Even A Gray, Cloudy Morning Has Its Beauty

7:03

7:10

7:31

It's almost 8:00, Evie's up, NPR is on and the rain has started, to continue much of the day.  We need it so I am not worried and I will be in Erie for much of the day, to get a stress test, then stop at the Subaru dealer for a few things.  So I don't mind if it rains and Evie will also be off to Lakewood, to hit the various venues, perhaps the AT& T store to iron out a few problems with her new iPhone.  Of course, she followed the easy directions and, for whatever reason, the app does not work.  How many times does this happen with any kind of device!

Yesterday was mostly overcast with a few raindrops, nothing measurable.  We vowed to get some things done, like take out the air conditioners from the windows. Right, they are still there!  What did we do instead?  First, we decided that dam the weather; we would put on our slickers and kayak which we did for an hour.  And it didn't rain.  Almost no one was on the lake, an occasional fisherman, but that's it until next June...the lake is ours.  We were out for close to an hour, somewhat of a wind as we started out but at our backs on our paddle home.

It was noon by the time we returned, so I got a few things out of the way, a few thank you notes and my 'dear wife' made me tuna/cheese/tomato sandwiches, quickly broiled in the oven, a sandwich out of my childhood as I recall.  I watched another episode of Ray Donovan with my lunch, then read, napped, and took it easy the rest of the afternoon, occasionally hearing Evie curse and wondering what she was up to.  Setting up various apps, emails, addresses on her new phone of course, again a seemingly easy task that ends up not being so easy.  Give her a couple of more days and all will be right with the connected world.

We have vowed to get more walks or hikes in this fall, either morning or late afternoon, so we drove off to Bemus, carefully, in our new Subaru, parked and ran into our neighbors the Johnston's, having an ice cream cone.  We walked what used to be our favorite walk, back when we were here only on weekends, Lakeside Drive, about three miles, taking us around an hour.  Midway down the lake road, a car stopped, and another neighbor, Jeff V, had been out for a run in the park, blazing some of the new trails.  We look forward to exploring them the rest of the month.  Fortunately, we had an occasional drizzle, not enough to wet our jackets.  We felt virtuous when we finished, deserving of a couple of beers and Cubans at the Viking Club.  The club was not as busy as we thought, it being the last Cuban/Reuben night until next May.  And the bar was practically empty, though a number of tables were filled with some of the more well healed members.  We talked quite a bit with Jeff, the bartender we have  gotten to know.  Our sandwiches were great but neither of us could eat more than a half, so we have another left over dinner if we want or lunch.

We were home by 8:00, in time to watch my son Tommy's Kansas City Chiefs look terrible in the first quarter, falling behind by a couple of touchdowns.  He's off to the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland today, to pitch his company's business.  They would make a high powered customer.

We watched a couple of more episodes of VEEP, not the best, filled with lots of profanities and silly scenarios, wondering if this is really what politics is like on the hill?  Maybe...certainly the salty language and ridiculous characters are there...just think of Ted Cruz or Louie Gomert from Texas. They both belong in this series.  Around 10:30, I went up to read my Jack Reacher, not my favorite by far but I will stick with it.  Too much description, not enough plot or action for me.