Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation, and across the world. It is just after 3:30 a.m. in "The City."

The current outdoor temperature is 68° under clear skies. My DTWS is reporting 72º on the front porch and 73º on the deck. According to the NWS, light winds of 1 mph make it feel like 68°. Today's high temperature is forecast to be 85º under sunny skies with a relative humidity index of 69% and only a 5% chance for additional precipitation. I'll be watering the vast gardens again today.

According to my DTWS, the barometric pressure is 29.45" and steady, while the NWS is reporting 30.01", and also steady.

The sun will rise this morning @ 6:10 a.m. and it will set later @ 9:27 p.m.

We are all done! The A/C is working beautifully, and the heating system is totally piped in and ready for the cooler temperatures, whenever they arrive.

I made some vegan hot dogs yesterday following someone's old family recipe. The taste is good, but I'm not satisfied with the texture. The hot dogs are too dry. I think it has to do with too much chickpea flour, which we used in lieu of the soy flour that the recipe listed. That or the recipe needs some tweaking. The jury is still out. I still like my vegan bratwursts and Italian sausages better.

I went to my orthopedic appointment yesterday for an evaluation of my yak. I still have good range of motion with only minimal discomfort, so I am not contemplating any new therapy at this time.

The MLB™ teams have returned to their home ballparks for an abbreviated spring training. This will be a much shorter season with tweaks to the schedule to minimize travel and to maximize TV revenues. The playoffs will be even stranger than the actual season. Roster limits, pitching requirements. When the games go into extra innings, the team that is up to bat starts with a man on second base. I dunno about you, but to me, that ain't baseball.

I was going to add-in some thoughts about the way that the world is going right now, following an article Mary sent me regarding the changes in schools necessitated by the Covid-19 virus. Smaller classes, split shifts, masks, etc are all in the mix. But, what happens when the students actually arrive in classrooms. Some won't come out of fear of exposure. Others won't come due to transportation issues. Others won't come because of a conflict with a parent's work schedule. Many plans look good on paper, but the reality is likely to be quite different.

Do I expect that we will get back to the way it was before this pandemic? Maybe someday. Maybe in five years. Maybe after a vaccine has been developed and deployed. Maybe after therapeutics have been made widely available. Lots of maybes, but little data on which to base real plans.

Today, we hope to read and watch more Poldark. We watched one and one-half episodes yesterday, so we have the second half to finish later today and then another full episode to watch.

As mentioned, I have to water and that about the extent of my outdoor activities.

STWD is still not liking the pyromaniacs seemingly insatiable need to make noise, but at least with the A/C working and the windows closed, it isn't as loud as it might be. Ciao.