A Gray, Wet Labor Day As Summer Ends For Many

6:41

6:42

7:02

It's a gunmetal gray morning, both sky and lake, as I sit out on our porch, listening to the duck's honk and a podcast, This American Life.  I was up at 6:00, total darkness, as I made coffee and listened briefly to the news to find out what was happening with Dorian.  It's 6:56 as I begin writing this and hope to be out on the lake soon unless the thunder I heard in the distance brings rain and lightning. On my way out to kayak, I checked the rain gauge and we received close to two inches overnight.
I did get in a forty-minute paddle, kayaking home the last five minutes, however, in the rain.

Kayak Morning

Sunday was a fine day until later afternoon, early evening when it started to cloud up and rain around 7:00.  So we had a good morning, at least I did, getting in a paddle before breakfast.  We were in no hurry to get anything done because we were going out for dinner.  Evie knew she had to go shopping for the next couple of days meals because her sister Elaine and son Alex will be stopping by for a couple of days, arriving late today.  We decided, however, to walk the Chautauqua Institution grounds before shopping.  It was a good choice, as the grounds were quiet because the season is over.  We decided to just walk up and down the streets and enjoy the narrow front yards of the houses because most are beautifully landscaped with hostas, hydrangeas, various bushes, perennials, and annuals.  We walked for close to an hour, enjoying the sun and coolness of the day.

We were home by noon and Evie got her shopping bags together and drove off toe Wegman's, leaving me at home to make my breakfast, a menemen, scrabbled eggs with sauteed tomatoes and feta cheese.  With a bagel, I was happy and watched some of the US Open.  Evie was home by 2:30 and together, we quickly put away the groceries so she could get outside and cut the lawn, making sure it was looking sharp for Labor Day when Elaine and Alex arrive and knowing it was going to rain.  I spent the afternoon reading and taking a brief nap, talking with my son Tom, back from his hiking trip to the Northwest with his son Nick and, most depressing, watching a couple of neighbors bring their docks in for the year.

We both showered and we were ready to drive to Linda and Ron's by 6:00.  It was starting to cloud up as we left but we were able to sit on their porch with a beer and appetizers for a good hour, as the sky darkened.  We ate around 7:30 and dinner was great, pork tenderloins medallions with a interesting, tasty sauce, twice-baked sweet potatoes and spicy corn off the cob.  Dessert was peaches topped with ricotta cheese.  We sat around the dinner table talking until 9:30 when all of us looked tired so we drove home in the rain.  It was a fun evening, good food and friends.  We watched some TV to unwind before going up to bed.

Our life, sort of:

Easy by Roland Flint While she starts the water and measures the pasta, he sets the table and peels the garlic. She cuts up broccoli, strips snow peas, readies fish— he presses the garlic, fixes her a kir, and him a gin. She sautés the vegetables while he grates cheese, readies the candles, and puts flowers on the table. She puts pasta in the boiling water, and fixes salad, which he takes to the table with the cheese. She mixes a salad dressing, he opens the wine and takes it to the table, where everything is ready, except for the pasta, so he lights the candles and puts salad from a big walnut bowl into small ones. Now she or he brings the pasta, greens and fish mixed in, and they sit to talk, drink wine and eat. Though October, they sit on a small screen porch in the back of the house where they have lived for twelve years of their twenty together, the last six, the children gone, alone. Once, during dinner, if they stop talking and listen to the music, they may, without drama, hold hands a moment, almost like a handshake by now, most friendly, confirming the contract, and more. She is a pretty woman of 51, who has kept herself trim and fit. He is 56 and hasn't. Later, they will clear the dishes and clean up, and she will bring tea and fresh fruit to bed, where they will watch a little television or not, with herbal tea and the fruit. After that, if they make love or not, they will talk a long time, her work or his, the budget, the Middle East, this child or that, how good dinner was, how easy it is, the times like this, when it's simple.