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

We have a current temperature of 77º under clear skies. A wind speed of 15 mph makes it feel like 77º. I guess that wind-chills don't come into play until the winter months. Today's high-temperature forecast of 82º will be under partly-cloudy skies with an RHI for today of 73 %. As the day wears on, the chance for scattered T-storms increases to over 65% after midnight. We shall see.

The sun will rise this morning @ 7:04 a.m. EDT and it will set later this evening @ 8:27 p.m. EDT.

As all too often happens, those predicted storms may still break up over "Big Lake" and go around GH. Perhaps, Friday's 60% chance for T-storms in Friday's forecast will come to pass. At least the forecast still calls for temperatures to moderate for several days.

We still  have a Beach Hazard Statement in the forecast for Mason, Oceana, Muskegon, Ottawa, Allegan, and Van Buren counties in effect tonight @ 5:00 p.m. today. That means that swimmers should not be going into the hazardous waters of Lake Michigan and the curious should not be venturing out onto the piers.

That Small Craft Advisory also continues in effect for the shoreline counties from St Joseph to Manistee for that same time period. Wind speeds of 15 - 25 knots and wave heights of 3' to 5' are possible.

The Air Quality Alert that was in effect for Muskegon, Ottawa, Kent, Allegan, and Van Buren counties, has been canceled.

Baseball news yesterday was either good or not so good, depending upon which team you root for. The now 18 - 12 Cubs, who still lead the NL Central, were narrowly defeated by the 13 - 16 Tigers, 6 - 7, as Cubs' LHP Jon Lester struggled through multiple innings before giving way to a very porous relief corps. Once manager David Ross removed Lester from the game, the proverbial sky fell on the Cubs. The Cubs staged a late rally, but they came up short.


The Cubs are off today as they travel to Cincinnati to face the 11 - 17 Reds Friday night @ 7:10 p.m. EDT when RHP Kyle Hendricks, 3 - 3 takes the mound for the boys in blue.


The 13 - 16 Tigers scored six times in the 6th inning to take a serious lead over the Cubs last night. Starting Tigers' RHP, Michael Fulmer, 0 - 0, the AL Rookie of the year in 2016 and an All-Star selection in2017, struggled early before the Tigers also sent in the relief corps. They tried to give the game away, but through the efforts of their own reliever, Joe Alexander Jiménez, they hung on for the win.

In the category of no rest for the wicked or for that matter, the good people, the Tigers welcome the 20 - 12 Twins to Comerica Park for a game tonight @ 7:10 p.m. EDT. Hard-luck LHP Matthew Boyd, 0 - 4, takes the ball once again for the Tigers.

My beloved 10 - 21 Boston Red Sox were outplayed by the 16 - 14 Blue Jays last night, as the Sox' emergency starting pitcher, RHP Colten Brewer. 0 - 2, was victimized by the long ball and came away with the loss, 1 - 9.Tonight's game in Buffalo begins @ 6:37 p.m. EDT as another RHP, Chris Mazza, 0 - 1, tries to right the ship in yet another emergency start.

I made more vegan Italian meatballs that became part of our dinner last night along with more of Mary's secret recipe sauce that included some of our garden-fresh tomatoes. Since I asked that the tomatoes be included late in the cooking, the sauce was watery but still very tasty.

In my studio, I played more harmonica, played more with my girls, and I actually restrung Blue since today is trash pickup day here in GH and I could send the old strings to the dump. It takes me about 20 minutes to replace the strings, so it takes about twice as long for my 12-string guitar, Ivy. I plan to replace the strings on Abigael who is no longer my traveling 6-string guitar this week too when the muse strikes me. Ivy will have to wait for her 40 minutes of fame.

Ginger and I watched and listened to both ends of the train run on the RSTL yesterday. At 9:05 a.m., MMRR locomotives 2019 and 2025 passed by towing a contingent of fully-loaded cars that included 22 CHCs, one BC (Box Car), one DWTC, and eight DBTCs.

Later, @ 2:10 p.m., we watched as those same locomotives passed by, once again towing fully-laden cars that consisted of 18 CHCs, nine DBTCs, and one LC (Lumber Car). I failed to notify Mary of the passage of a rare visitor to the rails that pass by the manse. My bad.

Today, we have some visitors to the manse that will require an early wake-up call for us and the fur-children before they get restricted to the bathroom for howsoever long the visit takes. Hopefully, not too long. Mary and I will be knitting and reading during that time. Ciao.