Where Did The Sun Go?

6:52

It' now almost 7:00, and  I have been up for forty five minutes.  It's overcast and very wet outside, no wind however, the lake strangely calm and quiet, with less than inch of rain yesterday which surprises me because it seemed to rain all day.  It's 48º at the moment, strangely warm and humid when I walked outside, expecting it to be much colder.  Breakfast in an hour so I better get this done.

Yesterday was another wasted day, except for yoga in the morning.  Fortunately, it rained on and off during the day, so it was a good day to drive to Erie to get my Honda's oil changed, brakes and other parts checked over.  I am not sure it is worth it to drive that far, but I have the probably mistaken belief that a Honda dealer knows the car better than the shops here in Jamestown.  Anyways, I had yoga from 10:00 to 11:30, got home around noon, then drove off to Erie, for my appointment at 2:00.  I had time before my appointment to do some browsing at Lowe's, looking at grills and lawn mowers, though we don't need either yet.  Had lunch at Chick Filet, then waited at the Honda dealer for over an hour and a half for an oil change.  Fortunately, no major problems with the brakes, though lots of things are rusting, and I will have to keep an eye on them.  Let's hope I can get through one more year with my two Hondas, then start looking for a new car.  It rained my entire drive home from Erie, ah Chautauqua.  Nothing like your weather...at least we didn't get two feet of rain in twenty four hours like Pensacola, FL.  I cannot imagine a downpour like that here at the lake.

Early Spring Green, The Ubiquitous Skunk Cabbage Dots The Woodlawn/Victoria Woods

When I got home, Evie had been out too, shopping at Sam's and Wegman's, picking up salmon for dinner.  We have both missed not being able to get outside during the past few days because of the weather and our front yard is a mess of downed branches from our trees, none huge, just lots of them littering our yard.  It's supposed to clear up later today so I hope to get to them and clean up the yard in the afternoon.

We had salmon, spinach, and rice for dinner around 6:30.  It's strange to be eating in daylight, as I have mentioned no doubt before, the sun not setting till 8:15.  We watched the usual on TV, then went up to bed around 10:30.  I finished my Alex Milius thrilled THE SPANISH PRISONER, started another book, just out, called ASTONISH, ME, by Maggie Shipstead, who also wrote SEATING ARRANGEMENTS, which I read last week.

If anyone reading this is on Facebook, you are famiiar with the lists they often post.  One caught my eye, the top  twenty five cities you must visit in your lifetime.  The number one city on the list was Istanbul...amazing.  It certainly would have not been that way in 1970 when we arrived at Yesilkoy Airport, gloomy and unkempt, like a huge warehouse.  Today, Yesilkoy would put any airport in the USA to shame, that's how far Turkey has changed in the past forty years, good and bad, as many of the things we loved about Turkey have gone, taken over by modernity. But the Istanbul we spent five weeks visiting in 2009 was, as the list suggests, one of the great cities in the world, set on five hills, historic, with its Byzantine and Ottoman history, modern with its chic hotels, scenic with the Bosporus separating the European side from the Asian, friendly with the hospitality of the Turks, and a food lover's heaven, with the marvelous Turkish cuisine, a combination of Middle Eastern and Greek food.  I wish I were there right now, having a breakfast of a menemen, with beyaz peynir, a simit, and some Turkish chai.

A Glass of Turkish Chai