Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 1:00 a.m. in "The City."

I'm up because I am. Actually, I got up when Ginger jumped on the bed around 11:30 last night and so I took her out to do her duty, which she did. Now I'm with you, as someone once said.

I also decided to stay awake and listen to the end of the Cubs' game. They are in AZ and so what is 10:00 p.m. there is 1:00 a.m. here. The Cubs are ahead of the D'backs right now because they took an early 3 - 0 lead before starting pitcher John Lackey surrendered a two out two run homer in the bottom of the 5th before the Cubs added two more in the top of the 6th when Kyle Schwarber and Alex Avila homered to move the score to 5 - 3. When I last checked, the Cubs had scored three more and they won the game 8 - 3. to move to 60 - 54 in the NL Central. The Cubs are still in 1st place in the NL Central with a 1.0 game lead over the 2nd place Cardinals, who won, and two games over the Brewers, who lost. The Cubs and the D'Backs play again today @ 8:10 p.m. EDT.

A few tidbits of Cubs news. Catcher Willson Contreras will miss four to six weeks, or more, with a moderate injury to his hamstring. He was quoted as saying that he won't come back @ 85% because as one of the announcers noted, Contreras plays "Like a maniac", meaning that he plays all out and can't play with caution. So, it is now week to week. Lackey didn't last long after that home run. Kyle Schwarber had the terrible, season-ending collision last year in game four of the season that tore up his knee ligaments. He didn't come back until he World Series last year and then he had a heroic role in that magical season.

The Tigers still are not a good team, as they lost to the Twins, 4 - 9 in an AL Central game. The 4th place Tigers are better than that other team from Chicago and so they are in 4th place, but only six games better than that team. The Tigers and the Twins play again today @ 6:10 p.m.

My beloved 1st place Red Sox fell to the 2nd place in the AL East Yankees by a score of 4 - 5. That loss moves the Sox to a record of 65 - 50 and still finds them 3.5 games ahead of the Yankees whom they play again this evening @ 4:10 p.m.

The Caps got two wins yesterday in the MWL East with an 11 inning win over the Loons in that suspended game and then a 6 - 0 win over the Loons in the regularly scheduled nightcap. That gives the playoff bound Caps an overall record of 34 - 12, 3.5 games ahead of the 2nd place TinCaps. The Caps and the Loons play again tonight @ 7:00 p.m.

On Wednesday, I received my latest free T-shirt in the mail. This one is another in the MI Awesome List series that I qualified for by jumping on an email offering from the sponsor. I love free things.

Photo courtesy of Mary's photos.

John finished up yesterday and the appliance repairman came by to tell me that the dryer needs a new bearing on the drum, which he had to order. Even though he didn't offer, I asked about the belts and he said that it wasn't a usual item to replace with the bearing, However, when you consider that the labor to replace the belts, which are over 20 years old, is the same as that for replacing that faulty bearing.

That's much like changing a timing belt on a car and also replacing the water pump, which requires that the same parts be removed to replace the pump when it fails, which it inevitably would. The repairman comes back next Tuesday or Wednesday to complete the replacement of the bearing and the belts.

Mary did some indexing yesterday after we had a late breakfast and after the fur-children had their morning safari. I did, in fact, give up on that book I was reading and switched to a book that Mary had previously finished and recommended, entitled My Italian Bulldozer, by Alexander McCall Smith. I was hooked by the opening pages, something that didn't happen with the previous book I tried to read.

I discovered that what I thought was a yak problem is more likely to be an injury to my hip flexor tendon, commonly called hip tendonitis or hip strain. The cause is usually a problem with the walking or striding gait or a sports related injury. Since I am not participating in sports, the cause is obvious. Or, I could have hip bursitis which is treated in the same fashion. Of course, my information comes from WebMD™ so I will need my physical therapist and my orthopedist, who can order an MRI, to confirm my diagnosis. But at least I have a better idea of the problem. My gait has been affected by being a tall person in a short person's world and by my back surgery for stenosis.

We have a current temperature of 66° under partly cloudy skies. Today's high is forecast to reach 74°, also under partly cloudy skies. The sun will rise @ 6:47 a.m. and set @ 8:51 p.m. No precipitation is in the forecast from the NWS.

Today, Mary has work to do, I have some cooking to do, and we have the morning safari with the fur-children. I also want to read more and rest my injured hip. Ciao.