Back To A Chautauqua Gray Morning

 Ohio University Bobcat Teammate, Paul

7:28

I slept in till 6:40 if that's sleeping in.  Not much of a sunrise this morning, little color for the most part, just a curtain of gray in the sky.  It's 57º out and won't get much warmer today as the temperatures will stay in the 50's the next few days.

Yesterday we spent getting ready for a visit from a college friend of mine.  Evie took that as a cue to clean the entire upstairs bedrooms, so it took her a good part of the morning.  It's a good thing we have occasional people over because it forces us to do things that we often put off, like sprucing up the upstairs.  The same goes for having company for dinner; we completely dust and vacuum the downstairs,  getting it ready.  I guess we need a touch of pressure to get things done.  Or cloudy, rainy weather, too, as we are forced to stay inside.

Drive To Westfield And Lake Erie

While Evie cleaned, I got out of the house and drove off to Barcelona Beach, on Lake Erie, to walk the beach and gather some interesting rocks for cairns. The lake was calm, the sun hiding behind the clouds, as I walked with a couple of others though they seemed to be looking for driftwood.  I made four trips with a canvas bag full of rocks before heading home.  Lake Erie seems like the ocean compared to Chautauqua Lake, its surface so vast, with no shoreline in sight.  On the way home, I did some shopping at Tops for dinner, then stopped at Smith Library and picked up a few books, two I had on reserve.

Barcelona, NY, Beach on Lake Erie

When I got home, Evie was in the kitchen, prepping dinner.  She likes to have as much done ahead of time so she can sit down and enjoy our company.  I played phone tag with a couple of people, one, my tree person who at first, would not be able to plant our tree but called later to say she would be able to come by this morning, Thursday, at 9:00.  These conversations have been going on now for a week and today may be the end, enshallal.

We thought Paul would arrive around 6:00 since he was driving from Boston.  So around 4:30, we jumped in our kayaks, started to paddle out when Evie noticed a car drive in our parking area.  It was Paul, who wondered where we were because the radio was on but we were no where to be found until he looked out at the lake. He had made great time, taking Interstate 90, about 8 hours.  We took off our life jackets and quickly opened a bottle of wine because it was obviously wine time.  He had spent a week baby sitting for two grandchildren, nine and eleven in Wellsley, his daughter and her husband were spending a week in Italy.  We sat sipping wine, enjoying cheese and catching up until it started to get dark.

Friends for Fifty Years

Dinner was great, a pork tenderloin, roasted potatoes, homemade apple sauce, broccoli, salad and a homemade pumpkin pie with Reddi Whip for dessert.  Nothing but the best for Paul!  We sat talking about the good old days, the idiosyncrasies of both our children and grandchildren, like their eating habits (we sounded like old farts), and Evie shared her Shutterfly photo album of our summer with Paul until around 10:00 when it was clear Paul was getting tired so we all decided to go to bed.

This morning, at 9:30, it's time to plant a tree.  Maybe.