An Early Wednesday Morning

5:58

6:27

6:30

I guess I am getting up with the sun, as I was out on our porch at 5:45, waiting for the sun to pop up over the horizon.  It finally showed its grandeur just before 6:00.  Now, at 6:30, it's hidden behind a bank of clouds, the lake changing from blue to gray.  I am heading back to the dentist this morning at 8:00 for what the dentist calls minor dental surgery on my gums.  I don't think it's  going to be much fun.

A Profusion Of Rhododendrons In Our Yard

Yesterday was a strange day as every time we thought we should go out on the dock to get some sun, it would cloud up and we forgot about it.  Not that I wanted to dock it early other than to eat my breakfast and enjoy the early morning.  I drove to the dentist at 9:00, thinking I was getting a root canal but after some consultation, I am getting some dental surgery this morning because of an infection or abscess.  Who knows if this is the right decision.  You put yourself in the hands of the doctor, in this case, dentist, and hope he is competent and honest.  So I left the dentist office earlier than expected and stopped at Walmart to pick up oil for both my boat and lawnmower.  It is much cheaper at Walmart than a Marina.

A Common Summer Scene, The Grasshopper Sailboat

When I got home, Evie had put out a panoply of leftovers on the counter for lunch and I picked out the leftover pork, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes and popped it in the microwave for a few minutes and I had a dandy lunch.  Both of us took it easy the rest of the afternoon.  Evie tried to sunbathe on the dock but the cool winds drove her inside.  Around 4:00, both of us had enough of this leisure, so what do we do when bored on a sunny afternoon?  Power up both lawn mower and cut the yards.  We both like the looks of a mowed lawn, the smell of freshly cut grass.

6:30

We settled down on our porch around 6:00, marveling at 'our lake,' or so it seemed as we seemed to be the only one on it, no boats, no people, just Evie and me on the porch, enjoying a Manhattan and some great Castello cheese and crackers.  It was one of those nights where we expected the worst, rain and winds, but got a brief beautiful blue sky, clumps of white clouds, then a stormy sky and an empty lake, just Evie and me, sitting on our porch.

7:56

7:57

We ended up listening to tunes on the amazing Apple Music (thanks, Tommy) and ended up listening to Don Ho, from Hawaii Nei, singing some of his Hawaiian music, my favorite 'I'll Remember You.'  It was made famous by Elvis Presley and written by and sung by Bob Dylan.  His version is terrible, sorry Dylan fans.  Don Ho's version is still the best.

Dinner was not quite as picturesque as our cocktail hour but tasty, sloppy joes that we froze a few weeks ago.  I have to say that there is nothing like a sloppy joe at the right time, on a bun, with a pickle on the side.  Last night was the right time.  We hurried through our dinner because Frank and Claire Underwood were back on Netflix after a year's hiatus in House Of Cards.  It seemed to be a slow start, as we are not sure after a year what's going on other than Frank is running for re-election. No bells and whistles yet; we will give it time and hope it measures up to the past seasons.

Ah Tuesday

6:20

A partly cloudy morning, the sky constantly changing and I have been up since 5:30 after a rocky night.  I took a brief nap around 7:00 after an afternoon at the Viking Club and that made it difficult for me to fall asleep.  I would turn on the light, read, turn off the light and hope for the best.  I finally fell asleep around 12:30 or 1:00.  It looks like we might and I emphasize might get some rain today. The weather gods have been saying this all weekend and for the most part, we have received less than a quarter of an inch over the Memorial Day Weekend.

Monday, Memorial Day, felt like a Sunday.  We missed the parade in Bemus Point, alas, preferring to hang out at home and enjoy the sunny day.  We treated it as a Sunday, a day of 'large leisure.'  While Evie basked for a good part of the day on the dock, I found some mojo and packed my bike in the Pilot and drove over to Bemus.  I took my usual ride, from the bridge to Bemus, down Lakeside Drive to Long Point Park, then through the park to Long Point's tip, then home.  It's about an hour ride and it felt good to be back on my bike.  When I got home, I joined Evie for an hour on the dock,  reading and to my surprise,  getting some sunburn.

Evie went in around 2:30, to shower and get ready for dinner at the Viking Club.  When we got there, the parking lot was almost full as at least 400 members took advantage of the barbecue chicken dinner.  For ten bucks, we got a half of chicken, macaroni salad, potato salad, cole slaw, beans, roll, and dessert.

Selfie At Viking Club

Fortunately, we found a seat at the bar next to our friends from Bemus Point, Barb and Dana.  They had boated down to the Club, braving what seemed to us a choppy lake.  We spent most of the afternoon talking with them.  Before they took off, we got a selfie with another couple we have gotten to know on Wednesday evenings, Teresa and Greg, who live just down the lake from us in Magnolia. We, then,  got our chicken dinners, another beer of course and stopped and talked with Doug and Dawn after we finished eating.  Doug had been behind the counter serving chicken since 1:00 so he was exhausted, more than happy to finally sit down and enjoy his dinner.

6:57

We got home about 6:00 and both of us were foggy from having a couple of beers.  It's never a good idea to drink in the afternoon but what the heck, it was a holiday.  So I read some, fell asleep for a half hour before joining Evie in the TV room for the rest of the night.

Photo By Our Neighbor, Joe

7:38

Around 7:45, we received a phone call from our neighbor Ken telling us there was a magnificent rainbow across the lake.  We ran out, but missed the complete rainbow, then returned to the TV room to watch a mediocre Leonard Di Caprio movie, BODY OF LIES, based on a David Ignatius book which I read a couple of years ago.  Since I put together a sourdough starter on Saturday, I have to feed it every 12 hours, so at 10:00 before going to bed, I pulled the starter out of the hot room, threw half of it away, added another cup of flour, a half cup of water, stirred it and put it back in the hot room to rise.  I will do the same thing for the next day and a half and by then, I should have my starter.

I am not too excited about my morning because I am getting a root canal at 9:30 in Jamestown, the prequel to getting a new crown.  I should have been a dentist.

Finally, I am including a picture and article about our Grandson Tyler's 'very good friend, ' Helen. She spent a couple of days with us at the lake two years ago and impressed us with her dedication, running 9-10 miles every day she was here.  We thought she was a 'wonder woman.'  Obviously, she is!

Helen, Running For Dartmouth College

When the bell rang for the final lap of the first of two quarterfinals of the women’s 1,500-meter run at the NCAA East Preliminaries, Dartmouth senior Helen Schlachtenhaufen was sitting in fifth place, the last automatic qualifying position. Little did the rest of the field know what she had left.

From there she covered the final lap in 64.25 seconds, leaving everyone else in her wake, as she clocked the fastest time by an Ivy Leaguer (4:11.15) in the event in 27 years. The only woman to ever run faster was Cornell’s Stephanie Best, who ran 4:09.85 to take third at the 1990 NCAAs.

Not only did Schlachtenhaufen’s time hold up as the fastest time in the East, it was also far better than anyone ran in the West as well.  Helen will be in Eugene, Oregon for most of Dartmouth's graduation weekend competing in the NCAA finals.  

A Quiet And Wet Memorial Day

7:51

8:18

Woke at 6:15, the blinds letting in enough morning light to get me up.  It's a cloudy morning, having rained a half inch overnight.  I like the colors, their clarity this morning,  the lake slate gray and green, the trees green, the sky various shades of gray.  A few bass boats are out but other than that, it's quiet here at the lake.  It's 9:00 and I just got back from kayaking and perching, no luck of course.

My Solitary Morning Paddle

Zen (Goalless) Fishing

Yesterday for me began with a long kayak paddle, as I mentioned.  Since it was Sunday, we decided to get some things done in the yard, or rather Evie did and I went along.  We did not get up from our morning coffee until around 10:00, enjoying the leisure of a mostly sunny morning.  We malingered. While I cleaned up the kitchen,  Evie put together a shrimp and cream cheese appetizer for later to take to the porch party later in the day.  Both of us, then, went out to work again in the garden, moving some unwanted plants, clearing areas and then beginning the process of planting the dahlias that Evie began in plastic yoga cups three weeks ago.  Because of this, they already have a good start, so she planted them in three or four areas around the garden.  They come in various heights so it was a crap shoot deciding where to put the 15-inch dahlias, the 45-inch ones.  The neat thing about them is they tend to bloom for a couple of months which makes them a perfect flower for the garden. The downside, we have to dig the bulbs out in the fall and store them properly or buy new ones next year.  I will leave it to your imagination which I would like to do.

Late Afternoon Rains

After the planting, we had our big Sunday breakfast of eggs, bacon, and bagels although neither of us was that hungry for some reason and we both left food on our plates.  Around 3:30, I started a new book by Don Winslow called THE KINGS OF COOL, about two 'good' drug dealers in California. It's the prequel to his more popular SAVAGES which was also made into a film.  So as I got into the surfer dude druggy life along the beach,  Evie fired up the mower (yes, Martha, even at the lake) and cut the lawn, a good way to end her day although, by the end, she looked wiped out, begging me to get her ice water.   It was surprisingly warm and humid on a day that started out fairly cool.

Porch Party Hosts, Jim And Barb

We both showered and put on our Sunday best, Bermudas and a tee shirt for me and walked in a light rain over to Jim and Barb's porch, a tradition, their Memorial Day porch party, which rings in the beginning of summer.  Everyone brings an appetizer, a few beers.

A Grand Chautauqua Porch

Buffalo's Joe And Betsy

Jim, Betsy, And Cindy

We sat on their porch until  9:00, enjoying the great food, the beers, and the fun talk, as each of us eventually went inside to get a fleece or blanket because of the cool night air.  Most were neighbors from Woodlawn, some having grown up here in their youth, so there were lots of stories about the good old days.  Jim and Barb are great hosts, so it was a fun way to celebrate the beginning of summer.  We walked home in a light rain, watched some TV for an hour, as the rain really started to fall.  Fortunately, the thunder and lightning seemed to be far away.

And we end with a heartfelt thank you to our son in law Drew and his family for his twenty-plus years of service to our country, mostly in Special Forces 10th Group.

Drew And Jill And Their Daughters, Halle and Hayden,  July, 2014

MATTERHORN: KARL MARLANTES

If you want to understand why Vietnam Vets have such a difficult time reentering society, this novel will answer your question.  This is a fitting book to have read then reviewed on Memorial Day. We honor all those who sacrificed so much and gave their lives.

MATTERHORN is a startling contrast to my last read, A DANGEROUS FRIEND although both are set in Vietnam.  It was a revelation to me, a realistic, often hard to read description of what it was like to be a Marine, a grunt, 'in country.'  The author, a highly decorated Marine, wrote the novel over a 30-year span.

Second Lieutenant Waino Mellas is a green platoon leader with ambitions.  Unlike most of his men, he's Ivy League and an officer, which separates him from most of the other soldiers.  It's 1969, both Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy have been assassinated but on the peaks of Matterhorn, politics holds little sway.  The madness and absurdity of war fill the book, as the Marines take Matterhorn, dig in to hold it, then are ordered to move on, only to be asked to take it once again as the NVA have moved in.  SNAFU reigns.  War is hell.  Young men die, are maimed, all in the name of democracy.  Madness stands along side the courage of these teenage Marines.

Mellas questions everything about the war and its execution, especially the competence of its leaders yet remains in it.  Racism rears its ugly head mostly in down time and complicates the prosecution of the war.  When the battles begin, however, all is forgotten as the Marines care only about two things: kill or be killed, save or be saved.  And if you survive, it's time for a beer or two and shower before heading back.  I have read many books about the Vietnam War but none affected me as much as this one.

Midway A Memorial Day Weekend

6:09

6:20

8:50

It's partly cloudy, as the sun tries to break through the clouds on a surprisingly cool morning.  I missed sunrise because I did not get up till after 6:00.  Not much action yet on the lake but it will come.  It's 8:30 and I just got back from an hour of kayaking, over to Long Point, the Marina, across to Sandy Bottom and home to Woodlawn.  It started out cool and partly cloudy and I came home to blue skies and a warming sun at my back.  It is hard to believe it's supposed to rain later in the day.

Kayaking To Long Point

Yesterday was a good start to the weekend, mostly sunny and windy, not quite the kind of boating weather we prefer but it did not discourage the weekenders up for the first time since fall.  We got a late start but I gathered up the trash and went to the Transfer Station, getting rid of lots of cardboard boxes which were littering my rapidly filling garage.

We knew we had to get in a shopping trip and decided to bite the bullet and go before lunch.  It was a mistake because half of the area seemed to have the same idea.  We stopped at Home Depot and picked out a gallon of paint for the benches Evie has been stripping the last couple of days.  We then did a 'huge' shopping, filling up our cart.  And because we were in a hurry to get home, we picked the wrong line and lingered seemingly endless as the checker slowly put our groceries in one bag after another.  I am sure most of have been there.

We got home happily around 1:00, time for lunch wiener schnitzel sandwiches, with mayo of course and some TV, a book and a nap.  I am not sure how long I napped, either 15 minutes or 45 because I did not pay any attention to the time.  Evie was out working in the garden so I went out and helped transplant some plants, do some weeding and got a couple of large planting pots out of the garage
attic.  I had bought a mix of zinnias so I peppered them in the large pot, watered them and hope something grows.  I definitely do not have a green thumb.

Cruising A Busy Lake

By 4:30, we had our fill of mud and dirt and weeds, so we cracked open a couple of beers, some pretzels and sat out on the dock watching the action on the lake, both boats and geese until we were forced in by the cool wind.  So we finished our beer on the porch until it was time for dinner.  Early morning, Evie had browned some country pork ribs I had bought on Friday, threw them into a pot with sauerkraut and tomatoes, and let them bake for five hours in a 200º oven.  So all we had to do is boil some potatoes, mash them, and plate them with the pork and sauerkraut and we were both happy campers.  Easy and delicious.  We watched the HBO movie about Bernie Madoff, starring Robert DeNiro.  I would give it a C+, not great but it filled up a quiet Saturday evening.

It Looks Like A Nice Memorial Day Weekend

6:17

6:30

6:35

7:07

It's 8:30 and I have been up since before 6:00, listening to C-Span interview Chris Hayes for an hour, then I took off and paddled over to Long Point, across to Whitney Bay and back, about an hour on the lake.  Surprisingly, even though it's the start to Memorial Day weekend when most weekenders open up their cottages, the lake was practically deserted, just me and an occasional fishing boat.

Kayak Morning

Yesterday was overcast much of the day, with an occasional drizzle but nothing to really keep us inside.  I went to a good yoga class with Julie, as class just flew by.  I then stopped for gas and a few groceries at Save A Lot before driving home.  Evie is getting serious about the garden and needed more topsoil to repair spot that was torn up by the backhoe, so off I went to Tri James and picked up three more large buckets of topsoil and three more buckets of stone for filling in low spots in our driveway.

While I was getting topsoil, Evie made me a couple of avocado sandwiches with cholula sauce and tomatoes, yum, on my homemade bread, toasted, and I was a happy boy, watching the next episode of SPIRAL.  It's nice to have a series like this to keep me interested for forty-five minutes while I eat lunch.  It was then time for reading, then a nap and up and at them to help Evie outside.  We continued to pull weeds, transplant a few perennials, trim some of the lilacs, and that was it, as the ground was still quite wet and muddy.  So we will get more done today when the yard is much dryer. We also seem to have a couple of ducks living next door as they seem to enjoy lounging on the freshly cut grass.  We assume they must have eggs somewhere but we haven't seen their nest as of yet.

Mom And Pop

Malingering

We decided to have a Friday night cocktail hour, no surprise, so we got out the Castello cheese, brie and blue, crackers and I made a Manhattan for each of us.  We started listening to a song Scott, one of my basketball teammates recommended, "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday," by Kenny Vance and the Planotones.  We had never heard of the song or the group but liked the song enough to listen to his album, filled with oldies but goodies from the 1950's.  That led to looking back at some of our favorite songs, first listening to Orson Wells sing "I Know What It Is To Be Young,' a song my Turkish friend's introduced Evie and me too in 2009.  Then we searched for songs on Apple Music from college and Hawaii, mostly songs by Burt Bacharach sung by Dionne Warwick like 'Walk On By,' and 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.'  What a trip down nostalgia lane.  It's dangerous.  

We finally had a dinner of pork schnitzel, applesauce, baked potatoes and cabbage strudel about 8:30, in time to watch another episode of FARGO, which is finally getting more interesting.  By the time it was over, it was time to go upstairs and read.

Overcast And Foggy

6:18

A gray morning, fog hanging over the shorelines as I get up to a coffee at 6:30.  We got an inch and a half of rain over the past 24 hours, more to come over the weekend supposedly.   It's 54º and won't get much warmer during the day.

Yesterday was sort of a lost day although I did get a good Yin yoga class in at 10:00 with lots of gals, a couple of guys.  It was raining when I got out of class and continued on and off until late afternoon when, just before we headed over to Bemus to eat, the sun came out, the sky and lake turned blue and you would never think it had been gray and wet all day.

When I got home, not much was happening as Evie's plans for working in the garden were squashed by the weather.  Neither of us wanted to do anything inside so we kind of wasted the afternoon, watching TV or reading or napping.   I had another bowl of my white bean stew for lunch and am still enjoying it.  I also toasted some of my homemade bread had toast with peanut butter.

We thought about things to do but took a lesson from yesterday's poem and just malingered most of the afternoon.  We decided to go out for dinner, just so we could say we had done something when Linda and Ron texted us and asked if we wanted to meet them for a beer on the Lenhart's porch (it was opening night),  then have dinner at the Seezurh House.  That settled what we were going to do so we cleaned up, then met them at the Lenhart around 6:15.  By the time we got there, the beautiful late afternoon sky had turned gray and sitting on the porch, having an Old Vienna was a bit cool but we roughed it.  We were the only ones on the porch although the bar was full.

5:58

We walked over to the Seezuhr House and even though it was a Thursday night, the village was bustling, all three restaurants seemed crowded, streets with packed with cars. Fortunately, we found our usual seat in the Seezurh House.  Evie, Linda and I had the Delmonico steak special, with salad and fries and it was outstanding, tasty and tender.  It was good to be back in our old stomping grounds, a restaurant/bar we first started frequently in the summer of 1981.  We didn't get home until 9:00, in time to watch the first half of the Cavs game before going up to bed, confident they would hold their 20 point lead and beat the Celtics.

Wet And KInda Wild

7:21 

Up at 6:20 to a rainy morning, a single boat on the choppy lake, a coolish 55º.  It looks like it will stay this way most of the day.  A good day to hunker down inside and enjoy a book or a good day for errands.

Wednesday was eclectic yoga day, a small class of four of us, allowing us to take advantage of the small size and use lots of props.  I like this class because of its eclectic nature, always something different or new.  I was tempted after class to go shopping, just bored I guess, but resisted the temptation to spend, to find a deal and went home.  It was a nice day at the lake, lots of sun but also lots of wind.  Evie had spent most of the morning inside, getting those things done that need to be done weekly, like the wash and chores that are done once every couple of weeks, like washing the windows.  It's that time of the year. Evie has a fetish about clean windows, so either she or I wash them during the warm weather every week or so.  I have to admit it makes a difference, maybe not in my life but in my view of the lake.

I was hungry by 12:30, so I heated up the taco filling and taco shells from the previous night's dinner, added the toppings and I had a great taco salad to go with another episode of SPIRAL.  While I ate, napped and read,  Evie continued to work in her garden, weeding and beginning to organize the plants.  I was out by 2:30 to help but Evie wanted our front porch cleaned so that was my task.  It was dirty from all the pollen from the trees.  So I took all the furniture off, then washed down the rails, swept and vacuumed the floor of the porch, getting it ready for summer.  I then washed down all the furniture, vacuumed the cushions, then put everything back on the porch.  And we now had a spic n span porch.

La Porch

Around 5:30, Evie had enough gardening and it started to rain, so I hurriedly took the detritus from the garden up the hill, then closed up the garage.  We popped a couple of cans of Blue Moon, poured it into glasses, added an orange slice, and went out to sit on our clean porch, a classy way to end our day.

Dinner was a favorite, something I woke up wanting, scallops, with a vermouth, lemon, garlic sauce over pasta. Yum.  I cannot believe scallops were one of the few foods I really disliked as a teen.  We watched the breaking news until it no longer seemed breaking.  We watched what was once our favorite series, THE AMERICANS.  But like many of the series this year, it seems boring and has lost its way. There's a final episode next week so it had better pull things together with a bang.  We ended the night with Vice News.

I liked this poem and will leave it to the reader to figure out why.

Loafing by Raymond Carver I looked into the room a moment ago, and this is what I saw — my chair in its place by the window, the book turned facedown on the table. And on the sill, the cigarette left burning in its ashtray. Malingerer! my uncle yelled at me so long ago. He was right. I’ve set aside time today, same as every day, for doing nothing at all.

A DANGEROUS FRIEND: WARD JUST

Set in Vietnam in 1965, this novel has echoes of Graham Greene's THE QUIET AMERICAN.  In this novel, Sydney Parade, recently divorced, is looking for something to give his life meaning.  He hopes to find it in Vietnam by bringing them democracy.  It's not hard to figure out what happens to his dreams.

He is recruited by Dicky Rostow, brash, and outspoken, a true believer in America's role.  Sydney travels to the country ostensibly to bring schools and wells, unaware that he's totally ignorant of Vietnamese culture, its people.  He befriends a French expatriate, Claude Arnaud and his wife Dede. They become friends and Claude reluctantly relays information about a captured Army captain to the Americans.  The result leads to the annihilation of an innocent village of Vietnamese peasants and the end of Sydney's innocence.

Sun Or Rain

6:13

8:34

Well, it's just about 7:00 and I have been up an hour, waiting for the predicted rain and the sun just came out.  Typical for Chautauqua and we knew that by cutting the yards yesterday because of the coming rain, it wouldn't rain.  It's 55º and may end up being a fine day at the lake.  It's just after 9:00 as I finish this blog and I had a windy but happy paddle in my kayak to Long Point and back, a good way to start the day.

Off To Long Point

Kayak Morning

Yesterday began with another fine yoga class, lots of students and the best part, it was sunny and mild most of the day.  After class, I went to the nursery and picked up five pots of wave petunias for Evie's flower boxes and then stopped at Save A Lot to pick up the fixings for tacos,  our dinner last night. When I got home, Evie had spent much of the morning catching up on wash and reworking the back bedroom, getting it ready for our June visitors.

Lunch was easy, my white bean stew (kuru fasulye) and toast.  It tasted as good as ever and for once, I seem to have gotten the seasonings, basically Turkish pepper and salt just right.  I then read for an hour and finished my Vietnam book, MATTERHORN, the war from the grunt's point of view.  After reading this book, it's easy to see why so many vets have committed suicide.  Few Marines survived the SNAFUS, the constant fear, the deaths of buddies without suffering from major trauma.

We spent most of the afternoon, then, outside getting things done, readying the place for summer.  I got out the buoys and placed them in the lake, dividing our swimming area from boats. And Evie continued to scrape and sand the benches that we keep on our dock.  They are in bad shape and need a new coat of paint.  Around 4:30 because of the forecast for rain, we fired up both power mowers and quickly cut both yards.  There's pleasure in seeing a lawn well cut, green and trimmed, part I suppose of the American dream...your own home and a spiffy, well-kept lawn and yard.  And by 6:00 the lake had settled down, so we poured a couple of Blue Moon's into a glass, added a slice of orange and sat out on our dock, enjoying the late afternoon/early evening with a bowl of pistachios.

Late Afternoon Clouds

Dinner involved heating up taco meat that Evie had frozen a few weeks ago and got out all the fixings for the taco salad, avocados, lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream.  We watched another episode of BETTER CALL SAUL, again, pretty boring, watched Vice News, and the first half of the Cavs game before going up to bed to start a new book, this one set in Leningrad during WWI II called City Of Thieves, recommended by my sister, Ellen.

Routine Is Back: Yoga, Shopping, Bird watching, Yard work, Books, and Cruising The Lake

6:47

7:18

7:56

I missed sunrise by a good half hour but it felt good to sleep in till 6:30.  It's somewhat overcast though the sun still blasts through the clouds enough to reflect on the lake.  It's 47º and will stay in the 60's the rest of the day.  No rain until Thursday.  As I finish, I noticed the purple martins are flitting back and forth between their houses, at least 20,  singing as they make their nests.  What a joy to wake each morning to their sounds.

A Family That Stays Together

Heron, Weeds, And Cairn

It was difficult to get moving yesterday, to get back in the routine but I did and went to a Yin Yoga class at 9:30.  We did some interesting wrist exercises as well as hip openers and I felt pretty good about my life by the time I left.  The sun was out when I exited the studio, a relief after the heavy rains we fought on Sunday's drive home from Columbus.  I got a coffee at Ryder's Cup, then went to both Home Depot and Wegman's, to pick up a few staples for the week, like our favorite Perry's ice cream, Bittersweet Sinphony.  When I got home, Evie offered to make me a lunch of eggs and bacon. How could I refuse.  While she made the eggs, I got out the pressure cooker and tossed in a pound of cannelloni beams for 25 minutes, then let them sit until later in the afternoon.

I had my breakfast/lunch, watched some of the Cavs loss, read more of my Vietnam book, MATTERHORN, and fell asleep for only 15 minutes, alas.  I wanted more.  So I got up and made a pot of kuru fasulye, an easy Turkish dish with cannelloni beans.  All you do is saute an onion in olive oil, add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste, and some Maras or Aleppo pepper, as well as cayenne to taste, then add the beans and water from the pressure cooker.  Simmer it until the beans are tender although after the pressure cooker, they already were.  Add salt to taste and you have a Turkish peasant staple.

Around 3:30, both Evie and I went outside, determined to make something of our day.  Evie worked in the garden, trimming and weeding and I work on bare spots in our front yard for about the fourth or fifth time, using topsoil along with fertilized grass seed, hoping that it will grow.  I filled up a number of water cans with water and watered the areas and hope to continue to do it each day it doesn't rain.  By gosh, I am determined this time that the grass will grow.

Around 6:00, Evie put some potatoes in the oven, wrapped up the Trader Joe ribs in tin foil and dinner was ready in an hour.  We enjoyed a leisurely cocktail hour, with one of our favorite cheeses from Trader Joe's, Saint Andre, although it was not quite ripe.  We took numerous photos of a blue heron, standing on our neighbor's dock for at least a half hour, no doubt waiting for a fish dinner.

Patiently Waiting For Dinner

Got An Itch

The ribs and potatoes and a salad were great and we watched the 'breaking new' for once which seemed breaking, the terrible bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.  There but for the grace of the gods go I.  Chance and luck, the twin towers of reality.  We ended the evening watching a less than interesting episode of BETTER CALL SAUL.  It seems as though all of our favorites series are losing direction.  Sad making.  I am almost through with my book, MATTERHORN, and I will be glad to move on to something less depressing, maddening.