Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 1:30 a.m. in "The City." None of the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Just a reminder about my opening lines. The "Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be" comes from the opening of Coast to Coast AM and its host, George Noory. That's how he opens his program each night @ 1:00 a.m. EST.

The much shorter, "The City" is from the opening lines intoned by Jack Webb as he introduced the latest episode of his long-running radio and TV show, Dragnet. Here is a link to that famous opening sequence and those lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6LprmdivN8

There was an alternate opening too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmqWaWuslNI.

And lest I forget, there was also a Dragnet movie released in 1987 starring Dan Ackroyd and Tom Hanks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZL7epLIyhA

In any case, I pay homage to the TV shows and Jack Webb and also to the movies that the show inspired. I'd also like to thank George Noory and I cannot forget to include the way that George closes the program every Friday/Saturday if he is personally hosting the program. This clip is from an artist named UFO Phil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWPCsNke24

There, that makes for a longer blog with little effort on my part and also because not much was happening yesterday.

Mary had gotten up early so that she could finish the current index and get it sent into the ether. I was blissfully sleeping when she woke me to share some OJ and tell me that she wanted to get the day started. She had already fed the fur-children and taken them out for their morning constitutionals. So, I was up too. We finished the index and sent it on its way. I never did get back to sleep.

To her credit, Mary made an excellent lunch of sweet potatoes and vegan roast beest. Later, after our visit to the chiropractor, she made what we long ago dubbed "Slumgullion" a name for any meal that combines ingredients into a tasty stew-like meal. Her's used her famous mushroom gravy combined with vegan roast beest and mostaccioli. There are other recipes that often use tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, spices., and ground beef. Here are two. Try either, I think you'll like them.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/19347/slumgullion/

http://www.cooks.com/recipe/l76o80oj/slumgullion.html

Trainspotting for GTWD and yours truly was relatively limited. At 10:10 a.m. we witnessed the southbound passage of locomotives 2019 and 2057 on the RSTL. In tow were two CHCs, five DWTCs, some with red stripes around their center, and four DBTCs.

At 1:42 p.m., Ginger and I once again heard that lonesome whistle blowing. We rushed to the front window to see locomotives 2019 and 2057 passing by heading north on the RSTL, sans cars.

I have my monthly Irish Jam session later today. While not Irish music, I decided to add another link to the song Jammin' by Bob Marley and the Wailers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFRbZJXjWIA What's one more link in an already link-heavy blog when it is thematic in nature?

I decided, since I have already laced this blog with links, why not add another to commemorate the fact that the pitchers and catchers for my beloved Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers report in 24 short days. So here goes with John Fogerty's song, Centerfield.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72ScIaJFJ0o

We have a current temperature of 37° as we head for today's forecast high of 54° with fog in the early a.m. hours. There is only a 20% chance of precipitation in the form of rain. The sun will rise @ 8:09 a.m. and set @ 5:43 p.m. Ciao.