FLORENCE GORDON: BRIAN MORTON

Reading the blurbs about this book, I thought it might be another OLIVE KITTERIDGE, one of my favorites.  And though Florence reminds me a bit of Olive, she is definitely her own person, an academic, respected feminist and writer, living alone, in New York City, happy only when she's by herself, at her computer, working on her memoir.  And that's how the book begins.  Unfortunately, she has a family, a daughter and son, a  granddaughter and an ex husband, who demand some of her time, alas. The novel begins with Florence's son, Daniel, a policemen returns to New York where his wife, Janine, and daughter, Emily have been living for a few months.  Florence is, of course, divorced.  Her daughter-in-law, Janine, is having an affair with her mentor, Lev, so things are pretty messy. To give you an idea of Florence, her friends gave here a surprise party and Florence, after thanking her them for their kindness, announced she was going home to write, and none of her friends found this unusual...it was just Florence being Florence. The center of the book of course is Florence but also the growing relationship between a reluctant Florence and her granddaughter, Emily, especially towards the end of the book when Florence is diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. She marshals on, refusing to make any concession for the disease, ignoring her family, but slowly allowing Emily to be part of her life.  A decent read but not as good as I hoped.

A Homeric Morning---A Rosy Colored Dawn

6:13

6:53

6:55

6:55

I awoke at 5:59, close enough to 6:00 so that I got up.   The sky was darkened, with a touch of rose when I walked outside, to the hum of the lake flies.  I read on my computer until 6:55 when the sun began to rise over Bemus Point, muted some by the morning haze.  It made it easier to photograph because the sun was not so bright,  a huge globe of orange hovering over the shoreline.  Again, I took lots of photos, too many.

Yesterday was another one of those days where we thought it might rain but it didn't.  It was warm and humid, like it always seems to be as September arrives and kids go back to school.  I can still remember the  heat of those first days, wanting to jump in Lake Erie after school to cool off.  And, of course, we were tough kids...no air conditioning for us!

Unitarian Service

Final Service Of The Summer

Anyways, instead of kayaking, we drove to the Chautauqua Institution, for a walk, and to attend briefly, the church service as it's the last day of the season.  This morning, anyone will be able to drive in or go for a walk with out the need of a pass.  We stopped first at the Unitarian Service, outdoors in the Hall of Philosophy and listened to them sing the Beatles' song, "All Your Need Is Love.'  It was fun. We then walked to the Amphitheater's church service, stayed for about fifteen minutes, wondering if there would be some form of protest because the Trustees finally decided to build a completely new Amphitheater over the next two years for 31 million, over the protests of what I assume was a small, but vocal minority, who wanted to keep the integrity of the old Amphitheater.  Nothing about this decision was mentioned at the service, no protests though I am sure there will still be attempts to thwart the decision over the next few months.  We walked for an hour, worked up quite a sweat so that by the time we got back to our car, we were soaked, the result of the humidity and 80 degree weather.  We drove to the Lighthouse to pick up an easier dinner, a rotisserie chicken, along with a sub for lunch, and finally stopped at a road side stand for some corn.  We were the ready for the day.

Smith Library Window

Not much to say about the rest of the day, as we alternated between the dock and the house, depending on how warm we got.  Because we close the windows in the morning, the house may be up to 10º cooler than outdoors.  And it was that way yesterday, as walking outside often felt like we walked into a sauna.  Around 5:00, I went for a quick paddle, over to Long Point and back, just to get some exercise, and Evie cut up an onion into rings and deep fried them, for a special treat for our pre dinner wine and appetizers.  By 5:30, the lake had calmed down and it was pleasant enough to sit our on the porch and devour the onion rings. Yum

Skeeter, Our Neighbor's Dog, Comes For A Visit

A Busy Late Afternoon On Long Point

Around 7:00, we sat down to a dinner of a half of chicken and corn and watched Real Time With Bill Maher, always amusing as well as some other forgettable shows.  I couldn't wait to get back to my book, I AM PILGRIM, a thriller by Terry Hayes.

It looks like a sunny, warm, and humid week, with highs in the 80's, good for the lake and boating, not hiking.

LAPHAM RISING: ROGER ROSENBLATT

A light weight read from a fairly heady guy.  Harry March has lived in a modest cottage in the Hampton's for years.  Unfortunately, he hates change, especially the modern love of the self, things, usually big things.  And across the water from his cottage, a Mc Mansion is going up, much to Harry's pique.  A good part of the book is spent in a dialogue between Harry and his dog, Hector, a Westie, who happens to be able to talk and for good measure, unlike Harry, he's a born again Christian.  I could see myself in much of Harry, bemoaning the loss of a way of life we were used to, we were comfortable with,  that time  before computers, iPhones,  iPads, and now the ubiquitous selfie, took over modern life.  His struggles to stop the building of this monstrosity ultimately fails miserably to his embarrassment, and he seems to, at the end, give in to this new way of life. Rosenblatt can be quite funny, making fun of modern man, especially those with wealth.  He knows the Hampton's well, the boutiques, the upscale cheese and cooking stores, the bistros catering to the rich. I was surprised I did not like the novel more because I agree with much of his ranting against consumerism,  modern materialism, its experiments in insignificance.  But the story, the narrative action. was lacking.  Too bad.  I much prefer his non fiction, especially KAYAK MORNING.

The Sun Finally Rises

6:32

6:37

6:45

6:50

6:52

Up at 6:30, to a spectacular pink/orange colored sky, so amazing that I ran outside barefoot, forgetting to turn on the coffee, to take photos.  The sun had yet to rise, thus the colors, and when it did rise, all the dynamic qualities disappeared,  Now, it's overcast and most of the rains clouds have passed south of us, alas.  This has been typical this summer of dry weather, storms passing north and south of us.  It's 63º, starting to warm up some, with temperatures in the 80's to come later in the week.

Yesterday was another fine day on the lake, mostly sunny, not too warm, clouding up some early afternoon, then clearing, bringing a lovely late afternoon and evening, no wind, a calm lake, a clear sky.  It was a perfect for an outdoor party celebrating our neighbor, Joe Bergen's 50th birthday.  It was mostly family and friends, plus the neighbors, so there were nearly 50 people.  Lots of beer of course and great appetizers and dinner.

Joe, The Birthday Boy In Orange, With Family and Friends

A Multi Generational Party

We, unfortunately in some ways, left early, since we had plans for dinner with other neighbors, the Johnstons', mistakenly thinking the party was from 2:00 to 5:00.  No doubt there were enough people so that we were hardly missed.  This is but a prologue to Evie's day, spent making potato chips in our fryer for the party, then onion rings for the salad we were taking to the Johnston's.  This may not seem time consuming but it is as after you slice them (mandolin indespensible) soak the potatoes in icy water, rinse well till the water runs clear, soak again in a light vinegar water, then rinse, dry and fry.  The frying takes a good hour and a half of sitting out on the porch, making batch after batch.  Meanwhile, I was busy outside, washing our car, clearing out the garage and organizing and sweeping it out.  And I started the task of putting the summer things away, up in the garage attic; it's always a pleasure to slowly put things away for the winter.  Evie was not done with the chips till 2:30 when we went over to the birthday party for a couple of hours, meeting the birthday boys family (he is one of nine brothers).  We left around 5:00 so Evie could make the onions straws which had been sitting in buttermilk, then dipping them in flour, cayenne pepper, and salt,  and deep frying them for two minutes.  They were amazing and I could not keep from eating them, so much so that Evie had to put them away to save them for our salad.

Dinner With John And Mary Anne Johnston

We went over to the Johnston's at 6:30 and stayed till almost 10:00.  They have a great house that's set back almost a hundred yards from the lake, so they have a huge lot in front of their house, leading down to the lake.  Like us, they love the water, living here in the winter, and they get out, too, in winter and summer, skating in the winter, canoeing in the summer, roller blading at Presque Isle.  And I remember them telling us about driving up to Ottawa this past winter, staying in the city, so that they could ice skate on the frozen canals.  It sounded amazing. We had appetizers on their porch, dinner of grilled chicken breasts, corn, pineapple, and melons, and a luscious homemade peach pie for dessert, with a topping of oatmeal, brown sugar and cinnamon, the best.  They are very proud of their sons, both have doctorates and we got to know them because they would put our dock in the lake back when they were in high school and college.  Now they are all grown up, one engaged, the other about to be.

So it was a busy but fun Saturday, with a birthday party and a dinner at a neighbor's house.  Today we have nothing on the agenda, the only decision being what to have for dinner.

NATCHEZ BURNING: GREG ILES

This was quite a change for me, a large novel (800 pages) set in the South, a thriller about the racial injustices in Mississippi during the 1960's.   The murder of retired black nurse Viola Turner in 1998 leads Penn Cage, a former prosecutor and now mayor of Natchez back to the 1960's when the Ku Klux Klan were running rampant over both the city, state and federal governments.  Reporter Henry Sexton, having lived through these times as a young boy, has been searching, researching and chronicling these abuses in his weekly newspaper and is finally ready to start naming perpetrators, beginning with local red necks, police,  and Natchez and Louisiana bigwigs. Penn's father, a revered doctor for fifty years also plays an important part in the story, having been a doctor in the 1960's and having employed the murdered nurse, Viola, for three years before she abruptly quit and went North. Also essential to the story is Penn's fiancee, Caitlin, who also happens to be a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and editor of the Natchez paper.

When Penn begins to look into the past, to the death of Viola, he gets pulled into the world of the 1960's, of killings of blacks, abetted by local cops and politicians.  And Penn finds his father is also somehow involved in all of these activities.  Soon, however, things heat up and Penn begins to undercover what locals were involved in the murders.  And just about at this time, Penn's father mysterious disappears without telling Penn where he is going.  Henry, who has been researching these murders for years, allows Penn and Caitlin to see his research, implicating the locals. When the stories start to get published, Henry is shot, survives and is taken to the hospital, only to be shot and killed again by a Ku Klux Klan-er.  As Penn digs deeper and deeper, more people get killed and they finally discover who killed Viola, the reason being to keep her from talking about the murder of her brother by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960's. There is some sort of closure but not much because there are two more volumes to follow.  The second volume, THE BONE TREE was just published a couple of months ago.  I liked this novel for  realistic portrayal of the rampant white racism, in the 1960's in Mississippi, where the white man reigned, the black man feared.  It seems like those times have not changed that much. My one pet peeve, how the story depends on Penn not telling his fiancee what he's doing, his father refusing to tell Penn where he's gone, Henry keeping the stories of the past to himself, all of which lead to the violence in the story.

A Sunny Beginning To The Weekend

6:49

7:07

Up just before 7:00, in time to watch the sun rise from a dot to a glowing ball, this time it's moved beyond the tip of Long Point, to Lakeside Drive.  A few pink/blue clouds and the rising sun makes for a gorgeous morning on the lake.  Unfortunately, what was billed as a sunny week will turn clouds, with thunderstorms tomorrow.  That's fine, as we need the rain.

Yesterday was another near perfect day, sun and cool, with a nice breeze.  We were not sure what to do but then I got the bright idea to take a hike on the Westside Trail, starting in Panama, about 15 minutes from our home.  We have been on the trail before and really like it, lots of pine trees and woods.  Unfortunately, as we started, Evie always signs in at the box at the trailhead where other hikes have also signed in.  One of the hikers mentioned having lost keys, the other said 'Watch Out For Bears.'  That was enough for us to cancel our hike after a quarter of a mile.  We know there are bears but when someone says, 'Watch Out For Bears,' it takes on a different meaning, like sharks sighting in the water this past July in Topsail.  So, we went home and did what we should have done, go kayaking for an hour.

 Joyce, Gardening And Bill Relaxing

We were back by 12:30, in time for me to make a tuna sandwich, billed as the best tuna sandwich ever, with cottage cheese, capers, and celery.  It was above average but not the best though the cottage cheese made it go farther, so that I will have the rest of it today for lunch.  Don't always believe what you read or hear (except for Donald Trump, of course).  We then did our usual, reading on the dock or inside, dozing off until around 4:00 when I took a bike ride down to Snug Harbor, down Davis Road and back, about forty five minutes.  It was not a good time to be on the main road, RT. 394 because of Friday traffic but I was careful, if you can be careful with cars whizzing by at 55 mph plus.

A Stuffed Eggplant Dinner With Ron and Linda

At 5:30, we drove to Tops Grocery to pick up a few things for the weekend, then went to McClures for dinner at 6:00.  I brought Ron a 12 pack of Old Vienna, the beer we always drink on the porch of the Lenhart, a bargain and drinkable at 7.99 a 12 pack.  Evie brought Linda some UTZ chips, so we were ready for pre dinner drinks and appetizers.  We sat out on their porch, enjoying the late afternoon and took a tour of their newly acquired house, next door to the cottage they are now living in but with property on the lake.  Once things get settled, the house renovated some, it will be great, an estate so to speak.  We had a great dinner, eggplant stuffed with vegetables and lamb, just like eating in a Turkish restaurant.  I mistakenly thought the dish was called Kadin Buda, which means 'ladies thigh' but I was wrong; it refers to a egg shaped meatballs of ground lamb. Mea culpa.  We sat eating and drinking at the table until 9:30 when Evie and I decided it was time to go as Ron and Linda are driving back to Pittsburgh early Saturday morning.  It was a great meal, a good evening.

A FOG OUT

6:50

8:10

It's 7:40 and we are both up, sitting here drinking our coffee, still unable to see beyond the end of our dock because of the heavy fog.  Lots of driving warnings on the radio because of it.  One of the beauties of retirement, not having to go to work on a morning like this (or any morning actually).  It's a chilly 52º though it's going to warm up today and over the weekend, getting into the 80's.

Kayaking On A Gray Morning

Parked For The Morning

Yesterday was one of those days where we waited for awhile for the sun, as predicted but it never really appeared, hidden most of the day by clouds.  Fortunately, we are beginning to wise up, ignored the reports and went off for a paddle and hike despite the cloudy, storm like sky.  We paddled over to Long Point, skimmed the coast, where Evie noticed long stemmed red roses, some scattered along the shore line, no doubt a commemorator or celebration.  We parked our kayaks at the Pavilion's beach and took a walk through the Long Point Park.  It was great weather for a hike, despite the clouds, in the low 60's, so we reveled in being in the woods again, thinking about all the great walks we will have this fall.  In fact, it felt fall like as we hiked. And because we always bring our camera, we pay much closer attention to the natural world, slow down, and smell the roses, to use a cliche or another example of mindfulness.  When we got out to the tip of Long Point, we had our picture taken by a runner and on the way back, Evie picked up the roses we had kayaked by earlier.  We then paddled home, happy to have gotten in a two hour Duoathalon (if there such a thing).

Long Point Woods

Roses Along Shore line

 Long Point State Park

When we got back, we went over and wished happy birthday to our neighbor, Joe Bergen, up for the week with his wife, Betsy, and then talked with our other neighbors daughter Kristin and her son Ben.  They came back to our house and played a couple of games that Ben likes with Evie.  When they left, I had some lunch, soup and Slovenian sausage and watched another episode of Longmire. Evie went out on the dock to read and I took a brief nap before driving to the Ashville Library to pick up a book on hold, then to Ryder's for a coffee, and finally to Wegman's for some groceries.  I got home around 4:30, in time to join Evie on the dock to read some before it got to chilly on the dock because of the wind.  So went in because it was 'beeroclock', according to NPR, this word has been added to the dictionary.  We had never heard of it but liked the idea.  And, even though it was beeroclock, we had a glass of wine with some cheese and crackers and sat on our porch for an hour, listening to Potus on Sirius radio.  About 7:00. Evie fried up some bacon, I shucked the corn and we had BLT's with corn.  Fresh tomatoes are finally available, which make for a great sandwich.

We were not sure what to watch so I looked through the movies on HBOGO and picked out RECOUNT, a movie about the 2000 presidential election with Kevin Spacey.  It was worth watching though being reminded once again of the Supreme Court's decision to once again, stand in the way of having 'every vote count' angered me once again.  And the specter of Katherine Harris was raised. How could such a person be elected Secretary of State?  Decide an election?  It's moments like this where we realize how disgusting politics and partisanship can be, blinding individuals to common sense (both democratic and republican).  In this case, Democrats wanted to see every vote counted, even the hanging chads, the dimples as well.  And of course, Republicans did not want to see this happen, citing laws and deadlines.  So politics and partisanship, not democracy won out, both in the election and the Supreme Court (they voted to halt the recount, then upheld the deadline for getting the recount done)  Unbelievable.

And, interestingly, according to Factcheck, Bush probably would have narrowly won if the all the votes were allowed to be counted in the contested counties.  However, if all the counties were allowed a recount, Gore might have narrowly won (but he did not ask for a recount in all of the counties).  So, was justice done, the right man elected?  Probably.  I still do not feel better.  Here is a conclusion from the AP after much research:

AP: A vote-by-vote review of untallied ballots in the 2000 Florida presidential election indicates George W. Bush would have narrowly prevailed in the partial recounts sought by Al Gore, but Gore might have reversed the outcome – by the barest of margins – had he pursued and gained a complete statewide recount.

A Sky Of Storm Clouds And Blue Skies

6:22

Southern Sky at 7:00

Northern Sky at 7:00

It's 7:30  and I have been up for over an hour, watching the storm clouds from the north push the blues skies in the south aside, darkness to the north, light to the south.  It's 55º without a whisper of wind, no boats in sight, as the lake remains quiet on a Thursday morning.  It reminds how quiet this area becomes after Labor Day, especially after the Chautauqua Institution season ends this Sunday. And there used to be a sign at one of the homes in Bemus, counting down the days till Labor Day when life in Bemus would return to normal,  the tourists would go home for the year.  We don't quite feel that way but...

A Rainy Day For A Paddle

We were both at sixes and sevens yesterday morning, not sure what we wanted to do and the sky was dark, threatening rain.  So what did we do, put on our slickers, get out our life jackets, and go for a long kayak paddle, despite the fact that it was beginning to rain.  The lake was like a vast piece of gray slate, motionless except for the waves from our paddles.  We started out with a drizzle, slid along the shore line of Long Point, headed back to the reeds, when it started to pour.  We loved it, being the only ones on a lake being pelted with raindrops.  By the time we got home, our slickers were dripping rain, water soaking our bathing suits and bare legs.  We were  slightly chilled when we got in the house, so we both took hot showers to warm up.  A great way to start our day, getting drenched by a storm while kayaking!

Around 1:00, Evie drove into Mayville to the doctor's office for a blood test, then stopped at Tops to pick up a few things.  I stayed home, ate leftover Cubans and Reuben's, and watched the beginning of the Longmire series, about a sheriff set in the Northwest.  I have been meaning to watch it but have never gotten around to starting it.  Now is the time.  It cleared up some in the afternoon, and we both went out on the dock to read, with blankets because it was windy and cool.  We spent much of the time ogling the amazing puffs of clouds but went in after forty five minutes

Clouds On A Wednesday Afternoon

Earlier in the day, we had decided to go to the local theater in downtown Jamestown, the classic Reg Lenna, with refurbished inside, with balcony and opera seats.  A Sundance award winning film was showing that we had wanted to see called, ME and EARL and the dying GIRL.  First, however, we ate at our favorite Mexican place, Taco Hut, on Third Street, across from the theater.  It was busy so we sat at the bar, struck up a conversation with the bartender, Taylor, only  twenty one, a student at JCC. She was fun to talk with and efficient and helpful.  Evie got her usual, a vegetarian pizza with portabellos, and I got the enchilada dinner, with rice and black beans, both quite good.  The movie was well attended, a couple of hundred of us, in the vast theater.  I, unfortunately, did not get invested in the film, the two main characters, until late in the film.  I wanted to like it more than I did but still would recommend it, especially the performance by the narrator, Greg (Thomas Mann) an awkward, insecure, self conscious kid who befriends a young girl with leukemia.  It's a tear jerker, of course, with some humor, set in a high school of various tribes.

We were home around 9:15, in time to watch Fox News' Megan Kelly discuss Donald Trump's latest faux pas, his argument with commentator, Jorge Ramos who challenged Donald at a news conference. We are getting sick of the coverage the media is giving this dope, keeping his name in the headlines, winning him more and more attention and voters.  The media is making his campaign.  It was good to get back to my book, Dead Monkey, set in the Florida Keys.

A Gray and Dreary Morning

7:00

8:30

It's after 8:00 and I am starting my blog late, the morning blues I suppose, like the gray morning.  I slept in till 7:00, and it did rain a bit last night, more to come during the day.  So far, no action on the lake, not even a fishing boat, as most are still hunkered down in their homes.

Yesterday was overcast and we spent much of the day waiting for rain which never really came. Why do we pay attention to the forecast and let it shape not only our day but moods.  We have no control over it, so why think or worry about it.  Que sera, sera.  I was thinking of going to the Chautauqua Institution to hear the morning lecture but ended up taking my car into the my mechanic at 9:00, for a safety check, a yearly task, which the 2000 Accord passed with flying colors.  And, again, at 2:30 I took in my Honda Pilot and it too passed, so I have that out of the way for another year.  Little things like this pile up, seemingly one each week or fortnight, appointments that you have to do that are onerous, not earth shaking.

We did not do much the rest of the day, other than Evie getting up enough energy to cut the lawn. Since it rained a whisper, we spent some time on the dock reading, or in the house napping (me) and reading.  Our lives seem always seem empty when company leaves for a few days before we get back into the routine of living alone.  I am always looking for something to do, like going to the store or like yesterday, taking both cars in.  That will soon end.

Pork And Vegetable Stir Fry

Around 5:00, we both had a hankering for a stir fry, so we got out lots of vegetables, a leftover pork chop, hot bean sauce, garlic and ginger, and put together the stir fry before sitting out on the porch for a glass of wine and some appetizers.  We ate dinner around 7:00 and watched a movie I heard mentioned on a radio program called Grace of My Heart.  It was made in 1996, and it was based loosely on the life of Carol King, though it was hard to tell.  It was worth watching if you have nothing else on the tube, not great but interesting and some outstanding performances.  The best part of the night, however, was watching PBS's A Few Good Pie Places, an hour long program that went around the US looking for pie places.  Interestingly, it began with Portage Pies, a pie place about ten miles from us in Westfield, NY, that we have been frequenting since it opened.  It made me want to make a pie, in fact, I looked up Indiana's Sugar Cream pie, saved it, but could not find Seattle's, A La Mode's Blue Hawaiian Pie.  And hey, Maine's Vickie and Ron, if you read this, they featured the Two Cats Bakery in Portland which sounded great.  It was a fun way to end the day, thinking of pies. In fact, while we were watching, Evie got up and brought in dessert, some of her blueberry/nectarine crisp, five days old but still luscious.

It's after 9:00 and raining, a good day to fish or make a pie or bread or do nada.

A Morning Of Quiet And Solitude

6:08

6:44

6:46

It' 7:00 and I have been up for an hour, at  first waiting for the sun to rise, now waiting for it to peak out above the cloud cover.  The sky has been a vast dome of gray much of the morning, with the sun occasionally peaking out from its gaps.  It's 53º, the highs in the next couple of days will be in the 60's.  Summer, where have you gone.  We may get some needed rain this morning, at least that's my hope.

Life has settled down here at the lake now that we are home alone.  It was a busy but fun weekend with my sisters and now, we have am empty calendar for the near future.  We will have to see if anyone turns up in the next month, perhaps some friends heading home from the East Coast (read that Joe, Mary Lou and Paul). Yesterday began with my blasting music, making sure everyone was up and ready for a big breakfast before their drives home.  Evie made a great send off breakfast of blueberry and banana pancakes, along with a rasher of bacon.  We said our alohas around 9:00 and suddenly, the house was empty and quiet.  So what did we do, the obvious, start organizing, cleaning, and putting away all the stuff from the weekend, like cleaning up the kitchen, emptying the cooler, stripping the beds, easy things like that, not too taxing, but a beginning.  Both Evie and I were low energy, so that was about it for the morning and afternoon.  We did kayak around 11:00 because the lake was calm, empty, begging us to enjoy.  By the time we headed home, the wind had picked up some, so we got home just in time.  I wanted to pick up a book at the Ashville Library, so I drove off around 12:30, picked up my book, and filled up two five gallon gas cans for my boat.

Lunch was simple, the way it will be for the next couple of days, as we had lots of leftovers from the weekend.  I heated up some leftover ratatouille and rice, finished it off from Thursday night's dinner as I watched the latest Ray Donovan.  Evie was out on the dock by then, so I joined her after a nap and some reading.  I finally have found something to read, some fluff but fun, a Carl Hiassen thriller set in Florida called BAD MONKEY.  It started to cloud up late afternoon, so after putting the gas in my boat, I put on the boat cover, thinking rain was coming.  It didn't.

At 6:20, we drove over to the Viking Club.  It was Reuben and Cuban night and we were meeting the Mc Clures, who were back from Pittsburgh, ready to enjoy the lake for a couple of weeks.  The club was unusually crowded and Ron and Linda had already ordered us our sandwiches because the club announced it had a limited number of sandwiches left.  So, we sat in the bar, drinking a beer and enjoying two Cubans, two Reuben's, our usual order, and catching up on the past weeks activities, planning for the next couple of weeks.

Sunset From Viking Club

We were home by 8:30, both of us wiped out from our weekend, and we collapsed on the couch, barely able to watch Real Time with Bill Maher.  We made it through, however, then went up to bed, early for us at 10:00.

The End To A Great Three Day Weekend

Sunday At The Chautauqua Institution

My Sister Linda and Her Husband, Rich

My Sister Ellen And Her Husband, Walt

6:10

7:00

I first looked at my watch at 5:59, decided that was too early and waited until 6: 05 to get up.  I was surprised that there was no sunrise, just a heavy cloud cover, no sun in sight.  I guess we have been used to sunny days.  It looks like it will be mostly cloudy the rest of the day and cooler, with a high of 73º.

As my title suggests, yesterday was a perfect day with my sisters and their husbands, the end of our anniversary celebration as they leave this morning for home.  We started the day with a leisurely coffee and bagel, nothing extravagant.  At 10:00, we cruised down to the Chautauqua Institution, a blue on blue morning on the lake, with blue lake, blue sky.  We docked with a number of other boats, and took a forty five minute walk around the grounds, ending up at the Ampithteater for its church service.  It drew quite a crowd because the featured speaker was Martin Luther King's youngest daughter, Bernice King.  We had to wade through the various announcements, prayers, hymns and, of course, the offering before she stepped to the podium.  Sitting there impatiently, waiting for this prelude to end, reminded me of my youth, sitting in church with my mother (my Dad stayed home), bored, impatient, paying absolutely no attention to the sermon, only wanting to get this dreaded hour over.  Ms. King had moments of near greatness, especially when she quoted her father and her voice seemed to sing.   Her message was that we are the light of the world; only we can change it through seeking the truth, using it as a guide, and action. The service ended with everyone singing 'This Little Light of Mine,' a nice touch.

Bernice King

We were home by 1:00, hungry and anxious for Evie's Sunday morning big breakfast, of home fries, pea meal bacon (pork loin cured in corn meal and vinegar), bagels and free range eggs.  We all helped, lingered in the kitchen, trying to hurry up the home fries.

Hurrying Up The Home Fries

Finally, everything was done and we ate outside on another spectacular morning.  Everything was 'super, primo, extra', as the monks used to say on my excursion to Mt. Athos in Greece.  By the time we were through eating, it was getting really warm, so we did the dishes and went out to the dock to enjoy the warm afternoon in the sun.  

Evie's Breakfast Is Ready

Like the previous two days, we read, talked, swam, and dozed, most of us still full from breakfast. The lake started to calm down and empty about 5:00, as the weekenders headed home.  We luxuriated in good fortune, in spending another night at the lake.

Readying For Another Triathlon

Ellen Of The Lake

Around 6:30, we grabbed a beer or glass of wine, jumped in the boat and took a booze cruise down to the south end of the lake beyond the bridge, taking our time, looking at all the interesting and different lakefront homes, from Mc Mansions to small cottages.  We the headed back to the Casino for wings, something all of us having been doing over the past 34 years.  In fact, all of us had our first wings at the Casino in the summer of 1981 when we bought our house.  We were lucky to have a fun and efficient waiter, got our wings quickly, despite the fact that the Casino was crowded even though it was a Sunday.  Scottie was outgoing and fun, mentioned he was getting married in October at the Chautauqua Institution.  His wife, a choral director at Maple Grove, also worked at the Casino, so he brought her over, introduced her and we took their picture, a cute couple.  We then meandered home along the shoreline, as the last vestiges of the sun disappeared.  By the time we docked, the sky was dark, only the moon visible.

Julia and Scottie, Servers at The Village Casino

We then played a card game called Telefunky, which we used to play with my parents until 11:30. Evie and I finished second, my sister Ellen and Rich were first.  All of us complain about playing but we always have fun.

This morning Evie's making banana pancakes for the gang before they head up to Virginia and Ohio.