Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the worls. It is just past 5:30 a.m. in "The City."

The NWS in GR is reporting a current temperature of 50° as we head for today's high of 69° under partly-cloudy skies. WInd speeds of 21 mph will propel the waves to heights of four to seven feet.

Once again, we have three different notifications from the NWS, a Beach Hazard Statement, which begins today @ 11:00 a.m. and continues until 11:00 a.m. Saturday, a Small Craft Advisory, still in effect and which cautions inexperienced sailors and vessels without instruments to stay in port, and a Local Pollen Count for today that will be the bane of existence for Mary and many others, apparently only today, as elevated amounts of tree pollen will be in the air. By the by, I am even sneezing today, as the elevated pollen levels are impacting my usually unaffected nose.

Of course, that means that Beach Hazard Statement produced by those winds will make swimming very hazardous due to rip currents near the piers.  Due to that Small Craft Advisory, if you aren't an experienced sailor with a properly equipped vessel, you have no reason to go into the waters of the "Big Lake."

I also noticed the following videos from the Weather Channel™, site, Weather.Com, that are interesting to vegans and other interested parties. The first details the rise of non-animal "meats" by the year 2040, a scant 20 plus years in the future.




https://weather.com/science/video/most-meat-will-not-come-from-dead-animals-by-2040-report-says

The second, is also a short video regarding progress at eliminating plastics from our waste stream, a good idea. However, the process involves using lobster shells, not good news for anyone who is vegan or who cares about animal rights. A choice that has alternatives.

https://weather.com/science/video/lobster-shells-turned-into-biodegradable-plastic-alternative?isSubsequent=true

But, once again, I digress.

Baseball news yesterday was not so good.

The 2nd place in the NL Central, 38 - 30 Cubs, were beaten in their game against the 1st place in the NL West 46 - 23 Dodgers, 3 - 7. Jon Lester was doing fine until he was hit in the foot by a hard hit batted ball in the 4th inning. He stayed in the game, but was not effective as the Dodgers scored off his offerings from then on out, en route to the win. The Cubs and Kyle Hendricks face the Dodgers again tonight @ 10:10 p.m. EDT.

My beloved 36 - 34, 3rd place in the AL East Red Sox, upended the 36 - 32, 2nd place in the AL West Rangers last night, 7 - 6. Tonight's game against the 21 - 47, 5th place in the AL East Orioles in Baltimore will begin @ 7:05 p.m. Good news, David, "Big Papi" Ortiz continues to recover from the gunshot wound he received in his native Dominican Republic Saturday night. Some sources are saying that it was a "contracted hit."

The rebuilding 4th place Tigers, fell to the 22 - 46, 5th place Royals last night, 3 - 7. The Tigers' Matthew Boyd took the loss. Sadly, the Tigers are not a good team this year, or probably next, as they can't seem to beat a team like the Royals who are not very good this year either. The 25 - 40 Tigers welcome the Indians, also not a very good team this year @ 34 - 33, to Comerica Park @ 7:10 p.m.

A ray of hope, is that the 21 - 46, 8th place West Michigan WhiteCaps defeated the 27 - 40, 7th place Dayton Dragons last night, 10 - 3. The Caps are home to night at the Fifth/Third Ballpark against the 35 - 31, 4th place South Bend Cubs, beginning @ 7:05 p.m.

Last night's dinner was a new way of making vegan pizza, tried by Mary for the first time with spectacular results, no doubt due in no small measure to the addition of my recently made vegan sausages. Well, I can claim that, but the truth is, Mary did all the work/creation and I cleaned up the dishes.

Here are some pix of her efforts along the way to that spectacular pizza.

Frozen and thawed dough.

Assembled in her cast iron skillet instead of on a pan.

Fully baked and ready to eat!

Since I was up @ sunrise, I took some pix of the sunrise out of the WW this morning. As an aspiring artist, I like the colors of the sun's rays this early morning.

Looking northeast our the WW.

Moments later.

Mere additional moments later.

Here's hoping that today is more of a stay at home kind of day. I want to just kick-back, get a hammish started in the Crock Pot™, and do some coloring and reading. That's along with playing with the girls. If the weather cooperates, we'll get in a walk with the fur-children too. Ciao.