A Gray On Gray Morning

6:47

7:17

I slept in if it had been yesterday morning but because of DST, I actually woke at 6:00.  It was wet and windy outside, with a dollop of rain overnight.  The wind continues to come from the South, blowing the flag wildly.  The lake is choppy and gray, not inviting to kayak.  It's 7:00 and I have been listening to an interview with Sally Quinn, a reporter, and wife of Ben Bradlee, editor of the Washington Post, about her amazing life in Washington among the power brokers. 

Yesterday was as we hoped, a brief sunny day in a week of lots of rain. I kayaked, avoiding the duck hunters but had little luck finding waterfowl.  So it was a day where we spent a good part of the morning and afternoon outside, getting the yard and house ready for winter.  I gathered anything that I could throw away, including trash and went off to the Transfer Station, happy to get rid of more stuff. I then drove off to Home Depot and Wegman's, stopping at Ryder's Cup for a coffee, picking up a few last minute things we might need on our trip. When I got home, I wanted to get a few things done outside before lunch.  So I got out my father in law's 20-foot ladder and cleaned the gutters, getting them ready for winter.  After I put the ladder away, we decided to put up or canvas curtain, making a mud room of out back porch.  We keep it upstairs, under a bed, took it out and Evie cleaned the vinyl windows.  I got out a step ladder and with Evie's help, we put up the curtain.  It took about 15 minutes, fastened it to the porch and once we were finished, Evie was inordinately happy because she loves it because it's like adding a room to our house. 

Our "New" Mud Room

About 1:00, I heated up the last of my vegetable soup, added a piece of toast and parmesan cheese, the same lunch I have had two other times this week and watched some football before falling asleep reading DREAMLAND, a book I started out enjoying but am now not liking so much at the moment.  Around 2:30, I woke to the sound of Evie mowing our yard, so I put on my boots and went out and joined her, cutting our neighbor's yard although it hardly needed it.  Most of the leaves are off our trees but not so next door.  I assume we will be mulching leaves and raking one more time at the end of this month.  Once we were done, I cleaned up my garage, putting away the things I don't need for the winter and pulled my Accord into the garage, closed it up and we were done with the outdoors for a while.  I did bring the snow shovels down from the attic!!!

6:10

When we were done, I watched some football, the depressing play of Ohio State and Evie prepped out dinner.  We decided to enjoy the setting sun, with good cheese, a baguette and a Manhattan.  It was a good choice as we never get tired of watching the lake, the opposing shore, change colors until it turned dark.  No impressive moon as it was too cloudy off to the East.  We had a Evie special, leftover eye of round, gravy and noodles for dinner and we watched another Bill Maher, wondering if any of our friends watch it as well.  We never seem to talk about his show with anyone except each other.  We ended the night with a few laughs, watching Everybody Loves Raymond, our go to show for laughs when we get sick of the news.