Gray and Windy, A Fall Like Day

Fall Like Morning at 6:30

Jane Grice with her parents, Bill and Pat

Finches Turning Bright Yellow in Spring

A Common Red Poll

It seems a lot cooler this morning, as I am up at 6:30 to a choppy lake, some white caps, a cloudy sky, and a windy, cool 36 degrees.  We had hoped to go hiking today in the Allegheny Forest but it looks like another yoga and YMCA day.  The weather here is so changeable, like my moods, and a  gray day like this sucks the 'want to' out of me, makes me want to sit around and just read, sip Turkish tea, and listen to the radio.  Not such a bad idea.

Yesterday, we were back in our routine, yoga at 10:00, then I pick Evie up after her workout at the Y at 11:30 and off to Home Depot, to buy a few items, then over to Weggies to spend a  hundred dollars on groceries without buying any meat. It always shocks me how much we spend, how little we seem to get.  This seems to be the mantra of any retiree...when I was young!  I did have a fried baloney sandwich for lunch, a throwback to my childhood.  Also, I finished Conroy's MY READING LIFE andI began a new book, THE YEAR OFF, written by a David Johnson.   Back in 1977, my last year at Robert College, he was a Princeton junior, taking a year off, spending it in Turkey teaching at the Community School where my kids went.  We got to know him and his buddy, Tom Hanrahan pretty well, partied with them, would go to the Marine House on Friday nights for Buds and burgers.  I forgot about him after we left until about three months ago when he emailed me.  He had a friend who taught at Reserve and when he realized David lived in Turkey, he asked if he knew me, got my email and voila.  This book chronicles the year abroad of a Princeton junior like him, a piece of fiction, but with lots of autobiography.  He sent it to me a couple of months ago, and I just started it.  So far, so good.  It's readable, shows an amazing understanding of Turkey and it's history, so I am impressed so far.

Yesterday afternoon, Jane Grice called to say her parents were coming to Bemus and wondered if we wanted to go out to dinner at the Seezurh House with them.  Since it was burger night, we decided to go.  They all came over to our house for a glass of wine before dinner.  We had not seen Jane's parents in years though we had known them ever since the early 80's when she was still married to Stan Marshaus.  Like Evie, they are Slovenians from Cleveland, so we had a lot in common, especially talk about who has the best Slovenian sausages, Radells or Asman's, two Cleveland meat markets.  We are going to have a cook off.  We all had burgers at the Seezurh and it was good to be back in familiar surroundings for a meal.  The bar was fairly crowded, making it fun but hard to hear.  We got back around 8:30 as Jane's parents wanted to get home to Gerry, their new retirement home, before dark.

Jane had mentioned a book that was racing through the hands of women at her office, Shades of Grey, so I looked it up and sent her a very funny review, suggesting that the sexual gymnastics of the major protagonist gave the reader arthritis.  Great plot though, like reading Playboy to figure out how to tie a tie, a true story according to a young man Piers Morgan had on his show last night.  He is the son of lesbians from Iowa who defended his mothers and their right to marry before the Iowa Senate. It caused quite a stir and went viral on YouTube a year ago and now he has written a book about it.