A Fall Like Day

6:37

7:07

I slept in, for me, getting up at 6:20, missing the sunrise though I am sure the heavy, threatening cloud bank blocked its rising.  It's a chilly 43º, a high of 55º later in the day, and freeze warnings for tonight and tomorrow morning.

We both could not help thinking that yesterday seemed like a fall, dark clouds, windy, and chilly; everything about it reminded us of a day in October except that trees were starting to turn green, rather than fall colors.  Yesterday we spent, once again, deciding where to hang our art, what goes best on what wall, in what room, whether TV room, living room, or bedroom.  We have lots of things to hang but are thinking hard about where things go.  So, after moving from room to room, putting up pictures, changing them, trying them in various rooms, we are further along but have yet to hang anything.  We will do that today as we are 85% sure about where to hang things, what pictures we have decided to discard or give away.  We want what we hang to mean something to us, which means its a picture of family or somewhere we have lived or visited, like Hawaii, Turkey, the Far East and Peru.  On tomorrow's blog, I hope I can say we did it, finished hanging pictures in all the rooms.

Yesterday was another day of angst concerning our cars.  We had decided to take the Pilot on our trip but the air conditioning was not working, would cost 250 bucks to fix.  We at first vetoed it  but then realized we would need the Pilot for our trip to Top Sail, NC, in early July, to bring Tom and family from the Raleigh/Durham airport to Top Sail, and to bring some of our grandchildren back to Chautauqua.  We thought of renting a van but it would be more expensive then spending money on the car.  So, we are putting more money into the Pilot, hoping it will hold up till the fall when we will trade it in for some thing new.

In my quest for new cars, I discovered some good news.  The Subaru Outback, one of the two cars I was considering, has a towing capacity large enough for my boat, 2700 pounds, compared to the Honda CRV's 1500.  Since they both get the same mileage, are comparable in price, I am leaning towards the Outback.  So, I talked to a dealer in Buffalo and went  to Shults in Jamestown to test drive.  I was comfortable sitting in the driver's seat, liked the way it drove, and for now, that's going to be the car I want but will wait till the end of summer or fall to get one.  It's also a car in high demand, unfortunately, as the dealers have little if any inventory because its in such demand.  Let's hope that changes when comes fall.  Enough about cars, I hope until the summer fades.  On the way home from the dealer, I stopped at Peterson's Vegetable Stand, picked up some broccoli and cheddar/horseradish cheese spread.

Late afternoon, we put on our jackets, powered up both lawn mowers, and we cut two yards, as the wind whipped through the trees, the white caps hit the wall, bouncing backwards into the lake.  We knew rain was coming so we wanted to get the lawns cut and Evie just wanted to get some exercise so she cut our lawn twice.

Yesterday at Dusk

We didn't sit down with a glass or wine and crackers and cheddar/horseradish spread until 6:30.  The sky was dark and threatening, still windy, and because of the lack of neighbors, it did seem like autumn.  We listened to Alt Nation, the music channel we have always liked, talked our trip to Virginia and then Connecticut, to visit our grandchildren, and avoided talking about cars and picture hanging.  Dinner was amazing, just what I wanted.  Monday evening, Evie put together a teriyaki marinade, lots of garlic, ginger, soy, honey,  fish sauce, sesame oil and vinegar then marinated 8 chicken thighs for 24 hours, massaging the marinade into the thighs occasionally.  Then, yesterday as we sipped our wine, Evie covered the chicken with foil, and baked it in the marinade, skin side down for 40 minutes.  Then, she took the foil off, turned the chicken skin side up, turned the heat up to 375, and baked it for another 30 minutes.  When it was done, the sauce/marinade was not as thick as the recipe suggested, but it was delicious, with rice and broccoli.  And best of all, we made enough for Thursday night's dinner.  We watched the first half of the Cavs game and I will watch the second half today. So far I have been able to avoid the results.  And we watched American Idol until 10:30, shocked that our favorite singer, Jax, was eliminated.

And just before going to bed, I finished Richard Flanagan's THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH, which I really liked and it won the Mann Booker Prize as well.  One of the center pieces of the novel is a poem I have taught many times, Alfred Lloyd Tennyson's 'Ulysses" which I have attached below.  It's one of the most famous poems in the English language and has been an inspiration to many.  Enjoy.

Ulysses

BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

It little profits that an idle king,

By this still hearth, among these barren crags,

Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole

Unequal laws unto a savage race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink

Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd

Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when

Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;

For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known; cities of men

And manners, climates, councils, governments,

Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;

And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'

Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades

For ever and forever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!

As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life

Were all too little, and of one to me

Little remains: but every hour is saved

From that eternal silence, something more,

A bringer of new things; and vile it were

For some three suns to store and hoard myself,

And this gray spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

         This is my son, mine own Telemachus,

To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil

This labour, by slow prudence to make mild

A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees

Subdue them to the useful and the good.

Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere

Of common duties, decent not to fail

In offices of tenderness, and pay

Meet adoration to my household gods,

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

         There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,

Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—

That ever with a frolic welcome took

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;

Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

'T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.