Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 6:00 a.m. in "The City."

I was in the kitchen for the 45 minute or so earlier this morning, washing the supper dishes from last night's dinner. Mary made a delicious vegan pizza, but the necessity of numerous measuring spoons, bowls, food processors, pizza cutters, and other sundry items, required a lot of clean-up. That's where I always come in, other than partaking of the meal itself. At any rate, the dishes and utensils are now air-drying in the drainer, the sink is cleaner than when I started, and all is right in the kitchen once again.

The NWS had forecast a line of severe storms for W. MI last night, and this time they were very accurate, as the thunder rolled and the lightning struck and the rains came pouring down. In GR, about 25 miles to the east, there are still homes without electricity this morning and many trees were downed by strong winds. A furtive glance out the WW (weather window), suggests to me that we seem to have avoided the major damage here in our little corner of West Michigan. I'm not sure how the people in the Lynn Sherwood Waterfront Stadium, who were attending the (WOW) Worship on the Waterfront, last night, fared.

The current temperature is 70° under partly cloudy skies, which will lead to a slight respite from the high temperatures and today's high of only 73° after the sun rises @ 6:09 a.m. and sets later tonight @ 9:28 p.m. If you have noticed, we have passed the longest day of the year, and the sunrise and sunset times are slowly getting closer together with each passing day. By Tuesday, the temperatures will once again soar into the mid to upper 80s and there is a chance for additional T-storms on Thursday in the a.m.

Let's got on with the baseball news. The 47 - 35, 2nd in the NL Central Cubs, eked out a narrow win over the visiting Twins, 11 - 10, thanks in large measure to an eight-run 2nd inning, that included a three-run home-run off the bat of starting and winning pitcher Jon Lester, who now has an 11 - 2 record, the best in the National League. Only two other pitchers in Cubs' history have won seven in a row, like Lester. The Cubs are off until Tuesday, when they welcome the Tigers to the Friendly Confines, for a game @ 2:20 p.m. EDT.

Since I am on the topic of the 37 - 48, 3rd in the AL Central Tigers, they finally snapped their 11 game losing streak, with the help of Nick Castellanos' Grand Slam home-run, en route to a 9 - 1 win over the 39 - 44, 4th in the AL East, Blue Jays. As noted above, the Tigers next play on Tuesday.

My beloved, 55 - 29, statistically tied for 1st place in the AL East, Red Sox, were thoroughly drubbed by their division rivals, the Yankees, 1 - 9 last night. Starting and losing pitcher, David Price, lasted all of 3 1/3 innings, giving up an uncharacteristic five-home runs en route to the loss. The Sox leave Fenway Park and travel to Washington, D.C. to face the 42 - 40, 3rd place in the NL East, Nationals, tonight @ 7:05 p.m. EDT.

The now 41 - 40, 6th place in the Midwest League East, West Michigan White Caps, were outplayed once again by the 2nd place Bowling Green, KY Hot Rods, as the Caps lost, 3 - 5. Nuff said. The Caps welcome the 52 - 29, 1st place in the MWL East, Lansing, MI Lug Nuts, to the Fifth/Third Ballpark for a game tonight @ 7:15 p.m.

At long last, John will be coming by to paint the master bathroom and replace the deck furniture. He was delayed by some family issues. We have indexing to do, my part, of course, is highlighting and commentary, while Mary does her regular chunking etc. That's after we determine which camera classes to put on our very busy retirement schedule and after we take a walk to the library with the fur-children. Ciao.