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

The current temperature is 61° under clear skies. The sun will rise today @ 7:07 a.m. and set later @ 8:24 p.m. The Beach Hazard Statement, the Small Craft Advisory, and the Lakeshore Erosion Statement have all been canceled. In addition, all of the T-storms that were in the forecast for last evening passed us by. All we got were some spectacular lightning effects and a bit of thunder. We received only a slight, and I stress slight, amount of rain. Today's high will be a very San Diego-like 71°. It's a good thing I watered all of the flowers and vegetables in the vast gardens yesterday.


Speaking of those lightning effects, our Senior Staff Photographer and I stopped in at JWs after her session at the library on the Making of Centerpieces. On the way home, we saw some startling lightning in the southern sky. Fortunately, she had her trusty Olympus TG-6 camera in her bag and took some shots of the lightning in progress. Here is one of those.

A great pic from a small camera!

As I mentioned, Mary had been at that centerpiece making session and when she got home, she placed her creation on the dresser in our bedroom. I think it looks terrific. I especially like the shadows behind her creation.

This shot was taken with our Olympus DSLR camera.

I finally remembered to fertilize our rose garden and the roses are once again blooming. So, it was only natural that we cut one for display on our dining room table.

The aroma is even more beautiful than the flower itself!

Since it is now my birthday, Mary did something that we haven't done in many years, she got me a gift. At our age, if we see something we want or need, we just buy it. So as a general rule, gift exchanges are not necessary.


In this case, I used our Olympus DSLR camera to take a pic of the book she gave me, appropriately in Black and White.

In addition, I took a pic of the beautiful card I received from Mary in color.

Not my best effort, but @ 6:00 a.m., what can you expect?

This s a quickie pic of an art project I've been working on for Halloween.

I'm sure to honor my birthday, the Cubs swept the Mets with a  4 - 1 win last night in NYC. Jon Lester got the win, but it was the two home runs from back-up catcher Victor Caratini that sealed the deal. That win finds the Cubs still 1.5 games behind the Cardinals in the NL Central as they come home to "The Friendly Confines" for a game this afternoon @ 2:20 p.m. EDT. That's when the Brewers come to town, as Jose Quintana makes the start for the Cubs.

My beloved Red Sox had the day off for travel to California yesterday before tonight's game against the LA Angels @ 10:07 p.m. as Nathan Eovaldi starts.

The Tigers, what can I say? They lost to the Indians, 0 - 2. Starting pitcher Dan Norris looked good, but the Tigers still couldn't put any runs on the board. The Tigers meet the 1st place in the AL Central Twins tonight in Comerica Park @ 7:10 p.m., as Edwin Jackson tries to stem the tide of losses.

The West Michigan WhiteCaps, AKA the Caps, fell 3 - 7 to the Lansing Lugnuts lst night. This disappointing season will soon be mercifully over. Until it is, the Caps have a few more games to play, with tonight's game against the Lugnuts @ 7:05 p.m.

While Mary was out at the grocery store yesterday afternoon, I took the fur-children for individualized walks. STWD and I didn't go very far, as befits our advancing years, but Ginger and I took a bit longer sojourn. I also made some new soy curls and some tofu cubes too.

Today, I have plans to ride my bike for my 68th birthday. Since I can't skydive as former president George H.W. Bush did for his 90th birthday, and since I don't own a sports-car nor muscle-car, my bicycle will be my ride/activity of choice. That's fine by me, but I have to be sure to get out early before the Labor Day holiday traffic commences as the season closes in GH. I'll also be doing more coloring and playing with the girls too.

Mary plans to do some indoor chores and later make my dinner request, spaghetti-role casserole.

Ciao.