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 34° under snowy-skies, with winds of 15 mph that make it feel more like 24°! Today's high-temperature is forecast to reach 40°, but we should rebound into the lower 50s for the next two days, according to the NWS forecast.

However, the NWS has continued the Lakeshore Flood Advisory until 8:00 a.m. today 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. A Lakeshore Flood Advisory indicates that onshore winds will generate flooding of low areas along the lakeshore. Some minor beach and dune erosion is also likely.

To go with that Lakeshore Flood Advisory, there is yet another Small Craft Advisory, issued by the NWS in effect until 8:00 p.m. tonight. Northwest winds 15 to 25 knots with gusts up to 30 knots and waves 7 to 10 feet. will impact areas along the shores of the "Big Lake" from St Joseph to Manistee. Conditions will be hazardous to small craft. The wind and waves will slowly decrease into this afternoon.

We were witness to something yesterday afternoon that in all my 68 years of life, I'd never heard of nor seen before. But then, there are things happening right now that I never expected to witness either, things or phenomena like the Covid-19 pandemic and what seems to be an approaching economic depression. Current;y, 10% of Americans are unemployed.

That something I'd never seen was, wait for it, Graupel!  Unlike that famous adage attributed to the USPS, this wasn't snow, it wasn't sleet, it wasn't freezing rain. No, it was Graupel! Here is a picture courtesy of the Weather.com website of Graupel.

Graupel looks like Styrofoam™ pellets. You can tell the difference between Graupel and hail or sleet by picking up the tiny snowballs. If they’re soft and easy to crush, it’s Graupel. In fact, Graupel is often referred to as “soft hail.” It often bounces and breaks apart once it hits the ground.

In Michigan, like in Chicago, there is a saying attributed often to the immortal Mark Twain, a saying that goes along the lines of, "If you don't like the weather in (fill in the blank) now, just wait a few minutes!"

A quick look out the WW, (Weather Window), revealed that there is snow on the ground of the non-paved areas of GH. No need for pictures of that, as I've published many before. The NWS is forecasting the 30% chance for snow to end sometime this morning.

I guess we are faring better than the East Coast, as the storms there have knocked out their electrical power, possibly for several days amidst the stay at home order necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The sun will rise this morning @ 7:10 a.m. and set tonight @ 8:22 p.m.

But onward and upward, as the oft quoted "They" have oft said.

I made more of my famous vegan Italian meatballs yesterday. Mary thinks, and I agree, that these were my best to date. What was different? I honestly don't know, but they had terrific texture and taste.

I finished my coloring yesterday afternoon, so as promised, I'll add a couple of pictures now.

There are so many colors blended on this picture, that I couldn't begin to explain. 

Smart Phone camera pic versus my Olympus DSLR above.

Mary is doing her own coloring while listening to someone reading a book. She says that she can concentrate on her coloring with that in the background. Probably so, but I prefer relaxation music myself.
We accomplished our cleaning yesterday, much to the chagrin of the fur-children. They want to go for a walk, but we are not risking our safety and well being, nor for that matter, theirs.

Mary tried a new way of making the dough for her soon to be famous vegan pizza for dinner last night. Since we have no all-purpose flour and apparently no way to get any, she broke out some high-gluten flour that she has had in her cabinet for a while. She said that it worked better and made a better crust than the all-purpose flour she has been accustomed to using. I'd have to agree. Here is a pic of her efforts after we'd partially consumed them.

Today, with that high temperature of only 40°, we have no plans other than to stay in and out of trouble. We both  have plenty of indoor activities to keep us in and out and away from trouble. 

Since we haven't been able to get out to allow me to take any pix of the barns, farms. fields, playgrounds, and waterways of Michigan of late, I stepped outside our own front door and took some pix of the cloud formations, along with some children riding their scooters in the parking area for the GHDPS (Grand Haven Department of Public Safety), and a very rare sight these days, an automobile passing by the manse.

What can I say, beggars can't be choosers, but they can be safe. Ciao.