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.