Good morning or good evening, wherever you maybe, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 2:30 a.m. in "The City."

We took a long walk down to the waterfront with Ginger yesterday afternoon. I overdid it a bit, but more than two miles later, I felt good about my efforts. We took a lot of pix too. No real order, just random things that caught our eye.

On our way, these barren trees in Central Park caught my eye.

Like always, a playground, an empty park, or a dormant fountain call out to me.

It was Easter, bu these men had work to do in the downtown.

The channel was empty.

With the exception of this cruiser that was on its way back to Spring Lake.

Like us, lots of people were enjoying the waterfront on a warm, sunny, Sunday afternoon.

Lots of stores are closing in the downtown. Many, but not all, are being repurposed.

The Easter egg hunt that happened in Central Park on Saturday had some leftovers.

Several years ago, John and Deb visited and gave us this frog for the vast gardens of the PE.

Spring is springing in the vast gardens of the PE.

In sports, the now 10 - 10, 4th place in the NL Central Cubs, took a 2 - 1 squeaker from the 11 - 11, 3rd place in the NL West AZ D'Backs, to take 2/3 from the D'Backs in their weekend series. Javier Baez tripled in the bottom of the 9th, and David Bote singled to drive him home for the win. RHP Pedro Strop got the win in relief of starting pitcher, RHP Tyler Chatwood, who settled down quickly and pitched six scoreless innings in a spot start. The Cubs are off until Tuesday night @ 8:05 p.m. EDT, when they welcome the 15 - 9, 1st place in the NL West Dodgers to Wrigley Field as LHP Jose
Quintana takes the mound.

My beloved, 9 - 13, 4th place in the AL East Red Sox, swept the 14 - 8, 1st place in the AL East Tampa Bay Rays, with a 2 - 1 win in 10 innings yesterday. The Sox used a great pitching performance by LHP David Price to get to the win by reliever, LHP Marcus Waldon. The Sox get no rest as they are hosting the 10 - 10, 3rd place in the AL Central, Tigers tonight @ 7:10 p.m.

The Tigers got an excellent pitching performance from LHP Daniel Norris yesterday to win the game over that 8 - 12, 4th place in the AL Central, other team from Chicago, 4 - 3. Tonight's Tigers' game will find LHP Matthew Boyd on the mound for the Tigers and LHP Chris Sale taking the hill for the Sox.

The 6 - 9, last place in the MWL East Caps are on again tonight in Midland, MI, as they take the field against the Great Lakes Loons @ 6:05 p.m.

I had a great day in the kitchen yesterday, as I crafted a delicious stir-fry for brunch. While I was working, I assisted Mary in the preparation of our Easter dinner of hammish. Plus, I did those pesky indoor chores too. We also washed and stored our winter coats for another season too.

My stir-fry brunch of soy curls, water chestnuts, bean sprouts, julienned carrots, mushrooms, onions, molasses, and fresh-grated ginger root, served over rice.

Tasted even better than it looked, but generated more leftovers.

Meanwhile, Mary's Easter hammish was in the Crockpot™ for 6 1/2 hours, getting ready for dinner. In addition, Mary prepared a side-dish of candied sweet potatoes in her trusty cast-iron skillet, As she noted, you take a healthy vegetable and turn it into a not so healthy candied side-dish. So?

Dinner was the hammish with those candied sweet potatoes. A delicious repast.

Once again, even better tasting than it looks.

We have a current temperature if 58° under mostly-cloudy skies, as we drop to the overnight low of 53°. Today's high is forecast to reach 70° under mostly-cloudy skies, but that's 11° warmer than yesterday. Sadly, the high temperature on Tuesday will only be 49° with showers in the forecast. In fact, we will stay in the 50s for many more days before we reach a 60° high on May 1.
The sun will rise this morning@ 6:52 a.m. and set later @ 8:35 p.m.

We have no specific plans for today. I have to prune the rose bushes in the gardens and that's about it. I want to get back to my artistic endeavors too. Mary will be getting to sewing the musically-themed valances for my office/music room/weather center/artists nook, if all goes well. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 4:00 a.m. in "The City."

I had a great day at my Irish Jam Session yesterday. I played a lot and also sang a song, a typical Irish lament about the hardship and pain caused by leaving their beloved "Emerald Isle" and emigrating to America and the city of Chicago due to the potato famine that began in1847. This song was/is entitled, not surprisingly, City of Chicago. My version was finger-picked. Here is a version as performed by famous Irish singer/songwriter, Christy Moore. I think I favor Mr. Moore in many subtle and not so subtle ways. What say you?

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

We have a current temperature of 43° under partly-cloudy skies. Today's high temperature, after the sun rises @ 6:53 a.m. and long before it sets @ 8:34 p.m., is forecast by the NWS to reach 63°. Monday's high may reach 69°! But then, on Tuesday, the high is forecast to reach 52°. Ouch. By the by, I have current personal experience with the current temperature, as I had both the fur-children out @ 3:39 a.m. ad I had to go fight our own personal "War of the Roses", as STWD insists on going out and getting the tether wrapped around at least one of Mary's rose bushes, sometimes two, she even gets wrapped around three on occasion. We've tried fencing her off with a short and not completely unattractive short fence, but she jumps anything that doesn't resemble a "Wall.". Sigh.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Ginger was asleep in her usual "Out of it" fashion when Mary came to bed. Unlike STWD and yours truly, when Ginger sleeps, she sleeps so soundly that you cannot wake her and she'd be no help to warn that a burglar was breaking in to the manse. If she's awake, delivery people, the letter carrier, and anyone walking on the sidewalk better watch out. That's why I had to let them both out @ 3:30 a.m. But, she is cute.

You just think she's awake.

Oh, we finally got our greenhouse out of its early spring location in the foyer and placed it outside to hopefully allow our seedlings to thrive.

Sports news yesterday was mostly unsatisfactory. The  now 9 - 10, 4th place in the NL Central Cubs returned to their losing ways, as they fell to the 11 - 10, 3rd place in the NL West, AZ D'Backs, 0 - 6. RHP and $126 man, Yu Darvish, "settled down" after he had served up some early back to back home runs to the D'Backs. You know, he closed the barn door after the horse had left the building. In addition, the Cubs' and their relief corps received more bad news, as last year's closer, RHP Brandon Morrow, experienced more trouble with his pitching arm and was shut down, again. Pedro Strop will continue in that role for the foreseeable future.

Starting LHP Jon Lester, continued the rehab for his injured hamstring with a simulated game yesterday. Cubs' manager, Joe Maddon, felt that Lester looked fine. Today will tell the tale. The Cubs and the D'Backs close out their series in a 2:20 p.m. EDT game later today as RHP Tyler Chatwood takes the ball.

My beloved, 8 - 13, fifth/last place in the AL East Red Sox, took their second game from the 14 - 7, 1st place in the AL East, Tampa Bay Rays, by a slim 6 - 5 margin. OF Andrew Benintendi hit his first major-league grand slam and got five RBIs. At the risk of jinxing the Sox, they go for a sweep today @ 2:10 p.m. when LHP David Price goes for his second win.

The 9 - 10, 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers, were postponed due to rain against that other team from Chicago. They try again tonight @ 7:10 p.m. in Comerica Park, as LHP Dan Norris goes for his first win.

Likewise, the 6 - 9, tied for last place in the MWL East Caps, were rained out last night in South Bend, IN. They try again Monday night against the 7 - 9, 6th place in the MWL East Great Lakes Loons in Midland, MI. The Loons are an A level affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I was outside yesterday morning with the fur-children, when I noticed that there was a butterfly. species unknown, in the flowers of the garden near our Havenhenge stone formation. So, I quickly grabbed our camera with Mary's macro lens and took some shots.

Nearly on top of Havenhenge.

By the flowers in the garden.

Later when I was jamming, Mary and Ginger took a walk down to the waterfront. She didn't stay long, as the temperature near the channel of the Grand River leading to the "Big Lake" was quite chilly. So, they returned to a more temperate Central Park for some reading. While at the waterfront, Mary took some pix with our camera.

The skies were blue and the water choppy.

Mary reports that there were just a few small boats on the water.

Today being Easter, many places of business in GH and the Tri-Cities area will be closed in observance of the Christian holiday. We'll be reading the newspaper, reading our respective non-fiction and novel books along with doing some work in the vast gardens of the PE. Perhaps we'll also be doing some crafty type things too. By the by, my early morning vegan Italian meatballs from yesterday turned out great, my best effort in a long time. We had some for dinner.

Otherwise, we will be watching baseball and going walkabout. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 2:30 a.m. in "The City."

Don't tell Mary, but since I was downstairs to empty the dishwasher, I decided to make more of her favorite, vegan Italian meatballs. In my humble opinion., I got them right this time. I used part of our booty from our visit to Aldis™ yesterday, baby portabello mushrooms. The proof is in the taste, I hope.

We have a current temperature of  43° under clear skies. That will lead to today's high temperature of 63° under sunny skies! Good news, as I'll be walking to my monthly Irish Jam Session this afternoon @ 1:00 p.m. The sun will rise into those azure-blue skies @ 6:55 a.m. this morning and it will set later @ 8:32 p.m. We will continue with that Small Craft Advisory until 8:00 a.m. today.

Baseball news yesterday was 1/2 and 1/2. The now 9 - 9, 4th place in the NL Central Cubs, used the windy conditions @ Wrigley Field to help them achieve a 5 - 1 win over the 10 - 10, 3rd place in the NL West AZ D'Backs. RHP Kyle Hendricks was able to record 11 Ks before he departed and the Cubs' bullpen was able to hold the lead for the win. The Cubs and the D'Backs go again today @ 2:20 p.m., when RHP Yu Darvish goes for his 2nd win.

My beloved, 7 - 13, 5th/last place in the AL East Red Sox took a game from the 14 - 6, 1st place in the AL East Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa Bay, 6 - 4. Mookie Betts and Mitch Moreland went back to back in the win that was added to the totals of RHP Brandon Workman. We're moving on up? Later tonight, the Sox and the Rays go at it again @ 6:10 p.m., when RHP Rick Porcello tries to find the strike zone.

The 9 - 10, 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers lost another one, this time to that 8 - 11, 4th place in the AL Central, other team from Chicago, 3 - 7. RHP Jordan Zimmermann was trying to paint the corners for the Tigers, but he felt that he was not given the benefit of the doubt by the home-plate umpire. That led to his 3rd loss. Tonight @ 6:10 p.m., the Tigers and that other team play again @ 6:10 p.m., when LHP Dan Norris ties for the win.

The 6 - 9, tied for last place in the MWL East White Caps, fell in South Bend to the 9 - 7, 3rd place TinCaps, 1 - 2. If this continues, the future for players on this A level affiliate of the Tigers looks dim.

A baseball fact is that only a small percentage of players ever get a cup of coffee in "The Show." Plus, many players struggle for years on poverty-level wages. Players that are not drafted have a very slim chance of ever playing for the bg money.

We ran some errands yesterday, one of which was a stop at the car dealer to get help with syncing our Smart Phone with our Jeep™ for navigation. We stopped @ and bought some things @ the nearby big-box home and garden center, traveled to one of the big-box arts and crafts stores in Muskegon to take advantage of a 50% top 60% off sale, and then stopped @ Stan's in Spring Lake. When we got home, I watched the end of the Cubs' game as Mary prepared a dinner of spaghetti roll casserole. I started the Red Sox game and I gave up on the Tigers when I could see where that game was going. Then I fell asleep after a satisfying dinner.

Oh, I am as usual listening to Coast to Coast AM, as guest host, Ian Punnet, discusses artificial intelligence, with his guest, Greg Keiser and the late-night audience. Since the topic was AI, Ian is using the efforts of the Alan Parson's Project as his segue music. Here is one of the songs he featured, Eye in the Sky from 1982, as found on YouTube™. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNiie_zmSr8

Today, not much to talk about. I'll enjoy my walk to the library, Mary will enjoy her walk-about around town, and the fur-children will enjoy the first really pleasant day in a long time. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation  and across the world. It is just past 4:00 a.m. in "The City."

No need to spend much time on the weather this morning. We have a current temperature of 41° that feels like 35° due to the 10 mph winds. Today's high is forecast to reach 55° under cloudy-skies this morning and with sunny-skies this afternoon. The sun will rise @ 6:56 a.m. and set later @ 8:31 p.m. In addition, the NWS has extended the Small Craft Advisory until 8:00 a.m. on Saturday. Four to six foot waves will be driven by 30 knot winds. As always, the "Big Lake" is angry in the spring and inexperienced sailors, small craft, and any vessel without instruments are strongly cautioned to stay off the water.

We had two train runs yesterday. The morning run on the RSTL occurred @ 9:38 a.m. and consisted of MMRR locomotive #2025 towing 11 CHCs and five DBTCs. Later, @ 2:15 p.m., while I was busy in the kitchen, my apprentice 1st class train-spotter, Mary, assisted by Ginger and recorded that the northbound run of that same locomotive passed by with three CHCs and one DBTC in tow.

I said I was busy in the kitchen because I was sauteing some sweet peppers and onions for storage and chopping vegetables for vegan Irish stew. I say Irish stew, because the addition of a full can of Guinness stout beer, brewed in Ireland, is one of the main ingredients. I say vegan, because there was no meat nor dairy products used in the recipe. Yes Virginia, no animals were harmed in the preparation of this recipe.

This stew is one of my favorites and has been memorialized in Mary's handcrafted cookbook. The stew was accompanied by slices of Mary's homemade bread with garlic and nutritional yeast on buttered bread, baked just right. Of course, I couldn't have stew without horseradish.

After I was done in the kitchen, I went upstairs to play with the girls and do some drawing, Mary decided to go walkabout to drop off a package at the UPS store, stop by the bank, tried to get, but failed, in her quest for frozen broccoli @ Health Hutt™ and stopped  in for an adult beverage and to try to save someone's finger @ JWs. And I thought I was busy.

Mary has seemingly reacquired her love of pleasure reading too. I think that much like when I was teaching and I didn't have a desire to read for pleasure, Mary's business of indexing books took away some of her love of pleasure reading that she'd always had. Just an opinion, and I'm sticking to it. Plus, rather than watching TV news, she has taken to listening to mood-music while she reads.

Oh, the 8 - 9. 4th place in the NL Central Cubs, and my beloved, 6 - 13, 5th/last place in the AL East Red Sox, return to action today/tonight, while yesterday, the 9 - 9, 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers defeated that other team from Chicago in an afternoon game, 9 - 7. Sadly, that other team is 7 - 9 and in 4th place in that same division and thus they are not a true measure of the Tigers' abilities. That's in spite of the nine runs scored by the good guys in a rare day game. The Tigers return to night games @ Comerica Park tonight @ 7:10 p.m. when RHP Jordan Zimmermann tries for his first win.

The Caps and the TinCaps were postponed last night due to the inclement weather. They try again tonight @ 5:05 p.m. in South Bend.

Today, nothing is on tap and that's fine with me. I have music to play, drawing to practice, and the newspaper and a book to read. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 2:00 a.m. in "The City." There should be just about enough energy in yours truly to make this abbreviated bog a full story.

First, let me say that the current temperature is 61°, but that it feels like 58°, Today's high will drop down to only 50°. That's a full five degrees cooler than yesterday's forecast high, and quite a drop from the current 61°! In addition, there is a Marine Weather Statement in effect now along the shores of the "Big Lake" from Holland to Manistee. Wind gusts may reach 30 knots accompanied by T-storms and high waves. Mariners are urged to seek safe harbor. There is also a Small Craft Advisory still in effect until 11:00 a.m. this morning. Small boats and inexperienced sailors are cautioned to avoid being on the lake. However, the sun will still rise this morning @ 6:58 a.m. ans set later @ 8:30 p.m. We'll stay in the 50s for several more days too, as showers visit us today with a 70% chance.

We had a great day yesterday. We didn't accomplish much, well at least I didn't, but we did have a terrific lunch that consisted of a new recipe that Mary crafted using Tempeh bacon, which she has daubed Takon. When combined with lettuce and tomato on French bread, a delicious sandwich was made. When Mary added a side-salad, lunch was a keeper.

We did make it to the chiropractors, but not to that lecture I mentioned. Oh well, that's how it goes.

Dinner was a combination of various leftovers that Mary had in the refrigerator and since they were reprises of previous meals, they were all good.

Baseball news yesterday was mostly bad. The lone bright spot was the pitching of LHP Cole Hamels for the now 8 - 9, 4th place in the NL Central Cubs. He tossed a gem against the 4 - 15. last place in the NL East Marlins. Cubs' 3rd baseman, Kris Bryant, is still struggling at the plate, but he feels he is almost there. Here's hoping. The Cubs are off today before opening a weekend series @ 2:20 p.m. Friday @ Wrigley Field against the 9 - 9 in the NL West AZ D'Backs as RHP Kyle Hendricks tries for his first win.

Every other team in my baseball world was awful. My beloved, 6 - 13, 5th place in the AL East Red Sox, lost to the 8 - 9, 2nd place in the AL East Yankees, 3 - 5, as the Sox' bullpen couldn't hold the lead for Nathan Eovaldi. The Sox are off today too, before traveling to Tampa Bay to meet the 14 - 4, 1st place in the AL East Rays @ 7:10 p.m. LHP Eduardo Rodriguez will try to right the ship.

The 8 - 9, 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers, fell to the 10 - 6, 3rd place in the NL Central Pirates, 2 - 3. The Tigers will be visited today @ 1:10 p.m. by that other team from Chicago with their 7 - 10 record in the AL Central, as RHP Tyler Ross takes the hill for the Tigers.

The Caps, well they are an "A" level team, but so are the other teams in the MWL East, so their loss to the Lansing Lugnuts, 2 - 8, dropped them into a last place tie with Mary's sentimental favorites, the Dayton Dragons. The Caps travel to Ft. Wayne, IN to meet the TinCaps @ 7:05 p.m. tonight.

We did have two train runs yesterday. In the morning, only locomotive #2025 was seen soloing heading south @ 8:52 a.m. Later, Ginger and I spotted the same locomotive heading north towing four CHCs, one DBTC, and one GTC.

Our daffodils are finally blooming. We love how they give a sense of spring to the vast gardens of the PE.

Quite a change from Sunday into Monday.

When our back-forty looked like this.

Today, we have nothing on tap. The indoor chores are done. We have only to read more, play with the girls more, and try to make a larger dent in the refrigerated leftovers. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the naion and across the world. It is just past 5:00 a.m. in "The City."

So far, what a morning,. I went downstairs around 3:00 a.m. to empty the dishwasher and I didn't finish in the kitchen until nearly 4:00 a.m. That's because Mary's adventures in the kitchen required some additional cleanup that I hadn't anticipated. While her lunch and dinner offerings yesterday were excellent, more on those in a minute, the associated dishes themselves required significant attention. Oh well, she cooks and I clean up, a fair trade I think.

At any rate, she prepared a lunch of what the author of the recipe called Southern macaroni and cheese. The only thing southern was probably the collard greens, but that's okay, because the end result was delicious and a definite keeper.

Mary combined the collard greens, some freshly minced garlic, one of my vegan sausages, some Daiya™ cheese sauce and some whole wheat shells to end up here. All of this done while I was at my P/T appointment, which went very well.

First, came the washing and then chopping of the collards.

The vegan sausage was sliced and then sauteed in the cast iron skillet

Then combined with the other ingredients for further cooking.

Until voila, the finished dish.

Dinner too was excellent, a variation on one of Mary's tried and true recipes for homemade barbecue sauce over Hasselback Tofu accompanied by mushrooms marinated in a sauce that is secret to me, but which I liked.

The in-between steps were not important, the end result is what counted.

Now if I could just remember how to place pictures in the appropriate folder the way Mary showed me, I 'd be all set.

But I digress once again. During the morning and early afternoon hours, Doug, of Doug's Landscaping, came by to finish our spring cleanup and spread the new mulch. He did an excellent job of edging and spreading and spared by old yak and my freshly repaired shoulder, so I'm all good with that. No pictures though.

We have a current temperature of 44° that seems to be the low for this morning. Unfortunately, the chance for T-storms this morning is 70% as we reach today's high of 57°. Thursday's high is forecast by the NWS to reach 54°, but with the chance for T-storms increased to 90%. Not surprisingly, there is another Small Craft Advisory in that forecast that runs from 2:00 a.m. Thursday until 11:00 a.m. that same day. Good news, it looks like the opportunity to get our seedlings outside in their greenhouse home is almost here.

Baseball news yesterday was mixed. The now 7 - 9 in the NL Central Cubs rode the great pitching of LHP Jose Quintana through more than seven innings to win one over the 4 - 14 in the NL East Miami Marlins, 4 - 0. The Cubs should beat the Marlins, but this year, you just never know. Another bright spot is that the $126 million man, RHP Yu Darvish, has re-added his two-seam fastball to his mix of pitches to keep hitters guessing, It was one of those clocked @ over 97 mph on Monday night, that hit the Marlins' batter, Cubs' catcher, Willson Contreras and the home-plate umpire. Oh well, I'll take it if he can win baseball games. The Cubs and the Marlins square off once again tonight @ 7:10 p.m. EDT.

My beloved, 6 - 12, 5th/last place in the in the AL East, sent their ace, LHP Chris Sale to the mound against the  7 - 9, 2nd place in the AL East Yankees, and got another loss tacked on to their worst in the AL East record, this time 0 - 8. Sale opined that he was "Flat out embarrassed." Ya think? A man who just got a five-year contract extension that will pay him $15 million this year and then jump to $ 29 million ofr the next four seasons, shold be embarrassed.

Oh well the Sox and the Yankees go at it again tonight @ 6:35 p.m. when RHP Nathan Eovaldi gets the ball from Sox manager, Alex Cora. How do you go from fisrt to worst in just a few months? I dunno, you'd have to ask 2nd year manager Cora.

The now 8 - 8, 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers, are starting to look like they will live up to, or is it down to expectations, as they lost one to the 9 - 6, 2nd place in the NL Central Pirates, 3 - 5. The Tigers tried, but they just don't have the horses this year. Tonight @ 6:40 p.m. the Tigers send RHP Spencer Turnbull to the mound to try to win one.

The 5 - 7, 7th place in the MWL East Caps, lost again to the 6 - 6, tied for 3rd place in the MWL East Lansing Lugnuts, 3 - 5. The Caps and the Lugnuts go again today @ 12:00 p.m., weather permitting.

We ran some errands yesterday and culminated our day in Spring Lake @ Stan's. Mary walked across the street to the Spring Lake Florist and availed herself of a sale on tulips for the living room. Our daffodils are not yet fully in bloom and the tulips are still a couple of weeks away, so she needed a splash of color that only fresh-cut flowers can provide.

Perfect!

 Otherwise, not much is happening around here. Since I am up, I am finishing some laundry that was generated by several days of kitchen adventures and then we have no specific plans until this afternoon at the chiropractors and possibly a lecture @ the Tri-Cities Historical Museum entitled, "Retro Road Trip 1959" presented by M. Christine Byron and Tom Wilson. tonight @ 6:30 p.m. Ciao.

Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 3:30 a.m. in "The City."

Well my loyal readers, I was outside with the fur-children on a cool, dark morning @ about 2:00 a.m., and in spite of the date, spring is not yet here and winter refuses to let go. We have a current temperature of 40° that will drop to an overnight low of 39°. Oddly, the NWS has revised their forecast to include temperatures downward, as today's high will only reach 50° with light rain in the forecast @ 90%. Wednesday, the high temperature improves to 58°, but the NWS has added T-storms with a 100% certainty. Snow one day, rain the next, but spring-like temperatures are still elusive, as the highs are in the 40s for a couple of days and then maybe, just maybe, we'll get to the 50s and 60s consistently.

At any rate, as you have probably noticed, I like to take pictures of my surroundings and yesterday morning was no different. I was downstairs yesterday morning waiting on the fur-children to finish their business, and I noticed that our back-forty was still snow-covered as was the motor scooter of our neighbor. Much like empty playgrounds, there is something about a motor scooter that cannot be used that is photographically appealing to me. So, I took some pix of that forlorn sight.

Since I had the camera in my hands, I took some pix of our deck, the back-forty, and our parkway garden too.

I put the snow shovels away and had to retrieve one from the garage to move this heavy-wet snow.

Somewhere out there are our daffodils, our tulips, and our spring.

The city cleared the street, but the snow was now in our parkway garden.

Oh, the sidewalk Zamboni came by too, and made a contribution to our front sidewalk.

Moving right along, as did the snow by early afternoon, we finally made it out for our errands, We traveled to the vacuum store, the paint store, the grocery store and the art/crafts store. We actually came away with something that I we hadn't set out to get, a cordless vacuum when the plan was to get bags for the corded model we had, but which has since been retired.

But I digress. We had a list for all the other things we desired and didn't deviate from that. Thus, we saved some money. 😊

Before we left, I watched some of the game between my beloved, now 6 - 10, 5th place in the AL East Red Sox and the 7 - 10, 2nd place in the AL East Orioles. The Sox fell to the Orioles, 1 - 8. Sigh. Fortunately, there is always another day and the Sox will rise again as they play the 6 - 9, 3rd place in the AL East Yankees, @ 6:35 p.m. when LHP Chris Sale takes the mound.

The idle, and now 8 - 7, 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers, welcome the 8- 6, 2nd place in the NL Central Pirates to Comerica Park @ 6:40 p.m. tonight, when LHP Matthew Boyd goes for the win.

The 6 - 9, 4th place in the NL Central Cubs had a great game yesterday as they defeated the 4 - 13 in the NL East Marlins, 7 - 2. Yu Darvish had a good game, getting his first win with 5 2/3 innings pitched, as his fastball hit 99 mph! However, that fastball also hit the Marlins' batter, Lewis Brinson, ricocheted off him, then off of Cubs' catcher Willson Contreras, and finally hit home-plate umpire, Brian O'Nora. Darvish walked four batters and when asked how he did that yesterday, but walked no one his last time out, he reportedly quipped, "I'm Yu Darvish." The Cubs and the Marlins go again tonight @ 6:10 p.m. when LHP Jose Quintana gets the ball.

The 5 - 6 in the MWL East Caps took 10 innings to fall to the Lansing Lugnuts, 2 - 6 to fall into a 5th place tie with the Great Lakes Loons and the Lansing Lugnuts. The Caps and the Lugnuts try again tonight @ 6:35 p.m.

Otherwise not much is happening. I have my now now weekly P/T appointment this afternoon and that's about it. Mary has kitchen plans and I have additional plans to play a little, draw a little, read a little and retire a lot, to paraphrase Robert Fulghum. Ciao.