June's Back...Cool, Clear, A Beautiful Morning on the Lake

5:55

Kayak Morning

How delicious to wake up to a cool morning, sun rising, clear skies and even the sound of fishing boats starting or a bullfrog's croaking could not ruin my mood.  It' a chilly 55 degrees, as I watch the two Leonard daughters head out in their kayaks at 6:00, long pencils carving lines in the lake.

Yesterday, I drove into Erie to see my friend Stan Marshaus, who has been in St. Vincent Hospital for a week, the second time in the last five weeks.  He had a pacemaker implanted about four weeks ago and went in last week with a high fever.  They discovered a staph infection thus he's been in there since, as they try to  get it under control.  He hopes to get a new pace maker next week, once they are sure the infection is gone.  Then, he'll be able to come home.  We had a fun talk about the good old days.  He grew up in East Cleveland and used to play basketball at Shaw Field, a mecca for basketball players back in the late 50's, early 60's.  I remember driving there a couple times a week, to play in the pick up games with the best high school and college players in the area. We also used to get a group of guys from Euclid and drive to Cain Park, to play the boys from Cleveland Heights, and occasionally to Patterson Park on Sunday mornings, in Cleveland, to play with the best black players in Cleveland.  If you were good, you got to play and if you beat their team, they 'respected you.' Since then, the Shaw Field courts have been torn down and East Cleveland looks like a war zone.  Sad.

I got home in time to cut weeds for about an hour as the CLA was supposed to pick them up on Friday (they never made it).  It was a perfect day outside, not too hot, a nice breeze, just right for sitting out on the dock and reading.  While Evie mostly read and played with the Leonard grandchildren in the water, I alternated between reading and going inside to watch the German/Greece soccer match.  Germany won 4-2 and I went in just in time to see Germany score three goals in a span of twenty minutes in the second half.  The German player of Turkish origin, Mesut Ozil, continues to thrill with his wizardry with the ball, like the very best play maker on a basketball team.  Even the announcers are speechless when they watch him handle the ball and pass.

Before our dinner of shrimp, garlic, parsley, and noodles, we sat on the dock for a sundowner, though the sun was not to set for another three hours.  I like the idea of calling a cocktail at the end of the day a sundowner, a term I  came across in Cape Town, South Africa.  We watched Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love on Netflix. A writer/director mentioned it as one of his five favorite movies.  I cannot say I loved it; Evie like it more than I did, perhaps because I don't like Adam Sandler much.  He's a destructive loner, unable to relate to anyone, especially women who is befriended by Emily Watson for some reason (none that I could see) and she offers him unrequited love.  A good deal for him, not her but it does have a happy ending.  It's reminds me of a poor imitation of Will Ferrel in Stranger Than Fiction, one of my favorite movies.