Clouding Up

6:36

7:00

I have woken the past week almost at 6:00 on the dot every morning, like I have an alarm clock.  I would prefer to sleep in but I sense the sky starting to lighten, know it's around 6:00 and don't want to miss the sunrise.  Each morning until June 21st, the sun rises a few minutes earlier.  This morning it was supposed to rise at 6:26 according to Weather Underground but does not rise here, above the lake's eastern coastline, until six minutes later.  And now, at 7:00, the clouds have taken over, obscuring the sun, turning the blue lake to gun metal gray.  It's 52º and the next few days will see early morning temperatures dropping into the 30's.  

 Merganser

As I mentioned yesterday, I got a good kayak paddle in before leaving for yoga at 9:40.  When I get up at 6:00, have my coffee and write my blog, I still have a good hour or more to get something done or, like yesterday, go kayaking.  This morning, I just remembered, is breakfast with the guys at the Bemus  Point Inn.  Back to yesterday.  I went to yoga despite feeling crummy and the class did not help much.  I am suffering from lack of energy, the blahs, perhaps the spring blues, a result of the change of seasons.  But I marshaled on, like a good soldier, complaining only to my wife.  After class, I stopped at Aldi's, a store which is becoming increasingly popular around here and picked up, of all things, some items for my bike, one of their sale items this week.  

When I got home, Evie had been busy outside, enjoying the day, seeding the last bare spot in our yard, watching Mahlon's crew grind the stump next  door.  It's amazing how quickly the stump is gone, the hole is leveled, and they are on their way.  I was ready for lunch, so I heated up the two remaining cabbage rolls with sauerkraut for lunch and watched another episode of Game of Thrones.  Because of my ennui, I spent much of the afternoon on the couch, either dozing or reading or feeling guilty for wasting the day.  Evie was out, busy as the proverbial beaver, cutting the lawn, cleaning the garden by chopping all the remaining dead wood.  I finally decided to rise, went out and did some watering from the lake, but the afternoon was too nice to avoid lounging on the end of the dock in the warm sun.  So that's what I did for a good half hour, luxuriating in the warm spring sun, on the end of our dock, la dolce vita. 

Enjoying Brazil's

Around 5:00, I cleaned up the yard, put away the tools and took another couple of trash cans of leaves and trash up the hill to the wood pile.  Both of us then took showers, put on our finest, as the Ron and Linda were picking us up at 6:00.  We drove to Jamestown, to have a beer at Brazil's Craft Beer And Wine Lounge, on 4th street, across from the YMCA.  They were having a benefit for the YMCA, where 25% of their profits that night went to the Y.  It was fun, with lots of people, a few raffles and bowling down the alley with water balloons.  Evie won both second and third place with her balloons, as the balloons that went the farthest, were winners.  She won two tickets to the Reg Lenna Movie theater.  We were also able to garner four seats at at the bar, enjoyed a couple of wheat beers and Evie and Linda struck up conversations with some of the women who work at the Y. 

Alley Bowling With Balloons

The Winners With Their Prizes

We left about 7:15, walked to Taco Hut, where it was a fairly slow night.  We all know what we like, so we were happy with our meals.  Evie loves their portabello veggie pizza on a crisp tortilla.  I got shrimp tacos, which could have used more shrimp but they were stuffed with mango salsa.  It was a nice way to end a surprisingly fun Wednesday evening in Jamestown.  We were home by 9:00 in time to watch the first episode of The Night Manager, a series based on  the John Carre novel.  It looks kind of cheesy so far but I will give it one more week.