Monday Blues and Rock Paintings

7:10

Rocks Painted by Grandchildren

 Up late for me 7:00, to deafening silence, just the coffee pot perking, and Evie out, walking on the dock, welcoming the morning sun.  Both of us feel like we have moved into a new house, no kids, no grandchildren, no clutter, no laughter, an empty kitchen. It's like we are living in a model home.

By Mitchell Albarran

Long Point by Beth Albarran, Tree by Mitchell Albarran

Yesterday, Beth and family left about 8:00 and both Evie and I got right to work; I went out into the disgusting algae infested water(it started the day the kids left), and pulled in all of the floats and rafts, deflated them and spread them out on the lawn to dry.  Once they dry, I fold them, climb the ladder in my garage, and put them away up in the garage attic for another year, along with all the other toys, balls, bats, and things the kids might like to use.  It took an hour and I easily worked up a sweat. While I worked outside, Evie worked inside, cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen, picking up and straightening the living room, not that it was too bad as we had done a lot yesterday.  I also wheel barrow-ed all the painted rocks out to our drive way, arranging the smaller one's on a table for show for a couple of days until we decide what to do with them.  You can see most of them on this blog.

 Beth Albarran

Mitchell Albarran

BJK by Nick Davis, Happy by Mitchell

Nicolas Davis

After I finished outside and Evie the kitchen, we went upstairs to clean, and I began by deflating all the mattresses in various bedrooms.  I stripped all the beds, and Evie began washing and drying the towels and sheets, something that took her most of the day and is continuing this morning.  We tackled our bedroom, vacuumed, cleaned, and rearranged it so now it's back to normal. clean and orderly,  with no little girls sleeping on mattresses, alas.  So, the downstairs was clean, the floats were in, up in the garage, and one bedroom was done.  Enough.

Tyler Albarran

So, around 1:00, we went out on the dock and spent the rest of the day relaxing, mourning the exodus of our family.  Fortunately, it was pleasant to sit on the dock, to sun bathe, something Evie has not had time to do for a couple of weeks.  Lots of traffic on the lake, of course, it was a Sunday in August, the most popular time to visit the lake.  The algae was bad early morning, but later in the day, the lake looked more normal.  I checked to see if any beaches had been closed and none had yet except for a couple on Lake Erie, in Dunkirk, which have been closed all summer for some reason.

We had the left over Iskender kebab for dinner, with left over coconut cream pie and peanut butter pie for dessert and got back to our routine, watching an episode of The Killing but also realizing that we had not taped the last two episodes so we will most likely get them from Itunes tonight.

Mitchell

The Chautauqua Institution's theme this week is Turkey: Model for the Middle East.  I plan on going to hear a couple of the lectures but today, I want to get back in my morning routine of yoga, coffee, and library.