What A Morning Sky

6:50

6:55

7:25

Cardinal In The Morning 

I was up at 7:00, and the sky just kept getting more and more spectacular. Right now, at 8:50, the sun is filling the lake with its light and the sky is mostly cloudless. It was 47º when I started paddling at 7:20, and I was out for close to an hour on my usual route. I listened to a podcast interview with a well-known historian on Superpower Suicide: how Trump's two years have basically destroyed the alliances built since WWII and embraced anti-democratic ideas, cozying up to Putin, Orban, and Xi Jinping while alienating allies like the European Union, Canada, and others. How depressing and accurate.

Kayakk Morning

Morning Sun

Victoria/Woodlawn

Saturday I took it easy, although I did get in a decent paddle and returned to finish up the blog and have some breakfast. The only task for the day was a trip to the Transfer Station. Around 10:30, after a long coffee, we gathered the trash, and I drove off, dropped it all at the Transfer Station, then stopped at the Amish Wagon for a dozen ears of corn, across the street from the Ashville Country Store. While I was gone, Evie was busy catching up on laundry and changing the sheets on our beds. I was home around noon, and Evie made me quesadillas for lunch. I watched some college football until 1:00, then went upstairs hoping for a nap and managed an hour. I came downstairs and watched the Ohio State/Iowa game for a while until I got bored, then joined Evie in the living room for a glass of wine. Before wine time, Evie put together our dinner: chicken thighs, corn, potatoes, spices, and tomato sauce. We ate around 6:45 and watched some TV until 8:30, when Evie went to bed. I watched more football and started a series called Murder in a Small Town. I'd give it a C-, but it was something to watch.

What A Night

Rhys Is Happy To See Tommy

6:45

7:27

8:35

It's 6:20, and I've been up since 2:30. Yep, 2:30. According to my watch, I got three and a half hours of sleep. I'm not sure why I couldn't get back to sleep. Perhaps it was the drugs from yesterday's procedure, or I was overtired from getting up so early on Friday morning. Anyway, it's going to be a long, tiring day. It looks like a fine morning for a paddle, but I'm not sure I have the mojo to get out there. Well, I did kayak, leaving around 8:00 for 50 minutes on a glorious morning, with brilliant sun and blue skies. I love it.

Great Blue Heron

In The Reeds

Kayak Morning

Paddling Into The Sun 

Yesterday wasn't much better. I got up at 5:15, had a procedure at UPMC in Jamestown at 9:00, and we got home around 11:00. We were both tired and hungry from the early start, so Evie made us breakfast: eggs and bagels. By 1:00, I was wiped out and went upstairs for a really good nap, maybe an hour and a half or more. When I came downstairs, FedEx had just delivered two Apple packages. We knew something was coming, and we were excited when we realized that Tom had sent both of us the new Apple Watches. We had talked about the newest model because Tom had just gotten one and loved its new features. We quickly opened the always amazing Apple packaging and began syncing our old watches and iPhones with the new ones. We're luddites at this sort of thing, but after an hour and many wrong turns, we had both watches up and running. Now we'll spend the next couple of days learning all the new features.

Neither of us did much during the day, putting things off until today. About the only things I did were charge the car and read my new novel. We did relax with a glass of wine from 5:00 to 6:30. Then Evie made us sandwiches with chicken tenders, tomatoes, lettuce, and mayo. Easy and delicious. We watched some TV, but both of us were having trouble staying awake. Evie went up to bed around 7:30, and I forced myself to stay up watching TV until 9:15, when I, too, went up to bed.

Friday

10:27

It's 10:30, and I have not had a fun morning. We were up at 5:15, on our way to the hospital because I was having a biopsy of my prostate gland. We arrived at 6:00 and are now home, and I am enjoying my first food and coffee of the day.

Yesterday was, as I mentioned, a sad day. Rhys was awake around 5:00, along with the rest of us, and we had no trouble getting the car packed and on the road by 6:30. Tom drove, so I didn't have to drive both ways, which was great. It rained for much of the first half hour, and near Buffalo, rush hour slowed traffic and even stopped it a couple of times. Still, we made good time, arriving at 8:05. We said our goodbyes; I got a hug from Rhys, and I was on my way home by 8:15.

I stopped at Exit 58 because it's in Seneca Indian Country, and gas was only $3.99 a gallon compared to $4.49 around here. I got off at the Fredonia exit instead of driving another 20 miles on I-90 to Westfield, stopped for coffee and a sandwich, and was home by 10:00, tired from the early morning and the drive. I sat around for half an hour, sipping my coffee, then got busy: putting things away in the garage, pulling down the snow shovels, and finally sweeping and cleaning the back porch, which was dirty from our parking-area sand and mud.

I made a ham and cheese sandwich and watched another episode of a series I started a week ago, Berlin ER. I was tired, of course, so I went upstairs and read, then heard Evie return, went down to talk with her briefly, and went back up and fell asleep for an hour, waking groggy but happy I'd slept. The sun was out when I got up, and after doing a few things, I realized the lake was beckoning. It was a warm 75º, so I went out for a 50-minute paddle and actually worked up a sweat in the sun. It felt good to be out at a different time of day, since it wasn't an early-morning paddle.

Kayak Afternoon

Northern Blue

Around 5:00, we listened to CNN and had a glass of wine, happy to know Tom and family had landed safely in Kansas City. Dinner was breakfast, which sounded good: eggs, home fries, and sausage. TV-wise, we were back to ER and watched a couple of episodes. When Evie went to bed, I turned on the NFL game until 9:00, then switched to the WNBA game between Indiana and Las Vegas. I found I could watch the NFL game on my phone and the basketball game on TV. Crazy. I had enough of both by 10:15 and went to bed, happy to be back to my new book, "We Begin At The End."

A Sad Making Day

A Farewell To Our Golden Boy

Well, it's 6:00 in the morning, and we're leaving for the airport at 6:30. Tom's flight is at 9:40, so I'll be dropping them off, alas, and heading home without Rhys. Sad making.

Yesterday was a busy day, especially the morning. I was up kayaking at 7:00 and having breakfast in Bemus at 8:00. When Tom and I returned home, Rhys, Evie, and Mary were on the back porch, watching Rhys play in the dirt with his trucks. Evie even got him a blanket to sit on, but by the end of the morning it was filled with dirt. While Rhys played, Tom helped me download Muse, a new free AI app from Facebook. So now I have a new AI toy to play with, along with Claude and ChatGPT. Tommy has used it extensively, and it looks different from the other two in some ways. I'll see. By 10:00, we were out in the backyard, and Tom spent a good hour cutting down all the flowers and bushes in the garden with a hedge clipper. We filled four garbage pails with the detritus, and I took them up the hill to the wood pile. The whole time we worked, Rhys played in the dirt with his trucks, happy to be by himself. The garden looks naked now without any green, but it will be ready for next year. We did keep the zinnias, though, so along with the hydrangeas, we still have some fall color.

Before

And After

Zinnias

After our busy morning, Evie made us lunch: eggplant sandwiches for Tom and me, and eggs, toast, and lots of blueberries for Rhys, who went up to bed around 12:30. The rest of us were tired and sleepy, so Evie showered to get peppy, and the rest of us tried to nap. For some reason, I haven't been able to nap recently, so I read for forty-five minutes before coming downstairs, where Evie was organizing the little boy's toys. Rhys woke at 2:30, almost the same time each day, and Evie went up and brought him downstairs, already happy and talking up a storm, ready to play.

Do You Think Rhys Has Enough Toys? 

Bros

Around 3:15, Tom wanted to go for a walk, so we headed through the Victoria/Woodlawn woods, my usual trek, which took close to half an hour. After a quick shower, we left for the Viking Club around 4:15, planning to sit outside and let Rhys enjoy their neat playground before ordering dinner. We got there early so he could play, and he discovered a sandpit with loads of trucks and diggers, all for him. We sat in chairs watching him, with the lake and sky in the background. Eventually we took him to the playground, then into the bar, where we ordered lots of wings, fries, and chicken tenders, along with another beer. The wings were great, and Rhys devoured the tenders. We ran into our neighbors, Joe and Barb, and Jim, who were just back from a trip to the Thousand Islands.

Rhys Navigating The Playground

Kicking Back, Watching Rhys Play

What A Great View

Too Many Trucks To Choose

Father And Son

Trucking It 

We were home early, by 7:00, and Rhys was tired, so we put him down around 7:20, knowing he'd have to be up at 6:00 for our trip to the airport. We sat around on our devices, going over the past few days and wondering when we'd get together next, Thanksgiving or Christmas. We ended the night with peanut butter, chocolate, and cream pie, sinful but delicious. We were all in bed by 9:30 after a great day.

A Tired Boy

A Changing Morning Sky

6:24

6:50

7:33

It's 6:45, and I've been up for a half hour, enjoying the colorful morning sky. It's 56º, and I have breakfast at 8:00 in Bemus. I was lucky to get in a half house paddle, down to Sandy Bottom and back before heading to Bemus for breakfast. What a great morning sky.

Kayak Morning

Eastern Sky

Pigeon Roost

Rhys Is Up When I Return From Kayaking

Ready To Catch A Fish

Update, 9:20: Tom and I just returned from breakfast in Bemus with Jack, and it was a fun morning. It was great for the two of them to meet. When we pulled into our driveway, Evie and Mary were sitting on the steps watching Rhys play in the dirt.

Rhys And Tom In The Digger

Watching The Digger

Tuesday was another Rhys day; what else? He dominated the day except for a two-hour nap from 12:30 to 2:30, and we love it. Yesterday began with a long paddle, and instead of returning to a quiet house, I found Tom and Mary up with Rhys, ready to go. Mary had already made him scrambled eggs, so he was entertaining himself with his trucks and farm until the "digger" arrived to get our parking area ready for asphalt. Of course, he was infatuated with the digger and the dump truck and sat on the front porch, either alone or with one of us.

It was a cloudy, overcast morning, but the wind had died down, and the lake was calm, so I took the cover off the boat and we cruised for an hour, over to Bemus, along the shoreline, and back home. Rhys was not particularly taken with it, preferring to sit on his grandparents' laps most of the time, although we did get him to sit on my lap for a bit and help me steer. When we returned, we all had lunch, finishing up the chili and tuna salad, and Rhys had a quesadilla before going up for a nap. He is so good about going down for a nap.

Cruising Chautauqua Lake

Rhys

Rhys And Baba

Tom and Mary wanted to go for a hike and volunteered to shop at Wegmans, so they went off, hiking around Long Point State Park, then driving to Lakewood to pick up salmon and other goodies for dinner. Evie and I relaxed while Rhys napped, and around 2:30 I brought him downstairs so Evie could read him some books and play trucks with him. He was happy with just the two of us and didn't seem to miss his grandparents.

They returned around 4:00, and Rhys was happy to see them. We had one more project: Tom and I mounted the birdhouse close to the house, behind the rhododendrons. We'll just have to wait and see if it's a good spot. Tom picked up an anti-squirrel disk, so hopefully the squirrels won't be able to get to the house.

Playing With Balloons

Helping Granny Cook

Sitting On Back Porch

We sat out on the front porch since it was so pleasant, enjoying some wine and watching Rhys chase balloons and airplanes in the front yard. We launched both into the air, and Rhys had fun chasing them when they fell to the ground. Dinner was salmon, broccoli, and a salad, with a couple of ears of shucked corn, and Rhys had chicken tenders. He was ready for bed around 7:45 and happily went up to sleep. I watched quite a bit of the Fever win while the rest sat in the living room on their devices. Tom and I had a piece of chocolate peanut butter pie, and it was sinfully sweet. The others went up to bed around 9:30, but I stayed up and watched the game until the end.

The Sky At 10:00 PM