A Bright and Shiny Morning on Lake Chautauqua

6:25

A sparkling lake, clear sky, and brilliant sunrise at 6:20 this morning, a fine day lies ahead, cloudless skies, highs in the low 70's, a perfect day on the lake.  There's very little action on the lake, a kayak paddling by, one or two fishermen.  Where have all the people gone?

Yesterday morning, Evie and I decided to take in the lecture at the CI by Turkish journalist Nedim Sener.  We left about 10:15, drove to Chautauqua Estates, parked our car, walked to the gate, got our library pass, and went in to listen to his interview with David Rohde, a fellow journalist.   Because his English was only fair, he had an interpreter which did not seem to matter much.  He was a marvelous ambassador for Turkey, funny, charming, thoughtful, articulate, and most importantly, courageous, willing to speak his mind, which is why he's being indicted for terrorism in Turkey in November. a charge he will not run from.  He's even spent a year in a Turkish jail for his criticism of the Erdogan government.  In his talk, he compared Erdogan's leadership to that of a conservative father, telling his children (people) what to eat, think, and how to act, how many children to have, and brooking no dissent.

We spoke with him briefly after the talk.  Up close, he was almost as tall as me, affable, extremely charming and handsome.  Evie was thoroughly taken with him.  We both wish we could have invited him over for tea but he was going to Niagara Falls in the afternoon, then flying home to Istanbul.  It's always exciting for us to talk with Turks.  In fact, as we were listening to his talk, three Turkish looking young people were standing to our right.  When they walked by, I said hello in Turkish and they turned around in surprise.  We talked to them briefly and they were indeed Turks, musicians living in New York, who were here at the CI to perform Turkish music that evening.

At 1:00, I took my car into Jamestown for its yearly inspection.  I suppose it makes sense  (to keep unsafe vehicles off the road)  but it's always annoying to have to do it.   It took about forty five minutes, cost me twenty one bucks, less than Ohio used to cost, and I had a chili dog at the drive in across the street for lunch.  Yum.   I stopped at Sam's on the way home, picked up some of the staples we have gone through in the past couple of weeks and came home, to read some and relax.  About 4:00, both Evie and I went out side and spent about an hour weeding our brick path, a mess since we had not done much with it over the past three or four weeks.  After we were done, Evie cut the back yard and we both remarked on how green,  how lush our backyard looks, the garden, flowers, trees, hiding a good part of our house.

Manhattans  cocktails in Our New Glasses

Late Afternoon View

We then sat out on our porch, had the rare Manhattan, commenting on how lucky we are to live on the lake, how much we enjoy just being here.  We never get tired of our view.  We had rotisserie chicken for dinner, with cole slaw and sweet corn and watched a few more episodes of Nurse Jackie, then to bed.