A Wet And Cloudy Morning

6:57

It's 8:00 in the morning, raindrops on the windows, a wrinkled, gray lake, a blah morning sky of gray. What happened to to the sun, to the clear skies, the blue lake?  The only constant is change! Get used to it.  It's 61º out, still uncomfortably warm for a November day, no chill when I went out to get the newspaper.  At the moment, I am not sure what the day will bring.

A Lonely Tulip Tree

Yesterday began with breakfast with two of the five guys who meet every Thursday morning at 8:00. It was good to see them because I have missed the last two weeks, once because I forgot, the other we were in Virginia.  We spent most of breakfast listening to Jack tell us about his month long trip from Seattle to San Diego, by car.  It sounded like a great trip, starting with cool temperatures and rain in the north, 100º + temperatures around LA, and temperate San Diego. He retired just a year ago so this was the first thing on his bucket list.  Most of us think about something like this; he did it.  Kudos.

After breakfast, I was determined to get the garage ready for winter, clearing it out, cleaning it so I could put one of our cars in it.  So that took me a couple of hours, taking everything out, rearranging whatever was left in it, putting the extra stuff in the garage attic, then sweeping it out.  It may sound like I do this every month, but like a pantry, it gets messy.  By 11:30, I had an empty garage, ready for the car, when we leave a week from Sunday for Nashville, New Orleans, Dallas and Kansas City, in that order.  Both of us are already starting to get ready so after working outside, I decided to start some trip planning.  I got out my maps and computer and started to plan what we would be doing when we visit Nashville and New Orleans.  I do not want to leave it up to serendipity, would rather know what we want to see during the day, where we are going to eat, what kinds of thing we hope to do.  It's not going to be that hard because we are spending only two nights and a day in Nashville, three nights and two days in New Orleans.  At the moment, I would rather go on a walk then see a museum or shop.  In fact, I most want to sit down, have a beer and food, and listen to country music in Nashville, the blues, Dixieland, or Cajun music in New Orleans.

Evie made a great lunch, tuna salad with tomatoes and cheese under a broiler for a couple of minutes, along with her vegetables soup.  I watched another episode of Longmire, then read some and took a brief nap.  I am not sure why we did not kayak; perhaps the lake was not as inviting as the day before.

Clouds From Long Point at 3:25

It was a warm afternoon, lots of sun and clouds so I decided to take one more bike ride before putting it away for the winter.  I drove over to the Bemus bridge, parked my car and rode my bike for an hour, down to the Long Point Park, through its woods, out to Long Point, and back through Bemus Point to the bridge.  The paths in the park were covered with leaves, making it hard to see the path, the wet spots, the twigs.  Interestingly, in front of the Bemus condos, a barge was dredging the lake, digging up the mud, sending it through a hose to a conveyor belt, then up to a dump truck.  A bank, which now owns the foreclosed property, is having it done.  I also stopped and walked inside the two garage doors, just cut out of the old Surf Club.  Not much has been done inside yet but the plan is to have the new Ellicottville Brewery open next May.

Renovating The Surf Club In Bemus Point

Dredging In Front Of The Bemus Point Condos

When I got home, it was time to close up the garage and come in and take a shower even though the lake and sky were amazing, shades of pink/blue reflections on the lake. I wanted to kayak but we were going out to dinner with our neighbors, the Johnstons.

Fading Sun Light At 5:07

Reflections

An Impressionistic Sky

We picked John and Maryann up at 6:00 and drove across the lake to Guppy's, a popular restaurant just outside of Bemus Point.  It's a cosy place and for a Thursday, a decent crowd.  We easily got a table, and had a fun night talking about our kids, foreign films from Netflix, and the upcoming weddings of both of the Johnston's sons.  I had the fish fry, Evie a spinach/mushroom quesadilla, both decent not great.  We sat through three birthdays; Thursday must be the night to celebrate a child's birthday.  My only caveat about Guppy's---its small, the tables are crowded together and it can be hard to hear because of the acoustics.

Dinner At Guppy's With John And Maryann Johnston

We were home by 8:45, in time to watch some nameless TV and we were both tired, ready for bed early.