More Rain, More Clouds

7:27

7:28

7:48

I slept in till 6:40, a miracle, and came downstairs to rain (a half inch in the last 24 hours), a dark house, a just visible lake and 50º.  It looks like a good day to go get my Honda muffler pipe fixed at 9:00.  I want to keep it so that I can use it like a truck, to haul dirt, stones, take trash to the Transfer Station, things like that so I have to keep it in decent shape or it won't pass the safety/emission check. As I gaze outside, I don't think there is going to be a spectacular sunrise this morning, just a gray and wet morning at the lake.

Yesterday was a typical Chautauqua rainy day, yet late afternoon, the sun peaked out, for five minutes, and we were able to go outside and work some in the yard.  It was a cosy morning, gray skies, some spectacular clouds, so I had to go kayaking for an hour, just before the rains came.  And because it was raining, we decided to head to Lakewood, stop at Art Sample's Nursery, where we picked out a Red Sunset Maple, which we will plant next week.  We walked around his nursery, in the drizzle, looking at other trees and bushes, fighting the tendency to buy something else to plant. We resisted, just buying the tree, then stopped at a new bargain grocery store, Save A Lot, much like Aldi's really, with their own cheaper brands, some deals, not a store we will return to much.  We then went to Wegman's to finish our shopping, and Evie had a list of non perishables, so we took longer than I anticipated.  Needless to say I was patient (not) and we got home, finally, around 1:00.

An easy lunch of warmed pizza and an episode of Longmire and I was ready to settle down on the couch with a good book, tired from getting up so early.  So I read, napped, while Evie worked in the kitchen, putting together some of her famous vegetable soup since we are visiting our daughter Jill this weekend and our granddaughter, Hayden, loves this soup.  It was a nice, leisurely afternoon, and I loved sitting inside reading, making myself some Turkish tea.  We went outside around 5:00 to rake some leaves, just in case our dock was  taken in by the boys.  They never came of course.  At 6:00, Evie broiled a nice piece of salmon with a glaze of balsalmic vinegar/mustard/orange marmalade,  and with rice, garlic spinach and a salad, we were ready for the Democratic debate.  We warmed up by watching Jeopardy, with a young kid winning day after day, then watched an episode of Quantico, which has gotten good reviews.  It's decent, not great.  After having watched the Republican debates, it was great to see adults on stage, not children bickering over their Daddy Obama, the clown like antics of Trump, and women's health.  The  Democratic debate was substantive, relevant to our lives, with few criticisms of each other, and we actually learned what the candidates thought, where they differed, and about some of the important issues.   It was like watching the PBS's Lehrer News Hour compared to the 1950's Republican Howdy Doody Show.