Another Spectacular Morning, Rocco's in Fredonia

6:24

6:36

6:53

I did not get up until 7:00 and Evie was already up, a first, and she has already taken at least 30 photographs of the amazing sky.  It's actually supposedly to be spring like today, some sun, rain later, the high near 50º until it begins to drop again tomorrow and Friday, with snow possible.  The weather gods must be stuck in winter, no other explanation.

6:54

Yesterday was sunny but cool out, perfect for a hike or walk which we did not take.  I did get to yoga at 9:30, however, a good boy,  but came straight home to a house a total mess.  I had forgotten what painting a room does to the rest of the house, as you have to move things and put them somewhere, thus all the rooms, kitchen, living room, are are mess.  The ceiling in the kitchen and dining room were redone from when I did them in 2011 but left the surface somewhat rough in places,  Now it looks professionally done.  And our TV room at its first coat and Evie, of course, is having second thoughts about colors because it never looks the same as the swatch and the color changes as the day goes, depending on the light.  And at night, with just a simple lamp and TV on, the color, a silver sage, was hardly noticeable.  The verdict this morning from Evie: 'it looks better but I don't know if I love it.'  O, know, another day of angst, trying to decide if the paint we decided on should be the paint we decide on.

7:00

And I don't know if I mentioned it yesterday, but Evie drove to the CI and picked up an enormously heavy door that was being thrown away.  She thought we might be able to use it in some imaginative way.  Well, we have no imagination, obviously, so when I got home, we drove back to the CI and left the door by the dumpster.

I was able to eat up the leftover spaghetti carbonara for lunch, eat in the living room, and read among the painting detritus.  Since I was up at 5:00, I was able to go upstairs and take a energizing hour nap while the good women painted and kibitzed.  Barb left around 3:00 and because we had the ceiling in the kitchen repainted, it made us think once again about getting a more interesting light, perhaps a hanging one, above our kitchen island.  So we checked around and the nearest lighting store was in Fredonia, about 35 minutes away.  We could not make up our minds whether to take off for Fredonia or put it off, then decided what the heck, let's just do it.  The store, Pattons Lighting, Furniture and Appliances is along the strip of chain stores in Fredonia, just before you get on Interstate 90.  The store had an amazing inventory of lighting, but not a lot that fit our needs.  And some of the choices were mega expensive, up into the five hundreds, depending on how many small hanging lights you wanted,  We finally found one, a hammered, antique pewter, 13 inches wide, at a decent price.  We were able to take it home and if we don't like it, we can return it within a week.

Since we were in Fredonia, we stopped in Tuscany, a cool Italian deli and meat market, browsed the goodies and Evie found a timer which she could either pin or wear around her neck on a chain, perfect for being outside playing beanbag while the casserole cooked inside.  She's thinking summer. By the time we were through shopping, it was 5:45, both of us were getting thirsty and we realized we were five minutes away from one of our favorite restaurants, Rocco's, so we decided to go have a  beer at the bar before heading home.  Well, once I get Evie to a bar, it's hard to get her out, as we quickly struck up conversations with the bartender and patrons.  So we stayed, sat at the bar, and ordered our dinners, both amazingly good, mine a pasta with homemade bolognese sauce, and Evie, the two inch thick, eggplant parmesan, what she always orders.  We got to find out a little about Rocco's, that it's part of what used to be called 'Little Italy,' and the bar was originally a barber shop and numbers parlor. I think every town had it's 'Little Italy,' many having disappeared as the Italians moved out and neighborhoods changed.

Phil And Sherry, At Rocco', Fredonia

Anyways, we were talking with one of the regulars, when another couple sat down, and we struck up a conversation with them as well, Phil and Sherry, both from Fredonia.  Phil had ordered a Red Stripe and Evie asked what that was, and I said, "A Jamaican beer.  We, then, started talking with them and found that they had just returned from a marvelous eight day stay in Jamaica, thus the Red Stripe.  As we talked, they had great stories to tell about their stay, the wonderful restaurants, the views, and the stumbles of traveling, like arriving at a Toronto hotel the night before their flight to Jamaica, only to realize their charge card did not work and they had little cash. Fortunately, a guy standing in line at the hotel overheard their problems, and just gave them 160 bucks, no strings attached.  Amazing. They were then able to pay for the hotel, but when they got to the airport the next morning, they realized Phil had left his wallet at the hotel.  No problem, as Sherry had  their passports so all was well.

We had a great time listening to their telling, fueled of course by a dirty martini and Red Stripes, but we ended up having a great time with them, a neat couple. We then got up to leave, started towards the door, when this guy walked in, looked at me and said.  "TD, what are you doing here?"  It was one of my former English students from when I was teaching English at Western Reserve Academy, in Hudson, Ohio, Nick Bentley.  He graduated in 2002, and we had not seen each other since then.  He was a great kid, from a farm in southern Ohio, an avid deer hunter even then,  rare among Reserve students.  Anyways, he has just moved here, to Jamestown, from Idaho where he had been working for eight years.  He was transferred to Blairs, a clothing company in Warren, PA.  What a coincidence, a good one.  We traded phone numbers and will no doubt get together.

Setting Sun: 8:24

We drove home, as the sun was setting over vast fields of snow covered corn stubble, lots of deer feeding on the remains.  We were home around 9:00, in time to move pictures and furniture from our bedroom because it is being painted today, and to watch some TV before going to bed. A boring day turned it to a really fun one.