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 50° under mostly-cloudy-skies, with winds of 9 mph that make it feel more like 46°! Today's high-temperature is forecast to reach 49°, which is 11° colder than the high was yesterday. The NWS has ended their forecast for rain until tonight, when there will be an 80% chance for additional rain.

The NWS had also issued a Gale Watch that will be in effect from now until Friday morning.  Northwest gales to 40 knots and waves of 5 to 10 feet are possible from St. Joseph to Manistee MI.

To accompany that Gale Watch, the NWS has also issued a Dense Fog Advisory in effect until 4:00 a.m today. Anyone still on the road and taking dubious advantage of the $1.30/gallon current low price for gasoline.probably should only be on the raod if they are engaged in an essential business activity or service.

However, that Dense Fog Advisory also means that mariners should should strongly consider staying in port. If you must navigate, you should proceed with caution and use proper fog signals. Make sure all running lights are on and remember to use your radar and compass. In other words, mariners should consider altering plans to avoid possible hazardous conditions.

Yesterday, was a good day to be outdoors until the T-storms set in around 6:00 p.m. STWD was spooked enough to head fo her hide-e-hole. As previously noted, the storms are over for now and won't return until tonight.
 
Since it was such a good day to be outside, Mary, the fur-children and I spent some time on the deck before I decided to do some yard-work. But before we went outdoors, we finished the crossword puzzle from the weekend edition of the Grand Haven Tribune. Mary made sure that I had on my yak brace before I got carried away with my yard-work and then she and and our fur-children went inside to avoid the dust and pollen.

I finished as quickly as I could and then I too came inside to do some coloring. Mary was upstairs coloring too and she is doing great. I wish I could be a more helpful muse, but my partial color-blindness doesn't allow me to see some of the nuances that she is including She was coloring along with checking the website for our local Fast Lane grocery service.

As it turned out, later while we were eating her delicious dinner of vegan lasagna, she popped upstairs to check that website one more time and discovered that a time-slot for grocery pickup had opened this afternoon. She immediately entered our order into the system and then came downstairs to finish her dinner and breathe a sigh of relief. If she had not discovered that time-slot, our next pickup date was next Monday @ 6:00 p.m. We may get an abundance of grocery items, including that precious commodity, TP. Or, we may only get a fraction of what we ordered. Who knows?

I got a lot of writing done early yesterday. I am making steady progress and it feels good.

I almost forgot to mention that I sprang from my bed to watch the morning passage of the southbound train run on the RSTL @ 8:22 a.m. It didn't take long, as all I espied were MMRR locomotives 2019 and 2025 towing one DBTC and one DWTC.

Later, @ 12:51 p.m., I watched as those same locomotives passed by heading north towing six DBTCs, one CHC, two GTCs, and one DWTC. I'm not sure why either run required two powerful locomotives.

Today, we have plans to do some housecleaning before Mary grabs her mask and travels to pickup our grocery order. We are hoping for some green groceries such as lettuce, mushrooms, cucumbers and the like. It feels as though it has been a long time since we ate a salad.

Oh, our first daffodil is blooming in the vast gardens. I've included a picture of that daffodil.

Picture courtesy of the Jax Meanderings Senior Staff Photographer.

 I think that this pic is so good, that it should be framed and placed on the wall of her office.

One final and very sad note. Yesterday, John Prine, an American treasure, passed away due to complications from the Covid-19 virus at the age of 73. I decided that one way to salute John was toi add this clip of Prine and Stephen Colbert singing a duet on Prine's That's The Way The World Goes Round I hope you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XokTQSGNj3Q

That's enough for one day. Ciao.