Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just after 12:30 a.m. in "The City."

The current temperature is 52° under rainy-skies, with winds of 4 mph make it feel more like 51°. Today's high is forecast to be 53° with a 60% chance for scattered T-storms, mostly during the afternoon hours. It is still looking like we'll be stuck in the 40s and lower 50s for many days.
 
The sun will rise today @ 7:15 a.m. and set later @ 8:18 p.m.

I did it! I finished 11/22/63, by Stephen King. When Mary recommended this novel, I wasn't sure, but as I got deeper and deeper into the book, all 2.7 pounds and 849 pages of it, I was hooked. I'd read many of King's books in the past, but I stopped after reading his novel, Cujo. That book grossed me out.

King is famous for saying, "I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I cannot horrify, I will go for the gross-out. I'm not proud," He succeeded in grossing me out with Cujo! That's when I stopped reading King.

But, even though 11/22/63 was first published in 2011, King was at the top of his game. It wasn't terrifying, it wasn't horrifying, and it didn't gross me out. Instead, this book that retold the assassination of  President John F. Kennedy in a time-travel format was suspenseful and fulfilling. To borrow from the late movie critics, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, I'd give it "Two-Thumbs Up!"

Otherwise, we stayed indoors yesterday. When I had the fur-children out around 11:00 a.m. yesterday, I took the time to fertilize the roses in the vast gardens before the rains came last night. That was the extent of my outdoor activity. We did sit outside with the fur-children late yesterday for about one-half hour, but that was all the outdoor activity we and they got. Here in Michigan, and I suspect many other places, this week is supposed to be a total stay indoors and out of harms way week to avoid any chance of a Coronavirus infection.

Earlier in the day, we had a light lunch and then went down to the man-cave to check on our seedlings. Since we were there, I asked our Senior Staff Photographer to take some pix.

These tomatoes are doing well in the relative warmth of the manse's furnace room under fluorescent lighting. We're still waiting on the sweet-peppers to sprout.

Before she came down, our Senior Staff Photographer got lucky and caught STWD before she could turn her head. She is till the "Cutest Dog on the Planet!

I used the editing feature in Windows 10 to crop this great pic!

At some point, Mary took the trash to the can and on the way, she spotted these flowers growing in the garden next to the deck. Using the flash on her Olympus TG-6 camera, she got this great shot.

Although we are still not sure, they might be Glory of the snow.

Once again, a little editing and this was our dinner. More of my vegan Italian meatballs, along with some mushrooms coated with a sauce that included: apple cider vinegar, minced garlic, brown sugar, olive oil, tamari, and sage as a sauce, all baked in the oven. Believe me when I say that the mushrooms were excellent!

Mary has truly become that "Color Monster" that I referenced the other day. She is proving to be quite proficient at shading and blending. When she finishes one of her works, I'll ask our Senior Staff Photographer to take a photo and included it in a blog.

Today, with the necessity to stay indoors and the rain/T-storms, we won't be going outside except to take care of the fur-children. They desperately want to go for a walk and cannot understand why we can't take them.

A side-note on the gasoline prices in our area. They continue to plummet, with the lowest in Grand Haven, Township being $1.31/gallon.

Other wise, I hope to start another book, work more on my manuscript, do some coloring of my own, perhaps play some music and...Ciao.