Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 4:00 a.m. in "The City."

I got a rave review on my recent whole wheat bread from an outside, unbiased source. Sadly, it is nearly gone. I may have to go back into the bread baking business this week. Or, I may try my hand at making bagels. But first, I intend to put in some time with the girls in the music room later today.

I was just outside with GTWD and STWD @ 3:00 a.m. and the current temperature of 38° was quite comfortable. I had spent some time in the kitchen prior to that getting it ready for any future cooking activities, either by Mary or yours truly. In either case, the kitchen is now ready for anything. Naturally, both of the fur-children were there to provide any assistance that I might need. All they got for their diligence was some oyster crackers and a trip to the great outdoors. Sugar never left the deck, but Ginger was ready, willing, and able to do her duty.

Speaking of STWD, we believe that the real reason that she doesn't like to walk west versus east is because she knows that we generally stop at The Bookman during our walk where Sugar gets a biscuit as a reward for stopping by. Who says that dogs don't have long term memory capabilities?

Speaking of kitchen activities, Mary made a great salad for lunch as our original plans to eat salad at the hospital cafeteria were changed at the last minute when the orthopedist's office called to tell me that the doctor was behind schedule and that my 1:30 p.m. appointment had to be changed to a 3:40 p.m. appointment. The cafeteria stops serving lunch long before then. Sigh.

Later, we ran some errands and then went to the hospital for my appointment. That went well and I am 2/5 of the way towards the end of my treatments for six months. When we got home after a stop at JWs, where my bread got that great review, Mary used my recently cooked Italian-style veggie balls with some pasta sauce and what I once upon a time called tubular pasta to make dinner. I believe the pasta was mostaccioli. In any event, I liked her efforts. Now I'll have to make more of the veggie balls too. That assumes that I have more tempeh for the recipe. A man's work is never done.

During the course of the day, I heard that lonesome whistle blow and rushed to one of my trainspotting windows. Spotting didn't take long, because @ 10:30 a.m. I watched locomotives 2057 and 2019 roll by heading south with no cars in tow. Both locomotives were clean, but # 2019 is looking a bit dull and shopworn as if the paint needs to be resprayed. That's what Ed China might say on my favorite car show, Wheeler Dealers when talking about some of the cars that Mike Brewer, his partner, had recently purchased.

We were just walking into the library @ 2:07 p.m. when I heard the approaching whistle once again. However, I did not see the actual train as it headed north. So while I could speculate, I cannot testify accurately as to the types or number of cars in tow.

I just checked and of all the quarters that I received in change yesterday, none was new to me or they had the wrong mint designation. Oh well, I'll keep looking.

So that looks like enough for one day. I am certain that the sun will rise @ 8:11 a.m. and set @ 5:40 p.m. Oh, we are just 25 days away from spring in Florida. That's when the pitchers and catchers report to spring training for my beloved Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Sadly, this is the first time in many years that the spring training camp will not be welcoming David "Big Papi" Ortiz to camp two days later as he is now retired and making commercials. The Cubs pitchers and catchers report to camp in Arizona the next day.  Ciao.