Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 3:00 a.m. in "The City." Yesterday and early this morning, the words usually applied to Chicago, "The Windy City" could be applied here. However, worthy of note is that the term "Windy City: is usually misused to describe atmospheric conditions, rather than the original derivation of the phrase, which came from the "Windy" politicians that were and are prevalent in that great city.

But I digress. We have a current temperature of 42° under partly-cloudy skies as we await the sunrise @ 7:08 a.m. and today's high temperature of 48° with a 100% chance of rain later this morning, accompanied by winds of 21 mph. That's before the sun sets @ 8:23 p.m.

Mary did a better job in the kitchen yesterday than I did on my epic failure the day before. She started a loaf of her soon to be famous Dutch oven baked no-knead bread in one of her antique bowls. This recipe requires no  kneading, but does require about 18 - 20 hours of rise time, after which it is flipped and then allowed a second rise of one to two hours before being popped into the Dutch oven, which had been preheated in a 450 ° oven for its final baking. Her past efforts have been highly successful, so I anticipate the same results again.

My epic fail from Wednesday necessitated a stop at the Cooks Store in downtown GH to pick up a replacement thermometer for the one that gave its life in pursuit of my failed loaf of French bread.

That stop followed a stop at the hospital for my semi-annual doctor's visit where all went well. We came home to be greeted by the fur-children as though we had been gone for days. The unconditional love of a dog is like no other love in the world. Mary made ouir lunch of vegan hot dogs with sauerkraut and a salad that also was a success.

I soloed to my P/T appointment where Ben, my therapist, told me that I have been making excellent progress. My range of motion is markedly improved and I am now down to three more, once per week visits, during which we'll work on strength-building both at the P/T facility and designating exercises for home continuation. Ah, light at the end of the tunnel.

After I returned from P/T, Mary soloed to the grocery store and I stayed home with the fur-children, lest they felt as though they had been once again abandoned. Fur-children can need extra attention in return for their unconditional love. A fair trade I believe.

Somewhere in there, Mary had prepared a new vegan extraordinary beest which became part of dinner along with her version of a green bean casserole that utilizes vegan ingredients in lieu of dairy, along with water chestnuts for crunch. I like this casserole and could eat it any time of the year.

I moved upstairs to the music/art room and did some some guitar playing along with some pencil drawings that I think turned out well. Not colored, but gray-pencil lines with shading. The light in the art room was perfect, which it has not been for several months.

After dinner, we settled in to watch some TV news and got ready for our trip to Seven Steps Up in Spring Lake for a concert by Peter Mulvey.

A terrific 135 seat acoustically perfect venue.

We got a very pleasant surprise, as Peter had brought along a duo called Sister Strings, two actual sisters who play violin and cello along with singing. They have an album coming out in a few months and they also play back-up musicians and singers for Mulvey. I perused YouTube for some of their efforts and this is one I found. This song was the closing of their set, and is entitled Goodbye. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59io_DTmp7w

I've also included some pix of their performance.

They are well trained musicians and excellent performers.

The Sister Strings received roaring ovations for their solo efforts.

Peter Mulvey has been on the music scene for many years, and his guitar playing is terrific as are his vocal offerings. I chose his songs, Who's Gonna Love You Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Y2d04R2EA and The Fox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CwRazQkFfc off his new album There is Another World to represent his vast body of work. There are also many others that I think you would also like.

Here he is performing with Sister Strings during his set.

Words cannot describe this wonderful concert.

Naturally, I am listening to Coast to Coast AM  and its host, George Noory, so I had to include one of his segue songs too. This one is by the band Yes, entitled Owner of a Lonely Heart, from 1983.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpIduDaggVA

I've been here so long, that I had to include another segue song from George, the Pointer Sisters singing I'm So Excited. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQqwG_rQx7A

Gosh, I got so excited by our concert attendance, that I nearly forgot the news from the baseball world.

When we got home, near 10:00 p.m., I tuned the TV to the MLBTV channel and watched my beloved 4 - 9 now 4th place in the AL East Red Sox roar back from an 0 - 5 deficit to win the game in a  bases-loaded walk off, 7 - 6, over the also 4 - 9 in the AL East Toronto Blue Jays. The Sox welcome the also 5 - 8 in the AL East Orioles for a 7:10 p.m. game @ Fenway Park.

I was able to do my own segue to the game between the 4 - 8, last place in the NL Central Cubs and the now 6 - 5 in the same division Pirates. The Cubs open a weekend series against the 7 - 6, 3rd place in the AL West Angels, @ 2:20 p.m. today as LHP Cole Hamels goes for his second win.

Sadly the 8 - 5, 2nd place in the AL Central Tigers, fell to the 8 - 4, 1st place in the AL Central Indians, 0 - 4. Today, the Tigers travel to Minnesota to play the 6 - 4 3rd place in the AL Central Twins @ 2:10 p.m.

The 5 - 3 in the MWL East Caps defeated the 3 - 5 in the MWL East, Lansing Lugnuts, 7 - 3 last night. The Caps welcome the 3 - 5 in the MWL East Great Lakes Loons for a game tonight @ 6:05 p.m.

That looks like about enough for one day. Today, we have nothing on our schedule and that's the way I like it. Mary will finish her bread baking and I'll continue solving crosswords and attempt more artsy type activities. Ciao.