Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 6:15 a.m. in "The City" on the shores of the "Big Lake", Lake Michigan, which during our short outing yesterday had calm waters, busy-beaches, and sunny-skies overhead. 

We have a current temperature of 63° that feels like 63° with a slight breeze out of the north @ two mph. Not coincidentally, that 63° will be our overnight low temperature under clear-skies. Today's high-temperature will reach a very comfortable 76° under skies that may yield a slight chance of a stray T-storm early. There is a very real possibility for additional T-storms after midnight tonight with a growing probability from 24% to 72% by 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. I have to make a final call regarding watering the vast-gardens sometime today. 

The sun rose today @ 6:25 a.m. and it will set later tonight @ 9:16 p.m.

I am a glutton for punishment, perhaps that's redundant, since I am a card-carrying member of the Die-Hard Cubs Fan Club. What can I say, I watched and I listened last night as the 47 - 49 Cubs once again experienced slumber in the lumber and fell to their rivals, the 48 - 48 Cardinals in 10 innings, 2 - 3. No, starting RHP Kyle Hendricks, 12 - 4, didn't lose the game and break his "Winning Streak." That dubious honor went to closer Craig Kimbrel, 1 - 3, but a loss is a loss. 

The Cubs are facing the very real likelihood of now being a rebuilding team, a team with little in the way of prospects in their minor-league system, especially pitchers. The only bright spot is that the Cubs have some hot-hitting position-players in their farm-system who will be a big help in a few years. However, with little to show for a mortgaged future following their only World Series victory way back in 2016, it is going to be a tough future. 

It is no wonder that the architect of that World-Series season, Cubs' President and CEO Theo Epstein, stepped down and yielded the team leadership to Epstein protégé, Jed Hoyer. Now it is up to Hoyer which players will be traded, which players to draft, and which players to give long-term contracts. I don't see any chance for a return to post-season play for several years. Sigh. 

At any rate, the Cubs and the 48 - 48 Cardinals close out their series in St. Louis tonight when RHP Adbert Alzolay, 4 - 7 throws the first pitch @ 7:15 p.m.

My beloved, 58 - 38 Red Sox dropped the 48 - 44 Blue Jays in Buffalo, NY, last night, 7 - 4, with RHP Garrett Richards, 6 - 5 getting the win. The Sox slugged five home runs last night and 11 over the entire series versus the Blue Jays, as the beloved prepare to meet tonight's nemeses in Fenway Park, the 50 - 44 Yankees, when RHP Tanner Houck, 0 - 2, recently called up from the Worcester Red Sox, makes the start @ 7:10 p.m.

The 46 - 51 Tigers are still on a roll, as they took another game, their sixth win in a row, over the 35 - 61 TX Rangers, 4 - 2, as rookie RHP Matt Manning, 2 - 3, notched the win. The Tigers will be in Detroit this afternoon for a 1:10 p.m. start when LHP Tyler Alexander, 1 - 1 goes for the Tigers' seventh win in a row. 

Tigers' GM, Al Avila, says the Tigers are done rebuilding and will not be adding or subtracting players at the trading deadline later this month. I have to agree, it is time that the Tigers watch the future begin to unfold as they strive to once again become a perennial powerhouse in the AL Central for many years.. It is easy to become a Tigers "Homer" as I watch a young team begin to gel under manager A. J. Hinch's guidance. 

The Tigers' High-A affiliate, the 31 - 30 West Michigan White Caps, AKA the Caps, won last night's game over the visiting 32 - 38 Lansing Lug Nuts, 5 - 1. The Caps and the Lug nuts play again tonight @ 7:05 p.m.

We took a short stroll with the fur-children yesterday afternoon and then traveled to the auxiliary gardens and that big-box nearly everything store with Ginger. We made our first harvest at the auxiliary gardens, a cucumber and a summer-squash. Mary is right, I am enjoying the auxiliary gardens in spite of my early reticence to add to our gardening workload. I guess when you are retired, the term workload is probably not accurate. 

At any rate, we are seeing the first of our cherry-tomatoes begin to ripen in the vast-gardens of the PE. We have already harvested one jalapeno pepper and many cucumbers here. The potatoes we planted back in May will soon be ready for harvest along with some sweet green peppers too. I love gardening.

Otherwise, I am making steady progress reading Preventable, "The inside story of how leadership failures, politics, and selfishness doomed the U.S. response", by Andy Slavitt. While I am generally reluctant to cast aspersions, this was a huge failure in leadership from the former POTUS on down, especially the former POTUS. 

I did a little research in my own blogging history and found that as of 3/23/20. I wrote that the U.S. had a mere 35,000 cases and only 458 deaths due to the Covid-19 virus. I was way too optimistic back then and now here we are. This is not a hoax, it is a serious abdication of responsibility by the GOP here in Michigan and across the U.S.

If you aren't aware of what is happening, you aren't paying attention. The U.S. has over 600,000 dead and the rising number of new illnesses and hospitalizations that are coming with the GOP's mishandling, nee their outright bungling, of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This was not just a series of mistakes, but a series of malfeasant and deliberate and malevolent acts. Life will never be the same again, to borrow from Michael McDonald and his hit song. I Keep Forgettin'. Sigh. That's enough. Ciao.