Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and around the world. It is just past 4:30 a.m. in "The City."

We have a current temperature of 53º under cloudy skies. A wind-speed of 8 mph makes it feel like 51º. Today's high-temperature forecast of 64º will be accompanied by a 20% chance for showers, but I still won't have a need to water, given the low forecast for tonight of 49º. However, the recent rains have also raised the RHI for today to 76%.

According to the long-range frorecast from the NWS, there is a 60% chance for showers/T-storms on Saturday.

The sun will rise this morning @ 7:19 a.m. EDT and it will set later this evening @ 8:02 p.m. EDT.

The 25 - 19 Cubs lost to the 19 - 24 Reds last night, 0 - 3. Starting RHP Yu Darvish, 7 - 2, pitched well, unless you factor in that curveball that Reds' 2nd baseman Mike Moustakis sent over the right-field wall in the top of the 1st to give the Reds the lead and the win. Right-fielder Jason Heyward returned to the lineup for the Cubs and got a hit, but that wasn't enough, as the Cubs hitters mostly surrendered to the efforts of the Reds' starter, RHP Treveor Bauer, 4 - 3. Darvish' win streak was halted @ seven as his ERA ballooned to 1.73 versus his earlier 1.44. Darvish is still looking like a Cy Young candidate.

The Cubs play the Reds again tonight @ 8:15 p.m. EDT when RHP Adbert Alzolay, 0 - 1, goes for his next win.

My beloved 15 - 29 Red Sox play tonight's game against the Phillies @ 6:40 p.m., and they will have LHP Mike Kickham, 1 - 0, starting for the beloved.

The 19 - 22 Tigers were crushed by the 19 - 22 Brewers last night, losing the game, 0 - 19. Nuff said. Today's first game of a doubleheader versus the 18 - 17 Cardinals in St. Louis is a makeup game that will see rookie RHP Tarik Skubal, 1 - 1, going for the Tigers @ 2:25 p.m. EDT. Game two will follow about 45 minutes later with RHP Jordan Zimmerman, 0 - 0, on the hill for the Tigers.

The Tigers promoted their fourth of seven top 10 prospects from their Alternate Training site in Toledo to "The Show", for last nights game. OF Mike Cameron patrolled right-field for the Tigers. While he didn't get any hits, he is well regarded by the coaching staff in Toledo. Time will tell if he is the "Real Deal."

We took a short drive to make some donations to the local Goodwill™ store yesterday and then to replenish our gasoline supply @ the nearby D & W gas station. The posted price was $1.75/gallon, but when I applied the $.90 off coupons we had accumulated, the final price was $.85/gallon.

We drove down to the Grand Haven City Beach and the Grand Haven State Park to find that the beaches were mostly deserted, owing to the end of the season and the cool fall temperatures.

However, since I had my Olympus DSLR camera along for the ride, I was able to take numerous shots of the empty beaches, the large cargo ship waiting offshore to enter the channel, the mysriad gulls or terns, I don't know which, a man practicing his golf shots, and a dog who was now welcome on the City Beach in the after Labor Day times. Afterwards, we traveled to Linear Park to see what it looked like following the recent rains.

I don't think this bird cared that we were there.

Nor did this one just sitting on the split-rail fence that divides the City Beach from the State Park beach.

Flapping its wings, but with no desire to waste energy on a flight.

One big sand trap to practice chipping.

This is the cooling tower at the Consumers' Energy™ power plant about half-way to Holland.

Not much has changed, except the water is once again higher.

A shot from the back side of the Coal Tipple.

These Canada geese were fueling up for a trip south.

As were these.

I'll add more info about this articulated cargo ship in a futire blog.

Otherwise, we mostly puttered about the manse, watched the final two episodes of our latest "Binge Watch" The Man In The High Castle and did some reading. 

Today, I have an appointment to follow up on my recent surgery at the dermatologist. I expect that to be a short visit. Then home for whatever comes our way. 

A great spot for a musical segue from YouTube™ and the band Steppenwolf, playing one of their hits, Born To Be Wild from the 1969 movie Easy Rider.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egMWlD3fLJ8

Ciao.

P.S. I still don't like this"Improved" blog format with no spell check etc.