Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just after 4:00 a.m. in "The City."

The current temperature is 10° under clear-skies with windy conditions. In fact, steady winds of 24 mph are making it feel as though the temperature feels like -6°. Today's high is forecast to reach 33°. That sharp change in temperature is about 16° warmer than yesterday's high. The sun will rise today @ 7:42 a.m. and set later @ 6:15 p.m.

That Gale Warning, which is still in effect until 7:00 p.m. tonight, is accompanied by yet another Lakeshore Flood Warning, also until 7:00 p.m. this evening. Moderate beach and dune erosion and lakeshore flooding are expected for Ottawa, Allegan and Van Buren counties, all along the shores of the "Big Lake." Inundation of low-lying areas along the lakeshore, in river mouths and road closures are possible. People should avoid piers, breakwaters and areas prone to flooding in high waves until the winds and waves subside.

I'm betting that if I were so inclined, I could go to the south pier and the beach area this afternoon and see idiots walking along the pier and doing their best to get swept into the water. Those Gale Force Winds of 35 to 40 knots over Lake Michigan will generate waves from 8 to 12 feet north of Muskegon and 6 to 10 feet south of Muskegon from St Joseph to Manistee. There's an oddity in that forecast from the NWS. If you know the map of Michigan and the lakeshore, you know that Manistee is north of Muskegon. I guess it is all in how you view it.

Yesterday, as we were sitting down to a terrific lunch of vegan Mushroom Stroganoff ala Mary, we heard a train passing by. I sprang from my chair to see if I could catch some quick pix of Ginger watching the train go by from her perch on the back of the couch. Instead, I ended up with some pix of the locomotives and some of the cars they had in tow.

The leading locomotive is MMRR's EMD GP 38-2 #2019, followed by #2025, the newer locomotive I often refer to.

I'm always fascinated by the graffiti that our local taggers manage to decorate the various cars with great skill????

Alas, there will be no more sunset pix of the stack @ the now shuttered BLP Sim power plant on Harbor Island.

37 years of generation ended on Thursday afternoon. The plant’s official time of closure was 2:27 p.m.

No more pix of an active power plant.

The next pix will be of the razing of the plant. Starting yesterday, workers began preparing the Sims plant for demolition, which is slated to begin in earnest June 1 and continue for approximately one year. The demolition will include two implosions to take down the smoke stack and the boiler facility. My Olympus DSLR and my telephoto lens will be set up on my tripod to catch all of the action, if the implosions are announced beforehand.

We did not go out yesterday, opting instead to read and watch TV. Mary made that aforementioned vegan mushroom stroganoff for lunch and dinner was one of my favorites, tacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches on toasted bread. Sadly, while there was a tomato on the sandwiches, these winter tomatoes are not up to the task, as they are bland and tasteless.

Today, is my monthly Irish Jam Session. Mary will be schlepping me to and from the library. While she is out, she will be stopping by the local big-box home center and the grocery store.

Otherwise, not much is planned. Ciao.