Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 5:00 a.m. in "The City."

Well, as is all to often the case, I fell asleep in my easy chair during the baseball games. Unfortunately, the results were not good for any of my teams, they all lost. That leaves the Cubs .5 games back, the Sos even with the league, the Tigers, well, and the Caps, ouch. Nuff said.

I did get to see both ends of the train run yesterday. Oddly, the southbound run featured both MMRR locomotives 2025 and 2019 as they towed six DBTCs, and two DWTCs. However, the northbound run had only #2019 at the front of seven CHCs, three DBTCs, and one DWTC, all fully loaded. What happened to #2025? A mystery for the ages I guess.

I thought that since I'd saved all the space I usually devote to the baseball news, that I'd wax philosophical just a bit.

I was ruminating on why we get set in our ways so easily. Is it because we don't like to stretch ourselves? Is it because we believe that our old way of doing things was just fine? Is it because we stubbornly cling to past beliefs rather than accept new ways and new realities?

Part of my ruminations stem from listening to Pandora™ and the Glenn Miller channel. I believe that I got some of my love for Big Band music from my parents tastes. However, as Mary pointed out, it also may stem from the music being good in any era.

I taught at Cooper Middle School for many years, and their Jazz Band, that was first conducted by Jack Majure and later by Cindy Severino, won many contests playing the music of Glenn Miller and playing it very well. I believe that Glenn Miller used to say that it was all about the arrangements, "The sound." I believe that he was right.

However, many bands during the Big Band Era were very successful playing their own version of standards and their own arrangements too, so maybe there is more. Perhaps it gets back to what Mary opined, good music is good music in any era.

I know for a fact that the crooner, Tony Bennett, saw a resurgence in his popularity that he still enjoys, even though he is in his 90s and his audiences are often college-age. Good is good. The late singer/actor, Frank Sinatra is still a standard by which many singers are judged today, and he was very popular singing with many different bands during the Big Band Era, and later as a solo performer. Later performers, such as Johnny Mathis, Harry Connick Jr. and many others still draw huge crowds whenever and wherever they perform. In fact, many people of a certain age still enjoy bands and performers from their own younger years, some of those bands and performers are well into their 70s. Go figure.

I know I'm sounding maudlin now, but I as I said, I was listening to Pandora™ and the Glenn Miller channel yesterday as I finished coloring Mary's dragon, and the music just seemed right as I colored.

By the by, we took advantage of a super sale at that big-box arts and crafts store yesterday and picked up some canvases for future art efforts at a drastically discounted price. How will the store stay in business as they offer so many "deals" everyday? I don't know, but as long as they are, I'll keep taking advantage.

I also made my latest batch of vegan Italian meatballs yesterday while watching the laundry wash and dry. I used coconut milk versus soy milk and I also used the dregs of the TVP we had in the jar, so the meatballs were different. I don't know if that was just happenstance, or a result of many factors. I'll have to make more soon to find out.

Oops. I almost forgot. We have a current temperature of 64° as we approach today's sunrise @ 6:05 a.m. Later, well before the sun sets @ 9:24 p.m., we anticipate a high of 65°. The NWS is forecasting a 90% chance for showers later in the evening.

Today, nothing on tap except more reading, more music, and more art. Ciao.