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9:07 |
It's 7:30 and gray; vast rain clouds sit above the Bemus shore. It's warming up again, 58º with rain expected and heavy winds in the afternoon. It's 9:15 and I just returned from breakfast at the Ashville General Store, a nice change.
A daily journal of our lives (begun in October 2010), in photos (many taken by my wife, Evie) and words, mostly from our home on Chautauqua Lake, in Western New York, where my wife Evie and I live, after my having retired from teaching English for forty-five years in Hawaii, Turkey, and Ohio. We have three children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandson, as you will notice if you follow my blog since we often travel to visit them.
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9:07 |
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7:16 |
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7:52 |
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8:02 |
Tuesday was a lazy day for me, a school day for Evie. I tried to paddle, but because of the winds and waves, I was out for only 15-20 minutes. So Evie was up early, getting ready for kindergarten and was on her way by 9:40. I had to go out and ask the guys working on our sewers to move their truck so she could get out of Woodlawn. I left for coffee after her and was at Ryder's Cup by 10:00. My friend Paul waited for me but had to leave at 10:15 for a doctor's appointment, so I ended up meeting a new friend, John, a retired art teacher from Smethport HS in PA. We sat around talking until 11:00, when I left for Wegmans. Interestingly, a couple of weeks ago, a friend's wife mentioned having trouble sleeping when we were at Ryder Cup. So I told her about gummies, and yesterday she gave me the thumbs up. They were working.
It was 5% Tuesday at Wegmans so it was a busy place. Fortunately, I had a small list so I was in and out fairly quickly. I had a quarter of my sub for lunch and watched another episode of White Lotus, although I am not liking it much and it's getting buried by the critics. I was happy to get back to my book, the Bayou Trilogy, and nap. Evie returned home around 2:00, tired from her day, and was happy to relax in the TV room for an hour or two. I have lost my mojo recently so I stayed on the couch rather than go for a walk and read. By 5:00, we were both listening to CNN and having a glass of wine.
Dinner was from Wegman's, a couple of filets of haddock that just needed to bake in the oven for 15 minutes.. And I bought some frozen French fries at Wegmans, and Evie heated them up in the air fryer and we had a delicious dinner. We decided to go back to a series of Netflix called Adolescence and watched the first two episodes. It's hard to watch because a 13-year-old boy is accused of murder. And parts of it are set in a school which I hated because it seemed more like a prison, with obnoxious students, lazy teachers, and negative stereotypes of schools recently. We put up with two episodes before turning to something less disturbing, like politics in America. Once Evie went to bed, I finished my series, Secret City and Reacher, in Spanish, of course so now I will have to find something else to watch.
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7:27 |
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Kayak Morning |
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Windy And Rough Water |
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Mallard Perching On Row Boat |
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7:39 |
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9:19 |
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Kayak Morning |
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Woodlawn |
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Sun Sunburst in Southern Sky |
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A Quartet Of Mergansers |
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Hair Blowing In The Wind |
I was home by 12:30, and Evie made me scrambled eggs and a bagel for breakfast and I watched some basketball, then my series. Around 1:30, I helped Evie clean up the kitchen after she was through prepping our dinner, then took a good nap. When I woke up, I showered and felt good, ready for company. Evie had everything ready for dinner by 4:00, and she showered as well.
Barb and Jim arrived at 5:30, with tulips for Evie and a bottle of wine for me. We enjoyed a glass of wine in our living room, and a shrimp cocktail, in mayo and lemon juice. They just returned from a ten-day trip to Arizona, and it was fun hearing about their trip. And we filled them in on our reunion weekend in Stroudsburg, PA. One of their favorite stops was in Jerome, Arizona, a place we also visited back in 2013 and liked.
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Sunday Dinner With Jim And Barb |
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8:54 |
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Kayak Morning |
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Northern Sky |
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Into The Fog |
After coming up with no real answers, we made the mistake of going to Home Depot and had a similar experience although the worker was really helpful, showing us various options. As we left the parking lot, we passed a Burger King and Evie suggested we assuage our disappointment with a couple of Whoppers. So we went through the drive-thru, quickly drove home, and enjoyed our Whoppers, coke, and onion rings in the TV room, watching the breaking news on CNN. After my Whopper, I read some, then napped, and when I came downstairs, Evie was on the couch with a stomach ache. She isn't used to enjoying a Whopper for lunch so she was taking Tums, hoping they would help. Fortunately, she felt better after we spent twenty minutes FaceTiming our grandson Nick and his happy son, Rhys, our great-grandson. What fun to see him crawling around, almost walking.
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Woodlawn |
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Victoria And Woodlawn |
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Looking North |
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Peace And Love |
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7:28 |
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Kayak Morning |
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Northern Clouds |
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North |
Lunch was a couple of egg salad sandwiches, and I watched my show but by 12:40, I was on my way to Westfield for my Wellness Check Up with my PA. Most of the appointment was spent answering questions about my mood, and whether I felt safe. Since I see at least three other specialists, there's not much to talk about with my PA other than the results of a recent blood test, so we talked about things other than my health. I left at about 1:30 and was home by 2:00, in time to take a brief nap. At 3:00, we had a meeting with our builder and talked about the renovation of our bathroom. We are now much more aware of what we want and the various websites where we can make choices of shower walls and bathroom flooring. We will, however, run our decisions by him before ordering anything.
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Buffleheads Enjoying Mid Afternoon Snack |
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7:51 |
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Kayak Morning |
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Mergansers |
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A Male merganser |
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Female And Male Mergansers |
We were home by 12:30 and I had lunch, a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup from Wegman's. I finished the first season of Secret City and am looking forward to the next season. I then read, napped, as usual, and around 4:30, took a quick shower. My friend Ron and I were going to Shaggy's in Bemus Point for dinner and to watch the first round of March Madness, Alabama/BYU. I ordered the special, a hamburger steak with mashed potatoes, gravy, and roasted veggies. It was delicious. The game was decent, and with a couple of brews, we were both happy. We left with eight minutes left in the game with Alabama in control. By 9:30, I was in my TV room, watching the end of the Florida game and waiting for the Duke/Arizona game to start at 10:00. I watched the first ten minutes and had enough basketball and went up to read and sleep, an eventful day.