July Opens With Heat and Humidiy

6:00

6:22

It's not yet 6:00 and I am sitting on my front porch, listening to the martins compete with NPR.  the flags occasionally flutter from the southerly breeze, the sun about to appear over Long Point, to start the day anew.  Heat is the word for today, high in the upper 80's like yesterday, with thunderstorms, some heavy, in the afternoon.  Right now I feel like the only person on earth, no boats, wait I take that back, as I just spotted one coming this way from Bemus Bay.  The upper edge of the sun is peaking over the shoreline, time for a photograph at 6:00.   Just saw a couple of blue herons fly by, like low flying drones, and now the cawing of crows drowns out the martins.

We knew yesterday was going to be a hot one so we closed up the house early, by 9:00, as the outside temperature matched the inside, cheap air conditioning but it works well.  Even though  it was warm early, I went to yoga, a good sized class despite the heat.  A couple classes are cancelled this week because of the holidays so I am glad it went.  Talking to a couple of friends who both mentioned that they thought tourism this summer was way down and wondered if it was the economy or health of the lake, the weeds and algae blooms though neither seems a problem yet.  We agree that the lake seems awfully quiet so far...we are not complaining by the way.  When I got home, I stepped out of the car into what felt like an oven.  I felt energized, however, so I took advantage of my mojo and went for a long kayak paddle, working up a sweat, followed by a cooling swim.  I was then ready for some lunch and soccer.

 Girl And Her Dog

Evie spent the morning on the dock, enjoying taking photos of neighbors grandchildren playing in the lake and under the tree reading.  And there is no better place to read then on our dock, or in the shade of our trees when it gets too warm.  She also spent part of the morning putting together a gargantuan shopping list for next week...it's scary!  Evie's making stuffed shells for our son in law's retirement party on July 19th and close to a hundred people are expected.  How many shells do you make for a hundred people?  Fortunately, our friend Linda McClure has volunteered to help, so next week, we will have a shell stuffing party.  All are welcome.

I may have mentioned earlier that I bought Evie a new camera for her birthday.  Well,  we have decided it's great but not different enough from our old camera to justify the expense.  So Evie packed it up, and I called B& H Photo in New York City to make sure we packed and sent things correctly.  By the way, they are great, helpful and knowledgeable, and if you ever need a camera, give them a call. Prices are great, shipping is free, and it's easy to return if it's within 30 days.  So, after we packed the camera up, I drove off to Lakewood to the post office, then to the Prendergast Library in Jamestown to pick up a couple of Kent Haruf novels for Evie as she is finishing his latest, BENEDICTION, and wants to read his earlier novels.  I also picked up a couple of new novels I wanted to read, the latest Alan Furst, MIDNIGHT IN EUROPE,  Robert Galbraith's (J. K. Rowling) THE SILKWORM, and Daniel Brown's  THE BOYS IN THE BOAT.   A productive stop.

When I got home, Evie was cutting the lawn, so I helped out by moving all the chairs and furniture out of the way, then went out and worked on steadying the end piece of our dock, always a problem because of it's height.  I screwed in a couple of brackets, holding the pieces together, hoping that will help.  I worked up quite a sweat as it's awkward working under the dock.  Of course, I dropped my socket wrench in the water once (it took me five minutes of diving to find it but I did).  After our workouts, Evie and I sat on our dock till about 7:00, enjoying the breeze and a beer, then going in for a swim just before it was time to start dinner.  What a beautiful night to sit on the dock, enjoying the waning sun.

For dinner, Evie had breaded some pork schnitzel, so they were ready to fry but she also made a potato galette to go along with the schnitzel and a salad.  A pound of pork sliced thin is enough for a meal, perhaps two or at least a lunch.  I love it, with melting butter and lemon on top. We ate out on the front porch again, trying to find the perfect method for eating without a table...we tried trays.  Then,  we attempted to watch 24, had it DVR-ed, but for some reason, the saved show was MSNBC, not Fox. We could not figure out what happened, so we ended up watching the last half on another Fox channel.  I wonder if this was a problem with our DVR, Time Warner, or Fox.  Anyways, Jack is still alive, though he's chasing terrorists, the disgruntled Chinese who imprisoned him for a year, while Russians are chasing Jack.  It's getting too complicated and I don't think I can take more than two episodes of Chloe's grimacing...enough!