Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 3:00 a.m. in "The City."

I went to bed very early last night, awakening only long enough to hear my beloved 1st place in the AL East Red Sox fall apart in the late innings as they lost to the 1st place in the AL Central Indians, 4 - 5. One low point was an injury to the home plate umpire, Hunter Wendelstedt, when a warm-up pitch from the Sox' Joe Kelly escaped the catcher's mitt and hit Wendelsted in the head. He left the field and was replaced by another umpire, leaving the crew to work with only three umpires. Sadly for the Sox, there were still enough to allow the Indians to win. The Sox and the Indians play again tonight @ 7:10 p.m.

The Cubs were off yesterday in the NL Central but still managed to maintain a 1st place lead of 2.5 games over the winning Brewers and 3.5 games over the idle Cardinals. The Cubs are in Cincinnati tonight to face the Reds @ 7:10 p.m.

The Tigers were mercifully off so that their hold on 4th place in the AL Central was maintained with their record of 54 - 69, six games ahead of that other team from Chicago. The Tigers are home tonight to face the Yankees @ 7:10 p.m. Hopefully they can help the Red Sox with a win over the Yankees.

The Caps had an early game yesterday in the MWL East and defeated the Bowling Green Hot Rods, 7 - 5. The Caps now lead the Hot Rods by 2.5 games and welcome the South Bend Cubs to the Fifth/Third Ballpark tonight @ 7:00 p.m.

Two trains passed by on the RSTL yesterday. Both had a lone locomotive, #2057, in the lead. At 8:58 a.m., that locomotive towed four DWTCS, three DBTCS, and a mix of old and new CHCs, that were variously graffiti-covered, bright orange, and red, with one in battleship gray.

At 3:46 p.m. that same locomotive passed by again, towing nine CHCs, and 11 DBTCs.

I spent a goodly amount of time before my early bedtime yesterday perusing and editing the latest indexing project. I got to one point where I couldn't see straight and so I knew it was time to stop. I have more to go.

I did take some time to play with Blue and to sing a new to me Irish song that I heard about the other day and I can honestly say that I sounded good on Blue and singing. Just one man's opinion.

I took the fur-children out twice yesterday morning, and then Mary did the morning safari. My aching hip will be diagnosed this morning at the orthopedist and hopefully, I'll have a treatment plan in place by the end of that appointment. I don't have a feeling for the results of the appointment, but I can't continue as I am. Mary will accompany me to that appointment and ask the questions that I always fail to ask. Plus, we can have lunch at the hospital salad bar.

Otherwise, I am one newspaper and crossword puzzle behind and Mary still has more indexing to do.

The current temperature is 74° under mostly cloudy skies and it felt very muggy when I was out with Ginger around 2:00 a.m. The NWS is forecasting T-storms this morning with a 60% certainty, which are supposed to continue in earnest until 1:00 p.m. However the high temperature will only be 73°.

The sun won't be eclipsed today after it rises @ 6:58 a.m. and long before it will set @ 8:35 p.m. Ciao.