A Wet, Gray, And Warm Morning

7:41

I woke to an overcast sky,  no evidence of a sunrise.  The yard looks freshly washed, the road is puddled.  It may rain more this morning but will then clear up.  It's a humid 70º at 7:15 and some fog seems to be rolling in.  I have breakfast this morning at 8:00, yoga at 10:00, a typical Thursday for me.

Yesterday, unlike today, was sunny all day.  While I went to yoga, Evie got busy in the house and organized my sock drawer among other organizing.  I now have white socks in one drawer, black in another, and all the old socks are in the trash.  After yoga, I stopped for coffee, then did some shopping at the grocery, picking up only a few things since we were going out for dinner via boat, an idea both of us woke up with for some reason.  I also picked up a quart of tomatoes so when I  got home, I made a couple of avocado and tomato sandwiches, hoping the tomatoes would be tasty.  They weren't.  I still have a difficult time finding really tasty tomatoes at this time of year.

By the way, when I got home at noon, Evie was out in the water, cutting weeds and piling them up on the dock.  Three hours later, after my nap and reading, she emerged from the water, happy with her work, our swimming area weedless for the most part.  Most people, after having weeded for hours would have relaxed.  I certainly would have.  Not Evie, as she powered up the mower and cut the lawn, occasionally calling her 'boy' for some water.  He was happy to do so.  My only task was to turn the weeds every hour or so, hoping they would dry so they would be easy to transport.  About 5:00, I filled a couple of trash cans and took them up the hill to the weed pile.  Both of us then went for a swim to cool off, to clean up and came in and got ready for our night out in Bemus Point.

I had taken the cover of earlier in the day, so we jumped (stepped) into the boat and cruised over to Bemus on a lovely late afternoon, a nice breeze keeping us cool.  We fortunately found a docking spot at the village dock.  We had decided we were going to the new Ellicottville Brewing Company Restaurant for the first time and have a beer, and then make up our mind where to eat.  When we arrived the bar was half full, mostly with a busload of guys from Erie, who were on a beer tour of the Southern Tier Brewery and then Ellicottville.  When they left the bar was practically empty except for us and two or three others, although the outdoor terrace was full.

Micro Brews, Pretzels And Beer Cheese

We got to know all three bartenders, Taylor, Kent, and Maria and they were more than accommodating as we tried three or four beers, trying to find one we might like.  I ended up with a Southern Tier Tangerine and Evie got an Ellicottville Fall Favorite and we were both happy with our choice.  We perused the menu, talked with Taylor and decided on an appetizer, baked pretzels with beer cheese.  It was a good choice, as we devoured it, loved both the cheese and pretzels, and by the time we finished, we were practically full.  We found out the restaurant would be open till December and depending on business, would stay open into the winter months if they had the patrons.  We did get to talk briefly with a guy who has a third generation grape farm, 250 acres, in Westfield.  He takes all his grapes to Welch's in Westfield, in fact, he has a contract with them.  We left around 8:00 and decided to stop at the Casino for a beer and could not pass up a single order of 8 wings and fries, a bad choice, as we hardly finished the wings and felt stuffed after the fries.  When is enough, enough.  And to be honest, the Casino seemed tired, run down, dirty and hot after the sparkling, new Ellicottville Brewery.  Maybe we are becoming elitist but we both preferred the brewery,  its food and atmosphere, not the price.

8:21

We cruised home on a quickly darkening lake and I had to put the boat cover on in the dark because rain was forecast overnight.  By the time we got settled in the TV room, it was 9:30, so we watched some Rachel Maddow, then Megan Kelly for a contrast before it was time to go up to read some before sleeping.