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.