Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just after 7:30 a.m. in "The City."

The current temperature is 43° under rainy-skies, with winds of 12 mph that make it feel more like 37°! Today's high-temperature is forecast to reach 54°, before we drop down to the 40s for several more days of cool weather. All of that is accompanied by a 100% chance for rain today and tonight.

That high temperature is okay, because it makes walking with the fur-children easier, especially with STWD who just doesn't have the physical stamina necessary for long walks in warm temperatures anymore. Her mind is willing, but....

The NWS has issued yet another Gale Warning  effective from 5:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. Sunday.
Southwest winds of 20 to 30 knots with gusts up to 35 knots and waves of 7 to 10 feet can be expected from St Joseph to Pentwater. Those Gale Force/Strong  winds will cause hazardous waves which could capsize or damage vessels and reduce visibility. Mariners should alter plans to avoid these hazardous conditions such as remaining in port, seeking safe harbor, altering course, and/or securing their vessels for severe conditions.

With all of that as a backdrop, the Covid-19 pandemic continues unabated here in the US. We are now the country with the largest number of people, more than 104,000 cases of the Covid-19 virus, which means that we are now the epicenter of the pandemic. Somehow, I don't think that's a distinction that we want to have. Being exceptional is good, being Numero Uno for a pandemic, is not. The number of fatalities has exceeded 1,300!

Our illustrious POTUS has issued an executive order that allows Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper to order units and former active-duty and reserve service members, who are commonly considered out of the military and rarely recalled, into active duty. We are in serious trouble my friends.

Oh well, that's why Mary and I started our tomato and pepper seeds yesterday. If everything goes as planned and before everything goes south, we can at least have fresh vegetables after the plants mature and produce fruit. As soon as the soil temperature is consistently between 65° and 75°, we can get them planted in our vast gardens and plant the cucumbers and other vegetables too. We should be able to get the lettuce planted sooner, as this is a cool-weather crop.

We had another lunch of leftovers yesterday. That's okay, but I was getting bored with the same old same old, so I repaired to the kitchen last evening and made another stir-fry that was pronounced excellent by all the patrons of Chez Jacque!

It takes a while to chop, slice, dice, saute, and prepare, but it was excellent.

However, now we have more leftovers in our cozy little restaurant's refrigerator.

Today, we have no chores to accomplish. The fur-children will likely not be getting a walk today due to the rain, which I'm sure will be fine with STWD.

We did do some amateur grooming on Ginger yesterday, but we have much to learn and more to go. However, considering that her regular grooming salon is currently closed, we may be in the grooming business for the long-haul. We have yet to try our new nail-grinder, but we have to learn that too. STWD never likes her paws being touched, so that should be an adventure.

Otherwise, I've been stalling on starting a new book. By the by, I stand corrected, as Mary didn't start a new novel, she started a new non-fiction tome about life in Paris in the 1940s and 50s. So far, she is liking it.

We watched a Facebook™ live broadcast last night given by a performer, Wayne Faust, whom we saw when we and he were much younger. He was broadcasting live from his Colorado kitchen and while the sound quality was not the best, it was still very enjoyable.

Actually, Mary popped in and out, joining me at various times in the media-room and remembering how to do the various hand motions for Faust's version of the Unicorn Song composed a long time ago when the earth was green, by Shel Silverstein. Oops, I was channeling again. At any rate here is Faust performing that song on YouTube™.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BvbjHmMfwA

Oops again. I nearly forgot, again. I was awake yesterday @ 8:33 a.m., when the morning, southbound passage of the train occurred. I saw MMRR locomotives 2019 and 2025 towing nine CHCs, three DBTCs, and two, DWTCs, one with a green non-corrosive strip around its mid-section.

Later, @ 12:34 p.m., my apprentice train-spotter took careful notes and reported that those same locomotives passed by heading north, towing six CHCs, and one GTC.

Today, we should be able to get to doing what retirees are supposed to do, retire. We shall see. Ciao.