Photo Tour Of The Chautauqua Amphitheater

Working On The Floor

Scaffolding

Choir Loft

More Scaffolding

View From The Tom And Jane Becker Room

Tom and Jane Becker Room

Innards

Building The Scaffolding

Sprinkler System

The Back Of The Amp

An Unseemly Morning On The Lake

6:56

7:35

It''s 7:20 and I have been up for an hour, listening to the southeasterly wind sing, on a dreary, wet, depressing gray morning.  It's 41º out, the lake is choppy, and it's so ugly out that it makes me want to just curl up on my couch and forget about yoga, about going anywhere.

Sebe And Tom

Yesterday was mostly like this morning, windy, wet and overcast, not the kind of get out there and enjoy the weather kind of day.  I had a very different kind of morning, however, no yoga but a tour of the new Chautauqua Amphitheater, courtesy of Tom Becker, the former President of the Chautauqua Institution and Sebe Baggiano, current CFO.  Before we got into the complex, we had to don reflective vests, hard hats and glasses, just like everyone else who was working on the site.

View From The Front Of The Amphitheater (photo by CI)

It's an amazing construction site, with both an inside and outside element.  By the way, the white roof that many are complaining about is just the first layer.  At the moment, insulation, then plywood and finally a metal roof will be added.  Most of the floor is finished, with tons and tons of concrete, not only for the base but for all the seats.  This had to be done before the incredible scaffolding could be erected so that the workers could put a bead board ceiling on the inside.  It's an amazing complex of scaffolding, covering much of the inside.  We spent a good half hour walking up and down the stairs of the back of the Amp, three of four floors of rooms, with a great room in the back, named the Tom and Jane Becker Room, with an outdoor porch and view of the lake.  It's impressive.  Most impressive, however, was the 150 or more guys that work on this development, both inside and out.  As we walked through the various sections, we passed guys working on dry walling, electrical and plumbing and heating stuff, as well as everything else that might be part of a building like this.  I can see why it's a 40 million plus building.  We ended up in the first floor or basement, where the orchestra pit sits which, when needed, can be raised or lowered by a hydraulic lift.  The innards of any building of this size is so complicated and vast that it is hard to imagine the kind of planning that went into it, so that everything was available when needed and not before.  It's progressing well and should be finished on time.  It was an interesting way to spend the morning.

Photo Of Back Of CI

When I got home, I relaxed some, looked at the info on a new phone that I am getting, compliments of my son Tommy.  It's not the Cadillac like Evie's but it's more of a Volkswagen, my style, compact and efficient.  By 1:00, I was hungry so I had the leftover half of a Cuban from the previous nights dinner at the Viking Club.  I finished up my Wallander episode just as Evie was driving off to do more shopping, this time at Sam's Club, then stopping at the gym.  It was a good day to stay inside, either shopping, working out or visiting the Amphitheater.

A Choppy Lake

Since it was such a miserable evening, we decided to cheer it up with a Manhattan, cheese and crackers and an easy dinner, of a rice/tomato/feta cheese/spinach dish with leftover pork chops.

7:25

7:41

7:52

It was another amazing dusk, as we took photograph after photograph of the darkening sky often obscured by rain.  Dinner was great and we watched the most recent hilarious episode of Designated Survivor.  I know it's supposed to be a thriller like 24 but it's so silly and ridiculous that we enjoy it for the laughs.  We ended the night with another depressing Vice News which looked at the burgeoning drought in Somalia, affecting millions of children.  The world seems to be falling apart and little if anything is being done to remedy it.  It's hard to know where to begin.  So we don't.

7:47 pm

Maple Tree In Rain Through Window

A Dark,Threatening Morning Sky - Viking Club, Lodge 65

6:54

6:55

6:56 

It's a windy morning, dark clouds, a ruffled lake, with rain over the next couple of days.  It's cooled of some, 37º, and the wind is howling, the wind chimes ringing.  No kayaking this morning.

7:00

Yesterday started out sunny with blue skies and it stayed like that all day.  If that's spring, I will take it.  I decided to start up with yoga again and I enjoyed class, realized how much I missed it.   It was good to get back in touch with my body, my breathing, the art of mindfulness.  I sound like a yoga geek, a cliche I know.   After class, I stopped at Ryder's Cup for a coffee, then drove to Aldi's to see if I could find some deals.  They are getting more attractive to the average shopper, going organic with many of their foods, and they always have a Wednesday advertisement in our paper.  So I paid my twenty five cents for a cart, roamed the store, having a difficult time finding some of the sale items like walnuts and dried cherries.  Eventually, I found a few other things we wanted to try, frozen scallops and sockeye salmon.  Aldi's is not a shopping experience like Wegmans, just a bare bones, non frills store.

When I got home, it was still sunny out, so I got out the shop vac and bucket of water and worked on cleaning the insides of both cars, filthy from a few months of winter.  It took me about forty five minutes and I even got out a hose, hooked it up, and washed off the mats.  Here's hoping we don't have much of a big freeze.  Lunch was something I had been craving, a corned beef sandwich on rye, with a nice big kosher pickle.  Add a bowl of Evie's vegetable soup and I was a happy boy.  I watched more of Wallander, then read and took a nap.  Meanwhile, Evie had finished most of the spring cleaning of the upstairs before driving off to do some shopping and eventually get to the gym.  I think the sunny weather perked both of us up, helped us to find our mojo.  Evie hit T.J's, found some clothes she liked and didn't get home until 4:45, happy with her workout and shopping.

Four Vikings

Sunset At 7:25

We met Ron and Linda at the Viking Club at 6:15 because it was Cuban night.  When we got there, a couple of our friends sitting at the bar mentioned they were running low on Cuban sandwiches, so we better order soon.  So as Ron got the beers, I ordered the last four Cuban sandwiches.  We were able to get seats at the window, so we could watch the sunset.  And the Cubans were about as good and huge as they have ever been.  Needless to say, the four of us were very happy.  And I have a half of Evie's sandwich leftover for today's lunch.  We ran into Dana and Barb and some regulars, too, which was fun.

A Cuban Sandwich

Dusk At The Viking (8:10)

We got home around 8:30, in time to get in the most recent episode of The Americans, and a Vice news before I was ready to go upstairs to read and sleep.  A good day for both of us.

A Ravishing Spring Morning

6:40

6:42

7:`14

7:15

7:20

7:25

It's sunny, with blue skies and a few clouds at 7:45.  When I went out to get the paper, birds were singing, geese honking, ducks quacking, filling the air with delight at springs arrival.  What a contrast between the outside and the news inside.  Maybe I should turn off the radio!  The living room is filled with light, the lake, bright and shiny, the temperature a nice 39º.  O happy day.

Morning Fog

Kayak Morning

Yesterday started out with a dreary gray, then a heavy fog, obscuring much of the lake but mid afternoon, it cleared up some, as if the weather gods had a mood swing.  Around 10:00, I was going to go for a walk when I realized the lake had practically disappeared behind the fog.  Well, I couldn't resist the temptation to kayak out and into it, so I quickly put on my life jacket and paddled out, hoping to lose myself in the gray. The fog, however, always seemed to be ten yards or so ahead of me as I paddled and the shore was always visible.  I did hear a single loon cry out, it's sound echoing over the lake.  I was out for about forty five minutes, paddling in and out of the mist until I had enough and went home.  It was the way I would often start my mornings in the warmer weather, getting in a paddle before yoga.  It's about time I start again.

Spring On The Lake

Lake, Fog, And Clouds

I left to take a walk around Lakewood at 11:00, leaving Evie to spring clean some of the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom.  I am not much use when there's cleaning to be done other than vacuuming the carpet.  It was gray and drizzly as I walked some of the streets after getting a coffee, not quite the same way as walking in the woods.  I stopped at the Lakewood library, did some browsing but walked out without a book, as nothing interested me.

When I got home, the upstairs was beginning to take shape.  So I heated up the leftover shrimp and vodka pasta and watched part of the another Wallander, this time set in Riga, now a city in Latvia.  I then dove into AMERICAN PASTORAL, which I really like, as much of it takes place in the mind of a teen growing up in the 1940's and 50's, my era.  Around 3:30, after a brief nap, I realized I had an overdue book, so I drove to the Smith library and returned it and checked on the work on the Amphitheater.

At 2:00, Evie had put the corned beef I bought last week into the slow cooker and basically that was it for dinner until it was time to pull it out around 6:30 and slice it.  We did manage to get in forty five minutes of wine time before dinner.  The corned beef, alas, was a bit tough; either it needed to cook more or I sliced it too thick.  Still, it tasted good and I look forward to a corned beef sandwich on rye today for lunch.  I think after that I will have had enough corned beef till next February.  We watched an American Crime, still depressing and another episode of THE FALL, also depressing, so we needed an antidote to the gloom and watched an Everybody Loves Raymond, which always makes us laugh.  Then, it was time to dive back into the 1950's, with Nathan Zuckerman.

THE LADY FROM ZAGREB: PHILLP KERR

This time it's 1943, in Berlin to begin with, and Bernie has just returned from Prague, following the death of Frederic Heydrich, Bernie's master only to fall under the thrall of another evil genius, Joseph Goebbels.  Bernie is working at the Police Presidium, not sure what to do with his life.  He hates the fact that he is working for the Nazis but has no choice.  He gets a request from General Arthur Nebe, to speak at a conference in Berlin about his police work.  Joseph Goebbels hears him speak, likes what he says, learns that he's efficient, that he gets thing down and calls him into his office. Goebbels, a womanizer, has fallen for the film star, Dalia Dresner, and wants her to star in a movie he is helping to produce.  Unfortunately, she's married, living in Switzerland and seems to have no interest in either Goebbels or the film unless Goebbels helps her find her father, missing since childhood.

Enter Bernie, a fixer so to speak.  He has to jump a few hoops before he leaves, like getting married to save a girl friend from the Gestapo and driving a Genera's car to Switzerland.  The car just happen to have gold bars underneath its frame and a plan for the German invasion of Switzerland in the exhaust pipe. Needless to say, this gets Bernie in trouble in Switzerland.  Before traveling to Yugoslavia, however,  Bernie meets Dalia in Switzerland, and they fall for each other and have a brief affair before he attempts to find her father in Croatia.

This section of the novel allows Kerr, who often mixes facts with his fiction, the chance to talk about the Ustase, the militant Croatian version of the Gestapo.  They are responsible for murdering over a million Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies during WW II.  Bernie discovers that Dalia's father, Father Ladislaus, a Franciscan priest, is Commandant of a Croatian prison camp and is responsible for many mass murders. Dalia's father was based on an actual Franciscan Father known as 'the devil of Jasenovac Prison' to the inmates, 'the Glorious One' to Croatian troops.

When Bernie returns to Berlin and shares his info with Goebbels, they both agree it is not something they should share with Dalia.  Nevertheless, she returns to Berlin, to star in the film.  Bernie finds out that her father has come to Berlin with a Croatian delegation, and Bernie, fearing for the worst, rushes to Dalia's apartment only to find the Priest lying on the floor, shot six times by Dalia.  It turns out the priest was not her father, but was responsible for liquidating her Serbian family, the shooting an act of revenge. When all this is discovered, Goebbels is upset with the way things have turned out and sends Bernie to the Eastern Front, near the Baltic Sea, to keep him out of the way. And Bernie never sees Dalia again except at the cinema.

An Ansel Adams Morning

6:48

7:24

7:24

8:10

It's now 8:00 and fog has taken over the lake, blocking out any view of Long Point.   It's 41º out and a light rain has been falling on and off since 6:45 when I got up.  I woke to the sound of geese and ducks, a sign of spring, although I have seen only a couple cruising by this morning.   It's almost but not quite a kayak morning.

Yesterday was gray and wet early although late in the afternoon, it cleared up some, surprisingly, contradicting the weather guys.  For me, it was a good day to get something done, putting a hitch on my Subaru so that I can tow my boat in and out in the spring and fall.  My dealer had recommended Boyer RV which was literally across the street.   I called them around 8:15 to see if they had the right hitch and made an appointment in Erie for 10:30.  It takes forty five minutes to get to the Peach Street exit on #90, so I was right on time.  It took little over and hour to get the hitch attached and wired.  I amused myself by walking around the grounds looking at the vast assortment of huge RV's, hundreds of them.  They must have an inventory of millions and none looked like they were less than a hundred thousand unless they were used.  Who buys these monsters of the road?  After getting my car, I decided to visit the great Wegman's store on Peach Street, ten minutes from the RV place.  While shopping, I got a call from the dealer to say they had forgotten to put the rubber mat back in my Outback.  So I drove back, drove to the garage door and the mechanic sheepishly put the mat back in my car.  On the way home, I decided to treat myself to a Chick-Fil-A meal.  It was crowded as usual, especially at lunch time.  The drive through was so busy that I parked my car and went inside to get my meal, a good choice.

I got home around 1:00 and Evie had been busy, tidying up our pantry which needed it.  It is full of just about anything we might need, paper plates, canned goods, bottles, booze, pressure cookers, light bulbs, tool chest, paper towels, extra pots and pans, and a wok.  You get the idea.  It's something that once you are done you could almost start over again.  So that was her task on and off during the afternoon, as she paced herself, watching some TV, then back to tidying up.  While Evie was busy,  I took a nap and started a new book, AMERICAN PASTORAL by Phillip Roth.  I have never read this novel and have wanted to for a couple of years so I decided to 'just do it.'

Kayak Afternoon

Around 4:30, the lake was beckoning, smooth and gray, so I put on my life jacket, got out my paddle, and jumped in my kayak, just as it started to drizzle.  By the time I got down to the end of Victoria, however, the sky began to clear and I had a nice paddle down to Wells Bay and back in the sun.  I was out for about forty five minutes, obviously the only person on the lake, the crazy  guy.

Woodlawn/Victoria

Late Afternoon Clouds And Blue Skies

When I got back, Evie was putting together our dinner, of shrimp and vodka pasta, a combination that is hard to beat.  Once it was prepped, we were able to enjoy a glass of wine and listen to the 'breaking news' on CNN.  It's been breaking for days, Wolf.  By the way, Wolf went to high school in Buffalo with one of my buddies from Chautauqua.  Dinner was great, shrimp, vodka pasta and a salad and we had a smorgasbord of possible viewing options, leftover from Sunday night.  So we held off our interest by watching a Vice News, then viewed the penultimate episode of BIG LITTLE LIES. This is becoming gripping, tensioned filled, as we know disaster is about to hit but we still are not sure where or how.  We ended the evening with Billions, the same story, as Bobbie makes shady deals, struggles to remain a billionaire, and avoid law suit and the possibility of jail.

Spring Rains

7:27

It's an overcast morning at 8:00 with a light rain.  The lake has settled down from yesterday's windy day, and a few ducks are cruising by our lakefront.  I heard them squawking this morning when I got the paper, a welcome sign of spring.

Crocuses

Yesterday was partly cloudy, temperatures in the 40's most of the day, so we decided to get our usual walk in at the Chautauqua Institution, the third or fourth time in the past week.  We changed our route some by walking up and down the side streets in the center of the CI, something we don't usually do. Those familiar with the CI know that center is made up of one Victorian house with porch after another, each different from the next.  It's like walking back into the past or on to a movie set.  It's rare for a house to not have a porch.  We walked close to four miles, the loop and then some, so we felt righteous.  We could do nothing the rest of the day without guilt.

Cairn At CI's Sculpture Garden

We stopped at Tops for some fruit and heavy cream and ended up with a pack of pork loin cutlets so cheap we could not pass them up.  And it changed our plans on what we were having for dinner. After shopping, we had our Sunday breakfast, eggs, bacon, with leftover asparagus and home fries. We watched, what else, CBS Sunday morning and taped the first NCAA regional final.  Afterwards, I was in no hurry to watch the game, so I read and took a nap.  I then fast forwarded through the South Carolina/Florida game, getting ready for the next game, North Carolina/Kentucky.  I think Evie's going to be happy when March Madness ends.

A Windy Sunday Afternoon

Dinner was breaded pork chops, salad, broccoli and baked potatoes and we watched the last half of North Carolina's win over Kentucky, a great game.  By the end, even I had enough basketball for the weekend, so we watched another episode of THE FALL, then HOMELAND to end our evening. Sunday is always a good TV night.