Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just after 5:00 a.m. in "The City."

We have a current temperature of 76º under clear skies. With wind-speeds of 8 mph, it feels like 76º. Today's high-temperature forecast from the NWS calls for a sultry high of 85º under sunny skies. We also have a 45% chance for some T-storms beginning around 8:00 p.m tonight and continuing as T-storms/showers until early Monday afternoon. As usual, I am not counting on those, so that means that I have to water again today.

The high-temperatures for the next several days calls for temperatures in the low to the mid-80º range. We anticipate an overnight low tonight of 73º.

The current barometric pressure is 30.02" and falling according to the NWS, while a separate reading of 29.42" on my DTWS shows steady pressure. Once again, I'll have to rely on my WW and STWD for a more accurate forecast.

The sun will rise later this morning @ 6:29 a.m. and it will set later @ 9:12 p.m.

We picked up some groceries at the Fast Lane™ store yesterday and then took a short trip past the beaches of our fair city. They were crowded, both on the beaches themselves and in the waters of the "Big Lake." Since this is normally the time of the season for our annual Coast Guard Festival, that likely accounts for the crowds on the beaches, in the state park, and in downtown.

I harvested two more cucumbers from our vast vegetable gardens yesterday. The cukes are coming fast and furious now. We are also seeing some sweet peppers beginning to sprout too. The tomatoes are looking fine, but they won't be ripening for another 30 days or so.

Yesterday afternoon/evening, the fur-children were going crazy over something that we couldn't see. It turns out that our neighbor's cat, Phoebe, the six-toed Hemingway cat, was visiting our parkway garden and enjoying the chance to drive our fur-children to distraction. We think that Phoebe is very aware of her effect on the fur-children.

At any rate, our Senior Staff Photographer took some pix of Phoebe doing her thing.

Like STWD, Phoebe needed an afternoon snack at the parkway salad bar.

She is totally blase about her chance of being disturbed.

Just getting some rays I guess.

Same here.

We also had a visitor at our front door, but Mary couldn't tell if it was Phoebe being extra-bold or a similar cat as this cat was pawing at the door.

No visible paws to allow for a toe count

I wanted to have a homemade pizza for dinner and Mary obliged, even making her own secret recipe sauce and some TVP pepperoni. I liked it, but I think I would have cut the amount of cayenne in the pepperoni in half to make it better. I like it hot, but this may have been over the top. Just one man's opinion. No pic.

Mary finished her reading of The End of October and she pronounced it terrific and terrifyingly prescient. Having already read the book, I'd have to agree.

I'm currently reading a book entitled  Recursion by Blake Crouch. This is a story about influencing memories and perhaps changing the way we perceive events from our past. It is interesting and different.

Sadly, while the Cubs won their season opener Friday night, RHP Yu Darvish, the $126 million man, once again looked mediocre as he surrendered too many runs to the Brewers and gave way to a porous relief corps, losing 3 - 8. I'd say it is going to be a long season, but we only have 58 more games to go. Today's game will feature RHP Tyler Chatwood for the Cubs against RHP Freddy Peralta for the Brew Crew. @ 2:20 p.m. EDT.

By the by, 3rd baseman Kris Bryant has major league slumber in his lumber. He looks like a ghost of the MVP and Rookie of the Year from a few years ago, striking out and popping up too many times. Cub's manager, David Ross is going to have to make a decision on Bryant very soon if things don't change.

My beloved Red Sox took the season opener from the Orioles on Friday night, 13 - 2 in support of RHP Nathan Eovaldi's great pitching. Unfortunately, the Sox came back to earth last night as they fell to the Orioles, 2 - 7, as LHP Martin Perez dug a huge 5 run hole by the second inning from which the beloved could not recover. Today's matchup features 29-year-old RHP Ryan Weber for the Sox versus the 35-year-old veteran, LHP Wade LeBlanc for the Orioles @ 1:35 p.m. EDT.

The Tigers evened up their season record @ 1 - 1, with a 6 - 4 win over the Reds as reliever RHP George "Buck" Farmer got the win in relief, as DH Miguel "Miggy" Cabrera, catcher Austin Romine, and OF JaCoby Jone all went yard. Today's game @ 1:30 will feature RHP Spencer Turnbull against the Reds RHP Trevor Bauer.

Today, I plan to play with the girls after brunch and watering. I'll also attempt another crossword puzzle as I get caught up on the puzzles from last week. Mary has plenty of books to choose from so now she will either continue one she started previously or begin anew. Ciao.