A Sunny And Warm Morning

7:37

 Well, I missed the sunrise again, getting up at 6:35 to a living room filled with light.  It's 63º, about as warm an early morning as we have had this spring.  The lake's choppy because of a variable wind, so I won't be kayaking this morning.

Merganser?

Yesterday was a good day for working outside, not too warm but sunny with a breeze.  I started my day as usual with yoga, then a quick stop at the store to pick up some cream and fruit for Evie.  As I headed home, I decided to check out the new discount store owned by the Amish in the village of Ashville.  It's mostly a grocery store filled with items which have expired expiration dates, thus the cheap prices.  Some items, however, are within the limits and they also sell some dry goods like socks from Vermont that have a life time guarantee.  I talked with the manager, Adam, about the polywood chaise loungers they had sitting outside.  And I asked him about whether his chair makers could put together a chair which matched our favorite Adirondack chairs which our daughter Beth gave us twenty years ago.  He did not think it would be a problem.  All I needed was to bring him the chair.   When I got home, Evie was working in the yard on our privets, clearing out all the dead branches and weeds, an onerous but necessary task.

Neighbor's Azalea

I had a quick and easy lunch, leftover leftover chicken breasts and my lentil gruel.  I finally finished MISSISSIPPI BLOOD, a 700 page tomb.  It got really tiresome towards the end and I was happy to put it aside.  After a quick nap, I decided to drive to Hartville, to another Amish farm, where we had dropped our Adirondack chair off a year ago, to see if Mose would build it.  He went out of the chair business, so I picked it up and brought it back to the lake.  By the time I returned, Evie was ready for a break, so we drove up to Ashville, to the Amish store, with the chair.  We could not make up our minds about their chaise lounges so we passed but we did order two chairs to match the one we left with Adam.  He will call us when he gets a price for it.  We are excited because this chair is tres comfortable, unlike most of the polywood chairs we have sampled.

The rest of the afternoon Evie spent either on the dock or working on the privets and I kicked back in the house, starting a new novel by Michael Connelly, as Bosch is back.  Earlier in the day, I ran into our neighbors, Ken and Marjorie, who are up to the lake for a few days, at the Amish store.  We made plans to go out to dinner at 6:30, so after showers, they picked us up and we drove to Steener's Pub in Greenhurst.  This was a first time for them and they seemed to enjoy it, good food, beer and ambiance.

Neighbors

We caught each other up on the past six months since they close their cottage up in late October.  They, like us, have three kids and spend as much time as they can with their grandchildren.  We have similar political views, so it's easy to imagine what else we talked about.  They have also been to Turkey and are very interested in what's going on there.  I got wings, Evie chili and Ken and Marjorie had the fish fry.  We were home just before 9:00, at dusk, the lake just beginning to darken.  We had enough time to watch both The Americans and Vice News before going up to bed. It was a busy but fun day.