Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just after 6:30 a.m. in "The City."


The sun will rise today @ 7:47 a.m. and set later @ 7:58 p.m.

The current temperature is 37° under mostly-cloudy skies with winds that may reach 23 mph, but which make it feel more like 29°. That temperature seems low, but I'll have to go with the NWS on that one, as my meteorologist's degree has yet to arrive in the mailbox. Today's high is forecast to be 36° under cloudy-skies with 12 mph winds. The NWS forecast also calls for rain-showers and snow this morning propelled by those winds. Our high temperature is forecast to be 8° colder than yesterday.

As I noted yesterday, I'd like to get some wave pix of the waves being caused by the windy conditions on the "Big Lake" and Mary assures me that as long as we stay away from people, we can go. However, my non-waterproof DSLR camera may disagree as will my non-insulated and also non-waterproof self. The NWS is still forecasting a high temperature of only 34° for Saturday. But after that, we should see temperatures in the mid to upper 40s from now on.

The Gale Warning issued by the NWS for today from 8:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. is still calling for northwest winds of 35 knots, but the waves may now reach 7 to 12 feet from St Joseph to Manistee. I'm not sure why, but the Gale Force Wind speeds of 35 knots don't seem to translate into on-shore strong wind speeds. Maybe it's because of the wind direction. But as I noted earlier, my meteorologist's degree isn't here yet, so...

A Lakeshore Flood Advisory in also still in effect for the same time, and it may cause minor beach erosion and lakeshore flooding for Mason, Oceana, Muskegon, Ottawa, Allegan and Van Buren counties. Parking lots and roads along the immediate lakeshore will experience minor flooding. Minor erosion of beaches and sand dunes is expected. 

I was lazy yesterday. We did find time to take the fur-children for a walk before the rains came, however, we were unable to complete the crossword puzzle from the Wednesday edition of the Grand Haven Tribune because it was only partially printed. The clues for the across hints were missing as was the entire top line of the puzzle itself. I will definitely need assistance with yesterday's puzzle.

While I was being lazy and drifting off yesterday, Mary was extremely busy. She completed washing of all of our bedding and many articles of clothing. Not being satisfied with that, she also used an old-family recipe for a Savory Vegan Seitan Roast that we had for dinner. Actually, we only had a small portion of the roast and as predicted by the old-family person who supplied the recipe, not only was the roast delicious, it should last for several days.

She also made one of my favorite sides to accompany the roast, chopped spinach. I've loved spinach in any form since I was a young-lad, whether just the spinach with no sauce or with a homemade cream-sauce. There's always another day for that cream-sauce given our current state of isolation.

Here are some pix of her kitchen efforts supplied by our Senior Staff Photographer and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer herself.

Fresh from the oven

And ready to eat with the spinach.

Today, we'll retrieve the Grand Haven Tribune from the mailbox and perhaps go to the shores of the "Big Lake" for some picture taking. Given the predicted weather conditions, getting the fur-children out after breakfast will be a challenge in and of itself, so a walk is highly unlikely.

Otherwise, we have no plans but to shelter in place and try to stay healthy. We've had to cancel several appointments to allow us to stay out of harms way. Things are not looking good with regard to the Covis-19 pandemic.

A shout out to all of the medical personnel and all of the clerks in the grocery stores for their efforts during these trying times. Plus, the teachers across the nation who have had to adapt on the fly to internet-based lessons are also to be commended.

So much time on our hands has not been a problem since we are retired, but still, it would be nice to see an end to the pandemic, the panic-buying, and the hoarding that is accompanying it. One person opined on Twitter©, that a lot of food will be thrown away by people and never eaten once thos is al over. That's just one result of poor planning on the part of the powers that be in D.C. and the public in general. Ciao.