Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 3:30 a.m. in "The City."

The current temperature is 33° under mostly-clear skies. Today's high will be about five degrees warmer that yesterday @ 39°,. also under mostly-clear skies. There are no current watches, warnings, nor advisories in the forecast for the foreseeable future. The sun will rise today @ 7:58 a.m. and set later @ 5:10 p.m.

We got up and out late yesterday due to an innate desire to stay warm. Of course, the fur-children were ready to have their morning repast, which also necessitated my going out with them. It was cool, but without wind, the temperature was bearable.

We'd already made plans for a road-trip to Muskegon, but we also felt it necessary to go down to our own waterfront to observe conditions there and to to take some pix of our own GHBLP Sims II Power Plant. The plant is in its final weeks and months as they use up the remaining supply of coal and transition to buying electricity from the grid. I hope to keep track of the plant as it is mothballed and ultimately razed. Plus, it was a great opportunity to take some pix of the high water levels that had recently overwhelmed Escanaba Park on the channel.

I'll include some pix of the first part of our trip here, but there are so many from which to choose, that I'll just have to opt for some representative samples. While I love STWD, she is not available for further pix at this time.

The GHBLP Sims II plant seems so quiet in this pic.

But the steam rising from the cooling tower belies that notion.

Sometimes, you get lucky with a shot that captures the lighthouses and this fisherman.

Although it is hard to imagine, the water in the channel is usually two to three feet lower. The high water and the winds the other day are what overwhelmed nearby Escanaba Park.

While the lighthouse on the north pier seems to be in the "Big Lake", it is actually located @ the end of the submerged North Pier.

It was time to move along and head to the Camera Store in Muskegon to buy some photographers gloves for Mary. I had already gotten mine during my recent visit. They have a thumb and finger tip that can be folded back to allow for cold-weather shooting without exposing your entire hand to the elements.. But, I promised some pix of our road trip to Muskegon too, so I'll put some in now. As you may recall, I love to take pix of industrial buildings/installations.

I'm not sure the use of this building, but the rusty look "begged" to be photographed.

Adjacent to the big-box home center in Muskegon, is this metal processing plant.

The smoke rising from its stack caught my attention while we were at the Camera Store.

Whatever they do there, it requires a heavy-duty crane to move some of the work.

It just doesn't get any more industrial than this.

It was time to get back on the road and head over to the Frauenthal Theater in downtown Muskegon to pick up the tickets we had purchased for this weekend's matinee show of the Singing Christmas Tree that is presented there each year. Then, to quote Willie Nelson, it was time get, On the Road Again.

We like to take the back-roads as we travel about, so we headed east to take some additional shots of Spring Lake and Fruitport as we headed home. What would any road-trip be without construction delays. However, that allowed me to take some shots of a small creek that passes just to the north of Fruitport as it "Babbled" its way along.

I don't know the name of this creek, but it looked like it needed to be memorialized as we waited for traffic to flow.

Same here.

You have to love a village like Fruitport that puts a "Smiley Face" on their water tower.

Don't worry, be happy?

As we meandered towards home, I took some shots of the very high water levels in Spring Lake.

The docks along the shore are almost underwater.

Indeed, some are actually submerged.

We stopped @ Stan's on the way home and then it was time to get moving and tend to the needs of our fur-children. I was going to take some pix of our manse and our Christmas tree and decorations, but that will wait until later today and I'll include them in a future blog.

Once we got home, Mary set about making one of her famous cast-iron pan pizzas for dinner. This one was similar to the one that was just hitting the table when the tree fell last week and cut our electricity. This one was great and much easier to see.

Today, I'm off to the library for my monthly Coffee and Coloring session as Mary continues to read and care for our fur-children. Ciao.