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

The current temperature is 36° under partly-cloudy. Today's high is forecast to reach 44°, that's eight degrees warmer than yesterday. The sun will rise today @ 7:59 a.m. and set later @ 5:58 p.m.

A Small Craft Advisory remains in effect until 4:00 a.m. tomorrow. Southwest winds will become west winds gusting up to 30 knots and waves 4 to 7 feet can be expected from St Joseph to Manistee. Conditions will be hazardous to small craft. Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller vessels, should avoid navigating in hazardous conditions.In addition, those same conditions mean that walking on the World Famous North Pier here in GH will also be hazardous. Maybe we will journey don the pier to take some pix.

It is also Ground Hog's Day. That's the day that the also World Famous Punxsutawney Phil, the weather forecasting groundhog from the city of Punxsutawney, PA, gets his one day of fame each year. Tourists from all over the world and locals alike, will make the trek up Gobbler's Knob to observe whether Phil comes out of his burrow and sees his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter. Of course, since it is February 2, the odds are good that six more weeks of winter are likely whether he sees his shadow or not, as spring isn't officially here until March 19!

I did watch my second-favorite baseball movie last night, Bull Durham, which also stars Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella, a farmer and the erstwhile owner of the real Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA. I have hopes that one day I'll get to Iowa and see that Field of Dreams for myself. Mary tells me that with a short ferry ride across the "Big Lake" and then a drive, we can make it this year.

The Vernal or spring equinox occurs this year on March 19. However, anyone who knows me should know that for me, spring begins when the pitchers and catchers report to spring training, which this year is February 11!

What a perfect place to note that baseball players at all levels, from the sandlots to the Major Leagues™, will be oiling up their gloves, lacing up their spikes, putting pine tar on their bats and making everything in life right once again, when the "One constant in life", baseball, returns. Here is one of my favorite clips from YouTube™ when James Earl Jones recites the lines from that famous scene in the movie Field of Dreams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ1dZhh0_RQ

So, in spite of the recent revelations about cheating during the World Series™, for most of us, baseball will once again return us to the innocence of our youth and hope will spring eternal that our favorite team(s) will once again make it to the World Series™. For me, that's my beloved Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, not necessarily in that order. Hey Hey, Holy Mackerel, Whee!, etc. No baseball themed songs until the opening of spring training.

I was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday, so Mary soloed to that presentation @ Hemlock Crossing Nature Center and then took herself out to dinner at the World Famous Tip a Few Tavern, our favorite watering hole. I stayed behind and the fur-children and I read a book by Emily St. John Mandel, entitled The Lola Quartet. Ms. St. John Mandel is also the author of the novel Station Eleven.

Not to worry anyone, but that particular book is set in the Great Lakes Region of the US and follows a group of nomadic actors as they attempt to survive in the aftermath of a swine-flu pandemic known as the "Georgi Flu", that caused the death of millions around the world! Any similarities to the Coronavirus pandemic currently occurring are purely coincidental.

By the by, I received my latest capo for my Ovation 12-string guitar yesterday. This one shows promise as it is not damping out the four octave strings as other capos have done in the past. Here's hoping.

Today promises to be mostly quiet. We may take the fur-children for a walk, watch some TV news, perhaps go the lakefront for picture taking and then await the annual commercials that accompany the Super Bowl™. We are tangentially rooting for the 49ers for reasons known only to ourselves. Ciao.