A Touch Of Winter

7:22

8:06

It's a winter like morning, howling wind, ominous gray clouds hanging over the eastern sky, a dash of snow on the windshield and hood of our car.  It's 37º out, may get up to 40º, on the coldest day so far this fall.  I was up at 6:20 and Evie followed, uncharacteristically, at 6:40.  When I walked outside to get our paper, I checked the rain gauge and we received 2.5 + inches in the past 36 hours.

Yesterday was a bizarre start to the weekend, as we had howling winds, heavy rains, sunny skies, seemingly warm weather, and hail.  Welcome to Chautauqua Lake weather, I guess.  My morning paddle started out in clouds and a light drizzle ended with blue skies and sunshine, a sign of what was to come.  We continued to do some deep fall cleaning, getting ready for the next couple of weeks when Evie's recovering from her surgery.  And, of course, we cleaned out the refrigerator, gathering all the trash, the stuff from summer we no longer want, and I drove to the Transfer Station, giving the kid who helps with the trash a 15-year-old Play Station we no longer need.  He was excited.

When I returned home, Evie was putting the finishing touches on dinner, chicken paprikash.  When she asked what I wanted for dinner, I sent her the recipe for chicken paprikash, so she made it.  It was one of my favorites from my childhood, a creamy, red sauce over chicken, with buttered noodles.  Yum.

Because the afternoon could not make up its mind as to whether it would be sunny and dry, or cloudy and wet, we stayed inside, watching some TV and relaxing.  After making the chicken, Evie made her famous veggie soup, with lots of beans and cabbage, so I had a bowl for lunch, with a cheese sandwich, and started a new series called THE SINNER.  I watched part of it, then turned it off because I wanted to read, finish my book, then take a nap.

Bringing In The Dock In Sun...

Around 3:30, Chris and Austin arrived, to take out both our dock and our neighbors.  They started in heavy rain, then it appeared to be a perfect day for taking it out, as the sun came out and it seemed to warm things up, but then it clouded up again and poured.  It took them a good couple of hours to get both docks out and we felt sorry for them, wading in the cold water and rain.  It always feels good when all the summer stuff is in for the winter, the boat, the dock, and the inflatables.  It suggests fall is fleeting, winter on the horizon.

And Rain

We relaxed on this miserable night of rain and winds with a glass of wine and Buffalo flavored nuts before dinner.  We decided that neither of us was that hungry, so we decided on nixing a salad, sticking with the chicken paprikash and noodles, a good decision.  The chicken was just what I wanted, tasty gravy with the noodles.  We watched a couple of Colbert's, some news and ended the night with some Ohio State football.  I found out this morning they were destroyed by Purdue.  From what I watched, they did not look good and deserved to lose.