A WANTED MAN: LEE CHILD

A typical Jack Reacher, a good story to begin the novel, as Jack gets picked up as he hitch hikes through Missouri.  Of course, the two guys he picks up have just committed a murder in an out of the way bunker.  There is a woman sitting in the backseat of the car and as they drive north, Jack realizes that she has been kidnapped by the two drivers. Jack, of course, figures this out and at a rest stop, Jack's smart enough to know they will kill him, so he out smarts the killer and escapes.  Then things begin to unravel as he teams up with a woman FBI agent who goes rogue, at Jack's urgings.  This is when the book gets a bit silly and confusing.  We find out that one of the two kidnappers is an undercover agent and missed Jack on purpose.  The women is an agent as well.  What a coincidence.   The women ends up with Jack and the FBI agent in a safe house, to keep them from spilling the beans on the CIA.  They out via a cell phone that one of the kidnappers, the good guy, has been taken hostage and break out of the safe house.  They drive to an out of the way bunker, used for missile storage in the 1950's.  They realize that there are 15 individuals guarding the silo.  Not too many for Jack though and I won't go any farther than to say that Jack wins, the fifteen lose.  We are still not clear what's been going on, even at the end, other than the fact that the bad guys were Syrians intent on doing damage to the US water supply, I think.  Not my favorite after the first half, which I found riveting.

An Overcast Sunday of Leisure

7:12

Whitney Bay Start Up

7:36

Near Snug Harbor

Soffel Wedding Party

Up at 7:15, a mostly gray sky, clouds huddles off over Bemus, about 47 degrees, with rain forecast for the day, early and late.  We had better get our kayak and hike in before the rain comes.  Right now there's some light out towards the east, though the sky is mostly gray, the lake a slate gray and placid, a few fishing boats.

I am getting tired of talking about a leisurely day lest you think we have nothing ever to do.  It's just that there's nothing we have to do; it can always, usually, be put off till tomorrow.  It was so nice yesterday morning that we jumped in our kayaks, and paddled down to Whitney Bay, passing fellow kayakers, one a woman, who lives down on Wells Bay, right next to Sandy Bottom, an avid kayaker like us.  It was an easy paddle down, a bit more challenging coming back.  There is a new house being built in Magnolia, next to the huge monstrosity of a house on Whitney, dwarfing everyone else, which was built a couple of years ago by some wealthy magnate.  It's the kind of house that never appears occupied or busy, where no one is ever on the dock or yard, yet the house could easily hold 15 to 20 people it's so large.  There are two or three other huge shells of a house that appear this way, never occupied or busy yet monstrous in size.

Because it was sunny, Evie read in the side yard, then when the wind waned, we both read out on the dock, hoping to take a boat ride.  Unfortunately, we missed our chance, the wind picked up, so we walked Bemus around 4:30, getting a glimpse of the Soffel (our neighbors) granddaughter's wedding, at their son's house on Lake Side Drive.  We walked by just as the  wedding pictures we were being taken.  Fortunately, it did not rain, though it may have been somewhat cool.  When we walked back, the wedding party and guests were all in the front yard of the Lenhart Hotel, with a chef from Forte grilling appetizers in the yard, as everyone mingled and enjoyed themselves.

We decided to have an easy dinner, our left over stir fry, just as good the next day, as Evie combined the rice with the stir fry, added an egg, and we had fried rice for dinner.  We finished up watching Damages, at last, and look forward to watching some thing else.

Time to kayak over to Long Point and go for a walk before the rains come.

A Foggy Saturday Morning

7:28

Heron and Ducks

Fog Rising

Kinney's Run

Up at 7:20, to a lake obscured by fog, just the silhouettes of feeding ducks and a heron on the lake in front of Leonards, an area that seems to attract wildlife, perhaps because it's relatively shallow compared to our lake front.  It's a chilly 40 degrees, as the sun has just peaked out above the bank of fog over the Bemus Point skyline.  It looks like a fine day, with rain to come in later tonight, highs in the 60's, as we wait for a warm day, in the 70's, to go for a boat ride or Presque Isle one more time.  The leaves are changing, the leap peepers will be in attendance all around the state.  We will join them, next Thursday, when we head to Darien for five days.

Yesterday reminded me of Seinfeld, a day about nothing. Neither one of us felt like doing anything and luxuriated in the thought that we did not have to do anything.  I did take an early morning walk, up Kinney's Trail, around through the Woodlawn and Victorian Woods, and back along the lake front, a nice, easy thirty minute walk.  We did do a few things, the major focus being a Chinese dinner, with all the chopping it takes to get that ready.  And I did ride into town, to get my tires rotated, radiator filled with antifreeze (the dealer forgot to fill it), and I also went to Wegman's to pick up some food for the week.  Lots of little trips but it took me a couple of hours.  We did have a few drops of rain, some in the morning, some in the afternoon, but it did not amount to much.  Dinner was a stir fry of mostly vegetables and some pork left over and frozen from this past summer.  It was perfect with brown rice as our carb.  We watched a couple more episodes of Damages, complaining how it did not measure up to previous seasons but we kept watching.  I finished my Jack Reacher book, a bit of a late down in the second half, as I will tell in my review.

We look forward to another great day, having the sun out is always exhilarating, making me want to do something outside.  We will have to see.

Overcast with Light Rain

7:34

Up at 6:30 to a gray sky, the sound of rain on the roof, a darkened house, something I better get used to as the sun rises later and later and daylight savings has yet to come.  I thought it was supposed to be nice all weekend  but things have changed...surprise, the weather man was wrong.  It's 50 degrees outside, still gray, a few intrepid fisherman are on the lake.

Yesterday, at least until about 2:00 when it started to cloud up, we had the perfect day on the lake, warm enough to be outside in a tee shirt but not hot. The lake was like glass, clear sky, no wind, so we decided to take a kayak ride, over to Long Point, back to Wells Bay the usual.  Unfortunately, the water  still has an algae bloom, marring the surface with an oily green in various areas.  No swimming for us this fall it looks like.  We then took it easy the rest of the day, as we both were overly tired, I suppose from our 'strenuous' 36 Hours in Buffalo.  I did get a few things done, sprayed the moss on our roof with a 'safe chemical'.  Let's hope it works.  Evie cut the lawn, as the leaves have begun to fall.  And I took the Accord in for an oil change and came home with a major problem, the need to replace the front end frame assembly, which is beginning to rust through, a two thousand dollar repair.  So the eternal question, do I put money in to my old car, or think about getting a new one.  Common sense, the rider, always suggests keep the old one, save money but the emotions, the elephant, tug in the other direction.   I already looked at the Camry Hybrid, which gets great mileage, in the 40's, city and highway.  But knowing me, I will opt for the repair, as the car should last us another five years if we keep it in shape.

We went to the Leonards for dinner, as they had lots of food leftover from having guests the previous day, so they wanted to share it and get rid of it.  Pat Jones came as well, so the fearsome five some got together for the third or fourth time in the past few weeks.  We had a good time, talking about the good old days, especially those early in Bill and Joyce's life, when he was in the Navy and they were courting.   We got home around 9:00, tired for no reason, watched some TV and went to bed early, by 10:30.

A Dab of Orange on a Blue Morning Sky

7:13

Front View of Darwin Martin House

Covered Pergola and Garden

Outdoor Porch, Side View

William Mc Kinley Monument and City Hall, Buffalo

It looks like a great day, clear skies, steam rising on the lake, the roar of a bass boat, and 43 degrees outside.  We are back from 36 Hours in Buffalo and even though we were not gone long, it's nice to be back on the lake, especially in the morning, watching the sun rise.  The view from my hotel in Buffalo just does not compare.

We did enjoy yeseterday though it rained most of the afternoon.  We got a late start, just enjoying our hotel room, free breakfast bar, and lots of coffee.  I did go out for a walk, leaving Evie to shower and get ready for the day in her leisure.  I walked a circle, past some of the great buildings in downtown Buffalo, the City Hall, for one, the various circles or squares, surrounded by older buildings, the names of I was unsure.  Main Street has a free train ride down the middle of the street, which will take you from one end of the city to the other.  If you go farther, you do have to pay.  Buffalo seems to have more interesting buildings then Cleveland though it too seems somewhat empty downtown, even on a work week day,  I wonder what will happen to cities if people keep leaving though I have read that the reverse has become happening in some areas, as people leave the suburbs to return to the city.  We will have to see.

We drove up Delaware, past what's called Millionaire' Row, by amazingly preserved homes of the wealthy Buffalo capitalists from the early 20th century.  Most of the houses are now owned by law firms and investments groups.  They are spectacular.  We ended up at Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Darwin Martin House, near Nichols School campus.  It is an amazing residence and our tour guide was really good, making it worth the twenty six dollars it cost.  It was built in 1905, one of Wright's first major homes.  Martin was a millionaire who worked for the Larkin Soap company.  Wright also designed their administrative building but, unfortunately, it was demolished in 1949.  The house cost Martin a total of 175,000 dollars, not counting the painted glass windows, hundreds of them.  That would be around 10 million dollars today, I estimated.  There is a main residence, a carriage house, with a pergola leading from the main house, and a house for Martin's sister.  Both the carriage house and Martin's sister's house were torn down in the later 1930's, after Martin went bankrupt and the house stood empty for 17 years.  Apartments were put up in their place, but in the 1990's, a trust bought the house from the University of Buffalo, tore down the apartments and painstakingly rebuilt the carriage house and Martin's sister's home, so that you cannot tell the difference between the three buildings.  It's a typical Wright house, with an emphasis on horizontals, the Prairie Style as its called, so radical compared to the Victorian homes of that period, the neighborhood it sits in.  He seemed to pioneer the open floor style, where on room led to another, without doors, so different from the  numerous small rooms in Victorian homes.  He used some of the building techniques from Louis Sullivan, here using steel beams to span large area so he didnt' need walls between rooms.  We spent about an hour and half touring the buildings, well worth the time.  Before we went to the Darwin Martin house, we walked and browsed the other major shopping area, Hertzel Street, what I guess was the Little Italy of Buffalo.  Not as charming as Elmwood, mostly because of its lack of trees, but it did have lots of shops and restaurants, which made it a place to go in the evenings.

We left Buffalo around 1:30 and drove to East Aurora, home of Roycroft Inn and the home of the Arts and Craft movement.  It's a prosperous looking town, about 15 miles from Buffalo, with three large shops with arts and crafts types of furniture and lamps, the kind you would have found in Wright's homes.

We drove home in rain, getting back around 5:30.  We had an easy dinner, sweet corn and a mushroom omelette and watched a couple of more episodes of Damages.  I am reading the new Jack Reacher, so I went to bed early, so I could get back to Jack.  It's a good read, fast and easy.

A Day In Buffalo

Sculpture behind the Albright Knox Museum

Front of Albright Knox Museum in Buffalo, NY

The Gallery staircase

Islamic and Christian symbols merge

Jasper Johns Numbers

William De Kooning

Surfing photo

Portable Home or Living Space

We had an easy ride to downtown Buffalo,  about an hour and a half, as we easily found the Albright Knox Art Museum, right next to Buffalo State University.  The museum is divided into two parts, the older Albright Museum, with columns, pillars, caryatids, built early in the 20th century then the Knox Museum, much more modern, and attached to the older museum.  Like the Cleveland Museum of Art, it's located in a lovely area, with a large pond and walks, much like Wade Park.

In the Albright, they had mostly modern works, an exhibition called Decade: 2002-2012.  Although there were few if any names I recognized, the scope and individuality of the pieces was fun and interesting, as all mediums were used, not just pigment and canvas.  We both liked a work, abstract in concept, of various geographic prints, representing both Christian and Muslim traditions, with horizontal strips of gold leaf, giving it a interesting wavy perspective, as if the piece were three dimensional.

They also have, in the Knox a piece or two from lots of major artists, Picasso's early Woman Dancer with a Man, Gauguins' Yellow Christ, a Cezanne, Manet, Renoir, Seurat, Pissaro, as well as  De Koonings, Pollock, Johns, and the ubiquitous Andy Warhol.  We liked Jasper Johns Numbers, multicolored squares with the numbers 1 through 9, repeated in the painting.  Great colors, patience, repetition. It also has the colors of our kitchen, which we like.  My other favorite was a room composed of large photos taken of surfers, where the water blends into the sky, and the surfers are just small dark figures in the water, waiting for a wave rather than riding one.  There were at least five photographs on each side of the hallway, each 3 feet by 5 feet.  Really neat, emphasizing the need for patience, the emphasis on waiting for the wave, as opposed to the energy and power of the wave itself.

We then went to the chic area called Elmwood, a great street with older houses, shaded side streets, lots of people, restaurants, bars, shops, and grocery stores.  It could easily be a street in New York City, it's so alive and hip.  I loved the older homes, many renovated and chic next to the older, unkempt homes of the aging citizenry.  We had lunch at the recommended SPOT coffee house, a great choice, a bit like a Panera but nicer and less commercial. We had a great wrap, coffee, and our only complaint was their WiFi was not working.  We then walked the area, did some shopping for about an hour before driving a couple of miles into town, to the Hamptons Inn Suites, in downtown Buffalo, a great choice as it right in the center of the city and everywhere we want to go is within walking distance.

At Betty's in Elmwood

We relaxed in our palacial hotel room, lounge, bathroom and bedroom, about the size of our house, then headed to Betty's, about a 15 minute walk, on a beautiful evening, as we passed some of old Buffalo's finest buildings, The Mansion in particular, a millionaire's home converted into a luxury hotel, where we will be staying next time, if I win the lotto,  Betty's was semi busy when we arrived, so we sat at the bar for a beer, then moved to a neat table next to the window, in the bar.  There are three rooms, the bar, with three or four tables, a very well lit and airy dining room, and a smaller,  darker room which, when we were there, was filled with women celebrating a birthday.  Our meals were outstanding, Evie having  chicken breast on fennel, beets, and marinated onion, with a balsamic sauce, and I had mahi mahi on roasted cauliflowers, spiced pecans, cajun pork bits, and an aioli sauce....wow was it good, as I tasted mucho and many flavors as I ate.  A good choice, compliments of the Bergens.  We will go back.

We then walked back to our hotel room, relaxed for an hour, then walked to the Tralf Music Hall, about ten minutes, where we watched Papadosia.  The music hall was basically a bar, with a dance floor, surrounding by tables.  Most of the patrons stood in front of the bands, drank, talked, and danced.  We stayed there till about 11:00, sitting through a pretty good warm up band, then Papadosio.  Before the Papadosio took stage, I was able to see my student, Sam Brouse.  He gave me a big bear hug, sat down with us and talked about his life.   Last year, they were on the rode for 250 days out of the year.  This year they have a bus so things are better and now, with the cold weather, things are slowing down a bit.  Their home is Ashville, NC, and they have spent the last two years putting together their new album which comes out in a couple of weeks.  Sam said he cannot write another note or word, he is so emptied from this experience.  Their band was great, with an emphasis on electronic sounds, an eclectic, at times cacophonous sound, with new age like visuals, something they are trying to create and sell.  It's hard to tell who is their influence because they are so different, with a range of sounds, combinations, and interludes.  Sam was really touched that we had come to see him play, which was nice.  He was a great kid to know and teach and still is.  I don't envy him his life but he's doing what he loves.

With Sam Brouse, of Papadosio

Papadosio at Tralf Music Hall in Buffalo

Sam Brouse on Keyboards

We walked home, made the mistake of getting a couple of tacos at an all night shop near our hotel, came back, watched Stephen Colbert, ate our tacos, and at least I went to bed with a queasy feeling though I feel fine this morning.  It was a great day in Buffalo.

Right now, it's overcast outside, a bit warmer, around 55 degrees, with rain in the forecast on and off during the day.

RIVER OF SMOKE: AMITAV GHOSH

This is the third book I have read by Ghosh in the last couple of months, the second in his trilogy, the first being the SEA OF POPPIES.  This one is set in Canton, China, unlike the previous novel, which began in northern India, then Calcutta and ended up at sea.  Here, we see the range of inhabitants in the foreign part of Canton, Fanqui town, as no one who is not Chinese is allowed inside the city proper.  The center of the novel is the merchants who have gotten rich selling opium, basically an illegal substance, to the Chinese, who have basically turned a deaf ear to what has been going on.  Unfortunately for the capitalists, the Emperor has decided  that this drug has been the bane of his people, from peasant up to the ruling class and has decided, once and for all, to stop the trade.  This means, of course, that the East India Company, along with many other nations will lose the main vehicle of their wealth, their opium trade with China.  We see the conflict through the eyes of Seth Bahram, an Indian trader, his scribe, Neel, whom we saw in the early novel, the fallen Prince, and both Paulette, the English spinster who manages to masquerade as an immigrant in the early novel, and Robin, her childhood playmate.  Robin writes mainly of his love of painting, the doors it opens for him in Canton and its society, and Paulette writes of flowers, as she along with Penrose, master English gardener, seek and find various rare flowers which they  bring back to Great Britain.  We learn much of what is going on from the letters Robin writes to Paulette, who is living in Hong Kong, at that time a fledgling port and community.

Ghosh makes this as realistic as possible, using journals, documents as well as various books written on this period in history, the decade that leads up to the Opium Wars.  The foreign powers, when presented with an ultimatum to stop trading opium and turn over all the opium on their ships, react angrily but they are at the mercy of the Chinese, as British troops, if needed, are months away.  They refuse to accept the offer, and they are then basically barricaded from the rest of the world, no servants, no movement, little if any communication until they give in, which they eventually and reluctantly do, thinking that the Chinese will get their comeuppance once the British government gets behind them.  And they are right, as the Opium Wars follow, most likely the final novel of this trilogy.  This novel ends with loose ends, though Seth Bahram, the major protagonist, an opium merchant, succumbs to the drug and falls into the sea, while on a opium high, a fitting ending for Seth, though he is the most likable fellow in the novel.  The guts of the novel is the back and forth between the merchants and the Chinese, as the merchants fight for their rights, for 'free trade' as they see it, and the Chinese, seeming the most reasonable, try to get the sellers to see that what they are doing is morally wrong; the selling of opium illegal in western countries, so why should it be done here in China.  The Chinese come off well, whereas the Brits and Americans seem greedy, interested only in profits, using the excuse of free trade to get what they want.  And they are all hypocrites for the most part, knowing the lethal world of opium yet justifying it with their profits, dehumanizing of the Asian,  and banner of capitalism.

Many of the main characters in SEA OF POPPIES have minor roles in RIVER OF SMOKE  Deeti, for example, the heart of SEA OF POPPIES,  hardly appears in this novel.  We learn she survives the ship journey, lives on as a kind of matriarch but this seems incidental to the story, as she lives on the Mauritius Islands, where Neel and friends are shipwrecked. They eventually crew on ships which take them to Canton, and that's when the real story begins.

Looks Like A Lovely Beginning to 36 Hours in Buffalo

6:46

Hiking the Pastures

Farms around Sherman

Roadside Wildflowers

Up early, to darkness, a glow off to the east, a beautiful clear morning.  It's 46 degrees out, a clear sky now, as I write, an empty lake except for a heron, a good day for enjoying Buffalo, I think.

Yesterday, we went for another walk on the Overland Trail, this time on a section we had never walked and now we know why.  It began just this side of Sherman, and we headed south through a farmer's field, cows in the distance, cow piles along the path, as well as water and an electrical fence.  We made it as far as Waits Corner road, when a sign said the trail was closed, no reason given.  We ended up walking back to the car, via Waits Hill and #426, so it was a disappointing morning walk.  We did drive around a bit and found a couple of other entrances to the trail, off of Eggleston and  off of Wall Rd, so we will head there next time.

We spent the afternoon relaxing, though we did give the car a good cleaning and washing, both inside and out, getting ready for our big trip.  I spent quite a bit of time researching Buffalo, with the help of our neighbors, the Bergens, who live in the Elmwood section of Buffalo, and had lots of good suggestions.  I have mapped out our 36 hours, starting this morning with the Albright Knox Art Museum, then a walking tour of the Elmwood neighborhood in the afternoon.  We have dinner reservations at Betty's, recommended by our friends, and we then go to the Traff Music Hall tonight for a concert by Papadosia, a band with a student of mine from Reserve.  It was started at Ohio U, in Athens, so it should be fun to see them.

We had pork and potato pancakes for dinner, left over from last night and relaxed, watching the Emmy's, which we had saved from the night before.  I am getting so I can hardly stand watching the talking heads.  They say the same things over and over, no one changes their tune.  If it's Fox, everything Obama does is bad,  If MSNBC, everything Romney does is bad,  And they play the tune of the day over and over,  BAH.  

A Lazy Monday Morning

7:29

Dinner with Leonards, daughter Beth, and Pat Jones

Walk in CI as Storm Clouds Loom

Chilly has become the adjective to describe late September mornings,  It's 44 degrees, nice and crisp, with a mix of clouds and sun though we just had a brief spat of rain  The lake looks like a sheet of slate, smooth and gray black. as I sit here contemplating my day.  What to do?  Such a problem.  Perhaps a hike, or kayaking, then getting ready for 36 Hours In Buffalo, tomorrow and Wednesday.  Just walked out on the dock and the lake once again has a disgusting film of green algae on it and it has been that way on and off for a few weeks now.  Troubling.

Yesterday was a typically great Sunday, perfect for your NFL fans, except I saw it was raining in Cleveland.  Here it was a beautiful fall day.  We went for a long walk in the morning, at the CI, and ran into Jim and Maureen Lovengo.  He owns a pharmacy in Lakewood we like, and she works as the Assistant Director of the Department of Religion.  As we were talking, she mentioned that they were hard at work on next year's program, one of them being a week on Turkey:  Model for the Middle East.  I hadn't realized that this was a theme, so I was quite excited.  She gave me her card and asked that I send her any recommendations I had for speakers.  So I sent off five names of my students, all whom are well known world wide, three are professors at Harvard, one at Duke, and one CEO of a major textile firm.  Any one of them would be great and I know them all, though have not seen most of them since high school at Robert College.  You can tell I am excited.  I am going to email all my Turkish friends about this, as most probably don't know the CI exists, let alone the fact that a week will be devoted to Turkey. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and watching football for me, prepping dinner for Evie, as we were having the Leonards, their daughter Beth, and Pat Jones over for dinner.  We had a fun night, as everyone seemed to enjoy not only the dinner but the conversation.  I got a bit carried away, however, with my description of my visit to the monasteries on Mt. Athos in Greece.  I hope they were not too bored.  Evie made a great meal, a pork roast with a pan sauce, home made apple sauce, a Turkish cheese borek, salad, and fresh corn off the cob.  Every thing was devoured, with just enough left over for tonight's dinner, I hope.  For dessert, we had a marvelous chocolate torte with raspberry sauce which Pat made.  They stayed until about 9:30.  We then decided to do the dishes, staying up like a couple from the 1960's, washing and drying the dishes after a party.  For some reason, we like to do this, to wash and dry dishes, avoiding our dishwasher. There's something about both washing and drying dishes which is settling, relaxing, the routine of doing something over and over again.  I sound like a Buddhist.  We watched a bit of the Emmy's then went to bed around 11:30, a late night for us.  

Puffy Morning Clouds and Cool

7:17

7:46

Home Made Apple Sauce

It's forty five degrees outside, the sun hidden, for now behind the cloud puffs, the lake calm, as two kayaks go by, some fishermen cast their lines off towards Wells Bay.  It's a great morning, the coolness makes me want to get up and get outside, to either walk or paddle somewhere.  I like this weather, but still want some Indian summer days, the kind where we can either cruise the lake in our boat or, perhaps, jump in the lake to cool off.

Yesterday morning we went off to Mayville, to the flea market which, when we arrived, had a sign which said See You Next Year.  Evie then suggested we go to the Crossroads market but  I mentioned there was a cool alpaca store just a few miles down the road.  So we went to it, drove in the yard, and saw a sign which said: "Gone to Crossroads Market for the day."  We then went to Westfield, to get some veggies, but found few if any that looked good.  Three failures in an hour! So we stopped at Tops, then the Lighthouse, then a veggie stand in Magnolia, and got everything we needed.

We relaxed and read, as usual, and Evie worked some in the kitchen, using her new ricer( a birthday present from me) to make homemade apple sauce, with the apples we bought from the market.  Later, I suggested we might enjoy some cookies in the evening, so she made up some lemon scented ginger almond cookies, the kind my Dad would have loved.  Around 5:00, we decided to go for a walk at Bemus, along Lake Side Drive.  We ended up talking to a woman, about mid way down the road.  She lives in the brown house, almost on the road, with a huge garage and small shed on the lake.  Her husband's family has owned this lake property since 1898 and I think she has lived in it most of her married life.  She lives alone, year round, and we wonder how she makes do in the winter as she seems frail.  A nice lady, she told us lots of history of the neighborhood.

We came home to listen to Garrison Keillor on the radio, have a mannie, and then dinner of cabbage lasagna and potato pancakes.  We watched another episode of Damages, a couple of Driver In's, Diners and Dives, one part talking about the Mulberry Italian restaurant in Lackawanna , a suburb of Buffalo, which looked amazingly good.  We may hit it on our 36 Hours in Buffalo, NY, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

An Early Saturday Morning Drizzle

7:59

It's the autumnal equinox, as poet Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt wrote: "It is the summer's great last heat, / It is the fall's first chill: they meet."  The amount of daylight equals the amount of night.  It's 54 degrees outside, lots of heavy dark clouds off towards Long Point, not a boat on the lake.  Rain seems to be the story for today, for most of the weekend.    Highs today in the sixties, the same the next few days.  

We did have a wonderful fall day yesterday, so good we had to leave early morning, to paddle across the lake to the Long Point Marina, an easy cruise across the calm lake.  Three or four fisherman were wading in the water off of Long Point. an unusual sight this early on a Friday morning.  We walked up through the grove of Black Locust trees, to Lake road, then walked down it to Bemus.  We stopped by the boathouse which was turned into a house a few years ago, to talk with a Howard Nipes, a 76 year old curmudgeon, who was working on the house as it's for sale.  An interesting guy, a builder, he knew lots about the owner, about the house, and he talked quite a bit about the state of America, a topic most retired people have quite a bit to say.  We enjoyed talking with him, and he even took us for a tour of the house.  I am not sure of the price; we guess around 300,000, with 110 feet of lake frontage.  The view from the living room feels like you are living on a boat, as you are ten feet from the water's edge.  We got home around noon, after a rough paddle home, as the wind and lake had kicked up, making it a struggle to get back to Woodlawn

We had a few projects for the afternoon; for me, I worked on the garage, putting things in the attic which we no longer needed and, of course, I did some reading much of the afternoon.  Evie cut the lawn and made a cabbage lasagna for dinner, cabbage with spiced ground beef and tomato sauce.  With mashed potatoes, it made a great dinner, just what we wanted on a cool evening.  We watched a few episodes of the fourth season of Damages, with Glenn Close, and have found it a bit boring, as it has moved from NYC to a troubled ex marine who has worked for a company like Blackstone, a military outfit who protects US citizens.  It just does not ring true, full of cliches,  but we will continue to watch, hoping it gets better.

Overcast and Quiet on the Lake

7:19

Dinner at Ken and Marjorie Scholtz's with Charlie Tea

Pat and Joyce, enjoying the afternoon

Petunias Still Going Strong

Ready to Hike the  Mt Pleasant section

Up around 7:20. to a lake like a glass plate, not a ripple, the sky overcast, only the sound of crows mars the morning as a few sea gulls flutter off in the distance.  It's 57 degrees, much warmer than the past couple of days though that's supposed to change tomorrow, when the highs for the next few days will be in the sixties, as fall is here.  Today is the last day of summer, so we better enjoy it.

Yesterday morning, chilly and sunny, we got in a nice walk on the Westside Overland trail.  We drove off towards Sherman, jumped on the trail at the Mt. Pleasant access point and walked to the Lean To, just over a mile and back, through woods mostly, still thick with leaves, just over an hour. The leaves are just beginning to change, especially the maples, the result of less daylight, not the cool weather, the belief most people embrace.  In fact, an early frost lessens rather than increases the colors. It was a good morning for a walk, a slight chill, lots of sun, a fun way to start the day.  We have walked this path numerous times, in all kinds of weather, so it's fun to see how it changes with the seasons. We did see a huge logger truck dragging logs out of the forest, one ironically had a State Forest sign affixed to it.  The rest of the day was relaxing, lots of reading, inside or out, despite the wind, and later in the afternoon, Evie deep fried some eggplant, an appetizer for our dinner at the Scholtz's that night.

We went over to Ken and Marjorie's about 6:30, four houses down from ours, and we had a delightful evening, with their good friend Charlie Tea, a retired music teacher from Hampton, a school district outside of Pittsburgh, near Fox Chapel.  Ken enjoys cooking, especially Thai food, so he made up a great chicken and vegetable curry, served over rice.  With a salad, Evie's eggplant as an appetizer, and cherry pie and ice cream for dessert, we were happy. The Scholtz's are going to Peru in a couple of weeks, so we talked about their itinerary since I had been to Peru probably ten years ago.  Their friend Charlie lives on the lake just north of the CI and he's quite a character, plays in four or five different musical groups in the CI during the summer, a focal point for him both  here and back in Pittsburgh.  It must be nice to have talent like that, in his case a trumpet, and it opens all kinds of doors for him, like basketball did for me earlier in my life.

Sunny and Cold...For September

7:07

Up much later than usual, about 7:20 to a living room filled with sun light, what a difference from the past two mornings.  We even had a  frost warning for last night but it only got down to the low forties, and right now, it's 45 degrees out side.  It looks like a spectacular day at this point, not a cloud and cool, just right for a hike somewhere.

Yesterday was a strange day, as we did not do much of anything, other than plan to take a walk at the CI, which we didn't mostly because the day revolved around extended phone calls with people wishing Evie a happy birthday.  Almost every time we planned to do something, someone would call and the impetus was lost by the time she was finishing talking.  So, it was a strange birthday for Evie.

We did have a great birthday dinner, T-bones, mushrooms, salad, and home fries, instead of going out to dinner.  We watched an older movie, from the 1990's called Marvin's Room, with an amazing cast, Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Leonardo Di Caprio (as a teen) and Robert De Niro.  It's the story of two estranged sisters brought together when Keaton is diagnosed with cancer. A bit slow, great acting, but a just above average movie.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EVIE AND TOMMY

1961

Fall, 2012

Istanbul, 1976

Summer, 2012