Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 1:30 a.m. in "The City."

The thunder has ended and STWD has left her hide-e-hole. She suffers an anxiety attack whenever she hears loud noises, like thunder or fireworks. I feel sorry for her because she can't understand it and can't overcome her fears.

At any rate, the current temperature is 40° and of course, the skies are cloudy. A quick look out the WW shows that the rain has stopped along with the cessation of the thunder. As the day progresses the precipitation will be gone until later tonight when it will return for both Saturday and Sunday. There is a saving grace in the fact that today we'll see a high of 57° before we drop into the low 40s for Saturday and then back up to the mid-50s again on Sunday. This is spring and this is Michigan, so this isn't really news.

Mary used a new recipe to prepare breakfast yesterday. We both agree that it should not be repeated. After that, we walked the fur-children and then Ginger went to her crate so that we could go to my podiatrist. Apparently, my new hiking shoes are being very kind to my feet and so my appointment didn't take long. I learned that I am on an every-three-month schedule, not semi-annual as I'd thought.

I watched the passage of locomotives 2019 and 2057 heading south @ 10:30 a. m. yesterday before we left. I did not witness the northbound run. However, the number of cars in tow was very limited, consisting of three CHCs, six DBTCs, and three DWTCs.

After my abbreviated appointment, we had a great lunch at the hospital salad bar before we set out on our second round of errands.

We traveled to two big-box home centers in search of tile for the bathroom. We found what we wanted at a Lowes™ store in Muskegon, but they had to order additional tiles from another store. They should be available late next week. Overall, the experience was not too bad. Is that a backhanded way of saying it could have been worse?

On the way home, we stopped at a store in Coopersville that sells discount groceries before a stop in Springlake at a full-service grocery store followed by a stop at our favorite watering hole for dinner. Then home to feed the fur-children before I fell asleep in my chair. I took the fur-children out for their final business and headed upstairs. Mary got bored watching the same old same old news and headed up to bed, I stayed up to read and watch TV in the media room and now I'm here.

The Wolverines of Michigan fell to the Ducks of Oregon in their bid to move on to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament. Sigh. There is good news in sports, though, as the Tigers open their 2017 season in Miami on April 1. Right now, the status of slugging first baseman Miguel Cabrera is day to day as he has a back injury incurred during the World Baseball Classic as he played for the Venezuelan team. With the cold weather that is always part of the early season, a few days off are probably a good idea. My beloved Red Sox also open April, 1 against the Nationals. The Cubs open on Sunday, April, 2 in St. Louis. That means that I'll have a good weekend by staying home.

Today, not much on tap. Vacuuming and a trip this afternoon to the chiropractor followed by veg time in front of the TV after another dinner for the fur-children. I'll finish my book and then get started on the book we are reading for our book club.

We had plans to go to Chicago to see our children and allow Mary to attend Yarn-Con 2017, but when Mary phoned the boarding kennel, she was informed that there were no rooms at the inn due to it being spring break week. So, Mary will be seeing the kids by herself and I'll be staying home with the fur-children. Oh well, more no bull beefaroni and more time to read and play with the girls and watch baseball.

The sun will rise today @ 7:40 a.m. and set @ 8:02 p.m. Ciao.