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."

The current temperature is 42° under cloudy-skies. Today's high is forecast to reach down to 41°! The sun will rise today @ 7:30 a.m. and set later @ 5:26 p.m.

There is yet another Small Craft Advisory that will go into effect for the "Big Lake" starting @ 12:00 p.m. today. That Advisory will be in effect until 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. Inexperienced mariners, small craft without instrumentation and anything smaller than a freighter should stay in port.


15 to 25 knot winds building to as much as 30 knots are possible. Waves up to 10 feet are also likely, which will make for hazardous conditions on Lake Michigan, according to the NWS. That is apparently the new normal for Lake Michigan and most of the Great Lakes.


Yesterday, the Fighting Illini of Illinois staged their biggest comeback in recent memory, as they stunned the Spartans of MSU, at home in East Lansing's Spartan Stadium, 34 - 37. The Spartans had the game in hand and then the Illini scored three unanswered TDs to take home the win. Head Coach, Mark Dantonio, was at a loss to explain the collapse of a defense that had been highly rated going into this season. The Spartans have lost to the top teams in Big 10 and next week's game against the Wolverines of Michigan will likely be one more loss. Will Dantonio retire? Stay tuned.

As expected, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame had no trouble with the Blue Devils of Duke, outclassing the Blue Devils, 38 - 7.

Meanwhile the Buckeyes of  The Ohio State University, totally outplayed the Terrapins of Maryland, 73 - 14.

The Tigers of LSU went into the home stadium of the Crimson Tide of Alabama and came away with a 46 - 41 final score. That was the first loss by Crimson Tide this year and the ninth straight victory for the Tigers.

Since we wanted to enjoy the relatively fair weather yesterday, we traveled to Hemlock Crossing County Park to hear an informative talk about Superior Volcanoes & the Mid-Continent Rift, followed by a walk through the woods for a rock identification hike. Naturally, I took along my trusty Olympus DSLR camera and took a lot of pix of the flora, the fauna, and the rocks. Plus, our Senior Staff Photographer, Mary, took a pic of our post-Hemlock visit dinner. Here are some of those pix now.

Yes.

Colorful slides.

A fat squirrel feeding at the Nature Center's "Bird Feeder."

A ground squirrel had to get in on the act.

I thnk of this as acorns with an oak-leaf cluster that I saw on our hike.

I don't know that this plant is, but it was very photogenic.

Our recent high winds knocked this tree down in the forest @ Hemlock.

It is always quiet @ Hemlock.

Basalt rocks are heavily loaded with the copper that is abundant in Michigan.

Just interesting.

Whether due to my latest vegan pepperoni, Marys augmented sauce, her very active dough, the cast-iron pizza pan recently rediscovered in our kitchen, or...I think this was Mary's best effort to date. It tasted even better than it looks!

Today, we had planned to get out and plant some bulbs, but if that forecast from the NWS is accurate and the rain comes this morning, it is likely that those bulbs will not get planted until the next warm spell, if and when that happens. I do have to get some things put away for the winter though, so I'll have to make that trip to the outdoors a short but productive one today.

Otherwise, have plans to stay in and watch as the Bears defeat the Lions or the Lions defeat the Bears this afternoon. Neither team is having a particularly good season and the Bears hopes for a return to the Super Bowl are slim to none as are the Lions hope for their first-ever trip to the Super Bowl.

I still hope to get some painting done today too. Ciao.