Mergansers, Geese, Robins, Fog, Raindrops On The Roof---Spring

6:45

Long Point at 7:00

A Surreal Melting Chautauqua Lake at 7:00

I was awake at 5:30, reluctantly arose at 6:30 because of staying up late, watching a disappointing Wisconsin loss to Duke in the NCAA Finals.  Duke deserved to win, alas.   It's 45º out, thus the fog, and I cannot remember a morning this warm since November. The lake ice is slowly disappearing, and a narrow channel has opened from our shoreline to Long Point, a gathering waterway for diving ducks.

Chautauqua Lake Divides

Yesterday started out sunny and warm, but my mid afternoon, it had clouded over and began to rain.  I left for yoga at 9:00, just as Barb arrived to begin painting.  Evie was excited because by the end of the day, we would have another bedroom done.  Yoga felt good, the reason I go and there were only eight of us, surprising because the day seemed to invite residents to get out of their homes and enjoy the sunny morning.  When I got home, Evie and Barb were laughing, sort of, because they thought that Sherwin Williams had mixed the wrong paint.  They even called to complain, only to find out that Saturday, when Evie and I were painting, we (no doubt ME!) had put the wrong lid on the paint can. And when Evie repainted a door this morning, Barb noticed it was a matte not satin, thus the call to Sherwin Williams, the sheepish apology when they found out the wrong lid had been put on. Fortunately for Evie (and me) only one door had to be repainted so it was not a major catastrophe.  I learned to stay as far away from the process as possible.

Red Breasted Mergansers

Because it was a beautiful morning, we decided to cook burgers out for dinner, so I drove to the Lighthouse to get some ground chuck.  Poor timing as I had to wait in line with 15 others, all there to get a sub sandwich for lunch.  I was in no great hurry, however, so I waited, finally got my order, and drove home. When I returned home,  Evie and Barb were eating lunch at the dining room table, and Barb was enjoying a bowl of Evie's homemade vegetable soup.  I had pizza, soup, and watched one more episode of Banshee, two more to go.

A Family of Hooded Mergansers

Barb finished up our back bedroom by 3:00 and both Evie and I like it though it is a little darker blue than we thought.  Paint chips never look the same on the wall.  The room, however,  is an amazing and fun contrast to the linen white we had in all our bedrooms.  At 4:00, I drove over to Chautauqua Brick to get the paint for our small bedroom, an orange called Adobe Dust.  When the guy was mixing it, he was surprised at how many different colors went in to the making of this color.  It was four dollars more than at Sherwin Williams, but we liked the color enough to splurge!  Let's see how we feel after it's on the wall later today.   On my way home, I stopped at Hogans and bought Evie her favorite, Lays chips, hoping she would forgive my 'paint lid fiasco.'  It worked because we both relaxed with a beer, some chips and dip, watching the ducks dive, waiting to make dinner.

I cooked the burgers outside around 7:00 in a light rain, of course.  We had baked beans and salad with the burgers, and watched the newest episode of Mad Men,  a disappointment.  It was as if the writers did not where to go and where they did go, they over did it, exaggerating to the point of ridiculousness.  We also had time to watch The Good Wife, before the main event, the Wisconsin/Duke basketball game.

It was funny in retrospect, how upset I got when it appeared Duke would win.  Why get angry about a silly basketball game.  But, that's the way we (me) are programmed I guess, to care about sports.  I wanted Wisconsin to win because they do things the right way, developing players over four years, a contrast to Duke's 'one and done' freshmen.  But talent wins out in the end (four freshmen basically scored all their points) and Duke's players were just better defensively, quicker and better shooters in the clutch.  I went up to read with ten seconds left, thinking "Breathe, Practice, Repeat," Duke having wrapped up another title.