Blue Skies, Light Winds, And Bright Sunshine

6:53

7:49

8:50

What a morning. I can’t remember us having such a string of sunny days, not even during the summer. It was 37° when I woke, and the high will be in the low 60s, perfect weather for a neighborhood clambake.

Kayak Morning

Northern Blue 

Friday was the same as the previous week: a heavy fog in the morning, then lots of sun and blue skies, and a bit chilly for much of the day. I was up earlier than usual and tired of waiting for the fog to lift so I could get out on the lake. Finally, around 10:15, I went out, but it was still too foggy to see much, so I returned home and finished up the blog. 

Kayaking Friday Morning

Friday Fog

I spent the rest of the morning getting a few things done and wondering why I didn’t have the mojo to go for a bike ride. Evie told me to just cool it and enjoy the morning, so I did, by starting the newest Gabriel Allon thriller, Ransom, the 26th in the series. I think I’ve read all of them. In contrast to me, Evie was busy making broccoli, cauliflower, and cheddar soup and a pumpkin pie for today’s clambake.

For lunch, I finished my pastrami sandwich, had a bowl of Evie’s soup, and watched some TV. Since I’d been up so early, I was happy to nap, and then to dig into my new novel. After my nap, I drove to Wegmans to pick up a prescription and a few things for the weekend. When I got home, I spent a half hour cleaning up the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher, and doing other things, then read until 5:00, when I showered and got ready to go out to dinner. We picked up Ron and Linda at 6:00 and drove to Bellini’s, a mile away. It has a great happy hour from 5 to 7, so we took advantage of it. We hadn’t seen Linda and Ron for at least three weeks, mostly because they flew to Portland for 10 days to attend their niece’s wedding, so we had lots to talk about over fish fries, beers, and wine. They had a great time and loved everything about Portland, although Trump calls it a “burning hell, war-ravaged.” We were home by 8:30, and I watched some NBA basketball, then switched to a couple of programs, neither of which grabbed me, so I was happy to go up to bed and read.

Yep, Another Foggy Morning

7:20

8:43

It’s 7:30, and I’ve been up for an hour. The plumber is supposed to come sometime soon, inshallah. As I look out the front window, the fog is so heavy I can’t see beyond the dock. How long will I have to wait for a paddle?

Update: It’s 8:00, the plumber has arrived, and it’s still foggy, so I don’t know when I’ll get out on the lake on this chilly 41º morning.

Yesterday was a good day for both of us. I didn’t get in a paddle, but I had breakfast in Bemus Point at 8:00, then went off to a Yin Yoga class at 10:00 in Lakewood. After I wrote the blog and Evie read it, she left for kindergarten at 9:30 and didn’t get home until 2:30, another fun day with five-year-olds. After yoga, I stopped at Brigiotta’s Grocery for a sub sandwich, then the bank, and then Evans for some wine before driving home to a beautiful lake afternoon.

Around 12:30, I had my sandwich, watched my show, and got a few things done in the kitchen. I planned to read and nap early in the afternoon, but when I came downstairs, Evie was back home. The front yard was covered in leaves again, so I fired up the Honda mower and spent a good half hour mulching, the third or fourth time in the past two or three weeks. It looks nice for a couple of hours before the leaves begin to cover it again. Our two maples in the front yard are almost done losing their leaves, but the red maple and tulip tree in the side yard have hardly lost any, so I’ll be mulching or raking the side yard for the next couple of weeks.

We had our wine at 5:00, and Evie kept me entertained with stories from her kindergarten class. Five-year-olds are so innocent and honest, with no guardrails. Dinner was an Evie special: noodles, chicken, béchamel sauce and veggies, all in a casserole. Yum.  We watched some TV, but I couldn’t wait to catch some of the Cavs game. They were up by 29 points at one time in the first half but managed to lose by six. Once it was over, I watched some NFL football until 10:00, when I went to bed and finished my Jeffrey Archer novel, A Prisoner of Birth.

Morning Fog

7:21

It’s 7:15, and we’re both up: Evie for school, me for breakfast at 8:00 in Bemus. The fog is so heavy we can hardly see beyond the dock. It's 9:20, and I just returned from breakfast. I am finishing up the blog and then going to yoga at 10:00, a busy morning.

Yesterday was another amazing autumn day, with blue skies, temperatures in the 50s, and light winds. I won’t go into our plumbers, who were supposed to arrive at 8:00. Let’s just say we’re still waiting for them. Because of the fog, I didn’t get out on the water until 8:30, but I managed to stay close to shore and avoid most of it. I was home by 9:15, wrote the blog, had breakfast, and then drove to Jamestown for PT. This was my second appointment, and we worked mostly on my balance for a half hour. I’m not sure it’s strengthening my left leg, but it was a good workout. I’ll go one more time and stick with the recommendations he printed out for me. On the way home, I stopped at Aldi and picked up some sea trout for dinner and a few other things Evie needed.

When I returned, Evie was busy going through clothes she no longer needs. She’ll donate them to a friend at school who knows of a free shop. It’s hell deciding what you no longer want or need. I had a chicken pot pie for lunch and watched my show. I’m making progress on my Jeffrey Archer novel, with maybe a third to go. After my nap, I read some, but I wanted exercise, so I drove to the Chautauqua Institution, rode the circumference twice, and was out for 50 minutes. It’s glorious riding through the tree-lined streets and past front yards in their various fall colors.

Thunder Bridge

Brick Walk

Bestor Plaza

Returning home around 4:15, it was almost time for a glass of wine, a view of falling leaves, and Jake Tapper on CNN. For dinner, we had a salad with sea trout, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, and lettuce, our favorite way to enjoy either salmon or sea trout. We watched TV and ended the night with some of the Minnesota/Miami NBA game and Southland before going to bed.

Light Fog Rising And Blue Skies

7:05

7:47

7:55

It’s 7:30, and I’ve been up since 7:00. It’s still too foggy to kayak, but I hope to get out by 8:00. Evie’s up as well, and we’re both waiting for our plumbers to arrive and change the zone valves on our boiler, since we haven’t been able to regulate our heat. Because of that, I’ve been turning the boiler off each night and back on in the morning. I just went out to move my car and the windshield was frozen. Surprise. It’s 9:45, and I just returned from a 40-minute paddle, straddling the fog and staying close to shore. It was an amazing morning on the lake, with shots of both an eagle and a heron.

Kayak Morning

Morning Fog

Rising Sun

Bald Eagle

Same Guy

Probably The Same Guy As A Couple Of Days Ago

Tuesday was a good but strange day. Good in that Evie was up early, showered, and off to school at 9:30, feeling much better. I was up at 6:00, and by 10:00 the fog was still too thick to kayak. So I attached my bike to the Outback and drove over to Bemus Point. I parked by the bridge and rode into Bemus, down Lakeside Drive, around Long Point State Park to the end of Long Point, and back. It took me 70 minutes with a couple of stops to enjoy the view. It was a great day for a ride, a bit chilly but otherwise awesome. And as usual, I was the only one on the Long Point Park trail.

Biking Out To The Point

The Point

Our House And Our Neighbor's House

I got home around noon, made myself a chicken-and-tomato sandwich, watched some TV, then read until I got tired. When I went up to nap, the lake was like glass, and I figured I might kayak afterward. When I came down an hour later, the wind had picked up, and the lake was no longer inviting. Evie was home from school, and I wanted to hear how her day went. Other than the lunch lady telling her table to quiet down, it went well, with lots of hugs and smiles.

Painting The Lenhart Hotel

We had our usual glass of wine at 5:00 and listened to the news, mostly about how Trump is losing it. How can Republicans put up with his lies, bullying, and craziness, literally trading the freeing of an American for abandoning Ukraine? It’s scary.

Dinner was easy: leftovers, what else? The pasta with mushrooms for Evie, the hamburger stroganoff for me. We watched some TV and I ended the night with some NBA, the Knicks-76ers game, which the 76ers won on a 23-0 run.

Heavy Fog Morning

Congratulations To Our Grandson Tyler On His Marriage To Renee Gao

8:05

9:00

Well, it’s 7:15 and we are both up. Evie has school, leaving at 9:30, and I hope to go for a bike ride around 10:00. We are both feeling better, although Evie still has a cough. We solved the heat problem by turning off the boiler. Guys are coming tomorrow to change over the various zones on our heating system, so we will leave the boiler off. At 9:00,  I was still waiting for the fog to lift so I could kayak. I decided to pass on yoga because it was supposed to be another fine fall day, and I would rather paddle and then go for a bike ride. It's 9:30, still foggy, so I am going to publish the blog and skip kayaking for now.

After a frustrating morning with the heat, I did get in a decent paddle. By 10:00, we had published the blog, and I was not yet ready to do much other than have breakfast and read. I was out of sorts, and Evie made me a couple of chicken sandwiches, hoping to make me feel better. It worked. I enjoyed my lunch and started a new series called Southland, a cop show set in LA that garnered quite a few awards.

Around 1:00, I went upstairs hoping to nap but read for a good hour before coming downstairs to mulch the leaves in the front yard. It’s often a fool’s errand because the yard was already covered with fallen leaves again this morning. Still, there’s some pleasure in mulching. It took me a half hour to do the front yard, leaving the side alone because it had few leaves. It felt good to do something physical since I had not done much in the morning.

Leaves Falling On A Stellar Fall Afternoon

Evie had a Zoom call with her sisters at 5:00, and around 6:00, we enjoyed our wine, listening to Jake Tapper and watching the leaves fall in the front yard. Dinner was a throwback to the first years of our marriage: hamburger stroganoff, a dish popular in the 1960s. Well, we ate it, but neither of us was much taken with it. Either our tastes have changed, or we did not make it correctly. We watched TV until 8:30, when Evie went to bed. I changed channels and watched the first half of Monday Night Football, then ended the night with Southland.

What A Morning

Quite A Fisherman

7:00

9:40

Well, it’s 9:30 and I finally got in a paddle, leaving around 8:50 and kayaking for 50 minutes. I was up at 7:00, however, and was surprised by a toasty house. The thermostat said 65º, but I knew it was at least 75º, and I couldn’t turn it down. This also happened last week. On top of that, the kick heater in the kitchen wouldn’t turn off, so both rooms were hot. I tried turning off various breakers in the fuse box, to no avail, and I was worried about the kitchen heater overheating.

Around 7:45, I headed out to paddle, thinking I would call the plumber at 8:00, but the sound on my phone was so diminished that I couldn’t hear the plumber. So I went back in the house, and Evie was getting up, so we used her phone to call. They can’t come until the afternoon, so we’ll be sitting around in shorts and T-shirts until then. I did figure out why I couldn’t hear on my phone: I had my AirPods in my pocket, and the sound was being sent to them. That’s my morning!

Gulping It

Yup

Sunday was a wonderful day compared to this morning. I had a good paddle, published the blog, and had breakfast, all by 9:30 on a relaxing morning. Over the past day, Evie had gathered photos she wanted printed as 4x6s. She struggled to upload them to Walmart and wasn’t sure she’d succeeded, so I copied them onto a flash drive just in case. I was off to Walmart by 10:30 and checked in at Photos, but they had no photos from Evie. I gave them my flash drive, but for some reason they couldn’t open it. So I did some shopping, picked up a rotisserie chicken for our dinner, and was home by noon, ready for lunch.

Evie made me scrambled eggs with toast, and while I ate and watched some football, she uploaded her photos to Shutterfly and was successful, so they’ll arrive in a few days. I wasn’t very interested in the NFL games, so I took a good nap and read until 4:30, when the Bills/Las Vegas game came on. My neighbor texted that he was watching the game outside next to a fire, so I went over and joined him for the first half. It was a perfect late afternoon to sit out and enjoy a beer and the game. Dinner was chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy, and we watched the last of the Bills’ victory, then some TV until 8:30, when Evie went to bed. Then I watched the final episode of my series, Unfamiliar, which had an ending that left everything up in the air. I was ready for bed by 10:00.

Brilliant Sun And Fog

7:51

It’s 9:15, and I just returned from my first paddle on the lake in a couple of days. The sun blazed through the heavy fog, making it hard to see, so I hugged the shoreline. It was 33º when I started out, and the car windows were frozen. I was out for 50 minutes, wearing three layers and gloves, paddling down to Sandy Bottom into the sun and fog, and back into blue sky and no fog.

Kayak Morning

Sun And Fog

Clouds, Not Mountains

Northern Blue

Woodlawn Heron

Fishing

Yesterday was another day of resting up, and we both started to feel a bit better, though Evie is still fighting her cough. I was up early again and didn’t miss kayaking because of the wind and waves. Our task that morning was to gather the trash and make a short list for Wegmans. I was energetic enough to consider driving to Wegmans after the Transfer Station, so around 10:00, I dropped off the trash, drove to Wegmans, bought a few things Evie needed, and came home exhausted from a simple shopping excursion. I guess I am still recovering from my cold.

For lunch, I had the leftover chicken curry in time to watch the Ohio State/Indiana game. At halftime, I’d had enough and was tired, so I went upstairs to read and nap, planning to watch the second half later in the afternoon. I napped for a half hour, then read my new book, a Jeffrey Archer thriller called A Prisoner of Birth. Around 4:00, I watched the second half of Ohio State’s fortunate victory over Indiana. 

Dusk

We had a glass of wine at 5:00 and enjoyed the beautiful late afternoon, as the wind had died down. Dinner was easy: pasta with meatballs, and both of us really enjoyed it. Our appetites seem to be coming back. We watched TV until 8:30, when Evie went to bed, and I then watched an episode of Unfamiliar. I have one left to finish.  It felt good to go to bed, read, and hopefully fall asleep easily.