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

The current temperature is 18° under mostly-cloudy skies with winds of 11 mph. With that wind, it feels like 9°. Today's high is forecast to reach 21°, however by tomorrow, we'll rebound to 34° and maybe get all the way up to a balmy 40° by Sunday!


The Small Craft Advisory continues in effect until 4:00 p.m. this afternoon. Southwest winds 10 to 20 knots and waves 3 to 5 feet will precede a Gale Watch,  from 1:00 p.m. Friday until 1:00 a.m. Saturday from St Joseph to Manistee. Southwest winds 15 to 25 knots Friday morning may increase to 40 knot gales Friday afternoon. Waves may build to 6 to 9 feet by Friday afternoon.

Strong winds can cause hazardous waves which could capsize or damage vessels and reduce visibility. Mariners should consider altering plans to avoid possible hazardous conditions. Remain in port, seek safe harbor, alter course, and/or secure the vessel for severe wind and waves.

The sun will rise today @ 7:35 a.m. and set later @ 6:22 p.m.

There was another interesting story in yesterday's Grand Haven Tribune, this one regarding Mill Point Park in Spring Lake. The rising waters of Lake Michigan and the expectation by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers that the waters will continue to rise throughout 2020, may mean that Mill Point Park will be closed until further notice.

The Village of Spring Lake has placed barricades across the entrance to the park, but last summer, inconsiderate people got out of their cars, moved the barricades, and drove onto the soggy grass. In addition, since this is also a boat launch, one guy decided that he needed to launch his boat too and caused additional damage to the grassy areas.

We dropped Ginger at daycare yesterday before trekking to GR. It was a sunny and mostly-cloudless day, (Gee, that sounds like the beginning of a bad novel, you know the ones that start out, "It was a dark and stormy night!") However, our trip went smoothly.

Along the way, both there and back, I snapped some pix with my trusty Olympus DSLR camera of the clouds, the skyline of GR, some of the businesses in GR, some of the swollen rivers, and of course, some barns. With no particular order, here are some of those pix, including some of a delay we encountered after dropping Ginger

Right in front of the local Chevrolet dealer, there was an accident that tied up southbound traffic on Beacon Blvd.

The Law of Physics states that two objects cannot occupy the same space and so...

Once past the scene of the accident, traffic moved well. The downtown area of GR is only slightly to the south, but way to the east of GH, so it took about 40 minutes to get there. I took various pix en-route.

Wispy cirrus clouds were all that we saw.

Late February is a time when farms and irrigation systems are quiet.

Not much was happening, Oops, another bad novel line.

Same here.

What has generally been a dry watershed of the Grand River, is now submerged.

As the spring approaches, the river will only get wider and deeper.

Gr is building and rebuilding its downtown area.

Lots of restaurants and bars are part of the scene now.

Mary and I often wonder why a business would choose to highlight the bad side of coffee drinking.

Closed streets, cranes, and lots of activity.

Along the main streets of GR, the city has erected these new bus stops that will become active in the late summer.

A short stop in GR and it was time to reverse the route and head towards home. I couldn't stop taking pix, so here are more.

GR was once a rail hub, but these tracks have been severed to make way for automotive traffic.

Yes, another quiet farm.

Or two.

Or three.

Getting home meant a stop at Don Luis before we picked up Ginger and then home to collectively watch some TV and allow me to fall asleep in the media room. I awoke long enough to watch part of the Democratic Debate from las Vegas and then I went off to bed.

Oops, I nearly forgot. At about 8:30 a.m. yesterday, I watched as MMRR EMD GP38-2 locomotive #2019 passed by the manse deadheading southward. Later, @ 12:25 p.m., I watched that same locomotive pass by heading north towing six DBTCs, seven CHCs, and sis DWTCs.

Today should be tame. A collective stop at the chiropractor this afternoon and a program on Creative Calligraphy at the Loutit Library for me this evening. In between, some indoor chores. Ciao.