Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 8:00 p.m. in "The City."

What can I say, my yak is feeling better today than yesterday. I was able to walk over one mile today and that means that although I am not in perfect shape, I have hope for the future. In fact, my yak felt good enough to take a ride to the big-box home center where Ginger is free to enter and then to Muskegon to go to an estate sale in search of that elusive sewing basket that Mary is seeking. During our trip, Ginger was riding in my lap and Mary carried her through the aforementioned estate sale. Alas, no basket was found, but Ginger had a good time. Later, we made a stop at one of our local stores, Vintage Green, where we asked the proprietor to BOLO. In police jargon, that means to be on the lookout for one of the sewing baskets Mary is seeking.

As we were walking towards Vintage Green, we heard some Christmas music being played loudly at the corner near the manse. We thought it might be coming from another of our local merchants, Guitar Haven, but it turned out that it was one of our GH public works trucks decked out with Christmas lights, huge hi-fi speakers and a large dragon with a Santa's Hat on its head. This is just another example of the way this city seems to get in the spirit of the season. Below is a picture that Mary took with her cell phone.

Since we were out, we decided to make a stop at still another local merchant, The Bookman, where they are once again offering a service that benefits our local Loutit District Library, the Adopt a Book program. Ths program allows people to buy a book to add to the library's collection and have their donation acknowledged. We did this last year and it seems like a good way to make a contribution to our community and not buy things that we don't need for each other. As you can see, we chose a book entitled Women Who Dared: 53 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, & Rebels, written by Linda Skeers and illustrated by Livi Gosling.

We have a current temperature of 39°under partly cloudy skies. Tomorrow's high is forecast by the NWS to reach 48° with partly cloudy skies in the morning and sunny skies in the afternoon. Later tomorrow evening, the annual Jingle Bells Parade will be traversing the streets of GH as it does every year. This is the kickoff for our holiday season here in GH. A parade featuring floats, bands, marchers, and Santa and Mrs. Claus culminates in a stop at Central Park where the lighting of the City Christmas tree takes place and everyone is invited to join in singing carols with Santa and Mrs. Claus. We attended two years ago and while the temperature was pleasant when the parade started, by the time the parade reached Central Park the rain had started to fall, so we beat a hasty retreat to the PE. Age does confer wisdom.

Tomorrow, plans call for some baking, some reading, some relaxing and some crossword solving. I also plan to sit in the media room in the evening and watch the Ohio State Buckeyes try to defeat the undefeated Badgers of Wisconsin. It should be a fun game to watch regardless of the outcome.

The sun will rise tomorrow @ 7:57 a.m. and set @ 5:10 p.m. Ciao.