Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 6:00 a.m. in "The City."


The current temperature is 36° under cloudy-skies. Today's high will be 39° and we'll see temperatures remaining steady throughout the day getting down to an overnight low of 32°. The sun will rise today @ 7:53 a.m. and set later @ 5:12 p.m.

I didn't seemingly get much done yesterday. That's what happens when you get up late, do a crossword puzzle, and wait for enough sun in you studio so that you can paint, a sun that only briefly made an appearance early in the day yesterday, thus not lending itself to further adventures in painting.

However, I guess you could say that I got ready to do battle in the kitchen today so that I can get out of the way and allow the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer to wage her own war against the forces of the day. After my short starring role in the kitchen is over, I'll be finishing that pumpkin pie I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I'll likely be relegated to being the "Tall Person" in the kitchen whose job it is to reach things high on the shelves of the cabinets.

Yesterday, I prepared the pie-dough for my pumpkin pie in between the various meals and other sundry activities that Mary worked on in the kitchen, so all I have to do today is roll out the dough, prepare the filling and wait for the oven to do its magic.

Speaking of the oven/kitchen, Mary made lunch yesterday that was part left-overs and part made to order. Lunch was a salad of iceberg lettuce topped with our homemade vegan ranch dressing that we had collectively prepared just before our luncheon repast. This salad dressing was a slight variation on Mary's regular recipe and we like this one the best, so Mary will be adding this recipe to her kitchen cookbook.

Since Mary, in her recurring role as our Senior Staff Photographer, had her Smart Phone handy, she took a few pix of the various meals throughout the day. I'll include those here. Unfortunately, in an ongoing need to learn a new phone camera, the pic of the broth was inadvertently taken in a movie format. How? Darned if I know.

Fresh baked bread for the dressing.

The aforementioned video of the broth for that dressing.

Our main course of marinated tofu.

Our luncheon salad of my Coleslaw and iceberg lettuce topped with ranch dressing.

Dinner of vegan sausage and Mary's variant on cheesy cauliflower casserole.

At any rate, the day was more productive than I remembered. However, the high winds that were in the forecast from the NWS yesterday materialized in spades. In fact, the Grand haven Department of Public Safety was called to the lake-shore yesterday because the parking lots adjacent to the shoreline were underwater and cars that people foolishly chosen to drive through for a look see were in need of towing.

Photo copyright Joel Bissell @ MLive.com

Photo copyright Joel Bissell @ MLive.com

I am including the following video link from YouTube that depicts what the conditions were like along the shores of the "Big Lake" yesterday afternoon. Let's just say that the parking lots, Harbor Drive, and the South Pier were not safe places to be yesterday. https://youtu.be/c6bKT5P-pY0

As you can view in the video, the Grand Haven Department of Public Safety, (GHDPS), was joined by the Grand Haven Department of Public Works, (GHDPW) front-end loaders in what is probably a vain attempt to keep the sands of lake Michigan at bay.

Today should be a bit more calm. I plan to watch a battle of the titans, or is it the giants? No, those are actual NFL team names. I, along with many Michiganders and Illinoisans, will be watching a battle between the toothless Lions and the almost as toothless Bears today @ 12:30 p.m. EST.

Mary will be slaving over a hot stove and a cold can-opener as she prepares our Thanksgiving dinner. The hot stove is for the tofu roast, the dressing, and the green bean casserole ala Mary, while the cold can-opener is for my Ocean Spray™ jellied cranberry sauce, without which any Thanksgiving dinner would be incomplete. Plus, I'll be washing everything down with some vegan egg-less eggnog.

I may get to my artistic pursuits too, but if I don't that's okay, because there is always tomorrow. Ciao.