Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just after 4:30 a.m. in "The City."

The sun will rise today @ 7:36 a.m. and set later @ 8:04 p.m.

The current temperature is 43°, although it feels like 37° with the 10 mph winds under cloudy/rainy-skies. Today's forecast calls for the high to be 48°, also under cloudy/rainy skies. Those skies are producing a light rain right now. Throughout the day today, there is a 60% chance for rain.. The high temperature tomorrow is forecast to be 54°. I'd like to say that we were done with the 40s, but we won't be until early next month.

We managed to do some indoor chores yesterday along with taking the fur-children for a late-afternoon walk. They wanted to go earlier, but Mary had her latest loaf of whole-wheat bread in the oven followed by another of her soon to be famous spicy-seitan roasts. I have it on the authority of a bread connoisseur, that this loaf of bread is terrific.

Here's how it looked as it was cooling on the rack.

It tastes even better than it looks, or so I've heard.

Since we had walked the fur-children and I had my shoes on, I decided to take my Olympus DSLR camera out for a walk around the vast gardens of the PE (Palatial Estate). More of my garlic is sprouting, the irises that we got from Adam and Steph's place in South Haven continue to grow, our tulips that we planted last fall and over the past several years are coming up nicely, the daffodils are growing at a ferocious rate, and Mary's roses are greening up and starting to show buds. In short, spring has sprung here on the lakeshore!

Garlic at the top of this pic.

South Haven irises.

Newer tulips in the Parkway Gardens.

A greening rose bush. also  in the Parkway Gardens

Daffodils near the deck.

In addition, since I was out there, here is a nice pic of the Cubs© frog that we got from John and Debbie several years ago when they visited the PE.

A tad weather-worn, but like the Cubs©, resilient and ready for the 2020 MLB© season, like yours truly!

In addition, we are mostly sure that the current configuration of the furniture and things on our deck is now the way we like it. That may change as we employ the various planters, the potting bench, and the furniture.

The third, and hopefully final, location for Mary's potting bench in its short-tenure on our deck.

One of the old planters in a new location under an outdoor map of Michigan.

I got an email from the editor of the Grand Haven Tribune yesterday that included a copy of yesterday's crossword, just in case. The Tribune has been great about responding to me, and by extension, their subscribers. It turns out that the crossword puzzle in Wednesday's newspaper also suffered that same fate of being partially cut off.

I heard the southbound run of the train go by at about 10:00 a.m. yesterday, but I only espied the northbound afternoon run @ about 2:30 p.m. MMRR EMD-GP-38 -2 locomotives 2025 and 2019 passed by @ a rapid speed, towing 49 CHCs, three DBTCs, three DWTCs, two GTCs, and 15 of those open hopper cars I described and pictured in my blog the other day.

My apprentice train-spotter was able to tell from the way the locomotives and the cars that they were towing were rocking and by the way that the manse wasn't shaking, that the cars were empty.

I am nearly done with my latest novel, Journey Of The Pharaohs, by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown, Cussler's collaborator. Mary finished her latest novel, 11.22.63 late last night before coming to bed. She thinks I should read it too, but that is one heavy tome, so I dunno.

Today, we will continue doing what we have been doing, staying away from other people and practicing Social Distancing. It is getting to be old, but it is still very necessary in spite of what our illustrious POTUS and too many in the right-wing believe. In fact, I ran into our neighbor yesterday, who along with his wife has been doing the same Social Distancing, and he was thankful that I had put out the trash bin and reminded him of what day it was. I'm just glad that I remembered.

I received an email from my old friend Dennis yesterday about a concert Friday evening that is being broadcast from the home of Wayne Faust, a performer that we'd all seen too many years ago to count. He had a certain schmaltzy way of performing, but he really was quite good. We're going to try to watch his performance on Facebook©.

Today, I may get to more reading, more playing with my girls, coloring, avoiding viewing our illustrious POTUS on the TV, and perhaps getting those vegetable seeds started in the man-cave with a little help from Mary.

I think that Mary has to choose a new book from her library pile so that she can start her reading anew. I'm betting that she chooses a lighter book this time, one that doesn't give her sore wrists. Ciao.