Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 8:45 p.m. in "The City."

We had quite the blow yesterday. I went out this afternoon to spread the mulch, cover the A/C unit, and blow the leaves off the patio and the front sidewalk. It turned out that the Gale Force Winds that we had yesterday blew all the leaves I was expecting to find to parts unknown. It doesn't get any better than that.

We have a current temperature of 37° under clear-skies that feels more like 28° with 14 mph wind out of the north. Tonight's low is forecast to be a real-feel of 35°. Tomorrow, the NWS is forecasting a high-temperature of 44° under sunny-skies. It should be a good day for Mary and I to finish the outdoor Christmas decorating. Then I can get on with my indoor decorating and continue the projects I have going in the man-cave. 

My DTWS shows a barometric pressure of 29.40" and falling, while the NWS in GR is showing 30.07" and rising. GR is far enough inland, that the difference is not surprising. 

The Gale Warning ended this morning @ 1:00 a.m., but there is still a Small Craft Advisory in effect from St. Joseph to Manistee, with winds speeds of 20 - 30 knots and wave heights of 7 - 10 feet. Those numbers will decline as we move deeper into Wednesday when that Small Craft Advisory expires @ 1:00 p.m. and the winds diminish to 15 - 25 knots and the waves decrees to 4 - 6 feet. 

Mary went to the Fast Lane™ grocery pick-up and the library book drop off this afternoon with her "Wing Dog", Ginger, along for the ride. They stopped by the beach on the way home and discovered that the beach had been significantly eroded by the high waves and high winds of yesterday. 

The sun will rise tomorrow @ 7:57 a.m. and set tomorrow evening @ 5:10 p.m. 

I stayed behind today to spread that mulch and and cover that aforementioned A/C unit, and then I came in and made another batch of my soon to be famous vegan Italian burgers, which we enjoyed for dinner along with some leftover mashed potatoes from our Thanksgiving repast. 

Last night. @ 11:02 p.m. the southbound train run passed by with the regular contingent of locomotives 2019 and 2025 in the lead. In tow were six CHCs, six DBTCs, one DWTC, and six CGCs. I heard the passage of those same locomotives around 2:00 a.m., but I think that they were effectively dead-heading, with no cars in tow.  

I realized that I has already read the book that I had selected for my next read, so I switched to another book, Invisible Girl, by Lisa Jewell. This novel is a psychological thriller set in England and so far it is great. 

Tomorrow, I have the balance of our outdoor Christmas decorating along with the set-up and decorating of our Christmas tree indoors. Mary has an additional ornament for the tree this year and I am working on a couple of my own. We need something to close out this terrible year.

I played my music this mornig, so I can take tomorrow off. However, while my harmonica lessons are going well, my guitar playing was less than stellar. Everybody has an off day.

I think that's enough for one day's blog. Ciao.