A Fine Morning

6:40

Up at 6:40, the sun already high in the sky, some clouds but now, at 7:50, it's overcast and still cool, a 55º.  I can hear the martins singing, a welcome sound each morning, competing with NPR's Morning Edition.

Yesterday was windy and cool but sunny all day, again, fall like.  It was nice on the lake early, so we went out to kayak at 8:30, heading across to Long Point and back to Victoria.  Because I was going to yoga, we were out for little more than a half hour but it's a great way to start the day, on the lake, the only boats in sight.  I went to yoga at 9:30, along with our neighbor's daughter and granddaughter who are visiting.  They both are yoga fans, have been to Eight Limbs Studio before, so they were comfortable, even though it was a new studio.  Afterwards, I went to the mall to look for some water shoes, stopped at the Discount Shoe store, and walked out with some Krocs as well as Teva's, so I am ready for any kind of water, whether on the sandy beaches of Top Sail, North Carolina (ten more days), the sand and mud of Chautauqua Lake.  Best of all, I think I got a deal!

Mom And Her Raft Of Ducklings

It was sunny and windy when I got home, making it difficult to go out kayaking, so I made lunch, heating up leftover pizza and having some of the black bean soup I made on Saturday.  I made enough for ten so I assusme I will be eating it all week, fine with me as lunch without soup is not a 'real lunch.'  I have been struggling with the book I just started, WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES, about a young girl who had something traumatic happen to her and her family at the age of five.  She gives hints that her sister disappeared but no explanation about why until about a  third of the way through, when we find out her sister is a chimpanzee.  That just about did it for me though I stuck with it for another fifty pages before putting it aside.  Since then I have started a Jane Smiley novel, SOME LUCK, though I have been put off by the first part which describes life from the point of view of the Langdon's infant son, how he goes about making sense of the world.  Boring.  So I started John Le Carre's TINKER, TAILOR, SOLIDER, SPY and am liking it so far.  Is it the books or my mood that make me so particular?

Sailing School

Anyways, mid afternoon, I went out and emptied my garage, swept out the dampness and mud, a result of the heavy rains, and left it empty to dry out.  I then went out on the dock, set my chaise lounge so the wind would hit my back, and read and fell asleep briefly.  I then gathered the lake weeds, which had dried to almost nothing on our dock, and put them in a barrel, then put my garage back together. Chores done for the day.

Burgers and Beers At Pine Junction

At 6:00, the Ron and Linda picked us up and we took a half hour drive, through the picturesque farms of Chautauqua County to Pine Junction, one of our favorite restaurants, set in the sticks, the country, just outside of Findlay Lake.  It was busy but not crowded, a nice evening to sit inside but surrounded by green.  We all had burgers, our favorite, with great sweet potato fries.  And then, the McClures told us about the heavy storm on Monday, which took down another one of their huge maple trees (the second in two years), much to our surprise because the storm did not seem that bad at our end of the lake.  So within a week, both of us have lost a maple, perhaps the only two in the area, at least that's the way it seemed since the tree guys were able to come over the next day and clear the trees.

We got home  around 9:30, in time to watch The Daily Show before going up to bed to read.  A good day.