Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 5:30 a.m. in "The City."

There are still two active advisories, alerts, and/or statements in effect for today through Tuesday.

First, the Beach Hazard Statement has been  updated to be in effect from 6:00 a.m. today until 1:00 a.m. Tuesday. Strong rip-currents, and other oddities will pose a threat to swimmers of all skill levels. Once again, pay attention to those Red Flags!

Second, a Small Craft Advisory that warns of 30 knot winds and three to six foot wave heights and which requires instruments and well trained seamen is in effect until Tuesday too. Neither of those is surprising, as the forecast calls for a 60% to 70% chance for scattered T-storms through this evening after the sun rises @ 6:32 a.m. and before it sets @ 9:10 p.m. We have a current temperature of 72° as we drop to our overnight low of 65°, before rebounding to today's high of 75°.

One oddity in the information from the NWS, is that along the western shores of Lake Michigan, between Winthrop Harbor, IL and Chicago, Winthrop Harbor is about half way between Milwaukee and Chicago, a phenomenon called upwelling was observed. A buoy recorded a water temperature drop of 20° in 24 hours, similar to what happened along the shores of the "Big Lake" on its eastern side near South Haven, MI. Upwelling occurs when strong winds push push warmer surface water away from shore, allowing colder water to come in.

But enough about weather oddities.

Baseball news has its own set of oddities. The West Michigan WhiteCaps found another way to lose, much like their Major League™ counterparts, the Tigers, as the Caps were pounded by the Great Lakes Loons yesterday for a final score of 3 - 10. Still grimly holding on to 7th place in the MWL East, the Caps once again play the Loons @ 7:05 p.m. tonight.

The 56 - 49, 1st place Cubs, who are tied with the Cardinals for the lead in the NL Central, salvaged a win over 2nd place Brewers yesterday, 11 - 4. The Cubs Kyle Schwarber hit two home runs yesterday, one a grand slam and the other a three-run dinger to power the Cubs to their win. Starting pitcher, Jose Quintana was not happy about being pulled when he surrendered several runs to the Brewers before the game was official, allowing relief pitcher Brad Brach to get the win.

Speaking of oddities, the fans and the players were scared by a flyover of military jets in the 8th inning yesterday. The Brewers management was not expecting a flyover, so when that happened, the sonic boom and the nose frightened almost everyone in Miller Park. The Cubs are off until Tuesday's game in St. Louis, against the Cardinals @ 8:15 p.m. EDT, when Yu Darvish tries to even his record @ 4 -4.

The 5th place, 30 - 71 Tigers, found yet another way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in extra innings to the nearly as woeful Mariners, 2 - 3. The Tigers move on to Anaheim, CA tonight to face the Angels @ 10:07 EDT.

My beloved, 59 - 48, 3rd place in the AL East Red Sox, fell to the Bronx Bombers yesterday, 6 - 9. Starting and losing pitcher, Chris Sale, 5 - 10, couldn't get the Yankees out as the Sox didn't get the sweep of the weekend series. The Sox are off until Tuesday when they welcome the 2nd place Rays to Fenway for a 7:10 p.m. game. A good side note, retired Red Sox player, David "Big Papi" Ortiz, is out of the hospital in Boston and is recovering at home from that gunshot wound he received in his native Dominican Republic in June.

As is often the case, I was awake when the sun rose yesterday and so I decided to wait until the annual Cruise-in Car Show opened @ 7:30 a.m. I walked downtown with my camera and took a lot of pix.

I liked that the street was mostly free of pedestrian traffic at that early hour.

Of course, there is always that one guy who takes the phrase, "Cruise-in" way too seriously and thus he arrived after 8:00 a.m.

While an impressive piece of automotive craftsmanship, the late arrival forced walking people to get out of his way.

Otherwise, the show was a nice mix of old and new, custom and stock, cars and trucks.

As I entered the show, there was this pair, me and mini me I guess.

 

Nice work.

Not to be outdone, "Rat Rods" caught my eye too.

A tow truck?

A nice peice of work, but a Harley Davidson motorcycle engine transplanted into a sports car?

What would a car show of new cars and trucks be without music from the 50s and 60s? As Adam has often said, "Can't they at least get into the later 20th century?"

Nowadays, all shows have to have their Jeeps™ for the show to be complete.

Including this one, as shown below.

 Once I returned home, we and the fur-children had breakfast and then we humans set off to the Flea on 7th market. 40 vendors, but we didn't buy anything.

Parking lots on both sides of 7th were jammed with eager customers.

Let's talk abut cement mixers?

The east side of 7th

However, although we didn't buy anything, we did segue to The Bookman, where the jazz music provided by Rick and Dave was very pleasant and soothing.

Superb vocals and jazz guitar from Rick on the left, and mellow cornet from Dave.

This man can flat-out play and sing.

Dave was no slouch either.

Even this husky was soothed by their offerings.

Today looks to be less busy. The ships of the USCG are scheduled to arrive @ 1:00 p.m., but we won't be there when they arrive if the weather forecast is accurate.

I have an update about the Lynn Sherwood Waterfront Stadium. I cited its capacity in my last blog  as 2,000, but the capacity is actually 3,000.

That's enough for one day. Ciao.