Top Of The Morning To You

5:56

5:59

6:10

Up just before 6:00, in time to see the sun rise above the fog/steam rising from the lake.  It's a chilly 50º, causing the fog covering the lake's surface.  It looks like a fine day at the lake.  My day begins with breakfast with the guys, then home to begin the final push before my sister Ellen and her family arrive.  We can't wait to see them for the weekend.

The Stillness Of A Kayak Morning

We spent yesterday like always, enjoying a cloudy morning, a sunny afternoon, getting some of our chores done (I don't remember what they were at the moment), and waiting for the weed cutters to come (they never did).  We are good at putting off what needs to be done, me weeding the yard, Evie making ice cubes.  Both of these drive the other nuts.  I did work on my dock, sort of, because my plan did not work.  And Evie continued her busyness in the kitchen, making a tortilla chicken soup, cookies, and other things, getting ready for our weekend.  We like to be prepared for our family, so we can enjoy their stay.

We took it easy in the afternoon, though it was too cool to sit on the dock until later in the day when the sun came out.  I had the leftover Indian food for lunch, so as not to waste it.  And I watched soccer, read some, and took a nap.  Neither one of us had much mojo which was fine because it was good to just enjoy the afternoon.

Ribeye Specials At The Seezurh House

Ron and Linda, our good friends, picked us up at 6:15 and we drove over to our usual haunt, the Seezurh House, for dinner.  Bemus seemed to be busy, few parking spaces although the Seezurh House was not crowded.  I am sure the new Ellicottville Brewery, with his great porch with a view of the lake, is cutting into their business.  They were having a mid week special, a 10oz ribeye with salad and potatoes for 12.95.  All four of us ordered it and it was amazingly good.  We used to get it a couple of years ago during the winter months when it was only $9.95.  We complimented the waitress, Kalie on the steaks and she said Nate was back, the chef who seems to have quit and returned numerous times.  We were happy with our meals and will be back, especially if this is a regular Wednesday special.

We were home just before 9:00, in time to make myself a tin roof, Evie enjoy a nutty buddy for dessert and watch another episode of DICTE, the end to another good day.

A Dab Of Rain On A Gray Chautauqua Morning

6:10

Kayak Morning

It did rain some overnight but it was hard to tell, as the walks were hardly wet, nor the roads.  A stingy weather god refuses to parcel out the rain.  It's remaining cool, like yesterday, with a high in the low 70's, with no rain insight despite the overcast skies.  And strangely, the Canadian geese seemed to have returned to the lake as I just noticed a gaggle of at least 20 float by.

Gaggle Of Geese

We had another lazy day here at the lake, with the welcome coolness of the day.  The lake was choppy so I only went out for a brief kayak paddle around mid day, checking on the weed problem along Woodlawn.  The weed cutters were supposed to come by but never made it, surprise, so we hope we are on their to do list for today.  Evie spent her morning inside, making up some of the dressings and marinades she will need over the fourth.  I spent a good hour working on our brick walk, always a fertile area for weeds and grass.  So with my trusty tools, I rid the walk of weeds, a task I perform three or four times a year.  I am getting good at it but my back does not think so.

Lunch was another  schnitzel sandwich with Evie's vegetable soup and I started to watch the soccer game where Iceland upset England, a major blow to English soccer fans.  Evie was on the dock by 1:00 but soon returned as it was 'too cool' because of the temperatures in the 60's and the wind.  Who would have thunk it two days ago when we were sweating and temps were almost 90º.  I am reading a Jack Mc Coll novel, JACK OF SPIES, the first in a series by David Downing.  I loved his Jack Russell series set in Berlin during WW II.  This set, however, has yet to grab me though I am sticking with the first book.

Around 5:00, we took off for another mega shopping trip, hitting Wegman's, both of us with carts, to get done quicker.  Evie would pull out her iPhone, with its Wegman's app, and send me on my way to pick up three or four items before returning to get more instructions.  It was 5% Tuesday and not very crowded because it was late in the day and all the golden agers were home making dinner.  We decided to try the fairly new Indian restaurant, A Taste Of India, a sister restaurant to one we used to eat at in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, back in the 1990's.  We ordered three dishes, brought them home and after quickly unpacking, we sat down to eat.  Evie had made a salad and heated up some naan, which complimented our meal.  One of the dishes was decent, the other two mediocre, so we will probably not being going back.  Too bad because it would be nice to have another good restaurant in the area.  I give them a few more months before they close.  We watched two more episodes of DICTE, and in this one, she finds her son who she was forced to abandon when she was a pregnant 16 year old, forced to do so, against her will, by her Jehovah's Witness parents.  I have noticed a definite anti religious bias in many of these European series.  We were both tired from shopping, so we went to bed earlier than usual.

I just got back from an early morning before breakfast, after coffee, paddle across the lake and back. I will say it again; it's a great way to start the morning, even on an overcast day.

Cooling Off On A Sunny Morning

6:41

7:30

It was nice to awaken to a cool house, as the hot, humid weather of the past few days seems to have vanished.  It's 60º out at the moment, compared to yesterday's 70º at the same time.  And yesterday's high in the 80's gives way to today's high of 72º.  That's more like the Chautauqua weather we know and love.  The lake's been quiet, too, as most of the boats and tourists are gathering, ready to hit the area this weekend, for 4th of July and the Blue Heron Festival (a mini Woodstock) in Sherman, NY.  

Yesterday was much like Sunday, hot and humid, the heavy humidity a result of the rain Monday morning.  I loved it, the rain and the lake after the storm.  So I went out for a kayak paddle around 7:15, a  good way to start the day.  We then got some things done in the house and Evie made up a list for me since I was going shopping.  Sam's Club had lots of sales which Evie did not want us to miss so off I went, stopping for a coffee at Ryders and I picked up a dozen organic eggs.  I then stopped at Office Max, washed my car at a self car wash and ended up at Sam's, filling my cart with mostly paper products, paper plates, napkins, things like that which makes the summer easier for all of us, fewer dishes to wash.

When I go home, we quickly put things away and since it was 12:30, I quickly put on my bathing suit and did some lake weeding before lunch.  It, the cutting of weeds, is becoming an obsession, as if I want to get rid of every weed in the lake, a Sisyphean task.  They are a real problem in some areas as some cannot even get their boats off of their lifts because of the weeds.  Lunch was one of my favorites, ever since our days in Istanbul, schnitzel sandwiches, with mayo and tomatoes.  It's worth making schnitzel just so I could have those sandwiches the next day for lunch.  I watched some soccer, Italy vs Spain, bits and pieces of other matches before taking a nap.

Evie, after keeping busy most of the morning, took the afternoon off and spent most of it out on the dock, enjoying the sun, the beauty of the afternoon blues, the lake and sky.  I joined her around 3:00 and could not pass up jumping into the lake and cutting more weeds.  There's a definite pleasure in seeing my basket fill up with these darn weeds, the longer the are, the more satisfying.  Crazy, right.

Porch Sitting At 8:15

We came in to enjoy a cocktail around 6:15 and sat on our porch, munching on appetizers, sipping our cocktails for close to two hours because it was such a lovely early evening.  And we had little to do in the kitchen, other than heat up the leftover frozen pizza and make a salad.  So Evie could really relax and enjoy our cocktail hour (or two).  We are able to listen music on the porch by pointing our Sonos speaker out the window, so Evie can browse Apple music.  And since we are going to an Avett Brothers concert in a couple of weeks with my nephew Pat and his wife Courtney, we listened to one of their albums.  We were not familiar with them but liked the album, a cross between blue grass and country, so we are looking forward to the concert.

We had our pizza and salad around 8:15 and watched some more of Dicte, the Danish series which we have been enjoying.  We stuck with a couple of episodes but got tired of it and turned on some Stephen Colbert before going up to bed.

REDEPTION ROAD: JOHN HART

I have been waiting for another novel by John Hart for a couple of years.  This, his fourth, met all my expectations. Gerard Manoli, a colleague introduced me to Hart seven or eight years ago.  This is typical Hart, engrossing and maddening until the end because we want to know who done it.  To begin, there's a serial killer on the loose and three major characters, Channing, Adrian Wall, and Elizabeth Black, a emotionally crippled detective, the center of the book.  Early in her career, she becomes emotionally involved in a murder case.  Adrian Wall, a fellow cop, her mentor more or less, is convicted of murder and gets 14 years in prison.  The novel begins as he's released.  Just before this,  Elizabeth has been in the news for rescuing a teenage girl, Channing  the daughter of a wealthy family,  from two drug dealers and rapists, both black.   The problem, however, is that the two black men were found shot dead, with 18 bullets in each.  As a result,  Elizabeth may be indicted for murder.  Meanwhile, Gideon, the 14 year old son of Julia Strange, the woman who Adrian Wall supposedly murdered fourteen years ago, waits for him at a local bar, hoping to avenge his mother's killer but is shot by the bar tender to protect the just released Adrian.  As I write this, it sounds awfully silly but I enjoyed it.

Because another woman is found murdered, the cops think the newly released Adrian did it. As both Elizabeth (now wanted for murdering the two rapists) and Adrian go on the lam, we find that the sadistic prison warden, with a hatred for his former prisoner Adrian and Elizabeth's partner have reasons to find both Adrian and Elizabeth. They become involved in the hunt for the two, the warden because he thinks Adrian has knowledge of a stash of millions of dollars, the partner because he's being blackmailed by the warden.   Meanwhile, the serial killer, thinking he's ending his spree by killing Elizabeth, ends up kidnapping the recently raped Channing, who has been staying at Elizabeth's home.  This is beginning to sound so silly I will leave it at that.  They find the serial killer and Channing is also found still alive and Elizabeth, Adrian, Channing and Gideon live happily ever after. The one big surprise is the identification of the serial killer.

Listening, Finally, To The Sound Of Falling Rain

5:43

6:48

Photo Of Long Point From My Kayak At 7:45

I was up by 5:30, walked outside to see that the sidewalk was damp, made my coffee and it started to pour, with a few flashes of lightning.  I hurried out to our front porch so I could enjoy the rain, the sounds of it hitting the roof, pelting the lake.  I had forgotten how pleasant it could be.  It's a balmy 70º outside and watch this storm pass over, we should have a decent day.  It's now 6:30 and its been raining for the past hour, gentle at times, heavy at others (half inch total).  Love it.

Duck On Rock

Yesterday was the first really hot, humid, stifling summer day, as both of us felt logy and lifeless much of the afternoon.  The morning, however, was a different story as we were both up early and busy mostly outside.  Evie watered for a good hour, from 7:30 to 8:30 while I read the NYTimes online and wrote my blog.  Around 10:30, as it was getting warmer and more humid, Evie had a great idea...why not cut the lawn.  So she fired up the lawn mower, I moved the lawn furniture, etc, the least I can do for a wife who loves to cut the lawn, and she was off.  I, meanwhile, gathered all the weeds that were drying on the dock and put them in a garbage barrel.  More were to come.  When Evie finished the lawn, she had to relax and cool off before starting on our next task, which was to clear some of the more obnoxious weeds and algae from our lakefront.  That took both of us an hour or so, in the heat, but fortunately, we were in water.  We did make some progress, however, and swimming area should be mostly weedless for our family this summer.  After weeding, we took a swim to wash off, to cool off.

And then we went inside to our refreshingly cool house, and Evie made our Sunday breakfast of eggs, bacon and a bagel.  Why does it taste so good?  Perhaps because we limit it to once a week.  We watched some CBS Sunday morning, but soon got bored and Evie went and relaxed on the front porch and I turned on the soccer, watching parts of a couple of different games before falling asleep.  I obviously need my nap.  For the next couple of hours, neither of us moved, as the heat and humidity and our morning work had taken the air out of our energized balloons.  I read some, watched some soccer, napped again until around 4:30 when I suggested to Evie that we go sit out on the dock and have a beer.  She perked up at the idea, so for the next hour or two, we sipped our beers, munched on pretzels and endaname, and jumped in the lake occasionally to cool off. And we were surprised, as an osprey swooped down in front of our dock, flew off with either a bird or fish, chased by purple martins protecting their nests.  It was a surprisingly pleasant way to spend the late afternoon on a hot and humid day.

Around 6:00 Evie went in and got dinner ready, pork schnitzel cutlets, with a potato galette and coleslaw.  Meanwhile, I gathered all the weeds we had cut from earlier in the day, three garbage cans full, and took them up the hill to marinate over the winter into compost (we hope).  And because the rains were coming, I put away our sump pump, which we use to draw water from the lake, and turned over the kayaks, a sure way to avoid rain.  We loved our dinner, about as good a schnitzel as we have ever had, no exaggeration. We watched a couple of more episodes of Dicte.  This was not our favorite episode, a bit silly and coincidental.

8:38 Sun Set

When we finished, around 8:30, the lake was still inviting and lit, so we decided to not waste the rest of the evening watching TV and kayak.  So off we went across to Long Point, as the sun was setting behind the clouds off to the West.  We were out about forty five minutes, as the boat traffic on the lake waned and we stopped and talked with our neighbor for ten minutes before heading home.  It was a good idea.  We then watched one more show, Bill Maher's Real Time before going upstairs to read and sleep.

Evie Kayaking At 8:45 As Sun Sets

Around 7:15 a.m., the rain let up, the lake was a smooth gray, so I went our for a paddle. There's a sacredness to the solitude of a lake in early morning, my church so to speak.

A Quiet, Calm Sunday Morning

6:00

6:08

I was up and out on the dock to catch the sunrise at 5:50.  Our neighbors, their kids and grandchildren were also huddled on their lawn, waiting as well.  Just about 6:00 it started to rise above the horizon but because of some clouds, it tended to be blurry.  When I walked back off the dock, our neighbors had disappeared.  Evie was coming down the stairs as I walked in, so she made me a latte to start my day.  Take that Walt! See you in a couple of days.

Yesterday's high was predicted to be close to 90º but around here, it hardly rose above 80º, so it was a perfect day to be out on the lake.  In the morning, I remember thinking how quiet the lake was for a weekend but by 2:00, the boats were out, filling the lake with their sounds and shapes.  We had our typical Saturday, getting some things done early, like watering the gosh darn lawn, getting the trash together and heading off to the Transfer Station.  What happened to those garbage men of my preschool years.  My parents would tell me that when they came by, I would rush out to watch and vow I wanted to be a garbage man.  Disdaining money, I became a teacher instead.

We did some easy stuff in the house and began to get out the bedroom air conditioners for the summer.  Back in the days (the 80's), we would never have needed an air conditioner as Chautauqua weather tended towards the cool, even in August. But over the last 10 or 15 years, we would have heat waves where we needed air conditioners for the stuffy upstairs bedrooms.  We use them only when the temperatures get into the high 80s, so its not that often but its nice to know they are there.

Around noon, I finally filled a couple of garbage cans with lake weeds, and got rid of them up the hill. And I went back out in the water for about forty five minutes, and raked some more.  I feel a bit like Sisyphus, pushing his rock up the hill, knowing that once it got to the top it would fall, but keeping at it nevertheless.  I had the leftover eggplant pasta for lunch and watched some soccer but was soon bored.  And the rest of the afternoon was like that, as we were both lazy and a bit bored with ourselves.  What to do?  Well, we alternated between the dock and the porch, enjoying the day, as I read and Evie went through old pictures, photos taken of our kids and grandkids before digital cameras when we had to get them processed by Kodak (a company that used to have the monopoly on the photo market).  Neither of us wanted to move from our dock and porch, so we left the boat to sit and decided to have dinner at home And before a swim, to renew ourselves and get dinner ready, I took a kayak paddle, up and down Woodlawn, buffeted by the wind and waves, as I struggled when heading north in to the wind, but floated on the way back. .

A Perfect Afternoon For Tabasco

For dinner, Evie got out four frozen juicy lucy burgers, leftover from when Nick, our grandson and his buddies were here.  We read up on how to cook leftover burgers.  Evie, then, paid no attention to their suggestions, grilled some onions, placed the burgers on top in a frying pan for about ten minutes and we had pretty darn good burgers.  The grilled onions, especially, made them tasty.  A salad and Bush's beans completed a good old American dinner.  We then binged on a Danish series that we realized we had watched earlier in the year called Dicte.  It was good enough to watch again, and we are now caught up, ready to start the next season or two.

It looks like another warm one today although at the moment, we have all the windows open and there is a nice breeze filling the downstairs.

Hazy, Lazy Days Of Summer

6:27

Well, those hazy summer days have arrived, the weekenders have arrived, as have the fishermen and tourists.  Chautauqua Institution's season also opens today, so the area is beginning to look like the summer season has begun.  Mostly sunny today, with a high of 84º, a perfect day for locals and tourists.

Yesterday was a great day, lots of sun, a nice breeze most of the afternoon and both of us seemed to have our mojo back.  I left early for Lakewood, to return a hose I bought from Home Depot and picked up a new garbage can (it's sharp) and more grass seed, the third bag this summer (so far).  And I stopped at our local department store, Bon Ton's, because they were having a 'great sale.'  I have been there before but never seem to learn.  The deal, buy a 100 dollars worth of items, including sale items, and get 50 dollars back.  I picked out my items, went to check out and guess what, my sale items were not the sale items indicated in the small, tiny print in the newspaper.  This has happened to me before.  'Fool me once...shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again.' (thanks to George Bush).  When I returned home,  Evie had turned the kitchen into a wreck and was sitting on the back porch, frying eggplant.  Yum.  She had spent much of the morning making Eggplant Parmesan Bites, a delicious appetizer of ricotta cheese and other goodies sandwiched between two slices of slice eggplant, breaded and fried.  And she made more hanky pankys, sausage, hamburger and velveeta cheese on rye bread.  All of them were made, then put in bags and frozen, ready to be pulled out at any time for appetizers.

Lake Weeds Drying

While Evie was finishing up, I watered many of the plants in our backyard, using the hose from the lake to fill up water cans.  Lots of hydrangeas needed water as we still have a parched earth area. I then wanted to get some weeding done in the lake before lunch, so I went out in the water, with my gloves, a bucket and weed rake, and filled a couple of buckets with weeds, layering on the dock to dry before disposing of them.  Lunch was once again, leftover tacos, still good and I watched some Sports Center, as the NBA season seems to be ending, with their draft.  Now it's time for a bit of baseball, then some European soccer championships before the Olympics from Brazil in August.

After my brief nap, I woke once again with energy, scaring Evie because I was up so soon.  I wanted to get more weeds out, so I filled a couple of more buckets with disgusting weeds and algae, making our swimming area clear for our family fun over the next month and a half.  Evie was out helping as well, often getting her feet stuck in the lake mud.  By 3:30, we had both had it.  We originally thought we would take a nice boat ride but neither of us felt like it so we just went out on our dock, sunbathed and occasionally swam.  About 5:00, I went in and got a cooler with a couple of of beers and pretzels, and our neighbor's daughter, Kathy came over, so we talked with her until after 6:00.

Cloud Art

We then worked on the bare spots on our lawn with the new, guaranteed to grow grass seed (fat chance) which took all of 20 minutes.  Evie then went in and put together an eggplant and tomato sauce pasta as I watered the grass for another 20 minutes.  I love fried eggplant with a tomato sauce over pasta.  I remember having it for the first time in Istanbul, thinking where has eggplant been all my life.  Turks are noted for their eggplant dishes and have many different combinations of eggplant with all kinds of different ingredients.  We watched a movie we have been intending to watch for a couple of weeks, The One-Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared, an award winning book and film.  It follows a 100 year old Swedish man, who ups and leaves his nursing home, accidentally ends up with a drug dealers suitcase filled with money, and the rest of the movie is about the friends he makes, how the drug dealers eventually meet their end, with flashbacks to his life, one in which he meets the likes of  Franco, Truman, and Stalin.  Quirky and silly, we surprised ourselves by not liking it more than we did. O, well, who can account for taste.

We were in bed by 11:00.

Brilliant Sun With A Crispness In The Morning Air

6:52

Up at 6:00, too late to see the sunrise but its brilliance filled the sky, the lake and our living room.  It's a chilly 52º but should hit the 80's later in the day, in short, another crummy day on the lake.  And I am listening to the pundits dissect the UK's decision to leave the EU.  It's implications, for me, are scary in that the populism that propelled the Brexit or 'Leave EU Movement' in the UK, mostly angry, white, anti globalism/free trade/immigrant, is the same base supporting the Donald.  Is this populism in the US large enough to elect Trump?  Well, if a historic change like this could happen in the UK, then a similar historic Trump victory could also happen. Scary.

Yesterday was a busy day for both of us, not that we did not enjoy it.  For some reason, we both spent most of the morning in the yard, doing those things that don't really show.  We watered all the bushes, the grass, the trees, and did lots of weeding.  I also turned the lake weeds numerous times, helping them to dry before getting rid of them.  Evie also had a few projects in the house and did some washing and drying, catching up on things.

A Beautiful Late Afternoon Kayak

I had leftover tacos for lunch, watched some junk TV before taking a nap and doing some reading, as I am slowly working through the Pulitzer Prize winning THE SYMPATHIZER.   I like it but for some reason it's taking me a while to get  through it.  Most of the day we worked under overcast skies, so we did not take advantage of the lake.  Around 5:00, however, the sun came out and we decided to take a kayak paddle over to Long Point and back.  As we were kayaking, we heard raucous voices coming from the Marina; they were filled with laughter and as we got closer, it was four guys struggling to move a boat lift into place.  They had no floats, the water was deep, so they had to synchronize holding their breath as they moved it ten feet at a time. Obviously, this was not a very efficient method.  We laughed along with them, and then paddled back into the sun, warming but blinding.

Four Stooges

We were home just after 6:00 and Evie quickly got busy in the kitchen because we were both hungry. Our meal was one of our go to meals, our typical orange marmalade sauce on salmon (thanks, Ellen), with rice and garlic spinach.  We seem to have it at least once every ten days.  We were not sure what to watch on TV.  I tried to get a movie on Apple TV but it wouldn't work,  of course, so we said the heck with it and watched some Stephen Colbert. As we were finishing our meal, we heard a pounding out on our dock, and, Chris, who helps us with our boat and dock, was pounding one of our errant poles into the lake bottom.  I went out to talk with him, and he then helped me put some stringers under the dock pieces at the end of our dock.  It's the reason I bought the 2x6x10's earlier in the week.

Steadying The Dock With Chris

Around 8:30, I tried Apple TV again and found that one of the buttons was turned off but not by me.  It's one of those things that happen in technology that you cannot figure out how it happened. Anyways, I got it to work so we watched the first episode or Season 2 of Bosch on Amazon Prime. It's a decent series, following Harry Bosch, the detective in Michael Connelly's novels. That was it for the night.

Overcast After A Brief Sunrise

5:41

5:53

I was up at 5:30, to a purple then orange glow on the lake, as the sun struggled to rise above the horizon.  Now it's mostly gray, the lake and sky, as the clouds have arrived.  It's 56º as I listen to the pundits discuss the democrats sit in, whether it's a publicity stunt or a heart felt belief.  Most believe it's bad news for the republicans because of this possible bumper sticker: Republicans Want Terrorists To Have Guns.  It's not true but it seems that way from the way they are refusing to allow a vote.

Yesterday was somewhat different, as Evie was off to drop off the first round of checks to the Chautauqua Lake Association, do some shopping and get her hair trimmed leaving the house by 8:30.  Since she would be gone much of the morning, I decided to take my car to Jamestown and get the oil changed on the Pilot.  I brought my bike along, so when I dropped it off on Washington Street, I then rode my bike to the Prendergast library, picked up Rodger Rosenblatt's latest, THOMAS MURPHY,  then rode to the Labyrinth Press Coffee shop, bought a coffee, sat down and read for a half hour before heading back to pick up my car.  For once, they did not list any problems with my car (I suspect they never checked).  I then stopped at Tops, to see if they had any of the soft drink Squirt, and they did so I bought a 12 pack.  The new drink of summer: a Paloma,  Squirt, with tequila in a rim salted tall glass.  Sounds good, like a margarita but easier.  I then went to Home Depot, picked up two 2 by 4 by10 boards, managed to fit them into my Pilot and drove home.  Evie was back already, so I helped her unpack.

Around 12:30, Evie made me BLT's for lunch, to go with some veggie soup.  I ate and watched the Cavs victory parade in Cleveland, as an estimated one million fans came out to honor them.  I am glad I wasn't there but it looked like fun if you don't mind crowds.  And so far, I have not read about any violence, rioting or the burning of cars which often accompanies this kind of celebration.  After lunch, we both spent a good part of the afternoon, either watering the parched plants around our house, napping, sun bathing or cutting lake weeds.  It was a nice 78º on the dock, with a breeze and there were plenty of weeds to cut if we wanted.  I stayed in the water for about an hour, cutting and piling on the dock to dry and Evie worked on the algae which floats on top.  By late afternoon, our lakefront looked fine, so we rewarded ourselves with cocktails on the porch, along with hummus and pita chips.  It was a beautiful late afternoon, the lake a brilliant blue, a light breeze, and sunny, as the shadows slowly took over the lawn and dock.

We had an easy dinner of tacos, with all the fixings, always a satisfying dinner.  And we struggled to find something to watch.  We started a fairly new series called AQUARIUS, set in the late 1960's, with a focus on Charles Manson and his group of followers.  We could only take a half hour before we changed channels, and watched the most recent Real Time with Bill Maher.  We loved his interview with Rebecca Traister.  She wrote ALL THE SINGLE LADIES and we were wowed by her insights into women's rights and how they have slowly changed over the years.  She was so good, so quick, that she actually shut Maher up.  Her thesis: women are slowly becoming more independent, marrying much later in life, if at all, and as a result, cultural norms, the idea that a woman is not compete unless she marries,  are changing. I want to read her book.  We both were tired from our work in the lake so we went up to be around 10:00, rare for us.

Puffy Afternoon Clouds And A Low Hanging Strawberry Moon

6:20

6:25

A pleasant morning  on the lake, 60º, a partly cloudy sky, as we both are up, sipping our coffee, planning our day.  It looks like a good day to be living on a lake, no rain in sight, perhaps for a week, alas, moderate temperatures until the weekend when it may get up into the 90's, not so good.

Yesterday, a Tuesday, was not much different from Monday, nor from today.  Mostly hanging out at the lake, occasionally doing something in the house or yard, then heading out to the dock to enjoy the sun.  We  did get a nice kayak paddle in around 9:30, over to Long Point and back to Sandy Bottom and home.

Kayaking Past A Hillside Of Lupine

Around 11:00, however, I decided to get some shopping done for the week, so Evie made a list of staples, of the heavy things for me.  I first stopped at Ryder's Cup, for a coffee and a dozen organic eggs.  Then I stopped at the new discount hardware store, Harbor Freight, because they were giving away free 25 foot tape measures and I lost mine, at least for now.  So I bought a packet of micro fiber cloths for five bucks and got a tape measure.  Wow, what a deal.  Then on to Wegman's, to begin the summer season, stocking up on staples, to get ready for family over the fourth of July, then late July and early August.  It's never too early to start getting ready, especially when theres a sale on things we know we will need.

Our Humble Abode

I did not get home until 1:00, as the lines at Wegman's were epic; it's 5% off day for seniors and with the onslaught of Chautauqua Institution people, the lines were long and slow, slow, slow.  I had vegetable soup and half of a Cuban sandwich for lunch.  Evie meanwhile put away the groceries and could not wait to get out on the dock.  I relaxed inside, of course, for a nap, then went out to join her on the dock.  And we played that kind of game the rest of the afternoon, inside for a  bit, then back out on the dock, watching the changing clouds.  We should have gone for a boat cruise but I was too lazy to take the boat cover off.

Late Afternoon Fluff

Around 5:30, Evie went in and put together a cheesy cauliflower for dinner, and she pulled out some slices of ham which she had vacuumed packed back in May.  With a salad, we had dinner and as always, the ham tasted good, the cauliflower, great.  And we watched the last two episodes of OJ...Made In America, a series from ESPN.  It was as much about America, about race, the judicial systems failures, lawyers and anger of African Americans towards not only the LA police, but the lack of white empathy for the stacked deck world of African Americans.  It was worth watching.  As I walked into the living room, to lock the front door, I was shocked by the strawberry moon, sitting atop the shore along Tom's Point.

Strawberry Moon

Summer Begins, A Parched Spring Ends

5:52

5:58

6:00

6:22

Well, there was a 95% chance of rain last night, which means we were in the top 5%, no rain. Whenever rain is predicted, it seems to pass by our area.  Evie even closed the windows last night, thinking a storm was coming.  Anyways, no complaints about this morning, as it's cooler, blue skies, puffy clouds, and I was up with the fishermen, in time to see the sunrise around 6:00.

Yesterday began with the usual coffee, listening to MSNBC, then a good half hour of watering the newly planted grass before it gets too warm.  So far, it looks like we have well watered dirt.  I think my thumb must be brown, not green.  It was another fine morning on the lake, the typical blue sky, motionless lake.  So we got out our suntan lotion, sunglasses, and a bottle of water, and kayaked down towards Whitney Bay and back.  It was warmer than we thought, so we did not linger on the water. We met some of our neighbors, also out kayaking and paddle boarding.  Yesterday if you woke up on the lake, you wanted to be out on it.

When we got back, we both had worked up a sweat, so it was time to jump in the lake.  First, I got together all my weed raking tools because the lake weeds are starting to take over parts of the lake. Some summers the weeds are not too bad, like last year but it looks like this will be a bountiful summer of weeds.  So, I spent an hour in the lake, cutting the weeds with my weed rake, then pulling them up out of the water, putting them in to a tub till it was full, then putting the weeds on the dock to dry out.  Evie helped as well, so we managed to fill up a good part of our dock with weeds.  Once they dried, they are much lighter and I gathered them in garbage cans and took the up the hill to the wood pile.  This is a task we have worked at almost every summer mostly because we tend to use our lake more than anyone.  We like it weed free when our kids arrive.

After the weed cutting, much of our work for the day was done.  And we did not feel like doing much either.  So I had lunch, homemade vegetable soup and a bagel, watched some TV and, yes, took a nap.  Evie spent a good part of the afternoon on the dock, occasionally jumping in the lake to cool off.  Around 4:00, despite the heat, Evie decided to get some exercise and cut the lawn.  Afterwards, she showered in the lake because we were going out to dinner at the Viking Club with Jackie, our neighbor.  Just before we left, Evie went to a couple of the neighbors, soliciting donations to give to the Chautauqua Lake Association and Woodlawn is nearing 100% participation.

Evie and Jackie, At The Viking Club

We met Ron at the club around 6:30 and it was fairly crowded for the Viking Club.  We grabbed a table inside, with a view of the lake, and talked with Jackie, mostly about her memories of Woodlawn back when she was young, in the 1940's an 1950's.  She seems to remember everyone and everything.  We both want to be like her when we are in our 80's, independent and with it.  We waited too long for our Cuban sandwiches but they were worth it and I even brought home half of sandwich, that's how big they are.  Just before we left, we ran into one of my breakfast buddies, Joe, who spent much of his youth on Woodlawn, so both he and Jackie reminisced about the good old days of Woodlawn, our neighborhood on the lake.  It was fun to listen to them.

We were home before dark.  We then watched some TV, Bill Maher's Real Time because we did not want to start a new series and had a bowl of ice cream, to end a pretty good day.

Miracles Do Happen -- Cavs Win NBA Championship (Solstice)

5:45

6:02

6:05

A partly cloudy morning, already warm, with rain predicted tonight.  I was up at 5:30, hoping to see the sunrise but it was hidden by some puffy clouds, popping out occasionally for a few minutes, then hiding behind them again.  Because it's Monday, the lake is quiet, hardly a boat in sight, quite a contrast to Saturday.

Yesterday was another unseasonably warm day, not what we expect in June here at the lake, but compared to Arizona, we are having a cold spell.  I heard this morning that two hikers in Phoenix died from the heat.  We have been on those mountains and cannot believe anyone would hike them in the heat of the day.  We did have our typical Sunday morning walk through the Chautauqua Institution and it was warm, making us look back at our walks through it in the winter, bundled up and happy.  Obviously, we are not good in heat.  When we got home, we did a few things in either the house or yard, not sure whether to stay inside or go out.  So, instead, Evie made a good breakfast of eggs, bacon, leftover noodles and toast.

Poppies At Chautauqua Institution

A Canvas Of Poppies

The rest of the day was a blur, not sure what we did till later in the  day when it cooled off some. Evie braved the heat, with the help of a breeze, and enjoyed the dock for an hour or two, jumping in the lake when it got too warm.  I did some reading, The Sympathizer, about the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the main character a mole of the Communists.  Around 4:30, I rose from my couch and washed my car, filthy from the sap falling from our trees.  We then decided it had cooled off some, so we took a boat ride over to Bemus Point and back along the bay, mostly pleasant, especially when we were cruising into the breeze.  There were a surprising number of boats still out on the lake for a Sunday evening, as the majority of boaters head home for the week.

For dinner, Evie had pulled out some scallops from the freezer, so she seared them, made a sauce with garlic, lemon, chicken broth and vermouth and served them over pasta, another one of our favorite dinners.  We watched another episode of the OJ series on ESPN, then watched the Cavs win an NBA championship. It's difficult to criticize Lebron since he had a triple double, finished with 26 points but he's not fun to watch when he holds the ball and dribbles for 15 to 20 seconds, slowing down the Cavs offense and the game.  That being said, it was fun to see the ecstatic Cleveland fans and the Cavs players, many in tears.  It was a tough road back from a 3-1 deficit and I think it was Kyrie who really saved them averaging over 40 points in games five and six, hitting the game winner last night in the last minute. As one of the announcers said, Kyrie's the best player in the NBA.  I agree.

We went to bed around 11:30, tired and happy.

Summer Came In A Rush

6:00

It's another beautiful day in the neighborhood, lots of sunshine, a cooling breeze, a pleasant 62º at the moment, with the high later in the day getting into the mid 80's.  It's 7:40 and I have been up since 6:00, listening to a podcast from Pop Culture Happy Hour, about the seven hour OJ documentary from ESPN.  We have watched the first couple of episodes and it's more about racism and America at that time than just OJ.  He seems to be the nexus of a large range of issues.  It is worth watching, especially for those who were too young to understand the implications of the trial.  We learn lots about OJ as well as LA, the police, and racism at that time in our history and it ain't pretty.  They replayed the beating of Rodney King, and it's still difficult to watch.

A Busy Kayak Morning

Yesterday was very warm, in fact, uncomfortable enough, at least for us, to spend much of the afternoon inside our closed window house.  Once the outside temperature matches the inside, we close the windows and it keeps the house cool for the most part.  We both had more energy in the morning, having recovered somewhat from our week of fun.  Around 10:00, we decided to kayak, so off we went to Long Point, but it was not much fun.  Too many boats, their waves, and the water had lots of floating weeds, even smelled in some areas, so we paddled back.  But by noon, we were back to our old apathetic, tired selves, ready to nap, just relax.  The extent of our efforts was to do some watering.  Evie did make some vegetable soup in the morning, so I had a bowl for lunch with a cheese sandwich, minus the jam, since the boys cleaned us out of Wegman's Triple Fruit jam!

I watched some futbol (soccer), took a nap and woke up strangely energetic despite the heat.  So I got out my bike, pumped up the tires, put it in my Pilot and drove off to Bemus for a ride.  I was gone about an hour, my usual ride, from the bridge, to Bemus, through Long Point Park, to the end, and back.  It was a busy day in Bemus, lots of people and cars, the new Ellicottville Brewery's porch was packed with people, enjoying a brew, the view, the sun.  When I biked out to Long Point, at least 50 boats were anchored together in the bay, drinking beer, wading in the water, playing their music. Thank goodness they are far enough away that we cannot see or hear them.  I have never seen so many boats anchored in the bay and I have to say, the lake was as busy as most holidays, as if everyone had decided to take their boats out because of the sun and warm weather.

Around 5:30, we walked over to the Woodlawn neighborhood right of way, for our first of three gatherings.  Each family brings their own drink and an appetizer, and we socialize from 5:00-7:00, coming and leaving whenever we want.  It's fun to see the neighbors who have been gone most of the winter, to catch up, and enjoy the afternoon.  We had about 30 people, not as many as usual because of previous commitments.  We went home around 7:30, both of us extremely tired for some reason and hardly had enough energy to make dinner, a stir fry of leftovers.  We shouldn't have made it because once I was done, it looked like dog food though it didn't taste like it...close though.  We watched the OJ documentary before  going up to bed, hoping for a good night's sleep.

And we would like to congratulate our daughter Beth and her husband, Ramiro, on their 25th anniversary, a few days late but better than never,

June 15th, 1991