Cloudy Morning After A Night Of Thunderstorms and Lightning

7:37

7:49

I slept in until 7:00, mostly because we stayed up talking with our guests, Rick and Carolyn, who arrived from Big Bear Lake, CA, last night around 7:30.  The sun has just risen above a heavy cloud mass, it's reflection shimmering on the lake.  It's a pleasant 64º, will stay in the low 70's, with some rain forecast but I don't think it will ruin our day.

Yesterday was a busy day, of course, getting ready for Rick and Carolyn, making sure everything was ship/shape.  I hit the Transfer Station around 10:00 then drove to Lakewood, for a coffee, then to the grocery and library before returning home. Evie, however, was busy by 9:00, making up a special Turkish lentil soup, again one of our all time favorites.  And there are always lots of things to do to get things ready.  But mostly, she wanted to get both meals ready before they arrived, a pork tenderloin with a cabbage streudel and a moussaka for tonight.  So she was busy until after 1:00, baking the eggplant, putting together the moussaka, while making the soup.  And I was there, cleaning up after her, making sure the kitchen was spotless by the time she was through with cooking.  The finishing touch was getting down on her hands and knees washing the kitchen floor which I thought was fine but she thought was sticky from all the cooking.

We then tried to relax even though we knew that heavy and severe thunderstorms were predicted for our area, up to Buffalo, just as our friends were to arrive.  They got in to Buffalo on time but their drive here to the lake was a nightmare, torrential rains on #90, everyone driving with their hazard lights on and Rick could not even read the signs for exits as it was so terrible.  What makes it worst, since they live in California, they hardly have any rain let alone thunderstorms like this.  They finally called us when they got to Westfield and we talked them all the way to our house.  They arrived around 7:30, so they did not make too bad of time.

Dinner With Rick And Carolyn

We sat outside on the porch, listening to the rain, watching the sky fill with lighting and thunder.  They actually loved it because storms were so rare for them.  We didn't eat the dinner until 8:30 which was fine.  Of course, we had lots to catch up on and Rick is a non stop talker, so we were never at a loss for something to talk about.  We covered the gamut, from our days at Robert College in Istanbul, to their days teaching and living in Modesto, CA, before retiring to Big Bear Lake, in 2005.  As a public school teachers, they could retire much earlier than me.  Lucky dogs.  We had homemade pumpkin pie around 10:00, a perfect dessert and did not go up to bed until midnight.  For them, however, it was only 9:00, but they seemed tired and I think slept pretty well although Rick was up with me around 7:00.