Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just after 7:00 a.m. in "The City."

The current temperature is 43° under partly-cloudy skies, although they appear to be partly-sunny to me when I look out the WW. Winds of 8 mph make it feel more like 38°. Today's high of 59°, will be under mostly sunny skies and when compared to recent high-temperature forecasts from the NWS, it will feel like a tropical heat-wave. What a perfect place to insert this cut from Ella Fitzgerald, once dubbed America's First Lady of Song, appropriately entitled, Heat Wave!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0rOMF9y2qI

Tomorrow's high will be 54º with rain coming in the evening hours with a 100% probability. We'll have a couple of days of warmer temperatures scattered in with temperatures still in the 50s.

Today, there will be yet another Small Craft Advisory in effect from 8:00 a.m. this morning until 8:00 p.m. tonight. North winds will be increasing to 15 to 25 knots today, with waves building to 3 to 5 feet expected from St Joseph to Manistee. Conditions will be hazardous to small craft, so inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller vessels, should avoid navigating in those hazardous conditions. The sun rose today @ 6:44 a.m. and set later @ 8:40p.m.

Yesterday was yet another adventure in dog-grooming. Ginger was relatively tolerant and allowed us to hack at her fur coat and grind her nails while atop Mary's garden table cum dog-grooming table. All in all, we think we did slightly better than okay. We have ordered a "Real" animal fur clippers to take the place of the human hair clippers we have been using. These clippers come with an instruction book, which along with perusal of some YouTube™ videos on dog grooming, I may have gained another skill set. We shall see.

Mostly, we accomplished more indoor chores and a small bit of yardwork. That really means that I installed those replacement garden fence sections after our adventures with Ginger.

Meals yesterday were an attempt to use some of our recent purchases of produce. We made only a tiny dent in those. Later, dinner was spaghetti with vegan Italian meatballs, ala Mary.

I spent a lot of time typing yesterday as I added yet more pages and chapters to my manuscript. I'm not there yet, but I am almost at the climax and heading towards the denouement and ending. This has been the most effort I've put into this manuscript in a long time, so I'm excited to see how it turns out myself. A genuine plus to the stay at home time necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic

Today, we plan to get out the Weber Kettle Grill™ and do our first outdoor barbecue. Our neighbor to the north has been grilling out for what seems like weeks. I'll have to get our grilling table out of the garage and the charcoal out of our shed.

Additionally, my tasks include starting the grill, after which I'll become overwhelmed by the smoke, thus requiring a change of clothes as I flip the various items at the appropriate times.

Mary has plans to marinate some mushrooms and cabbage, toss in some green peppers, get out a couple of vegan burgers and then stand back as I get to grill them.

Somewhere in there, we are going to try to grind STWD's nails down to a more indoor length. She must have picked up some vibes from Ginger's experience yesterday, as she was acting weird all evening last night.

I did get in some additional practice time on that song I've been working on. If time permits and if I feel as though I am sufficiently proficient, I am going to ask our Senior Staff Videographer to record my efforts for posterity. Once again, we'll have to wait and see.

Otherwise, not much is on tap for today. Ciao.