A Damp, Partly Cloudy Morning

5:38

5:41

6:00

It seems like Evie and I are alternating sleeping in.  Yesterday was my morning, today, however, I was up by 5:30 and Evie is just now awakening at 7:00.  The sun has just risen above the heavy clouds, half of the lake glistening, the other half still gray.  The sounds of martins mix with NPR, and I can feel the humidity, well over 90% according to the the Weather Underground site, but 87% on my weather station.  Possible rain early, then clearing and it looks like a great weekend of sun and warm weather, a good deal for the weekenders.

Yesterday began with breakfast at the Bemus Point Inn, five of us old timers, plus a number of other tables of guys our age.  Next week will be our last gathering until fall because of the opening of the Chautauqua Institution.  Not a lot of gossip, just some talk about the CI and its changes over the years, not for the better of course, and lots of talk about fishing, two of the guys went trout fishing in PA for five days with little luck.  We also talked about gardens, mostly vegetable though Jack is deep into his hops, which he started to grow two years ago.  Saturday he's having a hop party, hoping lots of friends who love beer will come and help plant more hops.  He's become quite an expert on them, will give a talk next week at the Cornell Hop Conference or something like that.  None of the guys have much interest in the NBA playoffs, in the World Cup in Brazil.  Like me, they, too, have less and less interest in sports.

After breakfast, I drove up to where my boat is parked, put on my new registration stickers for both the boat and trailer, installed my battery and tested to make sure it was charged, threw in docking ropes and life jackets and it's now ready to launch sometime this morning, whenever my neighbor Joe Deault stops down to help.  When I got home, Evie was working again on pictures for Shutterfly but we were having  trouble getting them on to an album on the site.  So I gave them a call and spent over a half hour trying to get it to work, even spent time with the first team and none were of any help.  Supposedly my computer, a Mac, which they did not seem to know much about, will not download Java and Adobe Photoshop, which are needed for the program to work.  So, after failing with Shutterfly's help, I went on line to see if I could find any info on Google Chrome and Shutterfly.  After some search, I found a site which said that Chrome was not compatible with Shutterfly for some reason. So, I closed Google Chrome and used Safari as my browser and viola, Shutterfly worked.  Perhaps I ought to be a shutterfly 'genius.'

Around 1:00, I drove into Jamestown, for a stress test at the WCA hospital.  I passed with flying colors, no problems, liked the nurses who worked with me though the doctor looked unhealthy enough to warrant a test and was hardly communicative.  I am beginning to think that the manner of the doctor is just as important as his expertise.  They need to understand that showing interest in a patient, being empathetic is extremely important.  The nurses knew this, the doctor did not.  Within hours, I had a copy of the test results from my primary doctor's web site.  He's very conscientious, sent me a message that I could view the results on the Mayville portal.  

I was home by 3:00, after stopping at Wegman's again, to buy Evie some flowers (a good husband), and then watched the first World Cup match between Brazil and Croatia, a poorly played, uninspired game which Brazil won but probably shouldn't of.  And I checked into the US Open golf occasionally, so I spent the afternoon ensconced in the TV room.

For dinner, I had the last of the chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy dinner, along with a great arugula salad.  We watched Stewart and Colbert, then an episode of Orange Is The New Black, before the NBA game.  I watched the first half, another amazing performance by the San Antonio Spurs, rivaling their first half from Tuesday night.  Those two half's of basketball were the best I have ever seen by a pro team, lots of passing, unselfishness, and little one on one or 'going for yourself.'  The contrast between the teamwork of the Spurs, avoiding 'stickiness with the basketball' and the individual play of the Heat was obvious and the better team won.  NBA basketball is worth watching when the Spurs play.