Windy, Cool, With Puffy Fall Like Clouds

6:22

Flags A Flying

Up at 5:45 to a wet yard, lots of thunder and lightning last night, and almost a half inch of rain to my surprise.  It's 60 degrees, a high today of 68, much more Chautauqua like weather.  Off to the east the sun pops in and out of the clouds, behind me and up towards Chautauqua, it's dark and threatening. As I sit, I can see three flags at attention, horizontal because of the wind, quite a sight.

Yesterday, Sunday, was one of those days where you wonder where it went, what you did.  Only when I think hard, do I remember I went for a bike ride around the north end of the lake, parking at the Lighthouse, riding around Sea Lion Drive, to the Hartville Deli, and back.  I picked up a few vegetables at the Lighthouse for a stir fry and some bacon, for our Sunday breakfast.  I also made bread, from the No Knead bread book.  I have struggled with making what we both think is a good loaf.  Something is always lacking, in this case, it had a great crust but the inside was doughy, soft, not white, crispy, and airy like it should have been.  This seems to be the problem with this loaf; to rectify it, I baked it longer but to no avail.  I remain determined to find the perfect bread for us, especially since a tiny loaf at Wegman's is now over four bucks.

I watched some of the Spain/England soccer match, so boring and inept were the players that even the announcers commented on the lack of skill and passion.  I turned it off just as there was a shoot out which, according to the news, was thrilling.  Spain won if you care.  The rest of the afternoon, we both relaxed and read.  Evie is really in to The Story of Edgar Sawtelle on the Kindle, so much so that she only cut weeds for an hour and didn't stir from her chair to cut the lawn.

We made a chicken and vegetable stir fry for dinner, mostly mushrooms, cabbage and broccoli and watched Will Ferrell in another serious role in Everything Must Go.  A bit slow but worth watching.  Ferrell plays an executive, a recovering alcoholic and philanderer,  who is fired the same day his wife throws him and all his things out of the house.  He returns home to a yard full of his junk and the movie chronicles the next three or four days.  Because he has no where to go, he lives in his yard, sleeping in a Lazy Boy chair, surrounded by his things,  and befriends a neighbor's son, a black child, and a newly arrived neighbor's wife.  Both help him to put his life back together, by selling his past, all those things that meant something to him, and helping him to see himself more clearly, especially the behavior that led to his divorce and firing.