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

Hanging Out With A Two Year Old Great Grandson

. 

Preparing Our Parking Area For Asphalt

Our Boy Loving Watching The Digger

With Baba

6:51

It's just after 7:00, and I've been up since 6:20, waiting for the sky to lighten. The lake is perfectly calm, so I'm excited to get out on the water despite the gray, overcast sky and 56º. As I pulled into the yard, I noticed a "digger," as Rhys calls it, and a dump truck sitting out back, ready to excavate our parking area for asphalt. Rhys is so excited that he's sitting outside watching the guy begin.  

Kayak Morning

North

Long Point/Prendergast Point

Morning Heron

Prancing Heron

Monday began with an early coffee, and Rhys rose around 6:40, ready for bear. I then took a 50-minute paddle with, fortunately, a fairly light north wind. When I got back, everyone was up, and Rhys was playing with a new farm set Evie had set out the night before. He is amazingly good at playing on his own and doesn't seem to need adult attention or favor. By 9:30 we were hungry, so Tom volunteered to make scrambled eggs and toast. Rhys shoveled the eggs into his mouth, usually with a fork, occasionally with his hand. He's a good eater, at least of the things he likes.

Loving Books

Hat Man

Having Tom around has been great because he's so much more adept with computers and with putting things together, something I seem to lack more and more. First, Evie was given an amazing birdhouse for her birthday by her sister Claire. It has a camera inside that takes photos of the birds and sends them to your computer and Photos. Putting it together wasn't hard, but syncing the camera with the computer was difficult for me and easy for Tom, so we were done in half an hour and ordered a bird pole from Amazon, which arrives today. Yippee! Then we tackled a Skylight Digital Picture Frame, a gift to Evie and me from my Robert College students a year ago, which we never got to work. Tom figured out how to reset the password and connect it to our computer, and now photos from the past 60 years pop up on our frame. Two Yippees!

Loving His Nani

Meanwhile, Rhys played with his toys, including the new farm set, and took advantage of two grandmas willing to read to him whenever he got bored. He had lunch around 11:45 and went down for a two-hour nap at noon. We had a choice of chili or tuna and macaroni salad. After lunch, we were either on our devices or napping. By 3:00 Rhys was up and we wanted to do something, so we drove over to the Chautauqua Institution and browsed the bookstore because Mary wanted to get a sweatshirt for Tommy. Unfortunately, none were small enough, but Rhys talked Evie into buying a fire truck, so he was happy. We then drove down to the Bell Tower, where there's a playground made mostly of old tree trunks, and Rhys loved exploring the various apparatus.

Loving His New Fire Truck

Mary, Tom, And Evie

Playing At The CI Beach

Crossing The Swinging Bridge

Once he'd had enough, we drove home and relaxed with a glass of wine or two until 6:00, a nice way to end the afternoon. Earlier, Evie had made Turkish koftes, so Tom and I grilled them for about ten minutes and brought them inside for Evie to assemble into a Turkish Iskender kebab: pita, koftes, and tomato sauce, topped with yogurt, a family favorite. With corn on the cob, it was a feast. Rhys went to bed around 8:00, and we watched the first half of the NFL game before joining him. What a fun day.

Overcast And 56º

Go Chiefs, Go Bills

6:47

It's 7:00, and I've been up since 6:20. The dark sky has turned gray, with not a hint of sun at the moment, and a 6-mph wind from the north might make my paddle back more difficult if it picks up. I'm getting tired of windy mornings. It's 8:25, and we're all up, watching Rhys play with his trucks. I was out for 50 minutes on a cloudy, gray morning. It didn't rain, and the northern wind was light enough that I had no trouble kayaking back to Woodlawn.

Kayak Morning

Great Blue

Eagle

On Woodlawn Dock

Yesterday was a full day, thanks to Rhys and the Bills and Chiefs game. It started with an early wake-up and a brief 15-minute paddle because of the wind. Once everyone was up, we decided on buttermilk pancakes, and Rhys helped Granny make the batter. We sat down and devoured them, and Rhys, of course, ate his share. We weren't sure what to do with the day, so I suggested driving to Lakewood, getting coffees at Ryder's Cup, and then taking Rhys to the playground just down the street. It's a great playground, with two levels, one for older kids and one for younger. Rhys loved it, and we stayed close to an hour before heading home.

Rhys And Tom and Hydrangeas

Getting Coffee

Walking Down To Playground

The Great Grandparents

The rest of the afternoon was organized around NFL football. The games started at 1:00, so Evie volunteered to stay home with Rhys while he napped. The three of us went over to 14 Main in Bemus, a sports bar with four games on various TVs: Bills, Steelers, Browns, and Chiefs. We wore our Chiefs shirts into the bar, but I wore my Bills hat, so we were welcomed. We ordered beer and lunch: soup, loaded fries, and a sausage sandwich for Tom. Fans sat around the TV of their favorite team. Most of the patrons were Bills fans, although there was a loud contingent of Steelers fans. Evie called just after halftime, so I went back and picked up her and Rhys and brought them to the bar. We sat around for another hour, ordering more beers, some onion rings, and chicken tenders. Rhys was happy to sit on Mary's lap for a good half hour before he and Evie played with the bowling machine. It was a good day for the fans, because all four teams with viewers won: Bills, Chiefs, Steelers, and Browns.

Loving His Trucks

Putting Together The Puzzle With Rhys

After the game, we walked down to the Casino, which was closing for the season, and Mary and Evie took Rhys to the playground for a bit. We then headed home and relaxed from our afternoon of viewing with a glass of wine or beer. While we were at the game, Evie had put together eggplant sandwiches and had already made artichoke soup. That was our dinner, and it was just right after all we'd eaten during the game.

Our House At Night, Photo By Our Neighbor, Joe

We kept Rhys up until 8:00 to keep him on schedule, and he went quickly to sleep. About 9:00 Evie and Mary then went up to bed, and Tom and I watched the first half of the Rams/Broncos game before joining them.