A Wet, Misty, Gray Morning On The Lake

7:10 AM

6:40 PM

 It's after 8:00 and I have been up for just an hour.  A different look to this morning, no sun, no blue sky, instead lots of gray, the lake, the sky, the coast line. And rain... it started raining around dinner time yesterday and continued on and off during the night, the accumulation, less than a half inch.  It should be overcast most of the day.  The temperature at the moment is 66º but will rise to the 70's later.  A rainy day on the lake, staying inside with a book, sounds delicious, getting us ready for weather to come.

Yesterday was sunny early but began to cloud up around noon.  So we took advantage of the morning, going off to kayak around 9:00, to Long Point, over to Wells and home, about forty five minutes.  The contrast between a Sunday and a Monday on the lake is shocking,  No dodging boats or sea doo's on Monday, in fact, it's often hard to find a boat this early other than docked fishing boats around the reeds.  After the kayaking, we did a quick clean up of the downstairs, Evie dusting, me vacuuming.  At 10:15, I drove to Chautauqua Shores, parked my car, and rode my bike to the Chautauqua Institution, to listen to Rodger Cohen, a writer for the New York Times speak on Europe. It was informational but boring, I thought, but I stuck it out.  He called the European Union the 'most boring miracle' of the recent past, in that it brought together a hodgepodge of countries, religions and cultures, all who have been at war with each other over the past four hundred years, together for the first time in their history. And he talked about its challenges, the contrast between the richer nations (Germany) and the poorer (Greece), the fact that Islam, not Christianity, seems to have the most passionate believers, the flux of immigrants, and of course, the economy or unemployment where in some countries, the unemployment rate for young men is over 50%.  Nevertheless, he remains optimistic about its future.  For him, the major problem is Russia, where Putin wants to return to the old days of gobbling up independent countries, like Crimea, under its mantle.  It will be the major challenge of the next couple of decades, convincing Putin that we will not allow him another further moves, like taking over Ukraine.  The world, he suggests, needs strong leaders, not that Obama is not one.  It was worth going but not as compelling as I had hoped.

I was home around 12:30, and Evie had started put together the makings for a moussaka, our dinner tonight when the McClures come over.  And she was cutting the lawn, hoping to get it done before it rained.  I had a lunch of a leftover burgers and watched Ray Donovan, then read some, napped and joined Evie on the dock.  I finished my book, FLORENCE GORDON, about a curmudgeonly, passionate feminist writer, decent not great, not for example, an OLIVER KITTERIDGE.  Now I have to figure out what to read next, never an easy proposition.  I am thinking of concentrating on the Civil War but am not sure I will stick with it.

View From Our Porch at 6:30 p.m.

Around 5:00, we settled down on our porch, with drinks, cheese and crackers and enjoyed the changing sky of early evening, as it clouded up, rained, stopped, as the sun came out again, then it clouded up and rained again, as if the gods could not make up their mind.  The clarity of the lake and Long Point was amazing, so we took lots of photos, trying to capture the striking light at certain moments, the contrast between light and dark.

The Lull Before The Storm

Storm On The Lake

Our Music Matches The Weather

We had BLT's with avocados for dinner, on Pepperidge Farm White Bread (Yum).  And we watched another episode of RECTIFY and were shocked to realize there's only one episode left.  How are they going to pull everything together for Daniel?  We will have to wait till Friday to see.  And we watched the next episode of MASTERS OF SEX.  Bill gets some sort of revenge on the university that fired him ten years earlier because of his research.

Here is why this Pope is so admired or reviled.  He embraces everyone, regardless of belief, as long as they do good and speaks the truth to power, whether it contradicts governments or his church's beliefs.