Heavy Fog Takes Over The Morning Sky

6:33

6:34 

It's now 7:15 and I can hardly make out our dock as the fog obscures most of the lake, the trees huge silhouettes against the fog bound lake. Both Evie and I are up, on our computer or iPad, ignoring most of the outdoors as we are engrossed in the digital page.

The fine weather continues here at the lake, sunny with a nice breeze, perfect for being outside.  Of course, I started the day with yoga, just the two of us, and Courtney as this class does not seem to catch on with the other students for some reason.  After class, I got my daily fix of java, talked with Joyce who told me that Jones/Gifford road, along the southwest end of the lake, was now open.  So I drove down it and there was still water along both sides of the road and The Swamp was surrounded by water with a ramp leading to the front door of the bar.  A sign read 'DON'T FEED THE ALI GATORS.  Afterwards, I stopped at Wegmans' to pick up food for dinner, as we were having our neighbors, Bill Leonard and Pat Jones, over for a barbecued chicken and noodles dinner.  Summer really is here with that combination.  I picked up a couple more tins of coffee, we are now up to at least ten as friends told us coffee was going way up in the next month or so.  Be forewarned!  I also stopped at the bank, as we are traveling tomorrow to spend a week with our daughter Jill and her family.  We will be helping out while Jill takes a class to get her real estate license.  We cannot wait to see them, especially the girls, Hayden and Halle.  

Much of the afternoon was spent relaxing on the dock, working in the yard, or getting the dinner ready for our guests.  Our neighbor, Bill Leonard, arrived around 2:00, so we helped him move in his stuff, getting the house ready for the summer season.  He's up for only a couple of days, opening the house, getting it in running order, returning hopefully in a week with his wife Joyce.  I spent quite a bit of time edging our walk, overgrown with moss and grass, did some watering of our new plants, then took a shower around 5:30, just before our neighbors arrived.  Evie took it easy after cooking and enjoyed spending time on the dock, the sun warm but not hot.  Not many of those spring days left as it's going to get warmer over the next few weeks.

They're Back, The Neighbors That Is!

We sat out on the front porch with beers and appetizers, as Bill filled us in on the winter in the Philadelphia area,  Pat on the winter in Houston (I wouldn't call it winter, perhaps spring here in Chautauqua), as both are summer residents only but love being here.  Dinner was great, as everyone had seconds, nothing was left for today's lunch.  They stayed until 8:30, then returned home just before it got dark.  We relaxed with some TV for an hour after washing and drying the dishes, then went to bed around 10:30.

Today we get ready for our week in Bristow, VA, packing and trying to figure out what clothes to bring.  It looks like it will be in the 90's much of our stay, alas, so shorts and tee shirts are in order.  We hope to leave early tomorrow, Sunday morning, getting to Bristow around 3:00.  It should be a pretty drive through the hills and valleys of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia.  Our drive is rarely on major highways, just 15 miles on the PA Turnpike, so it's a fun drive.

It's now 8:15, the fog has burned off, the lake is glistening, the sun's out, a good day day lies ahead.

Sunny But Hazy Morning

6:04

6:50

Up at 6:05, just as the sun was burning its way through the haze of early morning.  The lake is flawless, not even a wrinkle, as if I could skate on its surface.  Martins fill the morning sky, busy with nest building at our house.  We have three, perhaps four families.  It's quiet and motionless outside, a welcome change from the winds of yesterday.  At the moment, it's 52º, the high in the low 70's but sunny.

Let's see, what did we do yesterday.  It gets harder and harder to remember, the days seem the same, perhaps because they are (I am not complaining, just observing).  Yesterday began with Evie asking if I was going to breakfast with the boys.  I had forgotten it was Thursday, so I jumped up, got dressed, and was off to Bemus within ten minutes.  Four of us talked mostly about our high school athletic pursuits, like last week's discussion of our collegiate social lives, especially our introduction to beer drinking on campus.  After breakfast, I returned home briefly before driving to yoga at 10:00, a class packed like sardines, lots of work on the sore backs of all the gardeners in class.  Just what we needed.  If I don't go to yoga, I feel at a loss that morning, as routine takes over.  There's always something to do, however, a hike, a bike ride, work around the house but I am used to yoga.

When I got home, Evie had potted all the petunias in their window boxes, ready for hanging, and planted the 'hot pink' ivy geraniums in pots.  The geraniums remind me of both Turkey and Greece because they seemed ubiquitous in all the windows of the homes along the coastlines.  Against the white, box like homes, they always stood out, bringing color to an otherwise white washed canvas. Here they are just one more color in a green garden background.

After lunch, we planted some grasses on the hill behind our house, filling empty spaces between our pine trees, hoping they will create a nice fence of green.  We also worked in the garden, Evie weeding and I cut down most of the dead clematis vines, hoping they are still alive.  They always look dead but shoots of green are beginning their annual climb upwards, part of the miracle of sun and rain.  It's no wonder our ancestors worshipped the sun and rain gods.

We tried to read and sunbathe on our dock but the wind kept picking up, demanding we wear a fleece, and even that was not enough.  So we ended up inside or on the porch.   Around 4:00, Evie needed to exercise so she cut our grass one more time.  Surprisingly, it seemed to need it, having grown quite a bit in a day or two.  We had the yard wrapped up by 6:00, everything put away, so we could enjoy our preprandial beer, cheese (Greek kashkaval), and crackers on our porch.  Around 6:45, Evie went in and put together our dinner, an omelette, with sides of asparagus, home fries, bacon, and a salad, lots of contrasting tastes which I love.  Again, not much on the TV, so we watched a couple of more episodes of Friday Night Lights before heading up to bed. I did not much like the book I was reading, MOTHER'S MILK  by  Edward St. Aubyn so I switched, rare for me, to another thriller, THE CAIRO AFFAIR by Olen Steinhauer.

Overcast and Fog and Gray

6:45

Blue On Green

I was up at 6:30 and the coffee was already brewed as Evie was up earlier because she couldn't get back to sleep.  I hate that, waking up earlier than you want but you know you will not be able to get back to sleep so you might as well get up.  Anyways, it started to cool off yesterday afternoon and it's a chilly 50º at the moment  and it looks like we will have cloudy weather most of the day though no rain, a good day to work in the yard.

Yesterday was another fine day, the kind we love, not too hot lots of sun, the kind that makes you want to both work outside or relax on the dock.  Unfortunately, we had things to do in the morning, which cut into our relaxing time.  Evie had some shopping and haircut in Lakewood, and came home with a cool ottoman for our porch, some cushions for our chaise lounges, some paint for our plastic chairs so they will match our porch furniture, all bought at our favorite store Walmart!  And she stopped at Mike's Nursery in Lakewood, picked up some wave petunias, some ornamental grasses and potting soil.  We are getting serious about the garden and window boxes.  I, however, just went to yoga at 10:00 and it was our teacher's last class before moving to Colorado.  At the end of class, while we were relaxing, she read, like always, a passage from a yoga text, and started to sob as she read.  The fact that this was her last class, that she was leaving behind lots of students, friends, and family was too much for her, thus the tears.  Her Mom, who attends class as well, was in tears as well, as was the rest of the class by the time it ended.  Only the 'big guy' managed to avoid tears.  It was, however, moving to see her so emotional about her classes.  I did give her a hug and a 'Turkish kiss,' thanking her for her class.  We will miss her.  

Evie did not get home from shopping until early afternoon.  I had pork and sauerkraut for lunch, watched some Sports Center.  As I mentioned, Evie had stopped at a nursery but they did not have ivy geraniums, the kind we like.  So I got on the phone and called around and found out that Westfield Nursery was the only one I could find that had them.  So, I jumped in my SUV and drove off to Westfield on a sunny afternoon.  It was actually a lovely ride out and back, and I took some of the back roads through the slowly greening grape fields that fill the hills along Lake Erie.  I picked up 12 plants for our pots and we hope to put them in later today.  We then worked outside, as I raked and scraped the moss off the roof of our garage and Evie worked in the yard, trimming and shaping some of our pine trees.

Nightly View From Our Porch

We then relaxed on our porch, with some appetizers and wine, enjoying another early evening, the martins busy with their lives, a few boats out fishing in front of our house, what many consider the 'major sweet spot' on the lake.  Go figure.  We had leftovers from our Memorial Day picnic for dinner, dogs, potato salad, and beans, still tasty and filling.  We then watched a couple of more episodes of Friday Night Lights because there was little else on TV.  We were in bed early, around 10:30 to read.

An Overcast And Noisy Purple Martin Morning

6:04

 Purple Martins Collecting for their Nests 

I have been up since 6:00, in time to see the sun appear and disappear behind a cloud cover.  We had a light rain overnight, as the lawn, bushes, and trees are still wet.  It 63º at the moment and will be cooler and less humid than yesterday.

It was good to get back to yoga after a hiatus of a couple of days.  Class was small, just the two of us but I enjoyed the morning.  Afterwards, I stopped at Tri James and picked up three more buckets of top soil, as I was patching areas of the lawn where I had applied weed killer in small doses, not that I like using it but these are a foot or more patches of an ugly weed.

For lunch, Evie made open-faced tuna and cheese sandwiches and put them under the broiler until the cheese was melted and golden, an easy but good lunch.  We watched Nurse Jackie, still failing at giving up her drug habit.  I am getting tired of her relapses but I supposed it's accurate...it's not easy to kick a habit like that.  And her habit makes the series more tense and interesting, full of conflict with family and the hospital where she works.

Biking Black Locust Trail

We both worked in the yard in the afternoon, me clearing patches of weeds, roughing it up, seeding it, then adding top soil.  It was an easy job but I was bathed in sweat because of the humidity.  Evie worked in her garden some but wanted more exercise so she fired up  the mower and cut both lawns again.  Needless to say, they look perfect after a second cutting, that spring green lawn impossible to capture on canvas or in a picture.

View from Long Point Park Pavilion

After working in the yard till 6:00, we looked forward to sitting out on or front porch, with a glass of chilled white wine, enjoying the view, the purple martins flight and song, the changing colors of the lake.  What a nice way to end the day. For dinner, we pulled out pulled pork, added tomatoes and sauerkraut to it, heated it for an hour and with mashed potatoes, we had dinner.  We watched this year's final episode of Mad Men, as they prepare for the last six episodes of the series, which won't air until next year.  It's 1969, Neil Armstrong has just walked on the moon, and Don almost loses his job, does lose his wife, but pulls himself together and seems ready and accepting of change.  We will have to see how he handles Roger as his boss, life without Megan, his wife, and a changing advertising scene, as television takes over from the printed ad.

ALONG CAME A SPIDER: JAMES PATTERSON **

This is the first Alex Cross (an African American forensic psychologist and detective)  thriller, a series that follows the Washington D.C, detective as he catches one serial killer after another.  In this one, he chases Gary Soneji, who kidnaps two famous people's kids from a private school, hides them in an underground grave, and demands 10 million in ransom.  Cross, for unknown reasons, is picked to make the transfer of money; FBI agents screw up the transfer, the ransom gets taken, and no one knows where the money went, where the kids are.  One child, however, is found dead, the other remains missing.  One of the Secret Service Heads, Jezzie Flanagan, befriends Alex and together they attempt to solve the kidnapping and find Soneji.  During their search, they become lovers, intimates, and for the first time since the death of his wife, Alex thinks he may be in love.  Meanwhile, Soneji holes up in a Mc Donald's, is wounded, and captured.  When he is questioned, he says he remembers nothing about the murders, that his name is Gary Murphy.  Either he's a great actor or a split personality, something Alex is familiar with because he has a doctorate in psychology.  He ends up becoming close to Soneji, is asked to testify for him, but refuses to say whether he's acting or actually two different people.

Soneji is convicted and all seems well until Alex discovers that two Secret Service agents were involved in the ransom fiasco, follows the lead and it takes him back to Jezzie, his lover.  He takes her on a vacation, confronts her with the help of FBI, and she confesses everything, that they stepped in for the money.  She and the other two agents are executed for the death of the young boy who could have been saved if they had not gotten greedy.

The young girl is found in South America and returned to her parents.  I forgot to mention that Soneji escaped from prison, chased down the ransom, and comes after Alex and his two kids.  Alex fights him off, then follows him to the DC streets, where Alex is saved by his grade school buddy and fellow detective, John Samson, who wounds Soneji(so he can escape again, no doubt) and Alex and John both live, to chase down more killers.   The plot twists at the end are a little much but we like Alex, his thinking and piecing together of bits and pieces, as he figures out the identity of the killer.  I like it well enough to start reading the second book, KISS THE GIRLS.

Clouds Begin To Intrude On Clear Sky

6:04

Hostas In Spring

It's almost 7:00 and I have been up for just over an hour.  The sunrise was muted by light cloud cover, and it's now hidden behind clouds, the lake returning to a gray color, the sky marred by the flight patterns of purple martins, as they swoop and sing, then land on the shoreline, looking for grasses for their nest building.  It looks like we will be getting some rain today, let's hope not too much.

Ready For A Memorial Day Picnic

Yesterday was the perfect Memorial Day, a cloudless sky, lots of sun, a rising temperature, getting in to the high 70's by the end of the day.  We had invited Ron and LindaMc Clure and Dave and Pat Jones, our neighbors, over for a picnic.  So a part of the afternoon, at least for Evie, was spent getting things ready for our picnic.  Late morning, she went shopping at the Chautauqua Institutition stores with a couple of neighbors, Debbi Kinney and Betsy Bergen.  While she shopped, I spent an hour getting all our lawn chairs and tables out of storage and scrubbed and washed, getting them ready for the day.  I also raked up the detritus on the lawns, leftover from the high waters.  When Evie came home, we decided to fire up the lawnmowers and together we cut the Leonards and our yards as they were dry enough, finally, to cut.  By the time we finished, they looked like a golf course, so I then moved the furniture on to the lawn, getting it ready for the company.

Dining Al Fresco On Memorial Day

Everyone arrived around 5:00 and it was the first time for all of us to sit outside with appetizers and drinks, enjoying the late afternoon, the lake, the clear sky.  The Joneses had just  driven in from Houston the day before so they were happy to relax after their long drive to the lake.  We caught up on all the news till about 7:15, when I began cooking the burgers and hot dogs.  Linda had made her famous potato salad, so along with barbecued beans and a salad, we had a great Memorial Day dinner.  We also ate outside, another first of the year.  After dinner, we adjourned into the house and sat around talking until about 9:45 when everyone went home.  It was a fun night, nothing like good food and company.

Memorial Day: A Day For Remembering (My Father in Law, Ed Petkovsek, Uncles, Tom and Reed, All WW II Vets, And Son In Law Drew, Kosovo and Iraq

Our Son In Law,  Colonel Drew Bissell, Retires in July, After 20+ Years

Returning Home to Jill, Hayden and Halle,  After A Year in Iraq

I was up before 6:00, so I was able to see the sunrise, on its journey north, across our morning sky here at the lake.  It always shocks me how far it travels, from the far right from our view in December, to the far left in June.  You only really notice this if you wake each morning with an unobstructed view of the horizon and take a picture of it each morning for a couple of years!

6:06

Yesterday, it really felt like summer, the lake busy, lots of neighbors and visitors, and a warm, beautiful day on the lake, perfect for boating, sun bathing, and fishing.  I took an early kayak paddle, out for over an hour, to the Marina, to Wells Bay, and back, the lake calm and glistening from the sun, few boats yet,  a couple of other kayakers.  Nothing like a kayak morning.  When I got home, Evie and I cleaned the dock off, putting away all the trash cans we used to steady our dock in high waters.  And I spent about a half hour moving everything out of my garage, sweeping it, then putting everything back in, something I end up doing every two or three weeks.  It's amazing how a garage gets messy and dirty for no apparent reason until you have to clean it out again.

Boaters Beware, A Floating Log

We enjoyed reading and sunning on the dock much of the afternoon, but I got bored, put my bike in my car, drove over to Bemus, and biked for an hour, out to Long Point and back, taking my time.  Bemus was packed with visitors because lots was  going on.  An antique car show in the park drew lots of people, but mostly it was the pleasant weather, as I have never seen as many people enjoying the park, picnicking with family or friends, as all tables were taken, blankets were spread on the grass.  The same was true of Long Point Park, which rarely seems to attract picnickers.  This weekend, all the pavilions and picnic areas were busy.  It was a great day for a bike ride as well.

Our Host's, The Birthday Boy, Jim, and Birthday Girl, Barb

Enjoying the Porch And Appetizers

When I returned home, Evie was making cheese boreks (with phyllo dough) for the Annual Memorial Weekend Porch Party, at our neighbor's the Fox's house.  We went over around 5:30 and got reacquainted with our neighbors till 8:30, a lot of standing, nibbling on snacks, and sipping beers.  It was fun to see everyone again, some who have not been back to the lake since early fall.  It was Jim Fox's 60th birthday so everyone brought him a beer of their choice...cards that we are, we brought him a root beer.  Not very funny.  I spent a lot of time talking with our neighbors, Joe and Betsy Bergen, who are going to spend three weeks in India in August.  I spent three weeks there in 1975, so  I was not much help on what to see.  I happened to mention that had spent a week on a house boat in Srinagar,  on Dal Lake, in Kashmir, and to my amazement, they, too, are going to stay on a house boat on Dal Lake.  It's an amazing place, 5100 feet, a lake surrounded by the Himalayan Mountains.

Some Of The Neighbors

Fifty, Sixty, And Seventy...You figure it out

Umm, Who Said That? 

When we got home, we were still hungry, having not snacked enough I guess, so Evie made us chicken and bacon sandwiches.  We ate them, watching some Stewart and Colbert before going to bed. I am reading another novel set in Nazi Germany, this time in the 1930's, as Hitler rises to power.  It's not as good as the series of six novels by David Downing, but decent.  It's called Corridors of Darkness by Patrick O'Bryon.

Sunny Morning On Lake Chautauqua...It's Becoming a Habit

7:54 In The Morning 

 Late Saturday Afternoon, From Our Porch

Another bright, sunny, morning. three days in a row.  It's now 7:00 and I have been up for a half hour, not paying much attention to the outdoors, so I changed chairs, opened the window, now I can hear the martins, see the birds zooming from nest, to shore, to other nests.  It looks like lots of fun to be a bird. The lake is receding very slowly, still have buckets on the docks though we may take them off later in the day.

Like most Saturdays lately, I had yoga at 9:00, with Chris, two other students, a small class.  I think the fact that Chris often cancels class affects the attendance.  One student was a drop in, from Florida, so class was geared for her.  Later, I did some shopping, buying a chicken to grill out at Wegman's, looking for a wall hook to hang a cool ceramic fish Beth gave us last year.  It took shopping at two hardware stores and lots of browsing before I found something that worked.  When I got home, it was time to head to the Transfer Station, though all our garbage cans were on the dock.  So I had plastic bags of garbage inside of plastic bags and it worked just fine.  Perhaps I don't need a large SUV to take the trash to the station each Saturday.

Long Point In The Morning

Martin Couple Bickering

The rest of the day was spent relaxing out on the dock, or for me, watching some of the European Soccer championship on TV, which Real Madrid won in overtime.  It was lovely outside, just right when the sun was out, a bit cool when it hid behind the clouds.  For some strange reason, I was obsessed with grilling a whole chicken on our grill, so Evie made up a marinade of butter, lemon and spices, rubbed the bird with it, and I put it on the grill for about an hour and a half.  We had it for dinner and it was less than tasty, mediocre at best, making me wonder why I went through the effort and expense when I could have easily gotten a tasty rotisserie chicken at Sam's for less money.

Clouds From Our Dock

Amazing Afternoon Sky

Before our dinner, we did enjoy sitting out on our porch for the first time this spring, enjoying cheese and crackers and a glass of wine.  The martins and swallows were in fine form, zipping through the blue skies, dive bombing the docks, even each other, or so it seemed, entertaining us as we sat luxuriating in the late afternoon, the lake and wind calm, the boaters having gone home.

We watched some TV after dinner, though there was not much on and went to be earlier than usual for a Saturday night.  We did watch Bill Maher's Real Time from Friday night, always funny, a good way to end the night.

Sunny On A Swollen Lake (Pine Junction)

6:22

6:23

Another great morning of blinding sunshine, a calm lake, still overflowing its lip but no rain in sight, enshallah.   Lots of barn swallows and martins are flitting around the docks, looking for food, building nests, getting ready for their fledglings in late July.  It's a busy place at the moment.  It looks like were are going to have three great days in a row and it's warming to the 80's by Memorial Day.

Yesterday we were still worried about rising lake waters but, fortunately, it did not rain though it looked like it at times.  We probably will leave the water filled buckets and trash cans on the docks for at least another day or two, until the lake recedes somewhat.  It hasn't much as of late yesterday afternoon.

I went to yoga yesterday morning at 8:30, only to discover that class started at 8:15 but there was only one other student so I was welcomed.  After class, I went straight home to help Evie who was busy washing windows, getting the porches ready for the summer, shining up the house.  It looks great, especially the windows!  I had to take my car into Lakewood because the emergency brake cable was loose.  So I dropped the car off, then rode my bike from the shop down to Celeron, back to Lakewood for coffee at Ryder's Cup, then back to the Keystone Auto, near Smith Boys.  I was dog tired after the ride, definitely out of shape but I was not helped by a heavy wind on the way back.  Still, it felt good to be on my bike again.  The car was ready so I threw my bike in the trunk and drove home, to a lunch of chili on rice.  Yum.

Burgers and Beer At Pine Junction, Findlay Lake, NY

We had plans to go to Pine Junction, just outside of Findlay Lake at 4:15.  We were going to walk the lake, about two hours, then go out for dinner.  Around 3:30 Mc Clures called and we decided to put it off because it was overcast and quite cool.  So we left around 6:00, skipped the walk, and enjoyed the newly renovated restaurant.  Last fall, they enclosed their open porch so there's much more seating inside, a good idea.  It had a good crowd, mostly locals still, and the outside barbecue was going, offering ribs and steaks on the weekend.  We had a couple of pitchers of Yuengling, burgers, with fries. and stayed till about 8:00.  We then drove home at dusk, through the soft hills and green fields of Western New York.

We got home just as the sky darkened, watched some TV for an hour, then went up to bed to read before going to sleep.  It's always good to get home, get into comfortable clothes and relax in one's own living room after a night out.  A sign of getting older or old?  I wonder.

Sunny Morning As High Waters Ebb Slightly

6:13

Up at 6:04, lot of sunshine in the living room, as it looks like I am going to have to get up much earlier to see the sunrise.  The lake waters are still high, edging up on to our lawn in spots though our dock pieces are not underwater.  In some areas of the lake, they are and some have floated away.  It sounds as if we might have some isolated showers today, nothing severe...I hope.

Yesterday, for me, was a waste though it began well, with breakfast in Bemus with the guys.  We ended up talking about our college experiences, not something we like to remember.  How silly and careless we were, with alcohol as the main catalyst to untoward behavior.  Sounds like things have not changed much in 50 years.  After breakfast,  I  had to drive into Ohio,  for my yearly check up with my cardiologist, so I left at 10:00, did not return back to the lake until 4:30.  I think I may find a local doctor since my appointment took all of about ten minutes though I did have one test which took about fifteen minutes.  A long way to go for less than a half hour.

Debris on Flooding Lake Side

Sheriff Towing Lost Boat

While I was driving, Evie was busy overseeing the lake's rise, worrying about docks floating away.   The wind picked up and small waves started lapping over the docks so she and our neighbor Jim Fox ended up filling various containers, scavenged from garages, even attics, filling them with water and putting them on various docks, to keep them from floating away.  According to the CLA the lake is up 18" than normal.  So far, it's worked and if it does not rain much over the next few days, we should have no problem along Woodlawn, though a couple of dock pieces about six houses from us did float away though rescued by Shane, just in the nick of time.  Boats have been warned to stay off the lake because of the debris but it does not stop the fishermen.  The afternoon was nice enough for Evie to relax on the dock, read  some, and enjoy the sunny but cool weather.

Evie spent a good part of the afternoon putting together a homecoming dinner for me, hot dogs and left over chili!!!!  So I combined both and had chili dogs, just like you might get at your favorite food stand in the city.  We watched our usual, Stewart and Colbert, plus an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. He can be so vulgar, so blasphemous, politically and socially, but so funny.  Not every one's cup of tea but we like it.

Random Think: "People are more afraid of living than they are of dying." Romanian writer  E. M. Cioran

High Waters But Sunshine So Far

s

6:55 Sunshine

Slept in till 6:45, awoke to lots of sunshine, the lake just about to seep over the lip of our wall.  It's to be a cooler day, high of 61º, and so far, gentle winds and clear skies.  Let's hope we don't have much more rain after yesterday's two to three inches, even four in some areas around the lake.

Yesterday was a wet and stormy morning, yard puddled, lake rising, docks in some danger of being submerged or floating away.  I decided to go to yoga since it was Elise's last class, one of my gurus for the last three years.  She is moving to Colorado.  As a send off, I gave her small pin with an evil eye, to keep her safe.  I was surprised that only six people were in class but most likely the weather kept people away.  In fact, as I was driving to class, a huge tree fell across Summit Avenue in Lakewood, about a quarter of a mile from class.  I must have arrived just after it fell, as one car was in front of me, and a large electrical fire was blazing in the middle of the road.  Fortunately, I was able to take a side street as the emergency vehicles arrived.  After class, it was clear that flooding was a problem, anywhere near streams and lowlands, as the creeks were overflowing their banks, flooding any homes or trailers that sat along them, especially Goose Creek.  Sears parking lot of was flooded, but Wegman's was fine as was Home Depot.

Flotsam in Lake

Keeping Our Neighbor's Dock in Place

Shore Line Debris

When I got home, the rain had stopped but Evie was worried about more rain, especially our dock as well as the Leonards.  The water was up to the rails and if it rained any more, or the wind picked up, we could be in trouble.  So we spent part of the afternoon, putting barrels with water on Leonard's dock, and I fastened my dock pieces to the metal horses with wood screws, hoping that would hold the pieces together.  Some of our neighbors did similar precautionary work, raising the wooden pieces, or placing barrels on them like us.  So far, we have not had anymore rain though it was predicted, the same for today but nothing like Tuesday night.  After we worked on the docks, we ended up relaxing on our dock's end piece, with a beer and chips, enjoying the warm, even sunny end of the day.   No wind, no rain, just lots of flotsam floating by, a few fishermen out.  Boating will be dangerous the next couple of days because of all the debris.

Late Afternoon Clouds Over Long Point

For dinner, Evie put together a chicken curry, with cauliflower and broccoli, and served it over rice, just what we wanted, something spicy and healthy.  We watched another episode of Friday Night Lights and the final episode of American Idol, overdone at times, especially Jennifer Lopez's song and dance. It was embarrassing to watch her try to be a Beyonce.  

A Night And Morning Of Thunder, Lightning, And Heavy Rains

6:05 Eerie. Stormy Skies

6:25

Victoria Creek Flow

Flotsam From Creeks

I woke on and off during the night to thunder, constant lightning, rain on the roof, the same when I got up at 6:00, the same at the moment at 7:00, rain, thunder, and lightning.  Add to that a flooded front and side yard and road, a muddy lake, a changing sky, but little wind surprisingly.  Lots of flotsam floating by, however, a result of the heavy rains, streams pouring stuff into the lake. Victoria creeks sounds like a river, the source of most of the debris  -- boaters beware.   I did walk out on to the dock during a brief hiatus, but hurried back inside when it started to thunder and lightning.  And even though the sun has risen, it's getting darker and darker.  I cannot remember a storm like this in quite awhile.  And it's to continue on and off the rest of the day, perhaps tomorrow as well.  Hope it clears up for the Memorial Day Weekend.

Yesterday I was back to yoga, a class of one for the first time, just me and Courtney.  I feel bad for her because she's new, has yet to get a following of students.  After yoga, I had lots of little errands, getting my boat battery charged, returned cans to the can man, coming home and finding Evie was cutting the lawn again, a smart move because of the predicted rain.  I then drove off to Mayville, to renew my boat and trailer licenses and miracles of miracles, no one was in line, so I was done within five minutes, a first at the DMV.  On the way home, I stopped at Tops for some groceries, than at the Lighthouse for a chicken salad sub.  I made it just in time as when I paid and walked out the door, there was a line up of 30 guys, obviously construction workers from the area.

Multitasking: Putting In the Dock, Talking On The Phone

We had the sub for lunch, watched Stewart and Colbert, are quickly back in our routine.  The rest of the afternoon we just vegged out, probably a result of our long day yesterday.  We just did not feel like doing much.  I did go over to Chautauqua Brick to pick up a couple of cement blocks, to hold up my kayak rack.  Around 6:00, we sat down to relax, with wine and cheese, and watched the guys put in the Leonard's dock, as it got darker and darker, and started to rain.  I give them credit, as they stuck it out, then put in our ladder and a pole for my boat.  They were not done till around 8:30.

We had salmon, spinach, and rice for dinner, watched Mad Men and American Idol, and went to bed around 10:00 as I finished Patterson's ALONG CAME A SPIDER and started his next Alex Cross thriller, KISS THE GIRLS.  It's very similar to the first, just a different serial killer, so I am not sure I will stick with it.

A View From The Porch

6:34

7:01

Late Afternoon Sun, Freshly Cut Grass

It's now 7:00 and I have been up since 6:25, a quiet morning here on the lake, overcast, a gray but shimmering lake, the sounds of a few birds, probably purple martins and NPR.  It seems strange to be back in my living room, after a few days in Darien.  I keep waiting for the Albarrans to awaken and come trooping down the steps.

We left Darien around 6:30 yesterday, as we were up before 6:00.  Before we left, we promised Marisa we would wake her and say good bye.  She gave us both half asleep hugs, then curled up again, under her covers and went to sleep, a great way to start our drive.  Roads were fine, the drive took our usual seven hours, with brief stops for breakfast and lunch.  We had sun most of the way, the hills now varying shades of green, as most of the trees are in bloom.  Chautauqua is still a couple of weeks behind Darien, as the leaves are just starting to burst here at the lake, to show their green.

Summer Ready

Unpacking gets easier and easier as we take less and less on our trips.  We were in and settled within ten minutes, even unpacked.  Everything seems fine with the house, yard, a few twigs down from last weeks storm but that's about it.  I had them picked up in 15 minutes once we settled in.  Around 4:00, Evie got her mojo back and decided to cut our lawn but ended up cutting up our next door neighbor's yard as well.  It was perfect weather out, so it was great to be outside, working in the yard.  Both yards look great, like golf courses, the spring green color, no brown spots, weeds chopped.  I checked on my boat, and it looks ready to put in the water, so I charged my battery, making sure everything is ready for launching sooner than later.

Late Afternoon Sail

For dinner, we had Trader Joe's ready to eat ribs, along with cole slaw and baked red potatoes, easy and filling.  Neither one of us are used to it being light till 8:30, eating dinner in sunlight rather than the darkness of winter.  We caught up on some of our TV series, which filled a good part of the evening before going to bed at 11:00.  A long day, with the drive, cutting the lawn, so we were both very tired at the end of the day.