A Morning Of Mixed Emotions

6:52

6:53

7:22

7:32

7:33

I was up at 6:00, with a guarded anxiousness about last night's elections.  So I turned on Morning Joe and got the skinny from their point of view.  Enough for now, enjoy the morning sky, TD.  It's overcast with a brush of pink over towards Bemus Point and 45º. It looks like a nice day, mixed clouds and sunshine, with temperatures in the high 40's.

Kayak Morning

Yesterday I stayed home, all day with one exception, I drove to our local Fire Station to vote, Evie having already voted on an absentee ballot.  I was surprised to see the small parking lot filled with mostly pickup trucks, the transportation of choice around here.  There were probably 20 people voting and it took only three or four minutes to get my ballot, a bit longer to wait in line to put it in the machine.  I have to admit to feeling a bit out of place in a very Republican and Trump county.  Most of the voters, like me, were retired, but there it ends. Most looked like the Trump supporters at his rally, ball caps, scraggly beards, saggy jeans which describes me as well except my hat has a peace sign, an irony.  I am sure they are good guys, hard workers, the kind I see at breakfast on Thursday, but they are Trump and Republican supporters.  C'est la vie.  I turned in my ballot and the Democratic candidate for Congress did better than usual but lost once again to the incumbent, Tom Reed as expected.

And since I did not go to yoga, I decided to make some bread.  I got out the James Beard Bread book and decided on George Lang's Potato Bread with Carraway seeds.  First, I boiled up some potatoes, mashed them and let them cool.  Then made a starter of flour, yeast, potatoes, water and two cups of flour and let it sit for forty-five minutes.  Next, I added the rest of the ingredients, additional 6 cups of flour, salt, and caraway seeds.  I then kneaded it for 15 minutes with Evie's guidance; I finally got the rhythm of kneading after watching her do it.  I then let it rise until midafternoon; Evie then split the dough in two and shaped it for two loaves.  Fifty minutes later we had two hardy loaves.  We could hardly wait for it to cool before getting out the butter and sampling it.  The caraway seeds really make it.

Farm Above Bemus Bay

Afternoon Clearing

5:28 PM

Other than bread making, we mostly watched the election build up.  Lunch was our good friend Linda's beef barley soup with a couple of cheese and tomato sandwiches, toasted under the broiler.  I restarted another series, THE SINNER and watched the first episode again while eating my lunch. The rest of the day we were glued either to the TV or Sonos, listening to the prognosticators with some anxiety. After a nap, I read some, put the bread in the oven at 3:30 and because the rain had stopped, the sky opened up briefly, I went for a walk in the woods.  Finally, the leaves seem to have fallen, the tree limbs are bare, heralding the end of fall.

Victoria Woods

Victoria Creek

Evie had put together our dinner earlier in the day, black bean and chicken enchiladas so she put them in the oven around 6:00, so we could keep up on the election results.  The enchiladas were great, the election results not so good, especially early when we saw what was happening in Florida and Georgia.  Needless to say, at first we thought it was 2016 all over again but as the night wore on, the results looked much better for Democrats.  My only real disappointment, a big one, however, was Beto O'Roarke's loss to Ted Cruz in Texas.  It was sad-making and I woke up this morning still depressed by it.  I still think he will be the face of the Democratic party, perhaps their Presidential nominee in 2020 but it will be much harder because he lost.  Some are making it out as a victory because Texas is so red and it's almost impossible for a Democrat to win.  It was close but still, he lost to the most despicable Senator in Congress.  And sad to say, I give Trump's fear mongering credit for some of the victories.  Trump's making the election a referendum on HIM, unprecedented by the way, brought out the Trumpers to support Trump when they might have stayed home because it was a midterm election. I am sure it made a difference in the Florida Senate and Gubernatorial races, perhaps others. As usual, everything is about him. I  was fed up with it by 10:00 and went upstairs to read and sleep, with Evie soon following