Kayak Morning (Another)

5:42

6:12

6:46

It's 8:00 and I have just returned from an hour paddle across the lake, around Bemus Bay, past the Marina, to the houses at the end of Lake Road, then back across to Wells Bay and home.  I met a couple of fishing boats just around the corner from the tip of Long Point, but that's about it for traffic.  I am starting to enjoy just idling in the middle of the lake, the quiet, the space, the isolation and the view of the length of the lake.  In the distance I can faintly here the traffic on #86 and depending on the wind, and I can hear either the martins or crows, or, occasionally,  a bass boat speeding by.  But mostly, I am alone, with the quiet broken only by the rhythm of my paddles dipping in the water.  I have begun to take my fishing rod, stopping when ever I get to urge, and throw my line out for a few minutes, rarely if ever getting even a bite.  Zen fishing.

I got up about 5:45, just as the sun was rising, read some, had my coffee, and was off kayaking by 6:40.  I originally thought i would get up and immediately kayak, but I like relaxing for a bit, having my coffee, before heading out with my second cup of coffee.  The sun, just before I set off, was a huge orange globe over Long Point, forcing its way through the haze, the heat of the morning.  It was about 60 degrees when I got up but will be another hot one, no doubt.

Yesterday was like many other days with two exceptions.  Evie went off to Walmart to print the photos for the Summer of 2011 album, about 240 of them, and it took her about four hours to play with them, organize, then print.  While she was doing this, we had a Energy consultant do a Energy Evaluation of our home, a free evaluation, if you qualify, by the New York State Energy Consortium.   It took him close to four hours, as he checked appliances, windows, attics, insulation, crawl space, you name it and he checked it.  Basically, he will let us know, in a couple of weeks, how tight our house is, how we can save money and energy, what we might save if we do what he recommends, and whether we should update some of our appliances like the refrigerator or increase the insulation in the crawl space or attic.  He was a good guy, seemingly thorough, paid by NY state but he also is in the energy business, so anything he recommends, we can hire him to do it or get someone else.  While he worked, I spent two hours in the lake, cutting weeds, new growth since I last cut, probably four days ago.  They never stop growing, like your lawn.

Evie returned about 2:00 with her pictures and spent the next couple of hours putting them in order in the album, a time consuming job, but she had it done by 5:30.  We celebrated with drinks on the porch.  It's really well done, some great pictures from last summer, mostly of family of course, but also of all the friends who came to visit over the summer.  This is either the fourth or fifth album Evie has put together and the grandchildren love looking at them each morning when they get up.  And, of course, it's great fun to go back and look at the past years, to see how the grand kids have grown, how the older ones have begun to turn gray or white in my case.  They are great to have, to go through when we think about the good times we have each summer.

We had an easy dinner, chicken from the Lighthouse, with salad and corn and watched a few more episodes of Breaking Bad, about a high school chemistry teacher who comes downs with cancer, and to pay for his treatment and create a nest egg for his family when he dies, turns in to a crystal meth dealer, cooking the most pure meth available in the Arizona area.  It's now about to start it's sixth season and the lead role, played by Brian Cranston, is amazingly good and he's won a number of Emmys for his performance.  It's violent at times, emotionally draining, ironic, and funny all at once.