this novel that is similar to the Alfred Hitchcock movies Rear Window and Vertigo in style. However, Finn hooked me and now I need to know how the story turns out. Ciao.